Jan. 6 pardons are Trump’s first stop on the road to authoritarianism

How many of you recall the TV image on Jan. 6, 2021, of Officer Daniel Hodges, squashed in a revolving door at the U.S. Capitol, screaming for help as MAGA thugs beat on his head?

“Some called me a traitor, and someone reached under my helmet and tried to gouge out my eye,” Hodges recalled last week on CNN, “and all were pardoned by Donald Trump.” Including the thug who tried to blind Hodges.

But according to President Trump, in a Wednesday interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, what happened “were very minor incidents.” That is how he is justifying his pardons and commutations for over 1,500 MAGA supporters, many sentenced for extreme violence and sedition, including the heads of the white nationalist Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.

Newly freed MAGA cop bashers once again roamed the Capitol and bragged of their readiness to use guns if Trump called on them.

This casts my mind back to decades of reporting from the Soviet Union, Russia, communist Eastern Europe, the Mideast, and Asia, where I watched how authoritarian rulers destroyed any vestige of the rule of law and crushed their “enemies within” — sometimes gradually, sometimes quickly. It is stunning how many steps Trump has taken in one week that closely follow the autocrats’ playbook, whether from instinct or because he has watched Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán operate with few or no limits.

It is important people recognize the links between Trump’s imitation of the playbook, and where that may eventually lead. Some links are obvious, some less so. Here are a few examples.

One of the first steps taken by Soviet leaders to control their population was to take control of history and airbrush anything they didn’t want their people to see. Literally. Disgraced or executed party leaders were airbrushed out of photos.

When the Soviet Union was dissolved, a brave group called Memorial emerged that burrowed into newly opened archives and revealed the true, brutal history of the Communist Party. Putin has shut down Memorial and is now writing his own history of the Russian empire, which he uses to justify his invasion of Ukraine, which he claims is nothing but a rebel Russian republic. Russian TV blacks out almost all news of Russian military losses. And fed constant propaganda, most Russians appear to believe Putin or find it safer to keep silent.

Trump has had amazing success in selling airbrushed history to his followers. To this day, he never stops repeating his Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen, despite endless available footage of what we saw at the time with our own eyes: The election was free and fair, with every credible claim of cheating investigated over and over, including state tallies.

Yet, millions of MAGA followers — despite all the facts available — prefer to believe Trump. They follow a MAGA ecosystem that amplifies his lies, which he has used as the groundwork to rewrite the events of Jan. 6 into a peaceful patriotic demonstration, after which wannabe cop killers became “hostages” held by the enemy deep state. All the while he denies the violence we all saw with our own eyes.

Putin repeats the words enemies within like a mantra and insists anyone who challenges him is a traitor who must be jailed — or worse. This justifies strengthening mechanisms to purge these so-called enemies. That, in turn, frightens most dissenters and distracts the public when Putin fails to fulfill the economic promises he’s made.

Trump spent the better part of his speeches and interviews last week obsessing over the wrongs done him in the past, including the investigation into his efforts to overturn a free election. This obsession led to the freeing of the Jan. 6 criminals who are now standing by for future orders. The president has also given a clear signal to other MAGA vigilantes that they may be needed soon.

Putin does by baring his chest. Trump openly trashed former President Joe Biden as he stood beside him in inaugural ceremonies, and did so again in his address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The audience gasped.

This was the method East German secret police, or Stasi, used to control the population. Now Trump has demanded government workers squeal on any “secret” effort to implement principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

There are many ways to make this clear. Putin assassinates or poisons opponents or critics. Trump can’t imitate that. But he has already made clear there is much he can and will do.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan bankrupts media and corporate opponents with endless lawsuits. This has become a regular Trump threat. Hungary’s Orbán gets his oligarch friends to help bankrupt and then buy out leading newspapers and TV stations. Trump has already gotten billionaire media owners to bow.

Judging by his first week back in office, the Trump administration appears set to spend as much time trying to punish any Democrats or Republicans who crossed him as he does pursuing his economic and immigration goals.

Trump’s choices for key national security posts were picked not because they had experience or character, but because they were attack dogs, pledged to spend their time weeding out “woke” generals (i.e., those who obey the law and the Constitution) or investigating those who investigated the events of Jan. 6.

The wannabe autocrat has made clear he will use the FBI as did J. Edgar Hoover, primarily to pursue his political enemies, rather than deal with renewed terrorist threats at home. Kash Patel, his nominee for FBI chief, has no qualifications except his willingness to serve as an executor of Trump’s retribution.

As a sign of just how low Trump’s efforts can sink: He just removed security protection from his former national security adviser John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo because of their criticism of his policies — even though both have been threatened by Iran. In other words, even though he can’t send them to Siberia, he cares not if Tehran blows them up.

Trump is not disguising his authoritarian bent, but too many followers prefer to ignore it in hopes of tax cuts (for the rich) or a drop in the price of gas or eggs. Unless Americans, our courts, and patriotic legislators are willing to stand up for the law and the Constitution, we are launched on a slippery slope that can only end in a nondemocratic state.