List of particulars: How Trump has consolidated his dictatorial powers in eleven months

List or particulars: How Trump has consolidated his dictatorial, king-like powers in eleven months. In the Declaration of Independence, the colonists listed their objection to the king acting like a tyrant. Here is my list. This has been a firehose of many different steps he has taken to destroy the fundamental foundations of our Constitutional democracy...so much so, those of us supporting democracy are so involved in the outrage du jour, we lose track of the total picture and get caught up in the news story of the day.  Update 1/20/2026: Update 1 20 2026: A comprehensive report of how Trump and conservative GOP leaders are turning America into a unitary form of governement. (Unitary form: all power to the executive with eliminating checks and balances of the legislature and judiciary...( That in my view is a polite description of an autocracy) Trump Tests Presidential Power: Venezuela Operation, Iran Bombing and More - The New York Times 

Trump is in the process of building his own paramilitary force. He is invoking wartime powers to deport people without due process, even suggesting that American citizens may be sent to foreign prisons. He has deployed National Guard troops to cities over the objections of local officials. That one is still being contested in the Courts, though lower courts have generally ruled against the Trump position. Trump has signaled that he is open to invoking the Insurrection Act, an 1807 law that allows the president to deploy the military in the United States. And he has claimed, without legal justification, that he has the right to order the military to summarily kill people suspected of smuggling drugs on boats off the coast of South America.  This one is the hot one on the burner now.

The  firing of the JAGs is just one element of a broader purge of the military, which started at the beginning of Trump’s second term in February, five former defense secretaries, including James Mattis,

In fact, we were warned that this and other purges would happen in the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025. 2025 was a blueprint for two purposes: rule by white Christian nationalists and enable it by making the president a virtual dictator by replacing executive branch civil servants with political appointees pledged to the cause.  So far, 2025 is on track. The telltale phrase was the destruction of DEI throughout, and the proponents were devotees of a unitary form of government with all power in the executive branch. The chief author of 2025 was Russell Vought, whom Trump appointed as Director of Management and Budget ( and personnel) with the power to carry out the purges. The 2025 plan was to do away with supervisory civil service positions and make the positions political. That was not done, and instead, positions and whole agencies were eliminated in addition to purges. All during 2025, the Heritage Foundation was vetting for ideological purity the potential appointees to replace civil servants. All has not gone as planned since the incompetence of replacements has resulted in amateurish mistakes that have backfired on the administration itself. https://thehill.com/opinion/5059017-trump-cabinet-nominees-unqualified

Trump views himself as the final arbiter of the legality of anything he does. An executive order he signed in February says, “The President and the Attorney General’s opinions on questions of law are controlling on all employees in the conduct of their official duties. No employee of the executive branch acting in their official capacity may advance an interpretation of the law as the position of the United States that contravenes the President or the Attorney General’s opinion on a matter of law.” For greater detail, go to MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: How Trump is destroying the rule of law, replacing it with the rule of Trump

Trump is suggesting that the Federal Communications Commission should revoke the licenses of television broadcasters that give him too much “bad publicity” and is suing major newspapers and networks.  The 6-3Trump Supreme Court is expected to rule that all independent agencies will no longer be independent and will be comprised of the partisans of the president.  That will affect the FCC, as well as the FDA and FTC.

Trump has pressured the Department of Justice to target, indict, and destroy those he considers to be his political enemiesTrump has pressured the Department of Justice to target, indict, and destroy those he considers to be his political enemies. Ask Letitia James and Jim Comey how those attempts have bit the dust.  Nonetheless, even the act of charging it regardless of the outcome in courts is a painful hammer. To say this is an abuse of power is an understatement.

Trump has usurped the Congressional powers to levy across-the-board non-security-related tariffs. The Supreme Court has heard the arguments, but there is no hurry to decide. Cosco has filed a heavyweight lawsuit on this matter, but in the meantime, the tariffs continue.  This is an abuse of power that has repercussions on consumer affordability and even the ability of some to stay in business.  This one may not set well with the conservative members of the Supreme Court who are, in their ideological hearts, free traders.

