‘Dictator for a day’
What will stop Donald Trump?
I see nothing objectionable and everything to praise in Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s inaugural sermon calling for mercy for unauthorized migrants and LGBTQIA+ people.[1] That it evoked such anger—indeed a demand for an apology (which Budde refused to give)—from Donald Trump and his supporters[2] belies his promise to ‘unify’ the country[3] and confirms our worst fears, even as he orders the unspeakably horrific.[4]
It matters little that some of these orders may be overturned in the courts[5] (the order staying a ban on TikTok contravenes a statute upheld by the Supreme Court,[6] the order on birthright citizenship appears dead on arrival,[7] and his firing of inspectors general occurred without the 30-day notice to Congress required by law[8]) because it is ever more clear that Trump is replacing what was a constitutional oligarchy with an aconstitutional broligarchy[9]—unchecked power is the point. The courts can overturn his orders but the Constitution vests the power of law enforcement in the executive branch,[10] the courts rely upon the executive branch to enforce judgments,[11] and Trump is extraordinarily unlikely to be impeached by a Congress in ethnonationalist hands for refusing to do so.
In The Dawn of Everything, David Graeber and David Wengrow propose a definition of sovereignty that excludes the sovereign from moral or legal challenge.[12] It is such a definition that was overturned in Europe as businessmen gained power and insisted on the exposure of royal secrets, the secrets that kings claimed commoners were unable to comprehend.[13] But with wealth concentrated in the broligarchy and the broligarchy on Trump’s side, his reassignment and removal of hundreds of civil servants presumably deemed insufficiently loyal,[14] and with his scapegoating of unauthorized migrants likely only an opening salvo in his suppression of the opposition in a quest for absolute power,[15] there will be nothing to stop Trump from ruthlessly deploying the full lethal force available to the U.S. government against any popular protest, let alone uprising.
Trump may have joked about being dictator for one day even if his rhetoric had already foreshadowed the authoritarian agenda he has put into play.[16] But it is increasingly difficult to see how such a dictatorship would only be limited to that one day.
[1] Mariann Edgar Budde, “‘Contempt is a dangerous way to lead a country’: here is the sermon that enraged Donald Trump,” Guardian, January 24, 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/24/bishop-mariann-edgar-budde-sermon-that-enraged-donald-trump
[2] Brooke Migdon, “Trump World descends on bishop who pleaded for ‘mercy,’” Hill, January 23, 2025, https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5103756-trump-denounces-bishop-budde-mercy-plea/; Alana Wise, “Bishop Mariann Budde tells NPR 'I won't apologize' for sermon addressing Trump,” National Public Radio, January 22, 2025, https://www.npr.org/2025/01/22/nx-s1-5270918/bishop-mariann-edgar-budde-trump-interview
[3] Peter Nicholas, “Trump says his inaugural will be about unity. It might be a tough sell,” NBC News, December 18, 2024, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-says-inaugural-will-unity-going-tough-sell-rcna183484
[4] Spencer S. Hsu et al., “Trump pardons almost all involved in Jan. 6 riot, commutes remaining 14 sentences,” Washington Post, January 20, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/01/20/trump-pardons-jan-6-defendants/; Nina Jankowicz, “Making Censorship Real Again,” Contrarian, January 23, 2025, https://contrarian.substack.com/p/making-censorship-real-again; Natalie Jonas and Walker Bragman, “Right-Wing Dark Money Pushed For Trump’s WHO Exit,” Important Context, January 23, 2025, https://www.importantcontext.news/p/right-wing-dark-money-pushed-for; Jonathan Landay, “Trump to pull nearly 1,660 Afghan refugees from flights, say US official, advocate,” Reuters, January 20, 2025, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-canceling-flights-nearly-1660-afghan-refugees-say-us-2025-01-20/; Nick Miroff et al., “Trump shuts off access to asylum, plans to send 10,000 troops to border,” Washington Post, January 22, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/01/22/trump-asylum-border-troops-immigration/; Megan Molteni, “Trump executive order declaring only ‘two sexes’ gets the biology wrong, scientists say,” Stat, January 23, 2025, https://www.statnews.com/2025/01/23/trump-executive-order-only-two-sexes-not-supported-by-science/; David