We are right now perhaps the closest to a dictatorship the US has ever been.
Lincoln and FDR both wielded immense power (some of it used for good causes), so they would probably be the only cases comparable or more like a dictatorship than these early days of the 2nd Trump administration.
Congress and the Supreme Court are perhaps the two biggest obstacles to a dictatorship from the Executive Branch but only if they actually wield their power. But I think whether the other branches fight or not we're looking at the US becoming a semi-free country like Hungary under Orban. While dictatorships can happen here, I'm still pretty skeptical we're only a month away from an Enabling Act of 1933 (what Hitler used very early on as chancellor).

Literally millions of lives have been saved by USAID programs. 

There's a lot at stake. We have a moral responsibility to handle this with care. I am not willing to burn down the agency to save a few bucks if that is the cost, and by all appearances, these lives appear to be the cost. 

A yes attack the messenger, to undermine the message. And to point that out, I made clear the message is about transparency and the audit taking place in the first place. I have no reason to insult you, but clearly you feel offended by something I said. Was it that I mention 'bubble'? Social bubbles do exist, there is nothing insulting in pointing that out. But if you feel offended by that, I would not know why it should but if so, my apologies.

The Forbes broadcast I linked, because Kennedy said it better than I could. Did you prefer I typed it out? I like to keep things short, not write novels in a forum.

Mind reading does not exist by the way. I do not think we'd ever met, but somehow you believe you know me and feel it necessary to express your dislike of me as a person. Not a good way of civil discourse. We might not agree on things, but no need to trow insults around.

I'm not as good as you clipping parts of the discussion in a way to make it more readable, so apologies for that in advance.

"Significant death and disease? Really?? OK The USA does know a lot about causing death and disease all over the world LoL." This was a tongue in cheek comment about the US favorite pastime: Bombing other countries. If the USA would reign that in, it would do more good than any foreign aid program.

I believe the stance of trumps political adversaries has always been he's the 'Liar in Chief', it's been over the campaign and beyond for years. A good example though where all of a sudden his word is taken seriously is when in his first term he claimed he would leave NATO. This caused quite the ruckus. He'd obviously never do it, because NATO is a big customer for US military equipment, but since he was painted as "a Madman that is capable of anything", it was taken seriously and several countries upped their defense budget.

We see something similar now. He claims to shut down USAID. Everyone takes his word for it, but if you notice the pattern, then he always claims big to get something moving and in the end something else happens. USAID as with every other foreign aid program of any country (including my own), is a great vehicle to bribe other foreign officials. Trump knows that and won't give that up. At most he will fold it in the the Department of State. 

Bubbles are real. That is no insult. We are part of a bubble called "Gamers who like statistics". That's why we are on this site. Overall I cannot leave the impression that most contributors to this Political forum would rather walk through glass shards barefooted than mention anything they agree with Trump on. Or Republicans in general. Yet he is voted in by the majority of Americans. I can only assume not many of those are "Gamers who like statistics". Perhaps my impression is wrong. Could be.

Russian Propaganda? I don't know. But than again a lot was claimed Russian propaganda over the years. Hunter's laptop? It just seems these are words uttered easily like 'Dictator', 'Threat to Democracy'. Words that are thrown around so many times, they start to loose meaning.

Funnily enough, I've been criticized for it. 

Even though I'm just trying to make it a little clearer what I'm responding to.

USAID and vaccines: Helping save 9.3 million children in the last 10 years

I'm well aware the US government has caused a lot of damage. But they've also had some great programs that have done an incredible amount of good. 

You're giving Trump an enormous benefit of the doubt, despite his actions contradicting it. I will believe it if/when it happens. 

You're presuming that Trump does this to make big promises, and not the possibility that sometimes his mind has gotten changed by his advisors or Congressional Republicans.

I think in general, Trump does things to benefit himself. If he thinks it would make him more popular amongst Americans to pull out of NATO, I bet he would do it. 

I'll note that I didn't say "bubble" - but rather criticizing echo chambers where everyone have the same opinion. I wasn't using it as an insult. 

I think plenty of people here would agree with some things. No more minting 'wasteful' pennies, Trump tells Treasury. 

I'd be happy to see more efficient government spending. But I'm concerned about who will benefit and who will get hurt from the cuts. Trump has a solid track record of helping the people who need help the least, while hurting the people who need the most help. And some people here are more concerned by how the process is happening. 

Congress is supposed to be in control of spending, and yet we have the richest person on the planet going through deciding what he likes and doesn't like. 

Trump was voted in by a plurality, not a majority. US also has a bad track record for voter suppression, which likely had an impact on how well Trump did. 

