Journalist Julia Ioffe’s warning that “an infrastructure is being built to allow Donald Trump to stay in office indefinitely” captures a truth too many Americans refuse to confront—that authoritarianism in the modern age doesn’t announce itself with coups, it constructs itself in plain sight. Ioffe notes that the speed at which Trump has hollowed out America’s institutions—the courts, the legislature, every check and balance—and the ease with which private industry has “bent the knee rather than risk their profits,” marks a transformation both alarming and deliberate. The East Wing’s reconstruction, the dismissal of oversight commissions, and the casual talk of third terms are not isolated events but pieces of a political architecture designed for permanence. “He’s essentially dissolved Parliament,” Ioffe observed, warning that a future Speaker could refuse to seat elected Democrats after the 2026 midterms, rendering the United States a one-party state “in the way Hungary or Russia are.”

Her words echo the timeless insight of Ida B. Wells: “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” In an era when even truth feels negotiable, Ioffe’s warning is more than journalism—it is an act of illumination, a plea for Americans to see what is being built before the walls close around them. Continue reading →