Trump has violated the civil rights of migrants with warrantless detentions and racial profiling. Colorado has gotten a lower Federal court decision to stop the ICE practice...but no doubt the 6-3 Supreme Court may weigh in. Federal judge restricts how ICE can arrest people in Colorado, calling past conduct ‘unlawful’ - The Journal

Musk's power grab to control of Federal payments process, could jeopardize personal information and government services

 https://fox40.com/news/political-connection/ap-politics/ap-elon-musks-doge-commission-gains-access-to-sensitive-treasury-payment-systems-ap-sources/

Musk's power grab to control Federal payments could jeopardize personal information and government services people depend on. The checkbook is now in the hands and knowledge of Muskwho now has the power and tools to abuse the intent of laws passed by Congress and to be responsive to the political whims of his fellow oligarchs and Trump. Musk holds no official position and was not elected by you to do it, nor is his position and approval derived from the advice and consent of the Senate. The oligarchs share the same goal:  cut government services to needy citizens and programs that make lives better for us to offset the reduction in taxes to them. They are not there to serve the public interest. We cannot trust them to do what is best for the rest of us.  In the meantime, we, the citizens, no longer have any privacy protected by bureaucratic rules and procedures. Trump/Musk will have access to each and every one of our sensitive information.

If this grant of powers to Musk is only for the purpose of streamlining government processes in paying for contracts, grants, Social Security, and everything that the federal government disburses money to, then that is one thing. Stopping waste, fraud, and abuse is another, but Trump has fired the government officials who monitor this. Such official whistle-blowing findings are no longer public information, and there is no one to hold Musk accountable for abiding by any law or rules he chooses to abuse. 

If Musk attempts to stop payments to citizens and social programs that help citizens in the name of cutting costs or contrary to the ideology and policies of Trump, he will, in theory, be violating the purpose of the Constitutionally assigned power to the executive branch to faithfully execute the laws passed by Congress.  Grabbing the Treasury payment system will give him the ability, if not the right, to do that, to stop payments authorized by Congress. Congressional power to hold the purse strings on behalf of the people is being neutered. 

 Once again, just as Trump's enforcement of federal laws, purging the FBI will be subject to Trump's political whims.  Welcome to the wonderful world of Trump and his dictatorship-like power and a democracy based on self-governance for, of, and by the people perishes.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/musk-s-lackeys-seize-control-of-social-security-check-system

There also maybe some nest feathering in this power grab if Musk comes to the "conclusion" the payment system should be privatized and he and his buddies get a percentage of the deal.Their companies can do it cheaper and want you to turn your data over to them....

Stay tuned.

Trump's purge of the FBI was an assault on the rule of law and democracy itself

Trump's purge of the FBI was an assault on the rule of law and democracy itself. The purge of a large number of the FBI this week, firing any agent having to do with the investigation of January 6, is more than just Trump getting revenge. It will be filling the FBI with those who either are loyal to him or who fear being purged if they are not. It paves the way for Trump to use federal police to take revenge on his enemy's list and use the federal police powers to act in support of his regime by harassing and charging those who participated in investigating Trump's role in the January 6 coup regardless of whether there is no evidence of probable cause to believe they cooked up the evidence. Even filing a criminal case or civil suit causes financial harm and emotional stress as the defendants have to lawyer up.. It will take at least a year for the illegal firing of FBI civil servants to be resolved, and most likely, it will end up in Trump's Supreme Court. Welcome to the new world of Trump's rule; it will take many brave people to take a stand against this attack on our democracy, to resist this power grab, and to take back the rule of law applied without fear or favor to no citizen above the law.

