This Week in Democracy – Week 32: 'Maybe We Like a Dictator,' Says Wannabe Dictator Donald Trump
Zeteo's project to document the ongoing, pressing, week-by-week growth of authoritarianism in Donald Trump's second term.
Every week of Trump 2.0 is brutally chaotic, but this week may have been one of the worst so far.
Government agencies – from the CDC to FEMA – are in disarray. Donald Trump, at the behest of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., fired the CDC director, who had only been on the job a month (at least four other senior CDC officials reportedly resigned in protest over vaccine policy). More than 150 FEMA staffers warned that a Hurricane Katrina-level disaster loomed – and then dozens of them were put on administrative leave.
Meanwhile, American soldiers, now armed, remain on the streets of DC. And Trump wants anyone who burns a flag to be sent to prison for a year, despite the Supreme Court ruling that it is constitutionally protected speech.
So, when Trump says, “The line is that I’m a dictator, but I stop crime … So a lot of people say, ‘You know, if that’s the case, I’d rather have a dictator,’” or “maybe we like a dictator,” he’s not joking. As Mehdi said this week, Trump and his allies are “seeding the ground for dictatorship … very openly.”
From the chaos at the CDC to an effort to end cashless bail to firing the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, here’s what Trump and his allies did this week that harm democracy, undermine the Constitution, put Americans’ health at risk, and hurt free societies worldwide:
Saturday, August 23
The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon has spent weeks planning to send thousands of National Guard troops to Chicago as soon as next month. Additionally, the use of active-duty troops had also been discussed, but is considered less likely.
In a court filing, Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s lawyers accused the Justice Department of trying to coerce him into entering a guilty plea on charges of human smuggling. According to his lawyers, the DOJ said they would deport him to Costa Rica, where he wouldn’t face prosecution, if he pleaded guilty, but threatened to deport him to Uganda if he didn’t agree.
Sunday, August 24
Trump once again floated the idea of sending military troops to Baltimore and threatened to “rethink” his decision to approve federal funding to repair a bridge that collapsed in the city last year.
Trump also threatened to investigate former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie over the 2013 “Bridgegate” scandal after Christie, a one-time Trump ally turned critic, said during an interview on ABC News that Trump “sees himself as the person who gets to decide everything, and he doesn’t care about any separation” between the government and criminal investigations.
Trump ranted about the so-called “blue slip” policy, which allows home state senators to effectively veto the president’s nominees for their state, calling it an “old and outdated ‘custom’” that Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley “refuses to overturn.” Grassley pushed back on Twitter, saying he sets Trump’s nominees up for “SUCCESS NOT FAILURE.”
Trump attacked Judge Arthur Engoron, who ruled that Trump was liable for business fraud in 2023 and subsequently ordered him to pay approximately $500 million in penalties, after the fine was overturned by an appeals court. Trump baselessly called Engoron a “highly overturned, CROOKED Judge” who is “almost as Corrupt” as New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the civil suit against him.
He also called for ABC News and NBC News to have their broadcast licenses revoked by the Federal Communications Commission, falsely and ridiculously calling the networks an “actual threat to our Democracy!!!”
Monday, August 25
A group of over 180 FEMA employees signed a letter to Congress warning that the agency is headed for a Hurricane Katrina-level disaster due to actions of Trump officials like Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department oversees the agency, along with a lack of experience from the agency’s acting administrator, a new expense policy that restricts officials from taking swift action, and significant cuts in mitigation and disaster recovery. The letter also asks federal lawmakers to protect agency employees from “politically motivated firings.”
A federal judge temporarily blocked Kilmar Abrego Garcia from being deported after he was taken into ICE custody following an immigration check-in, and his lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition and a motion to reassert his asylum claim. In a press release, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem indicated that Abrego Garcia is being processed for removal to Uganda. Speaking to reporters, Trump said his administration has Abrego Garcia “under control” and said he “needs to be in prison.” The judge later blocked the Trump administration from deporting Abrego Garcia until at least early October.
On CNBC, director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett said “it’s possible” that the Trump administration could take more equity stakes in US businesses after the president’s deal with Intel, adding, “I can really not see how anyone would think that’s a bad thing.”
