President Trump. There was a lot of concern about this during the campaign. A question that only works today. - Are you a dictator on day one? - No, no. I can't imagine even being called that. [00:00:15] But is he a dictator in 100 days? Well, most Americans believe that yes, he is, or he's trying to be, or he's not helping his case by giving Pete Hegseth and Pam Bondi the green light in determining how the military can be used in domestic policing. [00:00:32] You heard that right. Don't worry, Jake, I will get to you in a second. But first, I want to give a little bit more context for this order that Trump implemented yesterday in an executive order titled Strengthening and Unleashing America's Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Civilians, Trump issued several directives, [00:00:52] including the establishment of a legal defense mechanism for law enforcement officers and a crackdown on state and local officials who willfully and unlawfully direct the obstruction of criminal law, including by directly and unlawfully prohibiting law enforcement officers [00:01:09] from carrying out duties. But that's just the beginning, Jake. Where could we possibly realistically be headed with any of this? So the militarization of police was already a problem before Trump, but now he's setting up this insane situation where the military might get into [00:01:27] conflicts with local and state police. What are we doing here? So during the campaign trail, Trump disavowed project 2025 because it was very unpopular. Why? Because it had all these radical proposals. And now he's going even beyond project 2025. [00:01:46] And he ran on. Hey, let's control the border and let's control inflation. He got votes based on that. And then he did what we all feared. And what I talked about all the time before the election, he went in an authoritarian direction, constantly breaking everything in his path, [00:02:03] constantly pushing the limits of what he can get away with constitutionally. And now he wants to send the military in. What? To occupy us, the US citizens. We don't need to be occupied, and we don't need our military and our cops fighting one another. [00:02:18] So that's why it's not going to be surprising. Well, look, it's I say it's not surprising that the poll we're going to share with you on, on that huge number of people who think that he's actually a dictator now. But still, the number was so high it was shocking. And so and this is only a couple of months after he just got elected [00:02:38] and won the popular vote. He could not be on a more disastrous path if he tried. So let's tell you more about, you know, how he wants to militarize this country and the reaction of the American people, and then we'll come back and talk about it. Yeah. So as we alluded to earlier. [00:02:55] The order also gives even more power to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi, allowing them to determine how military and national security assets can effectively be utilized to prevent crime. So it says, within 90 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General and [00:03:15] the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security and the heads of agencies, as appropriate, shall increase the provision of excess military and national security assets in local jurisdictions to assist state and local law enforcement. [00:03:32] So it's not clear what assets they mean or what equipment is going to be available. However, past programs similar to this included police departments getting everything from armored vehicles and tactical equipment and surveillance tech. So here's some more. [00:03:47] Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Attorney General shall determine how military and national security assets, training, nonlethal capabilities, and personnel can most effectively be utilized to prevent crime. [00:04:05] And as you can expect, people are terrified by all of this. As political scientist Joe Monfort writes on net on X, it's truly terrifying. Truly terrifying. Executive order from DJT. All local law enforcement will now use aggressive tactics to police cities. [00:04:22] And when they break the law, those big law firms who caved will represent them pro bono. Martial law is starting. How fun. And as a Texan, there's a picture of all these sheriffs in the Oval Office with Trump. And a lot of them were wearing cowboy hats. [00:04:39] And I find that very unsettling. So but yeah, this is all very predictable. Why wouldn't he try to implement something like this and why wouldn't he do it so quickly? He is doing as much as he can within the first 100 days of his administration. Because he has to, because he knows that these things [00:04:55] are going to catch up with him eventually, unless he does everything he can to prevent that from actually happening. He has been using authoritarian rhetoric and tactics all along, and I don't just mean in the last 100 days of his administration. I mean, from the very start, from when he first started running for [00:05:12] president back in 2015, he has been doing all of the things that authoritarians do all the time from, you know, demonizing educational institutes and universities and school curriculums and books to demonizing and sowing distrust in the media, [00:05:28] to dismantling entire government agencies in the name of government efficiency. That's an authoritarian thing to do, to weaponizing the economy and manipulating the markets, to telling Americans that he alone can fix their problems because he's the chosen one. And now he is otherizing an entire group of people saying they're [00:05:47] the ones to blame for your problems. And he's slowly and consistently expanding the definition of people who belong to that group, declaring them to be terrorists, and then using that designation to justify all kinds of unconstitutional behavior. Of course, martial law is on the table. It has always been on the table. [00:06:05] It was always just a matter of time before we got to this point. So a dictator, wannabe or not, needs to control the masses above all else, especially once those masses start to turn on him. And as Jake said, we are actually going to look at some polling