By Yorgos Mitralias
Only the blind cannot see what is now obvious: Trump wants to be a dictator, behaves like one, and is doing everything he can to establish a dictatorship! Seen from this angle, all his recent “initiatives” and other more or less “crazy” and supposedly incomprehensible measures make sense because they are part of his historic project: to establish a dictatorial regime in the United States! A regime of billionaires, fascistoid if not outright fascist, racist, obscurantist, virilist, misogynist, militaristic, and supremacist, which directly attacks the most basic democratic rights and freedoms of citizens, represses any protest or criticism of its legitimacy, creates a police state that instills fear, and hunts down those who are different, progressives, and especially migrants, who are taking the place once occupied by Jews in Nazi Germany…
So, the real question is no longer whether Trump is a fascist, because he is, or a dictator, but whether he has the means to become one, whether he will succeed in his plan to establish a dictatorship in the United States. Our answer is categorical: Trump, who seems fascinated by several aspects of Nazism, wants with all his heart to be a dictator and is doing everything he can to become one, but it is at least doubtful that he will be able to fulfill his desires. Why? Because, day after day, he is discovering that the task is much more difficult for two reasons: first, because six months after coming to power, he still cannot bring American society to heel, and second, because, although he has concentrated all power in his hands, he lacks a real organized mass popular movement under his command, capable of subjugating american society.
This is why we have just seen Trump go on the offensive in the key state of California, first sending in his thugs from the infamous ICE to hunt down migrants even in their workplaces, and then the National Guard and even the Marines against the protesters. This was clearly a provocation by Trump, who wanted to test the pulse of society, first in California and then across the entire country, in response to both his veritable anti-migrant pogrom and his intention to militarize public life with a view to declaring a state of siege! And the French-style military parade in Washington at the end of the week only added to the militaristic and warlike tone of Donald Trump’s first full-scale attack on the America of those from below, with or without papers.
Unfortunately for him, his California test went rather badly, provoking a furious reaction from millions of American citizens who filled the squares and streets far beyond California, practically across the entire country. But this day of national mobilization in defense of migrants and democracy was marked by an even more important event. In fact, the day of demonstrations in more than 2,000 cities under the banner “No Kings” can be considered the true birth of the mass movement that will resist Trump and his dictatorial plans. Needless to say, as such, this mass movement against Trump and his inhumane and barbaric policies is “doomed” to find itself at the forefront of the struggle of those at those from below of the world against their fascist and billionaire oppressors.
But that’s not all. Trump’s first major offensive has produced another major event: it has effeively inaugurated his power struggle, or rather his (deadly?) battle against California, and more generally against the “enemy” states controlled by the Democrats. Why California? Because this state is a historic Democratic stronghold and, above all, because it is an economic giant, which has surpassed Japan by the end of 2024 and became the world’s fourth largest economy, just behind Germany in third place!
At the beginning of April, at the height of Trump’s tariff war, California Governor Gavin Newsom had already responded by warning his state’s international economic partners that “California is not Washington, D.C.,” that “Donald Trump’s tariffs do not represent all Americans,” and that as a result, he was seeking ” new strategic trade relationships“ with them! This was not the first time Newsom had confronted Trump—last January, Trump called him ”incapable” of putting out fires—but this time, the California governor crossed a very important red line by warning the White House that he was even willing to go it alone!
Of course, it is inconceivable to believe that the very moderate Democratic governor of California is currently thinking about anything other than his presidential ambitions. However, Trump’s aggressive behavior toward California authorities during the events that saw the National Guard and Marines take to the streets of Los Angeles, forced Newsom to raise his voice and call Trump an “apprentice dictator,” should make us understand that we are now in the presence of an uncontrollable dynamic that could push the opposing camps to make choices that are currently completely unthinkable to them.
More than five years ago, we wrote that “the worst was yet to come if Trump persisted in his authoritarian incursions into the constitutional prerogatives of governors, which would force at least some of them, pressured by the vast majority of their fellow citizens who are radically opposed to an increasingly anti-democratic and authoritarian Trump, to ‘barricade’ themselves in their states and seek salvation by withdrawing to the margins or even outside the federal state.“(1) And to be more specific, we continued: “The prospect of seeing, for example, the world’s fifth largest economy, California, secede from the United States to become an independent state could become a reality if the crisis, Trump’s authoritarianism, or the threat of widespread civil war made it untenable for this federal state, which votes overwhelmingly against Trump, to remain in the Federation.”
Today, to all these preconditions for a possible irreparable crisis in the cohesion of the United States, we should add another, probably even more important one: the possible divergent interests of its capitalists. If, for example, Californian capitalism discovers that Trump and his policies are pushing it to extremes, then anything is possible, even the “unthinkable” separation of California from the rest of the United States!
Our conclusion should leave no room for doubt: Trump believes himself to be a dictator and even a fascist, but for the moment, he has neither the means of a dictator nor those of a new Führer. So, the result of this rather unprecedented situation with Trump is that he will encounter a thousand difficulties in bringing American society to heel and stabilizing his power, but at the same time, he will not back down and will go all the way in his attempt to establish a dictatorship in the United States. This is all the more likely given that he will be supported by a significant portion of society (around 30-35% of Americans) who are willing to go along with his supremacist, fascist, and messianic delusions. In short, Americans and humanity are only at the beginning of their troubles…
Note
1. See also our article (in french) : Trump le pyromane déjà à l’œuvre incendiant le peu qui reste de la démocratie américaine ! : https://www.cadtm.org/Trump-le-pyromane-deja-a-l-oeuvre-incendiant-le-peu-qui-reste-de-la-democratie