Trump Is Already A Dictator
It’s no longer hypothetical. It’s no longer aspirational. It’s no longer just plausible, theoretical, or some alarmist left wing conspiracy theory. There is no more pretending: the United States is no longer a functioning democracy. The President is no longer concerned about the rule of law. American traditional and social media are overwhelming owned by pro-régime oligarchs. The domestic opposition is incompetent and ineffective. It is causing Canadians to wake up to the reality of what the far right actually stands for, and the existential danger we currently face.
President Donald Trump is now flagrantly defying the courts, exporting people to foreign prisons by the hundreds without due process, invoking 18th century war powers, using his position to promote the business interests of his supporters, going after judges, and threatening his opponents.
When an American court ruled this week that American aircraft carrying 238 Venezuelans to El Salvador must return to the United States, the administration refused to comply, allowing the aircraft to complete their journey. After the planes landed, the El Salvadorian president, Nayib Bukele, posted “Oopsie.. Too late” on X. The Trump administration and Bukele have made an arrangement to imprison people on behalf of the American government, which is paying $6 million to detain this batch of prisoners beyond the reach of the American legal system without trial or any pretence of due process.
It isn’t necessary to rehash everything happening with this deportation and the Trump administration’s blatant disregard of the court order. Timothy Snyder, Heather Cox Richardson, Joyce Vance, and Robert Reich have all done masterful jobs of explaining that situation this week on their respective SubStacks; all are worth subscribing to for a better understanding of what is happening south of the border.
Yesterday morning, Trump threatened James Boasberg, the judge who issued the temporary order to block the deportation, with impeachment, the articles of which were tabled by Republican Congressman Brandon Gill by the end of the day. Attorney General Pam Bondi stated the deportations would “absolutely” continue in spite of the court orders; that the judge’s ruling “is an intrusion on the president’s authority.”
American political discourse is mincing words and avoiding addressing the severity of what is taking place.
With worldwide anger directed at Elon Musk for his behaviour in dismantling the American government as a close associate of President Trump, Tesla’s share price has cratered. In order to help save the Musk-owned car company, President Trump turned the White House lawn into a Tesla showroom last week, promised to buy a Tesla vehicle himself, and committed to prosecuting anyone who vandalises a Tesla as a terrorist. Musk then allegedly promised $100 million in donations to Trump-friendly SuperPACs, the political organisations that grew out of the Citizens United case, taking the financial guardrails off American election spending. The media describe it as merely raising “ethical concerns.”
If you want more information about how to buy influence from the current White House vending machine, for $5 million you can have dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago to ask him.
It is probably best not to oppose the President and his objectives, though. Trump has now annulled the presidential pardons granted by President Joe Biden, preemptively issued to those who prepared the legal case against Trump for his attempted coup in 2020 in order to stymie revenge by President Trump. That Trump is going after those pardons now is clear vindication for that move.
Trump has already blocked former President Biden from receiving intelligence briefings, something all former presidents are traditionally entitled to, and this week he took away the Secret Service protection details from Biden’s kids, Hunter and Ashley. Why would he not want Biden’s family protected?
There is a lot of debate in American media about whether or not Trump has the constitutional authority to annul those pardons. It is clear though that he does not have any such authority — but raw power is not governed by the niceties of legal authority; power and authority are not the same. Trump has claimed direct control of the Justice Department and the FBI, and the Attorney General as noted already is actively promoting ignoring the courts if they disagree with the administration. He has already proven that he will prosecute or deport anyone he feels like. With total control over the justice and law enforcement systems at the federal level, it is not evident what entity could have the will, power, and authority to force the White House to comply with court rulings.
Trump Assumes The Power Of Arrest
Saturday night, American immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) agents arrested pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who is a holder of a Permanent Resident (Green) Card, in his on-campus home in Manhattan in front of his pregnant American wife. According to his lawyer, he was told that they were revoking his student visa, which was not the statu…
Much of the conversation in the United States is around the “constitutional crisis” or other innocuous inside-baseball sounding terms. These semantic arguments are distracting Americans from the reality of the situation, and leaving them with the delusion that this nightmare will end with the next election. The Democratic party is largely sticking to “norms” and there’s nothing resembling a cohesive or effective opposition, even through the most basic tools like filibusters.
The reality is that with the uncontested actions of the American president, who has systematically taken control of all the levers of power, has left the American constitution itself without any practical force or effect. One cannot cherry-pick bits and pieces of the constitution to follow or disregard at will, threaten the judiciary, and still claim to be the defender of the rule of law. Moreover, if a President has the physical ability to do what Trump is doing, then the Constitution has always existed on the premise of the benevolence and good will of the President, and not as an immutable foundation of the country’s democracy.
For Canada, this situation is critical. The untethered American President believes himself to be the King. His Supreme Court has already ruled that any actions he takes in his capacity as President are legal by virtue of his office, though the Chief Justice is beginning to wake up to the monster he has helped create.
As with so many dictators, Trump sees nearby lands as something to annex and resources to acquire, not as partners or allies or even simply neighbours to work with.
In the federal election we will be facing within days, Canadians have to address how they will deal with this threat in real terms. With one in five Conservative voters being in favour of Canada joining the United States, expect mealy-mouth mixed messages from Pierre Poilievre on the subject. He says Canada is broken, for example, but also suddenly “Canada First”, itself a take-off of Trump’s KKK-originating America First.
Actions, of course, speak louder than words. Poilievre has yet to congratulate Mark Carney on becoming the 24th Prime Minister of Canada, for example, but he did make sure to congratulate Donald Trump on becoming President.
Poilievre must think we’re stupid.
Iam suffering from bad news overload. Thank you for distilling some of it down so I do I don't have to read through all the lengthy articles saying much the same things as each other.