Trump Shows the True Colors of a Dictator

Dictators Elected by Democracy

Before and after World War I, countries around the world that had been governed by authoritarian empires moved towards becoming constitutional monarchies or democratic republics, recognizing that the power to govern came from the people and was returned to the people in the form of democracy. The Czar of Russia, the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire all disappeared from history. However, more than a hundred years later, in the name of democracy, there are still a lot of dictators in the world who rule their countries according to their own personal preferences, and also influence the peace and development of the world under the banner of national security or hegemony. Hitler and Mussolini, who led to the Second World War, were both national leaders elected by the people of their countries on a one-person-one-vote basis. It can be said that people can democratically elect dictators and rule them with totalitarian power.

Today, after Trump’s strong governance of the United States from 2017 to 2020, he has become the president of the United States again, and it seems that he has used the power given to him by the Americans without any reservation, both at home and abroad, and he has shown his true colours of a great dictator.

Given Trump’s ambition and temperament, he would like to be a “dictator”, and he is envious of those powerful political figures in the world who are in control of their power and who are not subject to any rule, but it is a pity that America’s “democratic system”, “separation of powers”, and “historical tradition” have made it difficult for him to fulfill his ambitions. However, he always wants to try to break through the barriers and have a good time. For example, a few days ago, Trump claimed that he planned to allow the US to “take over” and “own” Gaza and resettle its residents in the process. Instead of being silenced by the outcry, Trump once again said he was “committed to buying and owning Gaza” and said he might hand over parts of the territory to other countries in the Middle East to rebuild. No matter how absurd Trump’s statements are, they still have repercussions and political consequences because Trump is the President of the United States – the most powerful man in the world.

There is no doubt that the U.S. Constitution gives the President enormous power to make executive orders to govern the internal affairs of the United States. But the use of these executive orders also allows the US president to exert great influence over the rest of the world. Trump’s claims before his inauguration that he would “take back” the Panama Canal in order to protect the security of the United States, that he would “buy” Greenland from a disagreeing Denmark, or that he would demand or “invite” Canada to become the 51st state of the United States by way of tariffs, have surprised the world, and Trump’s mindset seems to be that he has the power to rule over any country in the world.

Trump’s latest astonishing statement is that the century-old endless dispute between Israel and the Palestinians in the Middle East over land sovereignty can be permanently resolved by the US “taking over and rebuilding” the crumbling Gaza Strip, which he is convinced the Palestinians want. Such fantasies emphasize Trump’s inner egotist.

/Trump’s Comprehensive Victory and Return

Potential for more chaos

In recent days, the international community has criticized President Donald Trump’s recent comments that the U.S. would “take over” the Gaza Strip, and has objected to the relocation of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to other countries. Hamas (Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement) called his remarks “absurd and reflective of his profound ignorance of Palestine and the region”; and its Politburo member Izzat Rashek condemned Trump’s remarks about “buying and owning” the Gaza Strip, stating that the Gaza Strip is “not real estate to be bought and sold” but is an integral part of Palestine, and that it is not appropriate to deal with the Gaza Strip with the mentality of a real estate developer, but with the mentality of an American real estate developer, who has been in charge of the Gaza Strip. It is an integral part of Palestine, and approaching it with a real estate developer’s mentality will only lead to failure.

Many Palestinians in Gaza might consider leaving if given the chance, but even if a million left, as many as 1.2 million would remain. Obviously, the United States – the new owner of what Trump has called “the Riviera of the Middle East” – will have to use force to expel them. This idea is also expected to cause a backlash within the US after its disastrous intervention in Iraq in 2003. Moreover, it would put an end to any lingering hope for a two-state solution. That hope is that the century-long conflict could end with the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. In the past, Israel’s Netanyahu government was adamantly opposed to this idea, and over the years of failed peace negotiations, “two states for two peoples” became an empty slogan.

One high-level Arab source even told the media that in the short term, Trump’s surprise announcement could weaken Gaza’s fragile ceasefire. This is because the lack of a plan for the future governance of Gaza has become a fault line in the agreement. Many Palestinians already believe that Israel is using its war on Hamas to destroy Gaza and expel its inhabitants. This is part of their charge that Israel is committing genocide – and now that Trump has offered a plan, they may think that Trump is adding bullets to Israel’s plan. Undoubtedly, Trump’s plan creates enormous uncertainty, injecting more instability into one of the world’s most volatile regions.

