Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a dictator as “one ruling in an absolute and often oppressive way.” Common characteristics of dictators are their desire for utmost power, their fanatical supporters and their anti-media and anti-speech opinions.
President Trump finally announced that since he will not get budget funding for his border wall through the legislative branch, he will instead declare a national emergency and use emergent funds to build his wall. This essentially means that Trump is bypassing the legislative branch since he cannot get his way, despite holding a majority in Congress and will instead, pull from an emergency budget meant to be used for natural disasters, wartime, and other emergencies.
But how is he able to do this? The 1976 law called the National Emergencies Act allows the president to access special powers during times of emergency for quick responses. For example, during a major hurricane, the president may declare a national hurricane to be able to quickly respond to the needs of the emergency. After the Sept. 11 attacks, George W. Bush declared a national state of emergency. At least, that is how it is supposed to be used. In this case, Trump is saying that there is an emergency at the border to justify what he is doing, but there is obviously not.
Has Trump ever heard of checks and balances? The legislative branch, executive branch, and judicial branch are all supposed to keep each other in check. Apparently, Donald Trump is not a fan of this and instead, decided to just make the executive branch the most powerful.
However, despite Trump’s power play here, it does not mean no one is speaking against it. According to an NPR poll, over six in 10 Americans disapprove of trump’s move, with 94 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of independents and 12 percent of Republicans disapproving. But, Trump knows this. This is not a move that will gain Trump new followers; this is purely a move to make the Trump fanatics like him even more. As the Marist College poll director, Lee Miringoff said, “This is not a break-his-base issue, this is a reinforce-his-base issue, but this is not an expand-beyond-his-base issue.”
However, the “emergency at the border” is not Trump’s first sign of dictatorship. There is also the fact that he is notably very anti-press and has shown some tinges of being anti-free-speech. Trump has stated numerous times that the media and press are literally enemies of the people, with Trump even refusing to lower flags to half-mast at the White House after the Capital Gazette shooting in June 2018. A popular Trump supporter, Milo Yiannopoulos even wrote just a few days before that shooting that he “can’t wait for vigilante squads to start gunning down journalists.”
As for Trump’s attacks on free speech, he has famously said that he wants to change libel laws to make it easier for people to sue newspapers that report “fake news” on them. Over the years, Trump has filed numerous libel lawsuits against numerous newspapers and media organizations and has never won one. Obviously, this is why he wants libel laws changed to his favor. Recently, Trump has even said he wants to have a law enforcement investigation into Saturday Night Live, just because they make fun of him sometimes. He has said Saturday Night Live is “the real collusion.”
With all this though, there is always the possibility that Trump is playing the press. Whenever the Mueller investigation hits a new high or critical junction, it seems like Trump does something very ridiculous to get the news cycle to focus onto that instead. Right when one of Trump’s associates gets arrested or charged, it seems like he always does something controversial, like announce he is banning transgender soldiers from the military or declaring a national emergency for the wall. It’s almost like he is using outrage to cover the public’s eyes to what is really going on, almost like a dictator.
With all this said, it is obvious that there is no national emergency at the border. The majority of drugs coming into the nation come from ports of entry, such as airports and shipyards. The majority of drugs consumed in America aren’t even coming from other countries but are rather prescription opiates being produced by corrupt pharmaceutical companies. With this, it is easy to say that the true national emergency is Donald Trump himself.
