By Jackie Calmes / Los Angeles Times / Aug. 28, 2025
“I am not a crook,” President Nixon said in 1973.
“I’m not a dictator,” President Trump insisted on Monday.
And with that, another famously false presidential proclamation entered the annals of memorable statements no president should ever feel compelled to make.
[Please go to original for links]
It took months more for Nixon’s crimes to force him to resign in 1974 ahead of his all-but-certain removal by Congress. But a half-century later, Trump is unabashedly showing every day that he really does aspire to be a dictator. Unlike Nixon, he doesn’t have to fear a supposedly coequal Congress: It’s run by slavish fellow Republicans who’ve forfeited their constitutional powers over spending, tariffs, appointments and more. Lower courts have checked Trump’s lawlessness, but a too-deferential Supreme Court gets the last word and empowers him more than not.
Americans are indeed in proverbial uncharted waters. Four months ago, conservative columnist David Brooks of the New York Times wrote — uncharacteristically for a self-described “mild” guy — “It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising.” It’s now past time.
Perhaps more troubling than Trump’s “not a dictator” comment was a related one that he made on Monday and reiterated on Tuesday during a three-hour televised Cabinet praise meeting (don’t these folks have jobs?). “A lot of people are saying maybe we like a dictator,” he said. Alas, for once Trump isn’t wrong. MAGA Republicans are loyal to the man, not the party, and give Trump the sort of support no president in memory has enjoyed.
A poll from the independent Public Religion Research Institute earlier this year showed that a majority of Americans — 52% — agreed that Trump is a “dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy.” Those who disagreed were overwhelmingly Republicans, 81% of whom said Trump “should be given the power he needs.” Americans’ split on this fundamental question shows the extent to which Trump has cleaved a country founded and long-flourishing on checks and balances and the rule of law, not men.
That Trump would explicitly address the dictator issue this week reflects just how head-spinningly fast his dictatorial actions have been coming at us.
The militarization of the nation’s capital continues, reinforced with National Guard units from six red states, on trumped-up claims of a crime emergency. Trump served notice in recent days that the thousands of troops and federal agents will remain on Washington’s streets indefinitely despite a federal law setting a 30-day limit — “We’re not playing games,” he told troops on Friday — and that Chicago, Baltimore, New York and perhaps San Francisco are next.
In all cases, as with Los Angeles, Il Duce is acting over the objections of elected officials. But who cares about stinking elections? Trump warned on Friday from his gilded Oval Office that Washington’s thrice-elected Mayor Muriel Bowser “better get her act straight or she won’t be mayor very long, because we’ll take it over with the federal government.” And after Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, another Democrat, slammed Trump for his threats, El Presidente replied that he has “the right to do anything I want to do.”
This is scary stuff, and it’s being normalized by the sheer firehose nature of Trump’s outrages and by the capitulation of his Cabinet, Congress, corporations and rightwing media. That’s why the remaining citizenry must take a stand, literally.
Trump’s sycophants atop the Pentagon and intelligence agencies, the equally unfit Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard, continued their purge of senior military officials and intelligence experts whose loyalties to Trump are suspect. And on Friday, the FBI raided the home of former Trump advisor John Bolton, in a chilling signal to other critics.
In a first for a president, Trump on Tuesday tried to fire a member of the independent Federal Reserve board, Biden appointee Lisa D. Cook, in apparent violation of federal law aiming to protect the Fed against just such political interference. The Fed’s independence has been central to the United States’ role as the globe’s preeminent economic power; investors worldwide believe the central bank won’t act on a president’s whims. But Trump is determined to cement a majority that will deeply cut interest rates, inflation be damned. Cook is suing to keep her job, setting up a Fed-backed showdown likely headed to the Supreme Court. Despite its partiality to a president’s power over independent federal agencies, the court has repeatedly suggested that the Fed is an exception. Let’s hope.
Trump, who regularly assails Democrats as socialists and communists, now boasts of compelling private corporations to give the government a stake. Speaking on Monday about a new deal in which the beleaguered head of chipmaker Intel agreed to give the government a 10% stake, Trump declared, “I hope I have many more cases like it.” And yet we get more crickets from Republicans who profess to be the party of free enterprise and free markets.
The president’s campaign against federal judges who oppose him continues as well. On Tuesday it was one of his own appointees, U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen, who tossed Trump’s lawsuit against the entire federal judiciary in Maryland. To accept the president’s suit, Cullen wrote, would violate precedent, constitutional tradition and the rule of law.
Alas, such violations pretty much sum up Trump’s record so far.
He’s trying to rewrite history at the Smithsonian Institution, including whitewashing slavery, and dictating to law firms, universities and state legislatures. On Tuesday, Trump had Republican state legislators from Indiana to the White House to press them to join those in Texas and other red states who are, on his orders, redrawing House districts expressly so Democrats don’t win control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections.
Amid all this, the New Yorker was out with an exhaustive review of Trump’s finances that conservatively concluded that he’s already profited on the presidency by $3.4 billion. If he’s not careful, Trump won’t only be denying he’s a dictator; he’ll be echoing Nixon on the crook rap.
