Historical Echoes: Democratic Leaders’ Abuse of Power Through the Ages

A replica of internment camp barracks at Manzanar National Historic Site – near Independence, Calif. Manzanar War Relocation Center was one of 10 internment camps in which Japanese American citizens and resident Japanese aliens were held, from 1942 to 1945 during World War II. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Hillary Clinton leveled accusations against former President Donald Trump, claiming he “followed the authoritarian playbook.” Trump has also been labeled a dictator, tyrant, fascist, Nazi, and compared to Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Joseph Stalin by critics. During his crackdown on crime in D.C., Democrats on the U.S. House Oversight Committee dismissed his actions as “dictator-level stuff.” Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., warned that Trump would deploy soldiers to cities to undermine the 2028 elections.

While Trump has tested presidential boundaries, and the U.S. Supreme Court may intervene, Democrats’ claims of autocracy are not only misleading but hypocritical. They appear to have forgotten that numerous Democratic presidents in the 20th century abused their office’s power.

During World War I, President Woodrow Wilson (1913-1920) suppressed American rights by pushing a 1918 sedition act that imprisoned individuals for dissenting against war policies. Socialist Eugene Debs was jailed for opposing the draft. Wilson shielded the American Protective League from consequences for violent labor strike breakups and spying on citizens. He declared, “Woe be to the man or group of men that seeks to stand in our way.” In 1919, his administration conducted warrantless raids targeting alleged radicals.

President Franklin Roosevelt (1933-1945) used the IRS to investigate political opponents, including Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon and aviator Charles Lindbergh. After Pearl Harbor, FDR authorized the internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans in concentration camps, a policy condemned by the ACLU as “the worst single wholesale violation of civil rights in our history.” He also ordered FBI phone taps on administration members and the Republican Party chairman.

During the Korean War, President Harry Truman (1945-1953) seized steel mills via executive order, a move the Supreme Court later ruled unconstitutional. The Kennedy administration targeted critics with IRS audits, including journalists Walter Winchell and Jim Bishop, while manipulating the FCC’s fairness doctrine to suppress opposition. The Rockefeller Commission revealed CIA wiretaps on press members in 1962 with Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s approval.

President Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969) spied on senators opposing his Vietnam policies and continued surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr., installing wire taps in his office and hotel suites. He also monitored radical dissidents and political adversaries. Post-1968, J. Edgar Hoover informed Nixon that his campaign plane had been bugged by the FBI.

In more recent years, President Barack Obama’s Justice Department ignored the Defense of Marriage Act and spied on journalists. His administration appointed over two dozen unaccountable “czars” to advance left-wing policies beyond congressional oversight. The DHS labeled anti-abortion activists as potential terrorists. The Biden administration pressured social media companies to suppress posts criticizing its COVID-19 policies, violating First Amendment rights.

For over a century, Democratic leaders have abused executive power. Before accusing others of authoritarianism, they must confront their own history and apologize to Americans.