Overview: The article discusses the aggressive actions of Donald Trump’s administration, including threats to invade other countries, bombings, and the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol officers. The author suggests that Trump’s actions are similar to those of historical despots and that he is leading the US towards autocracy. The article also raises concerns about Trump’s mental health and whether he is being manipulated by wealthy donors. The author urges Americans to resist Trump’s actions and to preserve democracy.
S. E. Williams
2026 began with Donald Trump launching a violent illegal attack on the nation of Venezuela. He did so with both malice and forethought. Fortunately, no Americans were killed, however 100 Venezuelans died in the attack, according to Venezuelan officials.
The Trump administration seemed very casual about the loss of these lives because they were not Americans as is too often the American way in cases of war and conflict. But, we should care because they were human beings.
Meanwhile, Trump has threatened similar attacks on the countries of Columbia, Cuba, Mexico and Iran. He has also bombed Iran and Nigeria since taking office in January, 2025. In addition, Trump has grown more and more aggressive in his verbal threats to invade Greenland and by default, start a war with NATO countries, while simultaneously cozing-up to many of the world’s most dangerous autocrats.
In the true sense of most dictators, Trump’s penchant for violence is not limited to foreign lands. His modern day “brown shirts”; or, as I call them, a rag-tag band of paramilitary police; or, as the government calls them, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol officers, by any name, are wreaking havoc in cities across the country.
Trump sees his threats, intimidation, bombings, kidnappings, deportations, injuries, shootings and deaths as validation of his strong man persona—most probably to make up for his shortcomings in other areas.
According to a Jan. 4, 2026, report by the Guardian, 32 people died in the custody of ICE in 2025. This made it “the agency’s deadliest year in more than two decades.”
The aggressive actions of ICE on the streets of America is like fuel to Trump’s over-inflated ego and projected through his out-sized hubris. He’s been defined by psychiatric experts as malignantly narcissistic and abnormally sadistic.
There are also growing concerns that Trump is showing signs of some form of dementia. Many have drawn this conclusion based on his bizarre and undignified behavior, in addition to his family history—his father died of Alzheimer’s.
All of this, of course, is speculation since Trump has never disclosed his medical history. In addition, the medical tests and consultation results that are shared by his team appear somewhat farcical.
Is what the U.S. is experiencing under Trump’s leadership a result of the erratic actions of a sick man, or the deliberate acts of a conniving madman, or both. Is he being managed and manipulated by the ultra wealthy who funded his campaign and in the process, bought his soul?
Is Trump really as grossly despicable as he appears? Are his political actions, both domestic and international, from the playbooks of many of the world’s most despotic, monstrous and murderous leaders from history? If the answers to these questions are yes…what could be the worst outcomes for the people of this country?
Let’s examine what history teaches about the despots who came before him.
Adolf Hitler of Germany tortured and killed six million Jews along with millions of others. His rampage led to World War II and ultimately the deaths of tens of millions people world-wide.
Joseph Stalin of the old Soviet Union facilitated mass purges, forced labor camps, wide-ranging executions, famine and other forms of repression that resulted in an estimated 20 to 30 million deaths.
Mao Zedong of China starved many of his citizens and executed others while facilitating wide-spread prosecutions. Overall, his leadership is linked to the deaths of between 45 to 78 million people.
“Democracies, as we know, are prone to every error from incompetence and corruption to misguided fetishes and gridlock. Therefore, it is astonishing, in a sense, that we would be willing to submit the direction of our societies to the collective wisdom of an imperfect and frequently disengaged public. How could we be so naïve? To that fair question, we must reply: how could anyone be so gullible as to permanently entrust power—an inherently corrupting force—to a single leader or party? When a dictator abuses his authority, there is no legal way to stop him. When a free society falters, we still have the ability–through open debate and the selection of new leaders–to remedy those shortcomings. We still have time to pick a better egg. That is democracy’s comparative advantage, and it should be recognized and preserved.” – Madeleine K. Albright, Fascism: A Warning
Pol Pot of Cambodia, who led the Khmer Rouge during the Viet Nam War era, implemented extreme social changes that led to genocide. During his time in office, between 1.5 and 2 million Cambodians suffered and died due to disease and/or were starved to death, tortured and/or executed.
