Tag: Trump authoritarian tendencies

Ex-White House communications director is on a mission to stop Trump: ‘Something’s wrong with him mentally’

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“I’m out there trying to educate as many people as possible at the systemic danger that Mr. Trump represents to our democracy.” Those were part of the opening words of my conversation earlier this week with former Trump White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci on “Salon Talks.” And it went downhill from there for Trump.

I can’t recall another presidential election where as many former officials from a White House administration and members of the president’s own political party came out so vocally to defeat that very president. But then again, nothing has been normal in the time of Trump.

In our conversation, Scaramucci, a successful Wall Street investor, shared why he turned on Trump, citing events such as Trump’s family separation policy and, finally, when Trump led the “Send her back” bigoted smear of the four Democratic female members of Congress known as “The Squad,” saying they should go back to their own countries. As Scaramucci noted, this vile line of attack by Trump was personal for him; his own Italian grandparents heard the same hateful nativist comments when they first came to America. Continue reading.

‘A Dear Leader approach’: Trump’s critics compare his shows of strength around coronavirus to authoritarian tactics

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President Trump was boarding Marine One at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for a televised flight back to the White House on Monday when CNN analyst Brian Stelter called the dramatic images a “performative show of strength” from a president sickened by the coronavirus.

“This is the kind of thing you see from strongmen who want to appear to be leading — it’s a ‘Dear Leader’ sort of approach,” Stelter said, referring to the moniker of the late North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il.

Stelter wasn’t the only one to make the comparison in recent days. The actor and political activist George Takei questioned a lack of transparency from Trump’s physicians and joked on Twitter that his care was being handled by the “Dear Leader Cleanup Squad.” Rep. Donna Shalala (D-Fla.) ridiculed Trump’s appearance on Fox News with a doctor who vouched for his health: “What’s next? Is President Trump going to ask the press to refer to him as our ‘Dear ­Leader?’ ” Continue reading.

Taking Page From Authoritarians, Trump Turns Power of State Against Political Rivals

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President Trump took a step even Richard M. Nixon avoided in his most desperate days: openly ordering direct, immediate government action against specific opponents, timed to serve his re-election campaign.

President Trump’s order to his secretary of state to declassify thousands of Hillary Clinton’s emails, along with his insistence that his attorney general issue indictments against Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr., takes his presidency into new territory — until now, occupied by leaders with names like Putin, Xi and Erdogan.

Mr. Trump has long demanded — quite publicly, often on Twitter — that his most senior cabinet members use the power of their office to pursue political enemies. But his appeals this week, as he trailed badly in the polls and was desperate to turn the national conversation away from the coronavirus, were so blatant that one had to look to authoritarian nations to make comparisons.

He took a step even Richard M. Nixon avoided in his most desperate days: openly ordering direct, immediate government action against specific opponents, timed to serve his re-election campaign. Continue reading.

Mike Lee’s insistence that America isn’t a democracy is a dangerous slide toward fascism

There’s a certain type of obnoxiously precocious middle schooler who loves to lecture their peers (and everyone else) about things like how the word “decimate” actually only means “1 in 10,'” and how I bet you didn’t know the word’s largest desert is in Antarctica, did you? — the sort of “technically true”-isms that are incredibly annoying but ultimately harmless when issued from a 12-year-old eager to show how smart they are.

And then there’s United States Republican Sen. Mike Lee, of Utah, whose “um, ak-shu-a-lee!!!” shtick isn’t so much an endearing exercise in ephemeral trivia as it is one of the more overt examples of the GOP slide toward fascism in an era already rife with undemocratic Republican power plays. 

The shtick in question is Lee’s denial of American democracy, which he insisted on reiterating over and over again Wednesday evening during the vice presidential debate between California Sen. Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence. Continue reading.

Military leaders put Trump on notice: They won’t be party to his authoritarian fantasies

AlterNet logoWhen retired four-star Marine general and former Secretary of Defense James Mattis declared Donald Trump a threat to the Constitution last week, he counseled the nation, “We can unite without him.”

