When Donald Trump began his third run for president back in 2022, he said very explicitly that his campaign was organized around vengeance for his 2020 humiliation. "I am your retribution!" he proclaimed, assuring his devoted cult following that their belief in the Big Lie would be rewarded when he exacted punishment on the political enemies who had denied their Dear Leader his second term. It was a speech you might expect from any demagogue. But in Trump's case, it also spoke to the deep psychic wound he suffered as a malignant narcissist unable to accept that he had lost so it was hard to know if he had any other goals beyond the need to prove that he was a winner after all. As the campaign has gone on it's become clear that Trump has actually evolved into a true authoritarian. Yes, he's still simple-minded and juvenile in many ways, and it will always be all about him, but it's become clear that his attraction to strongmen has developed into a yearning to be a member of their club in a new and different way — and he's becoming more and more open about it.
We always knew that Donald Trump admired Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. His bromance with the tyrannical North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and affection for various Middle Eastern leaders was no secret. He's always bragged about his ability to "get along with" dictators. He talked about it in his soporific acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention:
I got along very well, North Korea, Kim Jung Un. I got along very well with him. The press hated when I said that.
“How could you get along with him?”
Well, you know, it’s nice to get along with someone who has a lot of nuclear weapons or otherwise. See, in the old days, you’d say that’s a wonderful thing. Now they say, “How can you possibly do that?”
But no, I got along with him and we stopped the missile launches from North Korea. Now, North Korea is acting up again. But when we get back, I get along with him. He’d like to see me back too. I think he misses me, if you want to know the truth.
He spoke similarly about how the Taliban really thought highly of him. In the same speech, he said that when snipers were killing American soldiers in Afghanistan he spoke with the Taliban leader:
I spoke to the head of the Taliban. You’ve heard this story. Abdul, still there. Still the head of the Taliban. The press got on me, “Why would you speak to him?” I said, “Because that’s where the killing is.” I don’t have to speak to somebody that has nothing to do with it.
And I told him: “Don’t ever do that. Don’t ever do that again. Don’t ever, ever do that again, you’re going to stop.” Because during the Obama administration, many great people and soldiers, a lot of soldiers, were being killed from long distance. I said, “If you keep doing that, you’re going to be hit harder than anybody has ever been hit by a country before.” And he said, “I understand, Your Excellency.” He called me “Your Excellency.” I wonder if he calls the other guy “Your Excellency.” I doubt it.
(That's complete nonsense, of course.) We're all familiar with his embarrassing encounters with Putin and Xi. They saw him coming a mile away.
But for all of his shameful fawning sycophancy over murderous tyrants, Trump has mostly confined his strongman adulation to matters of foreign policy and national security. His domestic authoritarianism has generally been cloaked in demagogic ranting about crime and such things as the use of executive power to exact revenge on his enemies and abuse the presidential pardon power to excuse his accomplices' crimes. The plan to round up tens of millions of people and force them into detention camps for deportation is about as authoritarian as you can get. (In fact, the proper word is "fascist.")
But he's going even further now, drawing a direct line between the foreign tyrants he admires so much and his own domestic agenda. He recently remarked on the campaign trail that China's Xi is a “brilliant man” who controls 1.4 billion people with an “iron fist.”. He acknowledged his new best friend, Hungary's Viktor Orban, by saying "This is the way it's going to be." And that's the end of it, right? He's the boss and … he's a great leader, fantastic leader. In Europe and around the world, they respect him.” (They don't, actually.)
Now he's making it clear that we need that here in the U.S.
A fundamental thing that gets lost in the coverage is that Trump isn’t just promising to govern like an authoritarian, he’s *campaigning like an authoritarian*. Lies, fear, sweeping false promises—Trump’s following the dictator playbook on fooling people into giving up democracy. https://t.co/WokcG8T6km
— Jesse Lee (@JesseCharlesLee) July 21, 2024
His reference to Orban was about a visit that took place just a few days ago at Mar-a-Lago when the Hungarian president flew in to brief him on his recent meetings with Putin and Xi during the NATO summit in Washington. An axis (if you will) of mutual interest is forming among the world's authoritarian leaders and Trump wants to be a part of it. As historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a scholar on fascism and authoritarian leaders observed he is "immersed" in it.
Trump is immersed in the new autocratic international order and role of US if he wins will be to stand down and allow Xi and Putin to expand. The talk of "peace" and non-intervention by Vance & Co is about creating conditions for autocrats to succeed. https://t.co/2NRl6GRXG4
— Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat) July 21, 2024
Greg Sargent of The New Republic hosted Never Trumper Rick Wilson on his podcast this week to talk about this and it was, frankly, chilling. Wilson spent years in the right-wing fever swamps and knows all about their tactics and strategies. He says we must take this very seriously and that even if the media cynically dismisses all this as a "schtick" or old news, Trump and his henchmen are deadly serious.
Media analyst Jamison Foser noticed the same thing:
Here is a New York Times journalist recognizing a pretty important thing about this speech, and about Trump in general.
— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) July 19, 2024
Do you think it will be the central theme of the Times' speech coverage? If not, what does that say about the Times? pic.twitter.com/3yGXge5gVk
Trump sees himself as part of this emerging "autocratic international order" and is openly campaigning on that issue. His followers are being programmed through his usual mind-numbing repetition to accept this as normal politics. It may be normal in some countries but up until now, it's never been normal in America. In fact, it's what normal people used to call un-American.
