What Will Be America's Red Line

This article was drafted on February 6th 2025

(NEW YORK, NY) – There may be a time, looking back at Trump’s historic second term, where people will say, how did we not know Trump would turn out to be a dictator? How did we not see the warning signs, the first step to the slippery slope of autocracy. Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) has already detained American citizens on suspicion of them being illegal immigrants. Trump has already attempted to modify the constitution via executive order. In the parliament of Australia, members of parliament are already stating that America is sliding into a Fascistic decline. Leaked communiques from the German Ambassador to America have stated similar things. So, the question has to be raised, what will be America’s redline (if there ever is one)? When, if ever, will we remove a would-be dictator. 

We have all heard Martin Niemoeller’s statement, “First they came for the socialists…”, it is an easy reminder of how silence gives autocrats the leeway to do what they wish. This is what we should think of, when thinking of how the Trump administration will dismantle the structure of the country. They have already come for one group, illegal immigrants. Trump and his administration have promised to deport all illegal immigrants (which they claim to be near 20 million, whereas other sources claim to be nearly half that number). Even with that we see some American citizens being detained, supposedly for creating a nuisance for ICE officials, possibly simply because they chose to speak out against the deportation of their law-abiding friends and neighbors. 

As I write this article, the Trump administration is suing the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois for its so-called ‘Sanctuary City’ statutes. If their lawsuit is successful, we will start to see states and cities that have been welcoming to immigrants, regardless of their immigration status, to be sued en masse. 

Trump is also looking to establish what can only be reasonably asserted as a new American empire, stating that he sees a “long-term position” for the U.S. in the rubble and ruins of Gaza. Evoking memories of manifest destiny’s manifest deportation of Native Americans, Trump plans for the residents of Gaza to be deported to neighboring Arab countries. Trump has also seriously been attempting to buy Greenland, and has yet to rule out the use of military force on our NATO ally Denmark in order to take it. 

We have also yet to discuss the routine and flagrant abuse of the law that the Trump administration has adopted as policy. Trump has in what can be generously called a stretch of the law fired 2 National Labor Relations Board members, which Trump claims he can do because he views the members as having engaged in malfeasance (which is the only scenario in which Trump may fire board members). This move is not only illegal, but also makes it impossible for the committee, which was already not operating with all of its necessary appointments, to meet or perform any of its Quasi judicial functions. 

Donald Trump has already proven that he sees himself as a king, and while for now it is not true, and there are still checks and balances (for instance, the Office of Budget Management has undone a memo which suspended all government borrowing, and Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order has been temporarily struck down in courts), there will be a tipping point sometime in this Presidency. There will be a day when there will be a Judge more loyal to Trump then to democracy ruling over one of these cases. There will be a day for everyone, where the steps that Trump is pushing America to take will make the nation unrecognizable, a day when television channels have their licenses revoked, a day when speech behind closed doors will not resemble speech in public. There will be a day when protests aren’t happening , not because people don’t want to organize them, but because people know better than to organize them. Trump was not a dictator on day one, as he promised he would be, but we should believe Trump when he says that he wants to be a dictator. We cannot be shocked when America gets what it asked for.