American Teenagers Have No Idea What a Dictatorship Would Be Like, but They May Soon Find Out
As I walked through Greenwich Village two days after the election, a young man shoved a pamphlet into my hand: “The Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide.” It became a viral sensation, providing a roadmap for recognizing and dealing with dictatorship.
That morning, I had intended to visit a café near New York University and edit articles for my Long Island high school newspaper, but I couldn’t. Instead, I repeatedly flipped through the pamphlet, fixated on every point about resisting a dictatorship.
Will Trump become America’s dictator?
American teens have never seen a dictatorship. We hear about places like North Korea and Russia, but it’s so alien to our experience, so abstract, that we have no idea of what it would be like to live in one of the world’s heavy surveillance states under a dictator.
After years of history classes about Axis powers and imperialism, we can see the writing on the walls, with billionaires in Trump’s pockets, including META, run by Mark Zuckerberg, who controls Instagram and Facebook; X, owned by Elon Musk, and now TikTok with CEO Shou Zi Chew thanking Trump for saving TikTok from the ban Congress voted for at Trump’s insistence.
TikTok FlipFlop
In 2020, Trump wanted a TikTok ban for fear it endangered our national security. In 2025 he says he wants to keep TikTok because he’s become a star of its short videos.
That’s Trump in a nutshell — he runs on an “America First” platform, but our safety takes a backseat to his vanity.
Soon I expect to see algorithms favoring the hard right while suppressing voices that helped Harris and Biden gain popularity. If no one on social media can hold Trump accountable or stop his destructive actions he is taking, how will we stop him?
Frightening Plans
Trump’s claims for the next four years are frightening, to say the least. He wants to make Canada the 51st state, change the name of the Gulf of Mexico, buy Greenland, or perhaps go to war with our NATO ally, Denmark, which owns that icy island. He has even hinted that he would use physical force to take over the Panama Canal, falsely claiming it is now run by China.
Will Trump become America’s dictator?
Trump is known for using fear tactics to mobilize voters, convincing them that there is a deep state cabal, labeling LGBTQ+ people American predators, denouncing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as an indoctrination plan, and alleging there would be no country today had Kamala Harris been elected.
Amazingly millions of people, including many of my generation, believe Trump’s nonsense or at least embrace it because they are narrow minded, fearful people.
What kept me from finishing editing our school newspaper was Trump’s thoughts about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hunger for land and Putin’s immorality, which increased his power. During his first presidency, Donald Trump became very buddy-buddy with the international war criminal who brutally invaded Ukraine, intentionally bombing hospitals, schools and other peaceful institutions.
In 2022, Trump said, “The smartest one gets to the top. That hasn’t worked so well recently in our country. But they ask me, ‘Is Putin smart?’ Yes, Putin was smart. And I thought he was going to be negotiating. I said, ‘That’s a hell of a way to negotiate, put 200,000 soldiers on the border.’”
Second Term
I contemplated how Trump would approach his second term when he doesn’t have to worry about looking good for re-election. Of course, that assumes Trump will leave office when his term ends in 2029.
My history teacher told me last year that “the president’s main concern in his first four years is re-election.” I figured Trump must have been operating under that mindset as well, just not very well since he lost to Biden in 2020 after fumbling the COVID-19 pandemic challenges.
But now that Trump is elected, he wants to become the one who is feared. He has already stated he will fire “woke” generals.
Is Trump’s overarching goal to expand U.S. territory into Mexico, Canada, Greenland, and Panama?
A few weeks ago, in Florida, Trump said he wouldn’t rule out using military force to gain control of the Panama Canal. “I’m not going to commit to that,” Trump said. “It might be that you’ll have to do something. The Panama Canal is vital to our country.”
The relationship between Panama and the U.S. over control of the Panama Canal has been tumultuous, to say the least. The U.S. first gained rights to own and operate the canal in 1903, with the Hay-Herrán Treaty with Columbia, which controlled Panama then.
Control has fluctuated over the century, with the rotation of presidents in both the U.S. and Panama. However, as of 1999, the canal was controlled by the Panamanians under a treaty upheld by our Supreme Court.
Trump’s Chinese Lie
Now, a quarter century later, Trump may seek to shift the balance again, alleging that the Chinese run the canal, which is not true.
On the same day, Trump mentioned his scheme to acquire Greenland: “We need Greenland for national security purposes.” Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark, meaning Denmark does not govern the Greenlandic people.
Don Jr., Trump’s oldest son, even paid a visit to Greenland, which Trump described in a written statement: “The reception has been great. They, and the Free World, need safety, security, strength, and PEACE! This is a deal that must happen. MAGA. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!”
However, Greenland officials refused to meet with Don Jr. and said he visited as “a private individual.” Trump’s statement misled about what his son’s visit, suggesting it was official even though père Trump at the time was just a private citizen.
It also seems that the people of Greenland do not want to become U.S. subjects. Fox sent a reporter to Greenland to ask the opinions of locals. One man stated, “The United States used to be a place that was sort of admired here, and basically all the goodwill that they used to have is almost gone now.”
Finally, Trump’s most farfetched conquest is making Canada the 51st State. He has been taunting our northern ally, calling them “The Great State of Canada” and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “Governor.”
With Trudeau stepping down, Trump may try to move in, whether through economic or military means. I wouldn’t rule out even the cruelest of tactics as something Trump could employ.
Restoring the Soviet Empire
Interestingly, Trump’s willingness to ignore diplomacy and respect is truly frightening for the American people if we look at other modern dictators, like Vladimir Putin and President of China Xi Jinping, we can see similarities to Trump’s expansionist plans.
Putin wants to rebuild the old Soviet Union. From 1945 until 2014, Russian borders were stable. Then Putin’s “little green men” with no insignias on their uniforms invaded Crimea. He insisted they weren’t his soldiers until they had control, and then he said they were his.
Putin had a puppet regime in Kyiv until 2014, when the people rose and ousted the kleptocrat. He had built an enormous palace behind a high wall and dumped records in a lake he had built. Journalists trained by Investigative Reporters & Editors America persuaded divers go into the freezing February water to retrieve papers and called for trucks to flash freeze the documents (otherwise, bacteria would eat the paper). That was how journalists proved that Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chief, got $12.7 million in cash from the puppet.
Russia Helped
The United States intelligence community also stated with “high confidence” that Russia had interfered with the 2016 election to help Donald Trump. This was allegedly done at Putin’s request.
President Xi wanted to expand into the South China Sea by building artificial islands while also pushing for control of Taiwan and Tibet.
Trump’s claims to sovereign territory in Greenland and Panama could give him a dictatorship if he follows through, including on his claimed right to use armed American troops against American citizens.
But maybe nothing will happen. After all, Trump’s promises are hardly ever fulfilled, such as his promise to decrease inflation and then his promise to decrease grocery prices: “I’d like to bring them down. It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up,” he said, changing his tune after winning election last fall. And then there’s that wall at our southern border that he promised but never built.
However, Trump’s new platform seems reinvigorated to the detriment of American citizens. He has appointed unqualified “yes men” as top government officials and threatened to use military power to get what he wants.
America’s students need to pay attention.