The Democrats and their allies in the liberal media have been on a weeks-long push to brand former President Donald Trump a would-be dictator if he wins in November.
There are at least five reasons the narrative is bogus, but first, let’s look at why they’re promoting it.
President Joe Biden’s approval numbers recently hit all-time lows, and Trump leads him in most polls, including in the key battleground states.
In fact, if the current margins held at the ballot box in November, Trump would beat Biden 301 to 235 in the Electoral College vote, according to the Race to the White House average of polls.
🇺🇲 SWING STATES POLLING AVERAGE
• North Carolina: R+7.9
• Georgia: R+5.7
• Arizona: R+5.3
• Michigan: R+3.7
• Nevada: R+3.1
• Pennsylvania: R+1.4
• Wisconsin: D+1.1EC based on state polls
Trump 301
Biden 235@RacetotheWH | Biden v Trump | 12/27https://t.co/b0GexgbUvi pic.twitter.com/W4YlvouZSd— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) December 28, 2023
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Hence the full-court press by the liberal media to paint a picture of Trump as a potential dictator-in-chief.
The Washington Examiner’s Byron York compiled some of the over-the-top headlines in a post on social media platform X in early December.
The alarm has gone off. Around this time in 2015, some in political/commentary class realized Trump could win GOP nomination. Freakout ensued, although many remained confident Trump could not win general. Now, warning machine has kicked into higher gear. pic.twitter.com/ZRtnloWAw2
— Byron York (@ByronYork) December 4, 2023
Has Biden acted in more authoritarian ways than Trump?
All the ridiculous stories prompted Fox News host Sean Hannity to ask Trump directly during a town hall earlier this month, “Under no circumstances you are promising America tonight you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?”
“Except for Day 1,” Trump quipped in response.
“Meaning?” Hannity queried.
“I want to close the border, and I want to drill, drill, drill,” Trump said.
Hannity noted that the leading Republican candidate was just really saying he would reinstitute the border policies and energy development policies he had in place as president.
In less than three years under Biden’s policies, there have been over 8 million apprehensions of illegal immigrants at the southern border, and that figure does not include an additional estimated 1.7 million “gotaways,” The Center Square reported.
On Trump’s watch, the number of apprehensions during his entire four years in office was under 2 million.
Further, thanks to Biden’s efforts to curtail domestic energy production, the average price of a gallon of gas is $3.10 now, versus $2.40 when the Democrat took office in January 2021. That increased cost gets priced into almost everything Americans buy, because goods have to be transported to the consumer.
So Trump is saying that by executive order he would reverse the Biden administration’s policies regarding those two issues, just as Biden did to Trump’s directives when he took office.
Here are five reasons the whole Democrat “Trump would be a dictator” narrative is just plain silly.
Our Three-Branch System of Government
How exactly would Trump seize dictatorial powers? We have three branches of government, with a division of power that creates checks and balances on each other.
As James Madison noted in Federalist 51, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.”
So the Founders put controls in the federal government’s structure.
For example, Congress has the power of the purse, as well as the power to impeach and remove the president. The Senate must approve all the president’s cabinet appointees and general officers in the military.
The president, in turn, can veto legislation, but Congress can override it with a two-thirds majority vote in the House and the Senate.
Meanwhile, the judiciary sits as the referee over the other branches, able to strike down executive or legislative acts that violate the Constitution.
Officials who serve in the government swear an oath to the Constitution, not to the president. So how likely is it that generals serving in the military or the soldiers would support a dictatorship?
What about the Department of Justice? The FBI? Come on, man!
So the division of power at the federal level is the first reason Trump or any other president could not be a dictator.
Federalism – 50 State Governments
For argument’s sake, say somehow a president was able to override all the constitutional safeguards and take complete control of the federal government. How would the states respond?
“Hey, I’m hereby a dictator. You must obey my every decree,” Trump says, and the governors answer how?
“Okay, no problem.”
Not going to happen.
The Democratic and the Republican governors won’t just fall in line. They’ll protect their authority and then some.
Just look at all the resistance Trump faced from Democratic governors and mayors to his border and immigration policies during his first term: lawsuits, sanctuary cities and states and all the rest.
In other words, these state and local governments refused to comply with federal law and executive orders, nor would they cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement under Trump.
Sanctuary cities like New York and Chicago are now learning firsthand just what an open border means. They would probably like Trump’s policies re-instituted now, though they would never admit it.
Trump’s First Term
Did Trump try to seize dictatorial powers during his first term? No. Then why would he during a second one?
Democrats, and former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, will point to the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol incursion to try to say he did.
Trump, like many others, questioned the integrity of the 2020 presidential election. On Jan. 6, Trump called for protesters to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” He did not call for an insurrection, nor has he been charged with that.
The 45th president peacefully left office on Jan. 20, 2021, respecting the rulings of the courts, and Biden took over.
During the COVID pandemic, Trump recognized the power of state governments.
States have plenary police power, while the federal government has limited enumerated powers under the Constitution.
So the states set the rules for lockdowns and other public health policies. All the federal government did was make recommendations.
Trump exhorted state and local officials to reopen their businesses and schools, but these officials made the call.
Ask yourself, based on Biden’s handling of the pandemic after he took office: Would he have respected state power as much as Trump did? Doubtful.
Thankfully, courts struck down Biden’s mandates on vaccines and mask-wearing.
Leftists are projecting when they try to brand Trump a dictator.
Biden has implemented far more authoritarian acts than Trump ever did: election-year prosecution of his top GOP opponent (Trump), a wide-open border, ignoring the ruling of the Supreme Court on student loan cancellation, FBI raids of pro-life supporters and of nonviolent Jan. 6 protesters who didn’t even enter the Capitol.
Jan. 6 defendants were also denied their right to a speedy trial, with many languishing in pre-trial detention for over a year.
American History
No president has tried to become a dictator in over 230 years under the Constitution.
Probably the two presidents who exercised the most executive authority in the nation’s history were Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and Franklin Roosevelt during World War II.
Lincoln is criticized for suspending the writ of habeas corpus early in the war in 1861, and Franklin for the internment of Japanese-Americans.
The writ of habeas corpus requires the government to deliver imprisoned people to court to show good cause for their detention.
The Constitution does allow suspension of the writ “in cases of rebellion or invasion” as required for public safety, if Congress authorizes it.
Congress eventually did, in March 1863, but required the release of all those held who were not indicted of a crime in a timely manner, as long as they took a loyalty oath to the United States, according to the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association.
Similarly, Roosevelt issued an executive order resulting in the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. The move came in the immediate aftermath of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
About 120,000 Japanese Americans were impacted by the order requiring them to leave military zones designated in the West Coast states of California, Oregon and Washington, according to History.com.
The Supreme Court initially sided with Roosevelt in Korematsu v. United States (1944) challenging the executive order; however, that same month ruled unanimously that the federal government had “no authority to subject citizens who are concededly loyal to its leave procedure.”
The internments ended after World War II.
In 1988, Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act, which awarded reparations to those wrongfully detained during the war.
The People
Lincoln, while serving in the Illinois state legislature, said, “The people know their rights, and they are never slow to assert and maintain them when they are invaded.”
The history of the U.S. certainly bears that out. When government leaders seek to infringe on the people’s rights, they organize and resist. They go to court. They elect new leaders.
The idea that Trump, Biden or anyone could impose a dictatorship while the nation is still filled with liberty-loving Americans who know the Constitution is just silly.
Enough of the name-calling. Let’s choose the next president based on the policies that will Make America Great Again.
