The press conference between President Donald Trump and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele was a dictatorial political show.
This is most obvious in the discussion of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, where the Trump administration caught a man and then (through its own entry) was wrongly dispatched to the notorious Cecot prison in El Salvador. Two men mocked the court order and asked him to return, which was obviously absurd argument Neither The state can promote Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States.
“This rhetorical game the government is playing, pretending it lacks the ability to demand Abrego Garcia’s return, and Bukele pretending that he is not capable of returning him is an expression of obvious disdain for the Supreme Court and the rule of law.” Adam Serwer of the Atlantic explains.
This is the standard for Buckley courses. Although elected as President of El Salvador, he has since been ruled A dictator outside World Health Organization Indefinitely suspended civil libertiesblatantly infringement Restrictions on Continuous Articles in El Salvador Constitutionand Sending troops into the legislature of El Salvador Force them to vote the way he wants. Buckley doesn’t care what the El Salvador court or the Constitution says; he has enough power to simply do what he wants to do.
Trump’s second term record shows that he desires such power. But he didn’t. He is creating a system of real (even incomplete) institutions in the legal and political opposition. If he simply ignores these restrictions, he could face support from the public, the social elite and even a large number of Republicans. Although Trump wants to be Bucker, he has ruled a country with a more functional democracy, at least so far.
It can turn seemingly healthy democracy into a dictatorship. Just look at Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, perhaps the only elected authoritarian whom American rights admire more than Burkel.
Where Bucker is violent and vicious, Orban is moderate, subtle – systematically manipulating the law to break up democracy while keeping its basic veneer intact. The Trump administration has adopted a version of similar strategies most effectively.
Trump borrowed from both styles at different times and in different ways. His treatment of Abrego Garcia and other immigrants was pure Bukele. His efforts to surrender American universities to his will are pure Alban. However, these styles have direct tension between each other: one has a gorgeous display function, the other is running in the shadow of the law to conceal its true nature. Mashing them together, they are neither people without laws, unable to seize power by force, nor smart enough to avoid a strong backlash.
In short, this unstable mixture could lead to unexpected consequences of U.S. resistance to Trump policies. If that happens, Trump’s strategic landslide could be one of the things that enable American democracy to surpass the presidency.
Trump, between Buckley and Alban
Bookeler is a textbook strongman. His success and popularity are attributed to positive responses to social crises – especially the gang problems and high murder rates in El Salvador. Strength him Asked for resolution of this emergency a few years agoJust like there is no due process to sending suspected gang members to Cecot Gulag, long after the gang violence problem subsides. He appeared in public with the armed men in fatigue and developed a quasi-fascist aesthetic designed to emphasize that he was a strong man willing to do difficult things.
By contrast, Orban won power in the aftermath of the financial crisis and corruption scandal. He did not authorize the task of reducing Hungary’s civil liberties or democracy. At least in the minds of voters, his job is to clean up.
Hence, his method of merging powers is invisible by design, often referred to as good government reform rather than power robbery. Rather than arresting dissident journalists, he manipulated the flow of funds to make their job impossible. Instead of simply ignoring the Hungarian constitution, he modified it in a subtle way, which made it increasingly difficult for the opposition to compete in a just way. He wears a suit, not a uniform.
Each method makes sense in your own country. When Buckley came to power in 2019, El Salvador was in the midst of a crime-induced social collapse. The strength to enforce autocracy is exactly what Bucker needs to sell himself to the public of El Salvador. By contrast, Hungary was until recently a communist dictatorship, and no one wanted to go back. So Alban needs to pretend to follow democratic rules and insist that he is the most authentic, best champion of democracy.
One of my biggest concerns before Trump’s second term was that it would be like Orban’s attack on democracy in 2010. Many of his top allies, such as Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, publicly suggested that the United States needs to replicate Hungarian policies. In fact, some signed Trump 2 operations (such as cutting off federal grant funds to universities) got rid of the Orbán tactics directly.
But Trump’s second term is more than I expected. It was not only him who sent alleged gang members to the El Salvador prison. This is what he does in a gorgeous and obviously illegal way. The naked assertion that the U.S. government has the right to drive immigrants out of the streets and send them overseas without due process, without hope of recycling is too bad for the Hungarian regime. There is no out of reach for the reasons why such things are compatible with the principles of free society.
This dance happens to some extent, because Trump has neither Albarn nor Bucker’s core strengths.
Orbán enjoys a two-thirds majority in parliament, thanks to his ability to favor the election deck. This super joy makes him do more than just passing any law he wants: he actually has the right to vote to amend the constitution at will. Orbán’s greatest threat is the public awakening the true nature of his regime. He therefore ensured that his most dangerous moves were hidden under the opaque bureaucracy and legal officials.
By contrast, Trump faces many formal legal checks. The Republican narrow congressional majority, independent judiciary and federal system all impose real restrictions on Trump’s power. Trying to attack in full swing amid these restrictions will require a degree of patience and subtlety that Trump does not seem to have.
Bukele provides significant support to the public because His authoritarian politics. Many El Salvadors believe his “Mano Dura” policy destroyed the gang that intimidated the community. For these voters, democracy and freedom feel worthy of luxury sacrifice in the name of order and stability.
Instinctively, Trump wants to rule like this. He has long been openly admired the so-called power of the dictator and praised the violent suppression Like the Tiananmen Square Massacre or Extrajudicial enforcement of drug trafficking in the Philippines.
But despite the government’s pointless claims to the contrary, there was no emergency in the United States in 2022, when the country had the highest murder rate in the Americas. Without a serious social crisis, Trump cannot simply assert the power he claimed in the Abrego Garcia case and hopes people join.
The end result is that the Trump administration is trying to implement two different strategies to Americanize: the delicate Hungarian legal system and the cruel Salvador civil liberties repression. Both, however, depend on mutually exclusive theory of how to win public support – one hidden authoritarianism hidden beneath the democratic veneer, and another that demands strongman demonstrations.
This combination may end up working for Trump. But I doubt it would be earlier than he thought.