Trump signed an executive order to criminalize the burning of a US flag, an action that the Supreme Court ruled was protected under the First Amendment in 1989. While signing the order, Trump claimed that “if you burn a flag, you get one year in jail, no early exits, no nothing.” The order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to prioritize prosecuting cases of flag desecration that cause harm “unrelated to expression,” and also says she “may pursue litigation to clarify the scope of the First Amendment exceptions in the area.” It also allows officials to deny, prohibit, terminate, or revoke visas, residence permits, naturalization proceedings, and seek the removal of immigrants for flag desecration.
Trump also signed two additional executive orders in an effort to end cashless bail, a policy that saves families millions and reduces crime rates across the country, including in DC. The order threatens to rescind federal funding, including grants and contracts, to jurisdictions that fail to terminate cashless bail policies within the next 30 days.
A fourth executive order expanded Trump’s takeover of law enforcement in DC, which included directing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “ensure the availability of a standing National Guard quick reaction force that shall be resourced, trained, and available for rapid nationwide deployment.”
Trump said he believes the pardons Joe Biden issued in the final days of his presidency, which included family members, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and members of Congress who served on the Jan. 6 Select Committee, are “worthless.”
Trump indicated that his Justice Department is going to sue California to block the state’s efforts to conduct a mid-decade redistricting of its Congressional map to combat potential gerrymandered gains by a new map in Texas.
He also hinted that his administration will change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War. However, the name change would likely require Congressional approval.
While claiming he is “not a dictator,” Trump told reporters that there are a lot of people saying, “Maybe we like a dictator.”
Trump told reporters he would let 600,000 international students from China attend colleges and universities in the US, saying that “our college system would go to hell very quickly” if international students couldn’t study in the US. His comments contradict his administration’s policies, which have stripped students of their visas and made it more difficult for them to enter and study in the US.
The House Oversight Committee announced that Trump’s former Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who in 2008 was the top prosecutor at the district court responsible for Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement, would appear voluntarily for an interview with its panel investigating the Epstein case. The committee also subpoenaed Epstein’s estate for documents, including “all entries” in the birthday book gifted to the sex trafficker for his 50th birthday, which reportedly included a “bawdy” card from Trump.
The Washington Post reported that the president of George Mason University will not make a personal apology as part of the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights’ proposed resolution agreement to resolve its finding that the school violated federal law with its diversity, equity, and inclusion practices in hiring and promotions. The lawyer for the school’s president said the move to target the school borders on the “absurd,” in a letter to the school’s Board of Visitors, adding that the investigation had been “cut short” after a “very incomplete fact-finding process.”
A judge in Utah ruled that the state must redraw its congressional maps that carved up the Democratic stronghold of Salt Lake City before the 2026 midterms, and draw new lines using an independent commission — a move that could possibly make one of the state’s four congressional districts competitive for Democrats. Trump later called the ruling “absolutely Unconstitutional” and pondered how the state could “end up with so many Radical Left Judges,” even though the judge in the case was appointed by a Republican governor in 2018.
Trump fired Lisa Cook, the first Black woman to serve as a governor of the Federal Reserve, accusing her of committing mortgage fraud. In a statement, Cook said she will not resign, pointing out that Trump can only legally fire her “for cause” and that, in her case, “no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so.” Her lawyer also said in a statement that Trump’s “reflex to bully is flawed and his demands lack any proper process, basis, or legal authority. We will take whatever actions are needed to prevent his attempted illegal action.”
Lawyers for former special counsel Jack Smith, who oversaw two criminal investigations into Trump, sent a letter to the Office of Special Counsel, calling an ethics complaint against Smith that accuses him of violating the Hatch Act “imaginary and unfounded.” They added that Smith and his lawyers haven’t received any inquiries from investigators, but signaled their cooperation to conclude that the allegations are “wholly without merit.”
On Twitter, Senator Grassley said the nomination of Trump’s former lawyer, Alina Habba, to serve as the US attorney for New Jersey was withdrawn on July 24. His comments come after a federal judge ruled last week that Habba didn’t have the legal authority to be the state’s acting US attorney.
