“That speech could have been delivered by Benito Mussolini,” I spluttered on my LBC radio show, reacting to Donald Trump’s inauguration address on the steps of Congress in January 2017. It wasn’t so much the content, it was the bombast, the strutting, the arrogance – all characteristics of the disgraced Italian dictator.
As the words poured out of my mouth, I wondered if I had gone too far, but I was angry and disappointed. I genuinely thought that Trump would ditch the rhetoric of the campaign and make a speech that would befit the office of president. How wrong I was.
I knew I hadn’t gone too far when even people on the right seemed to understand what I was getting at. As his presidency progressed there were many times when I felt that Trump was displaying many of the characteristics of an aspirant dictator. And in the three years since he left office, they are even more apparent. Let me explain.
I have spent the last two years studying what makes dictators. My next book, The Dictators: Warnings from History is published in September and contains 64 essays on 64 of the most notorious autocrats in history, from Ancient Rome to Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad. They range from mass murderers like Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Chairman Mao and Pol Pot to the more benevolent end of the spectrum like Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk of Turkey.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe Trump will join their ranks for the paperback edition of my book, not least because the checks and balances of the US Constitution would in any case prevent it. But there is little doubt that he shows all the personality traits of someone who could fall into the habits of a dictator, were he allowed to.
Professor Ian Robertson of Trinity College, Dublin, an expert on the psychology of dictators, believes Trump became infatuated with strongman dictators like Putin and Kim Jong Un. Why? Because, like him, they have come to believe in their own Godlike omnipotence – that they and they alone can rescue their own countries.
That’s what Trump believes: only he can make America great again. He sees in Putin and Kim what he sees in himself. That’s why he treated leaders of European democracies like Theresa May and Angela Merkel with such contempt. In his eyes, they weren’t fit to lace his boots.
Robertson writes: “All dictators hate constitutions, laws and judges and will always try to subvert them.” Trump wasted no time in trying to turn the Department of Justice into a loyal lapdog in his first term, and is threatening in his second term to abolish it. He then attempted to subvert the peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden on 6 January 2021. He used executive orders in a way no previous president had, although it has to be said that his successor has issued even more than he did.
Throughout his career the tycoon has been used to getting his own way, and crushing any sign of opposition or dissent. The word “purge” is usually associated with dictators and is easily applicable to his style of government in his first term. Anyone, no matter how senior, who dared to argue against his agenda was summarily despatched. Not for Trump the whimsies and compromises of cabinet government. Not for him the niceties of traditional democracy and government by constitution.
The attempt on his life earlier this month has also given him license to increase his cult of personality, common among most, but not all, dictators. The sight of hundreds of Republicans at the convention with bandaged ears, and their rapt faces, many with tears in their eyes, was something to behold.
The challenge for the Democrats and Kamala Harris is how to depict Trump as quasi-dictatorial without making out he’s some sort of new Hitler, which he patently is not.
Trump is not going to invade other countries. He is not going to establish a secret police. He is not going to imprison opponents, so the dictator warning only goes so far. But his America First form of nationalism and keenness to indulge in the “othering” of minorities and immigrants mean there are enough signs to set the amber lights flashing as a warning.
Americans are naturally patriotic people. But what they don’t like is un-American language. Trump already has poor poll ratings among female voters, and his nationalistic and anti-immigrant rhetoric is unlikely to appeal to centrist voters in many of the swing states. This is where the Democrats should sense an opportunity.
It may seem inevitable that he win the presidency, but the task the Democrats have is to try to ensure they win “down the ticket” – in races below the presidential election – and that results in the Senate and House don’t give the Republicans total control. That would be a very concerning situation indeed.
Iain Dale presents the evening show on LBC. The Dictators is published in hardback on 5 September by Hodder & Stoughton, at £24.99