Donald Trump is borrowing a strategy from authoritarian regimes to #intimidate potential critics and #discourage them from speaking out, according to a senator under investigation by his administration.
#Elissa #Slotkin, a Democrat from Michigan, faces questioning after she organised and appeared in a #video with other Democrats imploring military service members to #refuse “#illegal #orders”.
Fellow senator #Mark #Kelly and three Democrats from the House of Representatives are also being investigated.
To Slotkin, a former analyst with the Central Intelligence Agency ( #CIA ), it is a deliberate effort to chill free speech that rhymes with her experience of #dictatorships around the world.
“They’re now using a well-worn playbook that employs #physical intimidation and #legal intimidation to get,
A, you to shut up, and
B, for other people thinking of criticising the president on such issues to be dissuaded from doing so,”
she told the Guardian in a phone interview.
“It’s absolutely a strategy well used in other countries and other authoritarian governments.
As a CIA officer I’ve served in places like this,
I’ve studied places like this my entire life,
and Trump is sadly using that #playbook in the United States right now.”
Now 49, Slotkin completed three tours in Iraq with the US military before moving into national security roles at the Pentagon and White House under presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama.
In 2018 she turned to electoral politics, winning a long-held Republican seat in #Michigan and helping Democrats reclaim control of the House.
She secured re-election in 2020 and 2022, campaigning on issues such as access to affordable healthcare and efforts to bring manufacturing back to her home state.
Her ascent continued in 2024 when she won an open Senate seat despite Trump carrying Michigan in the presidential election.
Last year she delivered the Democrats’ rebuttal to Trump’s joint congressional address.
Then in November she was among six congressional Democrats,
all with military or intelligence backgrounds,
who in a 90-second video cited the "Uniform Code of Military Justice"
and said no one has to carry out orders that violate the law or constitution.
#Trump branded the video message “treasonous” and amplified a social media post suggesting that the six Democrats be #hanged.
Defence secretary Pete #Hegseth is attempting to #retroactively #demote Kelly,
a former navy pilot and astronaut,
from his retired rank of captain.
👏The Arizona senator is suing Hegseth to block those proceedings,
calling them an unconstitutional act of retribution.
Meanwhile US attorney #Jeanine #Pirro, the justice department’s chief prosecutor in Washington, has requested an interview with Slotkin.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/18/trump-authoritarian-playbook-critics-democrat?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
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