By Seevali Abeysekera*
LONDON | 25 April 2025 (IDN) — Before the American presidential election in 2020, I published an article, ”America — the end is nigh”, whose last sentences were: ”A civil war and disintegration of America is thus a real possibility. History has shown us that great empires eventually collapse due to their own delusions of grandeur based on their perceived omnipotence. We have potentially reached that point where American hegemony will dissipate due to their arrogance and ineptitude”.
Before the last American presidential election, I published an article titled ”America – a caricature of democracy” whose last sentence was: “All empires disintegrate due to their own delusions of omnipotence — America is no different“.
To April 2025, Donald Trump, a convicted felon and serial bankrupt is once again the President of America, elected by an increased majority with 70 million votes.
I have, over the years, published articles about the mindset and values of the American electorate and therefore I shall not dwell on the reasons why such an odious individual was elected, not once, but twice.
Instead, I will focus on what has happened in the 100 or days since he took office and what the consequences of his actions might be.
Starting from his appalling behaviour in the oval office toward visiting heads of states culminating in the virtual thuggery displayed against the Ukrainian President by both his repugnant faux rottweiler JD Vance and him, to his near deranged announcements of annexing Canada, to his pronouncements on buying Greenland as though it was real estate, to his boasts of having Gaza ethnically cleansed of Palestinians in order to build a “Trump Riviera” complete with phallic like gold statues of himself and culminating in his display of economic illiteracy which he refers to as “tariffs”
In a sane world, any one of these pronouncements would have highlighted just how delusional and deranged this man really is but alas we live in a world where sanity is almost an alien concept and where a person described by many as a deranged moron, a narcissistic sociopath, an intellectual illiterate, to name but a few choice descriptions, holds the most powerful office in the world.
However, aside of these pronouncements on external issues, his actions within the internal workings of the federal government is what could potentially turn America, from the self-appointed” land of the free” to a land where the evils of fascism become a day-to-day reality.
On the pretext of “eliminating waste”, Trump has already disbanded many parts of the American civil infrastructure which benefitted his own MAGA voter base more than most. Many MAGA voters have, to coin a phrase, “cut off their collective noses off to spite their collective faces”.
They are ether blissfully unaware or are surprised that his actions harm them the most. The phrase” Democracy for Dummies” comes to mind.
Trump has also shown a complete disregard for the law of the land and this was highlighted when, despite a federal judge demanding that aircraft enroute to El Salvador with alleged illegal immigrants were to be turned back to allow legal due process to occur, Trump enacted executive powers to overrule and ignore the courts demand.
The Supreme Court has since instructed the federal government not to deport those individuals who have been kidnapped off the streets and held in undisclosed locations until due process has been complete.
Trump however appears to be determined to ignore the demands of the Supreme Court too.
A country exists as a coherent entity because of the clear separation between the judiciary and the executive where the executive abides by, and adheres to, the rule of law.
What is happening in America however is that the executive, in the form of an elected leader, overrides the decisions of the judiciary or at least those decisions he does not agree with or are contrary to his set of beliefs.
Could American democracy, an extremely disingenuous system at best, where oligarchs and interest groups with access to enormous amounts of wealth, decide the outcome of elections by using the power of marketing and outright lies to effectively buy votes from what is essentially a majority intellectually illiterate electorate, now be replaced with open fascism?
There are key indicators that the end of American “democracy” could be imminent.
When the federal government, now staffed by sycophantic nodding ponies of a cult leader, deliberately ignores court rulings instructing federal agencies abide by the law, the judiciary becomes redundant. Due process and the system of checks and balances which are essential for a mature democracy to function start to disappear.
Federal employees, including the armed forces have sworn an oath to uphold the constitution of the USA and not the whims of the elected POTUS. The constitution does not tolerate the wilful disobedience of judicial powers by those who have sworn an oath to uphold it.
Without upholding the rule of law, democracy, in whatever manifestation, cannot exist. By deliberately ignoring the orders of a federal judge, Trump and federal agencies now staffed by Magats are in contempt of court.
Potentially, the regime, including Trump himself could face criminal charges for deliberately defying federal court orders as it is essentially mocking the constitution. The federal judge in question has now started criminal proceedings against the administration.
The “tariffs” that were imposed by Trump are illegal, as under the constitution, the executive cannot introduce and impose tariffs without the approval of Congress. The US Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government which consists of the house of representatives and senate totalling 535 elected and appointed members. Trump did not seek Congress approval before he announced his “tariffs”.
The State of California, which just happens to be the fifth largest economy in the world, has since taken the federal government to court with a view to overthrowing the decision on tariffs.
The Trump regime therefore faces multiple challenges from the courts in terms of contempt actions and the imposition of tariffs. If found guilty on any of these cases, individuals in the Trump regime, including Trump himself, could be imprisoned.
These are therefore crisis points for Trump as his whole delusional and deranged MAGA fantasy world could potentially collapse.
Trump is aware of this and needs an extreme action to mitigate this risk. A little more than 90 days ago, he signed an executive order that required “two fair minded individuals” to investigate whether there was a crisis or emergency in the United States of America that amounted to an “insurrection against the federal government”.
If these two individuals were to report that there was a “crisis or emergency” in America that amounted to an” insurrection “, Trump would be able to declare a state of emergency and invoke the” Insurrection act of 1807” which allows for the suspension of civil law and allows for military law to apply.
The two fair minded individuals Trump appointed to look to the matter were JD Vance, his Vice President and Pete Hegseth, the ex-Fox News propagandist who is now his Secretary of Defence.
It however doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what conclusion they will reach. If the” Insurrection Act of 1807” is invoked, Trump can call up the Army or the National Guard to enforce the law as he sees fit.
Trump’s ultimate objective will be to suspend and ultimately destroy the superficial democracy that exists in America and introduce fascism where he becomes the supreme cult leader. The 70 million Magats who voted for him were simply expendable useful idiots taken in by his rhetoric. Just like Hitler in the 1930’s, Trump uses democracy to appeal to the intellectual illiterates and once elected the same intellectual illiterates simply become expendable collateral.
In the event the insurrection act is invoked and if either the Army or the National Guard refuse to obey orders given by Trump, there are 70 million Magats, all armed to the teeth, who may well respond to his call to arms in the same way they did in Jan 2021, during the attempted insurrection in Washington.
If the” Insurrection Act of 1807” is invoked by Trump, the Magots militia or whatever they might be called, will be acting “legally” under the orders of the President. There are almost 500 million guns in America and much of it in the hands of the Magats.
If the” Insurrection Act of 1807” is invoked, federal and supreme court judges, political opponents, broadcast and media opponents will be the first to be incarcerated.
Trump fascism will result in a new civil that will be violent in the extreme, engulf the United States, leading to its destruction or at least the succession of several states. As alluded to in my previous articles from 2016 through to 2024, all empires fall due to their delusions of grandeur and overreach.
The empire of the United States of America is no different to all those empires that have existed and imploded from within.
*Seevali Abeysekera is a retired businessman based in London. [IDN-InDepthNews]
Image source: US democracy faltering hard as a new world political landscape emerges. Credit: Global Times.
