The death of American democracy would be hard for many Americans to digest, but we might be closer than we think. Prompted by Donald Trump’s return to the presidency, America is showing signs of a shift toward dictatorship right under our noses.
Because America’s three-branch government has maintained its promise to ensure no sector grows too powerful and protects against antidemocratic practices for over 200 years, it may be easy to denounce threats of dictatorship. While the United States does have a strong democratic foundation and is unlikely to unleash the atrocities seen in pronounced dictatorships, fallen democracies are proof that no government is immortal.
Dictatorship is a scary word, carrying undertones of governmental abuse and human rights violations. But despite these connotations and histories, we must stop our pride from blinding our judgment. By analyzing the current status of America in relation to global dictatorships, we gain the skills to be critical of our government and fight back against looming dictatorships. The exploitation of social unrest and minority groups combined with the spread of propaganda during Trump’s campaign and presidency are linked with the rise of dictatorship and are cause for concern.
Since the shift to dictatorship involves the overthrow of our democratic government, many people would think this to be a violent transition. And since Trump was duly elected, you may believe we’re safe from it. However, this assumption is wrong, as a coup is not the only way for this drastic change to take place, and exploiting legal avenues is a possibility.
What would be more likely to happen in the United States is an autocoup — an elected official seizing power and suppressing normal civil liberties through a state of emergency. This occurred in German history with the fall of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Adolf Hitler, who led the second-largest party in 1930 and was appointed chancellor in 1933. Once in power, Hitler took over Germany using the Enabling Act, allowing for the issuing of laws outside the Weimar Constitution and without parliamentary support, marking the tipping point of his dictatorship. While Hitler and Trump are not comparable as leaders, Hitler’s rise to power through the parliamentary system is notable because it shows how a dictatorship can emerge within democratic borders such as our own.
This style of government takeover relies on social instability. In times of economic depression and political chaos, rising dictators will create an image of themselves as saviors. After World War I, economic turmoil was unleashed and Germany was humiliated. Hitler exploited this hardship by promising to restore dignity, pride and grandeur.
This tactic has also been used by Viktor Orbán, the current authoritarian ruler of Hungary, in his rise to power. Orbán gave a career-launching speech in 1989 in Budapest’s Heroes’ Square advocating for the withdrawal of Soviet troops and free elections to those commemorating victims of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising. An inspiring speaker, he was elected prime minister in 1998. After being ousted, he returned to power in 2010, exploiting the global financial crisis, and once in office, he took every measure necessary to ensure he stayed there as an emerging dictator: changing the constitution, implementing new legal codes and more.
Trump mirrored these dictators in his recent presidential campaign, using economic hardships to his advantage. According to exit polls, the rising price of goods was a driving factor for those who voted for Trump: two-thirds of voters were unhappy with the economy, of which 69 percent voted for Trump. While improving the economy may not sound like the master plan of a dictator, when it is put into the context of the infamous slogan “Make America Great Again,” which is Trump’s call to an illusive prior strength, the pieces begin to fall into place.
Additionally, MAGA aims to scapegoat groups of people — a known sign of future repression. The use of scapegoats can be seen in Sudan. While Omar Al-Bashir didn’t use scapegoats to rise to power — he led a coup — he used them to sustain power, distract from political failures and divide the public. Acts of genocide in Darfur, while historically nuanced, were used as a tool to effectively conceal Sudan’s economic, political and social failure.
To Al-Bashir, the genocide in Darfur was a necessary evil for the prosperity of Sudan and his power. To Trump, immigrants hold America back from being “great.”
Trump has consistently campaigned against immigrants, promising mass deportations. Frustrations against the economy and immigrants among voters were no coincidence as Trump falsely painted immigrants as responsible for the daily hardships of the working class, those arguably most impacted by federal legislation. While there are notable differences between Al-Bashir and Trump’s scapegoating practices, the egregious acts in Darfur should serve as evidence of current practices’ immorality and potential danger.
Trump was able to successfully scapegoat and turn the masses against immigrants through propaganda, which allows dictators to control the narrative, furthering the notion that they’re the savior and ascribing negative news to named enemies. Trump has painted undocumented immigrants as a drain on federal resources, while in reality, they do not qualify for federal benefits like health insurance and Social Security, despite paying nearly $100 billion in taxes a year.
Immigrants have also become Trump’s scapegoats for problems like unemployment when he falsely claims that immigrants take away jobs from citizens despite increases in native-born workers’ employment. Meanwhile, immigrants actually create jobs and boost wages for Americans. He constantly reinforces this enemy narrative by using dehumanizing rhetoric that labels all immigrants as violent criminals. However, a 2024 Stanford University study found that immigrants commit fewer crimes and are 60 percent less likely to be incarcerated than native-born people in the United States.
Despite these inaccuracies, MAGA thrives because it is ultimately an anti-intellectual movement, like most dictatorships, where the dictator remains the sole source of inspiration and truth. By depicting educated groups of people as tricksters and elitists, dictators win over ordinary people and delegitimize opposition from critical thinkers. Along with cracking down on alleged racial discrimination in higher education and limiting access to higher education with DEI, the entire Department of Education workforce is being cut in half, effectively preventing its efforts to provide equal education nationwide and signaling the devaluing of education. Educated individuals with critical thinking skills threaten the spread of Trump’s propaganda and ultimately his rule, while Trump relies on his supporters’ cult-like behaviors to validate false information, hate and fear.
Thus, the spread of this misinformation and the inability of his supporters to see the truth gives Trump a way to extend his executive power, creating an imbalance in our system and increasing legal uncertainty and risks of dictatorship. Backed by his supporters, the president declared immigration a national emergency, allowing him to use the military to carry out immigration policies. The deployment of the military, especially at the detention center on Guantánamo Bay — a “legal black hole on an island in Cuba” according to a request for a court order from a coalition of legal aid groups — to bypass long-held interpretations of federal authority, even the Constitution itself, is alarming.
The weaponization of hate and fear has also been blatant as demonstrated by Trump’s attempt to dismantle the 14th Amendment and end birthright citizenship. This is a direct abuse of power, showing Trump values his rule of law over the foundations of America.
Trump’s exploitation of economic hardship, the spread of misinformation and overreach of presidential power all echo the beginnings of what dictatorship realistically looks like. We can’t be sure what this exactly means for the future of America, but pay attention — this marks the beginning of what could be a dark age for America.
Natalie Pappalardo is a sophomore majoring in English.
Views expressed in the opinions pages represent the opinions of the columnists. The only piece that represents the view of the Pipe Dream Editorial Board is the staff editorial.