Clownocrat

The simplest definition for a dictator is "one person ruling a country". Implicit in this definition is that there is no functioning legislature, judiciary, or a free press independent of the dictator. Synonyms for dictator include autocrats and authoritarian. Dictators can and often do come to power through violence, but not always. Vladimir Putin in Russia is an example of a dictator who first came to power by being elected. Nations ruled by dictators often still retain the trappings of democracy — they still have courts, a legislature still meets and there are still newspapers, television and radio stations, but none of these institutions have any real power and are in practice subservient to the dictator. 

Donald Trump is, broadly speaking, a dictator. I have used a lot of words (some of them $5 and $10 words) making the case that he meets the definition. But is he a particularly competent dictator?

It's beyond arguable that Trump's intent is to govern unilaterally. His Day One Executive Orders make clear that he believes that he can simply speak into being anything that he wants to do. His view of Congress is that it's a rubber stamp to his whims, and sees it more as a body that exists to build a legal framework around his edicts. His view of the courts, especially the Supreme Court is similar. He doesn't see them as impartial referees of the Constitution, but as an institution that he expects to give him legal cover. He sees both entities, not as coequal branches of government, but as extensions of his own will that he expects to act with loyalty to him as their first duty. The courts have had a mixed record. The Supreme Court has handed him a few defeats, as have the lower courts, but the slow moving pace of the judiciary, even when it hands Trump a setback, does so after months or a year of his policy being implemented. 

Second Term Trump started out very different than First Term Trump. Second Term Trump had a team of seasoned policy experts, the architects of Project 2025, along with loyalists in all the top positions, ready to go. He had a shadow executive branch, Elon Musk's DOGE, who moved quickly, eliminating or hamstringing whole government agencies, who hit the ground running. Congressional budget allocations were overruled. Expenditures were made that were never approved. Thousands of government employees were summarily fired. Court orders were either ignored or gotten around or interpreted in novel ways. Homeland Security morphed into a secret police force, terrorizing immigrants and citizens alike. 

The only thing preventing Trump's complete takeover of the government is Trump.  

I have always said that Trump is both ignorant and incompetent. His ignorance of economics has caused him to upend world commerce with his on-again, off-again tariffs; his ignorance of geo-politics has caused him to alienate almost all of our friends and allies and gotten us into a war with no objectives. His incompetence is reflected in his choices of loyalists, chosen as much for their looks as for any competency, who will not tell him the truth for fear of upsetting him. It is a combination of micromanaging when inappropriate and bored disinterest when his full attention is warranted. 

Trump supporters, or, as I have frequently labeled them, Trump Cultists, have been fine with all of the authoritarian actions that their Dear Leader has taken over the last year plus. They justified their fealty by claiming that he would make their lives better — lower prices, lower inflation, no more foreign wars. But it looks like we haven't even gotten that. Ben Franklin once said "...those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." The Trump Cult was willing to give up the democratic features of our republic in exchange for cheap groceries and lower prices at the gas pump — and instead got neither. 

The reason Trump is ignorant and incompetent at his attempt to rule based on his own will is that there is no coherent plan behind that will. His attention span has a half life measured in nanoseconds, other than his grudges, which are eternal. With all the real issues that should be occupying his attention, he focusses on marble bathrooms and ballrooms. 

Yes, he's a dictator, but he's not very good at it.