Democrat targeted by Trump attacks 'authoritarian' effort to intimidate critics
Source: The Guardian
Sun 18 Jan 2026 06.00 EST
Last modified on Sun 18 Jan 2026 06.02 EST
Donald Trump is borrowing a strategy from authoritarian regimes to intimidate potential critics and discourage them from speaking out, according to a senator under investigation by his administration.
Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat from Michigan, faces questioning after she organised and appeared in a video with other Democrats imploring military service members to refuse “illegal orders”. Fellow senator Mark Kelly and three Democrats from the House of Representatives are also being investigated.
To Slotkin, a former analyst with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), it is a deliberate effort to chill free speech that rhymes with her experience of dictatorships around the world.
“They’re now using a well-worn playbook that employs physical intimidation and legal intimidation to get, A, you to shut up, and B, for other people thinking of criticising the president on such issues to be dissuaded from doing so,” she told the Guardian in a phone interview. “It’s absolutely a strategy well used in other countries and other authoritarian governments. As a CIA officer I’ve served in places like this, I’ve studied places like this my entire life, and Trump is sadly using that playbook in the United States right now.”
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/18/trump-authoritarian-playbook-critics-democrat
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