Donald Trump’s baffling behaviour can no longer be ignored – this president now rules like a dictator

Authoritarianism is like a weed. At first it grows almost unnoticed, slowly establishing itself, shifting the earth bit by bit, until there it is, grabbing hold of the crops and throttling them.

Donald Trump’s latest performance should be viewed through that lens.

The tweeter in chief had a busy day yesterday. He trashed longtime ally Denmark, calling its prime minister “nasty” for refusing to discuss selling Greenland to the US.

He unveiled new rules, allowing the US government to detain migrant families indefinitely while their asylum cases are judged, while somehow managing to get away with blaming his predecessor Barack Obama for his own policy of separating families at the border.

He said he was loved by survivors of mass shootings, hinted at defying the US constitution by standing for a third term, took fresh potshots at the media, suggested he be awarded the Medal of Honour despite dodging the draft.

It was an extraordinary day even by his standards. But we’ve had an awful lot of those extraordinary days, haven’t we. And through their very ubiquity, they’re becoming a lot less extraordinary than when he began his rise to political prominence.

Each time the president has a hissy fit, each time he puts in a performance like yesterday’s, there are less and less people who say, he said that? He actually said that?

The Conservative media machine swings into gear, simultaneously justifying and diverting attention away from the outrage, and everyone just shrugs and wonders who’s going to win on Jeopardy!.

In the process the goal line moves a little bit, until the unthinkable is suddenly a part of mainstream debate and, well, why can’t we contemplate a third Trump term? Eisenhower got four, after all. And aren’t we in the middle of a crisis like then? Except this time we have an army of “dirty migrants” threatening our borders, bringing in drugs and crime and disease, in a way that Germany and Japan never did.

Unconstitutional? Except on the subject of the second amendment, the US constitution is a lot more malleable than you’d think especially if you populate the Supreme Court with judges who can be relied upon to back you up. Just ask George W Bush, with his wars and his Gitmo, his extraordinary rendition and his enhanced interrogation methods.

They came in reaction to an extraordinary event: 9/11. And even Bush would have baulked at a putting in a performance like Trump’s (he’s no fan).

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But what Bush did does rather show what you can do if you have the will and the means to justify it. If there isn’t a real threat available, something can easily be manufactured, which takes us back to the fuss about the Southern border and the threat those seeking to pass through it allegedly pose, even though the biggest danger to the average American is a white guy with a grudge and easy access to military grade weaponry.

The most interesting reaction to one of the various things Trump said yesterday came courtesy not of one Fox News’s prime time attack dogs, but from Greg Gutfeld, who serves as the network’s satirist and occasionally pokes his nose out of its orthodoxy.

He delivered a monologue during which he said: “Whether it’s Greenland, (Ilhan) Omar, or Sleepy Joe (Biden) all you’re watching is a show. Those people are just comic sidekicks. Trump has turned his presidency into his dream job, a talkshow on wheels.

“Effectively this is not just a presidency, it’s the Truman Show redone as the Trump show… The danger is following the media’s lead in getting obsessed by this. To them it’s the Game of Trump and they’re binging on it, reacting to every new plot twist. And that’s just not healthy. Let’s sit back, enjoy the show, until of course someone loses an eye.”

So chill out, laugh a little. This stuff? It’s just entertainment and should be taken as such.

But it isn’t. Because of the forces Trump has casually unleashed people have already lost far more than just an eye. And that authoritarian weed? It’s just keep on growing.

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