Do Trump supporters think only his enemies will lose their civil rights? Guess again.

 Do Trump supporters think only his enemies will lose their civil rights if Trump becomes a King/dictator? That is an intriguing question posed in an online psychology chat. It may be true, but one responder in the chat responded with what should be a reality check for anyone with such self-deception.    "  Question: Do the Trump supporters in the United States realize they are helping create a dictatorship? Comment: I think many do. They think that in a dictatorship headed by Trump, the people they don’t like will lose their rights and be punished for their opposition. What they don’t realize is that when the Constitution goes, their own rights will also be gone. No one will be safe."  Well said..

Update 7/18/2025; Oops; Trump caves on release of the Grand Jury Epstein files. TACO. Not sure if all of the Epstein files will be released so that may be his subterfuge, a bone tossed to MAGA.Trump Calls for Release of ‘Pertinent’ Epstein Grand Jury Material Following WSJ Article

Trump can try to eat his own. That is: a lesson he delivered in the Epstein flap to those in the MAGA movement wanting a 'strong leader.' The problem with dictators and Kings ( like Trump thinks he is ) is that once in power, they will eat their own

if they fail to behave or comply with their demands.

. The MAGA movement may have gotten a whiff of the extent of Trump's success to date to destroy democracy when some of their media favorites realize that the President thinks he is so powerful an autocrat/King/dictator, he can just tell his critics who are also his core supporters to shut up with their demands of coming clean on the Epstein files. He then uses the power they helped give him as he tells "his" Congress to block any release and "his" attorney general to hire a special counsel to investigate.

In fact, Trump thinks and acts like a king, a dictator, an autocrat already. He is not deceiving himself because his political base and his supporters have given him what he needs to be one. Among his defiance are the civil rights provided in the Constitutional amendments, including the right to redress grievances and speak without fear of government prosecution. The chickens may be coming home to roost in the Epstein flap as he tries to tell his MAGA core to shut up and forces GOP Congresspeople to shut up, put up, and fall on their swords in loyalty to him.

rump is eating his own. That is: a lesson he delivered in the Epstein flap to those in the MAGA movement wanting a 'strong leader.' The problem with dictators and Kings ( like Trump thinks he is ) is that once in power, they will eat their own

if they fail to behave or comply with their demands.

. The MAGA movement may have gotten a whiff of the extent of Trump's success to date to destroy democracy when some of their media favorites realize that the President thinks he is so powerful an autocrat/King/dictator, he can just tell his critics who are also his core supporters to shut up with their demands of coming clean on the Epstein files. He then uses the power they helped give him as he tells "his" Congress to block any release and "his" attorney general to hire a special counsel to investigate.

 What goes around comes around as he turns on his divided base, when even his own base is objecting to Trump's position that there are no black books and no customer files for Epstein's pedophilia and human trafficking criminal activities, despite the lies they were told before.  His GOP  House members will also be victims of his coercive tactics, afraid to contradict him openly, as voters take revenge for votes that hurt their well-being. 

 Imagine that Trump thinks he has the power to rule by threat of retaliation of primaries, prosecution without probable cause, and  executive order without either the courts or Congress to stop him., He thinks he can use that power to silence his critics.  You do not have to imagine it, because that is how he is acting now. He has reason to believe he has the power to tell his supporters to shut up or face consequences, as his supporters have given him the ability to wield the power he has, to act like a dictator.  What goes around comes around, even when his victims had pledged allegiance to him.

In a dictatorship, there are no civil rights to protest or to speak or write one's mind without government prosecution or threats of "retribution". The next question is whether Trump is on the way to becoming a dictator.  Yes...little by little with the blessing of MAGA.  In the past 6 months (beginning before that with the Supreme Court), here is what has happened in such a short time.