In firing the agents, mostly civil servants, Trump is ordering an "internal review" of them. This will be an effort to rewrite the history of the past four years. He will attempt to appoint a loyalist to review and rewrite. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/d-c-s-new-top-prosecutor-advocated-for-jan-6-rioters-and-echoed-trumps-false-2020-election-claims

To negate the power of law: Trump pardoned 1500 convicted and charged rioters on January 6, making a mockery of the law if it applied to those who supported him. Even those convicted and in jail for seditious conspiracy, the equivalent of treason committed in peacetime, were released from jail with a stroke of Trump's pen. Those now willing to commit violence on Trump's behalf can expect the same favors in the future, freeing them to commit violence on behalf of Trump in the future.

I was a student in Berlin in 1958 with a front-row seat to see how the Communists established their dictatorship in the zones the Russians controlled. This was before the Wall, and it precipitated the later attempt to stop the flight of thousands crossed into the western zones with democratic allies of occupation. One of my closest friends to this day was one of those who fled before the wall was built. Aside from blasting propaganda and slogans with every media and billboard, the key was the control of the police (Volks Polizei), which terrorized its inhabitants. I met my husband of 52 years to be in 1958, and soon to be a refugee from another dictatorial Communist regime (Yugoslavia). This is not a matter of abstract paragraphs in some history books. I may have been a political science major in college. It was a hands-on experience of how dictators worked at the grassroots level and first-hand observation of how they gained and kept control of the lives and thoughts of their subjects during regimes that lasted until 1989. Their instruments: power to use the police to do their bidding. It is the first step in achieving the power of a dictator. JD Vance, Trump's vice president, has admitted he has been influenced by Curtis Jarvn, who advocates a dictatorship and declares, "We must get over our dictator phobia." I never will; I know what it is like. https://www.salon.com/2024/10/01/rachel-maddow-sounds-alarm-on-jd-vances-pro-dictatorship-influences/

Here is the record Trump would like to rewrite:

The evidence gathered by the FBI and other agencies, as presented to juries to get indictments for Trump's role in the attempted coup of January 6, was comprehensive. There are volumes in print, and there will be an attempt to rewrite history now that Trump is in charge of the Department of Justice and Congress. There was enough for the Grand Jury to come to the decision that there was probable cause to believe Trump had committed crimes. On August 1 2023, Trump was indicted for  "a months-long campaign of lies about the election results and says that, even when those falsehoods resulted in a chaotic insurrection at the Capitol, Trump sought to exploit the violence by pointing to it as a reason to further delay the counting of votes that sealed his defeat."  

The Supreme Court then ruled that Trump or the president had immunity from being prosecuted for crimes if the act was part of his official duties. Jack Smith then refiled the indictment to narrow the scope of the indictment. https://apnews.com/article/trump-jack-smith-jan-6-186c874404912578e44d5781c8267e2d

In case we forget or Trump and his allies try to rewrite history: The charges were dismissed in November 2024 after Trump's election a separate case alleging that Trump illegally sought to overturn the 2020 election was also dismissed.  https://sherman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/the-indictment-of-donald-trump-related-to-events-of-january-6thelection

Jack Smith's final report on the cases against Trump were released to the public in January 2025:https://www.axios.com/2025/01/14/jack-smith-trump-final-report-jan-6

"Jack Smith, who was appointed by attorney general Merrick Garland to investigate Trump, said in court filings that he requested the dismissals because the Justice Department is banned from prosecuting a sitting president, and not because of anything having to do with the substance of the cases." https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gvd7kxxj5o  Other charges against Trump and those involved in the Mar-a-Lago case were also dropped.  

