Trump, the elected autocrat

For a city that prides itself on knowing how to handle political turmoil, Washington DC is a roller-coaster over the return to power of Donald Trump, with rare emotions attached to his looming second term. There’s fear and loathing on one side, hope and devotion on the other. But the one thing the superpower’s capital can agree upon is that the president-elect has left no-one in any doubt about what he intended to do, and how he would go about it, if he won the election.

Trump told us, we surely should remember, that he would be “a dictator, on day one.” He spelled out his objectives back in January 2025. “I want to close the border completely, and drill, drill, drill,” he said, insisting on an instant double act that stops illegal immigration and cuts the price of petrol at the pump, typical Trump hyperbole. Oh, and wait for it, he promised to end the war in Ukraine “in a day” too. Donald J. Trump never underestimates himself, si ? And he can never be accused of not telling us what he thinks, claro?

In the three weeks since the election, however, the incoming 47th President has shown us what’s at work now. The countdown to his return to the White House represents an inflection point that the United States has never seen before. The Trump way signals a profound dilemma that goes to the very heart of the “American Way,” not to mention the legacy of the Founding Fathers, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, indeed even the rule of law. Because in recent days the bottom line has become clear for most, if not all: Trump is an elected autocrat confronting democracy. 

“The democratic process has produced a boss who ignores fundamental elements of our democracy,” to quote one Republican Senator who prefers not to be named because he fears retribution from the Trump movement, now the dominant force in the party. “He won a decisive mandate from the public at large, but he’s showing us all too clearly that he will not necessarily play by the rules of the democracy that gave him that mandate.”

To start with, you need look no further than the president-elect’s wish-list of people for the most senior positions in his next administration. At every opportunity, Trump has chosen to propose not just those loyal to him, but those who share his wish to carry out a purge of the Washington DC establishment. Then those who promise to seek revenge against his enemies. Above all, those who will do as he says. In short, Trump’s wish is a government led by an autocrat, run by a man who publicly embraces the notion of being a dictator.

The list speaks for itself. There’s a TV talk-show host from Trump’s favourite news channel who has ear-marked to run the US military at the Pentagon. There’s a tech billionaire chosen to overhaul the entire US government and fire tens of thousands accordingly. Then ponder the anti-vaccine activist who wants to ban fluoride from drinking water, now put in charge of overseeing the health of the nation. Or the apologist for Vladimir Putin who blamed the United States and the NATO alliance for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – she’s been chosen to oversee National Intelligence no less.

But it’s the nomination of a congressman embroiled in a sex-trafficking investigation that speaks loudest about Trump’s view of the power he wields. The choice of Matt Gaetz – a Florida provocateur cum firebrand for Trump’s movement with a long history of sexual misconduct – for attorney-general…  well, it signals a president who wants a loyal hatchet-man to do some brutal work with the law: everything from deporting tens of thousands of immigrants, to pardoning those who stormed the US Congress in Trump’s name in January 2021, to taking revenge on those who prosecuted the president-elect in the past few years.

“Gaetz will be a disaster,” said Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, raising the possibility the Senate could yet block his appointment. “Trump wants him to take revenge on his enemies,” warned John Boilton, the foreign policy leader who worked in Trump’s first White House. “This is the worst nomination for a Cabinet secretary in American history,” he added. 

Yet the strategy behind the choice is lost on no-one. “This is Trump saying the Department of Justice will be his weapon, a spear, to attack opponents, and defend himself against any investigation of his Presidency,” concluded Robert Draper of The New York Times. “This redefines the concept of Justice, with a Gaetz as Trump’s attack dog.”

As for the big picture, the stark dilemma of an elected autocrat confronting democracy, it is sobering to hear the words of a modern historian who has studied authoritarianism, past and present. “Most democracies nowadays in the world, most of them don’t fail because of a coup d’état or colonels rushing into presidential palaces,” says Anne Applebaum, author of the recently-published Autocracy Inc: Dictators Who Want To Run The World. “What usually happens,” she writes, “is that an elected, legitimate leader enters office with a goal of taking over the state, of changing the nature of its institutions, and using them to benefit himself so that he doesn’t lose next time.”

Then remember Trump’s message earlier this year to supporters, that they wouldn’t have to vote ever again if they sent him back to the White House. “Vote for me, just this time,” he said, “then in four years time you won’t have to vote again.” As he endlessly promises his movement at rallies: “Promises made, promises kept.”