{"id":23667,"date":"2026-01-12T12:45:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T17:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/?p=23667"},"modified":"2026-01-12T12:45:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T17:45:51","slug":"ring-the-alarm-bells-merkley-publishes-new-analysis-of-trumps-authoritarian-playbook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/ring-the-alarm-bells-merkley-publishes-new-analysis-of-trumps-authoritarian-playbook\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cRing the Alarm Bells\u201d: Merkley Publishes New Analysis of Trump\u2019s Authoritarian Playbook"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, D.C. \u2013 Today, Oregon\u2019s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley released a new analysis outlining the ten rules of Trump\u2019s authoritarian playbook to ensure all Americans understand what our country is facing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>As he writes in the introduction, \u201c<strong>Authoritarianism isn\u2019t down the street or around the corner \u2014 it is here right now.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The full report can be found by clicking\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/Authoritarianism-Book_January-2026.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">aqu\u00ed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>\u201cPeople think of democracies dying at the hands of men with guns. But, in the modern era, they more often die at the hands of elected officials who erode the separation of powers to solidify a strongman state,\u201d<\/strong>&nbsp;dijo Merkley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cWe now have all three ingredients of such a strongman state: a rubber-stamp Congress doing the President\u2019s bidding; a Supreme Court finding \u201cinvisible ink\u201d in the Constitution to enhance the President\u2019s powers; and a power-hungry president behaving like a king, breaking the law and violating the checks and balances of our Constitution.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cThere are ten powerful rules in the authoritarian playbook. Trump and his team are aggressively executing all ten. It is essential to understand and interrupt those efforts before authoritarian power becomes entrenched. That will require robust citizen action and an unmistakable rejection of authoritarianism at the next election. Both are essential to restore and revitalize our democracy.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Merkley has been speaking out to ring the alarm bells as Trump entrenches his authoritarian grip.&nbsp;On October 21, 2025, Merkley spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate to speak directly to the American people and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/merkley-holds-senate-floor-for-22-hours-37-minutes-to-ring-the-alarm-bells-of-trumps-authoritarianism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">denounce the Trump Administration\u2019s authoritarian takeover of the country<\/a>. He spoke for 22 hours 37 minutes\u2014the third longest speech in Senate history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Merkley tambi\u00e9n\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/merkley-leads-senate-resolution-denouncing-horrors-of-authoritarianism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">introduced a resolution condemning authoritarianism<\/a>\u00a0in all its forms and opposing the implementation of authoritarian policies in the United States of America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The booklet, titled \u201cRing the Alarm Bells: The Ten Rules of Trump\u2019s Authoritarian Playbook,\u201d will be distributed at Senator Merkley\u2019s town hall meetings, which he holds in each of Oregon\u2019s 36 counties. It\u2019s also available online by clicking\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/Authoritarianism-Book_January-2026.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">aqu\u00ed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">###<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, D.C. \u2013 Today, Oregon\u2019s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley released a new analysis outlining the ten rules of Trump\u2019s authoritarian playbook to ensure all Americans understand what our country is facing. As he writes in the introduction, \u201cAuthoritarianism isn\u2019t down the street or around the corner \u2014 it is here right now.\u201d The full report [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":18847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[108],"class_list":["post-23667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases","tag-democracy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u201cRing the Alarm Bells\u201d: Merkley Publishes New Analysis of Trump\u2019s Authoritarian Playbook - Merkley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/ring-the-alarm-bells-merkley-publishes-new-analysis-of-trumps-authoritarian-playbook\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cRing the Alarm Bells\u201d: Merkley Publishes New Analysis of Trump\u2019s Authoritarian Playbook - Merkley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Washington, D.C. \u2013 Today, Oregon\u2019s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley released a new analysis outlining the ten rules of Trump\u2019s authoritarian playbook to ensure all Americans understand what our country is facing. 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