In his first two months, Donald Trump has made it crystal clear that he intends to rule the nation as an autocrat or dictator, not as a president. He has even referred to himself as “the king.” Trump made it clear during his presidential campaign that he had no intention of respecting the balance of powers among the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of the government. He refuses to acknowledge any restraints on his presidential powers.
It is difficult for me to believe that the 77 million Americans who voted for Trump actually believed he would defy Constitutional limits on the presidency and attempt to rule by executive decree. I think they believed he would disrupt the government bureaucracy and force Congress to be more responsive to the needs of ordinary people rather than the corporations and billionaires. Instead, he is in the process of replacing the government of the people, by the people, and for the people with a government of Trump, by Trump, and for Trump.
Instead of working for the people, Trump is relying on his billionaire buddies to help manipulate public opinion and rationalize his takeover of the government. The billionaires are relying on him to create a government that will make them, and him, even wealthier. Trump no longer needs his MAGA voters because he has no intention of allowing another democratic election.
Trump's first two months back in office have confirmed his intentions to rule by executive decree—or tweet. It is not unusual for incoming presidents to issue executive orders that reverse many of the executive orders of their predecessors. Executive orders are not laws passed by Congress and thus can be reversed without congressional approval.
However, it is unprecedented and probably illegal, even for the President, to refuse to honor government contracts and fulfill financial commitments authorized by Congress and made by previous administrations. It is also likely unconstitutional for the President to dismantle government agencies created by Congress, such as USAID, the EPA, and the Department of Education. Regardless, Trump is systematically dismantling the government, seemingly confident that neither Congress nor the judiciary branch of government can stop him.
It is not unusual for presidents to replace political appointees in government agencies with qualified people who share the political philosophy of the incoming President. However, it is unprecedented to fill cabinet-level and senior administrative positions with people whose only qualification is their sworn loyalty to the President, specifically to Donald Trump. It is also unprecedented, and likely unconstitutional, to replace all Inspectors General who are supposed to ensure the integrity of government actions with Trump loyalists who know they will be replaced and punished if they report anything critical of the Trump administration.
It is also unprecedented to replace all administrators and investigators in the Department of Justice (DOJ) who have had any involvement in the investigations of Trump’s activities, including Russian support of his 2020 campaign and the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. “The mission of the DOJ is to uphold the rule of law, to keep our country safe, and to protect civil rights.” The DOJ was created to protect and defend the interests of the American people, not to provide defense lawyers for the President.
In general, Trump has systematically removed anyone from the executive branch of government who might challenge his decisions or question whether his actions are ethical, legal, or constitutional.
Trump’s anointing of Elon Musk as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, is probably the clearest indication that Trump intends to dismantle, rather than reform, the government. Musk’s firing of government workers and eliminating programs have had no logical connection to the stated objective of increasing efficiency.
At first, I thought he was simply attempting to reduce the size of the government, without regard for the consequences. However, he seems to be trying to destroy the ability of the government to function and create widespread hardship and frustration to generate public support for dismantling and restructuring the government. If he’s successful, the current government bureaucracy will be replaced with a corporate technocracy guided by artificial intelligence (AI), rather than real people. The new “corpocracy” will serve the private interests of the President and his court of high-tech oligarchs, rather than the public interests of the people.
Trump’s only real challenge thus far has been to work around federal court orders by means that minimize concerns of congressional Republicans and the general public. He seems to have backed off from defying court orders directly, at least for now. His executive decrees suggesting he is “above the law” have raised questions and perhaps doubts among at least some of his supporters.
Trump seems a bit apprehensive about whether Justices Roberts and Coney Barrett will relinquish the power of the courts to uphold the rule of law. So, he has mounted a new propaganda campaign to discredit the federal court system. Musk has joined Trump in calling for the impeachment of federal judges who have ruled against them, attempting to sway public opinion. They realize the Supreme Court is their last obstacle to be overcome.
