{"id":332992,"date":"2025-08-10T11:24:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T11:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/332992\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T11:24:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T11:24:11","slug":"trump-promised-to-be-a-dictator-on-day-one-were-now-past-day-200-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/332992\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump promised to be a dictator on day one. We\u2019re now past day 200 | Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

The anger was raw and resolute. Speaking at the Republican congressman Mike Flood\u2019s town hall in Lincoln, Nebraska<\/a>, a woman pointed to the estimated $450m cost of \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d, an immigration detention facility in Florida. \u201cHow much does it cost for fascism?\u201d she demanded. \u201cHow much do the taxpayers have to pay for a fascist country?\u201d<\/p>\n

The crowd erupted in applause and whoops. In the week that Donald Trump marked his 200th day in office, few mainstream political commentators are bandying around terms such as \u201cfascist\u201d. But many are warning of a societal march towards authoritarianism<\/a> that, far from losing momentum, appears to be gathering pace.<\/p>\n

Over the past month the US president has demanded that his predecessor, Barack Obama, be prosecuted for \u201ctreason\u201d, fired the government\u2019s top labour statistician<\/a> following a weak jobs report and forced Columbia University to pay more than $200m in a settlement that many saw as capitulation.<\/p>\n

Trump has also egged on Republicans in Texas and other states to redraw congressional maps so they favour his party in future elections \u2013 turning the FBI on dissenting Democrats \u2013 and ordered a new census<\/a> that excludes people \u201cwho are in our Country illegally\u201d.<\/p>\n

And his administration has pursued a hostile takeover of the nation\u2019s capital, Washington DC, threatening to place the city under federal control, promising to restore a Confederate statue toppled by Black Lives Matter protesters and executing a radical makeover<\/a> of the White House itself.<\/p>\n

The trend line is clear to Trump\u2019s critics. Rachel Maddow, a leading progressive TV host, told viewers<\/a> of her show on the MSNBC network this week: \u201cWe do now live in a country that has an authoritarian leader in charge. We have a consolidating dictatorship in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terms such as \u201cfascist\u201d, \u201cauthoritarian\u201d and \u201cdictatorship\u201d were once dismissed as the refuge of those suffering \u201cTrump derangement syndrome\u201d. Not any more. There is now a growing consensus that the pillars of US democracy are being demolished one by one.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re still short of them openly defying a supreme court ruling or intentionally deporting US citizens \u2026 But we\u2019re not very far short<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Matt Bennett<\/p>\n

Matt Bennett<\/a>, an executive vice-president of Third Way, a centrist thinktank hardly prone to hyperbole, said: \u201cIt\u2019s getting dramatically worse by the day. The question of whether we\u2019re in a constitutional crisis or whether authoritarianism has arrived is kind of an academic one. It\u2019s either here or it\u2019s going to be here very soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still short of them openly defying a supreme court ruling or intentionally deporting US citizens or attempting to shut down a news media operation. But we\u2019re not very far short.\u201d<\/p>\n

The assault on the constitution is wider and deeper than in Trump\u2019s first term, when he arrived in the Oval Office like a trainee pilot sitting in the cockpit of a Boeing 747, overwhelmed by its array of dials and controls. Now he and his allies \u2013 notably his deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller<\/a> \u2013 know precisely which levers to pull and how little air resistance they are likely to meet.<\/p>\n

The White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, is a key figure in pushing the administration\u2019s priorities. Photograph: Nathan Howard\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Having promised to be a dictator only on \u201cday one\u201d, Trump got to work pardoning supporters involved in the 6 January 2021 riot at the US Capitol, installing loyalists at the justice department and FBI and recruiting the billionaire Elon Musk to scythe through government agencies, sidelining Congress along the way.<\/p>\n

The president repeatedly challenged judicial rulings, even calling for the impeachment of judges who rule against his administration. After a judge blocked a deportation order, Trump called him \u201ccrooked\u201d and said he should be \u201cimpeached\u201d, prompting a \u201crare rebuke\u201d from the chief justice, John Roberts.<\/p>\n

The administration escalated attacks on media outlets it accused of unfavourable coverage, moving some out of their Pentagon workspace or barring them from the Oval Office and Air Force One. It also purged the leadership <\/a>of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, installing Trump himself as chairman.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s clearly made a decision to turn America into some form of dictatorship. There\u2019s no way any longer to look away from that<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Simon Rosenberg<\/p>\n

At the 100-day mark, comparisons were being drawn with autocrats such as Viktor Orb\u00e1n of Hungary<\/a>. Two hundred days in, Orb\u00e1n has been left looking like an amateur by the speed and scale of Trump\u2019s efforts to expand presidential power, undermine institutions and control information<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Simon Rosenberg<\/a>, a Democratic strategist, said: \u201cHe\u2019s clearly made a decision to turn America into some form of dictatorship. There\u2019s no way any longer to look away from that. The excuses \u2013 \u2018Well, it can\u2019t happen here, American civil society is strong enough to resist\u2019 \u2013 may be true, but what\u2019s clear now is that his aspiration is to end American democracy for all time and to turn this country into some kind of authoritarian state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the starkest examples was Trump\u2019s concerted effort to deflect attention from the Jeffrey Epstein files by baselessly reviving the investigation into Russia\u2019s interference in the 2016 election. The attorney general, Pam Bondi, has directed federal prosecutors<\/a> to launch a grand jury investigation into allegations that members of Obama\u2019s administration manufactured intelligence.<\/p>\n

