“Trump Declares Dubious Emergencies to Amass Power, Scholars Say.” That’s a headline from a story in the New York
Can Musk beat Trump in a battle of Strict Father morality?
Yesterday, I joined historian Heather Cox Richardson to discuss Curtis Yarvin, a blogger whose extreme anti-democracy ideas are influencing the
“Trump Declares Dubious Emergencies to Amass Power, Scholars Say.”
That’s a headline from a story in the New York Times. Here is a gift link to read it:
“He is declaring utterly bogus emergencies for the sake of trying to expand his power, undermine the Constitution and destroy civil liberties,” Ilya Somin, a libertarian professor at Antonin Scalia Law School, told the Times.
This has been obvious for while. Back in April, I wrote about how Trump had fabricated a crisis in order to start a global trade war:
Trump is inventing crises and then using them to justify sweeping actions. He's taken a manageable, misunderstood concept and turned it into a "national emergency" — not because it is one, but because the emergency frame gives him cover to act recklessly and consolidate power.
This tactic isn't new. Nazi legal theorist Carl Schmitt called it the state of exception — when an emergency, real or invented, is used to suspend norms and rewrite the rules. Authoritarians throughout history have used this exact concept to consolidate power.
In Surviving Autocracy, journalist Masha Gessen, who witnessed Vladimir Putin’s rise in Russia, writes:
In Schmitt’s terms, a state of exception arises when an emergency, a singular event, shakes up the accepted order of things. This is when the sovereign steps forward and institutes new, extralegal rules. The emergency enables a quantum leap: Having amassed enough power to declare a state of exception, the sovereign then, by that declaration, acquires far greater, unchecked power. That is what makes the change irreversible, and the state of exception permanent.
“Fake emergencies and ‘invasions’ are classic authoritarianism,” says Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.
On June 14, Trump will spend up to $45 million in taxpayer funds to throw himself a military parade for his 79th birthday. This is the kind of thing we see in Russia or North Korea, not in the United States. Trump’s military parade, along with his deployment of troops to Democratic cities like Los Angeles, shows that he is pursuing autocracy.
But Trump seems destined to overplay his hand. A new poll from YouGov shows that only 34% of Americans approve of his deployment of U.S. Marines to Los Angeles. Americans recognize authoritarianism when they see it.
“What we’re witnessing is not law enforcement — it’s authoritarianism,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom during a televised address last night. “What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty. Your silence. To be complicit in this moment. Do not give in to him.”
The reality is clear: Trump is pursuing a documented authoritarian strategy. When he fabricates emergencies to bypass democratic processes, he's following a playbook that has long been used to dismantle democracies. Each manufactured crisis is designed to normalize his illegal power grabs. We cannot let that happen.
Trump’s emergency frame has a specific purpose: to short-circuit democratic deliberation by exploiting our instinct to defer to authority during perceived threats. Trump transforms routine governance challenges into existential crises — then pushes for extraordinary measures. What begins as “temporary” emergency powers becomes the new baseline for presidential authority.
Expose Trump’s strategy. Say “Trump is following the dictator playbook and creating a crisis. Authoritarians create fake emergencies to seize power and destroy democracy.” Do your part to make this common knowledge. Don’t debate whether the issue is really an emergency. Keep Trump as the active agent creating the deception. Tell your friends, families and neighbors: This is how democracies fall—through fake emergencies that justify dismantling democratic safeguards, not dramatic coups.
Each fabricated emergency weakens the constitutional barriers protecting our freedoms. Frame it as a pattern — cumulative structural harm, not isolated incidents. Never let it become normalized.
Remember: It’s not enough to be against Trump. Always present a better vision. We stand for American values, including a constitutional democracy where power belongs to the people, not a despot.We believe in the rule of law that applies equally to everyone, including presidents. We uphold the Constitution as the foundation of American freedom, not an obstacle to be bypassed when convenient.
Trump wants to put on a show of strength to hide his weakness. But we, the people, must be stronger. On Saturday, June 14, the same day as Trump’s sad little birthday parade, millions of Americans will take to the streets in peaceful protest. They will declare “No Kings” in a nationwide demonstration of people power. Click here to find an event near you.
From the No Kings website:
WHAT IS “NO KINGS”?
NO KINGS is a national day of action and mass mobilization in response to the increasing authoritarian excesses and corruption of the Trump administration. We’ve watched as they’ve cracked down on free speech, detained people for their political positions, threatened to deport American citizens, and defied the courts. They’ve done this all while continuing to serve and enrich their billionaire allies. They think they rule—but we are bigger than even their worst aspirations.
President Trump is planning a military parade in Washington, D.C. on June 14. This display of might is intended to intimidate opponents and solidify his image as a strongman on our dime—we won’t stand by while that happens.
Instead of allowing this military parade to be the center of gravity, we will make action everywhere else the story of America that day: people coming together in communities across the country to reject strongman politics and corruption.
Alongside local organizers, partners, and leaders from across the pro-democracy & pro-worker movement, we will demonstrate organized people power that outpaces any authoritarian aspirations.
Subscribe