Elon Musk has become the equivalent of a co-president. Or perhaps Musk is serving as the CEO and Trump as the Chairman of the Board of their new corporate form of government. It seems that Trump has lost interest, if he ever had any, in trying to reform the government to meet the needs of the people. Apparently, he has told Musk to do whatever he needs to do to destroy the executive branch of government so they can replace it with something that will empower and enrich them both. He may be trying to “Make America Rich Again,” but only if he and his billionaire buddies get even richer.
Perhaps I am wrong, but I can see no explanation other than the dismantling of government for the actions of Musk and his small team of 20-something year old computer jocks who are dictating the execution of domestic programs for the executive branch of government.
Trump’s focus seems to be on changes in foreign policies to redefine the historic relationship between the U.S. and the rest of the world. Not only has he broken existing trade agreements, some from his previous administration, but he has also started trade wars with Canada, Mexico, and Europe, the U.S.’s most important trading partners. He obviously is using tariffs to raise taxes on the working class to help offset tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.
However, he also seems to be trying to force economic concessions from nations that have been long-time trusted trading partners with the U.S. He seems to think any nation that sells us more than they buy is “ripping us off,” ignoring the fact that, because of our strong economy, Americans have more to spend than most of our trading partners.
Trump has broken economic and diplomatic relationships with Europe dating back to World War II. Trump has abandoned Ukraine in its efforts to repel the Russian invasion. Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine, first before his inauguration, and then within 24 hours after taking office. Apparently, he was talking about achieving peace through surrender. Thus far, he has been unsuccessful in pressuring Ukraine to surrender to Russia’s territorial demands. He has threatened to withdraw Ukrainian military aid and stop sharing intelligence.
Trump has demanded Ukrainian mineral rights as an inflated repayment of past U.S. contributions to their defense. U.S. support for Ukraine was not a loan, it was assistance in defending the international rule of law. He has backed Putin’s demands that Ukraine not be allowed to join NATO, that no foreign troops be allowed in Ukraine, and that the root cause of the conflict be removed, which Putin sees as the U.S. military presence in Europe. Putin has repeatedly stated his intentions to reunite the old Soviet Union of nations, if necessary, by force. If he succeeds, who knows where he will stop? The U.S. military presence in Europe is a major deterrent he is asking Trump to remove.
Trump has excluded other NATO members from his negotiations with Russia. He threatened to pull the U.S. out of NATO during his first term and has already gone much farther this time in severing long-time political and economic alliances. Rather than treating a military attack on one NATO country as an attack on all NATO members, Trump has indicated that he will decide whether the U.S. will support NATO depending on which country is attacked.
The UK, Germany, and France are forming a “coalition of the willing” NATO members to replace U.S. support and guarantee security and sovereignty for Ukraine. A prominent British columnist wrote: “If the American president is deliberately choosing to damage the ability of a nation which we unambiguously regard as friendly to defend itself against an invading enemy, can we trust the US government with the security information which we would once have expected to share in our mutual interest?
Must the US now be regarded, not just as an unreliable ally, but as an unfriendly power and a danger to the West? Has its government, for whatever whimsical, personality-driven reasons, simply decided to support the traditional enemy? The American talk show host, Bill Maher, joked last week that the Cold War was back, but ‘the last time, the White House was on our side.’ Which gets to the heart of it, of course.”
Perhaps the most morally disturbing of Trump’s foreign policies is his hypocrisy in using claims of concern for human suffering to justify his economic exploitation of those who are desperate for relief. For example, Trump claims to want to end the war in Ukraine to end the “senseless slaughter” of both Ukrainians and Russians. However, he expressed concern for the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza but has undermined the ceasefire agreement negotiated by Biden. He has warned the Palestinians in Gaza that there will be “hell to pay” if they don’t force Hamas to hand over the rest of the hostages, which they have no ability to do. The slaughter of brown Palestinian women and children doesn't seem to bother him as much as the slaughter of white European solders.
He has told any Palestinians remaining after the annihilation that they will have to leave because the U.S. will own Gaza and will replace their destroyed homes with a luxury coastal resort developed for the rich and famous of the world. He can then add Gaza, as well as mineral rights and power plants in Ukraine, to his "Make America Rich Again" portfolio.
