“In the nine months since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the overall goals of his agenda have become clear enough: weaken the United States abroad to create an environment friendly to dictators, while using the US government and armed forces to establish a dictatorship at home.” — Timothy Snyder, “Trump’s Show of Force” [i]
In 1978 the controversial movie “The Boys from Brazil” made quite a splash with its science-fiction type premise that mad Nazi scientist Joseph Mengele, (played by Gregory Peck), had not only survived the war but had been able to “clone” Hitler. He then supposedly created and distributed dozens of baby dictators around the world, placing them in appropriate family situations and hoping that when they came of age they would inspire, lead and convert their various democratic societies into a worldwide version of the Fourth Reich. The film opens when the young boys turn 13 and Mengele sends out assassins to murder their fathers, replicating the death of Hitler’s own father at that age. Needless to say all manner of suspenseful events follow as Mengele’s plot gradually unravels and is thwarted by a renowned Nazi hunter (Laurence Olivier) and a fellow Nazi in hiding (James Mason).
At the time, many critics considered the film’s premise to be ridiculous, in large part because cloning was in its infancy and had not yet even managed to produce Dolly the sheep. But several observers also contended that the premise was deeply flawed for a more important reason. The boys, they argued, were clearly unlikely to become miniature Hitlers for many political reasons, not least of which was that the societies in which they had been placed would never succumb to dictators. And no where was this seen as more unlikely than in the United States, where the movie’s story ended. Obviously, the critics bristled, such a thing could never happen in the world’s oldest democracy and self-described defender of the free world. [ii]
That was then, and this is now. Of course Donald Trump is not a clone of anyone, and he is pursuing a different agenda from the Nazis. But dictators come in many shapes and sizes, and as renowned American political historian Timothy Snyder has outlined in several recent works, Trump is well on his way to standing the assumption that America is invulnerable to the lure of dictators on its head. In fact, it is no longer a question of America sliding into a dictatorship, as countless observers have warned over the past 10 months. We are already there.
Taken together, Trump’s various outrageous and previously unimaginable actions clearly constitute the takeover of the American state by a dictator who has turned the country into what is now called an illiberal democracy. The term “illiberal democracy” applies because the country has actually elected – rather than had imposed – the person who is currently intent on demolishing the very institutions and procedures that make up a liberal democracy. The United States, in other words, now belongs in the same broad category as former functioning democracies like Hungary, Turkey and India, although given its much longer history as a democracy, this fall from grace is far more devastating.
Trump himself clearly falls within political historian Barbara Geddes’ description of a “personalist” dictator[iii], that is, one who is successful because of a cult of personality rather than an ideology or belief system. Either alone, or with the help of a small clique of sycophants, the personalist dictator controls virtually all elements of the state. Certainly the MAGA crowd is devoted to Trump, not the Republican Party, as moderate Republicans like former Members of Congress Tom Rice, Liz Cheney and Mitch McConnel, and Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia, have all learned to their dismay. [iv] Moreover, in his second term of office, Trump has outdone himself in appointing unqualified, inappropriate but sycophantic supporters to cabinet posts and other key sinecures.[v]
Geddes further notes that such a dictatorship is particularly “associated with high levels of corruption, nepotism, and the diversion of state resources for the personal benefit of the leader and their inner circle.“ Does this sound familiar? Early evidence of corruption surfaced during Trump’s first run for office in 2016, when the so-called Russia Scandal emerged. Although vigorously denied by Trump, investigators charged and convicted four close advisers of a number of offences. But many questions still remained unanswered, especially about Trump’s role, by the time FBI special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s final report was forcibly shelved.[vi] And who could forget the $7.1 million in profits Trump made in one month during his 2024 presidential campaign, by turning his mug shot as a convicted felon into Tshirts, coffee mugs and other jail-based paraphernalia after his August 2023 conviction for racketeering and other related charges?[vii]
Perhaps in reaction to the damage that he perceived was done to his image by the Russia debacle, which he has consistently termed a “witch hunt”, Trump has since mastered the art of publicly declaring his various corrupt practices in advance, a tactic which appears to have succeeded in minimizing any negative fallout.[viii] Some would argue that he has actually ‘normalized’ corruption, breaking all the accepted rules, conventions and, in fact, the constitution, for example by accepting a $400 million executive jet from Qatar, or allowing his family to profit from various business ventures such as their cryptocurrency scheme, World Liberty Financial, which had already garnered profits of $800 million by the fall of 2025.[ix] He has also traded favours, most notably in offering pardons to various individuals who have helped him financially. Take, for example, the right-wing billionaire who donated $1 million to his MAGA PAC and promptly saw her son pardoned for tax evasion convictions.[x] Indeed, Trump’s willingness to sell pardons for financial gain has even become well-known internationally.[xi]
Nor is he above benefiting personally from his post. Incredulous observers were astonished recently to learn that he is expecting the Justice Department to pay him some $230 million in damages and compensation for its pursuit of criminal investigations against him over his alleged theft of classified documents, election interference and the payment of “hush money.” [xii] Nevertheless the most outrageous and enduring symbol of his unfettered corruption will surely be the destruction of the East Wing of the White House in order to build a gilded temple to himself, a ballroom funded by various private sector benefactors, several of whom no doubt will also benefit from pardons or through other favourable decisions of Trump’s government.
