Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

This Nation’s First Dictatorship Is Emerging. It Is Time To Call It What It Is.

Opinion

A man standing and tilting a seesaw, with a crowd of people standing on the other side.

From Rome’s first dictator to Trump’s growing power, history warns that democracy is fragile. Professor Austin Sarat warns that we may be witnessing America’s first dictatorship.

Getty Images, Westend61

The year is 501 BC, and the Roman Republic is threatened by a powerful enemy. Following a procedure recognized in Roman law, Titus Larcius is appointed to be Rome’s first dictator.

To deal with that threat, he was given virtually unlimited power for a fixed period of time. Dictators could rule without involving the public assembly or any other public officials. Their decisions were unreviewable and final.


They could punish whoever they wanted for any reason. They could order private businesses to serve the state or to close.

According to the historian Livy, Mamercus Aemilius Mamercinus↻—who would himself become a dictator—noted the liberties of Roman citizens were “most securely guarded when those who held great powers did not hold them long, and when offices which could not be limited in their jurisdiction were limited in their tenure.”

After having successfully dealt with the external threat, Larcius resigned as dictator. He did so before his term expired.

In later years, Roman dictators appointed themselves for unlimited terms. They proclaimed themselves tribunes of the people but were most interested in power and glory for themselves.

Julius Caesar was even named “dictator for life” before he was assassinated.

Unlimited power, unlimited tenure. Since Caesar, those have been the hallmarks of dictatorial regimes.

In the United States today, we see signs of the emergence of America‘s first dictatorship. But so far, many have been reluctant to use that term to describe President Trump and his administration.

Autocrat, authoritarian, maybe, but not dictator. The choice of language matters.

Many may not know what an autocrat or an authoritarian is, or why they are bad. A dictator has much more resonance.

As Perry Bacon urges, it is time for the media, the Democratic Party, and others who wish to oppose the erosion of democracy to tell a single story focusing on “Trump’s dictatorial tendencies.”

Without that, the American people will not be galvanized to push back in a sustained and effective way.

The clock is ticking.

As The Atlantic’s George Packer writes, the emerging dictatorial regime “asks very little of the people.” It “keeps the public content with abundant calories and dazzling entertainment, its dominant emotions aren't euphoria and rage, but indifference and cynicism.”

Unless we can rouse ourselves and put the preservation of democracy and the rule of law at the top of our priorities, President Trump may get to be a dictator and not just on “Day 1.”

Indeed, some of his most ardent supporters are now calling on him to assume dictatorial powers. Last month, Laura Loomer, one of the president’s most influential allies, said, “I do want President Trump to be the ‘dictator’ the Left thinks he is.”

She added, “I want the right to be as devoted to locking up and silencing our violent political enemies as they pretend we are. I’ve had enough of the Left only thinking we will defund them, prosecute them, lock them up, and dismantle their power for generations to come. It just needs to happen.”

The president has taken note of such comments. He recently observed, “A lot of people are saying, ‘Maybe we like a dictator,’” though he insisted, “I’m not a dictator. I’m a man with great common sense and a smart person.”

Such denials are common in contemporary dictatorial regimes. And as Princeton University Professor Kim Lane Scheppele notes, “Most modern dictators try to hide their aspirations….”

“[L]eaders such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,” Scheppele explains, “have gone to ‘great lengths’ to avoid looking like ‘20th-century dictators’ in the hopes they can avoid the label.”

“Not a dictator.” You would never know it from what he has done since he returned to the Oval Office in January.

Examples are legion. Just ask Jim Comey or Jimmy Kimmel, the residents of Los Angeles, Washington D.C., or maybe Portland, Oregon.

In addition, on Sunday, Sept. 28, the Washington Post reported that, “The White House is developing a plan that could change how universities are awarded research grants, giving a competitive advantage to schools that pledge to adhere to the values and policies of the Trump administration on admissions, hiring, and other matters.”

If this policy is implemented, “To get a grant, you [will] need to not demonstrate merit, but ideological fealty to a particular set of political viewpoints.”

In our emerging dictatorship, it seems that doing what the president tells you to do is necessary for survival. As Andrew Sullivan argues, Trump is like “a wild boar—psychologically incapable of understanding anything but dominance and revenge, with no knowledge of history, crashing obliviously and malevolently through the ruined landscape of our constitutional democracy…[because he] cannot tolerate any system where he does not have total control.”

Surveys suggest that a majority of the American people worry that Sullivan is correct. In March, 52% of the respondents to a national poll agreed that Trump is "a dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy."

In addition, the New York Times reported that many young voters who voted for Trump in 2024 now regret doing so. When asked for the first word that came to mind when they think of the president, one of them replied, “The way that he’s been handling things recently, dictatorship.”

Not surprisingly, the view that the president is a dictator is much more prevalent among Democrats than among Republicans. Indeed, “81% of Republicans surveyed said they still believe that ‘Trump is a strong leader who should be given the power he needs to restore America's greatness.’"

Conservative commentators insist that “Donald Trump’s U.S. is far from a dictatorship.” As Niall Ferguson explains, the “‘imperial presidency’ long predates Trump.” It dates back, at least, to “Franklin Roosevelt’s… New Deal…power grab by the executive branch.”

