Trump commits a coup d'état – Dirk Verhofstadt
The United States is one of the oldest democracies in the world. Its constitution, which came into force in 1789, is still in use today. However, amendments have been added over the centuries, such as the abolition of slavery (1865), the granting of civil rights to those born in the US (1868), voting rights for black people (1870), voting rights for women (1920), and the limitation of a president to a maximum of two terms (1951). But the foundation of the Constitution, the first ten amendments (the Bill of Rights), remained untouched. These include freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, the right to keep and bear arms, protection against unreasonable searches, the right to a fair trial, protection against cruel punishment, and powers not granted to the federal government but reserved for the individual states.
These democratic foundations remained intact until Trump came to power. He first became a direct threat to democracy when he rejected Joe Biden's 2020 victory, labeling it fraudulent. He attempted to "adjust" the election results through his supporters and find "additional votes" for himself. Finally, he called on his radical supporters to come to the Capitol to "fight for their votes." He sent another tweet calling Vice President, Mike Pence, a coward for refusing to block the approval of the ballot count. Trump supporters called for Pence to be lynched. As the storming got completely out of hand, he refused to intervene for more than three hours and call on his supporters to stop their actions. Democracy narrowly prevailed.
Trump is even more dangerous in his second term. Starting on January 20, 2025, he began firing tens of thousands of federal employees; arresting and deporting immigrants as criminals; ending programs related to diversity, equality, and inclusion; pardon the stormers of the Capitol; enrich himself, his family members, and donors; make it more difficult for vulnerable groups to vote; punish unwilling journalists and media outlets; invoke national security as a reason to justify far-reaching decisions; introducing radical import tariffs; withdrawing from the WHO and the Paris Climate Agreement; threatening Greenland, Canada, and Panama as sovereign states; ending support for Ukraine, his concessions to Putin; gradually expanding his presidential power; disregarding rulings by the judiciary.
In doing so, Trump is violating several constitutional rules: Amendment 1 on freedom of speech, by attacking journalists, newspapers, and TV stations and intimidating critical voices; Amendment 4 on the right of citizens to be secure in their persons and homes and against unreasonable searches, by brutally raiding homes and arresting and deporting people without a court order; Amendment 6, which provides for a fair trial and legal assistance, which many deportees did not receive; Amendment 8, which prohibits cruel treatment of criminal suspects, while immigrants arrested in detention centers are treated inhumanely; Amendment 10 on the powers that belong to the individual states, such as calling on the National Guard for assistance, which Trump completely ignores; Amendment 14, which grants citizenship to anyone born on American soil, but now seems to no longer matter. At the same time, Trump is placing government loyalists in key positions. It is a strategy that is pushing the US towards becoming an authoritarian state. nment loyalists to important positions. It is a strategy that pushes the US toward an authoritarian state.
Trump is increasingly stretching the concept of ‘state of emergency’ and thus gaining more power. He is deploying the army in Democratic cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Memphis, etc. He also wants to establish a ‘Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force’ so that he can quickly deploy the National Guard to suppress civil protests. This deployment of the army against civilians poses a threat to fundamental rights and freedoms. “He declares completely false states of emergency to expand his power, undermine the constitution, and destroy civil liberties," according to legal Ilya Somin, Professor of Law at George Mason University. And then came the murder of the far-right influencer Charlie Kirk. That event, like the Reichstag fire in 1933, provided Trump with the momentum to attack his political opponents.
The normal system of checks and balances no longer functions in the US. Trump has virtually sidelined Congress, as the legislative branch, by ruling with presidential decrees whose content he himself determines. Republicans who criticize him are attacked by him and have to fear for their re-election. The judiciary is also finding it increasingly difficult. At the local or state level, Trump still faces opposition, but he has the big law firms behind him and is appealing controversial decisions to the Supreme Court. There are six loyalists there who have already helped him several times with their rulings. The media are also finding it increasingly difficult to do their job as the fourth estate. Trump regularly turns his back on journalists for being too critical, or he refuses to allow them into the press room or Air Force One. And if certain media outlets are too difficult, he threatens them with billion-dollar lawsuits. Finally, his Attorney General publicly ordered the prosecution of his political enemies, such as politicians, prosecutors, lawyers, and others who opposed him in the past or investigated him for criminal offenses.
Trump is staging a coup. Consider the following statements by Trump: "I will declare a state of emergency at our southern border. And we will begin sending back millions and millions of criminal aliens (January 20, 2025); "He who serves the country cannot break the law" (February 15, 2025); "The media is so bad" (February 19, 2025); "I run the country and the world" (April 28, 2025); "We cannot allow a handful of communist, radical-left judges to obstruct the enforcement of our laws" (April 29, 2025); "[I have] the right to do what I want" (August 26, 2025). In addition, he has a particularly strong trump card: a majority of loyalists on the Supreme Court. This demonstrates the extent to which the US is in the hands of an unscrupulous, self-righteous, arrogant, and dangerous politician who, supported by wealthy oligarchs, is steering his country toward autocracy.
Dirk Verhofstadt
The author is a former professor at Ghent University and writer of “Diary 1933: The Danger of the Far Right.” A fully updated version will be published in November.
