Trump Chooses Dictatorship over Democracy
Trump has made clear in recent days that he wants dictator Vladimir Putin to succeed in his invasion of democratic Ukraine. 
Trump is not only in bed with Putin. He is doing everything he can to force Ukraine to surrender on Putin’s terms.
Trump has taken a series of steps that will no doubt result in the killing of Ukrainian soldiers and civilian men, women and children. This includes the Trump administration delaying approval of the transfer of Patriot missiles to Ukraine that are central to the country protecting itself from Russian missiles and drones.
And according to the Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk suddenly ordered the slowdown of Starlink, seriously undermining Ukraine’s “ability to employ strike drones and interceptor drones.”
Musk and Trump are doing a two-step on this with each claiming the action was taken by the other. According to the Journal, Musk and Trump discussed the restrictions with one source saying that they spoke before the restrictions were imposed.
Musk, through his control of Space X’s satellite communications service, is exercising far more foreign policy influence for our country than any private U.S. citizen should do. This must be addressed.
Meanwhile, Trump is heavily tilting the war in Russia’s favor, at the same time Russia is providing Iran with intelligence on U.S. bases, warships and aircraft in the Middle East. That information could help Iran attack military personnel and damage United States interests.
Trump has been personally attacking Zelensky and praising Putin. And in an astonishing act of sucking up to Putin, Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy called Putin “a humanitarian.” This is like Neville Chamberlain calling Adolf Hitler a “humanitarian” – although even Chamberlain never made that shameful, disgusting statement.
Trump’s indefensible support of Putin over democratic Ukraine, is an unprecedented betrayal of American values and American history.
Trump has been a fan boy of Putin – and Xi – since he first took office in 2016, acting around them like a teenager in love.
Corruption invariably comes with dictators, and Trump has the same corruption genes that dictators around the world share.
The corruption ripoff of the presidency by Trump and his family and by the circle around him is unprecedented in American history. Trump in his second term has made Washington a massive cesspool of corruption and self-enrichment.
Since January 2025, Trump has made billions through cryptocurrency. However, while Trump made a reported $636 million from his personal meme coin in 2025, nearly a million investors that purchased Trump’s meme coin has losses that total $3.81 billion, according to The New York Times.
Trump has also been a nonstop trader in the stock market through his investment advisers and he is a walking conflict of interest. Trump made “more than 21,000 trades in 2025, worth between $600 million and $1.86 billion.”
Trump is trading stock while making decisions that affect the companies he is investing in. For example, “On the same day that the White House unveiled its ‘AI Action Plan’ on July 23, 2025, Trump purchased between $1 million and 5 million each in six companies — Amazon, Apple, Broadcom, Meta, Microsoft, and Nvidia — whose work with AI was directly impacted by the policy, which sought to lessen regulations on the industry.”
According to documents revealed by The Washington Post, donors provided $330 million to pay for one of Trump’s main obsessions – his White House ballroom. According to the Post, at least $77 million came from donors who asked to remain anonymous.
The fundraising to pay for the ballroom raises serious pay-to-play concerns. The donors are not making eleemosynary contributions. Some are looking to buy influence, and others may well be responding to political extortion.
Trump’s inner circle is also feeding off the presidency. The New York Times had a story about a pardon this week that is unlikely ever to be topped.
A billionaire Venezuelan banker, Julio Herrera Velutini, who had faced felony bribery charges and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor campaign finance violation, was seeking a pardon. His family arranged a job for Alina Habba, a former personal lawyer of Trump who was at the time an adviser to the Justice Department.
The job guaranteed Habba more than $50 million over four years, including bonuses. Weeks after Habba formally started the “job” for Velutini, he got his pardon.
Habba denied having any role in the pardon, but is that really credible? And what work justified a contract guaranteeing Habba more than $50 million?
Trump is antithetical to everything America stands for. He loves dictators and attacks democratic leaders, rips off the presidency for enormous personal enrichment, and destroys the city of Washington in seeking his own self-aggrandizement.
Trump is a menace to our country and to the world. But the American people will outlast him and hopefully ensure never again to see his likes holding the awesome power of the presidency.
________
Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s newsletter, and other recent editions, here. And subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.