Jackie Calmes is an opinion columnist for the Los Angeles Times in Washington, D.C.
I remember seeing Nixon and hearing his “I am not a crook” and then he was gone and we thought this country was going to get better, heal itself and somehow actually become that shining city on the hill.
Oops.
Anybody else remember what a murderous psycho monster Bolton was? And now we’re supposed to feel sorry for him?? What a twist that is!!
The role of Nazi Sturmabteilung (SA) in 1930s Germany:
NEW: TRUMP RECRUITING VIGILANTES For His New Paramilitary Force!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYUchJq52PU
I’m guessing that they might be called the Kyle Rittenhouse Brigade? Seems appropriate. Or maybe the January 6th Brigade once enough of the insurrectionist ex-convicts join up so they can use their guns? How many are in ICE already I wonder?
This is getting real very, very quickly, isn’t it?
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We Asked AI HOW TO DEFEAT TRUMP’S Fascist Takeover. It doesn’t go well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJvaK14Rvjw
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“WE’RE UNDER MARTIAL LAW” – Combat Veterans Warn They’ve Seen Trump’s Playbook Before
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QmvPHAcM6U
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MAGA are traitors at levels no one has ever seen before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vEoCaXt93U
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But remember all you violent clowns hired by Trump:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nglJ9tKPvSA?feature=share
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sealintheSelkirks
Thom Hartmann talking to people, and them talking back:
Can America Get Rid of MAGA Cult Without WWIII?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c17cPjfsRfY
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Did Trump’s SCOTUS Legalize Racial Profiling in America?
Yep, they sure did!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaDdnxsy04I
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More Mary:
Mary Trump EXPOSES Trump FAMILY SECRETS in EXCLUSIVE Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcS3RzBtRTc
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sealintheSelkirks
Nothing but lies from DJT and all these Fascists around that table who have taken over the government. It’s like they don’t think we SEE the videos of what really happened in most of these incidents, or have memories?
Or is it because DJT thinks they have enough violent enforcers being paid with OUR tax dollars who will do anything DJT/Stephen Miller/Hegseth says? Notice there is no mention of domestic MAGA terrorists murdering Democrats in their homes… it’s all ‘ANTIFA ANTIFA ANTIFA’ over and over when there isn’t any such organization.
My grandfathers were ANTIFA. They were WWII US military who personally fought and killed Fascists.
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Ever read any of Hitler translated speeches from the 1930s? Or propaganda rants that filled the heads of so many in this country in the 1950s when Senator Joe McCarthy was screaming ‘commies commies commies’ around every corner and my dad was drafted into the Army? Or the lies and bullshit spewed by right-wing politicians when my Uncle Kenny was drafted and shipped to Viet Nam after his family was stripped of everything they owned and shipped to a US concentration camp until 1946? And being blown into pieces by a mine while in Viet Nam?
DJT is pulling the worst from every era, isn’t he? Or his ‘brain’ Herr Stephen Miller certainly is. And we thought Wbush’s guy, remember Turd Blossom?, was bad…oh wait he WAS. But since the new boss is as ignorant or worse about history as Wbush was, I guess it’s appropriate for a newer Turd Blossom to slime his way into power, eh?
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Anybody else watch the latest DJT boot-licking meeting by his hand-picked sycophants who surround him literally kissing his fat bloated ass with all the praise they heap on the him over and over while spitting out the same putrid hate and lack of cognitive thinking he shows. Guess they learned well what happened to so many of those that didn’t who were purged during his first term, eh?
In case you missed it:
President Trump Participates in a Roundtable on ANTIFA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf6Em35gguU
And not a single one of these disgusting people sees the similarity of their behavior to North Korea, or Pinochet’s Chile, or Marco’s Philippines and so many other dictator authoritarian regimes. Designate an ‘internal enemy’ even if they don’t exist.
It’s like they have as little historical background as their Mafia boss king sitting there at the head of the table holding court surround by gold. Oh my does he love this sick crap.
These are OUR LEADERS, folks, and they are coming for us with their masked army of heavily armed killers and violent thugs and corrupt kangaroo courts like every other despotic authoritarian regime does.
Anybody think this president needs committed and seriously medicated?
And what can you/we do when the worst of the worst have taken control of nearly every outlet available while continuing to make Constitutionally protected dissent of any kind impossible? This is NOT going away.
Note: I could not watch this entire clip. It made me physically ill and I had to turn it off at 23 minutes. It was like I was having toxic static shoved into my brain. But the one thing I keep remembering is the Nuremberg Trials where the Nazis were sentenced to hang. Sure is a lot of resemblance here…
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On the night of February 27, around 9:00, pedestrians near the Reichstag heard the sound of breaking glass. Soon after, flames erupted from the building. It took fire engines hours to quell the fire, which destroyed the debating chamber and the Reichstag’s gilded cupola, ultimately causing over $1 million in damage. Police arrested an unemployed Dutch construction worker named Marinus van der Lubbe on the scene. The young man was found outside the building with firelighters in his possession and was panting and sweaty.
