Donald Trump can look in the mirror to see reflections of Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban and the ghost of Adolf Hitler

Echo opinion letter published in The New York Times:

Donald Trump’s Dismantling of Our Democracy

Authoritarian takeovers in the modern era often do not start with a military coup. Instead, they involve an elected leader who uses the powers of the office to consolidate authority and make political opposition more difficult, if not impossible. Think of Vladimir Putin in Russia, Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and, to lesser degrees, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, Viktor Orban in Hungary and Narendra Modi in India. These leaders have repressed dissent and speech in heavy-handed ways.

Over the past year, Donald Trump and his allies have impinged on free speech to a degree that the federal government has not seen since perhaps the Red Scare of the 1940s, and 1950s. Trumpzi's administration pressured television stations to stop airing Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show when Mr. Jimmy Kimmel criticized Trump supporters after the murder of Charlie Kirk; revoked the visas of foreign students for their views on the war in Gaza; and ordered investigations of liberal nonprofit groups. Donald Trump so harshly criticizes people who disagree with him, including federal judges, that they become targets of harassment from his supporters.

Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) German dictator during the Nazi period from 1933, until his death by suicide

Opinion Letter To the Editor: I urge you to add another measure to your index of autocratic and anti-democratic developments under the Trump administration: a research-backed measure of the president’s personality characteristics.

Autocratic leaders tend to share many characteristics, including narcissism, manipulativeness, a need for power and a lack of remorse. To not include a personality category when measuring a slide toward one-person rule is to miss the point. It is akin to issuing a police bulletin that outlines a crime but offers no mention of the perpetrator.

Everything autocrats and their acolytes do must be viewed, at least in part, through the lens of personality. To fail to do so is to abet their power. It is to paint their actions with a sheen of respectability that is dangerously misleading.

From Marian Place in Durham, North Carolina
The writer is a licensed clinical social worker.