It takes maturity and strength to truly function in a free democratic society. A maturity and strength that Republicans and their tax-cheating, draft-dodging standard bearer simply don’t possess.
As such, traitor Trump is once again saying the quiet part out loud. He already told us he’d be a “dictator on day one”, but this time he was a bit more coy.
“They say, ‘We don't need him, freedom freedom. He's a dictator. He's a dictator.’ A lot of people are saying, ‘Maybe we’d like a dictator. I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator. I’m a man with great common sense, and I’m a smart person. And when I see what’s happening to our cities, and then you send in troops. Instead of being praised, they’re saying, ‘You’re trying to take over the Republic.’ These people are sick.”
The rhetorical acrobatics here are nothing new in the history of despots. From Mussolini to Pinochet, the world has seen a parade of strongmen who have felt compelled to say, “I’m not a dictator,” even as they rigged elections, jailed political opponents, and shredded constitutional protections.
Dictators rarely admit they want to be dictators. Instead, they protest, they equivocate, and insist they’re only acting in the “people’s best interests” — or that they’re the only one with the guts to “fix things.” We all remember Trump in 2016, declaring, “only I can fix it.” American patriots recoiled at such an un-American statement. But Republicans, and the corporate media normalized it.
Augusto Pinochet, who seized power in Chile and ruled through torture, disappearances, and murder, did it while proclaiming he was “defending democracy.”
Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire wrapped himself literally in leopard skins and called his brutal kleptocracy “authentic” African self-rule, insisting his rigged elections proved his legitimacy.
Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines suspended civil liberties, enriched himself, and crushed dissent. He rejected the dictator label by squawking about his supposed defense of “order” and “stability.”
Erich Honecker of East Germany called his one-party dictatorship “the most democratic state in the world.”
Joseph Stalin, even while orchestrating purges and famines, had his sycophants insist that reports of a “cult of personality” were inventions by enemies of progress.
Trump’s pal Putin murdered any semblance of a free press, jailed or poisoned his opponents, invades his neighbors, and every time an election comes around, he secures another stage‑managed landslide.
Why Deny the Obvious?
Dictators never admit what they are, even though everyone can see it. This is because every dictator, aspiring or actualized, knows that admitting to dictatorship is tantamount to confessing their guilt. Their regimes are built on weakness masked as strength. To hold power, a dictator must manipulate public perception, and wrap themselves in just enough of democracy’s symbols to silence critics — even as they dismantle the rights and institutions those symbols are supposed to represent. If you’re not feeling a sickness in the pit of your stomach as you watch Trump’s shameless Republican Party help their wannabe-dictator dismantle America, you seriously aren’t paying attention.
America’s Nero
The historical parallels go further back. Augustus Caesar, after winning Rome’s civil wars, avoided the title of “dictator” altogether, even though it was an official office. Instead, he labeled himself “Princeps” — the “First Citizen” of Rome. A “first among equals” who concentrated absolute power in his own hands. He cloaked his rule in the illusion of Republican tradition, carefully maintaining a facade of shared governance even as he hollowed out the institutions he was pretending to save. Disguising autocracy as restoration is nothing new.
One saving grace is traitor Trump has none of the competence or restraint of Augustus. He isn’t a builder of institutions— he’s a saboteur. He is not an architect of stability but a grifter chasing applause and cash in the chaos he creates. Trump is no Augustus. He’s more like America’s Nero — the paranoid, decadent, self-indulgent manchild who profited off his people suffering while making feeding his vanity the primary purpose of the office he occupied.
Nero had his “Domus Aurea” (Golden House), a sprawling pleasure palace built on the ashes of a great Roman fire. Trump is turning the White House into a version of gold plated tacky Versailles/Saddam’s palace where the world’s pathetic parasitic billionaires can grovel and homage to Trump’s grotesque cult of personality in exchange for a piece of the grift.
Like Nero, Trump is obsessed with flattery, and incapable of distinguishing governance from theater. Nero staged endless performances in which courtiers were required to endlessly applaud him, afraid to be the first one to stop. This kind of sick display repeats itself every time Trump’s sycophants crowd around him in the Oval Office or appear on fake Fox News. Each time they open their mouths, we hear a noun, a verb and effusive praise for America’s first convicted felon president. Second hand embarrassment is an affliction millions of Americans now suffer from daily as we watch this perpetual ritual of Republican patheticness.
Just seven months into his second maladministration, Trump has turned the military against its people, tried overturning the Constitution by executive order and is scheming to rig the system so he never has to relinquish power.
The legend says Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump isn’t merely fiddling — he’s the one putting the whole nation to the torch.
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