Trump: A Threat to Democracy or Just a Matter of Narrative?

dartmaul15

Disclaimer: this was originally written for a completely different use and was written during and immediately after the election itself. It was also written in a different language and has been translated, so forgive me for any poor language. It's therefore a bit outdated in some areas, but I still feel it's highly relevant. I've also axed it down a little to save you people from reading too much (also cause 20k sign limit on myTakes). Also you might want to buckle up for a long read.

Is Trump A Threat To Democracy?

Trump. The presidential election is ongoing and with it has come several strong media accusations against Trump branding him a racist and sexist, and in even cases a threat to democracy (Washington Post editorial board 2016). But is this the case, is he a threat against the democracy? I will try to answer this based on a modern western understanding of democracy.

Trump: A Threat to Democracy or Just a Matter of Narrative?


The modern western democracy is at it score built on four cornerstones; the liberal state of law and private sphere, the separation of power, the public debate, and on parliamentarism (Høibraaten, 1998, s268-s279). The three first elements will be the most central. The fourth, parliamentarism, will be natural to leave out in advantage of the presidential model in order to contextualize it and make it more relevant for the American political system. This gives us a democracy where the power is divided between a legislative branch, an executive branch, and a judiciary branch. In light of the president and the members of the congress being elected you can also speak about a popular sovereignty (Thorsen, 2016) as a central element.

I will focus on Donald Trump’s claims and statements regarding the desire to jail Hillary, about not being willing to accept the results of the election, and on his party program. I will also work under the assumption that he does win the election on the 8th November. Furthermore, due to practical reasons no events after November 9 will be taken into account.

Trump has at multiple occasions criticized Hillary Clinton for her handling of public e-mails, and has at times also expressed an interest for having her jailed should he become the net president (The Second Presidential Debate: Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump (Full Debate) | NBC News, 2016). This in spite of FBI having looked at the case twice, and both times concluded that her actions were worthy of critics, but not worth of prosecution (Martosko, 2016). This continue claim to want her jailed despite FBI’s conclusions can be seen as an attempt to undermine the justice system. In light of the president being the leader of the executive branch, the whole event is even more severe since it implies trump desires to act both as the executive and judiciary branch. An action that would undermine the separation of power and in turn be a threat to democracy. This reasoning does however fall short when one starts to examine how trump intends to achieve this, as it would reveal that he intends to appoint a prosecutor to look into the case (Zapotzky, 2016). The consequence of this is that the case is run through the ordinary court, and that the divide of power is being obeyed. One could however ask why Trump runs this agenda so hard. Is it a legitimate view of Hillary as a criminal? Is it a political game to undermine Hillary as a presidential candidate?

Trump has throughout the entire campaign refused to answer if he will accept a possible loss against Hillary Clinton. This is a view he elaborated on during his speech on the 20th October in Ohio where he says «… I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election if I win» (Donald Trump RALLY in Delaware OHIO - 1ST SPEECH After Final Presidential Debate – FNN, 2016), which can be understood as an unwillingness to accept the results if he loose. This and similar statements can be seen in context with repeated claims that the system and election is rigged, and that he expects cheating to happen (Pramuk, 2016).

Trump: A Threat to Democracy or Just a Matter of Narrative?

As pointed out earlier, a central element of the presidential model is that he or she is elected by the people. Trump refusing to accept a possible defeat would thus also bring implications that he refuses to accept the legitimacy of the majority vote, and thus also the popular sovereignty and the president as an elected instance. Based on this one can conclude that Trump’s statements stands against fundamental democratic elements. Or are they just an expression for a genuine belief that the election will be rigged?

Reports of possible election fraud emerged even before the election. For example has there been found proof of election fraud in Indiana according to Douglas Carter (Kaleem, 2016), and in Oklahoma there has been confirmed cases of double-voting (Hutchison, 2016). In addition, more severe accusations of larger scale frauds has emerged (Fox News Insider, 2016), though it should be mentioned the outcome of the case is not yet known. Based on these and several more documented events in the time before the elections (Riddel, 2016) one might wonder if Trump’s claims has some truth behind it, and that they thus are an expression for a desire to prevent voter fraud and an acknowledgement that voter fraud happens. From this angle of approach his actions seems like an attempt to protect democratic values. The result is that you have a situation where the perspective on the situation dictates whether Trump’s claims are a threat to the democracy or an attempt to protect the democracy.


Even though voter fraud has been documented, does that mean the election is rigged? If looking at the cases they are all relatively small, and typically deals with single persons acting on their own. In some cases, it is also a matter of bureaucratic errors (Riddel, 2016). It is impossible to completely rule out systematic rigging, but based on the cases seen so far there are no signs of it. This weakens Trump’s narrative considerably.

Trump: A Threat to Democracy or Just a Matter of Narrative?