King Leopold II of Belgium is purported to have killed between 10 and 15 million Congolese through a brutal system of forced labor akin to slavery.
Idi Amin of Uganda led a regime that brutally repressed and tortured its citizens. He facilitated ethnic cleansing and was responsible for the deaths of between 100,000 to 500,000 people.
These intermittant epochs of “man’s inhumanity to man” as unconscionable as they were, shrink when compared to the long centuries of brutality, pain, suffering, torture and deaths endured during the Transatlantic slave trade. Although the deaths of our African ancestors were never quantified, because their masters—not unlike the murdering dictators listed above— considered them less than human, experts have estimated somewhere between a conservative six million on the low end to 150 million African lives on the high end were sacrificed to an international economy of greed.
Here in America there was also the near total ethnic cleansing of close to 10 million indigenous people—American genocide on a massive scale.
I see the same greed and quest for unlimited power and total control that fueled these historic crimes against humanity bubbling up in America today. In addition, The Supreme Court has preemptively given Trump the guarantee of absolute immunity. Trump is betting on that immunity to absolve him of all accountability for his actions, no matter how despicable, as he pushes this nation to the brink. As he told the nation in 2016, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”
Today, Trump’s goons are agitating in communities across the country hoping to strike a match and ignite an uprising in response to their actions. The president seems fixated on triggering any form of violent resistance to his immigration efforts in order to justify the declaration of a National Emergency and the implementation of Marshall Law.
Meanwhile, as Trump continues to aggressively implement the strategies and tactics of Project 2025 and his failed tariff policies; as he further shreds social programs; and while millions are losing healthcare coverage, the nation teeters on the precipice of having the current economic downturn morph into a national economic crisis. It’s already at a point of crisis for those struggling at the bottom.
Poverty, homelessness, unemployment, rising healthcare costs, an inequitable criminal justice system, poor air quality, and toxic environments are violence of a different type and equally debilitating to the nation’s poor. Its a form of torture to the spirits and souls of these individuals—many of them childre who did not choose their circumstances. And, as highlighted by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., more than 50 years ago, this type of violence is sanctioned by “policy decisions, budget allocations and bureaucratic inertia.”
Trump’s perpetual aggression and visually unappealing strong man persona is as dangerous as it is the sign of a weak man using ongoing chaos, personal attacks and bluster to fuel his egomania and keep a nation on edge. He does it to distract as he tears down democracy and lays a foundation for autocracy.
Some may say I’m being hyperbolic. But, I’m not the only one. Many scholars have written about the dangers we currently face. Students of history and others point to the nation’s current trajectory.
Voting Rights activist and author Stacy Abrams combined the wisdom of historians and scholars and curated the following list of ten steps to autocracy and authoritarianism. The checked items are my perspective of what has occurred or is currently in process. What would you check off on this list?
While the last box remains unchecked, Americans must continue to resist. In alignment with the efforts of Stacy Abrams, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), Caring Across Generations, MomsRising, and a coalition of national, state, and local advocacy groups and non profits, I encourage you to join the Just Fix It’s 10 Steps Campaign. There is something each of us can do through this process and within our own communities.
No act of resistance is too small…a call to your elected representative, a social media post, a conversation with your neighbor, attendance at a city council or board meeting—let our local leaders know that we are engaged and watching them, have purposeful discussions with family members, friends and neighbors.
As former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright wrote, When a free society falters, we still have the ability–through open debate and the selection of new leaders–to remedy those shortcomings . . . That is democracy’s comparative advantage, and it should be recognized and preserved.”
Of course, this is just my opinion. I’m keeping it real.