Before Russian journalist and filmmaker Mikhail Zygar went into exile after his country invaded Ukraine, he interviewed hundreds of Vladimir Putin's associates, members of his inner circle, once-loyal oligarchs and opportunistic sellouts. Post-criminal conviction in absentia he writes, "I asked all of them the same question: When was the turning point? What made his transformation into a dictator irreversible?"
The answers he heard were varied in opinion, so he opted for a different route — "collecting dozens of different critical moments." If plotted on a graph they'd show "one continuous series of turning points," some of major significance, some less so, but all of them shifts in the norm. Once connected these turning points reveal an "extraordinary collapse" by stealth of the democratic Russian Federation.
Now with home-country interviews in hand and an eye on Trump, Zygar — author of All the Kremlin's Men, a Princeton visiting professor and Der Spiegel and NYT columnist — proffers an Authoritarian Playbook, a 10-step Putinesque guide to converting American democracy into a dictatorship. (Trump has tweaked some steps, and one turning point-cum-extraordinary collapse is inapplicable to our very own autocrat for a reason soon evident.) And now I, with Playbook in hand and an eye on America's dictatorship extant — a collapse more extraordinarily swift than Russia's — proffer Zygar's enumeration in austerely reduced form, along with commentary.
1. Breaking the News (Literally)
"The first thing Putin did when he became president was take control of the media.... From a formal standpoint, this was [no act of state violence]. Putin didn’t pass any explicitly repressive dictatorial laws. Each time, it looked like just another capitalist transaction. Media outlets changed owners—and immediately changed their editorial policies."
As did Stalin, Hitler and Moa, Trump excoriates the press as "an enemy of the American people" — no act of state required. His cavalier falsity-by-First Amendment is but a borrow from Hitler's brain, Joesph Goebbels, who denounced Germany's Lügenpresse (lying press), though he didn't need to for long. Trump's excoriations are aimed, of course, at only critical media. "MSDNC," he wrote on 22 Jan. with typically juvenile mislettering, "is even worse than CNN. They shouldn’t have a right to broadcast." They likely won't.
And in what looked like "just another capitalist transaction," per Zygar, Comcast dumped MSNBC. And unlike the Russian dictator's foregoing of state violence to suppress the media, Trump may adopt it. "You take the writer and/or the publisher of the paper … and you say, 'Who is the leaker? National security.' And they say, 'We’re not gonna tell you.' They say, 'That’s okay, you’re going to jail.' And when this person realizes that he is going to be the bride of another prisoner very shortly, he will say, 'I’d very much like to tell you exactly who that leaker is!" — 22 Oct. 2022, at a Texas rally.
2. Leadership by Ghosting
"From the very beginning, Putin ignored any accusations—whether from journalists, politicians, or even foreign leaders. He acted as though criticism simply didn’t exist."
Here, Trump not only tweaks Putin's example, he stomps the shit out of it. Because his skin is thinner than tissue-thin, he's compelled to react to criticism by even Hollywood types with furious words fittingly characteristic of a lunatic.
I should note that in Zygar's list there's not one reference to Trump. He compiled the list because of "hearing more and more about how the Trump administration’s decisions are bringing the U.S. closer to authoritarianism." Although Zygar takes no manifest position on the question(?) of Trump's authoritarianism, his use of bringing and closer subtly declare his stance. Mine — that American authoritarianism is here — opposes his.
3. Loyalty Over Competence
"For Putin, loyalty is the most important thing. It is the sole criterion—not personal qualities, not professional skills, not talent."
Trump: self-evident, no comment.
4. How to Train Your Oligarch
"The most crucial step in building a loyal political system for Putin was redefining his relationship with the oligarchs. [Some] went into exile. [Others] soon followed. It was necessary to arrest [particularly recalcitrant oligarchs and hold them] in a prison cell for a few days. That was enough of a message for [them] to get the point."
Not yet has Trump intimidated ungovernable oligarchs into exile or ordered their imprisonment. But given his instantaneous dictatorship, it follows that high-speed anti-constitutional "law enforcement" arrests are simmering in the West Wings.
5. History on Repeat
"A symbolic act at the beginning of Putin’s rule was the change in state symbols.... It wasn’t about renaming geographical locations... Within his first year in office, Putin changed the national anthem, replacing the Yeltsin’s democratic anthem with the old Soviet anthem from the Stalin era."
Trump has outmatched Putin on the first score — the Gulf of Mexico's renaming, Gulf of America. The second I'll put in Trumpese: Many people say that the despot will change the "The Star-Spangled Banner" to a "'Justice for All' mashup,"which debuted at a Waco, Texas rally, March 2023. The song was the current national anthem "with a twist." It opens with an "ominous-sounding synthesizer chord," then the anthem’s first words, then "the voices stop [and] the synthesizer returns," then the Pledge of Allegiance, then "the singing returns," all of it "accompanied by a video" of Washington, D.C. scenes, the American flag and Trump’s presidency, mixed with "pictures of men in orange prison jumpsuits," then "switched to pictures of rioters fighting with police at the Capitol on Jan. 6.," then "to more scenes from Trump" in the White House, ending with chants of "USA! USA! USA!" Well, once.
