For Trump, Democracies, not Autocracies, are the Problem
Helping autocracies "do great" may be the plan for foreign relations
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Today I published a guest essay in the New York Times on how President Trump’s nomination of former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for the position of Director of National Intelligence signals that his administration may be welcoming to autocrats. An open letter signed by nearly 100 former U.S. diplomatic, intelligence and national security officials asserts that Gabbard has a “sympathy for dictators.” The essay, timed for her confirmation hearing, focuses on the potential dangers for our national security of having Ms. Gabbard in that sensitive position.
Here I want to build on a central argument of that essay that concerns Trump as well. The president does not hide his admiration for autocrats such as Chinese head of state Xi Jinping. Yet many of his statements on foreign affairs suggest he has internalized an autocratic view of geopolitics that blames democracies for creating international conflict. He and Gabbard are kindred spirits in this regard.
When Trump asserts that President Joe Biden and his administration provoked Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine by supporting Ukraine’s bid to join NATO, “almost forcing [President Vladimir Putin] to go in,” he is echoing Kremlin talking points that justify the imperialist war as Russia’s legitimate defense in the face of hostile democratic interference.
Trump is sometimes seen as an isolationist, but there is nothing neutral about his apparent antipathy to democracies, starting with his announcement of a potential expansion of the United States at the expense of Canada and Denmark. Nor is there anything neutral about a potential United States withdrawal from NATO, which Trump’s former White House national security advisor John Bolton sees as likely. Such a move would leave European democracies far less defended against autocratic aggressions.
Then there is Trump’s campaign to convince Americans to see murderous dictatorships as potential allies rather than as adversaries. “If you have a smart president, they’re not enemies,” President-elect Donald Trump said of Russia, China, and North Korea at a campaign rally in Virginia In June 2024. “You’ll make them do great.”
In case his message was not clear enough, he declared in October 2024 that America’s “enemy from within…the people actually running the government,” —United States Democrats—are “more dangerous…than Russia and China and other people.” In what world is Joe Biden more dangerous than Vladimir Putin? In the autocratic world, which views democracies as existential threats.
Remember that campaign video that made news because it called for the “creation of a unified Reich” in America? It also laid out a vision for a new international order in which a cabal of “globalist warmongers” –code for democracies—would be replaced by “cooperation between strong, sovereign nations.”
For Trump, it seems that democracies, not autocracies, are the problematic actors in the world.
Some may say that Trump’s tough campaign stance on Communist China as an economic rival, and the GOP-backed messaging about imposing steep tariffs on the country, weaken my argument. Well, I have long suspected that the idea of tariffs was a distraction, and a bone thrown to anti-Communist hawks within his party and among his base.
Never forget that China has been a source of funding for Trump’s businesses, both through the trademarks he and his daughter Ivanka continued to obtain throughout the first half of his last presidency, and the more than $5 million Chinese government and state-controlled entities spent at Trump properties during that first term.
If you think like an autocrat, it is no surprise that now Trump is in office he suddenly declares that he would rather not impose sanctions on China. “We look forward to doing very well with China and getting along with China, Trump declared during his virtual presentation at the World Economic Forum. Guess who is apparently having 25% tariffs imposed on them? The democracies of Canada and Mexico.
Some China experts were taken aback at this shift of tone. “Can we all admit how incredibly strange it is that Trump’s top defense official for Southeast Asia is whitewashing the Belt and Road initiative, pushing for a ‘managed competition’ paradigm with Beijing and calling for ‘peaceful coexistence’ with the Chinese Communist Party?,” wrote Michael Sobolik, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, on X.
In fact, many measures and proposals of the new administration have the potential to make it easier for the Chinese dictatorship prosper and expand its influence in the world. Harming United States industries directed at climate crisis mitigation, such as the wind power sector, makes it easier for China to move forward with its capture of the clean energy space. And what is the rationale for the idea of removing U.S. military forces and weapon systems from the Philippines just when China has become markedly more aggressive in its military exercises in the region?
As Anne Applebaum observes in her latest book, authoritarian regimes are increasingly working together to meet their goals of “damaging democracies and democratic values, inside their own countries and around the world.” With Trump at the helm, the United States will likely pivot to contributing to this collective autocratic goal, to the detriment of the American soft and hard power and the American economy.
I guess the term Reich would explain it but the constant Nazi fetishism is terrifying. We can’t allow normalization of this behavior.
Professor Ben-Ghiat's NYT essay also made the incisive point that authoritarian regimes seek to gut democracies by replacing knowledgeable and experienced agency officials with inexperienced appointees who become even more beholden and dependent upon the autocrat. As she noted, Orban's Hungary is a prime example.