A federal judge ordered senior adviser to the US Agency for Global Media Kari Lake to answer questions under oath about her efforts to effectively dismantle Voice of America (VOA), saying he would give her “one final opportunity, short of a contempt trial, to provide such explanation” after failing to comply with orders seeking information to determine whether the Trump administration violated an April ruling to restore programming at VOA.
Democracy Docket reported that an election conspiracy theorist, who led efforts to remove voters from Pennsylvania’s voter rolls and was involved in attempts to cast doubt on the 2020 presidential election results, is now serving as the deputy assistant secretary for election integrity at the Department of Homeland Security, a role that didn’t exist during the Biden administration.
Tuesday, August 26
The Social Security Administration’s chief data officer filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that employees of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) put the personal information of hundreds of millions of people at risk of being leaked or hacked after they uploaded a copy of a Social Security database to a vulnerable cloud server that only DOGE could access. The database contains the full names, addresses, birth dates, and other sensitive information of recipients.
FEMA suspended around 30 employees who signed Monday’s letter warning Congress about the agency. They were placed on paid administrative leave until further notice.
On CNBC, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that Pentagon officials are considering whether the US should acquire equity stakes in defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, which he called “basically an arm of the US government.”
A federal appeals court ruled that a law to toss out mail-in ballots in the battleground state of Pennsylvania if they arrive in envelopes with a missing or wrong date violates the Constitution, noting in relation to a date requirement that “only in the exceedingly rare circumstance does it contribute to the prosecution of voter fraud.”
A federal judge dismissed Trump’s lawsuit against all 15 federal district judges in Maryland, leaving in place a two-day pause on deportations in the state. He also criticized the attacks on judges by Trump and his administration officials, writing, “This concerted effort by the Executive to smear and impugn individual judges who rule against it is both unprecedented and unfortunate.” The Trump administration subsequently appealed the ruling.
Speaking to reporters, Trump called for the death penalty in all murder cases prosecuted in DC, saying, “I don’t know if we’re ready for it in this country,” but “we have no choice.” While Jeanine Pirro, a former Fox host who serves as the US attorney for DC, could seek the death penalty in federal murder cases, she would need Congress to establish the death penalty in DC for city cases, as capital punishment in the district was nullified by the Supreme Court in 1972, repealed by the DC Council in 1981, and voted down in a 1992 referendum.
Trump also told reporters that he believes MSNBC “is worse” than the Tren de Aragua gang, calling the network’s journalists “real scum” and “real dishonest people.”
Trump continued to try to normalize the idea of a dictatorship in the US, saying, “The line is that I’m a dictator, but I stop crime. So a lot of people say, ‘You know, if that’s the case, I’d rather have a dictator,” adding, “But I’m not a dictator. I just know how to stop crime.”
During a Cabinet meeting, Trump said his administration wants “nothing less than $500 million” from Harvard University in a settlement to restore its federal funding, telling Education Secretary Linda McMahon, “Don’t negotiate” with the school.
The Trump administration filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court to authorize the freezing of billions of dollars in foreign aid appropriated by Congress before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
The New York Times reported that agents from the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, who are generally responsible for protecting diplomats and conducting background checks, have been deployed to DC to assist police officers and federal agents as part of Trump’s law enforcement takeover in the district.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that the US revoked the visa of Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski, a move he called an “irresponsible decision,” as Trump continues to target Brazil and its officials in retaliation for its prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro for attempting a coup in 2022.
CBS News reported that the Trump administration is reinstating “neighborhood checks” as part of vetting immigrants applying for US citizenship, which would include interviews with neighbors and coworkers of the applicants.
Wednesday, August 27
The Food and Drug Administration approved updated COVID-19 vaccines but placed restrictions on who can get them, with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announcing on Twitter that the “emergency use authorization” for the vaccines “are now rescinded.” COVID-19 vaccines are now only authorized for people aged 65 and older, and younger people at risk of severe disease.
The White House said it fired CDC Director Susan Monarez, who was only sworn in a month ago, after RFK. Jr demanded she resign. In a statement, her lawyers said Monarez was “targeted” because she “refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts” and added that she won’t resign from her post, calling the dismissal “legally deficient” because Trump didn’t announce it.
