Constitutional scholars use the “autocratic signaling” when leaders test public tolerance by “just wondering” if dictatorship might be preferable. Trump did exactly that today when he complained about Illinois Governor Pritzker’s resistance to his plans for a military takeover of Chicago. He said, “A lot of people are saying maybe we’d like a dictator.”

When a president jokes, flirts, or wonders out loud whether Americans might want a dictator — even if he immediately walks it back — he is testing the boundaries of what the public, the press, and other power centers will tolerate. Dictatorships rarely arrive with tanks in the streets; they arrive when the language of democracy is hollowed out from within.

Minutes later, Trump signed an order criminalizing flag-burning with a one-year jail term, a statute twice voided by the Supreme Court. Such knowingly illegal directives force civil-liberties defenders to burn political capital, cast courts as deep state saboteurs, and stockpile grievances for future court-stacking or emergency decrees. The stunt also diverts attention from renewed scrutiny of his Epstein-Maxwell ties, a classic authoritarian feint: flood the zone with shit so critics chase the latest outrage.

From Rolling Stone:

It shouldn’t be surprising considering the praise Trump has long lavished on autocratic rulers around the world — from Russian President Vladimir Putin to Kim Jong-un of North Korea, or what some of his own former administration officials have said about him. John Kelly, who served as both secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and White House chief of staff during Trump’s first term, said ahead of the 2024 election that Trump “certainly prefers the dictator approach to government.”

“Well, looking at the definition of fascism: It’s a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy,” Kelly toldThe New York Times, when asked if Trump is a fascist. “So certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that he thinks would work better in terms of running America.”

Previously:
• How Serbian activists used humor to topple a dictator
• Dictator Trump declares it’s ‘illegal’ to criticize him the way CNN does (video)