6. Toasting Democracy
"For at least the first ten years of his rule, Putin was far from being a global pariah. On the contrary, international recognition and the display of foreign policy successes were a key part of his early presidency.... Demonstrating global respectability was a crucial part of legitimizing everything Putin was doing at home."
Again no tweaking of Putin by Trump, instead another shit-stomp on Putinism. Never let it said that Trump gives one damn about global respectability. His hostility toward America's friends and neighbors is an inextinguishable blight on what's still laughably called "the presidency." And what he and his witless lapdogs call "foreign policy successes" to-date are nothing more than a frightful national embarrassment.
7. Consistency Is for Amateurs
"One of Putin’s greatest victories was the moral destruction of the former opposition. The very people who had recently criticized him, fought against his methods, and pursued their own political ambitions suddenly decided that, in order to preserve and expand their political capital, they needed to surrender and join his camp.... What was truly astonishing was that none of the politicians who completely reversed their political stances felt any shame."
Need I add anything? No. Yet I cannot resist articulating my former astonishment at "the very people who [one] criticized him," only to suddenly decide that their need for surrender was paramount — a spineless supremacy that throttled any preexisting scraps of ethics and human decency harbored in their pathetic minds.
8. Never Waste a Good Crisis
"A rather radical step in Putin’s transition to a new political system was the abolition of regional elections. In the early years of his rule, such a move seemed entirely unthinkable in Russia. However, when the time came, he found an unexpected pretext" — a terrorist attack on a North Caucasus school — "to make it happen."
Hark! Do you hear them? — the same many people saying that Trump will stumble on or create his own Reichstag fire crisis. If by stumble, another matter of sheer luck so inexplicably common to Trump; if by creation, a crisis flagged black — and I'm no conspiracy theorist. With this soulless dictator, however, there is no hideous inhuman act that might even possibly lie outside the bounds of his psychotic, sociopathic frontal lobe. From either origin, an ideal justification for the abolition of midterm elections.
9. Invent an Enemy
"Another key objective was demonstrating foreign policy dominance and subjugating previously defiant neighbors. For Putin, these neighbors were first Ukraine and later Belarus.... At some point ... this strategy shifted as neighboring countries began resisting and asserting their independence.... [So on to] the classic playbook of propaganda. Russian state media began fueling nationalist hysteria, whipping up the public into a frenzy. Society was gradually united against an imaginary foe, rallying around the national leader."
Trump's Ukraine and Belarus are, as the world knows, Canada and Mexico. More — many more — are on their way. And Trump, having memorized the classic books (plural) of propaganda — chief among them, the tender speeches of Adolf Hitler — will simply keep doing what he's always done: hysterically hauling out imaginary foes, against whom only he, being the unequaled manly man that he and the suckered rubes imagine he is, can vanquish.
10. Amend Until It Bends
"And finally—the Constitution. From the very beginning, Putin repeatedly assured the public that he would never change the Constitution.... But as time passed [and] he finally got his hands on the Constitution to rewrite it, he went all in. Amendments were added, focusing on so-called traditional values, family protection, and opposition to liberal norms.... The true objective was ensuring his grip on power. The most crucial change was the removal of presidential term limits, allowing Putin to remain in office indefinitely."
Intensely dubious is that Trump will bother with molesting the U.S. Constitution as is, since amending it would be a time-consuming, troublesome and ultimately unsuccessful endeavor. In place of legitimate means to satisfy such meaningless objectives as defending traditional values — e.g., serial divorce, adultery and sexual assault — as well as institutionalizing the eternal grieving of liberal norms, Trump will take the straightest path to his true objective of ensuring his grip on power: He'll just ignore the founding document. Included will be an unconstitutional and fixed election to a third dictatorial term, assuming his mass psychoses haven't yet plunged a lethal stab to his brain.
Along the horrifying way, Trump will, say the odds and history, turn to brownshirted violence: "Maybe he should have been roughed up, because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing" — 22 Nov. 2015, responding to a Fox News host's question about a day-before heckler at one of Trump's Nuremberg rallies. "I’d like to punch him in the face" — 22 Feb. 2016, addressing a disruptive Las Vegas rally attendee. "If I don’t get elected … it’s going to be a bloodbath for the country" — 16 Mar. 2024, using the metaphor of economic harm to U.S. auto manufacturing.
"This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH" — 22 Sept. 2023, speaking about Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, who had called his Chinese counterpart to soften the news of U.S. chaos following Trump's insurrectionist attempt to overturn a valid election. "Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?" — June 2020, subsequent to George Floyd's murder and in relation to protesters outside the White House. "IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!" — 4 Aug. 2023, threatening U.S. prosecutors who might investigate his witness intimidation in the federal election-subversion case pending against him.
"I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump—I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad" — 12 Mar. 2019, Breitbart News interview. "We pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections … Our threat is from within" — 11 Nov. 2023, a Veterans Day speech. "I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. [They] should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military" — 13 Oct. 2024, Fox News interview.
There are more, plenty more unmistakable proofs of Trump's willingness to unleash neo-Nazi thugs, degenerate bikers, the police, the corrupted Justice Department, the military against any group or faction that crosses him. And by plenty I mean "Trump has made more than 100 threats to prosecute or punish perceived enemies" — 22 Oct. 2024, NPR headline.
The dictatorial malignity of Trump's is endless, yet this post must end somewhere. Which is: here.
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