Most of President Donald Trump’s actions are politically motivated. —AP PHOTO/KARL DEBLAKER
President Donald Trump has used disputes over protests, deportations and tariffs to amass power.
In response to protests over immigration raids in Los Angeles, Trump has called in the Marines and the National Guard over the strong objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
For the first time in decades the National Guard was activated without a governor’s consent.
In a post on X last Saturday night Trump suggested the National Guard and not local police, quelled the violence that occurred. Trump made the claim the day before the first Guard troops had arrived.
The governor called Trump’s use of the National Guard and Marines to assist with immigration raids, the start of an “assault” on democracy.
“California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next,” he said.
Trump’s actions are politically motivated.
As the Associated Press astutely observes:
“President Donald Trump is deploying a double standard in warning protesters against his immigration policies that they will get “hit” if they so much as spit on law enforcement. Trump made the threat Monday in a social media post as he called in the Marines on the third day of demonstrations in Los Angeles. Trump pardoned hundreds of people who did far worse than spit on police during the violent Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. His pardons freed those convicted of assaulting officers with flagpoles, hockey sticks and a crutch. They show how the president holds his supporters to different standards than his political foes.”
Since taking office in January, Trump has taken several actions that threaten American democracy and pushes the country closer toward autocracy — a system in which one leader holds unchecked power.
Trump’s immoral and dangerous actions include:
Calling up the National Guard and deploying marines to quell protests is the latest attempt by Trump to expand executive power and curb free expression.
“Allowing the President to unilaterally define the conditions when he may invoke the (AEA/Alien Enemies Act), and then summarily declare that those conditions exist, would remove all limitations to the Executive Branch’s authority under the AEA, and would strip the courts of their traditional role of interpreting Congressional statutes to determine whether a government official has exceeded the statute’s scope. The law does not support such a position,” said District Court Judge Fernandez Rodriguez, the first judge to find the government’s use of the Alien Enemies Act unlawful. Judge Rodriguez was appointed by Trump in his first term in office.
Trump’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is investigating and seeking to intimidate major broadcast outlets.
Trump has withheld or threatened to withhold billions of dollars from universities, including Harvard, Princeton and Columbia by weaponizing concerns about anti-Semitism.
A recent survey of more than 500 political scientists found that the vast majority think the United States is moving swiftly from liberal democracy toward some form of authoritarianism.
“Kim Lane Scheppele, a Princeton sociologist who has spent years tracking Hungary, is also deeply concerned: “We are on a very fast slide into what’s called competitive authoritarianism” reports NPR.
NPR reports: “When these scholars use the term “authoritarianism,” they aren’t talking about a system like China’s, a one-party state with no meaningful elections. Instead, they are referring to something called “competitive authoritarianism,” the kind scholars say they see in countries such as Hungary and Turkey.
In a competitive authoritarian system, a leader comes to power democratically and then erodes the system of checks and balances. Typically, the executive fills the civil service and key appointments — including the prosecutor’s office and judiciary — with loyalists. He or she then attacks the media, universities and nongovernmental organizations to blunt public criticism and tilt the electoral playing field in the ruling party’s favor.”
So far, the courts have been the strongest defense against Trump’s attempts to expand executive power and curb freedom of expression.
However, more Americans need to speak up including leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties as well as business, education and media leaders. Citizens should call and write their representatives in Congress and engage in peaceful protests against the slide toward authoritarianism.
Americans must act now to stop Trump and save democracy.
Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune
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