Donald I, emperor of the world.

[AndyRM]

There's no chance this will happen.

 

[secretsqirrel]

Hoping this idiot fantasist will be impeached after the midterms.

 

[Pblakeney]

There's no chance this will happen.

People said that about Donnie winning a second term.

 

[AndyRM]

People said that about Donnie winning a second term.

True.

But Hasan can (and will) still appeal against the sentence. At the very least I'd imagine it being live streamed will be stopped.

 

[icowden]

Can anyone explain the difference between the current US and an authoritarian despotic regime?

I asked AI. It struggled:

Key Areas Where Administration Actions Mirror Executive Centralization​

• Politicizing and Gutting the Independent Civil Service:
  • The Action: Through executive orders reinstating policies like Schedule Policy/Career (formerly Schedule F), the administration has reclassified thousands of non-partisan, career civil servants into "at-will" roles. This makes it significantly easier to terminate career experts (attorneys, policy analysts, regulators) and replace them with political loyalists.
  • Authoritarian Parallel: A core mechanism of competitive authoritarianism is replacing professional, merit-based state institutions with partisan appointees to ensure full bureaucratic compliance.
• Expanding Military and Federal Law Enforcement for Domestic Policing:
  • The Action: Deploying National Guard troops under federal Title 10 authority to major metropolitan areas (such as Washington D.C., Chicago, and Portland) over the explicit objections of local and state governments. Further actions include federalizing law enforcement pushes, deploying federal agents, and making high-profile public displays of force.
  • Authoritarian Parallel: Normalizing the use of the military and national security apparatus for domestic political policing and overriding local governance are defining elements of autocratic control.
• Challenging Judicial and Legal Authority:
  • The Action: The administration has frequently tested or attempted to bypass statutory laws and judicial injunctions, aggressively appealing lower court rulings to a favorable Supreme Court bench, and using executive mandates to override congressional oversight. Rhetoric surrounding "weaponized" justice has been used to justify re-directing the Department of Justice toward political opponents.
  • Authoritarian Parallel: Demoting the judiciary from a co-equal branch of government to a reactive tool, while eroding public faith in legal processes, is a common strategy used to centralize state power.
• Targeting Civil Society, Public Criticism, and Press Freedom:
  • The Action: Leveraging federal regulatory mechanisms, threat of funding cuts, and executive policy to pressure universities, independent media organizations, tech platforms, and civil rights groups.
  • Authoritarian Parallel: Autocratic regimes rarely ban all speech outright initially; instead, they use administrative, legal, and financial pressures to create a chilling effect on political dissent.

Core Structural Features Preventing Full Autocracy​

Despite aggressive expansion of executive power, the U.S. continues to operate differently from a fully established authoritarian state due to persistent institutional resistance:

• Active Judicial Intervention: Federal judges routinely issue temporary restraining orders, stays, and injunctions against administrative policies. While executive orders test these boundaries, the federal judiciary retains the power to block, delay, or force modifications on major policies.
• Federalism and Decentralized Power: State governors, state attorneys general, and local governments retain substantial legal autonomy. They routinely file multi-state lawsuits to block federal policies and refuse local law enforcement participation in federal directives.
• Robust Public Resistance and Grand Jury Retainers: Citizens, civil rights groups, and professional unions actively march, protest, and litigate against administration actions. Local grand juries have famously refused to indict citizens targeted by federal prosecutors for political protests.
• Contested Electoral Arena: The multi-party political system remains operational, with opposition political parties actively campaigning, holding legislative seats, and preparing for upcoming electoral cycles to check executive power.

While the administration's actions reflect an aggressive consolidation of executive authority that stresses constitutional norms, the presence of operational federal courts, active state-level opposition, and protected public dissent prevents the system from functioning as a consolidated authoritarian regime.

 

[briantrumpet]

While the administration's actions reflect an aggressive consolidation of executive authority that stresses constitutional norms, the presence of operational federal courts, active state-level opposition, and protected public dissent prevents the system from functioning as a consolidated authoritarian regime.

I think we'll find out at the midterms whether these aspects that have somewhat tempered some of the worst aspects of Trumpism & Project 2025 will hold if Team Project 2025 realises that they are likely to lose both the House and Senate. Mind you, I'd have little confidence that Democrats would manage to use the two years before the next Presidential election to put in extra guardrails or prosecute Trump meaningfully/at all, if they were to win majorities in both houses.

 

[Psamathe]

Death sentence carried out through public execution ...

To me the "beggars belief" only needs the initial "Death sentence" bit. The rest just compounds the madness. I completely fail to understand the mentality around death sentences so adding public execution with Cabinet level politicians relishing the spectacle ... something very very wrong.

 

[briantrumpet]

Death sentence carried out through public execution ...

To me the "beggars belief" only needs the initial "Death sentence" bit. The rest just compounds the madness. I completely fail to understand the mentality around death sentences so adding public execution with Cabinet level politicians relishing the spectacle ... something very very wrong.

The suffering of others seems to be something that gives Trumpian Republicans a hard-on. Maybe they just need VR headsets, specially designed 'games' that inflict suffering on other people, and a copious supply of tissues.