Following are excerpts from a piece that Garrett Graff published earlier today on Doomsday Scenario, his “regular column on national security, geopolitics, history, and – unfortunately – the fight for democracy in the Trump era.”
The United States, just months before its 250th birthday as the world’s leading democracy, has tipped over the edge into authoritarianism and fascism. In the end, faster than I imagined possible, it did happen here. The precise moment when and where in recent weeks America crossed that invisible line from democracy into authoritarianism can and will be debated by future historians, but it’s clear that the line itself has been crossed.
I think many Americans wrongly believe there would be one clear unambiguous moment where we go from “democracy” to “authoritarianism.” Instead, this is exactly how it happens – a blurring here, a norm destroyed there, a presidential diktat unchallenged. Then you wake up one morning and our country is different.
Today, August 25, 2025, is that morning. Something is materially different in our country this week than last.
Everything else from here on out is just a matter of degree and wondering how bad it will get and how far it will go? Do we end up “merely” like Hungary or do we go all the way toward an “American Reich”? So far, after years of studying World War II, I fear that America’s trajectory feels more like Berlin circa 1933 than it does Budapest circa 2015.
I debated in recent days whether this column should be written by our fearless foreign correspondent William Boot, who started satirically chronicling the backsliding of American democracy in January and the willful destruction of the federal government, but it seems more important to write plainly.
Saying that our country has tipped over an invisible edge into an authoritarian state plainly is important — and easier than most in the media and pundit class will pretend it is. They will presumably for some period of time – perhaps even a long period of time – stick to euphemisms (with lines like “No president has asserted such direct and sweeping control over the nation’s capital” and “Through immigration crackdowns and cultural purges, President Trump is wielding government power to enforce a more rigid, exclusionary definition of what it means to be American.”) and continue to give voice to “both siders,” but the reality is that only one political party is responsible for this moment. They will say that Trump’s motives are inscrutable or unclear – but the effect of Trump’s governing style is undeniable.
American fascism looks like the president using armed military units from governors loyal to his regime to seize cities run by opposition political figures and it looks like the president using federal law enforcement to target regime opponents.
American fascism looks like the would-be self-proclaimed king deploying the military on US soil not only not in response to requests by local or state officials but over – and almost specifically to spite – their vociferous objections.
The president’s military occupation of the capital has escalated in recent days into something not seen since British troops marched the streets of colonial Boston — even though precisely nothing has happened to warrant it, the Pentagon has now armed the National Guard patrolling DC and armored vehicles, designed for the worst of combat, are patrolling the capital, where they’re colliding with civilian vehicles because war transports are not supposed to be on civilian streets. (Why a 14-ton MRAP is in any way necessary for a domestic police mission is its own worthy line of questioning!)
Word came over the weekend that the president is now drawing up plans and explicitly threatening domestic political opponents like the governors of California and Illinois with similar military occupations – exercising emergency powers in a moment where the only emergency is his own abuse of power.
Civilians who try lawfully to exercise their right to document the abuses of the regime are themselves arrested and charged with felonies through trumped-up charges teeming with official lies. The fact that this military takeover and federal occupation is being done to the city’s residents – and not on their behalf – is evident in how deserted DC has become as residents refuse to enter public spaces where they might have to interact with agents of the state.
America has become a country where armed officers of the state shout “Papers please!” on the street at men and women heading home from work, a vision we associate with the Gestapo in Nazi Germany or the KGB in Soviet Russia, and where masked men wrestle to the ground and abduct people without due process into unmarked vehicles, disappearing them into an opaque system where their family members beg for information.
[. . .] One could say that Trump has blown through the nation’s constitutional and political guardrails, but a more accurate assessment is that both Congress and the Supreme Court — who have, as I wrote earlier this spring, effectively rolled over and played dead when it comes to their constitutional duty to exert checks and balances – removed those guardrails helpfully in advance. [. . .] The response, meanwhile, by Democrats has been unconscionably weak. [. . .] National Democrats seem all invisible as the military takes over policing the streets of the capital and prosecuting its crimes. This should be a lay-up to oppose – the most basic duty of any congressional figure, and yet, “House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, along with other senior Democrats, have not been a part of any concerted effort to voice opposition to the occupation.”
[. . .] For years in covering the rise (and return) of Trump and Trumpism, I imagined there was some line that the GOP would not be willing to compromise for greed and power – some incident that would bring party leaders to their senses, some principle or red-line would be unwilling to trade or cross in pursuit of furthering Trump’s agenda. Even after January 6th, I held hope that might be the end. But then Eric Cantor’s buddy Kevin McCarthy showed up at Mar-a-Lago and the rehabilitation tour began.
It has led here, to this moment, where all three branches of the GOP-controlled government have been willing to torch the republic and democracy that generations of elected officials and citizens have tended for 249 years simply to please Donald Trump and avoid running afoul of his temper.
Where America goes from here is a story yet to be written. It will surely get worse – Trump’s push now is clearly focused on locking in an illegitimate claim to power. Whether we can come back from this moment is a story yet unknown. But it’s clear today America is different and, even if we fight our way back, it will never be the same again.