I also feel like it doesn't make sense to criticize people who are gamers for being politically interested. Some of the people on this forum have PhDs in different subjects. It makes little sense to dismiss this "bubble" on account of just being gamers. Personally I am more involved with politics than I am with gaming. I've only played a couple games in the past year. 

But we'll ignore Trump calling this the laptop from Hell? 

If more people both from the USA and the world are Pro-Trump, it's up to them to speak up on this forum. I'm not carrying water for them. Trump and MAGA should be too extreme for just about anyone, even conservatives or conservatives who are Republicans. If you pay even about 5% to politics, you'd see how extreme Trump is unless you are extreme as well.

I'm not playing devil's advocate or both sides are valid for issues like

-Climate Change

-Same-sex marriage

-Adults being able to transition to another sex

-An unelected billionaire fascist going into the treasury without congressional approval and willing to cut funds already approved by Congress.

-US imperialism

And those are just a handful. There's not really any gray area in those issues. We can debate the exact corporate tax rate or income tax rate in good faith. But many issues you can't. 

Trump says no right of return for Palestinians in Gaza under his plan for US ‘ownership’

"Trump, in an interview with FOX News’ Bret Baier that was set to air on Monday, said “No, they wouldn’t” when asked if Palestinians in Gaza would have a right to return to the territory. It comes as he has ramped up pressure on Arab states, especially U.S. allies Jordan and Egypt, to take in Palestinians from Gaza, who claim the territory as part of a future homeland.

“We’ll build safe communities, a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is,” Trump said. “In the meantime, I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent."

After Trump’s initial comments last week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Secretary of State Marco Rubio respectfully insisted that Trump only wanted Palestinians relocated from Gaza “temporarily” and for an “interim” period to allow for debris removal, the disposal of unexploded ordinance and reconstruction."

I am sure he somehow doesn't mean it. 

It feels like he's ripping a page off his favorite president's guidebook (Andrew Jackson and the Indian Removal Act).

So because America has done horrible shit in the past it is fine to screw everyone? It's a fact that not only does USAID benefit Americans domestically, such as American farmers, it also benefits people across the globe, from disaster relief to curbing the spread of deadly diseases, said deadly diseases which would spread to America if left unchecked. I don't believe that because America has been shitty in other regards, that means they should just say fuck it and aim for even worse.

It reminds me of the "Burn It All Down" logic which is often stated by privileged straight white males who wouldn't feel the impact of burning everything down anyway. Yes we should advocate for USA to reign in destabilising foreign policy and we should also advocate for positive foreign policy, just because we aren't happy with one doesn't mean we should throw away the other.

Trump can't actually leave NATO without two-thirds of Senate voting in favour, so basically impossible.

America being in NATO is mostly irrelevant to why they're a big supplier of military equipment and it's more so because America simply spends a shit load more into their military than any other country so have both the quality and quantity to supply, even if America wasn't in NATO you would see countries buying billions from America, just like countries not in NATO do.

Countries upped their defence budgets because of Russia, not Trump's rambling, in 2021 only 6 NATO countries were hitting the 2% target, as of 2024 now 23 meet the 2% target. That is obviously due to Russia's invasion. The 2% target was never a hard rule either way and only a vague commitment, now Trump wants to make it 5% despite America not even hitting 4%. Poland is the #1 now for GDP %.

He talks a load of shit about NATO. He seems to believe that Europe is somehow scamming America despite Europe already spending billions on American equipment. He does this because it's the classic right wing tactic of creating an imaginary enemy, he wanted to rile up the nationalists and turn them against Europe, create an enemy out of nothing, try to get them mad at us for apparently "ripping off America" because right wingers like Trump always need an enemy to direct his cult towards, it is how they get into power and it is how they distract people from the real issue, which is billionaires like Trump and his friends bleeding dry the country and taking away from the average person.

He is employing same tactics on Canada and Mexico now. Asia will be next.

What by Trump's recent actions makes you believe that he cares about allies? His entire agenda is nationalism and isolationism.

Majority of the voters, not the majority of Americans.

For all voters he received 49.80% so 50.20% went to Harris/Other.

It's straight up a fake video made to discredit Zelenskyy, who do you think has interest in doing that? Lmao. It was either Russia or some kid in his basement. Logic dictates that Russia made it and therefore it is Russian propaganda. Prigozhin before his death also straight up confirmed to attempts to interfere in American elections, Russian propaganda is a very real thing.

Dictator and Threat to Democracy apply to Trump, yes. Although we hope that America will put a stop to his attempts.

Measles cases on the rise in West Texas - Spectrum News

The chickens are coming home to roost in the relentless war on medicine being pursued by the Christian right and RFK Jr. Unfortunately, kids will end up being the main casualties.