All posts tagged "Authoritarian"

President Donald Trump's ideal authoritarian blueprint has appeared to lose traction while he and other autocrats have started losing their grip on power, former Republican strategist Rick Wilson warned on Monday.

In Wilson's Substack, he described how Trump has long admired autocrats Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose political future has come into question just ahead of the upcoming election in the eastern European country.

Orbán, a longtime antagonist to the European Union, was viewed as a model by Trump and his political operatives. But now, he has started facing opposition in his country in a push by young voters in Hungary, according to The Associated Press. ...

Donald Trump Saturday delivered remarks at a Bitcoin conference, and his comments were straight out of the authoritarian playbook, an expert said.

Trump, speaking in Nashville, told the cryptocurrency group that, if the Democratic Party wins the 2024 presidential election, "every one of you will be gone."

"They will be vicious, they will be ruthless," Trump said. "They will do things that you wouldn't believe. But right now, because of me, they're leaving you alone. So please say thank you." ...

Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat explained that authoritarian leaders have a tendency to humiliate people publicly and that's what Russian President Vladimir Putin did to Tucker Carlson this week and what Donald Trump did to Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) when he showed up in New Hampshire for a rally.

"Did you ever think [Haley] actually supported you, Tim? And you're the senator of her state...You must really hate her," she recalled Trump saying about Nikki Haley saying she'd support Scott if he was the nominee.

Scott stepped in to say, "I just love you!"...

Donald Trump is priming the pump when it comes to his "dehumanizing" language, an authoritarianism expert said on Saturday.

New York University professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat appeared on CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta, where she was asked about comments the former president made earlier in the day. Specifically, Trump once again said that migrants are "poisoning the blood of our country," repeating language purportedly used by Hitler and other dictators.

"You've studied fascist rhetoric, you and I have discussed this many times. What was your reaction when you heard Trump say this earlier today?" Acosta asked of his guest, Ben-Ghiat....

If you cross The Don, he's done with you.

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance published her latest edition of her Substack newsletter "Civil Discourse" discussed the consequences of going against the 45th president and how many in the GOP appear to be blinded by his star power as he remains the frontrunner to recapture the party nomination for the White House.

Joyce writes that the House, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, can't get much done in the peoples' business beyond busying themselves with a fruitless impeachment of President Joe Biden. ...

During a Thursday, September 28 speech in Arizona, President Joe Biden paid tribute to the late conservative Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) and sounded the alarm about the threats that "MAGA Republicans" pose to democracy in the United States.

Biden's tone was not anti-conservative. He was joined onstage by McCain's widow, conservative activist Cindy McCain, and Biden fondly recalled his years working with John McCain in the U.S. Senate. But the president attacked the MAGA movement as dangerously authoritarian — a warning that author/history professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat agreed with during an appearance on MSNBC's "The ReidOut" a few hours after Biden's speech.

Ben-Ghiat, known for her expertise on authoritarianism and her book "Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present," told liberal host Joy Reid, "We really need to take very seriously how this fusion between the Proud Boys and all these other extremist groups is going on. And so, this is part of the GOP's trajectory to become an autocratic party."...