Nakamura, Lisa Rein, and Matt Viser, “Trump ousts at least 12 independent inspectors general in late-night purge,” Washington Post, January 25, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/24/trump-fire-inspectors-general-federal-agencies/; Alice Miranda Ollstein and Myah Ward, “Trump closes first day with an avalanche of executive orders,” Politico, January 20, 2025, https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/20/trump-executive-orders-targets-00199302; Mimi Rocah, “Undermining DOJ,” Contrarian, January 22, 2025, https://contrarian.substack.com/p/undermining-doj; Jeremy Roebuck and Perry Stein, “Justice Dept. to cut back prosecution of abortion clinic protest cases,” Washington Post, Januaary 24, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/01/24/face-act-prosecutions-trump-justice-department/; Jennifer Rubin, “Trump’s Actions Are Not Just Lawless; They Defy Our Deepest Values,” Contrarian, January 23, 2025, https://contrarian.substack.com/p/trumps-actions-are-not-just-lawless; Greg Sargent, “Trump's Awful New ‘Invasion’ Executive Order is One of His Darkest Yet,” New Republic, January 21, 2025, https://newrepublic.com/article/190491/trump-invasion-executive-order-immigration; Greg Sargent, “Trump Aide Karoline Leavitt’s Creepy Flattery of Him Takes a Dark Turn,” New Republic, January 25, 2025, https://newrepublic.com/article/190696/karoline-leavitt-trump-secretary-creepy-flattery-dark-turn; Washington Post, “Here are the executive actions and orders Trump signed on Day 1,” January 21, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/20/trump-executive-orders-list/
[5] Jennifer Rubin, “Trump’s Actions Are Not Just Lawless; They Defy Our Deepest Values,” Contrarian, January 23, 2025, https://contrarian.substack.com/p/trumps-actions-are-not-just-lawless
[6] Cristiano Lima-Strong and Drew Harwell, “Trump signs executive order to halt TikTok ban, risking legal showdown,” Washington Post, January 20, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/01/20/tiktok-trump-executive-order/
[7] Tierney Sneed, “Judge blocks Trump’s ‘blatantly unconstitutional’ executive order that aims to end birthright citizenship,” Cable News Network, January 23, 2025, https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/23/politics/birthright-citizenship-lawsuit-hearing-seattle
[8] Megan Messerly et al., “Trump fires independent inspectors general in Friday night purge,” Politico, January 25, 2025, https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/25/donald-trump-inspectors-general-firing-00200611; David Nakamura, Lisa Rein, and Matt Viser, “Trump ousts at least 12 independent inspectors general in late-night purge,” Washington Post, January 25, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/24/trump-fire-inspectors-general-federal-agencies/
[9] Gil Duran, “How the 'Broligarchs' plan to use Trump,” Nerd Reich, November 25, 2024, https://www.thenerdreich.com/how-thebroligarchs-plan-to-use-trump/; Brooke Harrington, “What the Broligarchs Want From Trump,” Atlantic, November 24, 2024, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/broligarchy-elon-musk-trump/680788/; Lynn Parramore, “How to Disguise Racism and Oligarchy: Use Economics,” Evonomics, n.d., https://evonomics.com/how-to-disguise-racism-and-oligarchy-use-the-language-of-economics/
[10] U.S. Constitution, art. II, sec. 3.
[11] Federal Judicial Center, “Executive Enforcement of Judicial Orders,” n.d., https://www.fjc.gov/history/administration/executive-enforcement-judicial-orders
[12] David Graeber and David Wengrow, Dawn of Everything (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2021).
[13] Jürgen Habermas, Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, trans. Thomas Burger with Frederick Lawrence (Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1991).
[14] Tim Reid, “Trump's rapid changes in US government stun federal workers,” Reuters, January 24, 2025, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-rapid-changes-us-government-stuns-stirs-anxiety-among-federal-workers-2025-01-24/
[15] Greg Sargent, “Trump Aide Karoline Leavitt’s Creepy Flattery of Him Takes a Dark Turn,” New Republic, January 25, 2025, https://newrepublic.com/article/190696/karoline-leavitt-trump-secretary-creepy-flattery-dark-turn
[16] Jill Colvin and Bill Barrow, “Trump’s vow to only be a dictator on ‘day one’ follows growing worry over his authoritarian rhetoric,” Associated Press, December 7, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/trump-hannity-dictator-authoritarian-presidential-election-f27e7e9d7c13fabbe3ae7dd7f1235c72