As Trump is a dictator, so the United States is now for all intents and purposes a dictatorship, mild and unacknowledged as that may be. How do we evaluate the extent of this extraordinary transformation? Although there are many variables commonly used in the definitions of a dictatorship, at least seven appear in virtually all of them, and, sadly, all can be applied to the United States as it is currently operating:
(1) Repression of Political Opponents
This is a vindictive man who proudly declared at a memorial service for one of his followers, Charlie Kirk, that he “hates” his enemies. There is ample proof of that, and even more evidence that his definition of enemy is broad indeed. During his second run for the presidency, in 2024, that vengeance included members of his own party whom he believed had crossed him. As he wrote in one Truth Social tweet, “We have to purge the Party of people that go against our Candidates, and make it harder for a popular Republican President to beat the Radical Left Lunatics….” [xiii] But he has hardly stopped there. At the same time that he has pardoned virtually everyone involved in the January 6 insurrection, he has directed his Attorney General, senior Justice prosecutors and the head of the FBI (all appointed by him) to pursue criminal charges against all manner of individuals he believes deserve his retribution, from a raft of special prosecutors and lawyers to a current member of the Federal Reserve Bank, the current Attorney General of New York State, the former Director of the FBI and his own former National Security Adviser. Can Kamala Harris and Barack Obama be far behind? And can this be seen as anything but the “weaponization” of the justice system, the very thing he complained was happening when he was the subject of legitimate criminal investigations?
(2) Proclamation of a state of emergency; rule by decree;
Anyone who foolishly thought that Congress would be able to hold Trump to account, and to exert its own co-equal constitutional power to rein in his worst instincts, was apparently dreaming in technicolour. Unlike his slow start in 2016, Trump blasted out of the blocks in 2025 as soon as he was sworn in, beginning almost immediately to enact a multitude of policy decisions through the use of Executive Orders, thereby bypassing Congress entirely. Since then he has also claimed that various self-described “national crises” allow him to invoke several pieces of emergency legislation to proceed without congressional approval, despite widespread criticism that none of them are crises (tariffs, energy production, immigrants) or threats to national security, and that the measures he is invoking are inappropriate, misinterpreted or, in one case, obsolete (the Alien Enemies Act of 1878). His use of these measures to justify various policy initiatives has not surprisingly resulted in a raft of court challenges, many of which have gone against him and led to his numerous appeals to higher levels of the judiciary. As constitutional expert Liza Goitein concluded, “Emergency authorities are not tools for presidents to enact their policy agendas…they are intended for sudden, unexpected crises that can’t be handled through the normal operations of government. Trump abused emergency powers to impose worldwide tariffs and to reorient US energy production toward fossil fuels, bypassing Congress. There was no emergency in either case.” Her views are shared by many other constitutional scholars, who fear his many claims of national emergencies are putting the country in a dangerous “perpetual crisis mode”.[xiv] And, as numerous observers have pointed out, this use of emergency powers is taking place despite the fact that the Republicans hold the majority in both Houses of Congress. Put another way, Republicans in Congress are not only not a check on his power, but complicit in his actions.