numbers that reflect that in just a little bit. [00:06:22] But at this point, I mean, the only reason that Trump can safely say he isn't a dictator is because he was elected in a democratic election, even though there's evidence to suggest otherwise. But as far as we know, he was duly elected the president. The thing his followers don't seem to understand, because they [00:06:38] don't really seem to study history, is that plenty of dictators throughout history were democratically elected into position Initially before they became dictatorial, before they started dismantling the government from within. And they're able to justify all of their actions by saying, well, this is what the [00:06:56] people wanted because they voted for me. What is different about what Trump is doing right now, and what is different from everything he has done so far in this presidency and everything he said since he started running for office back in 2015. - Jake, what do you make of this? - Yeah. [00:07:13] So look, was he elected in 2016 and 2024, in a fair and square elections? Yes. He was. And so, does that mean that by definition that that means he can't be authoritarian? No, it means he was elected through a democracy. [00:07:30] But there are other terrible leaders, and I don't want to say their names who were elected through a democracy and then ended Democracy Now! But is Trump going to go in that direction? That was the question before this election. And I said, yes, I think he is going to go in that direction. Why did I say that? [00:07:46] Because I knew things like the three hour meeting they had at the white House after he lost, where General Flynn suggested martial law and rolling out the tanks and saying, you know, we'll just say that we won the election and and then, you know, we'll declare martial law and won't let people protest it. [00:08:06] That should have been a three second conversation. That was a three hour conversation. And the only way that Trump was persuaded out of that was his entire administration threatened to quit en masse if he did that. Now, did that work in convincing Americans not to put him back in? [00:08:24] No, it didn't, and that's remarkable. Why? There's several important factors. One is his own supporters, not independents, but MAGA. They won't believe anything mainstream media says. So that's reported mainstream media. So they're like, no, by definition it's false. [00:08:40] Now, to be fair to them, mainstream media has lied so thoroughly about how politicians are honorable and not affected by millions of dollars in donations, and they're not corrupt, and they're having actual philosophical debates in Congress. All these absurdities that mainstream media says. [00:08:57] So they burned that credibility to the ground. So when it came time for them to say, hey, wait, wait, wait, wait, there's a super dangerous guy who says that he is considering martial law even if he loses an election. They didn't believe them because they'd cry wolf too many times. [00:09:14] Right. But it was true. It was true when his chief of staff went into his office and said, they're saying hang Mike pence as they're breaking into the Capitol building. They're going to murder your own vice president. And Trump said he deserved it. That should have been an enormous issue. [00:09:32] But mainstream media had no credibility. So the voters didn't believe them. And it wasn't just MAGA in that case. It was also partly independents and the Democrats get? Democrats talked a big game about. Oh, democracy. Democracy. Meanwhile, they ran a guy. Oh, he's going to end democracy. [00:09:47] But we're running someone who's senile and can't complete a sentence. But we're pretending that this is the most important election of our lifetime, even though we're throwing it. We don't even care about winning. We're literally running someone in mental decline because we're so indifferent [00:10:04] to winning this election. But trust us, he's going to end democracy. Well, they didn't trust you, I tell you all that. And there's a thousand other things to say about it as to why Trump won when all of these tendencies were obvious after he lost the last time, he said, let's terminate the Constitution, how much clearer could he have been? [00:10:24] So now he gets into office and he could. He could. He was popular. He won the popular vote. And the Democratic Party is pathetic for losing to this guy twice. Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. [00:10:39] And what was the only thing they had propping them up? No. We tell everybody in media. Okay, you must support the Democrats. You have no choice. They're never going to deliver for you. And they don't have to deliver for you. They don't ever have to do anything for you. Bow your head and vote against Trump. Well, that was a terrible strategy. [00:10:58] That was not going to work. And so instead we got Trump. And then he comes in and could have been super popular. He won all seven swing states. He closed down the border. And then what did he do? He did what he always does. He wants to be a dictator. [00:11:14] The question is whether he can muster up enough power to do that, or whether the poll numbers and the media, etc. And in this case, I mean independent media, etc. Will be able to push back enough to stop him. And I think the answer is yes. I know a lot of people think the answer is no, but no. [00:11:30] I believe we are strong enough as a country and then enough people will unite to push back and say, no, we're not going to let you be a dictator, even though it's super obvious you want to be one. Talking about martial law, talking about a third term. Talking about sending American citizens to a dungeon in El Salvador. [00:11:47] If you criticize Trump or Israel, all of this is an absurdity. So they finally asked this poll, which is an amazing poll, to ask about any president. I'll do it here in this case. Yes. Let's go to graphic five. Axios says share who say they agree that President Trump is a danger, [00:12:05] quote, a dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy. I mean, that is a loaded question. That is a super harsh question. A dictator who wants to destroy democracy for any given president [00:12:23] that should never rise above 3 or 4%, right? 