Trump is not a despot. But he'd like to play one, and not just on TV. Is the president's praise for Duterte born out of a bizarre psychological affinity for despots, because of his Trump Tower Manila project, or both?

Brian Klaas | Opinion contributor

Show Caption Hide Caption Trump appears to go easy on Philippine president Trump raised some eyebrows Monday for not calling out Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's alleged human rights abuses. Video provided by Newsy

President Trump showed us once again on his Asia trip that he is a wannabe despot — a man who mimics authoritarian strongmen as much as he idolizes them on the global stage. The former host of The Apprentice has now become the despot’s apprentice. He is the kind of demagogue that America’s Founding Fathers warned us about. American democracy is now under threat.

Of course, Trump is not a despot. Claiming so is alarmist, and it diminishes the severity of suffering that true despots inflict on their populations — suffering I’ve seen firsthand researching authoritarianism in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and behind the former Iron Curtain of the post-Soviet states.

Even so, in policy foreign and domestic it’s clear that Trump is jealous of the unchecked powers of autocrats, as he simultaneously applauds their destructive regimes abroad.

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Take Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, whom Trump warmly praised this week at a stop in Manila. Just before being elected last year, Duterte pledged that his regime would be a “bloody” one. He signaled to his officers that they'd get presidential pardons for extrajudicial killings in his so-called drug war. “I will issue 1,000 pardons a day,” he promised, before pledging to pardon himself for mass atrocities. “Pardon given to Rodrigo Duterte for the crime of multiple murder, signed Rodrigo Duterte,” he said with a laugh.

Duterte kept his word. Since taking power, Duterte’s regime has slaughtered thousands. The Filipino strongman boasts he has personally killed people — riding around on a motorcycle hunting for victims; tossing a man out of a helicopter; and shooting three people. He has pledged to be the Hitler of the Philippines and lamented “what a waste” he didn’t have first crack at a gang rape victim.

Thankfully, Donald Trump called Duterte “sick,” decried his “agenda of hate,” and pointedly said that his extrajudicial killings were “disgraceful.” In response to Duterte’s bogus denials of his mass atrocities, Trump called the denials “just made up” and “dishonest,” and said they make clear that Duterte’s regime is filled with “truly bad people!”

Nope, just kidding. That’s not what Trump said about a despot who is massacring thousands. Those are things that the president of the United States said about America’s free press — a foundational pillar of democracy.

What Trump has actually said about Duterte is quite different. “I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem,” Trump told him in a phone call in April, according to a leaked Philippine government transcript. “You are a good man. … Keep up (the) good work, you are doing an amazing job.”

This week in Manila, Trump lauded their “great relationship,” and the two men laughed about Duterte’s quip that journalists are “spies.” Since 1992, more than 130 journalists have been killed in the Philippines.

Is Trump’s praise borne out of a bizarre psychological affinity for despots, because of his Trump Tower Manila project, or both?

We might never know for sure, but across the globe Trump has been a consistent cheerleader for despots — from the Saudi royal family to Egypt's Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan and Russia's Vladimir Putin. Even as he talks tough on North Korea, Trump called Kim Jong Un a “smart cookie” and wondered why he won’t be his friend.

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Such praise from the White House legitimizes the rule of tyrants and helps them stay in power. It also undercuts America's soft power, which is partly predicated on the moral leadership of the United States.

Unfortunately, Trump’s pro-authoritarian impulses are not limited to foreign soil. Trump also aspires to be the first authoritarian strongman of Washington. Despite the checks and balances that constrain him, he is steadily eroding democratic norms and menacing our system of democratic government.

Trump attacks the press, lies constantly, calls to jail his opponents, pardons his political allies, aims to suppress votes in future elections, uses divide and rule tactics to scapegoat minorities, routinely violates democratic ethics, and tries to politicize non-partisan institutions. Like the banana republics of the world, he has filled the White House with family members, unqualified cronies and generals.

Thankfully, Trump is a bumbling, ineffective demagogue. Yet, as I have written, he doesn’t have to be effective to be destructive. He already is changing the perceptions of what is acceptable, normal and within bounds in American democracy. Millions of his supporters cheer as he violates democratic norms. Trump’s erosion of American democracy is happening — and it’s going to take years or decades to repair.

That is, unless we choose to put partisan squabbles aside to save democracy. There are encouraging signs from people such as Sens. Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, John McCain and Susan Collins. But it is now clear that most elected Republicans will stand idly by while Trump violates democratic norms. It’s up to us. As Trump tries to divide Americans, we must instead unite — in defense of democracy at home and abroad.

Brian Klaas is a fellow in comparative politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science and author of The Despot’s Apprentice: Donald Trump’s Attack on Democracy, which was published Tuesday. Follow him on Twitter: @brianklaas.