(3) Not abiding by the procedures of the rule of law or the constitution;
Separation of the executive and legislative powers is a fundamental component of liberal democracy, and one which the above segment has clearly demonstrated is no longer functioning. Equally fundamental to a healthy liberal democracy is the independence of the judiciary and adherence to the rule of law by everyone including presidents. Sadly, this normally strong check on autocratic rulers has also fallen prey to the whims of this dictatorial president. This is partly due to the fact that he was able to make three appointments to the Supreme Court, the most of any president since Franklin D Roosevelt. They are all highly problematic individuals (Gorush, Kavanaugh, Comey) with very conservative views, who were able to be confirmed by a Republican majority Senate, and are now beholden to him. The result is a Court with a conservative majority of 6 out of 9 for the first time in more than five decades. In short order this produced a stunning reversal of Roe vs Wade, followed by the elimination of affirmative action and, even more astonishing, a decision that the president is in fact above the law while he is president.[xv]
This same pattern has frequently occurred at lower levels as well, including several cases where a judge that Trump appointed was later responsible for dismissing a case against him. Most notable was that of the classified documents hidden by Trump at Mar-a-Largo, a case special counsel Jack Smith was almost certain to win before Trump appointee Aileen Cannon dismissed it out of hand with reasoning legal experts overwhelmingly derided.[xvi] Nevertheless, it is important to note that both Democrat and Republican-appointed judges at lower levels, including some appointed by Trump, have ruled against many of his so-called emergency measures ploys, describing them variously as patently unconstitutional, without substance and dangerous.[xvii] This in turn has led Trump to launch numerous extraordinary appeals directly to the Supreme Court through the unusual but by now almost routine use of the fast-track “shadow docket”, bypassing intervening levels of the judiciary entirely and almost always obtaining favourable rulings from the Supreme Court, without serious consideration of the issues by either those lower levels or the Court itself. (By August 2025 there were 233 active lawsuits challenging Trump administration initiatives.) [xviii] Prominent civil rights lawyer Henry Kaufman has analyzed this phenomenon in detail and warned of its serious and growing threat to democracy.[xix]
Yet even with this mechanism at his disposal, Trump has raged at any court rulings going against his will, despite the longstanding convention in democracies that judicial rulings, never mind judges, are never to be criticized or commented upon by legislators. Trump has ignored this as well, attacking numerous judges by name, including two on the Supreme Court, and declaring in one tweet that the targeted individual was “a dangerous lunatic,” a move which led even Trump supporter and Chief Justice John Roberts to criticize Trump’s behaviour as undermining the judicial system.[xx] Even more egregious are his comments that do indeed undermine the credibility of the judiciary and the judicial system in general, such as his constant references to “judicial activism” and to the courts’ unwarranted “meddling in government”. More recently, he has on several occasions simply ignored judicial rulings which have gone against his plans. Put starkly by Democratic Congressman Jamie Ruskin, “When he wants something, Trump doesn’t care if he’s violating the constitution or federal law. It’s like kicking a chair out of the way.”[xxi]
(4) Restricting independent media and producing alternative propaganda
Trump has long critiqued the mainstream media and repeatedly accused them of reporting “fake news”. His staff have aided and abetted this approach with references to “alternative facts” when refuting mainstream stories. He has also long supported less credible alternative media sources such as Fox News. After his re-election in 2024 he went further and established his own social media network, Truth Social, which could only be described as a propaganda machine.
