'Far more dangerous': NY Times' Maureen Dowd shares terrifying realization

Adam Nichols

Feb. 22, 2025, 11:55 p.m.

The New York Times’ Maureen Dowd had a terrifying message to share on Saturday — when Donald Trump says he can do whatever he wants, he might actually be right.

The famed columnist ran through a now familiar list of Trump challenges to institutions set up hundreds of years ago to keep tyranny under control.

And, she suggested, they’re failing.

“America was forged in the blood and fire of rejecting tyranny; its institutions were meticulously formed around the principle that we would never be ruled by a king,” she wrote.

“Yet Trump delights in reposting memes of himself as a king and as Napoleon, with a line attributed to the emperor: ‘He who saves his country does not violate any law.’”

She went through examples of how the nation’s institutions were buckling to him.

Among them were the multitude of court cases, most of which failed to even bring him to trial. A criminal conviction in New York ended with no real punishment.

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He’s voiced empire-building ambitions towards Canada, Greenland and Gaza, and wants to take mineral deposits from Ukraine. And he repeatedly demeaned America’s election integrity.

“His megalomania has mushroomed. His derisive behavior toward Zelensky — how can a modestly talented reality show veteran mock Zelensky as 'a modestly successful comedian'? — shows Trump can’t abide anyone saying he is doing anything wrong,” Dowd wrote.

“When The Associated Press refused to go along with his diktat to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, the news organization was barred from covering some events with the president in the Oval Office and on Air Force One.”

And then on Friday he told the governor of Maine that he was the federal law.

“I’ve been reading a book called ‘How to Be a Bad Emperor: An Ancient Guide to Truly Terrible Leaders,” wrote Dowd.

“Osgood writes of Caligula’s 'propensity to give in to every whim and the relish he took in putting down others with cruel remarks.' … Sound familiar?”

She concluded, “Many who had hoped to tune out Trump this time realize they don’t have that luxury. It’s far more dangerous now.

“There are frightening moments when our 236-year-old institutions don’t look up to the challenge. With flaccid Democrats and craven Republicans, King Donald can pretty much do whatever he wants to whomever he wants.”