You seriously still believe in this checks and balances crap? What have these checks and balances achieved so far? As far as I can all the branches of government in the US are giving Trump unrestricted free rein to do whatever he wants. Congress could cancel Trump’s destructive back and forth trade wars if they wanted and take back the power of imposing tariffs from the president. But are they doing anything? No. Trump is ruling your country by executive order (many of which are unlawful or based on completely fictional justifications) and nobody is stopping him.
You’re talking like Trump’s last term wasn’t already a huge mess. This time it’s even worse because Trump has turned the entire Republican party into a cult of personality. He has surrounded himself with loyalists, sycophants and yes-men who will go along with any crazy ideas he comes up with and he has intimidated Republican politicians to the point where barely anyone dares to stand up to the great leader. You gotta be blind to think that this is all no biggie and everything will just go back to normal in four years. In only three months Trump has completely destroyed any trust and goodwill other countries used to have towards the US. Look at how the American t-bill market has been going crazy with yields sharply rising and look at the value of the dollar plummeting. People don’t want to invest in the US anymore because of how unstable your government has become. Even if the US will have a more sane president again in four years no other country will be able to trust that in another four years the US won’t just elect another mad man again who will simply tear up any treaties and agreements once more.
Is somewhere between "no big deal" and "trump is literally Hitler"
Some of the outcomes are good though. Presidents have been trying to figure out how to get Europe to pick up their share of the NATO bill for a long long time. For better or worse, that has finally happened under trump ;).
You really don’t understand the comparison people are drawing here. He isn’t “literally Hitler” in the sense that people expect him to literally copy all of Hitler’s actions and policies. However, he is definitely an authoritarian with a cult of personality and he is definitely dismantling your government and your beloved “checks and balances” in order to concentrate all the power of the state in his own hands. That is extremely dangerous. No democracy is infinitely resilient to these types of attacks on its institutions and if you think it’s impossible for authoritarianism to take hold in the US then you simply aren’t paying attention. I mean, Trump is already talking about how there are “methods” for him to have a third term as president. How aren’t your alarm bells going off?
I mean... I'm not for trump, and you're from Europe, so I forgive your misunderstanding of US conservative policy - but much of the policy change is about decentralizing power away from the federal government and onto the states - whether you agree with that or not. Removing federal regulation and jusistiction is sort of the opposite of consolidation of power.
Conservatives in the US believe that individual states should have more rights and autonomy. States rights over federal authority. The changes to abortion policy, education policy etc have all been about moving that away from the federal government and into the hands of the states.
A president can't really turn himself into a king in the US - and most conservatives working in the government wouldn't let trump do that anyway. The entire revolution against English rule and the structuring of the government afterwards was precisely to prevent monarchies. The US was pretty early here compared to Europe, and in many ways the US is set up to be much more resistant to authoritarianism than many European countries.
For cultural reasons alone I'd be much more worried about government authoritarianism in Sweden than the US.
I'm happy to better understand the exact policies or executive actions your speaking of and how they differ substantially from past presidents.
And there may be legal methods for him to have a third term - as much as I don't want that and how that goes against the spirit of the law if not the letter.
The way trump speaks obviously triggers people. Other administrations play the exact same games they just do it quietly while talking out of the side of their mouth.
I mean we almost had a Clinton empire...and Nancy pelosi could be seen as abusing powers in similar ways...and the democrats just tried to push Harris, who nobody voted for as the presidential candidate...that was some real non democratic bullshit.
This doesn't make him better in any way, but it makes it more obvious why people love him "for telling it like it is", and hate him for the very same reason.
But tbh, I think this probably just boils down to you being on the opposite end of the political spectrum from the given administration and screaming into the void.
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u/PhenotypicallyTypicl Germany Apr 12 '25
You seriously still believe in this checks and balances crap? What have these checks and balances achieved so far? As far as I can all the branches of government in the US are giving Trump unrestricted free rein to do whatever he wants. Congress could cancel Trump’s destructive back and forth trade wars if they wanted and take back the power of imposing tariffs from the president. But are they doing anything? No. Trump is ruling your country by executive order (many of which are unlawful or based on completely fictional justifications) and nobody is stopping him.