The Republican senators who exonerated Donald Trump were divided into two groups: some admitted that he was guilty and yet acquitted him, the others acted as if the president had been guilty of no fault.

"It was wrong for President Trump to mention former Vice President Biden on the phone, and it was wrong for him to ask a foreign country to start an investigation against a political rival," said Senator Susan Collins, adding, however, that impeachment might be possible "Unpredictable and potentially negative consequences for public confidence in our electoral process".

For President Trump and his Attorney General William Barr, however, it was a crystal-clear acquittal. When the Senate decided to release Trump from charges of impeachment, despite the undeniable evidence that he wanted to force another country to falsely accuse his political rivals, he not only decided to keep Trump in office until the electorate in November can pass judgment. Republican senators also used their votes to give the president free rein to use his official power to suppress the opposition party and to purge government officials who felt that the Constitution was not Trump, rather than Trump. Henceforth, he may prosecute his political enemies without legal cause or otherwise prosecute, while Trump's helpers are protected from legal ramifications. The acquittal thus confirmed the authoritarian instincts of the president and the ideological convictions of his minister of justice.

A benevolent interpretation of the Senate vote could be that the senators may have wanted to avert a major democratic crisis. But in the eyes of the president, they voted for his acquittal so that he could rise to the dictator.

Democracies are supported by formal processes through which competition for power takes place and which regulate the transfer of power. Once this process is corrupted, only the insignia of democracy remain in an authoritarian regime. Such states may continue to hold elections, trials and legislative procedures, but these institutions alone cannot uphold the rule of law. America is not that far yet, but the Senate acquittal was a fateful step in that direction.

The founding fathers did not foresee that a head of government could be protected by spit-leavers, who believed that their civil duties were exhausted in their devotion to their president.

When a democracy turns into an authoritarian regime, it doesn't have to be sudden and dramatic. Democratic mechanisms are often undermined for months or years, and the public is gradually deprived of the opportunity to choose their governance freely or to hold them accountable.

In a functioning democracy, MPs do not have to agree on fundamental political issues; they can argue about environmental protection measures, tax rates, immigration or health care. But regardless of the party or ideology they support, the people's right to choose their own leadership must be sacred. Mitt Romney is the only senator in the Republican faction who is willing to act on this principle. Trump learned from the impeachment process that the Grand Old Party will let him go through everything in the future.

After Minister of Justice Barr described the accusation that Trump tried to influence foreign elections in the USA as "fraud", he opened an official channel to the personal lawyer of President Rudy Giuliani, through which the Justice Department from abroad did dirty laundry about Trumps Could rush to rivals. And Trump, who falsely claimed that Joe Biden requested the removal of a Ukrainian prosecutor to protect his son, did exactly what he accused Biden of: trying to henchman Roger Stone, who had committed crimes in Trump's favor, Protect from the legal ramifications, which led to prosecutors resigning in the case.

On the day of the Senate acquittal, the Department of Justice announced that all investigations into the 2020 presidential candidates would have to be personally approved by Barr so that he could stop criminal proceedings against the President's employees or allow them against his rivals. In an interview with journalists, Trump claimed that he had the "absolute right" to decide who would be prosecuted by the Department of Justice and who would not. There is no law other than Trump.

Trump also launched a purge among officials who testified during the impeachment hearings. He fired his European Union ambassador Gordon Sondland, who confirmed that Trump had made military aid to Ukraine dependent on Kiev's announcement that it was investigating Biden's son Hunter. And he released Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman and his twin brother Yevgeny Vindman from the White House staff after Vindman truthfully testified that the President had wanted to force Ukraine to falsely charge the Bidens. Trump ridiculed Vindman on Twitter by putting his military rank in quotes, a stark contrast to the exuberant praise he has for war criminals.

Specifically, the Trump administration is not fighting the “shadow state”, but trying to build one that will outlast it.

Senior officials swear an oath to the constitution, not Donald Trump. The officials concerned were not released from the constitution because of disloyalty to Trump. With the exception of Mitt Romney, who voted against the acquittal on the first of the two charges, the Republican Party now makes no distinction between fealty to Trump and loyalty to the country. The founding fathers included the impeachment article so that a prime minister who abuses his power to stay in office could be prosecuted. But since there were no political parties at the time, they did not foresee that such a head of government could be protected by lickers who believe that their civil duties were exhausted in their devotion to their president.

