This week, I wish to reinforce the claim the Trump administration is definitively sliding toward authoritarianism. I will admit it can be easy to dismiss individual cases of broken precedent or human-rights violations as isolated incidents, and thus not indicative of broader, problematic trends. However, I intend to disabuse people of this notion.
The first warning sign is language. As we know from throughout history, once it is OK to label someone as sub-human, it becomes easier to treat them as sub-human, whether that group be a specific race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, political movement and more.
This was demonstrated by many figures of the far-right movement when they labeled Abrego Garcia as a terrorist. While I understand the current administration’s wish to expand the definition of terrorism to include cartels (characteristic of their inability to understand what terrorism truly is), Garcia has never been a terrorist.
If you do not believe the news media, look at the administration’s mixed, contradictory messaging. Their changing rhetoric from day to day is indicative of someone who lies to improve their argument after they realize their original argument is invalid or even illegal.
To be clear, Abrego Garcia certainly has not been confirmed to be guilty of anything except entering the United States illegally. The idea his Chicago Bulls paraphernalia is enough to circumvent the entire system of due process and assume he is an MS-13 member is a fiction made up by the administration to deport whoever they want.
Hence, the second sign of our country’s descent into authoritarianism is willful ignorance of due process. The 14th Amendment’s due process clause applies to any “person,” not just any citizen, as anyone who has actually read the amendment can confirm. Many in the administration know this tidbit but actively choose to ignore it.
Subversion of checks and balances is the third sign, as demonstrated by the administration’s disregard for court orders. The court system does not directly possess any hard power to enforce its rulings, and the administration is all too willing to exploit this.
Although the Supreme Court’s language in its recent ruling is not as strong as I would have liked, it did order steps be taken to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return. The administration failed to clear this low bar, suggesting they want a conflict with the courts so as to assert executive supremacy. Such displays of executive supremacy are something only associated with wannabe authoritarian regimes.
The final warning sign is the lack of dissent by those around the administration. One sign of a truly democratic administration is one in which its allies express dissent. I will concede often this dissent is expressed in private, and it is hard to monitor when that happens.
One can still use external expressions of dissent as a weathervane.
During the Biden administration, public outcry became the norm among much of the liberal establishment in response to Biden’s policy surrounding the Gaza War. This was understandable, given the administration’s potential to save – or more often doom – thousands of civilians.
Such dissent does occasionally appear among the pro-Trump movement, about topics such as DOGE or even the deportations, but it tends to be limited to regular citizens or public figures not directly linked to the administration.
Only a tiny minority of conservative politicians speak out, even when Washington gossip and leaks suggest a large proportion are annoyed or dissatisfied with certain administration decisions. This is due to the fear of political retribution we have all seen on full display throughout the past decade.
These four warning signs have proven to be an effective way to clamp down on dissent in immoral and often illegal ways. Together, they are indicative of America’s slide toward authoritarianism.
Janagan Ramanathan is a Sartell High School alum, former U.S. Naval Academy midshipman and current aerospace engineering major at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
