By Ralph Nader
February 28, 2025
Trump
has mused publicly about his fondness for Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s
“elected” dictator, and how he accomplished commanding control over his
people. Trump and his loyal Trumpeteer and Musketeer cohorts are taking
an American-style approach, step by faster step, far ahead of the
conventional resistance.
Step One is
to announce that you are a STRONGMAN ruling by largely unlawful
Executive Orders and ignoring the laws that demand congressional action.
Step Two is
to dominate the news cycle and expand your own “news” media, such as
Trump’s for-profit company Truth Social. Trump is a juggernaut of
declarations, attacks on perceived opponents or “woke” activity, and he
lies about conditions in the country and the world, and more lies about
his false successes. He has regular meetings at the White House with
apprehensive reporters who know they are getting played, but relay his
sound bites, often unrebutted to the people (such as his false outbursts
about U.S. AID’s activities abroad).
Step Three is
to always be on the offensive and never admit mistakes or to being
wrong or ignorant about anything. This puts the resistance on the
defensive, reacting instead of proactively keeping Trump off balance.
This
tactic is working to keep the hapless Democrats still in disarray, like
“deer-in-the-headlights.” This freeze led to the Democrats’ ignominious
defeat on November 5 by the most politically vulnerable GOP
presidential candidate ever.
The
Democrats blew an opportunity to use the two month interregnum between
the election and Trump’s inauguration to hold public hearings in the
Senate laying down challenges on very popular agendas opposed by the GOP
(to raise the minimum wage, expand the child tax credit, increase
social security benefits frozen for over forty years, tax the
under-taxed, sometimes zero-taxed, super rich and giant corporations,
and crack down on corporate crooks exploiting consumers and workers,
especially on health insurance and credit transactions.) Instead, the
Democrats disgracefully took their vacations and departed with a whimper
on January 20th.
Step Four is
to push ferociously plutocratic redirection, disruptions and
suspensions of federal agencies so as to benefit enriching the
super-rich like Musk and Trump. This means firing the law enforcers
against corporate crime, such as major contracting fraud, and stealing
from Medicare, Medicaid, and the bloated defense budget.
Step Five is
to redirect massive monies (such as from Medicaid) from America’s
social safety net to pay for even more military dollars and tax cuts for
the rich and big corporations than Trump gave them in 2017. These cuts
were never seriously challenged by the Biden Administration or
Congressional Democrats like House Ways and Means Chair Rep. Richard
Neal (D – MA). This brazen move is so cruel that some GOP Congressional
toadies are beginning to quiver since many Medicaid recipients were
Trump voters and people are turning out at crowded town meetings to
loudly berate the surprised Republicans.
Step Six is
to deeply consolidate Der Fuhrer’s power inside government and outside
countervailing forces. Trump fired top military generals without cause,
pushed out the chief lawyers for the three military services and
replaced them with heel-clicking loyalists ready to obey any illegal
order in violation of the Nuremberg rules. Remember that the unstable
Trump has his finger on the nuclear trigger.
Throwing
out competent civil servants in agencies dedicated to helping Americans
in need (Meals on Wheels, Head Start) and replacing them with
clenched-teeth Trumpers now wrecking or illegally closing down federal
agencies (the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) devoted to auto
safety, airline safety, workplace safety, environmental, climate, health
protection, pandemic preparedness, and consumer protection from
relentless profiteering, and protection of fair labor standards and
practices.
Step Seven is
using the withholding of federal grants and spewing of propaganda to
reduce important research and free speech on university and college
campuses, intimidating and suing the corporate owners of the mainstream
media to get in line or else face exclusion from the White House press
corps and face FCC investigations of the radio and TV business,
including NPR and PBS.
Who’s left, you might say, to stop Trump, who is on the road to a deep corporate fascist state?
The
answer is: THE PEOPLE, taking their sovereign power under the
Constitution to protest with specific demands, and to fully use the
courts, give backbone to the media and launch a giant “You’re Fired”
march on Washington in the Spring for a groundswell behind Impeachment.
Trump is harming all Americans – Red State, Blue State, conservatives
and liberals which can bring together a left/right movement changing
Congress in the 2026 elections.
He
is rescinding huge grants on renewable energy projects mostly going to
Red States. He is canceling or suspending millions of government
contracts to small business contractors or subcontractors. He is
unemploying thousands of their workers every day, fueling inflation with
steep tariffs, shaking the stock markets, fomenting chaos, anxiety and
dread through American households and the business community itself.
Will
Trump get away with what he is wrecking and self-enriching? Trump and
his crew of demolitionists, led by the Musk and his poisonous Tusks
recognize no boundaries, no legal or moral limits. My sense is NO. This
guess is based on the immediate energy, courage and smart defiance by
the growing resistance from all backgrounds around the country. Time is
of the essence before the next step toward a dangerous police state
arrives.
A
CLARION CALL FOR LARGE ORGANIZED RALLIES BACK HOME WHERE THE PEOPLE ARE
AGAINST THE CRIMINAL, UNCONSTITUTIONAL DICTATORSHIP OF THE TRUMP/MUSK
ONGOING WRECKING OF AMERICA AND AMERICANS.
CRITICAL
PROTECTIVE LIFELINES ARE BEING ELIMINATED IN ALL STATES – RED AND BLUE –
endangering the health, safety, and economic, well-being of Americans –
workers, small business, the elderly, the infirm, the children, the
air, water, and undermines protection against rising epidemics and
violent climate damage to communities. TRUMP/MUSK are slashing
emergency services provided by our federal workers from the FAA to FEMA
to EPA the monitoring of dangerous hotspots of toxic chemicals.
TRUMP/MUSK
are already unlawfully violating contracts and cutting off millions
dollars in federal payments for small business contractors. This, of
course, harms the workers in these firms. Efforts for cleaner air and
water, and key farm programs are being dismantled.
To
enrich themselves and other billionaires, TRUMP/MUSK are cutting
thousands of skilled IRS investigators focused on big-time tax evasion
by the Super-Rich. There is a criminally insane takeover of our
government that every day is dictating, without Congressional authority,
deadly actions that amount to a dictatorship. TRUMP/MUSK are the “an
enemy of the people.” This is not what Trump supporters voted for. They
did not vote for a Kleptocracy that goes after people’s programs and
that does nothing to stop the hundreds of billions of dollars of
corporate welfare, corporate crime against US taxpayers (such as fraud
inflicted on Medicare and Medicaid), and bloated big business contracts
with Uncle Sam that are now not being investigated.
Saving
our country from the cruel and vicious dictatorship seizing our
government can only come from the people – Americans of all political
backgrounds who show up and speak up at rallies, preferably outside
local Congressional offices (with their Senators and Representatives
invited) – rural, suburban, urban communities nationwide.. The
TRUMP/MUSK overthrow of the existing corporate state, can soon become a
POLICE STATE. Actions by citizens must expand rapidly before the
egomaniacal, openly lying, vengeful TRUMP throws our beloved country
into anarchical convulsions leading to massive disasters.
The
Founding Fathers freed America from the tyrant King George III and gave
us the Constitution to block any future Kings. Trump, who wants to be a
King said, “I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever
I want as president.”
Respect the trust bequeathed to us from our first Patriots in 1776 and 1783. Mobilize and galvanize NOW.
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