From Foreign Subversion to Domestic Imitation
For decades, Russia worked to undermine America from without—through election interference, disinformation campaigns, and the deliberate sowing of division.
But in 2025, they no longer have to.
Donald Trump is President again — POTUS 47 — a convicted felon, a self-declared retributionist, and an autocrat in everything but title. What Moscow once tried to do from afar, Trump and his enablers now perform from within.
The destruction of democratic norms, the collapse of institutional trust, the demonization of truth — these aren’t Russian operations anymore.
They’re Republican policy. Trump has molded them into that. And Republican leadership did little to nothing, to stop it.
2. The New “Russian Playbook” — Made in America
Russia’s strategy was always to destabilize, divide, and delegitimize democracy. Its aim was to show that freedom was fragile — that America was no better than the autocracies it condemned.
Trump has adopted that strategy wholesale. His MAGA movement has become a domestic imitation of the very forces America once fought to contain.
Where Putin sought to weaken U.S. leadership abroad, Trump isolated America at home.
Where the Kremlin tried to fracture Western unity, Trump attacked NATO and praises authoritarians.
Where Russian trolls flooded social media with lies, Trump’s surrogates flooded television and media with the same.
The difference now? There’s no need for foreign interference.
The infection has gone endemic.
3. The Autocrat and His Enablers
Trump doesn’t work alone — autocrats never do. They build systems of loyalty, where obedience replaces competence and ideology replaces law.
That’s where Mike Johnson and J.D. Vance come in — along with the loyalists now heading the DOJ, FBI, Pentagon, and virtually every agency Trump can bend to his will. So far, it has been the triumph of his will that’s prevailing, slowed only by occasional resistance from the courts — including some judges Trump himself appointed as POTUS 45. This isn't even to go into detail about the amateurish lack of professionalism, merit and expertise of the Trump cabinet.
But the Supreme Court has been far less of a barrier. With too many Justices appointed by Trump, and with two who never should have been confirmed — Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh — the Court has become less a guardian of law and more a guarantor of his power.
Johnson, Speaker of the House, serves as Trump’s congressional firewall — a smiling functionary who protects a criminal presidency under the guise of “faith and freedom.” His claims of ignorance to avoid answering questions for the America people are anathema and frequent. The Republican claims of "I don't know" or "I haven't had time to read up on that", are obvious obfuscations, emboldening Trump's autocracy from the White House.
VP Vance, once the cynical critic turned true believer, now acts as Trump’s voice in the Senate and mouthpiece to the movement. His job isn’t governance; it’s enforcement.
Together, they don’t check Trump’s excesses — they sanctify them. They are his public absolution for private corruption.
And in doing so, they prove that authoritarianism doesn’t need tanks — just loyal men in suits who refuse to say “no.”
4. The Department of Justice, Rewired
The Department of Justice was built to serve the law. Now, it serves the man.
Trump has stacked its upper ranks with sycophants who once called his prosecutions “witch hunts” and now run the department tasked with enforcing the law.
Career prosecutors have been reassigned or silenced. Internal oversight mechanisms are gone.
Where justice once stood as a shield for democracy, it now kneels as a tool of power.
In Russia, they call it political capture.
In America, we call it the Trump Administration.
5. The Architecture of Control
Trump’s second term is not a redo — it’s a refinement.
What was once chaotic is now codified. What was once spontaneous rage is now structured rule.
He is doing with executive orders, purges, and appointees what Russia once dreamed of doing with bots and propaganda.
| Old Threat | New Reality | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Russian disinformation | MaGA media ecosystem | Reality replaced by repetition |
| External election meddling | Internal voter suppression | Democracy weakened legally |
| Attacks on U.S. alliances | “America First” isolationism | Global leadership vacuum |
| Oligarchic corruption | Domestic patronage and immunity | Rule of law dismantled |
It isn’t foreign interference anymore — it’s internal replication.
6. Steve Bannon’s “Plan” and the Third-Term Lie
As Steve Bannon recently bragged, Trump intends to be “POTUS 48 too.”
It’s a fantasy — and a warning.
Trump's comment on that? He doesn't think he'd do it, he could, but he thinks it would be a bit "too cute" for the American people and so he wouldn't do that.
Bullshit.
The Constitution limits presidents to two terms. But Bannon’s casual mention of a “plan” for 2028 is no offhand boast. It’s part of the conditioning — the constant testing of what Americans will tolerate next.
The authoritarian method is simple: repeat the impossible until people stop calling it impossible.
If they can erase the line between law and power once, they will do it again.
Project 2025? It's right on time and on plan.
7. The Internal War on America
What once came from Russia’s troll farms now echoes from congressional podiums. What foreign adversaries could only dream of — a divided, distrustful, disinformed America — is now an everyday reality under Trump 2.0.
This isn’t espionage. It’s entropy.
And it’s working.
The truth is, MaGA Republicans aren’t stupid people — but they have become remarkably susceptible to the repetition of stupid ideas and the normalization of even stupider actions. That susceptibility, exploited daily, is alive and well in this Trump administration.
Every norm eroded, every law bent, every lie repeated — each one chips away at the American immune system that once resisted tyranny.
8. The Choice Ahead
We have a choice.
Do nothing, and watch as democracy dissolves into a spectacle of power and punishment.
Try halfway, and lose slowly.
Or choose to stand — fully, urgently, unapologetically — for American democracy while it still exists.
If we decide it is us and not him, then his rule must end before ours does.
9. The Truth, Unvarnished
This isn’t about Russia or Putin.
It’s about Donald Trump, and the Republicans who looked away, who still look away, and who now help him drive America toward autocracy and the death of our democracy — the end of humanity’s greatest experiment.
Donald Trump is killing America. And he’s far along in his most wanton desire: to be America’s first and only dictator.
He needs to end before we do.
We have a choice. Do nothing, don’t try hard enough, or continue with American democracy.
And if we decide it is us, not him — then his rule must end before we do.
Cheers! Sláinte! Na zdravie!
Compiled with aid of ChatGPT
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