Long-time Trump watcher David Cay Johnston explains why he fears for US democracy

By Gareth Vaughan

Under the leadership of President Donald Trump there's a danger the United States will become an autocratic nation, not unlike China, Saudi Arabia or Russia, and New Zealand should strive to avoid becoming the focus of Trump's wrath, suggests David Cay Johnston.

Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist, co-founder of DCReport and journalism professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, spoke to interest.co.nz in a new episode of the Of Interest podcast.

Johnston first met Trump in Atlantic City in 1988, and has probed and written about the affairs of Trump for decades.

Domestically he says Trump's under pressure from his MAGA (make America great again) base with the economy not doing well, and over the Epstein files and the US attack on Iran. With the US mid-term elections looming in November, Johnston says checks and balances via the likes of Congress, the courts and the Constitution supposed to limit the President's power, are failing.

"The checks and balances system isn't working, plain and simple. He thinks he's the world's dictator. He hasn't consolidated his power even in the US, but that's his goal, totally consolidate his power. To be totally unaccountable, unfortunately," Johnston says.

But he says Trump's presidency could effectively be over if he loses control of the House and Senate in the mid-term elections, which is "weighing on his mind." Against this backdrop Johnston says voter intimidation and suppression is underway.

Asked how the Trump era may end, Johnston says he fears for US democracy.

"At the moment, the United States is a dictatorship. It is not fully consolidated, but it is a dictatorship. Whether we restore our democracy is not clear at this point. We may cease to be a democracy."

Johnston says opposition has emerged through the No Kings demonstrations, which he'll be watching closely over the coming US summer. These protests come against the backdrop of danger the US becomes "a huge autocratic nation, not unlike Xi's China, MBS's [Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud's] Saudi Arabia, [and] Putin's Russia."

"And that would be a terrible thing for the whole world."

For NZ, as a small, trading nation, Johnston suggests at this stage we ought to keep our heads down.

"The key objective is to not become the focus of Donald's wrath because he could say, 'well, I'm going to prevent anyone from moving to New Zealand or coming from New Zealand. I'm going to ban Air New Zealand. He could do all sorts of things to make trouble. So my fundamental advice would be just try to stay off his radar, go on living your lives."

In the podcast audio Johnston talks in more detail about why he believes Trump's tariffs are illegal, the US war with Iran, attack on Venezuela and other countries Trump could target, Trump and the Epstein files, the US economy, who Trump listens to and who influences him, the mid-term and primary elections and more.

Johnston previously spoke to interest.co.nz about Trump in 2016 and in 2018.

*You can find all previous episodes of the Of Interest podcast here.