There’s a degree of mystery around Donald Trump’s affinity for dictators. Most people try to fill it with psychological explanations. I’d like firm answers about Trump’s motives, too. What part is rooted in financial interest? What part is simply that he fancies himself a dictator and wants to emulate them. And if in some cases he’s compromised by a foreign power (pee tape, money laundering), to what degree and what are the details?

We may unravel these answers over time, but one thing should be really clear. The U.S., as leader of the West, has pursued (unevenly, I’ll admit) a democratization program for the world. In some respects, this dates to the founding of the country when it served merely as an example of what was possible. I don’t think you see the French Revolution take the form it did without the American Revolution coming first. It began in earnest at the end of World War One, when most European monarchies were either abolished or stripped of their autocratic powers. And it continued during the Cold War and its immediate aftermath, where the ultimate goal was to rid the world of totalitarianism.

In some instances, America made nice with or even propped up dictators, especially as an alternative to populist communism or to assure access to energy resources, but by the mid-1990’s, the democratization program was ascendant in Latin America, Europe, among our Far East allies, and even in much of the former Soviet Union. Some of the Neo-conservatives who advocated invading Iraq, were under the misimpression that democracy could easily come to parts of the Middle East, too.

Whatever errors or compromises made along the way, the arrow has always pointed in the direction of supporting accountable government. And if greed, corruption, fear or military necessity often undermined or sidetracked the overall mission, American presidents always remained rhetorically committed to the cause.

That’s the tradition that Trump broke. We don’t have to know all the reasons he did this to understand that it is an alarming breach and betrayal of core American principles. Dictators are not for liking. They can be charming and personable, but their very existence requires a subjugated nation, with all the indignity and injustice that implies.

To support Trump, you must simultaneously devalue the worth of the American project. And you can see this play out in how the Republican Party is now actively hostile to full-franchise elections. You saw it on January 6, 2021.

That Trump likes and “understands” dictators, is really enough of a problem that we don’t need to know why.