We Were Always Here: The Inevitable Authoritarianism of Donald Trump
A mere week after taking the oath of office, Donald Trump hosted FBI Director James Comey in the White House and demanded loyalty. It was an audacious request considering the chief executive has supposedly been separate from the organs of justice within the United States. That separation has existed as a means of keeping abuses of power at bay and maintaining the authority and integrity of government functions. What Trump was searching for was unending obedience and fealty, particularly in the matter of Michael Flynn, a former general Trump considered for vice-president before installing him as a national security adviser. Flynn, of course, has since been prosecuted for lying to authorities in trying to hide his communications with Russian intelligence and an assortment of other nefarious actions.
Trump’s demand of Comey set off a chain of events that would lead to Comey’s eventual firing, the hiring of Robert Mueller as special counsel in charge of investigating collusion with Russia, the ascent of William Barr to the office of Attorney General, and a whole host of ugliness that has now granted Trump virtually unlimited power. In this case, and now the interference Trump has run on behalf of longtime adviser and dirty-work man Roger Stone, we see Trump disregarding the traditions and norms that have buffeted the presidency in favor of broad, unmanageable powers that allow him to do whatever he wants and protect anyone close to him, or at least anyone with the dirt to bring him down.
Today’s papers are filled with anxious hand-wringing and tales of “Tuesday Night Massacres” from the slew of resignations his actions have inspired. Now, in this narrative, it is his impeachment acquittal that has emboldened him and led to this behavior, but the truth is that this is who Trump has always been. This is Trump before he won the 2016 Election and this is Trump after he’s taken the oath of office. Since he stepped on the political scene and gained traction, since our media gifted him billions in free advertising, this is the world we have been living in.
Trump’s natural inclination is authoritarianism because authoritarianism operates on a specific wavelength of thought. In this case, Trump has traipsed through his entire life without consequences and beset by unimaginable privilege. He has failed in every business endeavor he’s ever tried but it hasn’t mattered. On one hand, his father was there to loan him massive sums of money. When he got older, the economic system ensured that a white man of enormous wealth could never fail outright. His bankruptcies, his many, many bankruptcies, never delivered a killing blow to his career because his aura of success, an artificial luster doctored and created by media technicians and advertisers, meant he would always fail upwards until there was no where left to climb.
In this way, Trump has never faced consequences. His swagger through one controversy and scandal after another is testament to the figmented reality he exists within, a learned confidence that only comes with a charmed life and uninterrupted privilege. As president, he behaves as if the world owes him everything and even the slightest moment of questioning or trouble provokes awesome rage and cries of conspiracy.
That conspiracy doesn’t exist. The Deep State, his favorite target and supposedly the opponent that has ensnared his compatriots Stone and Flynn, is an evolution of the New World Order conspiracy theory, a narrative that blends old school antisemetism with stories of supernatural subterfuge and domestic betrayal. It has never existed and will never exist. It is a scarecrow that Trump can beat time and time and time again while justifying his worst abuses. In the face of this conspiracy, he and his lawyers have reasoned, Trump is free to do anything in his power to defend himself and, by extension, the United States of America. The two are now intertwined.
It doesn’t matter that Robert Mueller was a lifelong Republican. It doesn’t matter that James Comey troubled Hillary Clinton as much as anyone on the planet. It doesn’t matter that Flynn and Stone have both been caught dead to rights betraying the country and engaging in obviously illegal behavior. What matters is that the world continues treating Donald Trump with all the affection and loyalty it can muster or else it is traitorous and dangerous and in need of being brought to task.
This is who he has always been. Before the presidency. During his presidency. All of the signs were there from the very beginning. It was those who blanched at the possibility that such a thing might come to pass who enabled this. The status quoers who believed in the goodness of our institutions, their soundness, their power in the face of such tyranny. They believed Republicans would stand up to him. They believed there would be adults in the room. They believed there was no way such blatant crimes could ever be committed because somebody, anybody would stand up to them.
They were wrong. Disastrously so. While they criticized so many of us who sounded the alarm and warned this was inevitable, they aided Donald Trump and gifted him legitimacy and cover he hadn’t earned and he didn’t deserve. From the moment he became a viable political option, Donald Trump has primed this country for authoritarianism and out and out corruption. This was always coming. We have always been here.
Jared Yates Sexton is an author and political analyst. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, The Daily Beast, Politico, and elsewhere. He is the author of the forthcoming book American Rule: How A Nation Conquered The World But Failed Its People, available for pre-order now from Dutton/Penguin-Random House.