Then came the abrupt dismissal of the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, after a jobs report showed downward revisions. Trump accused her of \u201cfaking the jobs numbers\u201d and that the figures were \u201cRIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad\u201d, offering only \u201cmy opinion\u201d as proof.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s efforts to dominate US culture are far more sophisticated than in his first term. According to an analysis by the Axios news site<\/a>, he <\/strong>has extracted more than $1.2bn in settlements from at least 13 of the most elite players in academia, law, media and tech. Among them was a $16m deal with Paramount that critics saw as a \u201cbribe\u201d and coincided with the cancellation<\/a> of the late-night show of the CBS comedian Stephen Colbert, one of the most incisive satirical voices of the Trump era.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up to This Week in Trumpland<\/p>\n

A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration<\/p>\n

Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n

Federal agents wait in the hallways of the federal building in lower Manhattan to arrest people attending immigration hearings in July 2025. Photograph: Andrea Renault\/Zuma Press Wire\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Rosenberg added: \u201cThere\u2019s no question that our lack of history with a leader like this, and the perception of American exceptionalism, made many institutional players in our society unprepared for what was to come. The key here is that the way that Trump succeeds is by isolating people and by not allowing people to work together collectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funding cuts by Republicans in Congress forced the shutdown of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, dealing a huge blow to the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio. Government websites have been scrubbed of data on the climate and other issues \u2013 including, apparently, the constitution itself<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ominously, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History removed a reference<\/a> to the 2019 and 2021 impeachments of Trump from a panel in an exhibition about the presidency. A Smithsonian spokesperson said the removal was part of a temporary fix and the exhibit eventually \u201cwill include all impeachments\u201d.<\/p>\n

The billions of dollars going to Ice is going to create the largest police force in the country and it\u2019s beholden to the president<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Larry Jacobs<\/p>\n

Although Trump has faced setbacks in the courts, he shows no signs of slackening his pace. Last month he signed a tax and spending bill that, while stripping health insurance from millions of people, includes a record $170bn for immigration enforcement and detention. Amid concerns over its masked agents snatching people off the streets<\/a>, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) will become the biggest domestic police force in the US \u2013 and bigger than many countries\u2019 armies.<\/p>\n

Larry Jacobs<\/a>, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said: \u201cWe\u2019re on a glide path towards the dissolution of the cornerstones of American democracy. It started with Trump and his threats, even to Republicans, and now it\u2019s accelerated to secret police. The billions of dollars going to Ice is going to create the largest police force in the country and it\u2019s beholden to the president.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacobs added: \u201cThe next backstop is going to be, will there be competitive elections next year? The gerrymandering in Texas may be a bad sign about whether Democrats and Americans who are ready to vote against Republicans will have that opportunity around the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the concerns over an uneven playing field, the midterm elections remain Democrats\u2019 best chance of checking Trump\u2019s power. They hope to harness the rage boiling over at Republican town halls, such as that held by Flood in Nebraska this week, and at protests such as \u201cNo Kings<\/a>\u201d demonstrations that brought millions of people to the streets.<\/p>\n

Indeed, for all his strongman posturing, Trump is deeply unpopular: a University of Massachusetts Amherst opinion poll<\/a> released this week found his approval rating at just 38%, down six percentage points since April, though only 1% of Trump voters regret their vote. That drop includes men, one of the president\u2019s most reliable groups of supporters.<\/p>\n

From his military parade in Washington to his bombing of Iran<\/a>, from his escalation of immigration enforcement to his so-called \u201cbig, beautiful bill\u201d, the American people are rejecting Trump\u2019s leadership and agenda, according to Rosenberg, the Democratic strategist.<\/p>\n

\u201cA majority of the country now knows that he\u2019s the old man behind the curtain and not the wizard,\u201d he said. \u201cHe still has control over Maga and Republicans in Congress but he doesn\u2019t have the persuasive capacity any longer to keep his hold on the broad majority of the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a sign of his weakness and that he\u2019s not as strong as he believes he is. It\u2019s one of the reasons why he\u2019s looking for these avenues to re-establish his strength and power and have there be a perception that people are bending the knee.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time he tries to do this, it fails and he grows more distant to the American people. That has to give us hope we have the tools in the coming months to start winning elections and building a more successful pro-democracy movement that can contain the damage that Trump and Maga are doing to the country in the coming years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The anger was raw and resolute. Speaking at the Republican congressman Mike Flood\u2019s town hall in Lincoln, Nebraska,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-332992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115004221962160585","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}