Donald Trump says, "They say: ‘We don’t need him. Freedom, freedom, he’s a dictator, he’s a dictator,’” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office. “A lot of people are saying, ‘Maybe we like a dictator.’ I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator. I’m a man with great common sense and a smart person.”Trump Suggests Americans Open to a ‘Dictator’ | TIME
So, is Trump now trying to be a dictator at the same time he denies he is? It appears he is seeing how much of acting like a dictator now he can get away with before even his usually supportive Supreme Court stops him.
If people want a dictator instead of a democracy, they are a bunch of fools. Some do want one; he is right there, but most Americans see him as a dangerous dictator. They are no fools. Most Americans now see Trump as "a dangerous dictator," poll says. They understand this would no longer be a government of, by, and for the people but a government of, by, and for Trump. The problem is, how do you keep a wannabe dictator from becoming a full-blown dictator? It is hard when his political party supports controlling and subverting the barriers standing in his way. This is the "slippery slope to dictatorship" warning, and his loyal followers are greasing the slide. Is it time for Democrats to position themselves as the "pro-democracy" party as a contrast and a positive position of what it stands for?
If a poll asks if you favor an autocracy (another word for a dictator), about 40% of Americans think a strongman is not a bad idea, even a good one. That percentage has popped up consistently over the past year, no matter who polls Americans. Autocracy is rule by one man, not by the rule of law or by the people. . The problem is how to keep a partial autocrat (or a 'light' autocrat or dictator) from becoming a full-blown dictator if the half-baked autocrat removes the barriers, rule of law, independent judiciary, and fair and free elections. That is where we are now: a wannabe dictator acting to take down barriers to his dictatorial ambitions. He is in the process of consolidating power, searching out, firing and using his DOJ, bloggers, loyal agency heads to find and take revenge against anyone in his administration or party or a private and public institution receiving federal funds. How can you stop it when 81% of the political party he controls agrees with the statement \"“President Trump is a strong leader who should be given the power he needs to restore America’s greatness.” (Democracy at a Crossroads: How Americans View Trump’s First 100 Days in Office - PRRI
There are severe downsides to being governed by a dictator.. To change the government or make it responsible to their need, the only way may be by bloody revolution or a coup. Votes and polls do not count. People give up their personal freedoms and rights to disagree and or to complain. They may even have to adopt a religion that is not theirs..They have to always act or write on any media, social or written, like they agree with him in everything they do and say or will fail to get a job, a promotion, or any advancement (if they don;t land in a concentration camp). They only hear news that is propaganda out of the mouths of the dictator. There are no independent facts or opinions permitted, so the only way they know they are screwed is when they see and feel it in their personal lives. Joining together to complain, any protest gatherings, demonstrations, are put down by semi- or full military, and their leaders are jailed, or worse, under the pretext that disloyalty to the dictator is treason to the nation. Business decisions are based on what the dictator wants, not what is good for business profit. If the dictator screws up or becomes corrupt, the people are not in control because the dictator holds all of the power sources, including judges, the military, law enforcement, and money. If it suits him, and not you, tough. Laws and constitutions are not worth the paper they are written on because what laws are observed and how they are observed are those that benefit the dictator staying in power. Ahh, you say, but he will be my dictator and do what I want him to do...but what if he is unhorsed by a coup or violence, and the other side gets in control? You are SOL. How do I know all this (personal experience counts) and that is how it works in Russia and China. Lots of luck, dictator lovers.
The most recent example of Trump's power grab on the road to dictatorship: the use of military against its own citizens.
The Trump initiative to establish a military presence in every big city in a blue state in the name of law and order or fighting crime looks like a dictatorship and is certainly in keeping with his "wannabes". Democrats as a whole have been like a herd of political science professors giving lectures on the blessings of democracy but to put it into blunt terms, Governors Newsom and Pritzker have taken the lead. Pritzker's 8/25/2025 was as about as clear a message delivered to date: Full text of Illinois Gov. JB Pritkzer's speech at news conference on reported Trump military plan for Chicago - CBS Chicago
Here my list of other examples of his attempts to amass more power that resemble how dictators, past and present, get to power and keep it::
- He claims his executive orders are the law of the land and acts accordingly until the judiciary he only partly controls stops him. At this time, only the judiciary stands in his way.
