When democracy is broken
Ever heard of “autocratic breakthrough”? Me neither … well, not until I tried to make sense of the noise created by Donald Trump while his paymaster, Elon Musk, takes apart the US government.
Let’s do a quick recap
Trump stepped into office as US President with his sharpie on 20 January. By 12 February, he has signed 60 executive orders. Some are devastating: freezing foreign aid threatens to cut off ARV access for more than 20 million people in regions of the world most affected by HIV and cause a resurgence in the HIV pandemic. Some seem petty (although damaging): he dreamed up a need to bring back plastic straws.
He’s set his sights on “cleansing” Gaza of its people so he can develop the “Riviera of the Middle East” – also eyed by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as valuable waterside property. Republicans indulged his wishes by introducing legislation to buy Greenland and rename it “Red, White and Blueland”.
The noise is deafening, the confusion overwhelming. That’s the intention – to “flood the zone”. Trump’s former advisor, Steve Bannon, described it thus: “All we have to do is flood the zone. Every day we hit them with three things. They’ll bite on one, and we’ll get all of our stuff done, bang, bang, bang. These guys will never – will never be able to recover. But we’ve got to start with muzzle velocity.”
He said he would
We ignore these red flags at our peril:
- In June 2018, Trump said of the North Korean dictator and autocrat, Kim Jong Un: “He speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.”
- While campaigning, Trump promised: “In four years, you don’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.”
- Barely a week into Trump’s term, Republicans introduced a bill to carve his face onto Mount Rushmore, alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.
- Trump repeatedly “jokes” about staying on for a third term as President. “It will be the greatest honor of my life to serve not once but twice – or three or four times,” he mused. Republicans obliged and put forward a proposal to allow this to happen despite the 22nd Amendment that prevents people from being President more than twice.
We’re talking about a megalomaniac (defined as a person with a “mental disorder marked by feelings of personal greatness”, but let’s just call it “mad for and with power”). This megalomaniac’s journey to power was facilitated by an almost $290 million investment by Musk – and the backing of his right wing-leaning social media platform, X.
The breakthrough point
Back to the autocratic breakthrough – the point at which a functioning democracy transitions to an autocratic system and the rule of law becomes the law of rule. Once an autocracy is established, it becomes almost impossible to remove the autocrat/s.
That point may have been reached. Trump and Musk (and their lackeys) now suggest that they will ignore judgements against them, signalling a constitutional crisis – just what the autocrat/s ordered. They are already ignoring court rulings. (Watch this brilliant analysis on MSNBC.)
To make it more murky, there are also clear oligarchic features in Trump’s new America: the power handed to Musk, the richest person in the world; the influence of other billionaire tech moguls; the rolling back of environmental protections; and the apparent intention to apply tax changes to benefit the super-rich.
How they get there
From my information gathering, I can share some ingredients (in no particular order) in an autocrat’s recipe to seize total power. I consulted sources such as this article and this one in The Conversation. It’s also all laid out in the conservative, Christian nationalist Project 2025, which Trump is applying by the letter.
1 Concentrate power
In an autocracy, absolute power is concentrated in the hands of one person or a small group, who make/s decisions without consulting others. Trump’s machine gun firing of executive orders bypasses the US Congress and centralizes decision-making power in the executive branch. He quickly set up the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and put Musk in charge, granting Musk unheard-of authority over federal agencies and allowing him to gut government operations without oversight. One of Trump’s latest executive orders gives Musk even more power and commands agencies to obey him.
2 Undermine democratic institutions
Aspiring autocrats weaken or destroy institutions that provide checks and balances. So far, Trump has fired 17 inspector generals, the watchdogs who provide that oversight on government agencies. He’s weakened Congress by wielding his sharpie, sidelining the legislative branch’s role in policy making. When he lost the previous election, he screamed about electoral fraud and inspired the 6 January mob attack that came close to killing people.
3 Capture the judiciary
In his previous term, Trump appointed judges loyal to him. This time, he has appointed an attorney general who is unflinchingly loyal to him.
4 Overwhelm with rapid changes
Trump’s signing of 60 executive orders in 23 days – and Musk’s aggressive dismantling of the government – is nothing other than overwhelming. It’s flooding the zone (see above), using a “shock and awe” strategy to immobilize the media and opposition.
5 Control information and media
A keystone for autocracies is to control the flow of information. Musk’s ownership of X gives him significant influence over public discourse (and certainly gave Trump a huge step up into power). Trump/Musk controls which media houses have seats in the Whitehouse briefing room – that avoids reporters asking uncomfortable questions like, How many children are starving to death because you have cut off their food supplies? Via the sinister DOGE, Musk has gained access to, and gained control of, sensitive government databases and payment systems.
6 Silence the opposition and dissenters
Trump/Musk are identifying millions of federal employees for layoffs – including FBI staff who worked on prosecuting leaders of the pro-Trump mob that stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. The full-on attack on the US Agency for International Development (USAID) shows that Trump/Musk is willing to wipe out government bodies that might not fit into their vision (or that might have angered them). As we have seen repeatedly, Trump has no qualms about personally insulting his critics and opponents.
7 Create a cult of personality
Autocrats often build a strong personal following (think Adolf Hitler). Trump is portrayed, especially on Musk’s X, as the saviour who will remake America, appealing to white identity, right wing authoritarianism, nationalism and populism.
We’ve been here – in this dystopian future – before. Back then, it was called Nazi Germany under Hitler and the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin.