At the same time he has not drawn back from his assaults on mainstream media, and in fact has increased his attacks, using various levers of power to intimidate the management of these organizations. He began by cutting off funding to all public broadcasting services, including Voice of America, (VOA) National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Then he sued Paramount, owner of CBS, for $20 million for an interview with Kamala Harris that it aired. Although legal experts concurred that the case had no legal merits, Paramount caved to this indirect blackmail and paid $16million because it was planning to merge with Skydance Media and that merger required federal regulatory approval. [xxii] However the most recent and worst example of denial of press freedom is clearly the war Trump waged on Disney, owner of ABC, over remarks made by highly regarded late night host Jimmy Kimmel about Trump’s response to the death of acolyte Charlie Kirk. Trump’s newly appointed head of the Federal Communications Commission (FTC), Brendan Carr, publicly warned he would “take action” against the network if Kimmel were not removed, and Trump himself claimed, “They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that. They’re an arm of the Democratic Party. I would think their license should be taken away.”[xxiii] Within hours Kimmel had been taken off the air by his own senior management, although widespread public protest, including among Hollywood heavyweights, eventually saw him return after a week-long hiatus. Nevertheless those opposing the removal, including various constitutional scholars and academics, sounded the alarm. “Kimmel’s cancellation is the clearest sign yet that we are witnessing the end of U.S. democracy.”[xxiv]
(5) Limiting civil liberties
It is difficult to address this category on its own, since so many of the myriad violations of civil rights taking place on a daily basis in the United States today, at the direction of Trump’s emissaries in the federal government, are inextricably linked to other issues identified here, such as the importance of free speech and an independent media (s4), the right to vote (s6), and, most ominously, the legal and constitutional rights including dissent and protest that are being violated on an ongoing basis through the illegal use of force to capture, detain and deport thousands of individuals, many of whom are citizens or legal residents (s7).
Needless to say, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been overwhelmed by the sheer number and range of measures the Trump administration has introduced to limit Americans’ civil rights. In addition to publishing a detailed account of their focus during the first hundred days of Trump’s second administration, [xxv] the ACLU has also released specific studies addressing federal cutbacks or removal of regulations, many of which clearly impinge on the rights of minority groups and communities.[xxvi]
In addition, Trump has also taken aim at academic freedom, and hence once more at free speech, through numerous attacks on universities via threatened and real funding cuts, demands for policy changes, and interventions regarding foreign students. [xxvii] A similar assault on scientific independence has also been aggressively launched. (Surely one need only mention the names of Robert Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz, with their incredibly dangerous efforts to dismantle the American healthcare system, research and citizen safety).[xxviii]
(6) Restricting or perverting the electoral system
With the possible exception of individuals living off the grid in the Australian outback, it is unlikely there is anyone who does not know about Donald Trump’s astonishing and unprecedented refusal to accept the results of the 2020 federal election, an election that saw him lose unequivocally to Joe Biden. Yet five years later he continues to deny that he lost. That denial led to the unprecedented insurgency of January 6 at the Capitol, but it has also led to ongoing public uncertainty or outright mistrust in the voting system, especially among his MAGA supporters. That mistrust was reinforced during the 2024 campaign, after Kamala Harris’ candidacy appeared to be giving new life to the Democrats, when Trump announced publicly that he would concede defeat only “if everything is honest.”[xxix] Since he won, it might have been assumed that his legal battle with mail-in ballots, voter ID and even voting officials, would cease, a battle that saw him charged with various criminal offences as he tried, unsuccessfully, to have the 2020 results in Georgia overturned.
But that has not been the case. Since his 2024 re-election he has found more ways to manipulate the electoral system to his advantage, using the powers of his office as well as intimidation and financial incentives. As legal experts from the Brennan Centre for Justice concluded in a recent report, the president has been instrumental in withdrawing federal support for the integrity of the electoral process, including removing various voter protection measures, at the same time that he has weaponized the Department of Justice to pursue individuals involved in the “stolen” 2020 election. “Since day one of his second term”, the report concludes, “the Trump administration has attempted to rewrite election rules to burden voters and usurp control of election systems, targeted and threatened election officials and others who keep elections free and fair, supported people who undermine election administration, and retreated from the federal government’s role of protecting voters and the electoral process.” [xxx] Most recently, he has once more returned to the charge on the issue of mail-in ballots (known to be favoured by seniors, ethnic communities and other likely Democratic supporters) by having the Justice Department demand voters lists from eight known “blue” Democrat states. While the stated purpose is to ensure there is no voter fraud as a result of non-citizen or unauthorized voters, the real purpose is clearly to minimize the ability of traditional Democrat constituencies to participate in the electoral process. [xxxi]
