Sen. John Fetterman says President Donald Trump can’t be an autocrat because he was elected, ignoring the fact that several modern autocrats were initially elected. —AP PHOTO/STEVEN SENNE
Sen. John Fetterman’s recent comments about President Donald Trump and autocracy, excuses the president’s authoritarian tactics and weakening of American democracy.
Fetterman has argued that Trump can’t be an autocrat because he was elected.
“We have to turn the temperature down. It’s like we can’t compare people to these kinds of figures in history. And this is not an autocrat. This is a product of a democratic election,” said Fetterman in a recent interview on CNN.
Fetterman is sadly mistaken.
Being elected does not prevent a leader from becoming an autocrat or establishing a presidential dictatorship, a form of government where a single leader, who may have initially been elected, centralizes power to effectively rule without constitutional limits.
The Democratic senator’s statements are based on outdated understanding of autocracy, which traditionally involved military coups or the absence of elections.
There are numerous examples of elected leaders who steered their countries toward autocracy by weakening democratic norms and institutions including Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Today’s autocrats often come to power through the ballot box and then erode democratic institutions from within.
Modern leaders can be autocratic in multiple ways including:
• Politicizing independent institutions like the judiciary, law enforcement, the civil service and election administration. They seek to fill these bodies with loyalists to remove checks on their power.
• They also spread disinformation. Modern authoritarians deliberately spread falsehoods to manipulate public opinion.
• Modern autocrats weaken checks and balances. Rather than outright abolishing democratic institutions, autocrats often weaken them by ignoring their authority, stacking them with loyalists, or seizing more power for the executive branch.
• Modern autocrats silence or delegitimize political opponents and independent media through legal challenges, threatening critics, or inciting violence against them.
• They incite political violence. They may not engage in direct violence but can tolerate or even encourage political violence by their supporters. They rely on divisive rhetoric and dehumanizing opponents to stir up fear and animosity.
Fetterman overlooks the fact that autocracy today is often a gradual process of subversion, not a sudden seizure of power.
Trump has used classic authoritarian tactics including launching attacks on the press, weaponizing the legal system for political retaliation and undermining the legitimacy of an election.
Instead of simply criticizing unfavorable coverage, Trump has questioned the legitimacy of the press itself, branding journalists as the “enemy of the people.” His recent actions include:
• Massive defamation lawsuits: As of September 2025, Trump has filed lawsuits against major news organizations, including a $15 billion lawsuit against The New York Times and a $10 billion suit against The Wall Street Journal. These lawsuits often follow unfavorable coverage.
• Exclusion of reporters: In early 2025, the Trump administration restricted press access by banning The Associated Press from the White House press pool. A federal judge temporarily blocked the ban, citing the First Amendment.
• Threats to defund public media: The Trump administration has threatened to defund public broadcasting, including NPR and PBS, which some critics see as an attempt to silence voices critical of his administration, particularly in rural areas.
• Trump has weaponized federal agencies: The ACLU and other organizations point to instances where the Trump administration has used federal agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission, to intimidate or investigate media outlets for negative coverage.
He has attempted to use the DOJ as a political tool to target opponents and protect allies, a tactic used by many authoritarian leaders. This included pressuring officials to overturn the 2020 election results.
Trump has fired critical government officials, reclassified civil servants to be more easily dismissed and replaced experts with political loyalists.
• He has disregarded the rule of law: Trump’s attempts to invoke wartime powers during peacetime, ignore judicial orders and pardon allies found guilty of crimes.
In 2025, the Wall Street Journal editorial board reported that the FBI’s raid on the home and office of John Bolton, a Trump opponent, was part of a campaign of vengeance.
• Intimidation of opponents: The raid on Bolton’s office is one example of what critics describe as using the power of government to harass opponents.
• Using government power to punish rivals: In addition to using lawsuits to target journalists, Trump has initiated or threatened legal action against political rivals and critics.
After his loss in 2020, Trump repeatedly claimed the election was rigged despite a lack of evidence. He continues to spread baseless claims of election fraud.
Trump has a history of not fully condemning violence committed by his supporters, a pattern that is characteristic of authoritarian behavior.
Fetterman’s remarks that downplay Trump’s dangerous slide into authoritarian behavior are deeply disturbing — especially considering recent events.
In the wake of the killing of Charlie Kirk, Trump and his allies are exploiting the murder to launch a broad plan to target liberal groups, monitor speech and revoke visas.
Fetterman has criticized fellow Democrats for losing the last election on issues of crime, immigration and culture. Yet he has not called out Trump’s authoritarian tactics.
Instead of just criticizing Democrats who are out of power, Sen. Fetterman needs to forcefully speak out against a president who is abusing his power and actively undermining American democracy.
Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune