Hundreds of military generals and admirals flew in from around the world on Sept. 30 to listen to President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth talk about issues affecting the United States.
As he delivered a campaign-style monologue to the top brass, Trump spoke about the deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., claiming that it went from the most unsafe city to the safest.
This is misleading, because while the FBI Crime Data Explorer Census Bureau reported that D.C.’s homicide rates in 2024 were nearly twice as high as their lowest rate in 2012, it also shows a downward trend in homicides in the past two years. D.C. also reported lower rates on the FBI crime data report than other cities of similar size, like Memphis, Tennessee, or Kansas City, Missouri.
Trump also said he was going to straighten out other prominent Democrat-led cities like San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, telling the room to be wary of the “war within.”
“Controlling the physical territory of our border is essential to national security,” said Trump.
He additionally said that the instances in which military troops were deployed domestically could benefit both the cities and the troops themselves. “we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military [and] National Guard… because we’re going into Chicago very soon.”
Trump is blatantly misusing military power to exert control on areas governed by Democrats, and it asserts the terrifying reality that the U.S. is heading toward operating under an authoritarian government.
Republican strongholds Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas consistently report the highest violent crime and homicide rates, according to the U.S. News & World Report. Yet, the National Guard has not been deployed in these states by Trump to protect their residents.
Authoritarianism is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “the enforcement or advocacy of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom.” It is characterized by suppression of opposition, disregard for the public, weakened checks and balances and limited civil liberties, all of which can be found in the current American political landscape.
Trump’s exploitation of the military is an evident suppression of his opposition.
Recently, Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson refused to swear in Adelita Grijalva, the Democrat Representative-elect for Arizona who vowed to be the final signature needed to force a vote on a House bill to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein. The House generally follows a precedent of swearing in representatives who win special elections within 24 hours, and Johnson’s delay of the swearing-in until the regular session is not only a suppression of the opposition but also a complete disregard to the Arizona voters who elected Grijalva.
Checks and balances have also been weakened by the current administration. Following the wrongful deportation of Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that the Trump administration must facilitate his return to the U.S. The Department of Justice initially rejected the ruling and denied having jurisdiction to carry out the order, with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem saying in a Senate session that “There is no scenario where Abrego Garcia will be in the United States again.” Garcia was eventually brought back in June, however, after he was federally charged with human smuggling.
Essentially, the Trump administration refused the Supreme Court’s order to facilitate Garcia’s return, delaying action for several months until they could charge him with a federal crime and place him in custody. Garcia is still in custody, and his lawyers announced in a press conference following his return that Trump officials have threatened to deport him to a foreign country again. This begs the question: How can democracy exist under a government that doesn’t comply with its own laws?
Finally, the most impactful characteristic of authoritarianism is a restriction on civil freedoms.
As the Trump administration carried out mass deportations on pro-Palestinian protesters and withheld funding to several universities for allowing the protests on campus, U.S. District Court Judge William Young ruled in a decision made on Sept. 30 that Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio unconstitutionally violated the free speech and assembly rights of the protesters.
Recently, ABC suspended late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel over remarks he made about right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk after Brendan Carr, broadcast regulator chair at the Federal Communications Commission, said on conservative podcast “The Benny Show” that Kimmel was “appearing to directly mislead the American public. “Carr threatened to take action against ABC and Disney, its parent company, if they didn’t change conduct. While the First Amendment does not protect individuals from facing consequences for what they say, the Trump administration is still restricting free speech by making people afraid of voicing their opinions so they are not targeted by the government.
The Trump administration’s suppression of the opposition, disregard for the country’s checks and balances, censorship of opinions and violations of the rights of free speech and assembly are paving a twisted path for an authoritarian government structure that could eventually become a dictatorship. While the future may look bleak, not all hope is lost.
To combat the country’s fall into authoritarianism, we have to sternly maintain the enforcement of traditional American values. Voting rights need to be defended, which means people should participate and offer their vote in every election, no matter how local they may be. While the democratic values that once upheld the country may be fading, power still remains in the hands of the people. By attending city council, school board and town hall meetings, organizing neighborhood associations or civic engagement groups, expressing disapproval by attending protests and regularly reaching out to elected officials with hard questions to create a cloud of accountability, we can invoke a shift in norms and policies, which always begins at a local level. Staying informed is also critical. Read beyond sensational headlines, fact-check any new information, support independent journalism and back watchdog organizations exposing government corruption. The current state of American politics may appear to be more polarized than ever, but ideological disagreements need to be set aside to maintain the very rights and platforms to debate those disagreements. When democracy is threatened, it becomes the responsibility of every American to ensure its existence, and we need to resist being manipulated by division and utilize any available means to defend against a common enemy.
-Editorial Board