Meanwhile, Trump has been able to take advantage of the unusual structure of the American electoral system, in which individual states control the rules and operation of federal elections. As his popularity has plummeted in recent months, Trump has become increasingly concerned about the potential negative results of the mid-term elections scheduled for the fall of 2026, and he has therefore exerted considerable effort to have the governors of so-called “red states’ manipulate their systems to increase the number of Republican seats that can be won there. This blatant gerrymandering is just that. No attempt has been made to conceal either the intent of various state initiatives, or the likely effect of the measures involved. The practice was brilliantly exposed by Democrats in the Texas legislature, who “fled” to New York rather than remain in place to vote on one such scheme in their state, because they knew it would be approved by the Republican majority if a vote were held, and one could not be held if they were all absent. In the end, however, they were forced to return and Texas, like at least six other states to date, has successfully altered its electoral map to favour Republicans. [xxxii]
(7) Using military force against citizens
If there is one rock solid rule of liberal democracies, it is that a government does not turn its military might on its own citizens. And if there is any image that conveys the full extent of America’s descent into a dictatorship it is surely the videos of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, dressed in black and wearing balaclavas, ambushing individuals on the streets and forcing them into vehicles for removal to anonymous detention centres. For months news stories have proliferated about daylight abductions of individuals deemed to be illegal, or members of terrorist groups, or both. In some cases serious errors have resulted in American citizens, or holders of valid green cards, being swept up in this madness, but the Trump administration has been unwilling to admit mistakes may have been made and has pursued some well-known cases with a vengeance.[xxxiii] And then there are the mass arrests through organized sweeps of various industrial parks, businesses and even shopping centres, leaving some companies – and one industry towns – without a workforce.
Not surprisingly these activities have shocked many Americans in a way that none of Trump’s other dictatorial moves have done. Not surprisingly, individuals, business owners, communities, municipal and state officials have protested loudly against this state-sponsored terrorism. And the resulting peaceful protests – citizens exercising their right to freedom of expression — in many so-called “sanctuary cities” have only served to heighten Trump’s determination to carry on regardless of such political opposition or judicial rulings. In another series of unprecedented acts, he has called out National Guard troops in several states, allegedly to “protect” ICE agents going about their business, but this cover story has not been accepted by the vast majority of observers. “He’s abusing military deployment authorities now to suppress protests against his immigration policies, authorizing the deployment of federal forces anywhere in the country where protests against ICE may occur regardless of whether they involve violence or law-breaking,” Professor Goitein stressed. “That’s an abuse of emergency power that threatens the most fundamental right people have in a democracy: the right to peacefully express dissent and disagreement with their government’s actions.” [xxxiv]
Meanwhile Trump has ignored Congress, and arguably once more violated the constitution, by launching various attacks without consultation or approval, on everything from Houthi rebels to alleged Venezuelan drug runners in boats travelling in international waters. He has even renamed the Defence Department the Department of War. And, consistent with his need for sycophantic followers in all important positions of government, he has literally replaced all of the upper echelons of the armed forces, including the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. [xxxv]
Where is this Going?
For those who have been following events south of the border to any serious degree at all, it should not be difficult to see how each of these seven descriptors apply and have been used by Trump to wrest power from all of the institutions that supposedly provide the checks and balances in the American democratic system. This process has also revealed the many weaknesses and inconsistencies in those checks and balances, (which hopefully will be repaired in a post-Trump administration.) And yet this rapid transition from democracy to dictatorship does not appear to have been noticed by a startling number of Americans themselves. Yes, there have been “No Kings” protests, and a few public officeholders, like Governor Gavin Newsom of California, have been relentless in their criticism, but on the whole an astonishingly high percentage of the population appears to be asleep at the switch.
It is true that Trump’s initiatives have been implemented at light speed, and over such a wide range of subject areas that no one civil society organization could address all of them, thereby splintering opposition. It is also true that the political party system in the US is not designed to deal with this type of widespread rejection of constitutional order either. By design the Democrats have no leader, only a presidential candidate, and currently there is no one Democrat of stature who can claim to speak for the party and organize a coherent opposition.
The obvious question after evaluating such a devastating indictment of American democracy is What Now? Public opinion polls reveal a society deeply divided, with few if any common values and beliefs and a high degree of animosity and mistrust towards the opposing side. Certainly Trump himself is uninterested in finding common ground or healing divisions. On the contrary, as his extraordinary State of the Union address demonstrated, he is intent on reinforcing divisions and revels in chaos.