Related Off-site Links:
DC Residents’ Anger at Fed Presence Grows as Poll Shows “Overwhelming” Opposition to Trump Takeover – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, August 20, 2025).
Hello, Fascism – Christopher Impiglia (Common Dreams, August 13, 2025).
Trump White House Says Military Occupation of Nation’s Capital Set to Expand – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, August 13, 2025).
The Militarization of America – Marianne Williamson (Transform, August 13, 2025).
Trump’s Military Occupation of D.C. Egged On by Corporate Lobbyists: Report – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, August 13, 2025).
Trump’s D.C. Takeover Is an Ominous Move – Chauncey DeVega (Salon, August 12, 2025).
Trump Isn’t Liberating D.C. He’s Subduing It – William Kristol, Andrew Egger, and Jim Swift (The Bulwark, August 12, 2025).
Black D.C. Is Center Stage in the Opening Act of Trump’s Authoritarian Rehearsal – Stacey Patton (Newsone, August 12, 2025).
Federalizing Fear: Trump Turns D.C. Into a Stage for Authoritarian Power – James Greenberg (James’s Substack, August 12, 2025).
“This Isn’t Normal!” Secret Pentagon Plan for Troops to Put Down Local “Unrest” Nationwide – Jon Queally (Common Dreams, August 12, 2025).
Trump’s Takeover: ACLU on Federalizing D.C. Police and Deploying 800 National Guard – Democracy Now! (August 12, 2025).
Trump Is Testing Martial Law in D.C. – TrumpFile.org (August 11, 2025).
The Rule of Law Is Dead in the U.S. – Elie Mystal (The Nation, July 30, 2025).
The Fascists Are Trying to Break You, Good People. Don’t Let Them – John Pavlovitz (The Beautiful Mess, July 17, 2025).
UPDATES: The U.S. Is Becoming What It Once Fought Against – The Australian Independent Media Network (August 26, 2025)
“No Trump! No Troops!” Thousands March in Chicago as President Threatens “War” – Jon Queally (Common Dreams, September 8, 2025).
See also the following chronologically-ordered Wild Reed posts:
• Inauguration Day Thoughts
• Marisa Kabas: “We’re Witnessing a Coup By an Unelected Billionaire Propped Up By a Felonious President”
• Timothy Snyder on Resisting the Oligarchs’ “Logic of Destruction”
• “This Is Essentially Viktor Orbán’s Playbook”
• “An Extremely Clever Ruse” by and for the Rich: Owen Jones on Elon Musk’s Coup
• “To Be a Rib in This Body of Our Country”
• Quote of the Day – February 21, 2025
• Ralph Nader: “We’re Heading Into the Most Serious Crisis in American History. There’s No Comparison”
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• “This Is How Democracy Unravels”
• Jason Stanley on How Fascism Works
• James Greenberg on Trumpism: “The Tactics Are Unmistakable”
• Tony Pentimalli on Trump’s “Death Warrant for Democracy”
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like”
• Peter Bloom: Quote of the Day – June 10, 2025
• “Protesting Is What Patriotism Looks Like in Public”: The “No Kings” Protests of June 14, 2025
• “No Kings”? Absolutely. But Also “No Oligarchy”
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – June 20, 2025
• Rep. Ro Khanna: Quote of the Day – June 24, 2025
• “This Is Fascism”
• The Declaration of Resistance
• The Choice Before Us
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2025
• How Democrats Can Start Winning Again
• Brent Molnar on the MAGA Cult and Its Intentions
• James Greenberg: “The Choices We Make Matter”
• Brent Molnar on the “Cold War in Our Own House”
• “He Is Enacting an Authoritarian Agenda”: Khalil Gibran Muhammad on Donald Trump’s Militarization of Law Enforcement
See also:
• Trump’s Playbook (2016)
• Progressive Perspectives on the Rise of Donald Trump
• Progressive Perspectives on the Election of Donald Trump
• On International Human Rights Day, Saying “No” to Trump and His Fascist Agenda
• Trump’s America: Normalized White Supremacy and a Rising Tide of Racist Violence (2017)
• “We Have an Emergency On Our Hands”: Marianne Williamson On the “Freefall” of American Democracy (2020)
• “Fascism Is Upon Us”
• Trump’s Legacy
• Progressive Perspectives on the 2020 U.S. Election Results
• “As Much the Sounding of An Alarm As a Time for Self-Congratulations”
• Republicans Don’t Care About American Democracy
• Republicans Pose an “Existential Threat” to American Democracy (2021)
• Chauncey Devega on the Ongoing Danger of the Trump Cult (2022)
• A Deeper Perspective on What’s Really Attacking American Democracy
• “How Can One Overreact to a Mortal Threat to American Democracy?”
• Historian Nancy MacLean: The Threat to American Democracy Is at “Red-Alert Stage”
• “Come for the Racism, Stay for the Autocracy”
• Progressive Perspectives on Where Democrats Went Wrong in the 2024 Presidential Election
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