• Trump can no longer be charged with a crime.
•  He has disabled and turned Congress into a rubber stamp for his big beautiful bill by threats of retribution and primaries, whether even members think kicking people off Medicaid and  Obamacare will hurt their constituents.,
• SCOTUS just gave him the power to ignore lower court decisions that affect the nation. 
• He has used active military to frighten citizens and non-citizens peacefully protesting.
•  He has ignored the requirements of due process in his immigration ICE actions in defiance of both the 4th and 14th amendments, and he is getting away with it because he has defanged the judiciary branch with the help of the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) 
•   He has filled his administration with white Christian nationalists whose goals, as laid out in Project 2025, are to do away with any checks and balances by the judiciary or Congress and to make the chief executive all-powerful. (the very definition of an autocrat/King,/dictator).  
• His GOP Congressional leadership has handed their Constitution-given power over to him for tariffs and deciding which of their appropriations he should actually spend money on, which Congress had approved. (The basic power of the purse given is given to Congress by the Constitution, and the Constitutional power given  to the president to faithfully administer what Congress funds..which he is ignoring, and "his 6-3" SCOTUS just ruled it is OK)
•  He is benefiting from years of GOP actions to stack the Supreme Court with those who would vote his way, and succeeded in doing so,6-3,  especially when what is at stake is giving more power to the president.   Recently: Ok to commit a crime; ok temporarily to deny due process, ok not to spend money Congress appropriated, ok to ignore lower federal courts' ruling nationwide. 
•  He threatens to fire those in his way, like the Federal Reserve chair, without the power to fire ...just because he doesn't comply with Trump's demands that most economists and business people think are crazy.
• He threatens to withdraw federal funding from private academic institutions that do not comply with his demands to overhaul their curriculum and dictate campus policies to suit him, and stands by while religious extremists remove books from public education to which they object.
• He gets his Congress to shut down public broadcasting by defunding it because it reports what he does not want the public to hear, and he issues threats to other private media to delicense them as well.
• He defies First Amendment rights; those who speak out against him face retaliation in ways listed above, and peaceful protests face shutdown by threats of active military intervention.
• He is acting like a racist from the day he descended the golden escalator, he painted Hispanic migrants as rapists and criminals. The targets of cruel and unconstitutional treatment of migrants are limited to certain races, yet 500,000 of European descent in the US are also undocumented.. Only those of Hispanic or Asian descent receive such treatment and are snatched without warrant from jobs and the street, deprived of due process despite court orders, and sent to gulags without attorneys or recourse to prove they had not committed a crime deserving deportation or disappeared in a foreign gulag (though SCOTUS did rule they needed due process and Trump is accused of defying)), or for just being undocumented, they can be shipped to a foreign country, not the one of their origin., Supreme Court allows third-country deportations for now : NPR   

Trump says he’s ‘not defying the Supreme Court’ amid standoff over wrongly deported man - POLITICO  re the Abrego Garcia case.

Lost in the Epstein conspiracy theory flap: what really bugs consumers

 Lost in the Epstein conspiracy theory flap: what really will bug consumers.. The impact is already beginning, and the full hit on consumers has not even hit the fan yet. Instead of the Epstein conspiracy theory obsessing the House of Representatives and dominating DC news, the GOP-controlled House should be focused on tackling constituent concerns if they care about their political futures. They are not.  They are laying the groundwork for their defeat in the 2026 midterms, but in their loyalty to Trump,  they have fallen on their own swords.  The cost of some consumer goods has already risen.  Trump's tariff policies have already impacted interest rates. Instead of handing their legislative responsibilities over to Trump, the GOP Congress should take back its power over tariffs and health care. These issues should include lowering, not increasing, the cost of Obamacare beginning this January, depriving the sick and elderly. and disabled of their health care provided by Medicaid beginning in November 2026. wrecking access to health care services for rural areas of patients, even those self-insured and paying ones. The impact of many of the health care policies backed by the GOP will be felt during and before the 2026 Congressional elections. TACO Trump's tariff policies have already impacted interest rates. The Federal Reserve has said it would have lowered the interest rate but for Trump's tariff threats, and now even inflation is creeping up with the threat of higher tariffs. rising from below  3 percent left by Biden to 3.7 percent this month. Gas at the pump prices are now near what Biden left them in January. And the actual tariff policies have not even taken effect...as Trump TACO's from one delay date to another.

A reality check:Inflation breakdown for June 2025 — in one chart

Consumer Price Index Summary - 2025 M06 Results

We do not have governmental price controls like the old communist style countries have and had. Trump's demands that domestic producers swallow the cost of tariffs will be ignored.

Here is why prices have risen.  I am an importer. I care about margins, the difference between sales and costs.  If I do not, I will go out of business. I am in business to make a profit.  Even now, fear of being charged with tariffs means that before customs releases the product to me to sell, I have already been charged up front for the import tariffs, which I pay to the US government, just charged to me on delivery.  If I don't pay the tariff, I don't get the product delivered I imported..  In anticipation of this, being charged so much up front, those who are responsible to their boards of directors or their owners, they increase prices to cover these up-front costs or take other means to compensate: lower quality, lay off workers, use more automation, charging new shipping and handling fees, same price for smaller contents in packages..  And, yes, it is business malpractice not to take this into to consideration and act accordingly. 

 When the Trump government crows about the billions their tariffs are already bringing into the treasury,  what is really happening is that consumers will eventually get charged more to cover the anticipated increased costs of paying tariff duty.  In short, consumers get screwed, and the treasury looks better. It is a cost shift that works like a tax on consumers ...and right now, importers and retailers are increasing prices to cover anticipated up-front duty charges caused by Trump's threats and some actual tariffs now in effect.  

Here is the unanticipated fallout: One would think that the imported product would be so expensive, they could not compete with US domestic producers. That may happen, and they stop importing if it makes no business sense to stay in business in the US.. However,  even 10 to 20% tariffs on imported goods will be passed on to consumers and still be sold on the shelves.   Then domestic producers could see an opportunity to raise their prices to equal the once lower cost of manufacture of imported products, which are now having to pay tariffs and raising their prices to the retailers to recoup the import tariff cost.. Imported products that are produced abroad more cheaply are no longer a factor in market competition, thanks to the tariffs. This competition wth cheaper imports once forced domestic producers to keep their margins as slim as possible.. Instead, without competition from cheaper imports,  some domestic producers are tempted to raise their prices to equal the retail price of imported products.  This is not corporate greed so much as it is market forces at work based on competition in the market..and consideration of what their competitors are charging. 

