Dr Russell Razzaque: Trump Is Now Actively Breaching the Law & Defying the Courts. Democracy Is Being Salami Sliced Away

Mar 21, 2025 | On numerous fronts, Trump is now knowingly an deliberately exceeding his authority. The Rubicon is being crossed. I outline exactly how that's happening in this video.

'Now Is the Time to Break Glass’: Chris Hayes Reacts to Schumer interview

Mar 20, 2025 | “It makes it very hard to imagine a leader ‘meeting the moment’ if they don't believe the moment is here,” says Chris Hayes on Chuck Schumer saying democracy is not at stake—yet.

Americans are far too complacent. Trump is CLEARLY trying to turn the US into a dictatorship. That is precisely why he is deconstructing, hollowing out, destroying America's institutions. He's not one of Putin's best chums for nothing! Wake up, America! Before it is too late. – © Mark Alexander

Democracy Now! "We Live in a Fascist Dictatorship": Elie Mystal on Trump's Lawlessness, Attacks on the Judiciary

May 19, 2025 | Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare statement Tuesday criticizing attacks by President Trump and his allies on federal judges. "For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision," he said. Roberts's statement came after Trump called for the impeachment of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who ordered the Trump administration to stop using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport immigrants. On Saturday, the administration ignored Boasberg's order to turn around three deportation flights bound for El Salvador. We speak with The Nation's justice correspondent Elie Mystal on the Trump-led breakdown of constitutional order. "There's not a coming constitutional crisis," says Mystal. "We are in a constitutional crisis right now."

Democracy Now! can be supported here.

Thom Hartmann: Does Trump’s Open War Against Court Orders Mean Dictatorship & Oligarchy Arrived?

Mar 18, 2025 | When President Trump justified shredding the Constitution, he’s declaring war on democracy itself.

We must flood the streets in protest. We must call our representatives and demand accountability. We must challenge this in the courts, in the media, and at the ballot box. Silence is complicity.

The time to resist is now, before Trump’s America becomes a full-fledged police state.

This is not a drill. This is not a partisan squabble. This is the moment when we decide whether the United States remains a constitutional republic or slides into authoritarian rule.

Every single American who values freedom, regardless of party affiliation, must speak out.

Dr Russell Razzaque: When Does a Country Officially Become a Dictatorship?

Mar 17, 2025 | Trump has openly declared that he wants his enemies and journalists that disagree with him to be arrested. We are now headed down a very steep and very slippery slope into the realms of genuine dictatorship. In this video, I give examples from around the world to show how exactly this playbook works and what the future appears to hold.

Trump Administration Is Sliding toward Dictatorship (w/ Robert Kagan) | Bulwark On Sunday

Feb 23, 2025 | Bill Kristol & Robert Kagan talk about Trump, his thirst for power, companies bending the knee, the situation in Ukraine, and the administration sliding towards dictatorship.

The GOP Aim to Shutdown Democracy and 'Replace It with Techno-state Dictatorship' Warns Rep. Raskin

Mar 16, 2025 | Rep. Jamie Raskin joins Jonathan Capehart to discuss how President Trump used his speech at the Justice Department to attack his critics and vow to exact revenge.

'Stand Your Ground, or You're Caving': Weissmann Reacts to Trump's Attacks on Rule of Law

Mar 15, 2025 | Fmr. FBI General Counsel and MSNBC Legal Analyst Andrew Weissmann joins MSNBC's Ali Velshi to discuss Donald Trump's attempts to have a “chilling effect” on judges, courts, and law firms with his repeated attacks on the rule of law including a ranting, politicized speech at the DOJ.

‘People Are Going Silent’: Fearing Retribution, Trump Critics Muzzle Themselves

THE NEW YORK TIMES: People say they are intimidated by online attacks from the president, concerned about harm to their businesses or worried about the safety of their families.

The silence grows louder every day.

Fired federal workers who are worried about losing their homes ask not to be quoted by name. University presidents fearing that millions of dollars in federal funding could disappear are holding their fire. Chief executives alarmed by tariffs that could hurt their businesses are on mute.

Even longtime Republican hawks on Capitol Hill, stunned by President Trump’s revisionist history that Ukraine is to blame for its invasion by Russia, and his Oval Office blowup at President Volodymyr Zelensky, have either muzzled themselves, tiptoed up to criticism without naming Mr. Trump or completely reversed their positions.

More than six weeks into the second Trump administration, there is a chill spreading over political debate in Washington and beyond.