Much has been written about Trump's ineligibility for presidency. But if Trump were only incapable, his authoritarian impulses would have been contained better. Instead, the Republican Party is gradually transforming itself into a regime party whose primary duty is to keep government control at all costs. By keeping Trump in power, the party maintains its own power. Anyone wishing to rise in the Republican Party today must show unwavering allegiance to the President. If the party dropped Trump now, all the humiliations, compromises, sacrifices it made to keep him in power would have been in vain.

Ultimately, keeping Trump in office isn't the goal, despite the many submissive public gestures on the part of party members. Rather, the goal is to preserve the authoritarian structure Trump and Barr are building so that the next Republican president can take them over. Specifically, the Trump administration is not fighting the “shadow state”, but trying to build one that will outlast it.

Recent events have shown that the United States is being increasingly authoritarian. Aside from Trump's assertion that he could unilaterally instruct the Department of Justice to prosecute people as he wished - practically unopposed by Senate Republicans - the President also takes blanket authority to block congressional control. The White House claims that it can postpone funds approved by Congress as it sees fit. And the Republican-controlled Senate has not only empowered Trump to manipulate U.S. elections, but also brought in office judges who see it as their primary duty to prevent Trump from being held responsible. The President's public attacks on political opponents and critics, and his demands to punish or prosecute them, show the intended effect of strangling government criticism on the part of individual elites: most high-ranking ex-military officers who through the dismissal and subsequent abuse of the Vindmans Trump reprimanded doing this anonymously. Potential future dissidents should know how crazy it is to put their civil duties above the whims of the president.

Let us pause for a moment to sum up what this state looks like now. It is a state in which the legislature can neither control the executive nor legislate to contain it. A state in which the legitimate requirement of government documents is immediately met when the political opposition is criticized, whereas the release of documents affecting the incumbent president is generally rejected. It is a system in which the executive cannot be investigated for criminal activity and the legislature cannot dismiss it for violations of the law. It is a state in which only the regime party can make enforceable demands. The competing party may run for elections, but the executive organs do their best to discriminate against them because of their opposition to the President. It is a state in which public officials are allowed to violate laws at the behest of the president, but commit an unforgivable crime by making such violations public. If it was any other country, how would you describe such a state?

The Republican Party has demonstrated that it sees no need to rein in the President, and he has no reason to rein himself.

Trump's success in court is one reason why the United States has not yet passed another dangerous threshold: as long as Trump's judiciary remains balanced, he has little reason to openly oppose a court order. But when the day comes when this happens, we can be sure that Republican representatives will do exactly what they always do when Trump breaks the law: nothing.

Many representatives of the republican elite have given up giving Trumps authoritarian impetus and are now doing everything they can to give him free rein. They talk to themselves that they are acting in the interests of democracy. They need this illusion to justify their behavior, similar to the apocalyptic fantasy that conservative TV experts incessantly instill in their audiences. According to this myth, only Trump stands between conservative America and left Armageddon, in which effeminate white left-wing liberals, together with the black and brown masses under their thumb, exclude the right from power forever.

The Democrats started impeachment proceedings against Trump because they wanted to save the democratic system in which they had a chance to win and the President could not accuse his opponents of fictitious fictitious offenses. The Republicans acquitted him because they fear that one day they will no longer win in a system that has not been manipulated in their favor.

The softening of democracy can be stopped. But that's troublesome, and Trump's defeat in November is a necessary but not a sufficient step. Many Americans have failed to recognize what has happened and how quickly their country's possibly irreversible transformation into an unfree state can take place. The American people should decide how long Trump rules. But this president would never risk running this election freely. The Republican Party has demonstrated that it sees no need to rein in the President, and he has no reason to rein himself.

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the horror scenario of a catastrophe in the United States has narrowed to a sudden, shocking event. The Americans are therefore not prepared for another type of catastrophe that does not occur suddenly, but spreads slowly. The Senate acquittal marked the beginning of a fundamental transformation, no matter how deficient, of US democracy into an increasingly authoritarian system. In short, it marked the end of the Trump administration and the beginning of the Trump regime.