A Major Shock to the International Order

Unlike traditional dictators, today’s dictators usually rise in democratic political environments. The United States is not naturally immune to dictators. During World War II, dictatorship was fashionable among the American elite. Eleanor Roosevelt once suggested to her husband that the country might need a “benevolent dictator” to lead it out of the Great Depression. This was not quelled until after Pearl Harbor. Robert Kagan, who has served as a foreign policy adviser to a number of Republicans, has written for the Washington Post that there is a clear path to dictatorship in the United States, and that path is getting shorter every day. Given Trump’s intuition, past behavior, and control of the Republican Party, his second term in office is barely a month old and has already shown the world that he is further weakening democracy.

By proposing to ‘own’ the Gaza Strip and carry out so-called ‘redevelopment’ after ‘permanently’ relocating the Palestinians, Trump has once again demonstrated his alarming global hegemonic stance. Behind this statement is not only indifference to the fate of the people of Gaza and further oppression of the Palestinian people, but also a new manifestation of U.S. global hegemony and a naked challenge to the international order and regional stability. Trump’s use of US power to establish an “American-style” order on Palestinian land will undoubtedly exacerbate the already complicated political situation in the Middle East, and will further demonstrate his ambitions.

The Gaza Strip is a scenic area on the Mediterranean coast, and Trump apparently believes that if he can move its inhabitants out, he can rebuild the region to America’s advantage. The point is not whether the idea is feasible, but that Trump’s America, as the world’s current superpower, thinks so and wants to incorporate into the United States any place that is profitable, be it Canada, Greenland, Gaza, or Panama. The United Nations has been gradually weakened over the last two decades and if Trump moves forward in this manner, there will be nothing left but an empty shell in this period. The same fate may befall international law and treaties as a human legacy.

The Long fight between Democracy and Dictatorship

Democracy, which gives power to the people, aligns the interests of the rulers and the ruled, and brings freedom, justice and equality, is considered by many to be a political panacea. Many people believe that democracy is a political panacea. Regrettably, ever since the birth of democracy, there have been endless doubts about it, the most typical one being “Hitler was also elected by the German people one vote at a time”. Democracy is by no means indestructible. The defeat of democracy in the ancient Greek city-state of Athens by the authoritarian regime of Sparta notwithstanding, the third wave of democratization has seen a return to authoritarianism. Some important countries have seen the emergence of powerful political figures with authoritarian overtones in their democracies. Apart from Vladimir Putin, there are also the likes of Modi in India, Erdogan in Turkey, and Orban in Hungary, who have been re-elected several times and practiced authoritarian rule internally. Some other countries have simply staged coups to overthrow their elected governments and practiced military dictatorship, such as Myanmar. In recent years, in developed countries such as Europe, a number of far-right regimes have come to power.

Since the Obama years, the two-party politics in the United States have gradually become polarized and torn internally. In the four years of Trump and Biden, this phenomenon has become more and more obvious, and has gradually become an extreme confrontation, and the dysfunction and disorder of the American democracy has worsened. The New York Review of Books has published an article pointing out that the United States is already a “nation of two”, with the Republican Party and the Democratic Party leading two sharply opposed national groups, each forming a federal government, and the United States of America has become a “divided nation of the United States of America”.

Due opposition is, of course, part of a democratic system of government, and only in this way can the ruling party be checked and balanced. However, opposition for the sake of opposition often paralyzes government operations and prevents effective policy agendas from moving forward. This is the dilemma of American democracy today, and it is also the common dilemma of human beings who have yet to find a viable path in the development of civilization. Donald Trump has once again won the presidential election, and the Republican Party is still dominant in the House of Representatives and the Senate. With no congressional constraints and no pressure to be re-elected, Trump has undoubtedly created a perfect opportunity for his “one voice”.

In the evolution of human civilization, “democracy” is relatively the least bad system, and history has also shown us that “democracy” can also elect “dictatorial” leaders, and has brought about global disasters in history, as in the case of Germany, where the Nazi Party was elected as the ruling party by popular vote. In recent years, from the UK’s referendum to leave the European Union, to the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, to the rise of the far-right in Germany after the election ……, the biggest crisis in the world today may not be the financial crisis or global warming, but rather the hearts and minds of the people – the world’s growing desperation for the seemingly unsustainable model of capitalism, and with it, their loss of faith in the “voting” system of democracy. After all, the effectiveness of democracy is based on its ability to work. After all, the effectiveness of democracy is based on the rationality of the electorate, but the absurdity is that expecting the electorate to vote on the basis of their rational decisions is a near-impossible task. Now we have come to a fork in the road – the hard-earned foundations of America’s founding fathers may prevent Trump from turning the United States into a dictatorship, but with Trump’s consistent disregard for the norms of democracy, it is undeniable that America’s democracy will be jeopardized, and the world will become a much more dangerous place. Probably the only lesson mankind has learned from history is that it is impossible to learn any lessons from history.

Article/Editorial Department, Sameway Magazine

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