- He accumulates vast wealth from enterprises that include customers who are foreigners..
- He uses "his" active army to repress protestors and put fear into the hearts of those who would show their anger toward his policies
- He forces Congress by threat and fear to pass legislation that does not reflect the will of each member's own constituents
- He sets up prisons to contain those who have no chance to protest and builds concentration camps which deprive persons of their rights or send them to foreign, harsh prisons, without any evidence that they committed crimes other than having documents of status violations.
- His masked, unmarked, street-clothed federal agents snatch those off the street to arrest targets or those who look like they are from south of our border without warrants, sometimes using excessive force...
- He threatens to delicense media that do not toe his line and calls all media that criticize him liars
- He threatens to remove federal funding from education that does not reflect his ideology or the ideology of his core supporters in his political party, while his legislative initiatives are approved around 30% of those polled who know what is in it, the contents about which he lies on his favored media outlets he owns or approves.
- He abuses his power by using "his" Department of Justice to investigate opponents without any probable cause as a tool to threaten opponents to support his reign or make examples of them to frighten others into silence.
- He reverses the rights of minorities, religious or love preferences, and non whites, by removing all references to diversity, equity, and inclusion in any federal documents he controls... reinstating the ability of the federal government to discriminate against them again.
- He adopts all policies of white Christian nationalists written in a document as a blueprint for the takeover of the federal government and institutes them by installing their authors in key positions
- He refuses to confirm whether he would honor treaties or come to the defense of allies who are attacked and have signed such a treaty...NATO
- He ignores court orders of any court lower than the Supreme Court if he does not like the ruling..
- He tries to sell off public lands, institutes tariffs, deprives the poor of health care and nutrition programs to compensate for the loss of income to the treasury due to tax favors and reductions granted to the very rich.
- He pardons criminals who were found guilty by jury trial or had already confessed to crimes because they were his supporters, contributors, or friends. In so doing , he encourages those to commit crimes on his behalf in the future, believing they, too, would be pardoned..
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In Trump's words about his views of beging called a dictator, he instead glorifies the concept of becoming one: From
Don’t be fooled by Trump’s dictatorship jokes "
In comments he recently made at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, he said that instead of calling him a dictator, “they should say we’re going to join him and make Washington safe.” This week, he brought it up again — several times. On Monday, during a meeting at the White House, he complained, “They say, ‘We don’t need him, freedom, freedom… He’s a dictator. He’s a dictator.’ A lot of people are saying, ‘Maybe we like a dictator.’” He made a similar comment the next day: “The line is that I’m a dictator, but I stop crime. So a lot of people say, ‘You know, if that’s the case, I’d rather have a dictator.’” He added later, “Most people say, “If you call him a dictator, if he stops crime, he can be whatever he wants.’ I’m not a dictator, by the way.”
But since he believes he has unlimited power to do anything he chooses, it’s pretty clear that he is open to entertaining the notion. As he said on Tuesday during a Cabinet Meeting, “I have the right to do anything I want to do. I’m the president of the United States. If I think our country is in danger, and it is in danger in these cities, I can do it.”
If those aren’t the words of a would-be dictator, I don’t know what would be.
Trump is raising the prospect of a dictatorship over and over again to normalize it, to make it something from which the American people will no longer recoil — and that it’s accepted and even supported by many Americans. Will it work? CNN has reported that Trump’s followers are increasingly in favor of dictatorship — as long as he is the dictator. The question is whether the rest of the country will be so sanguine.
In the meantime, even if he’s not quite embracing the term itself, the president is behaving like a dictator. And so far, he’s getting away with it. ..
Now, Trump senses an opening — and he is going for it."
