Here’s what 'narcissist' Trump has in common with this South American 'despot': columnist

29 August 2024

Former President Donald Trump has a long history of expressing his admiration for far-right authoritarian figures, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Russian President Vladimir Putin. And many of Trump's critics have been warning that between Project 2025's draconian proposals and the U.S. Supreme Court's controversial 6-3 immunity ruling in Trump v. United States, he would do everything he could to undermine the United States' system of checks and balances should he defeat Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in November.

Many of the authoritarians Trump has applauded are on the far right but in a column published on August 29, the Miami Herald's Tim Padgett draws a parallel between the former U.S. president and socialist Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Venezuela isn't a full-fledged one-party communist state like Cuba or North Korea. But Maduro's critics argue that his regime has done everything it can to erode the country's democratic checks and balances — first under his predecessor, the late President Hugo Chávez, then under Maduro after Chávez's death from cancer.

Padgett also sees a parallel between the U.S. Supreme Court and the Venezuelan Supreme Court.

"Two legal events on opposite sides of the Caribbean have made it clear to me why former President Donald Trump's been calling Caracas a 'very safe' city," Padgett explains. "It's not because Venezuela's capital is, as he says, crime-free — it's frighteningly crime-ridden. It's because he knows it's a place he could potentially take refuge in."

Padgett continues, "Consider that this week, U.S. special prosecutor Jack Smith submitted his revised indictment of Trump for his alleged conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election he lost — including inciting the violent mob that attacked the U.S. Congress on January 6, 2021. Then recall that last week, the Venezuelan Supreme Court approved socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro's brazen and brutal theft of a July 28 presidential election that all evidence shows he lost by a landslide. Should Trump face prosecution here, he knows he can seek safe haven there."

The Herald writer argues that "if U.S. presidents can get away with trying to steal elections," authoritarians in other countries will ask, "Why should we feel guilty about actually stealing them?"

"Trump's narcissist eye undoubtedly sees the U.S. Supreme Court's presidential immunity decision as the same sort of back-room, transactional favor Venezuela's lapdog supreme court did for Maduro," Padgett warns. "And if Trump wins a new term in November, he'll no doubt take the SCOTUS opinion as a nod to executive carte blanche. But what's even more disturbing is how chévere, or cool, a despot like Maduro would regard the U.S. Supreme Court's outlook."

Padgett adds, "Should Smith's recalibrated indictment get dismissed because of the extra layer of Teflon Trump now wears on top of his tanning product, it's hard not to imagine hoodlum heads of state from Nicaragua to North Korea grinning like wife beaters watching the O.J. Simpson verdict."

Tim Padgett's full Miami Herald column is available at this link (subscription required).

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