American Autocracy Threat Tracker

Former President Donald Trump has said he will be a dictator on “day one.” He and his advisors and associates have publicly discussed hundreds of actions to be taken during a second Trump presidency that directly threaten democracy. These vary from Trump breaking the law and abusing power in areas like immigration roundups and energy extraction; to summarily and baselessly firing tens of thousands of civil servants whom he perceives as adversaries; to prosecuting his political opponents for personal gain and even hinting at executing some of them. We track all of these promises, plans, and pronouncements here and we will continue to update them in real time.

We assess there is a significant risk of autocracy should Trump regain the presidency. Trump has said he would deploy the military against civilian protestors and his advisors have developed plans for using the Insurrection Act, said he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act to conduct deportations of non-citizens, continued to threaten legally-established abortion rights, and even had his lawyers argue that a president should be immune from prosecution if he directed SEAL Team Six to assassinate his political enemies. Trump also seeks the power to protect his personal wealth as he faces staggering civil fines, and to bolster his immunity as he faces 91 criminal charges in prosecutions in different parts of the country.

This work is useful because so many of us tune out Trump’s speeches and Truth Social posts, but these people are taking him seriously and paying close attention to his threats

For example, the “progressive “ Palestinian activists in Michigan seeking to withhold support for Biden until he cuts off US military aid to Israel should be paying attention to this:

Trump has said he plans to reimpose and expand his administration’s previous predominantly Muslim country travel ban.

July 7, 2023, Iowa: Trump said, “When I return to office, the travel ban is coming back even bigger than before and much stronger than before. We don’t want people blowing up our shopping centers. We don’t want people blowing up our cities. And we don’t want people stealing our farms.”

Oct. 17, 2023, Newsweek op-ed, Trump said: “we are going to expand each and every ban to keep America safe. We aren’t bringing in anyone from Gaza or Syria or Somalia or Yemen, or Libya, or anywhere else that threatens our security.”

Oct. 16, 2023, Clive, Iowa: Trump said, “As I’ve already said many, many times before, I will immediately reinstate and expand the wildly successful Trump travel ban…We aren’t bringing in anyone from Gaza, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, or Libya, or anywhere else that threatens our security.”

Sept. 20, 2023, Iowa: Trump said he would “expand” the ban “even further to keep Radical Islamic Terrorists out of our country.”

And this:

Trump plans to use ideological purity tests for immigrant applicants and to deport resident aliens–foreign nationals who are in the U.S. legally. In pledging to disqualify immigrants who sympathize with islamic terrorists, Trump has lumped in groups he characterizes as communists, Marxists, and fascists. Trump’s “strong ideological screening” reportedly will be led by U.S. consular officials, with screening to include searching social media accounts (a practice that began under the Trump administration). Note that ICE and top White House lawyers under the former Trump administration concluded that ideological screenings on foreign nationals would be illegal to implement.

Oct. 17, 2023, Newsweek op-ed, Trump said: “Next, we will implement strong ideological screening for all immigrants to the United States. No longer will we allow dangerous lunatics, haters, bigots, and maniacs to get residency in our country. If you empathize with Radical Islamic terrorists and extremists, you’re disqualified. If you want to abolish the state of Israel, you’re disqualified. If you support Hamas or the ideology behind Hamas, you’re disqualified. And if you’re a Communist, Marxist, or Fascist, you are disqualified.”

Oct. 17, 2023, Newsweek op-ed, Trump said: “Under my administration, we will proactively send ICE to pro-jihadist demonstrations to enforce our immigration laws and remove the violators from our country.”

Oct 16, 2023, Iowa: Trump said, “Next we will implement strong ideological screening of all immigrants to the United States. No longer will we allow dangerous lunatics, haters, bigots, and maniacs to get residency in our country. We’re not gonna let them stay here. We’re…gonna have the largest deportation effort in history.”

Oct. 16, 2023, Iowa: Trump said, “If you empathize with Radical Islamic terrorists and extremists, you’re disqualified. You’re just disqualified. If you want to abolish the state of Israel, you’re disqualified. If you support Hamas or the ideology that’s having to do with that, or any of the other really sick thoughts that go through people’s minds, very dangerous thoughts. You’re disqualified if you’re a Communist, a Marxist, or a Fascist, other than the people that are already here you are, of which many are in the Biden administration, you’re disqualified. We’d like to get them out too. Maybe we’ll work on that.”

Oct. 16, 2023, Iowa: Trump said, “We’ll aggressively deport resident aliens with jihadist sympathies. We have to.”

Sept. 20, 2023, Iowa: Trump said he would use existing law to “expand” his travel ban and “deny entry” into the U.S. for “communists and Marxists.”

June 24, 2023, Washington, DC: Trump said he would use Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to “order my government to deny entry to all communists and all Marxists.” “Those who come to enjoy our country must love our country.” “We’re going to keep foreign, Christian-hating communists, Marxists and socialists out of America.” Trump also said that there was a need for a “new law” to address Americans he characterizes as communists and Marxists but didn’t elaborate any further.