Unchecked absolute power in the hands of any president would likely turn him into a dictator, as the founding fathers knew all too well. Is our country lapsing into dictatorship? It seems that currently an attempt may be being made to consolidate power in the hands of our current president, Donald Trump.

Currently the majority of both chambers of Congress are occupied by the same political party as the president. While in theory power in the United States remains separated between Congress and the White House, that may not be the case at this point in time as many if not most in Congress seem to be operating in unison with the president.

A strong check on any president becoming a dictator resides in the judiciary, yet the check from this branch of the United States government is imminently at risk.

“Top Trump administration officials are openly questioning the judiciary’s authority to serve as a check on executive power as the president’s sweeping agenda faces growing pushback from the courts.” according to the San Diego Union Tribune.

In a 2024 televised interview with Fox News, Donald Trump said he would be a dictator on day one. Nevertheless, he did say that he would give up his claim to a dictatorship after one day and, presumably, the absolute power that goes with it

The question is, considering his behavior along with current trends, will he keep his word?

Trump has in the past said he would terminate the constitution. He has also said he would revoke security clearances of former government officials. Of others, Trump said he intended to “take away every right they have.”

And in a 2024 interview with Time Magazine, Trump was asked why many Americans view dictatorship as going against our most cherished principles. Trump said it doesn’t. Quite the contrary, he says. “I think a lot of people like it.”

These considerations among others make one wonder whether he will make good on his promise to give up dictatorship if he were to achieve it.

It even appears that Trump was already hailed a dictator during a speech given by Elon Musk—now head of the Department of Government Efficiency—at Trump’s Presidential inauguration where Musk, after giving the Nazi salute twice, could hardly suppress a laugh at what seems the ruse played on the American people.

At no time in the history of the United States has freedom of speech hung by such a tenuous thread now that the most powerful man in the world has allied himself with the richest man in the world, the combined power of which would strike fear in anyone who contemplates the implications.

Yet, however daunting those implications may be, we must not be afraid to stand up for the right of citizens to speak out in protest.

The appearance of Donald Trump as a dictator may turn out to be no more than an illusory specter. However, freedom of speech could be in jeopardy if the current administration’s power expands given the way events are playing out on the national stage.

Risking self-preservation becomes necessary if one wants to preserve freedom of speech as a societal safeguard when the potential for its elimination is impending. Nonetheless, protesting violently can play right into a dictator’s hands.

Dictators often establish themselves by fanning the flames of lawlessness. As the philosopher Mortimer J. Adler put it, “Moderns and ancients alike fear the susceptibility of the mob to the wiles of the demagogue, who encourages their lawlessness in order to take the law into his own hands.”

If our country is to remain free from despotic rule, we must retain the right to speak freely and openly by standing together as Americans. But standing together means overcoming the need to use violence to effect one’s purposes. That’s because violence divides us, whereas non-violence unites us. As the adage observes, “United we stand. Divided we fall.”

Indeed, the use of violence could very well backfire as a political tactic in the United States since the President has the authority to deputize the military to act as a police force at any time. In so doing, Trump could use precisely the method by which would-be dictators take over a country and establish military rule — by turning the military on the public. Declaring martial law is always an option for any President.

Just as the United States of America is made up of united states, so we the people must stay united in defense of freedom of speech with whatever disobedience necessary that is civil. Trump’s polarizing rhetoric has already fractured the foundation of American Democracy. We must not let it collapse, neither under the weight of dictatorial intimidation nor reactionary violence.

Civil freedom of speech is the last lifeline by which civil society can preserve itself. Without this life preserver, life lived with liberty will not even exist in the shadows of America, and the inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness in this land of the free and home of the brave will be a thing of the past.

Yet speak out we must if free speech comes under fire. Society does not have to consign its ideals to oblivion. While turpitude is an ineradicable element of any political dispensation, it need not hold an interminable ascendency

There’s hope that we may find our way out of this societal predicament if we can recognize that absolute government cannot withstand resolute citizens who are unafraid to exercise and protect freedom of speech.

The idealists who bear the standard of hope today and for thousands of years have found their self-sustenance in aspiring to emulate the world-reformers who have transformed civilization through their teachings of non-violence. They have been willing to risk their lives to keep hope alive, and I daresay so must we too be willing to muster such courage if we want to preserve freedom of speech.

And so, in recognition of the power of non-violent freedom of speech, let’s remember the courage of Martin Luther King, Jr. and share in

his dream of an America that declares we will not be satisfied until freedom rings for everyone all across the land.

Let’s remember the words of Mahatma Ghandi who knew we must not submit to the nebulously cloaked changes that tyrants seek to surreptitiously establish by slow and subtle degrees. In his words, “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.”

Let’s remember the conviction of Abraham Lincoln who put his life on the line to uphold the Declaration that all men were created equal. He gave his life for this ideal, just as he gave America a land where all men and women can be free.

And last but not least, let’s not forget Alexi Navalny, the Russian champion of freedom who recently lost his life at the hands of Vladimir Putin for speaking truth to power.

Let’s remember his fate as a tocsin of unmistakable alarm to warn us of our future peril if we let any President’s governmental overhaul serve a means of vesting itself with absolute power.

Let’s hope Trump loves his country more than absolute power, for as the 19th-century historian Lord Acton said, “Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”