A new message from your friends at People For the American Way.
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Friend,

Welcome to our weekly “Trumptastrophe” email series that serves to remind
us all of the destructive policies, decisions, and actions we encountered
during the Trump presidency and the threats that he and others in the MAGA
movement still pose – and to keep those moments clear in our memory as we
fight to defeat Republican extremists during the upcoming elections.

This week’s Trumptastrophe brings into focus Trump’s troubling admiration
for the ruling style of foreign dictators – often expressing his envy over
their ability to quickly silence their political opposition or enforce
their agenda by sidestepping other governing bodies; and how his MAGA
Republican allies cozy up to – and sometimes partner with – these extreme
leaders:

On March 3, 2018, Trump praised China’s dictatorial President Xi Jinping
for consolidating his power. “He’s now president for life. President for
life,” Trump said. “No, he’s great. And look, he was able to do that. I
think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday.”

Trump was giving a closed-door speech to Republican donors in Florida, but
his comments came to light when [ [link removed] ]CNN obtained a recording of his
remarks. In the same speech, Trump griped that he hadn’t been able to
force Attorney General Jeff Sessions to launch investigations into Hillary
Clinton. “It’s a rigged system,” he complained.” And we don’t have the
right people in there yet. We have a lot of great people, but certain
things, we don’t have the right people.”

A year later, in March 2019, Trump [ [link removed] ]hosted Brazil’s recently inaugurated
authoritarian President Jair Bolsonaro, who was being called “the Trump of
the Tropics.” In spite of his defense of military dictatorship and
torture, Bolsonaro was advised by MAGA operative Steve Bannon and
[ [link removed] ]supported by [ [link removed] ]U.S. evangelicals and [ [link removed] ]New Apostolic Reformation
figures. Once elected, he quickly [ [link removed] ]went after communities he had
targeted in his campaign rhetoric, including LGBTQ and indigenous people.
Bolsonaro was [ [link removed] ]welcomed at the White House, where he denounced “fake
news” and praised Trump for being “God-fearing.”  Bolsonaro made [ [link removed] ]a
return visit to the White House in 2020.

Here's how Trump’s record of praising dictators and authoritarian leaders
reminds us that democracy would be threatened by his return to power:

* Trump’s 2018 praise for the Chinese dictatorship and suggestion that
“we’ll have to give that a shot someday” is particularly disturbing in
light of [ [link removed] ]Project 2025, a battle plan by the right-wing political
infrastructure to give Trump virtually dictatorial control over the
federal government if he wins in November. The plan’s authors
specifically intend to “identify the pockets of independence and seize
them” so that Trump can use the FBI and Justice Department to seek
revenge against his opponents and turn the Federal Communications
Commission into a weapon against the media.

Project 2025 is also designed to address Trump’s complaint in the same
2018 speech that “we don’t have the right people.” It calls for a mass
firing of civil servants and their replacement by MAGA loyalists, who
are being pre-vetted by the Heritage Foundation so that Trump doesn’t
ever again hire anyone who might put loyalty to the law or
Constitution above their devotion to Trump himself or the MAGA cause.
* Trump and his allies have long expressed their admiration for
anti-democratic strongmen. A year after the massacre at Tiananmen
Square, where the Chinese government killed an unknown number of
peaceful protesters, Trump said “they were vicious, they were
horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power
of strength.” In the same interview he criticized Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev for not having “a firm enough hand.”
* More recently, the right-wing movement in the U.S. has [ [link removed] ]embraced
strongmen like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungary’s Prime
Minister Viktor Orbán , whom they adore for [ [link removed] ]aggressively defying
the European Union’s democratic norms, suppressing the news media, and
[ [link removed] ]coming down hard against civil society organizations that don’t
fall in line. As Right Wing Watch noted in 2019:

Trump is not only an admirer of Orbán, but he may also be a bit
jealous. Writing in the June 2019 issue of The Atlantic, Franklin
Foer [ [link removed] ]reports that David B. Cornstein, the current U.S.
ambassador to Hungary and an old friend of Trump’s, said in an
interview, “I can tell you, knowing the president for a good 25 or
30 years, that he would love to have the situation that Viktor Orbán
has, but he doesn’t.”

* During the Trump administration, the United States [ [link removed] ]worked closely
with authoritarian governments to oppose international recognition of
reproductive rights and LGBTQ equality, making it clear that, like the
religious-right groups that put Trump in office, the administration
was “more than willing to [ [link removed] ]embrace oppressive governments as long
as they promote ‘traditional’ values on issues of sexuality and
family.”
* The 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference, held near
Washington, D.C. in late February, was organized around two themes:
destroying “globalism” and electing Trump. Reflecting the [ [link removed] ]global
ambitions of MAGA operative [ [link removed] ]Steve Bannon, CPAC featured an array
of right-wing political leaders from around the world. The Heritage
Foundation was also on hand at CPAC promoting Project 2025. They were
recruiting MAGA activists to get pre-vetted for the chance to help the
movement “take the reins of power” after what they hope will be a
Trump victory in November.

These are just some of the reasons we need YOU in this
fight. So, find your
favorite way to unwind after reading through this week’s recap, and then
make a plan for how you will fight back this week, this month, this
election cycle.

For members who are interested in sharing the weekly Trumptastrophe
series, you can [ [link removed] ]find all previous editions on our website! This post
will be published by Thursday so you can share with your friends and
family and remind them of the importance of ensuring that Trump is
defeated again this November.

[ [link removed] ]If you’d like to opt-out of this series but still continue receiving
our other email content, you can do so here >>

Thanks for all that you do to defeat Republican extremism.

– People For the American Way

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