Trump Supporters Assume They Are In His Favour

It always strikes me as unusual thinking from all Trump supporters that they, the unknowns with no money and cogs in the wheels, are somehow within Trump's favour, he a billionaire and outside the wheels altogether.

If you've no money, and therefore in Trump's eyes, of no value or influence, then he doesn't give any thought to you or your predicament. He merely wants what he can take from you, which at the moment is a cross in a box on a voting paper and to add your voice to his call.

Nothing else.

Which of course leads to a following question for Trump supporters, "What happens when it all becomes authoritarian and the tick is no longer needed?"

Well, you just become one of the "other", just like gay people, unmarried mothers, immigrants, non-millionaire non-Republican voters, those that crack jokes at Trump, and everyone else you currently denigrate and mock. You are no use to Trump, he'll clampdown on you the moment you think, "Hang on, that's affects me big time. Fuck that, let's do something about it."

A minority (34%) of Americans think the system is holding up and that Trump can't become a dictator, "Hitler can't happen here." Stop thinking about Hitler and the 1930s, that's not the playbook he's been using, rather look at competitive authoritarianism such as Putin, Erdoğan, and Modi (plus many others).

Competitive authoritarianism is a hybrid regime type where formal democratic institutions (elections) exist but are skewed in favor of incumbents, making them unfair but not fully closed. Developed by Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way, these regimes feature regular, competitive elections where the opposition can compete and sometimes win, but media control, state resource abuse, and harassment create an uneven playing field.

Will this come to be the USA with Trump supporters discovering they are nothing to the state - very likely, yes,_ ‘Trump is aiming for dictatorship’. That’s the verdict of the world’s most credible democracy watchdog._

.. the speed with which US democracy is being dismantled is unprecedented in modern history. The main factor is a “rapid and aggressive concentration of powers in the presidency”, Lindberg says. Congress has been marginalised, jeopardising the “checks and balances” (judicial and legislative constraints on the executive) so crucial to US democracy. At the same time, civil rights have been rapidly declining and freedom of expression is now at its lowest level since the 1940s.

It's not just about America, closer to my heart is the UK (from the same article)

The report identifies the UK as a “new autocratiser”, driven by “a substantial decline” in freedom of expression and the media. “In the UK, it began before Keir Starmer, with the Elections Act 2022, and the government expanding its power over electoral commissions,” Lindberg says. “The Policing Act 2022 decreased civil rights and free speech. The Online Safety Act 2023 was used to penalise online speech and lawsuits silencing journalists. The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 increased demands on universities to monitor protests and police free speech. What’s worrying is that once the democratic backsliding begins, it’s often hard to stop.”.

Where is Aotearoa New Zealand, or Australia? Dunno, not mentioned - yet, but AoNZ seems to be following a 'less democratic' trend. It's not just America though, the world eh.

• Nearly a quarter of the world’s nations are now on the list of autocratizers: 44 countries.
• 44 autocratizers divide into 24 stand-alone autocratizers and 20 Bell-turns.
• 10 new autocratizers identified in 2025.
• Among the new autocratizers are five European countries: Croatia, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the UK.
• Media censorship remains the most common tactic among autocratizing governments with 32 countries (73%) resorting to it.
• Repression of civil society has surged to affect 30 autocratizing countries (68%).

Source: DEMOCRACY REPORT 2026 - Unraveling The Democratic Era? [pdf]

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