How it works in a dictatorship for ordinary people; a story my husband told me

This is a message to political moderates who may think that dictatorships can be worked around and tolerated. It is also a message to advocates of democracy over autocracy to sharpen their message.  How Trump has seized control of the GOP, the Supreme Court, the House, using the tools of  fear and retribution, threatening loss of power position and income, is instructive. Calling this names like fascism may only inflame. Should Trump be called a wannabe dictator? Yes. That is fair. He has called himself one for a day.Trump is  making inroads in convincing ordinary persons that dictatorships are a good thing for them. 74% of Republicans approve of Trump being a dictator for a day. Fools. Trump only needs one day to sign the executive orders already prepared by the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025  to get his dictatorship ball rolling.   Democrats need to hit that BS head on and they have not. The message to those willing to ignore Trump's promise to be a dictator is you lose control of who governs you, and in a dictatorship (or an autocracy), your vote is meaningless, and you lose your ability to voice any dissent if you feel you are treated unfairly. To survive, you learn to keep your mouth shut and your head down. The rare birds are Navalany and Liz Cheney, willing to fall on their swords for advancing their beliefs, sounding alarms, and even crying from the ranks, "The emperor has no clothes." Those are lessons from those once in powerful positions.  

Democrats need to get voters  who still have the power through the ballot to  imagine how it would be for ordinary people to be treated if that is how Trump gets power and runs the government. It is also a message for those with some power now  seeking favors and help from a government, local, state, or national public policy issues, but the impact of living in a dictatorship as an ordinary person needs greater emphasis.  However, to expand that view to the swing voters mulling choices over, and weighing the pros and cons in their own lives, I fear democracy v autocracy  still sounds poli sci abstract and  they do not grasp what it is like to be an ordinary person in a dictatorship.  Independent thinkers have no place in a MAGA land. So imagine Trump running the country the same way he has taken over and controlled the GOP, the Supreme Court, and the House of Representatives while in exile at Mar-A-Lago.

How bad a dictatorship can be for  ordinary citizens  is rarely understood by those with no familiarity or personal experience except for Orwell's novels and dystopian movies.  Few like me have had personal experiences with dictatorships or know those who have. It has touched my own family. One  example comes to mind of 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 to be the ideological guru of the regime and, at one time, Tito's successor. He was a dedicated believer in Marxist ideology in its purest form. The dictatorship of the proletariat to him meant that the workers were in charge, not the apparatchiks, not the bureaucrats. He had become appalled at fellow high government officials and overbearing government red tape administrators who were becoming the new privileged lords, chauffeured Mercedes-driven, with better housing, and vacationing at seaside resorts on the government's dime. Djilas wrote a book, "The New Class," to express his criticism.  Mike arrived for the class  at medical school  as the communist party commissar in charge of keeping the faith by medical school students was praising Djilas' book and righteously criticizing the privileged class.  In response, though, Comrade Tito was not pleased, saw it as a threat to his power since he relied on support by those he favored and to who he gave employment and perks, the new class, and put out the word.  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 utter the party line  could lead to loss of future desired hospital appointments, loss of choice professors, or worse. Djilas spent years in prison. To get ahead, you had to repeat the party line in public and in private because there were loyalists everywhere who would report you to their upstream handlers. Criticisms of government stupidity and incompetence were disguised in ethnic jokes, never faulted  to the Boss, of course.. The one I heard often was this: Only a dumb ethnic like a (fill in the blank)would have 3 people screw in a light bulb, for example. (One to hold the bulb, one to hold the ladder, and one to turn the ladder to screw the bulb in) The only safe topic was sports. All media, TV, and print were government-controlled and repeated Tito's line, up to date. Any information to the contrary came from foreign short-wave radio, Voice of America, or US Armed Forces radio, which managed to avoid jamming. (China has become masterful in today's domestic cyber  content control) .Dr. Mike, not yet 30 years old, defected from the Yugoslavian dictatorship of Tito, emigrated to the US, and eventually became a US citizen and even a Democratic National Committeeman. His greatest pleasure in living in a democracy was his ability to speak his mind. To him, that was the meaning of freedom. 

That is how it works in a dictatorship and in even in MAGA/GOP land now. Trump has already seized control of the state, local, and national GOP structures. Treasured members are expected to be bobbleheads nodding only up and down in the affirmative and to repeat the party line of the day whether or not they agree.  This past week, we saw it in action when the RNC attorney , Charlie Spies,who dared question whether the 2020 election was stolen, was purged. Sen. Tim Scott refused to answer the question if he would accept the 2024 results if Trump lost. Now imagine Trump wins in November and carries forward his plans to replace all advisors and staff, cabinet heads, and department heads with his bobbleheads who only nod up and down,"yes, Boss."   The way for ordinary people to succeed yet object to what the government is doing is to keep their heads down and shut up. They just might not get the job promotion they seek or to influence a policy they deplore. 

