Queer MSNBC host Rachel Maddow warns of growing US ‘dictatorship’ under Trump

Aug 11
Written by Amelia Hansford

MSNBC Rachel Maddow branded the US government as ‘authoritarian’. (Getty)

MSNBC Rachel Maddow branded the US government as 'authoritarian'. (Getty)

TV presenter Rachel Maddow has issued a grave warning about a growing “dictatorship” under Donald Trump.

The MSNBC host branded the president a “cartoon-level caricature” of “authoritarian” leadership, while discussing the state of US politics. Speaking on Sunday (10 August), Maddow said life was “profoundly changing” at a rapid pace, primarily due to the Trump administration.

She pointed to the wave of arrests made by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents since Trump’s return to power. As of June, at least 51,000 people have been detained, with many being deported.

“We have a consolidating dictatorship in this country,” Maddow said. “It sounds melodramatic but just go with that for a minute. Think in melodramatic terms, think in cinematic terms. Imagine the cartoon-level caricature of what you think a dictatorship looks like.

@msnbc
“We have a consolidating dictatorship in our country.” Rachel Maddow discusses what life in the United States has felt like under the Trump administration and their use of “secret police” to go after immigrants in this country. “Life has not stopped and none of our personal lives have stopped,” said Maddow, “But also at the same time, life in the United States is profoundly changing, is profoundly different than it was even six months ago.”
♬ original sound – MSNBC

“I mean, it’s secret police, right? A massive, anonymous, unbadged, literally masked, unaccountable police force that apparently has infinite funding but no identifiable leadership, and they act in ways to instil maximum fear and use maximum force.

“You have a scapegoat minority group, blamed for all things, in this case immigrants,” she continued. “All these new extraordinary powers and shows of force… framed as ‘necessary’ to stop this internal enemy. Frame everything as ‘immigration enforcement’ because for ‘immigration enforcement’ not only is all force justified but maximum force is preferred.

“If you think it’s only about immigrants, take the president’s own words for it when he says the ‘home-growns’ are next.”

In April, Trump was heard embracing a suggestion that US citizens could be arrested and deported to a prison in El Salvador, NPR reported.

Maddow also criticised members of the Republican Party for trying to convince the public that the abuse of immigrants was “entertaining,” suggesting that they wanted “to sell t-shirts about that”.

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