Finally, Trump promised to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, including adults who entered the country as children and children born in the U.S. to undocumented parents. In defiance of the U.S. Constitution, Trump has claimed that children born to undocumented parents are not “natural born citizens” of the U.S.
Despite all the publicity, monthly deportations during the first two months of 2025 have been fewer than during 2024. However, Trump has misused the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a law giving special powers to the president during wartime, to deport undocumented immigrants who supposedly are gang members or have committed violent crimes. The detainees in prisons in Guantanamo Bay and El Salvador have not been allowed to contact family members or lawyers, and have no indication when or if they will be released.
The federal courts have challenged the deportations because the detainees were given no opportunity for a hearing where they could defend themselves against any false claims used to justify their deportation. One federal judge summed up the administration’s argument: “Trump's claiming the right to deport literally anyone.” “You could throw me on a plane,” she said, without any justification other than the President’s deportation order.
The 5th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states: “No person… shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” Despite Trump’s claim to the contrary, we are not at war, at least not with anyone other than ourselves. Our enemies are not alien; they are domestic and are taking over our government in Washington, DC. If they succeed, our 250-year-old representative form of government will be replaced by a national corporation controlled by a CEO, President of the board, and a corporate board of billionaire oligarchs.
Perhaps this is the kind of change you voted for, and you support everything Trump has done. People in a democracy have a right to vote to change it to an autocracy, a monarchy, an oligarchy, or any other form of government they choose. But they may never have an opportunity to restore their democracy, if they find they have made a mistake.
Maybe you are not concerned because you don’t think you will ever do anything that might displease Trump. Perhaps you are not afraid of waking up one night with the "Gestapo" in your bedroom with orders to throw you on a plane and take you to a prison in El Salvador, where you will be unable to contact your family or a lawyer to argue that they have imprisoned the wrong person. But what about your children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, or anyone who might have the courage to criticize Trump or challenge his supreme authority? Millions of Americans will not give up their democratic republic without a fight, regardless of the odds against them.
What we see unfold politically in the United States is not a mystery or something that has never happened before. The Trump administration is following the same dictator’s playbook used by Hitler in Germany, Stalin in Russia, Mao in China, Marcos in the Philippines, and more recently, Orban in Hungary and Erdogan in Turkey. They intimidate the press, discredit the scientific community, censor books in schools and libraries, relentlessly lie to the people, intimidate lawyers and judges, gain control of legislative bodies, take control of the military, censor, imprison, or kill their opponents, and challenge the courts that attempt to uphold their nations’ constitutions. Once the autocrats are in power, there is no remedy short of a military coup or revolution.
I do not believe this is what the majority of Trump’s supporters voted for when they voted to return him to the presidency. I know quite a number of people who voted for him and have probably met thousands of others over the years, as I have traveled across rural America. With a few exceptions, I think Americans are good people, and most of those who voted for Trump did so because they wanted fundamental change in Washington, DC. So do a lot of the rest of us. We just weren’t willing to give up on our democracy to get it.
Regardless, it’s time for all of us who care about the future of America to wake up to what's going on. We need a president who will respect the Constitution and rebuild mutually-beneficial relationships with other nations before we stumble into another world war. We need to get rid of elected representatives, Democrats and Republicans, who won’t work for the common good of the people.
However, we can't wait for the next general elections. We need to demand that all of those who have taken an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States of American find the moral courage the confront a rogue president, and his enablers, who won't.
John Ikerd
See my March 26 post, linked to the National Archives video, for confirmation that the things I have mentioned in the post above are the same in principle as those that happened before and during World War II.
Or go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGAqYNFQdZ4
John Ikerd
Notes:
https://thehill.com/.../5155073-sheldon-whitehouse-trump.../
https://www.justice.gov/.../organization-mission-and...
https://www.reuters.com/.../judges-face-rise-threats.../
https://www.reuters.com/.../trump-set-broaden-arrests.../
https://thehill.com/.../5197961-trump-says-he-was-being.../
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/trump-thinks-europe-irrelevance...
https://www.yahoo.com/.../could-throw-plane-trumps...