At a minimum, the mid-term elections should give some indication of where the country is heading. Pessimistic observers have warned that civil war is not an impossible outcome. Fortunately a more optimistic perspective has been offered by renowned statesman, academic and former politician Robert Reich. On the one hand he has argued that America is only a hairs’ breath away from becoming a police state,[xxxvi]. But he has also insisted that public protests, such as the No Kings events, can not only serve to educate other citizens but, ultimately, can prevail over potential dictatorships. Hopefully he is correct when he concludes “Although it takes one authoritarian to establish a police state, it takes just 3.5% of a population to topple him and end it.” [xxxvii]
[i] https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/trump-military-deployments-in-us-cities-by-timothy-snyder-2025-09
[ii] https://www.weforum.org/stories/2019/08/countries-are-the-worlds-oldest-democracies/
[iii] https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/how-dictatorships-work/8DC095F7A890035729BB0BB611738497
[iv] https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-election-trump-purge/
[v] https://brookejeffrey.ca/the-american-senate-the-last-remaining-guardrail-of-democracy-or-weak-kneed-sellout/
[vi] https://www.politico.com/trump-russia-ties-scandal-guide/timeline-of-events
[vii] Bella, Timothy “Trump is selling his mug shot on shirts, koozies and bumper stickers”. The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 25, 2023.
[viii] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/27/trump-flaunting-corruption
[ix] https://www.reuters.com/investigations/inside-trump-familys-global-crypto-cash-machine-2025-10-28/
[x] https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-pardons-paul-walczak-mother-fundraiser-1235348794/
[xi] https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/10/24/trump-openly-grants-pardons-to-business-allies-and-political-supporters_6746737_4.html
[xii] https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-reports/trumps-91-criminal-charges-and-where-they-stand/
[xiii] https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-election-trump-purge/
[xiv] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/23/trump-emergency-declarations-politics-law
[xv] https://www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/supreme-court-grants-trump-future-presidents-a-blank-check-to-break-the-law
[xvi] https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/15/judge-dismisses-trumps-mar-a-lago-classified-docs-criminal-case-00168231
[xviii] https://www.lawfaremedia.org/projects-series/trials-of-the-trump-administration/tracking-trump-administration-litigation
[xix] https://www.dcreport.org/2025/10/06/supreme-court-shadow-docket-trump-justice/
[xx] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/20/lunatic-trumps-long-history-of-abusing-judges-who-oppose-him
[xxi] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/23/trump-emergency-declarations-politics-law
[xxii] https://theconversation.com/lawsuits-cancellations-and-bullying-trump-is-systematically-destroying-press-freedom-265848
[xxiii] https://theconversation.com/jimmy-kimmels-cancellation-is-the-latest-sign-were-witnessing-the-end-of-us-democracy-265574
[xxiv] https://theconversation.com/jimmy-kimmels-cancellation-is-the-latest-sign-were-witnessing-the-end-of-us-democracy-265574
[xxv] https://www.aclu.org/the-first-100-days
[xxvi] https://www.aclu.org/news/racial-justice/trumps-attempt-to-roll-back-key-civil-rights-enforcement-tool
[xxvii] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/02/trump-university-funding-compact
[xxviii] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/01/former-cdc-officials-rfk-jr-endangering-americans-health
[xxix] https://www.aclu.org/news/voting-rights/how-donald-trumps-election-lies-and-other-anti-voter-policies-will-continue-to-impact-our-democracy
[xxx] https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/timeline-trump-administrations-efforts-undermine-elections
[xxxi]https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-the-trump-administration-is-trying-to-change-the-way-people-vote
[xxxii] https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/03/texas-democrats-quorum-break-redistricting-map/
[xxxiii] https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/04/11/mahmoud-khalil-judge-jamee-comans-yunseo-chung-deportation-ruling/
[xxxv] https://newsforkids.net/uspolitics/2025/02/27/trump-removes-top-us-military-leaders
[xxxvi] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/09/trump-police-state-robert-reich
[xxxvii] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/09/trump-police-state-robert-reich
