The Roots of Trump’s Dictator Fetish
On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Jacob Heilbrunn on the American right’s long history of opposing democracy.
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The Roots of Trump’s Dictator Fetish | The Time of Monsters
On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Jeet Heer talks to Jacob Heilbrunn about the American right’s long history of opposing democracy.
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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, US President Donald Trump, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Australia Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, link hands during the Opening ceremony of the 31st ASEAN Summit in Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) in Manila on November 13, 2017.
(Noel Celis / AFP via Getty Images)Donald Trump recently hosted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, praising the would be autocrat to the skies as “fantastic” and “a boss.” Of course Trump’s love of autocrats is nothing new. As CNN reports:
In general, Trump has been more willing to engage leaders the previous administration froze out because of antidemocratic practices. Trump has cultivated ties to global strongmen such as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Chinese President Xi Jinping—not to mention his two summits with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un or his general warmth toward Russian President Vladimir Putin.
CNN
Jacob Heilbrunn has written a valuable new book, America Last: The Right’s Century-Long Romance with Foreign Dictators, that places Trump’s love of dictators in a larger historical context. I wrote about the book in this column, where I summarize his arguments and take issue with a few of his claims.
I was happy to talk to Jacob both about his findings and also places where we disagree.
The Nation Podcasts
Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
Project 2025 For Real w/Chris Lehmann | Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
Running for president last year, Donald Trump disowned Project 2025, the laundry list of radical demands gathered together by right-wing think tanks. Trump claimed Project 2025 had no influence on him and was only being raised by Democrats as a political attack. But now Trump is in power, he’s enacting an agenda of dismantling the welfare state that is following Project 2025 in close detail, as my Nation colleague Chris Lehmann documented in a recent column.
Chris and Jeet Heer talk about Trump’s mobilization of Christian nationalist ideologues in the service of a making the state subservient to big business. We also take up the remarkable supine Democratic Party response, and also possible sources of resistance in the courts, the federal government and, most crucially, from outraged public opinion mobilized into protest.
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