Well, that didn’t take long. Trump has been in office now for less than a year, but he has just boldly revealed his ultimate goal. On Monday (8/25/25), Trump told reporters at the Oval Office, “A lot of people are saying, ‘Maybe we like a dictator.’” On Tuesday, he added, “Most people are saying, ‘If you call him a dictator, if he stops crime, he can be whatever he wants’ — I am not a dictator, by the way.” But he also claimed to have “the right to do anything I want to do,” which is actually the very essence of dictatorship.
Despite his claim of not being a dictator, his use of the phrase “people are saying” is classic Trump. It’s one of his ways of laying the groundwork to justify his later actions. He likes to imagine in his fantasy world that many, if not most, Americans agree with him. So now he is trying to imply that a majority of Americans actually want a dictator as a leader. And, despite his protestations, it goes without saying that he thinks it should be him. He won’t call it a dictatorship though. It will be something like President for Life.
Naturally he fully expects the Republicans in Congress to go along with this plan since they all suffer from TTS (Trump Toady Syndrome). And the Supreme right-wing Court will merely say that it is a political matter outside of their jurisdiction. They have already granted him immunity from any consequences for illegal actions while in office. It seems that there is not a single Republican in any branch of our government who is willing to fulfill his or her oath to “preserve and protect” the Constitution, least of all, Trump.
In the meantime, Trump continues to subject Americans, including citizens, to unconstitutional dictatorial actions daily. He shows disdain for the laws and ignores the courts. He is building his own paramilitary force and assuming control of cities he doesn’t like. He is attacking his “enemies” with “lawfare,” coercion, and outright extortion. He is trying to assume control of the entire economy (don’t forget that he has a history of bankruptcy). He, along with his Republican toadies, are working hard to restrict voting rights (mostly of minorities but recently some voices on the Right have said that women should not be allowed to vote either). And so on and so on.
His deployment of ICE and the military into blue cities is specifically intended to provoke a reaction against the troops. No matter how minor, he will then use that reaction as an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act. This will give him the authority to flood cities and states with military units. The mass arrests of Democrats will likely follow including Senators, Representatives, Governors, past Presidents, and other Democratic leaders. The concentration camps have already been built ostensibly just for the deportable immigrants, but they can hold Trump’s enemies as well. I believe that the mid-term election results will either be rigged or cancelled altogether to eliminate the possibility of any reductions in the Republicans’ powers.
So, dear Mr. Franklin, I regret to inform you that we were not able to keep the Republic you gave us. We managed for nearly 250 years to have a mostly honorable government run by mostly honorable people. There were exceptions of course, but our Founding Fathers never anticipated the level of dishonor, incompetence, and corruption that we are seeing now. The Constitution was written under the assumption that the “best of the best” would be chosen to govern, but it tells us nothing about what to do when the “worst of the worst” seize and hold the levers of power. I fear that it may already be too late to recover our democracy. Any advice from you, even posthumously, would be very much appreciated.