Moreover, he argues, “The prelude to dictatorship is often civil war or anarchy. Americans may be polarised, but they are not at war with one another.”

“The serious student of history,” Ferguson adds, “knows that the United States today is a very long way from Italy in 1927 or Germany in 1938. And now, as then, it seems much more likely from a geopolitical standpoint that the U.S. will end up in conflict with the truly authoritarian regimes than fighting alongside them.”

I wish I could agree with Ferguson, but I can’t.

The presidents he cites were driven by an ideological agenda. Trump is not. They did not seek to control culture, industry, and entertainment. Trump does. They did not seek to prosecute and jail people who opposed them. Trump does.

As to who we will fight alongside, it is not clear whether it will be Russia and Saudi Arabia or Canada and Mexico.

That’s why I think that America’s first dictatorship is emerging.

At this point, there are two mistakes we can make. We can act as if that regime is emerging, and organize to resist it, only to be proven wrong.

Or we can act as if a dictatorial regime is not emerging, and do nothing, only to wake up one morning to learn that Trump, in a Caesar-like gesture, has pronounced himself “president for life.”

The survival of liberty and democracy depends on choosing to make the right mistake.

Austin Sarat is the William Nelson Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College.

Read More

The Roots of America’s Violence:
White Supremacy, Power, and the Struggle for Dignity
Ragiv:Charlie Kirk in Tampa July 2025 (cropped).jpg - Vükiped

The Roots of America’s Violence: White Supremacy, Power, and the Struggle for Dignity

In September 2025, activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated while speaking at a Utah campus event. His death was shocking — not only for its brutality, but because it showed that political violence is not just a relic of the past or a threat on the horizon. It is part of our national identity. Today’s surge in violence follows patterns we’ve seen before. Let’s take a look at that history.

When Pope Alexander VI issued the Doctrine of Discovery in 1493, he gave theological and legal cover for European conquest of lands already inhabited by indigenous people. These papal bulls declared non-Christian peoples “less than” and their lands open for seizure. This was more than a geopolitical maneuver — it embedded into the Western imagination a belief in the inherent supremacy of some over others.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Noosphere Is Here–and the Struggle for Its Soul Now Runs Through Musk, Putin, and Trump

The noosphere is here—and it’s under siege. This essay explores how Musk, Trump, and Putin are shaping the global mind through Starlink, X, and cognitive warfare.

Getty Images, Yuichiro Chino

The Noosphere Is Here–and the Struggle for Its Soul Now Runs Through Musk, Putin, and Trump

In the early 20th century, two thinkers—Russian geochemist Vladimir Vernadsky and French Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin—imagined a moment when humanity’s collective consciousness would crystallize into a new planetary layer: the noosphere, from the Greek nous, meaning “mind.” A web of thought enveloping the globe, driven by shared knowledge, science, and a spiritual awakening.

Today, the noosphere is no longer speculation. It is orbiting above us, pulsing through the algorithms of our digital platforms. And it is being weaponized in real time. Its arrival has not ushered in global unity but cognitive warfare. Its architecture is not governed by democracies or international institutions but by a handful of unaccountable actors.

Keep ReadingShow less
2025 Democracy Awards Ceremony Celebrates Bipartisan Excellence in Public Service

The Democracy Awards Ceremony hosted by the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) on Thursday, September 18, 2025

Credit: CMF

2025 Democracy Awards Ceremony Celebrates Bipartisan Excellence in Public Service

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) hosted its annual Democracy Awards Ceremony on Thursday, September 18, recognizing exceptional Members of Congress and staff who exemplify outstanding public service, operational excellence, and innovation in their work on Capitol Hill.

In the stately House Ways & Means Committee Hearing Room, the 8th annual Democracy Awards ceremony unfolded as a heartfelt tribute to the congressional offices honored earlier this summer. The event marked more than just a formal recognition—it was a celebration of integrity, dedication, and the enduring spirit of public service.

Keep ReadingShow less
What Makes Trump’s Power Grab Different?

Workers hang a large photo of President Donald Trump next to a U.S. flag on the facade of the Department of Labor headquarters building in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 27, 2025.

Drew Angerer/AFP/Getty Images/TNS

What Makes Trump’s Power Grab Different?

For many, the evidence is in: Donald Trump wants to be an autocrat. If you haven’t read an op-ed or heard a radio, TV or podcast commentator make that case, it’s probably because you’ve tried hard to avoid doing so. It would require virtually never watching cable news, including pro-Trump outlets, because there are few things Fox News and its imitators love more than running clips of MSNBC hosts and other “resistance” types, not to mention Democratic politicians, melting down over Trump’s “war on democracy,” “authoritarian power-grabs,” etc.

Move further to the right, and you’ll find populists who want Trump to be an autocrat. They use terms like “Red Caesarism,” or “neomonarchism,” while others pine for an American Pinochet or Francisco Franco or compare Trump to biblical figures like the Persian King Cyrus or ancient Israel’s King David. I can’t really blame anyone for taking these pathetic Bonapartists at their word.

Keep ReadingShow less