It should be clear to all Americans with eyes to see that we are witnessing the rise of a despotic presidency whose administration will test this democratic republic in ways which it has never known. The dangers that lie ahead could very well dwarf those that we faced when the United States Capitol came under attack on January 6, 2021 – an attack which was brought on by the same man who now occupies the Oval Office.
The difference is that this president is only further emboldened by the fact that he won the popular vote, and no doubt will be even less willing than before to hand over power when his administration comes to an end. Trump has already repeatedly floated the idea of running for a third term, even though to do so would be in violation of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution.
There are four features of despotism all of which are characteristic of Trump’s presidency. The first is contempt not merely for all Americans who refuse him their support, but even for those constituting his very base. Trump’s policies speak for themselves: he is trampling over the very people who have given him their unwavering support, by giving tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy. As Howard Stern rightly observed, ‘The people Trump despises most love him the most.’ When the Covid pandemic was raging, Trump openly expressed gratitude for the contagious disease because it meant he didn’t have to shake hands with ‘these disgusting people.’
As The New Republic points out, ‘Trump has a history of despising his supporters.’ Again, this a feature which is not exclusive to Trump, but is a trait of despots, great and small, throughout history. I am reminded, for example, of Napoleon’s heartless response to the sight of his own soldiers drowning in a river during the Battle of Berezina and his disastrous retreat from Russia: ‘Voyes ces crapauds!’ – that is, ‘Look at those toads!’ Trump’s disdain for his own followers – to say nothing of his incivility towards his opponents – is just what one might expect from a man who has spent his life brutalizing and degrading those less fortunate than himself.
Another quality of despots like Trump is their corrupting influence on society, and their reshaping of the world around them in their own despicable image. One of the most stunning recent examples is in the complete reversal of the Republican Party in its stance towards Ukraine. Up until Trump’s second term, the Republican Party had the minimal decency to support Ukraine in its defense against Putin’s brazen aggression.
True to form, it has revealed its spinelessness once again by falling in step with Trump and his twisted love affair with Russia’s own despot. Trump’s refusal of Ukraine’s cause is a stunning example of his readiness to prop up dictators like Putin and to use their authoritarianism as a model for his own misguided administration. Trump even had the audacity to blame Ukraine for starting the conflict: ‘You should never have started it,’ were Trump’s own words. But to suggest that Ukraine started the war with Russia (which invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022) is not only false: it is a blatant and loathsome lie, the betrayal of a country that has bravely fought to maintain its independence in the face of horrific brutality, the likes of which the civilized world has not seen in decades.
The methods of torture used by Russian forces against Ukrainian POWs are unspeakable and a testament to the moral depravity of its leadership.
There is some irony in that the Republican Party has evolved into that which at its core represents the very antithesis of civic republicanism, which had always been first and foremost a refusal of arbitrary authority, of rule by fiat. At the heart of true republicanism is a conception of freedom as the absence of arbitrary power. Trump’s statements and policies represent a regression to an era of politics which the world naively thought it had left behind with the end of World War II. His betrayal of Ukraine, his claim that Zelensky is a dictator, and his vile catering to the desires of Putin should make it obvious to everyone that genuine republican virtues have no place whatever in the current administration, which is in fact systematically dismantling the foundation of this country as a democratic republic.
The third characteristic of despots such as Trump is perhaps the most obvious: that is, their inherent tendency to horde political power, and concentrate maximal authority in their own person. It took only a little over a week into his second term before Trump sought to maximize his power by seeking to halt federal payments to ensure they complied with executive orders barring diversity programs.
The directive was blocked by a federal judge, but it had the potential to pull ‘trillions of dollars from police departments, domestic violence shelters, nutrition services and disaster relief programs that rely on federal grants,’ according to AP News.
However, Trump’s power grabs are continuing full pace, with no sign of slowing down, and with no opposition from the Republican controlled Congress. The scope of Trump’s power play is breathtaking, and nothing short of a direct assault on the Constitution, with Republicans having willfully ‘neutered their own branch of government to appease an all-powerful president.’ No sooner did he take office than Trump sought to outlaw birthright citizenship, despite the plain language of the Constitution which makes clear that it is a fundamental American right.
Nor can we overlook the outsized role of Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who holds no elected office yet has been granted authority by the president ‘openly defying the United States Constitution,’ according to Corey Brettschneider, author of The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It (2024). ‘… Musk is simply determining himself, with Trump’s encouragement, what money should be allocated or not. This is not just likely defying the court orders pausing the attempted freeze by the executive. It is an open defiance of Congress’ legitimate power.’
In one of his most outrageously offensive moves, Musk – who is worth almost $400 billion now – boasted that he put USAID, an agency that feeds many of the world’s poorest, desperate and most vulnerable people, ‘in the wood chipper.’ He also posted on social media, without providing a shred of evidence, ‘USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.’ For such a man to be playing with people’s lives and livelihoods in such a flippant and irresponsible way is nothing less than a nauseating spectacle.
This brings me to the fourth feature of despotic rulers, which is the arbitrary nature of the power that they wield, being guided exclusively by their own caprices. Indeed, there is every indication that the FBI, CIA, DOJ and federal agencies that Americans have long trusted to ensure justice and ‘keep them safe, prosperous and healthy are now mere tools of Trump’s whims.’
Or take, for example, Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Trump now presides over a board that by tradition was bipartisan but is now predominantly Republican. ‘At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN,’ Trump wrote on his social media website earlier this month. It is not only the arts and culture that are falling under Trump’s idiosyncratic thumb, but the sciences as well, as his administration had made deep cuts to science funding – particularly the funding of medical research at universities, medical schools, and research hospitals.
Trump’s policy regarding the National Institutes of Health caps how much the agency pays for what is called indirect costs at 15 percent. According to Jo Handelsman – who runs the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin – this will simply ‘destroy science in the United States. This change will break our universities, our medical centers and the entire engine for scientific discovery.’
The crucial point is that under the despotic rule of figures like Trump, it is their personality and impulses that determine the system.
The Republican Party renounced the principles of true republicanism a long time ago; but with the arrival of Trump’s second term in office we are seeing a new level of hypocrisy. Trump opposes all that civic republicanism has historically stood for at the most fundamental level: the rule of law as opposed to the rule of man, the rejection of arbitrary power, and public spiritedness. Liberty, equality and fraternity – those mighty watchwords of the French Revolution are the core of true republicanism. In their stead, the president’s ‘disgusting despotism in all its nakedness is disclosed to the eyes of whole world.’
Sam Ben-Meir is an assistant adjunct professor of philosophy at City University of New York, College of Technology.