In all my years of being a watcher of politics in the US, it is Trump that has made me to fully realize that this American-model Presidency is truly an elected dictatorship - or could easily be-, and hence may not be suitable for a society, particularly a developing nation, intrinsically inclined to authoritarianism.
A compliant Legislature and packed Judiciary can be quite overwhelmed and bewildered by it, and would not know what to do about it. Furthermore, in a digital world dominated by Social Media - and regaled by daily tweets from a President who clearly interferes in things great and small, including judicial processes involving him, even the Fourth Estate - the Press - is under siege, and is reduced to shouting and shouting, without being sure that its voice can be heard above the daily din.
Here is a man Trump who lost the popular vote and won the Presidency through the skin of his teeth by the Electoral College, yet behaving at home and abroad as if he is the most popular President since Abraham Lincoln. He has been ruling virtually by Executive Order - something I (weakly confess) knew was used before, but not as often as this fellow has done in his nineteen months in office. An EO is quite a powerful tool in the hands of an Executive - I like Buhari’s recent EO-6, for example - but it would be sanctioned dictatorship if used as often as Trump has!
The day the US would look inward seriously would be when the State Department tries to be sanctimonious towards a foreign government's internal dealings, and that government gives it a well-delivered and measured tongue-lashing about its internal state of democracy under Trump. I admit that that government cannot be Nigeria at this time - for many tactical and strategic reasons!
True some courts are pushing against Trump’s excesses - and Mueller and Cohen are lurking - but something is still rotten in Denmark, very wrong in Denmark.
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