The Future Brief – What Is Trump’s Next Move With The Supreme Court?
When a Leader Captures the Courts, It's Usually the End of Democracy
Going from democracy to dictatorship never looks like the movies. It’s seldom tanks rolling through the streets or dramatic showdowns between leaders backed by armed forces.
It’s actually quite boring, changes in bureaucracy, paper shuffling, a change in personnel. It looks like what’s happening in the US now.
This isn’t a theory. It’s a sequence that’s been repeated many times. We’ve seen it in Venezuela, Argentina, Peru, and many others. Now we are seeing it in the United States.
And as with most patterns in history, we know what will happen next (and it’s not good).
THE NEWS
📰 Supreme Court Expands Trump Immunity, Shocks Legal Scholars
In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that presidents have “presumptive immunity” for official acts, even if those acts undermine democracy. Legal experts warn that this paves the way for near-absolute executive power.
📎 Read more at CATO Institute
📰 Project 2025 Plan to Replace Thousands of Federal Workers Moves Ahead
Trump’s allies continue work on “Schedule F,” a plan to purge the civil service and replace career experts with loyalists. Over 50,000 positions could be eliminated or filled with partisan appointees.
📎 Read more at AP News
📰 Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson Proposes Eliminating US Federal Courts Johnson wants to eliminate the courts as a means of pushing back against judicial decisions that have challenged Donald Trump’s policies.
📎 Read more at The Guardian
THE PATTERN IN HISTORY
The key to going from democracy to dictatorship is the Supreme Court. The takeover pattern repeats in every country.
Step 1: Control the Courts
In Argentina, Juan Perón faced a judiciary that challenged his authority. He removed four of five Supreme Court justices and replaced them with loyalists. The court changed from upholding the constitution to enforcing Perón’s agenda. Perón rewrote the constitution, abolished term limits, and ruled as a dictator.
In Venezuela, Hugo Chávez packed the Supreme Court early in his presidency. When opposition lawmakers won legislative control, the court declared the Assembly illegitimate. Nicolás Maduro continued this legacy, using the court to justify his crackdown on democracy and consolidate one-man rule.
In the United States, Trump packed the Supreme Court early in his presidency. He appointed 234 loyalist federal judges, including three Supreme Court justices. Then the Supreme Court declared that Trump is immune from accountability.
In each case, once the court is no longer independent, it becomes the most powerful weapon in the dictator’s arsenal: it legalizes the undoing of democracy.
Step 2: Declare Legal Immunity
Once the courts are under control, the leader is untouchable.
In Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro didn’t need to silence every critic. He used the Supreme Court to protect himself from prosecution. When lawmakers or prosecutors tried to challenge him, the court declared their actions illegal. Opposition became criminal, and Maduro was above the law, immune from accountability.
In the United States, after securing a loyal majority on the Supreme Court, Trump was declared to have “presumptive immunity” for official acts. If Trump claims his actions were part of his duties, he is above the law, immune from accountability..
Legal immunity isn’t a shield, it’s a sword. Trump is saying: I can do anything, and you can’t stop me.
Step 3: Undermine or Bypass Congress
The next obstacle is the legislature.
In Peru, President Pedro Castillo was facing impeachment, he went on television and declared Congress dissolved. He announced emergency rule and claimed he would govern by decree. The attempt failed only because the military refused to support him, and the courts pushed back. But the intent was clear, eliminate the opposition.
In Venezuela, when opposition lawmakers won control of the National Assembly in 2015, Maduro’s loyalist Supreme Court declared the legislature illegitimate. Maduro used the police to keep lawmakers from entering the building. Armed forces surrounded Congress and removed legislators. From that moment on, Venezuela was no longer a democracy.
In the United States, Trump is undermining Congress by delegitimizing it. He tells his followers it’s corrupt, obstructive, and un-American. Since returning to office in January 2025, Trump has called for Republican-controlled state legislatures to override federal election outcomes. He’s suggested Congress is part of a “deep state” conspiracy. And when it doesn’t do what he wants, he circumvents it, using executive orders, emergency declarations, and direct appeals to the public.
Step 4: Use Force and Bureaucracy
In Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro completed his power grab by militarizing governance. After the Supreme Court nullified the opposition-led National Assembly, Maduro sent armed police and soldiers to physically bar lawmakers from entering the building. Dissenting voices were met with arrests, intimidation, and surveillance. The lines between law enforcement and political enforcement disappeared. Judges, officers, and bureaucrats no longer served the constitution; they served the president.
In the United States, Trump’s version of this strategy is underway, dressed in legalese.
Through “Schedule F,” his administration is expected to purge tens of thousands of nonpartisan civil servants and replace them with loyalists. Under this plan, agencies like the DOJ, FBI, IRS, and EPA would be repopulated with political appointees loyal to Trump, not the Constitution.
Trump has already deployed the National Guard and military units against U.S. civilians, using force to suppress protests. In 2020, in Washington, DC, military helicopters were used for crowd control. In another, armored vehicles rolled into low-income neighborhoods under the pretext of restoring “order.”
And there’s another element, one Venezuela used, and Trump has openly praised: paramilitary pressure.
Maduro tolerated and sometimes coordinated with armed civilian groups to intimidate voters and silence critics. Trump has done the same rhetorically. He told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” He praised armed protesters who stormed state capitols. Now, those groups see themselves as defenders of his presidency.
Step 5: Rule by Decree
In Argentina, Perón rewrote the constitution to give himself sweeping powers. Elections continued, but no longer mattered. Perón’s word was law. Dissent became disloyalty.
In Venezuela, Maduro declared repeated states of emergency to bypass the legislature. He ruled by decree, suspending elections, criminalizing protests, and rewriting laws without oversight. The constitution remained intact, it just didn’t apply.
Trump has issued executive orders at a historic pace, bypassing Congress. He has used emergency declarations to justify federal interventions, often overriding state and local authorities.
His team, through the Project 2025 framework, has laid the foundation for a presidency governed through centralized control: no independent agencies, no opposition, no neutral enforcement. Just one man, issuing orders, and everyone obeying.
Trump said he will be a “dictator on day one” and he’s delivering.
THE CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Why America Is Vulnerable to the Authoritarian Path
Low Power Distance: Americans expect equal treatment and accountability, but this cultural ideal blinds them to how easily institutions can be bent when power centralizes.
Short-Term Orientation: US politics prioritizes winning the next election, not protecting long-term democratic norms.
Universalism vs. Particularism: The US claims to follow fixed laws for all, but Trump’s approach treats justice as flexible and personal, a shift toward particularist rule.
Archetype: Trump is the extreme North archetype, power-seeking, absolutist, never wrong, and requires absolute loyalty.
WHY IT MATTERS
Authoritarianism and dictatorship don’t replace democracy through violent coups but through multiple steps that change the system. It needs compliant judges and loyal supporters, and Trump has them. Once Trump has eliminated the opposition, the only hope is that the military and police will support the Constitution rather than Trump.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Watch these five moves in the next months:
Court Expansion or Retaliation Against Justices – Impeachment inquiries or term-limits for “disloyal” justices.
Civil Service Purge (Schedule F) – Mass replacement of neutral bureaucrats with loyalists.
Emergency Declarations to Rule by Decree – Especially over immigration, protests, and “election fraud.”
Legal Immunity Expansion – Push for rulings that block state-level prosecutions or erase convictions.
Militarization of Governance – Replacement of law enforcement leaders and increased use of National Guard, the military, and private militias.
This isn’t speculation. It’s the next chapter in a well-documented playbook.
And the new America
I agree, but also predictable. He said he would do this. We know this is how dictators operate.
Once again, pretty dang scary