Another relevant area to look is Trump’s official political program, as this can tell a lot about his intentions as president. I will not touch every area, but his statements regarding the constitution, immigration, and energy appears relevant due to their direct and indirect statements. In the first one he makes statements like «Uphold our freedoms, constitutional values and principles that our country was founded on» and «Protect and defend the bill of rights, including the freedom of religion, speech, press and right to bear arms» (Donald J. Trump for President, 2016). Those two claims are to a considerable degree overlapping and seems to express a desire to prevent the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press, two key elements in the free public debate. His statements thus directly and indirectly through the constitution supports and aims to preserve one of the earlier mentioned cornerstones of western democracy. However based on his statements regarding Muslim immigrants and the specific mentioning of religious freedom, one can draw questions regarding the legitimacy of his claims. Does he really mean it or is it just said to gain supporters?


On the same time, he repeatedly and frequently seems to attack the mainstream media with claims of political agendas, corruption and a desire to stop them (Stelter 2016). This opinion expresses a lack of neutrality in the media but also a desire to control the media, and action you could claim goes against the freedom of the press. It should however be noted that incidents during the election does support his claims of a corrupt media. One example is the incident of CNN analysist Donna Brazile leaking questions for a debate during the primaries to Hillary Clinton (Brochers, 2016). She later admitted to having political motives, though in CNN’s defense she acted entirely on her own. Based on this you could also consider Trump’s statements an attempt to strengthen journalistic neutrality and thus ensure a more unbiased public debate.

Trump: A Threat to Democracy or Just a Matter of Narrative?

Furthermore, it becomes clear he intends to reverse any illegal executive order issued by the Obama administration (donaldjtrump 2016). Whether they are illegal or not is impossible to check, since it is not specified which executive orders he refers to. However considering how an executive order comes from the president himself, it does involve the president operating as the legislative and the executive branch on the same time, which by extent goes against the separation of power and thus democracy. Trump’s actions can therefore be a strengthening of the democracy. Or is it just a byproduct of his politics? If you look at other statements, you for example can read «Rescind all job-destroying Obama Executive actions…» (donaldjtrump, 2016) and «Immediately terminate President Obama’s two illegal executive amnesties. All immigration laws will be enforced - we will triple the number of ICE agents...» (donaldjtrump, 2016), which points towards a political motivation. It is therefore not a valid defense against trump being a threat to democracy. However it is not an argument supporting him being a threat either.

As pointed out several times it seems the debate surrounding trump is largely a matter of narrative. The accusations towards Hillary Clinton are severe, especially considering FBIs rulings in the case, and can at first glance seem like an attempt to act both as an executive and judiciary power. When confronted with how he intends to jail her this argument falls too short, and it becomes clear he intends to follow the system. However it is worth questioning his intentions, is it to undermine Hillary? Furthermore, he shows a seeming unwillingness to accept a potential loss and a willingness to oppose the results of a democratic process. As mentioned earlier cases of electoral fraud has happened, however they are all small scale and shows no sign of any overlaying organization. This leaves his claim open for interpretation. Lastly, his party program seems to be more democracy friendly and less debatable than his claims. Parts of it openly claims a desire to strengthen the democracy, though the statements not always correlating with his statements weaken these claims. One example of this is his opinion on religious freedom seen in light of his opinion on muslims, which opens for questions regarding his intentions.

Thus we can conclude that there are good arguments both supporting and opposing the claim that trump is a threat to democracy. In the end it all comes down to which arguments and claims you weight the heaviest, and which narrative you support. If you support the anti-trump narrative it’s easy to make him look like a threat, and likewise if you support the pro-trump narrative it’s easy to make it look like he wants to protect the democracy. To finally answer the question we simply will have to give him the benefit of doubt, and wait to see how he acts in the period after the election and after a possible victory.

And finally a funny image of him, because whether you hate or like the guy you have to agree his expressions are funny.

Trump: A Threat to Democracy or Just a Matter of Narrative?

sources (sorry, too lazy to translate. but it's mostly English material):

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/07/donna-brazile-is-totally-not-sorry-for-leaking-cnn-debate-questions-to-hillary-clinton/

https://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/24/politics/donald-trump-muslim-ban-election-2016/

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies/constitution-and-second-amendment/

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies/energy/

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies/immigration/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvdUox7_YAc

https://insider.foxnews.com/2016/11/02/broward-county-voter-fraud-fl-gop-opening-mail-ballots-vote-election

https://www.kswo.com/story/31430630/3-under-investigation-for-voter-fraud

https://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/08/on-election-day-trump-still-says-its-largely-a-rigged-system.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3911032/FBI-announces-not-change-decision-regarding-Hillary-Clinton-s-emails.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/08/on-election-day-trump-still-says-its-largely-a-rigged-system.html

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/17/no-voter-fraud-isnt-myth-10-cases-where-its-all-to/

https://money.cnn.com/2016/10/15/media/donald-trump-media-journalists/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRlI2SQ0Ueg

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-trump-is-a-unique-threat-to-american-democracy/2016/07/22/a6d823cc-4f4f-11e6-aa14-e0c1087f7583_story.html?utm_term=.daae8f6b8c62

https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidentmodellen

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/11/09/donald-trump-could-actually-take-steps-to-try-to-jail-hillary-clinton/?utm_term=.eb2aa2fb6ac3

Trump: A Threat to Democracy or Just a Matter of Narrative?
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