During an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity in late 2023, Donald Trump promised to be a "dictator" on "Day 1" of his second presidency if he won the election. 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and other Trump critics repeatedly warned that such rhetoric should not be taken lightly.
Harris, during a CNN townhall event in October, was asked if she considered Trump a "fascist" — and she responded, "Yes, I do." Regardless, Trump narrowly defeated Harris in November, and his second term as president begins on Monday, January 20.
In an article published by The Guardian on January 19, journalists from countries that have suffered authoritarianism analyze the political environment in the United States as Joe Biden's presidency ends and Trump gets ready to return to the White House.
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Hungary's András Pethő, who has lived under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's attack on democracy, told The Guardian, "All these institutions, whether we are talking about governments or agencies or the press, are very, very fragile. It's very easy to dismantle them. The American news media scene is still much more vibrant and robust than Hungary's, so I think it would be harder for Trump or whoever to take it over. In Hungary, a pro-government investor bought up all the local newspapers — there were only about 19 of them."
Pethő added, "That won't happen in the U.S., but of course, a media crackdown or the spread of propaganda can happen in different ways."
El Salvador's Carlos Dada warned, "If you can draw any conclusions about Mr. Trump from his first term, it is obvious that he has very little respect for institutions…. The traditional, post-Cold-War U.S. agenda, which had a strong emphasis on democracy and human rights, is gone."
Spain's Fernando Peinado, a reporter for El País and author of the Spanish-language book "Trumpistas: ¿Quién Llevó a Trump al Poder?" ("Trumpsters: Who Carried Trump to Power?"), draws a parallel between the MAGA movement and Spain's far-right Vox party.
Peinado told The Guardian, "For decades, there seemed to be a consensus that Francoism was a dark period for Spain. But now, you have the (Conservative Partido Popular) unwilling to commemorate his death, and Vox is making an outspoken defense of his legacy. Their statements in support of Franco haven't damaged their approval rating, and that connects with all the weird things happening in the U.S. — Trump doing unprecedented things that would have been taboo in a previous era."
The Philippines' Glenda Gloria told The Guardian, "Has our world gone mad? It has. We look at America now and joke: should we do workshops for our (journalism) colleagues? It’s utterly sad. We're paying close attention to how disinformation, and the networks that sustain it, will continue to prop up the Trump Administration and Trumpism. That's the belly of the beast.
READ MORE: Trump’s second term could face the 'same disastrous end' as Grover Cleveland’s: presidential historianRead The Guardian's full article at this link.