The view of the threatening Trump dictatorship still has meaning and relevance for those who feel the federal government touches their lives. They get it. Frustration with the Supreme Court, now in the hands of a supermajority of MAGA, is another example of how MAGA has taken over the ultimate interpretation of the Constitution. Lower courts may rule one way but find themselves at a dead end in the MAGA Supreme Court.  MAGA has also gotten control of the Government purse strings in the House, as the vote on Ukraine illustrated and the current attempt to oust the Speaker who is not MAGA enough. Now, Trump wants to control every aspect of the executive branch, including what he calls those who are not loyal to him, the civil servants of the"deep state".  In so doing, he openly stated he would use the Department of Justice to target his political enemies and deny broadcast licenses to those he considers oppposition press. Harrassment, fear of prosecution of those who would otherwise be proven innocent in a court of law, is enough.   What this means for all Americans is to shut up and keep your heads down if you have a beef about Trump's execution of his agenda. You have lost your voice; your vote is useless because the newly minted dictator controls both the message, the election process, and the execution of public policy. 

 Update:July 2024 moved to part of a July 16 3024 posting, too. Project 2025 is the vehicle that gives Trump the ability to be a dictator beginning on Day One: By executive order, he will try to replace the entire executive branch with the spoils system of those pledged loyalty to Trump, not to the constitution. He tried it when he was in office using schedule F, told it was illegal, and now, he can get a way with it thanks to his friends on the Supreme Court.If he commits a crime, trampling laws, ignoring them, the Supreme Court has given him immunity from prosecution for committing them during official acts (now already underway in overturning every jury trial that found Trump liable or guilty for acts he committed during his presidency).  If he sees demonstrations, even peaceful ones, objecting to his policies, he will use violence to crack down on them, as he tried to do when he tried to force the military to sed in their active troops,  summoned known violent militias to intimidate Congress on January 6, and called neo Nazis fine people who mimic Nazi Germany's violence in the 1930's.  

An excellent bio ofy Djilas is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milovan_Djilas

https://www.yahoo.com/news/rnc-purges-election-lawyer-saying-154146265.html

A slanted Rasmussen poll claims the GOP is winning the battle for who would be better for democracy: Trump wins                    Democrats lose another argument: Who’s better for democracy? (msn.com)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdeuagPSVQc

Why Trump only needs to be dictator on day one to be dictator for years to come update 4 4 2024

Update 4 4 24   This is an attempt to block Trump's day one implementation of Project 25, making it harder to replace career service employees with Trump loyalists. This is rule making, but if Trump also controls the Supreme Court, he can get around this, too.  It would make it a bad day on day one for him, though.

https://apnews.com/article/biden-2024-government-regulations-democrats-6badc3b424b9eff3ba51e0ec35a8d824?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=share  Former President Donald Trump has plans to radically reshape the federal government if he returns to the White House, from promising to deport millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally to firing tens of thousands of government workers. 

Cont'd.Here is why Trump only needs to be a dictator on day one to be a dictator for years to come. He is old, just turning 80. The biological clock is ticking. There is a plan to accomplish much of that in the first 180 days of his administration. This is no "conspiracy theory" but a plainly written and documented plan, Project 2025, that is well funded and already being implemented to be ready to go on Day One 2025. The executive orders and appointments signed on Day One triggers the rest of the Project 2025 implementation and both  kinds of documents are now being prepared. This gives Trump the ability to execute the laws of this land, but not faithfully to the intent or the purpose of those laws, but to manage them to implement policy dictated by an ideology influenced by White Christian nationalism and self-serving corporate anti-environmental interests. The power it gives him will be policies that last years beyond the four years he is in the Oval Office with plenty of leverage and ability to keep himself or his successors in power with  appointments to the "administrative state."  

