Donald Trump doesn’t want to lead. He wants to rule. There’s a distinction.
This week, we’ve crossed the line from authoritarian flirtation to autocratic overreach. The events of this past week—the illegal deployment of the National Guard in California, the arrest of California Sen. Alex Padilla, the ignoring of yet more judicial orders, and the chilling preparations for Trump’s grotesque birthday parade—undeniably show that Trump and his acolytes have abandoned all pretense of adhering to democratic norms.
We knew this would happen, we warned people this would happen, and now we’re watching in horror as Trump shreds our norms, laws, and institutions. All the while, the Republican Party kowtows to him when it isn’t outright cheering him on.
The country will never be the same. Republicans are normalizing the politicization of the Justice Department, the use of the administrative state to reward allies and punish enemies, the firing of any dissident voices in government, violations of the Hatch Act … the list is almost endless.
If the norms weren’t good enough for Trump, they no longer are necessary for Democrats either, unless both parties work together to enact legislation that creates real guardrails against future wannabe dictators.
Real laws, with real enforcement power? Sign me up. But abiding by supposed norms and traditions that Republicans gleefully cast aside? Screw that.
That’s a debate for a future time, though. For now, we’re dealing with Trump’s increasingly autocratic behavior. So what do we do?
There is an ironic benefit to Trump’s behavior. The fact that he is conspicuously concerned with public opinion is his Achilles’ heel.
The best dictators know they are one popular revolution away from the firing wall, thus they keep at least some attention on public support. Trump has rarely looked beyond his MAGA base. They may be thrilled at the military show of force against protests in Los Angeles, but that ham-fisted approach is playing poorly with the public.
Elections analyst G. Elliott Morris has been tracking LA protest polling, and it paints a brutal picture for the administration. Polls from YouGov and Quinnipiac University give Trump 40% or worse approval ratings on how he is handling deportations. Similarly, fewer than 40% of Americans approve of Trump’s deployment of National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles. Only 25% of respondents think the feds should take the lead responding to the protests, according to YouGov.
“The takeaway: The Trump administration is underwater in 11 out of 12 poll questions related to immigration, deportations, and the LA protests this week,” concludes Morris. Immigration is the issue on which Trump has traditionally polled best.
That’s not even considering issues of the economy, which is ultimately the one thing that decides elections. And just 40% of voters approve of how Trump is handling the economy, while 56% approve, according to the latest Quinnipiac poll. And we’re still in the early stages of the job slowdown and newly rising inflation.
Furthermore, according to the same poll, only 27% of voters support Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill—the pro-rich-people budget package that passed the House last month—and that’s what Republicans are tying themselves to ahead of next year’s midterm elections. Clearly, giving billionaires tax cuts and poorer Americans tax increases—all while cutting benefits—is unpopular.
As we’re seeing in new nationwide protests, the country is reaching a boiling point. The resistance is finally activating after nearly five moribund months of Trump’s daily atrocities. And Trump is incapable of recalibrating his approach. Quite the opposite. The more upset people are, the more unpopular his policies, the more he will double down on them and use repression to try and squash opposition.
We can’t control what Trump does. What we can do, though, is keep pushing him so that he keeps getting angrier and makes it clear to the American people that the only way to save our economy, country, and democracy is to bet big on the Democrats next year.