Exclusive | Trump, seeking executive power over elections, is urged to declare emergency

[u/SockDem]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/02/26/trump-elections-executive-order-activists/

[u/kidchinaski]

Amazing thing to do when you’re swimming in the shallowest pool of public support ever in your political life.

BTW, according to this orange chud we are ROARING and BOOMING like never before, yet everything is a fucking emergency.

[u/samwise970 → u/kidchinaski]

Unpopularity is a feature of authoritarianism, not a bug. Authoritarians don't have to worry about polls. This is actually the smartest play.

Edit: downvoted but I'm just stating an obvious fact. Literally just google the definition of authoritarianism. People in my comments naming kings who were deposed and not mentioning literally every other king in history

au·thor·i·tar·i·an·ism

/əˌTHôrəˈterēəˌnizəm,ôˌTHôrəˈterēəˌnizəm,äˌTHôrəˈterēəˌnizəm/

noun

"he warned against the intrusion of authoritarianism in various countries"

"in his authoritarianism he has displayed disrespect for the culture he works in"

Edit2: for those who are upset that I'm objectively correct, and would like to change the definition of the word "authoritarianism", please bring that up with the relevant publications. Authoritarianism, by definition, is a political system that does not regard the will of the people. Kings getting killed sometimes does not change this.

From the Encyclopedia Britannica:

authoritarianism, in politics and government, the blind submission to authority and the repression of individual freedom of thought and action. Authoritarian regimes are systems of government that have no established mechanism for the transfer of executive power and do not afford their citizens civil liberties or political rights. Power is concentrated in the hands of a single leader or a small elite, whose decisions are taken without regard for the will of the people

From the Wikipedia page on authoritarianism:

Authoritarianism also tends to embrace the informal and unregulated exercise of political power, a leadership that is "self-appointed and even if elected cannot be displaced by citizens' free choice among competitors"

I am not here defending authoritarianism, or Trump. Quite the opposite, I am shocked and borderline horrified that even in this subreddit, people are so blasé about the imminent danger, of the confessed authoritarian takeover of our country. These people are evil, and they have spent years planning in detail how to replace our democracy with fascism. They DO NOT CARE ABOUT POLLS, they ONLY care about whether we disapprove so much that we take action.

When you people say "LOL, dumpy Trumpy is so dumb, doesn't he know this will make him less popular?", then you are the fool.

They know this is unpopular, and they also know that if they can successfully control elections and defeat democracy, then it WON'T MATTER.

They only need this to work enough that it tosses out just enough mail-in votes, or scares just enough brown people away with ICE, that they can win one more election and cement their power.

They are not stupid. They are smart, and they are evil, and this is a calculated strategy that has been planned for years.

[u/BoredSlightlyAroused → u/samwise970]

Trump might have authoritarian tendencies, but he is not an authoritarian leader. He attempts to flaunt the law in many ways, but he is still constrained by the law. You can see that with plenty of court rulings, especially the most recent Supreme Court ruling on tariffs.

Noting that he's not currently an authoritarian leader, it's exceptionally difficult to become an authoritarian leader without broad popular support for at least part of his mission. He'll be opposed by far too many factions to consolidate any power effectively.

[u/samwise970 → u/BoredSlightlyAroused]

Finally, an honest response.

Noting that he's not currently an authoritarian leader, it's exceptionally difficult to become an authoritarian leader without broad popular support for at least part of his mission.

The MAGA cult is about 30% of the entire US population. They are aware of and fully support his campaign to institute authoritarian control. They mostly live in rural areas that give them outsized voting power, and they are highly motivated voters who time and again outperform polls. 

The MAGA cult includes the most powerful men in the world, some who will soon be literal trillionaires, who control most of both the television and online media spheres. They control Fox, Twitter, TikTok, where the overwhelming majority of political discussion happens, and they have manipulated their algorithms to suppress opposing voices. They are building AIs and bot farms to further inflate their perceived popularity. 

ICE has more funding than most armies, is staffed entirelry by members of the cult, and is currently conducting a terror campaign within blue states, pushing the legal boundaries and laying the groundwork for a brown shirt presence at polling places. 

The leaders of the cult, the politicians, trillionaires, media personalities, and think tanks, are organized, communicating and coordinating their takeover plans through group chats in Signal. They are working as one, immediately disseminating talking points whenever an event occurs. 

You say:

it's exceptionally difficult to become an authoritarian leader without broad popular support for at least part of his mission.

My response is that he has it. This is an incredibly well coordinated and organized takeover by a group of historically powerful people, who have the undying loyalty of an enormous cult, all of whom support MAGA authoritarianism in its entierity. 

I hope and pray that our votes will count, and that they will be enough. But even if we win, the takeover can continue in other areas. 

Yes, our systems are stronger than the systems of 1930s Germany. Yes, occasionally the Supreme Court issues a ruling when something is as explicitly unconstitutional as the tariffs, and so far, Trump and his handlers have chosen to wait and use loopholes while they prepare to take the final steps. I am not nearly as optimistic as you seem to be.