 Most current dictators, Orban of Hungary, Putin of Russia, and Erdogan of Turkey, took several years and some traumatic events to exploit (mass migrations ethnics fleeing Middle Eastern violence (Hungary, Turkey, Russia (Breslan massacre by Islamic terrorists..related to the concert hall massacre this past week) to amass enough power to qualify for the title of dictator.  All three are there for life, not for four years. Once they controlled all levers, judiciary, legislative, executive,  and media, they maneuvered the constitution and laws to eliminate any term limits. Getting there was subtle, nonviolent,  and, like a frog in ever-increasing hot water, finally reaching the boil and death, in this case, the death of democracy. 

 The Heritage Foundation, with $150 million in the tank, is already training, recruiting, and drafting executive orders for Trump to sign on Day One. Heritage Foundation is one of the US's largest and most influential think tanks. This is no "conspiracy theory,"  and it is not just thinking and planning, but it is already being implemented with training and recruitment of participants to put into practice of a theory underway to be ready to go on Day One 2025. The goal is to eliminate "the administrative state" and to replace all parts of the executive branch and an estimated 50 thousand civil servants with loyalists to a highly conservative agenda.   It would keep the form of the executive branch. Still, it would sabotage their agenda by replacing it with loyalists pledged to a highly conservative one instead of adhering to the intent and purpose of the rule of law. This is the Orban playbook on steroids and fast track. The long-term impact will last even after Trump is ousted.  Will it work?  If you remember how the Federalist Society engineered the MAGA takeover of the Supreme Court with ideologues still in place after Trump left the Oval Office, you will get an idea of the long-term impact of having loyalists to Trump or vetted and proposed by the Heritage Foundation in place in the federal bureaucracy for years.  It is not just the federal executive branch that the Heritage Foundation has as their target. It is state and local governments, as well.

https://www.heritage.org/press/heritage-foundation-raises-more-150-million-record-breaking-fundraising-year

https://www.heritage.org/press/project-2025-announces-the-launch-the-presidential-administration-academy

Read it from the Heritage Foundation itself: Playbook | Project 2025

2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf (thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com)

newyorker.com/news/annals-of-education/how-the-federalist-society-won

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/04/20/4-pillars-project-2025-conservative-plan-undermine-liberal-behemoth-washington/

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2023/11/what-trump-plans-for-his-second-term.html

Viktor Orban: a dangerous role model for America

As Trump hosts  Viktor Orban of Hungary at Mar-A-Lago, he indicates the direction he wants America to take and refines a blueprint of how he can, too, become a dictator. America should be aware of what a Trump-Orban mode of governance would mean. John Bolton on MSNBC on March 8, 2024 said his greatest danger was his damage to NATO and holding up Finland and Sweden's admission to NATO. (Both are now bona fide members, and Sweden joined on March 7 ). He condemned Orban for betraying the 1956 Hungarian revolution, a revolt put down by Russia against their rule with tanks and bloodshed, because of Orban's current coziness with Putin and Russia, while being a member of NATO.  (Bolton:  Former UN Ambassador and National Security Advisor to President Trump) https://www.britannica.com/event/Hungarian-Revolution-1956/additional-info#history

Orban was tagged as a neo-fascist by the late Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, who knew one when she saw it because she experienced it firsthand.  If you are one of Trump's devoted followers, no wonder you would honor Orban. He points the way to turn theories into reality. If you are not, be very afraid because this is Trump's vision for America. Say goodbye to freedom of the press, respect for minorities and their civil rights, and any control of corporate corruption.  It would mean there would be complete control of all branches of government, both houses of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the executive/justice branches, and the conduct of elections. Loyalty would be demanded to the President and not to the rule of law as a condition of employment or appointment in government.  