MAGA's Epstein conspiracy theory is what it is like in one party/person rule

Watching what is going on in MAGA land regarding the "Epstein Files", reminds me of what it is like to be in the thrall of a dictator/authoritarian. There is a lesson here. Towing the party line can result in mental whiplash, requiring all loyalists to be very agile and up-to-date. The mental and verbal agility required of followers of a wannabe King (dictator, etc) to survive in a regime is sometimes jaw-dropping.   Three days ago, there was an Epstein file (a little black book) of his customers of pedophilia. There was a conspiracy to kill him to keep it under wraps. He didn't commit suicide; he was killed...and the FBI has the keys to the drawer where the evidence is kept."  Today, per Trump," there was no list, nothing to see here; go on pay attention to other things like how he is getting rid of undocumented brown murderers and rapists. Amid a weekend, even some Epstein conspiracy theory backers heard Trump's call: "nothing to see here, no list, so shut up." And in a whiplash weekend, they started echoing the Trump line": no list, move on".  

 My late husband of over 50 years was a refugee from a communist dictatorship of Yugoslavia and had learned to keep on his toes to be successful and told me about an eye-opening event that illustrated this. I wrote this in a prior post last fall. Here is what happened when my late husband, Dr. Mike Muftic, was a medical student in Zagreb, then Yugoslavia, and at that time led by dictator Comrade Josip Broz Tito.  The Tito regime had been in power for nearly ten years. It was a communist regime allegedly dedicated to all people being economically equal, a revolt from the time of the King and privileged classes. Milovan Djilas, a comrade-in-arms and close friend of Comrade Tito, was considered the ideological guru of the regime and, at one time, Tito's potential successor. He was a dedicated believer in Marxist ideology in its purest form. To him, the dictatorship of the proletariat meant that the workers were in charge, not the apparatchiks or bureaucrats. He had become appalled at fellow high-ranking government officials and overbearing government administrators who were becoming the new privileged lords, chauffeured in Mercedes-driven cars, with better housing, and vacationing at seaside resorts on the government's dime. Djilas wrote a book, "The New Class," to express his criticism of the new class.  Mike arrived for the class at medical school as the communist party commissar in charge of keeping the faith, as medical school students were praising Djilas' book and righteously criticizing the privileged class.  In response, however, Comrade Tito was not pleased, seeing it as a threat to his power since he relied on the support of those he favored and to whom he gave employment and perks, the new class, and issued a warning.  The next morning, the same communist party commissar was holding forth, repeating Tito's criticism and telling the crowd of students around him how terrible Djilas was.  It was heresy, and this was and is the party line the students had to repeat: Djilas was wrong. Failure to recite the party line could lead to loss of future desired hospital appointments, loss of preferred professors, or worse. Djilas spent years in prison. To get ahead, you had to repeat the party line in both public and private settings, as there were loyalists everywhere who would report you to their superiors. 

A reality check for those who think cutting Medicaid will strengthen their own health care affordability

 In response to those who think cutting out waste and abuse of Medicaid will reduce their ownhealth care costs:,  There is no free lunch here...we will all be paying the price in some way...in heartbreak or in money. When a rural hospital closes, it affects far more than those on Medicaid. How do we know this? Because that is what happened before Medicaid and Obamacare.  It is why both came into being.  Cutting Medicaid in the name of what little there is of waste, fraud, and abuse is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.  It also affects the self-paying patients, depriving them of timely and easy access to hospital care. It affects the families who have to take over the care at home of those who can no longer afford in nursing homes, because the nursing homes serving rural communities close. It affects all those employed in the closed hospitals and nursing homes who become unemployed. It can be a matter of life and death, with long and deadly ambulance or budget-busting helicopter rides for those in a medical crisis.

What about those hospitals and nursing homes in both rural and urban America that survive, and the patients who use them, both who lose Medicaid and Obamacare, and those who do not and are still self-paying?. If non-paying patients reach the nearest hospital, they become a charity-funded case, covered by a shift of higher bills for paying patients to make up the difference. It means greater use of hospital emergency rooms, the most expensive form of primary care available, as sicker patients who delayed attention have to depend on them. If surgery, diagnosis, specialists are needed, and there is no money to pay for follow-up care, either the patient dies or they go bankrupt, and no one gets paid....the provider, the hospital, the doctors, or other creditors..

 Expect MAGA-dominated states to do what Alaska did: demand supplemental federal aid or special carve-outs. In the federal budget. Expect the blue states to raise state and local taxes to cover the loss, partially..

The Truth about Waste and Abuse in Medicaid – Center For Children and Families   A study and comment by Georgetown University

Why I am concerned about rural health: A personal note. I have lived in a rural health area for the past 35 years, and we have just this year gained an ER 5 minutes away, instead of 30. The nearest nursing home is 45 minutes away. The nearest full-service hospital is an hour and a half by car, over a mountain pass. My husband was a part time doc here ..ob gyn. but. no anesthesiologist  so all deliveries were done in Denver 60 miles away, where he also had an office. Women mostly stayed in Denver close to term.