People on both sides of the aisle who would normally be part of the public dialogue about the big issues of the day say they are intimidated by the prospect of online attacks from Mr. Trump and Elon Musk, concerned about harm to their companies and frightened for the safety of their families. Politicians fear banishment by a party remade in Mr. Trump’s image and the prospect of primary opponents financed by Mr. Musk, the president’s all-powerful partner and the world’s richest man. » | Elisabeth Bumiller | Reporting from Washington | Thursday, March 6, 2025

We Need to Fight Back against Trump | The Warning with Steve Schmidt

Mar 6, 2025 | As Donald Trump starts tariff wars and abandoning our allies around the globe, the opposition in America is nowhere to be found. Steve Schmidt looks at the Democratic response to Trump and how the best example of opposition was from a Senator in France.

Trump is a DISGRACE, and so is his team of DANGEROUS FOOLS! America is on a fast track to becoming a DICTATORSHIP. – © Mark Alexander

Trump’s Illegitimate Power Grab Brings US Closer to Dictatorship

THE GUARDIAN: Experts warn president’s blatant violations of law could upend US government’s system of checks and balances

The deceptively legalistic camouflage rendered the words almost banal – while still clearly communicating their ominous undercurrent.

“Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” wrote Vice-President JD Vance, a graduate of Yale law school, on X as he waded into an escalating tug-of-war between his boss, Donald Trump, and the US federal courts.

Whatever it lacked in rhetorical flourish or polish, the post represented an unambiguous rejection of long-established constitutional norms while offering no supporting legal basis, some scholars say.

It also amounted to an implied statement of intent to ignore court rulings which, if enacted, would upend the US government’s intricate system of check and balances and lay the ground for dictatorship, they warn. » | Robert Tait in Washington | Thursday, February 13, 2025

Trump’s ‘Bald Power Grab’ Could Set US on Path to Dictatorship, Critics Fear

THE GUARDIAN: Little-noticed order that gives US president powers far beyond mere oversight denounced as ‘breathtaking’

Unusually for him, Donald Trump made no great fuss as he signed one drily worded executive order last Tuesday.

Public attention was distracted that day – by the headline-grabbing drama of Elon Musk bludgeoning his way through the federal bureaucracy, by immigrants deported to Guantánamo Bay, and by the torrent of other directives Trump has issued since his inauguration last month.

But Trump’s 69th executive order of his second presidency, under the deceptive title of “Ensuring accountability for all agencies”, has been denounced as a “bald power grab” that advances a political doctrine intended to make a dictator of the president.

The order, wedged between the signing of a directive to end Covid vaccine mandates in schools and another expanding access to in vitro fertilisation, also contains a single paragraph that permits the president to decide the law and who should obey it.

The paragraph has alarmed even some constitutional conservatives who otherwise agree with many of Trump’s actions. Other critics characterise it as another step toward an American brand of despotism. » | Chris McGreal | Saturday, March 1, 2025

Donald Trump’s Dictatorship Looms Ominously Large

THE TELESCOPE: Will freedom of speech survive Donald Trump’s Presidency?

Unchecked absolute power in the hands of any president would likely turn him into a dictator, as the founding fathers knew all too well. Is our country lapsing into dictatorship? It seems that currently an attempt may be being made to consolidate power in the hands of our current president, Donald Trump.

Currently the majority of both chambers of Congress are occupied by the same political party as the president. While in theory power in the United States remains separated between Congress and the White House, that may not be the case at this point in time as many if not most in Congress seem to be operating in unison with the president.

A strong check on any president becoming a dictator resides in the judiciary, yet the check from this branch of the United States government is imminently at risk.

“Top Trump administration officials are openly questioning the judiciary’s authority to serve as a check on executive power as the president’s sweeping agenda faces growing pushback from the courts.” according to the San Diego Union Tribune.

In a 2024 televised interview with Fox News, Donald Trump said he would be a dictator on day one. Nevertheless, he did say that he would give up his claim to a dictatorship after one day and, presumably, the absolute power that goes with it

The question is, considering his behavior along with current trends, will he keep his word?

Trump has in the past said he would terminate the constitution. He has also said he would revoke security clearances of former government officials. Of others, Trump said he intended to “take away every right they have.” » | Jason Pache, Staff Writer | Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Has President Trump Turned into Dictator Donald?

Feb 20, 2025 | During last year’s election, Donald Trump joked about becoming a dictator, but “only on day one” of his second term as president.

But over the past month, Trump has ignored laws passed by the US Congress, rejected the authority of US courts, forced the deletion of thousands of government websites and destroyed reams of scientific literature and public health data.

It’s starting to look less and less like a joke.

On this episode of the Briefing, Bension Siebert dives deep into whether Trump is genuinely beginning to turn the US into a dictatorship, and as Trump’s politics gain traction in Australia – most recently through billionaire Clive Palmer’s new political party – we ask what it would mean for this country if the world’s most powerful democracy slid into autocracy. On the other hand, Trump is no Hitler or Stalin – so is calling him a dictator...just a bit over-the-top?