52%, 52% of Americans say, yes, he's a dangerous dictator. Now, who's trying to destroy Democracy Now! [00:12:39] How pathetic and ridiculous do you have to be as president to get a majority of the country to believe you're trying to destroy our democracy? That's exactly how pathetic and ridiculous Donald Trump is. But look at this. This. The numbers here. Yes, 87% of Democrats. [00:12:55] That's not surprising. 56% of independents think he's a dangerous dictator who's trying to destroy democracy, 56% of independents that the Republicans are going to get hurt so bad in these midterms. [00:13:10] And then even 17% of Republicans, by the way, and I would say to my friends on the left, I. I believed in America. I didn't. We're not talking about hardcore MAGA. I'm saying, will independents and some Republicans break off? [00:13:26] Well, there they are, 56% of independents, seven. Only 100 days in only three months into his Administration. 17% of Republicans are already pulling the chute going. He's a dictator. I'm worried about him. He's trying to destroy democracy. 17% of Republicans. [00:13:43] Okay, one last one is the race and ethnicity. Look, not surprising about a lot of these groups. Although, remember, Latinos voted for Trump. Not 63% of them think he's a dictator. Only three months in. That's amazing. But then look at that last one. 45% of white voters think that he's [00:14:03] a dictator and wants to destroy democracy. It is a person, a candidate who won the popular vote to become this deeply unpopular in 100 days. Well, you got to hand it to him. I mean, that is record breaking. [00:14:21] I didn't realize that incompetence could go this deep. So, yes. Your thoughts? Yeah. You know, it's not like people didn't see this coming. You know, it's not like we haven't been calling stuff like this out long before we even got to this point on shows just like this one. [00:14:38] And I know that you don't like to say I told you so. And I don't want to go there either. But it's one of those things where no one is happy now that we are where we are, or that we were right about any of this. It's just sad because had things gotten better when we first said [00:14:53] things are going in a direction, then we would have been fighting allegations that we were overreacting the whole time. But now here we are. A lot of what people expected or predicted was going to start happening is happening. But it all happened so, so, so slowly. We're like the frog in the boiling hot water, right? [00:15:10] Everything is getting like progressively a little bit worse and we get used to it. Then we deal, then things get a little bit worse and then we deal with it and things go back to normal and we all just kind of retreat back into our own little bubbles, where we can pretend that everything is okay. We can just shut off social media, turn off the news, and pretend that what's [00:15:28] happening out there isn't actually happening, but that is until, you know, you go to your job and you're you're told, you know, get off social media because the things that you've been posting might get you or someone in your family deported, right. These are real things that have happened to people that I know here in Houston. [00:15:43] People who work at very high level jobs have had to had these conversations with their supervisors about the way that they're living their lives in their own homes and their own privacy, or the way that they are, practicing their right to free expression. [00:16:00] Those things can now get them in trouble. And these are just American citizens, right? People who otherwise wouldn't have had to worry about a lot of these things. But here we are, right? And there's it's really hard to go back to some kind of normalcy after we've been living in this reality for ten years now. [00:16:16] It's there. We have an entire generation of people voting age who really don't even remember a world before. All of this craziness has been has been happening. But for all of the uncertainty and all the instability and this whole culture of waking up every morning and seeing what happened. [00:16:33] And you know, what fresh hell has this administration given to us, right? And that's not to say that during the Biden administration, it was a whole lot better. Things were still crazy, right? Even then, you know, even though our president wasn't waking up every morning and tweeting something crazy like Trump did throughout [00:16:50] his entire first administration, we still had to deal with these people, right? It's not like they went away and threw those Biden years. Trump and his supporters were gaining momentum. They were gaining support. And Trump was again, as I as I said earlier in the story, [00:17:06] he was laying out a lot, playing out a lot of the same dictatorial, authoritarian playbooks, things that we have seen repeated in history. And, you know, like you, you said you weren't going to name names. I'm not going to either, because I don't need to. Right. You all know who we're talking about. [00:17:21] Read the history books. It's all there, right? And we all wonder how come they had so much support from all these people? Who are all those people cheering for them at those rallies? It's very simple to see if you just read a history book, how they ended up where they were and how we ended up where we are here today. [00:17:41] Last thing I'll say is, I believe in America. I don't think we're going to get there. I think that the that a lot of people are going to rally and say, enough. No, nobody voted for this. This is madness. And so, yeah, maybe a some hardcore MAGA might have thought, hey, this is great. [00:17:58] I love Steve Bannon's nationalism and and and going backwards and not forward etc.. But the overwhelming majority of Trump voters did not vote for this kind of madness. And now you see it in the polling. So we're all going to push back together. We're going to do it the right way. [00:18:15] We're going to be constructive and productive, and we're going to stop this madness. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true. But it does keep you updated on our live shows.