Mattis was both right and prescient that the country could find unity, or near-unity, without Trump—something that is becoming increasingly obvious by the day. With or without Trump, the nation is embracing a reckoning on race that seemed almost unimaginable mere months ago before the brutal murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

Among a flurry of eye-catching headlines this week, such as NASCAR banning the Confederate flag at events, the NFL embracing anthem protests, and various cities and states banning police chokeholds and no-knock warrants, two mind-bending developments stand out. Continue reading.

Trump: Government will start withholding funds from sanctuary cities after court ruling

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Thursday said his administration will begin withholding funding from self-described sanctuary cities after a federal court ruled last week that it could do so.

“As per recent Federal Court ruling, the Federal Government will be withholding funds from Sanctuary Cities,” Trump tweeted. “They should change their status and go non-Sanctuary. Do not protect criminals!”

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled on Feb. 26 that the Department of Justice (DOJ) could withhold funding from cities and states that refuse to cooperate with the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants. Continue reading.

Prominent Republicans mock Trump’s legal claims in Supreme Court brief — and blow up president’s ‘absolute immunity’

AlterNet logoA Supreme Court filing lays bare the deep chasm between prominent Republicans who believe in the rule of law and wannabe president for life Donald Trump, whose says he enjoys absolute immunity from any inquiry into his conduct.

Trump audaciously claims that any crimes he may have committed crimes before assuming office cannot even be investigated, not even if he committed murder, in effect trying to extend the protections of bankruptcy law with which he is so familiar to criminal law. No statute, court decision or our Constitution supports this claim of being above the law.

In a friend of the court brief filed Monday the prominent Republicans argue that Trump cannot block the Manhattan district attorney’s garden variety criminal tax fraud investigation. They note that the issue before the high court is a subpoena for business records held by Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA. The firm says it will comply with the subpoena, but Trump’s lawsuit blocked that.  Continue reading.

Why Adam Schiff’s forceful argument recalls Michael Cohen’s ominous warning to Congress about Trump

AlterNet logoIf you haven’t already, I encourage you to put aside nine minutes to watch Representative Adam Schiff’s closing remarks from Thursday’s Senate trial.

Schiff began by stating the obvious: the facts prove that Donald Trump is guilty as charged. We all know it. But the question remains as to whether he should be removed from office. Schiff makes the case that Trump should be removed because he has demonstrated that he will choose his own personal interests over protecting our national interests—which makes him dangerous.

At that point, I was reminded of the warning Michael Cohen gave to Congress last year. Continue reading (video of both speeches on the post).

‘You’re not a dictator’: Lawmakers and experts lay out why Trump can’t declare war via tweet

AlterNet logoDemocratic lawmakers, anti-war advocates, and legal experts rebuked President Donald Trump after he announced on Twitter that he would be using the social media platform as the medium by which he would inform Congress of hypothetical, future military strikes against Iran.

“The Constitution doesn’t allow presidents to declare war over social media,” tweeted Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Caif.).

Khanna, along with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Senate, introduced a bill Friday to block funding for the president’s effort to continue the conflict with Iran which exploded on January 2 when Trump ordered a drone strike in Baghdad which killed Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani. Continue reading.

Historian breaks down why AG Barr’s ‘anti-democratic’ rhetoric recalls crackdowns on civil rights activists in the 1960s

AlterNet logoProponents of police accountability — from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to the NAACP to the Rev. Al Sharpton — have repeatedly stressed that they aren’t anti-law enforcement. But as Attorney General William Barr sees it, an anti-police mood is sweeping the U.S., and historian Joshua Clark Davis points out the parallels between Barr’s rhetoric and a crackdown on dissent in the 1960s.

Davis, in an article for The Nation, notes that when Barr spoke at a December 3 event honoring recipients of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Award for Distinguished Service in Policing, he asserted that Americans must show “the respect and support that law enforcement deserves.” And Barr had a threatening tone when he added, “If communities don’t give that support and respect, they might find themselves without the police protection they need.”

Barr, Davis explains, “could have just as easily uttered these sentiments in the 1960s as in 2019.” And Davis (who teaches at the University of Baltimore) draws a parallel between Barr’s remarks and what Los Angeles Police Chief William Parker had to say during a speech in 1964, when he asserted, “The law applies to everyone, and no one is permitted to violate it regardless of what their excuses are. Detractors of the police establishment seized upon the cry of ‘police brutality’ as their most effective tool.” Continue reading