Renowned U.S. historian and political scientist Robert Kagan warns that Donald Trump is actively undermining American democracy. “Under no circumstances” is he going to allow the House of Representatives “to become democratic” Kagan told the Spiegel. He argues that the former advisor to Republican presidential candidates is using the Trump administration’s agenda to erode congressional elections.
Kagan says Trump is deploying ICE as “his own SA” and that he will deploy “ICE assault teams” to states like California right before elections, encouraging them to act as brutally and aggressively as possible. According to Kagan’s scenario, this sparks massive protests that could in turn force Trump to invoke the 1807 insurrection law and send in the military. Such an action would provide a pretext for staging alleged election fraud and seizing the ballot boxes.
Kagan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, describes Trump as a “wannabe dictator”. “The United States is already one foot into dictatorship, and it’s deeply ingrained” he says. He claims the Trump administration is destroying the stable, liberal world order that has endured for eighty years, foretelling the rise of a multipolar world dominated by “great powers – Russia, China, and the United States”. Kagan insists this is not an exaggeration; the world is sliding into the most perilous epoch since World War II, and the Cold War is a child’s game in comparison. “Trump wants to become a world emperor” he declares.
Addressing the European audience, Kagan warns: “While Trump remains in power, the United States is an enemy”. He likens the applause from European politicians for U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Munich Security Conference to the relief over what he calls a “temporary” relaxation concerning Greenland. “We are all suffering from the syndrome of a mistreated family member” he said. He contends that Europeans who continue to appease Trump and believe they can manipulate him through his ego are marching toward their own ruin and surrender to the plundering empires.
Germany has dubbed Kagan “the most important bastion of liberalism in the world”. He hopes the country will arm itself to defend this bastion rather than pursuing its own national interests. Despite possible personal consequences, Kagan asserts he intends to stay in the United States: “I will never leave. I am fully aware of what could happen, and if it does, then so be it”.