I have written much about historical dictators – and their rise to power — and lived for many years in Russia under Putin. In my view, Trump will increasingly reject limits of his power by any decisions of the Supreme Court, Congress, or election results!

While there may be more instances of this in coming months the biggest test may be the November mid-term Congressional elections. If they go badly for Trump he may use his physical control of Washington DC to prevent Congress meeting – probably by use of the Insurrection Act combined with claims of a foreign threat to the USA.

He would also use ICE! Words and actions of Trump and his officials following the shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis suggest the shooter will not be prosecuted and ICE agents – who are likely to be strong supporters of Trump – will become more loyal to him and willing to be his enforcers.

The alternative would be for Trump to wait for likely impeachment, but he – like historical dictators in my book — and Putin tend to act proactively. Moreover, people around Trump will be urging him to do this while he has the chance.

Some will argue that this scenario is unlikely because traditional US lawful institutions would eventually exert themselves. But Trump, more than Putin or any historical dictator in my book, increasingly lives for the moment of his personal vanity and longer-term details are often not part of his thinking. He will just believe that because he has ploughed through many difficult situations in the past things will turn out OK!

Louis Bourreinne, Napoleon’s first secretary, later wrote about such accumulation of power: “Without any shock, and in the short space of four years, there arose above the ruins of the short-lived Republic a Government more absolute than ever was Louis XIV’s. (While) this extraordinary change is to be assigned to many causes. I had the opportunity of observing the influence which the determined will of one man exercised over his fellow men.”

Trump seems to have the same effect on much of the USA population as Napoleon’s Minister of Navy, Denis Decres, recalled: Napoleon “enslaved us all” because “he held our imagination in his hand, sometimes a hand of steel, sometimes a hand of velvet; one never knew how it was going to be from day to day, so that there was no means of escaping.”

This video presentation and text considers the way many dictators obtain and keep power. The are two main factors: good use of PR to convince many people that they are necessary for the future of their country; and the elimination of alternative sources of power — be it individuals, groups or institutions. This is what Trump is attempting to do.

https://www.jeffschubert.com/video-and-text-comparing-putins-rise-and-consolidation-of-power-to-other-historical-dictators/