Trumps Dictatorship Can Still Be Stopped - If We ACT NOW

Trump is firing the FBI, silencing the press, and dismantling Democracy: The window to fight back Is closing quickly. MORE FROM THOM 📃 Thom's Hartmann's 'Daily Take' Newsletter: https://HartmannReport.com 🎦 Watch a full program re-run anytime: https://www.patreon.com/thomhartmann 🎧 Audio Podcast: https://thom.tv FOLLOW THOM 📕 AMAZON: https://amzn.to/2hS4UwY 📝 DAILY TAKE: https://hartmannreport.com 👥 FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/ThomHartmannProgram/ 📸 INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/Thom_Hartmann 🎦 PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/thomhartmann 🐦 X: https://www.twitter.com/thom_hartmann Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hartmannreport.com 🌐 WEBSITE: https://www.thomhartmann.com 📺 YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=thomhartmann 👕 Merchandise: https://teespring.com/stores/thom-hartmann-program-2 🍺 Thom Merchandise: https://teespring.com/thom-hartmann-mug?pid=522&cid=101870 ABOUT THE PROGRAM The Thom Hartmann Program is the leading progressive political talk radio show for political news and comments about Government politics, be it Liberal or Conservative, plus special guests and callers. #MoreFromThom ✔ Amazon links are affiliate links TRANSCRIPT The good news is that yesterday there were protests all over the nation—people saying, "Hell no, we’re not going to put up with this." But today, things have escalated. There are several lawsuits, for example, and this is a good sign. So far, the government has not won any of them. However, Musk and his people are still inside these agencies, and even if they are forced out, there is a lawsuit being heard this morning—the hearing started at 11:00 Eastern. Even if they succeed in removing them, it's entirely possible they have buried code in government computer programs and systems that will allow them remote access. They wouldn’t need physical access to the buildings. My op-ed today at HartmanReport.com is titled Last Chance to Stop a Dictatorship—And Trump Knows It. Trump wants FBI agents who investigated his coup attempt, his facilitation of espionage, and his financial and criminal activities fired. Let’s be very clear: this is how dictatorships start. A man who wants to become a dictator always begins by changing how the government works. Even though the majority of the nation is content with how things are, he insists, "I have a better way, and it’ll all work out." In the process, he breaks a bunch of laws, but people don’t say much because those laws don’t directly affect them. Pastor Niemöller wrote about this in 1930s Germany: first, they came for the government workers. Then, when people begin to resist, the dictator uses the police power of the state against them—those who protest in the streets, those who speak out in the media, those who fight back in the legislatures and courts. He finds ways to get them fired, harassed, or imprisoned. When she was being confirmed, Attorney General Pam Bondi refused to say that she would not follow or execute an illegal order from Donald Trump. If he directed her to investigate someone who irritated him, prosecute someone who had investigated him, or imprison someone who had spoken out against him, she would comply. We are there now. Pam Bondi announced this morning that political prosecutions are about to begin, or at least the investigations leading to them. At first, they will target law enforcement agencies, primarily the FBI, to bring them under control. The goal is to terrify them. Next, they will come for the press. First, they will use financial pressure to force compliance. We’re already seeing this with Trump’s lawsuits against all three major networks and multiple newspapers. This will escalate into shutdowns and arrests. He will remake our schools into indoctrination factories for his white male supremacist worldview. This new authoritarianism will shift our democratic alliances away from our traditional democratic allies and toward dictatorships he aspires to emulate. He will purge the military of leaders who might resist him and remove troops who might refuse his orders. He will reshape our criminal justice system to be more violent and brutal, reopening prisons beyond the reach of the law—places like Auschwitz in Poland or Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He will remake our media into a Greek chorus singing his praises, just as every dictator has done. As he proclaimed this morning at the National Prayer Breakfast, he believes divine providence and the blessings of God put him in power. He will force the country’s largest religious institutions into submission. He will announce grand plans and spectacular projects—building highways like the Autobahn, remaking Gaza, Greenland, or Panama—to distract the public from the systematic destruction of democratic safeguards. He and his allies will empower civilian militias, who will then become his terror squads against those who oppose him. Hitler had his Brownshirts.