"So it’s no surprise that the signs of a potential backfire are growing. Unlike Mussolini and Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump still operates in a democracy. He was unable to consolidate power before becoming unpopular, and he seems unlikely to recover his higher approval ratings. A majority of Americans don’t support his efforts to gain control of Greenland and how he is handling the war in Ukraine. The brutality and thuggishness of masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are also unpopular.Mr. Trump’s behavior during a recent address to the nation suggests he is aware of cooling public sentiment. He shouted at times, as though he felt fewer people were listening. He repeated old lines about fixing the messes of others and newer lines about being a peacemaker, but the magic that brought so many to him may be dissipating. “Confidence fading. Can’t lie through the reality anymore,” Owen Shroyer, a former Infowars host whom Mr. Trump pardoned for his activities on Jan. 6, commented on X. “His base has turned. He knows it. Ego damaged. Swagger lost.”It is well documented that strongmen are at their most dangerous when they feel threatened. That is why, as popular discontent with the Trump administration’s actions deepens, Americans should brace for heightened militarized domestic repression and more imperialist aggression abroad.(...)Even if a struggling strongman manages to stay in power, once his carefully crafted image is tarnished, a collective reckoning can begin with the costs of his corruption and lying. Once a leader proclaims, “I am the only one that matters” and sits alone at the top of the pinnacle of power, it is hard for him to escape blame, no matter how many officials and former friends he purges. He is more vulnerable to being removed or, at the very least, judged — by lawmakers, by courts, at the polls and, perhaps most lastingly, by history."nytimes.com/2026/02/01/opinion#USA #Trump #History #Mussolini #Putin #Fascism #Authoritarianism
