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An “autocrat” is someone who insists on complete obedience from others; an imperious or domineering person.

President Donald Trump is fond of autocrats, including Turkish President Recep Tuyyip Erdagon, Muhammad bin Salman; Hungarian President Viktor Orban; North Korean leader Kim Jong Un; Russian President Vladimir Putin; Egypt’s Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, and Brazil’s President Jair Balsonaro. Now Trump is an autocrat himself.

How did this happen? Well he rose to this exalted status mainly by two enablers, Attorney General William Barr and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Also, he made the Republican Party his party and he has a loyal following by validating their prejudices.

Trump recently claimed that he, not Barr, is “the chief law enforcement officer” of America. Barr, of course, is Trump’s kind of Attorney General because he believes that the Executive Branch is first among the three branches of government. With Barr’s acquiescence, Trump has politically weaponized the Justice Department. Now the Justice Department represents Trump’s interests, not the country’s. 

As a result, Trump is now above the law. He cannot be indicted per a legally dubious Department of Justice memo. That’s why Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not even consider indicting Trump. Thus, a president gone rogue, according to Barr, can only be reined in by impeachment and an election. Impeachment didn’t work; Trump was acquitted by the Senate. That leaves the upcoming November 2020 election. 

Barr has been intervening in criminal matters involving Trump’s friends and former associates and launched a campaign to punish his opponents. As a result, the head of the Federal Judges Association is taking the extraordinary step of calling an emergency meeting to address the intervention in politically sensitive cases by President Trump and Barr.  

On February 16, more than 1,100 former Justice Department employees signed a public letter urging Barr to resign over his handling of the case of President Trump’s longtime friend Roger Stone — and urged current department employees to report any unethical conduct. 

The Republicans have a majority in Congress As Majority Leader, McConnell and his Republicans blocked the admission of witnesses and documents at the impeachment trial.  

Almost 400 House-passed legislation is now pending in McConnell’s “graveyard” with no chance of passage by the Senate while McConnell is majority leader. An election security bill is among the pending bills. But why would McConnell and his fellow Senate Republicans want more election security when they are likely to be beneficiaries of any foreign interference in the 2020 election? 

The Congressional Republicans have sold their souls for two conservative Supreme Court Justices, 187 other conservative federal judges and counting, a tax “overhaul” favoring the rich, and, possibly, the overturning of Roe v. Wade. 

November 3, 2020, will be the last chance to remove Trump. It won’t be easy; Trump is flush with cash, his poll numbers remain about the same after his impeachment acquittal, In addition, gerrymandering, voter suppression, and likely foreign interference will aid Trump.