In 2022, Orban was reelected to his 4th term in elections the EU observers reported were  marred by the "pervasive overlapping of government and ruling coalition’s messaging that blurred the line between state and party, as well as by media bias and opaque campaign funding." Human Rights Watch stated that the election was "marred by serious concerns about its fairness," adding that the "EU has responded insufficiently to the hollowing out of democracy and the rule of law in Hungary,"^[ while Freedom House described the election as neither free nor fair.^[" 

Orban gradually consolidated his power peacefully, and he had one advantage: citizens who were 97% percent of his same ethnic identification. That is not America. To say there would be chaos is an understatement if he tried the same techniques as Orban did.  Trump has added one element to amassing power that Orban did not need to use: violence and the threat of violence. It worked in Colorado to cause many county clerk election officials to resign, and some were replaced by Trump loyalists. It worked in Georgia to intimidate election officials and witnesses.  He attempted to use active military to put down civil protests and to give him legal cover in his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. He invited and exhorted violent militia members on January 6. Only Gen. Milley, the threat of resignation of nearly all of the top brass of the DOJ, and the bravery of the Capitol and DC police stood in his way.  He would make sure those who were more loyal to the rule of law than to him would not be his appointees in a second term. https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/newsRoom/pressReleases/2023/PR20230503Elections.html

The way Trump's government in exile in Mar-A-Lago operates now is an example of how he would like to govern in a second term and expand his power over the rest of the federal government. The past and current happenings would be extended to what he would dominate that is not already under his control. By using fear of primaries and tolerance and even exhortation of threats of violence against the disloyal and party discipline he already controls the House. Using appointment powers when he once was in power, he now controls the Supreme Court which has consistently ruled to favor his political strategies.

In a second term, among the tools at Trump's disposal would be the DOJ's federal control of the voting process with threats of prosecution or favoritism not to prosecute that would be used to overturn elections or would further destroy voters' confidence in the integrity of the process as it was administered by loyalists..The Supreme Court has consistently ruled to favor his political strategies, subverting voting rights laws, patting on the back partisan gerrymandering, and yanking from women their rights to control their own health care. Now, his appointed majority in the Supreme Court is slow-walking decisions that would give Trump an advantage to avoid criminal court appearances before the next election.  His main tool to convince his loyal followers to go along is similar to the one Orban used to become the dictator of Hungary, racist fear of Syrian immigrants adulterating the Magyar blood. and fear of replacement by them.    

From my May 2022 posting:

Such wide acceptance of replacement theory is becoming a threat to democracy itself.  This embrace of Viktor Orban of similar racist policies of anti-immigration and Hungarian ethnic domination also brings with it an association with autocracy as a preferred method of governance instead of democracy. FOX's Tucker Carlson's enthusiasm for the autocratic ruler of Hungary inspired the US conservative pac,  CPAC to hold a conference in Hungary and plans more.  Hungary's Orban opens CPAC by telling conservatives "we need to coordinate the movement" of allies - CBS News    Tread lightly, CPAC.  You, too, will find yourself with not only the racist, anti-semitic white nationalism that is Orban's but saddled with his method of governing, which means no press freedom ( or press only permitted that is approved by Orban) and what we would consider in the US, a corrupt alliance between big business and government with rewards going to friends of Orban. An independent judiciary no longer exists.  Hungary is not like the US. Orban could be as racist and nationalist as he liked since 97% of the country is Magyar (Hungarian) and speaks Hungarian.  There are no large groups of minorities. That is not the US now and in the future. Takeover by someone like Orban appealing to white nationalists has not been. would not be, and will not be a peaceful process.  For US white nationalists, Hungary is a fantasyland.  The late Madeleine Albright, our beloved former secretary of state, tagged Orban as a fascist in her best-selling book, Fascism: A Warning "in 2018  mostly because of his racism and his opposition to "liberal democracy".  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Hungarian_parliamentary_election#:~:text=Hungary's%20incumbent%20prime%20minister%20Viktor,certainly%20see%20it%20from%20Brussels%22.