US investigative journalist Dave Levinthal and University of Melbourne lecturer in history Dr Sarah Walsh join Bension Siebert to help unpack these questions and more.

Francis Fukuyama | Trump Has Torn Up the World Order Playbook, Here's What's Next

Feb 22, 2025 | "We thought we'd made great advances with the collapse of the Soviet Union but that seems to be in the process of reversing."

The United states has previously resisted "aggression by an ambitious dictatorship" but Trump has torn up the playbook for world order in the "biggest shift since WW2", says American political scientist and author of the internationally acclaimed book, "The End of History and The Last Man", Professor Francis Fukuyama.

The Humanist Report: Shocked Germans BEG Americans to Take Fascism Seriously: I “Can’t Believe That’s Really Happening”

Jan 23, 2025 | Germans are stunned by Elon Musk’s fascist salute at Trump’s Inauguration. Furthermore, Germany’s ambassador to the United States, Andreas Michaelis, is confidentially expressing concern that Trump is laying the groundwork to be a dictator by rapidly consolidating power. In this video we’ll share opinions from Germans and explain why their fears about Trump—and the rise of fascism in the United States–are well-founded.

5 Reasons Why Adolf Hitler Gained Absolute Power | History Stories

Jan 28, 2023 | The Holocaust and World War II may have their beginnings in this very act: On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler, leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), was appointed German chancellor by the 85-year-old president, Paul von Hindenburg. The Nazis seized the opportunity and managed to transform the democratic Weimar Republic (1918 – 1933) into a dictatorship within a few months. On this episode of History Stories we explore five surprising reasons why the Nazis succeeded in doing so:


Here we are again: history is repeating itself. Some try to say that history doesn't repeat itself, it only rhymes. I disagree. Today, history is clearly repeating itself. We are entering a new Dark Age. Make no mistake about it. – © Mark Alexander

Thom Hartmann Program: How Trump Turned Democracy to Dictatorship: A WARNING!

Dec 20, 2024 | Trump's billionaire backed MAGA Cult seized total control of state and federal governments- they control the house, the senate, the Supreme Court and the presidency.

Is this the beginning of the end of any meaningful congressional resistance to America’s morbidly rich oligarchs and their industries corrupting government to their own advantage while Trump pursues revenge and enacts draconian policies.

Buckle up: This is going to be a wild ride. Welcome to dictatorship.

These Five Steps Turn Democracy into Dictatorship & Trump Is on Step Four

Nov 4, 2024 | From Democracy To Dictatorship Democracy is fragile.. and Donald Trump has a sledgehammer.

Sweeping Raids, Giant Camps and Mass Deportations: Inside Trump’s 2025 Immigration Plans

THE NEW YORK TIMES: If he regains power, Donald Trump wants not only to revive some of the immigration policies criticized as draconian during his presidency, but expand and toughen them.

Donald Trump wants to reimpose a Covid 19-era policy of refusing asylum claims — this time basing that refusal on assertions that migrants carry other infectious diseases like tuberculosis. | Doug Mills/The New York Times
Former President Donald J. Trump is planning an extreme expansion of his first-term crackdown on immigration if he returns to power in 2025 — including preparing to round up undocumented people already in the United States on a vast scale and detain them in sprawling camps while they wait to be expelled.

The plans would sharply restrict both legal and illegal immigration in a multitude of ways.

Mr. Trump wants to revive his first-term border policies, including banning entry by people from certain Muslim-majority nations and reimposing a Covid 19-era policy of refusing asylum claims — though this time he would base that refusal on assertions that migrants carry other infectious diseases like tuberculosis.

He plans to scour the country for unauthorized immigrants and deport people by the millions per year.

To help speed mass deportations, Mr. Trump is preparing an enormous expansion of a form of removal that does not require due process hearings. To help Immigration and Customs Enforcement carry out sweeping raids, he plans to reassign other federal agents and deputize local police officers and National Guard soldiers voluntarily contributed by Republican-run states. » | Charlie Savage, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan | Saturday, November 11, 2023

Giant camps and mass deportations? This sounds exactly like Hitler's Third Reich! Any American who votes for this man will be voting for the death of American democracy and the birth of an American dictatorship. Only the seriously deluded would vote for anyone who would bring this about. For heaven's sake, learn the lessons of history!

One can but feel sorry for Americans who are going to have to live through this catastrophe. To use the vocabulary of the Palestinians, Americans will have to live through their very own Nakbah if they err and elect this man.

Unfortunately, it is not only Americans who will have to suffer if Trump is re-elected president for a second term, the rest of the world will have to suffer too! – © Mark Alexander