The evidence is growing; Donald J. Trump’s presidency is already showing signs of an autocracy (dictatorship). An early sign was revealed during a campaign rally in 2024. As reported by CBS News, Trump told his audience, “Christians, Christians! Vote for me. If I am elected I will fix it so you’ll never have to vote again–never vote again.” The “fix” is proceeding; the signs are obvious.

Several guardrails which might prevent an autocracy are gone. Trump enjoys Republican majorities in both houses of Congress and a majority of Supreme Court justices are Federalist Society recommendations, most of whom were Trump nominees. On July 1, 2024, the high court decided Trump v. United States 6-3, effectively giving presidents complete immunity for any “official” act, regardless of the motivation behind that act, such as, perhaps, taking bribes for pardons. Alas, the King can do no wrong!

President Trump nominated, and the Senate approved, Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense. In my opinion, Hegseth is a man of questionable integrity, whose only qualification for that position Is his loyalty to Trump. Many of the generals and admirals who could check Trump’s authoritarian tendencies have been fired.

William Falk, editor-at-large of The Week, wrote in the February 14 edition: “Donald Trump and Elon Musk are attempting to gain total and unfettered, and blatantly unconstitutional control of the federal government.” He further observed that Congressional Republicans have surrendered their power.

Copying Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Hungary’s Victor Orban, Trump has won favor from numerous American oligarchs (very rich business leaders with considerable political influence), who support his acquisition of power. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has poured at least $80 million into his pro-Trump PAC. Other U.S. oligarchs include: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the CEOs of Apple and Google, all of whom were special guests at Trump’s inauguration in January. Their objective is a government “of the wealthy, by the wealthy, and for the wealthy.” I suppose that is why they as well as many members of Congress support making Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy permanent and want to get this done ASAP.

Dictators need to control the free press, plus have their own media, such as Trump’s “Truth Social” and Musk’s X. The White House is implementing measures to control the free media. Trump announced recently that he will decide which reporters will be allowed access into his daily activities as members of the presidential press pool. He is replacing the independent White House Correspondents Association (WHCA), which for more than fifty years made those selections. As a result of Trump’s actions, right wing media outlets already have replaced long-standing ones such as Reuters and the Associated Press. AP also has been banned from the Oval Office and Air Force One.

What this administration has accomplished so far is a step-by-step consolidation of absolute power in the presidency. The steps include filling leadership positions in federal departments and agencies with MAGA loyalists; firing employees who cannot be trusted to be loyal to POTUS, and are more likely to place their loyalty with the U.S. Constitution. These tactics have already occurred with the intelligence services, the FBI, the Justice Department and especially the Department of Defense.

The actions needed to replace democracy with a dictatorship: acquire immunity for “official” acts; cripple free news media and create one’s own; name military heads who place loyalty to the president above loyalty to the consti-tution; fill government management positions with loyalists, and gain the support of wealthy empathizers. All have been accomplished since January 20. 2025.

These actions also are hallmarks of creating a wall of resistance to any attempt to overthrow a strongman/dictator. That wall exists or has been evident in Russia, Hungary, China, North Korea, the Philippines, Brazil, Venezuela and multiple other countries. In my view, that is now the case in the United States of America.

OSCAR W. KNADE JR.

Montoursville

Submitted by Virtual Newsroom