Remember what Hitler said in 1933:
“This is a God-given signal,” Hitler told von Papen when they arrived on the scene. “If this fire, as I believe, is the work of the Communists, then we must crush out this murderous pest with an iron fist.”
Switch out communists with Antifa.
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We all should re-read this RAG post from last year and think deeply on these words from this general:
https://obrag.org/2024/10/top-u-s-general-for-trump-calls-him-fascist-to-the-core-and-most-dangerous-person-to-america/
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Is it coming down to maybe having the supposedly non-partisan military leaders actually depose the US Fascists in a military coup? And if we are going to be honest, just exactly why did people join the military in the first place? Steady paycheck, free health care, a place to live, they feed you, fix your teeth, pay for your glasses…as long as you do what they tell you. What the military does NOT do is explain that soldiers can refuse to follow orders that go against the Constitution.
Oh wait, they don’t teach the Constitution. And neither do schools. So these ‘soldiers’ are ready to destroy the Constitution… That’s bad isn’t it?
And I see people protesting in chicken costumes, dinosaur costumes, TACO costumes, and dancing frogs (did anybody else catch the ICE agent spraying pepper spray into the air vent in the back of that frog suit vid?).
4 days to another NO KINGS DAY. Is anybody fooling themselves that it will make any difference in what DJT and his Fascist followers are going to do? No, we don’t, not really. But that isn’t the point is it? Donald “Can’t we shoot them in the leg?” Trump is addicted to adulation and his TV presence ego so he deserves to know just how much we hate him.
The 1804 Insurrection Act
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sXohWU3QyC8?feature=share
sealintheSelkirks
The first few paragraphs absolutely nails who Trump really wants to be, and paragraph 5 where DJT is quoted calling a gruesome murder of a Washington Post journalist no more than “Things Happen.”
Roaming Charges: President Bone Spurs Fetes Crown Prince Bone Saws
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/21/390083/
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Of course there is the absolutely disgusting pandering to Prince Bone Saw by Democratic Party leaders who were sucked over the divide to the right wing by Reagan in the 80s (followed by Pres. Bill Clinton who really completed that task), so what Obama and Biden did with Prince Bone Saws in paragraph 18 shows just how far the complicity by ‘leaders’ tends to go.
Remember folks, it’s a Class War we are fighting, and if voters continue to know less and less about our own history (both past and recent), nothing is going to change.
sealintheSelkirks
12-Year-Old GOES OFF On Trump, ICE, and tells the absolute truth that racist Amerika doesn’t want to admit to. Start at 0:15:
“Mexicans Don’t Shoot Up Our Schools!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezzO0oxMhtA
Who shoots up children in schools? White right-wing boys and men, so-called conservatives, neo-Fascists, and the promoters of Theocracy those so-called ‘followers of Christ’ racists extremists. It’s those ‘under-educated voters,’ the ones Trump brags about “loving” in his speeches… You know, the ones who he wouldn’t piss on if they were on fire. The ones losing their food stamps, Medicaid, and their crappy low-paying jobs (along with a hell of a lot of others groups with those kind of jobs). Jobs lost since Jan 20th are right about the -1,000,000 mark last I read. So far. In less than a year.
And because of the taxes he has imposed on everything coming into the country, everything is going to get even more expensive. Oh, excuse me, I meant Tariffs that are OF COURSE not being paid by other countries, just by us. Screw the ‘gas is lower’ crap trying to distract from reality that Republicans think they are so good at doing. It ain’t working so well anymore.
But they don’t care, do they?
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Mary Trump Media nails Uncle Donald and his incompetent cronies AGAIN.
BONUS! A partial list of Donnie the Dictator’s failed businesses (a remember these moment):
TOTAL DISASTER: Holiday LIES from the BANKRUPTCY KING
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3_GzCZ2p9s
sealintheSelkirks
Aren’t we glad that these people don’t rule us and make the laws?
NBA or NFL?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Rdsp_NB4TNc?feature=share
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One hell of a good rant. Do you agree?
It’s Congress that is killing this country:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0mcdj8gqNJk?feature=share
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Here’s a cute little humor short to tickle readers funny bone:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Tt6yaLGeLDk?feature=share
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What re-migration actually is defined as:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/szvubqJfJXU?feature=share
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A humorous look to end with:
Trump definitely pardoned too many people
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4VWOFvqkodY?feature=share
sealintheSelkirks
A trip down memory lane:
Thirty-five years ago reporter Barbara Walters rips our Convicted Felon Liar-in-Chief a new a-hole…literally shuts the sh*thead down by interrupting him and calling him a liar.
WTH is wrong with today’s ‘news interviewers?’ Why can’t they do now what she did then? Cowards and sniveling ass-lickers! Do they ALL have battered wives syndrome???
DJT hasn’t learned anything since except how to grift harder and lie bigger in the last 3 decades:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nMUsZaGK2tg?feature=share
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sealintheSelkirks