Follow the Stack · Grievance
Anti-democracy
Statements or actions against democratic institutions, elections or the rule of law.
11 documented facts
Reacting on Truth Social to a video in which six Democratic lawmakers with military or intelligence backgrounds urged service members to refuse illegal orders, wrote that their "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR" was "punishable by DEATH!", reposted an article about them adding "LOCK THEM UP???" and reshared a user's post reading "HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!".
“punishable by DEATH!”
Response: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president was not threatening the lawmakers with violence.
Addressed by video link Tommy Robinson's "Unite the Kingdom" anti-immigration rally in London, called for the dissolution of Parliament and an early election to remove Keir Starmer's government, and told the crowd that violence was coming to them and that they must fight back or die. Starmer's spokesman condemned "dangerous and inflammatory language which threatens violence and intimidation on our streets".
“Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die.”
Failed for a second time to appear before a French National Assembly inquiry committee on the organisation of elections, which wanted to question him about the roughly €20 million a year he plans to spend through Périclès. The committee chair, Thomas Cazenave, said nothing justified Stérin placing himself "au-dessus des lois de la République"; refusing to appear before such a committee is punishable by up to two years in prison and a €7,500 fine.
Response: Stérin officially cited concerns for his safety; shortly before the hearing he criticised the deputies on CNews. He was questioned by the judicial police in November 2025 over the refusals, and appeared by videoconference before a Senate inquiry committee on 4 June 2026.
In a conversation with CNN in Lafayette Square, outside the White House, in mid-May 2025 (published May 30), argued for replacing American democracy with a monarchy whose ruler would operate like a startup CEO, accountable to a corporate-style board rather than to citizens. Asked how to prevent such a leader from becoming the next Hitler or Stalin, he said power should be concentrated in a single individual.
“You need to concentrate that power in a single individual and then just hope somehow that this is the right individual, or close to the right individual”
On his first day back in office, signed a proclamation granting full pardons to people convicted of offenses related to the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol (about 1,500 people, by his own count), commuting the sentences of 14 others to time served, including Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, and directing the dismissal of pending indictments. Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, convicted of seditious conspiracy, was pardoned. The proclamation said it "ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years".
Posted a poll on X asking whether "America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government", amid a series of posts calling for a new UK election and for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to be jailed over the prosecution of child grooming gangs, and calling safeguarding minister Jess Phillips a "rape genocide apologist". Starmer condemned "lies and misinformation" and said a line had been crossed after threats against Phillips.
“America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government”
In a Veterans Day speech in Claremont, New Hampshire, vowed to "root out" political opponents he described as living "like vermin" and said the threat from within was greater than that from Russia, China or North Korea, while repeating false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Historians quoted by the Washington Post compared the language to that of Hitler and Mussolini.
“We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections”
Response: Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said those making the comparison were "snowflakes" suffering from "Trump Derangement Syndrome".
Posted on Truth Social, repeating the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen, that such a fraud allows for the termination of rules and articles "even those found in the Constitution". The White House called attacking the Constitution "anathema to the soul of our nation".
“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”
Response: On December 5, 2022, Trump posted that the "Fake News" was trying to convince Americans he wanted to "terminate" the Constitution, calling this "DISINFORMATION & LIES".
Took part in a 14 November 2020 phone call focused on strategies for contesting Donald Trump's 2020 election defeat, alongside Senator Lindsey Graham, Fox News host Sean Hannity and Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow, according to an email from True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht revealed in May 2022 in a court filing by Fair Fight in its lawsuit against True the Vote, first reported by The Washington Post. The email said the participants asked for a preliminary report "to be used to rally their troops internally".
Response: The account rests on a single email written by a third party; Ellison has not commented on the call. An Oracle spokeswoman did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.
Wrote in the essay "The Education of a Libertarian" that he no longer believes freedom and democracy are compatible.
“Most importantly, I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”
In the essay "The Education of a Libertarian", cited the extension of the vote to women, together with the growth of welfare beneficiaries, as having turned "capitalist democracy" into an oxymoron.
“Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of "capitalist democracy" into an oxymoron.”
Response: In a later clarification appended to the essay, Thiel wrote: "It would be absurd to suggest that women's votes will be taken away or that this would solve the political problems that vex us. While I don't think any class of people should be disenfranchised, I have little hope that voting will make things better."