At least four senior CDC officials resigned following Monarez’s dismissal, including Demetre Daskalakis, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. In a resignation letter posted on Twitter, Daskalakis warned that the “recent change in the adult and children’s immunization schedule threaten the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people,” and added that he has “never experienced such radical non-trasparency, nor have I seen such unskilled manipulation of data to achieve a political end rather than the good of the American people.”
The Justice Department loosened its requirements for temporary immigration judges, saying they no longer need to have experience in immigration law to oversee cases “with the approval of the Attorney General.” The change comes after more than 100 immigration judges resigned or were removed since Trump took office in January.
The Washington Post reported that a top CIA expert on Russia, who has spent nearly three decades in public service, was fired four days after Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as part of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s memo stripping the security clearances of 37 intelligence officials.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the Trump administration made a request to use a Navy base near Chicago to assist in the crackdown on undocumented immigrants. While a final decision hasn’t been made, federal immigration agents and possibly National Guard troops would operate out of the base for much of September, a plan that one Navy captain says raises “a lot of concerns and questions.”
The Department of Homeland Security said it plans to introduce a proposed rule to limit the length of time international students, visitors on cultural exchange programs, and members of the media on visas can stay in the US by requiring them to be regularly assessed by the department.
On Truth Social, Trump said George Soros and his “Radical Left” son should face RICO charges, baselessly accusing them of funding “Violent Protests” across the country and adding, “Be careful, we’re watching you!”
Louisiana asked the Supreme Court to overturn a key provision of the Voting Rights Act and prohibit the use of race in redistricting.
Trump’s Transportation Department said it’s planning to take over the management of and revitalize DC’s Union Station, which the agency already owns but is currently run by Amtrak. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Reuters, “We are going to make investments to make sure this station isn’t dirty and we don’t have homelessness in Union Station.”
For the second time in less than a month, Trump’s Justice Department dropped charges against a client represented by the brother of Attorney General Pam Bondi. In this case, the defendant was a property developer who faced felony wire fraud charges after allegedly lying about hiring women and minority-owned subcontractors to secure favorable tax incentives on a housing development.
Thursday, August 28
The White House welcomed right-wing YouTuber Brandon Tatum in the “new media” seat at a press briefing. Tatum, who attacked journalists in the room by thanking press secretary Karoline Leavitt “for making the sacrifice and dealing with some of the most disingenuous people on Planet Earth at times,” co-founded Blexit, an organization that sought to get Black voters to leave the Democratic Party and become Republicans, alongside Candace Owens.
A federal judge signed off on a $2,200 refund for a Jan. 6 rioter for fines and restitution paid before her conviction was thrown out due to Trump’s blanket pardons. It marks the first time a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter has received a refund. In his ruling, the judge wrote, “Sometimes a judge is called upon to do what the law requires, even if it may seem at odds with what justice or one’s initial instincts might warrant. This is one such occasion.”
Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook sued Trump to block her firing, which the lawsuit claims is “unprecedented and illegal,” and, if allowed, “would [be] the first of its kind in the Board’s history.” Meanwhile, Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte referred a second criminal referral against Cook to the Justice Department.
The US Air Force said it would offer military funeral honors for Ashli Babbitt, who was killed by Capitol police when she tried to break into the Speaker’s Lobby at the House of Representatives during the Jan. 6 insurrection, a move an under secretary of the Air Force called “long overdue.”
A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration can’t fire the director of Voice of America without approval from the International Broadcasting Advisory Council, writing in his decision, “There is no longer a question of whether the termination was unlawful.”
The White House named current deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill to serve as interim CDC leader. O’Neill, a tech investor who has no training or experience in medicine, used to work closely with venture capitalist Peter Thiel, including previously serving as CEO of the Thiel Foundation.
Dan Jernigan, who helped oversee the CDC’s response to infectious disease before resigning earlier in the week, told the Washington Post that he had been forced to work with David Geier, a vaccine skeptic who has baselessly claimed for years that vaccines cause autism and was once disciplined by regulators in Maryland for practicing medicine without a license. He also said he refused to fire the leader of the CDC vaccine safety office, and had been asked “to revise and to review and change studies that have been settled in the past.”
