In an article for the Los Angeles Times published Tuesday, columnist Jonah Goldberg argued that President Donald Trump’s claims of emergency powers to impose tariffs reflect a dangerous strain of “Caesarism” – the age-old tendency of republics to surrender extraordinary authority to one man in the name of solving crises.
Titled "Donald Trump isn't a dictator, but his goal may actually be worse," the article drew a historical parallel between Julius Caesar’s rise from temporary problem-solver to “dictator for life” and Trump’s efforts to justify sweeping trade powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977.
The law, Goldberg noted, was designed for true national emergencies, not economic policy disputes – yet Trump has invoked it to impose tariffs on countries such as Brazil and Canada.
In one case, he punished Brazil over the prosecution of a political ally, and in another, he used a pro-free trade ad from Canada as justification for new tariffs.
“These are not emergencies,” Goldberg writes, likening Trump’s reasoning to Caesar’s manipulation of the Roman Republic’s temporary dictatorship.
By framing trade deficits as existential threats, he argues, Trump is pushing a “Caesarist argument” — that unchecked presidential power is necessary to protect the nation.
"Some — like Cincinnatus, George Washington or Abraham Lincoln — can resist, but all you need is one lesser mortal to be granted undue power for the whole experiment in republican government to come crashing down. This was the history of republics until 1789, which is why Benjamin Franklin commented after the constitutional convention, that the drafters had given us 'a republic, if we can keep it.'"
Goldberg also criticized congressional Republicans for enabling Trump’s approach by weakening their own oversight powers under IEEPA, which originally required Congress to review presidential actions every six months.
In doing so, he argued, they have ceded one of the Constitution’s key safeguards against executive overreach.
“Congressional Republicans have changed the rules to deny themselves the ability to check the authority Trump is abusing," the article read. “Trump is not a dictator, but as Benjamin Franklin understood, republics fail not so much because would-be Caesars seize power. They fail because cowards give it to them — under the false pretense of an emergency."