A federal appeals court declined to block the Trump administration from withholding billions of dollars in Congressionally appropriated foreign aid. The decision appeared to, at least temporarily, render moot Trump’s emergency request to the Supreme Court to allow his administration to withhold the funding.
Trump sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson declaring he’s canceling nearly $5 billion in foreign aid previously appropriated by Congress as part of an illegal “pocket rescission.” The Impoundment Control Act allows the White House to temporarily withhold funds for 45 days while Congress considers the request, and a pocket rescission involves the president sending the request within 45 days of the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, leaving the funding to essentially be held until it expires. It marks the first time a president has used the tool to cancel federal funding in nearly 50 years.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia asked a federal judge to issue a gag order against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi, with his lawyers writing in the filing, “The government’s ongoing barrage of prejudicial statements severely threaten — and perhaps have already irrevocably impaired — the ability to try this case at all — in any venue.”
Trump signed a memo terminating Secret Service protection for former Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of her book tour, violating a Biden order that extended her protection for one year beyond a typical six-month post-office period due to security concerns.
He also signed a memo directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate whether federal grant funding is “being illegally used to support [political] lobbying activities” and to “take appropriate enforcement action,” a move ethics watchdogs warn could have a chilling effect on groups that oppose Trump’s agenda.
Trump signed an executive order to terminate collective bargaining with federal unions in agencies that have “national security work,” including NASA and the National Weather Service.
The Trump administration threatened to sanction one of Colorado’s biggest school districts after one of Denver’s high schools converted a girls’ bathroom into an all-gender one, unless it undertakes actions including reverts all of its gender-neutral school bathrooms into “sex-designated multi-stall restrooms” within 10 days.
A coalition of 19 Democratic governors issued a joint statement condemning Trump’s plans to deploy National Guard troops to other cities, calling the move “an alarming abuse of power” and saying “This chaotic federal interference in our states’ National Guard must come to an end.”
The New York Times reported that the Pentagon, in a likely illegal act, is restoring a portrait of Gen. Robert E. Lee to the West Point library. The painting, which includes an enslaved person guiding the Confederate general’s horse in the background, was removed three years ago following an order from a congressionally-mandated commission.
Friday, August 29
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that many of Trump’s sweeping tariffs are illegal, backing a lower court’s finding from May. The tariffs, however, were allowed to stay in place till mid-October while the Trump administration appeals to the Supreme Court.
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s effort to fast-track deportations of undocumented immigrants far from the southern border, insisting that they “must be afforded due process under the Fifth Amendment.”
On Truth Social, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought would succeed him as the acting administrator of USAID to “oversee [its] closeout.”
The State Department announced that it’s “denying and revoking visas” of members of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), ahead of the UN General Assembly, where several countries are planning to recognize Palestine as a state. On Twitter, a department spokesperson said, “Before we take them seriously as partners in peace, the PA and PLO must completely reject terrorism and stop counterproductively pursuing the unilateral recognition of a hypothetical state.” Benjamin Netanyahu, however, wanted for war crimes in the Hague, will be welcomed.
CNN reported that the Trump administration is planning to send more than 600 Guatemalan children who arrived in the country alone and are currently in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services back to their home country.
On Twitter, Vice President JD Vance lashed out at Politico over an article that focused on criticism of Trump envoy Steve Witkoff from more than a dozen people, including US and foreign officials. He said the story was not only “journalistic malpractice” but a “foreign influence operation meant to hurt the administration and one of our most effective members.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the new mid-decade state congressional district map into law, which was designed to help Republicans gain as many as five additional House seats in the 2026 midterm elections.
Fox reported that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services is updating its guidelines to prevent green card holders who voted in elections or attempted to register to vote from becoming citizens, even though it’s already illegal for non-citizens to vote.
The chief data officer for the Social Security Administration said in a letter that he is “involuntarily” stepping down from his position due to “serious … mental, physical, and emotional distress” that followed his whistleblower report against DOGE.
A federal appeals court blocked the Trump administration from ending the Temporary Protected Status of 600,000 Venezuelans.
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Thanks! This summary is very informative, but it's best read with easy access to an "adult" beverage.
Maybe we like a dictator IN JAIL