'Frog in boiling water': Nicolle Wallace says Trump plunging US into 'authoritarianism'

"Deadline: White House" host Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC on August 25, 2025

As President Donald Trump's administration continues to call on the military to be deployed to American cities, MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace is warning that the U.S. is on a slippery slope toward becoming a full-fledged dictatorship.

In her Monday episode of "Deadline: White House," Wallace likened the United States during Trump's second term to the "frog in boiling water metaphor," saying the U.S. population is now having to evaluate whether the country has indeed been overtaken by "authoritarian rule." She began by observing that "2,000 armed soldiers" are currently patrolling the streets of Washington D.C. with M9 pistols and M4 rifles, and that more cities could soon be next.

"Trump today — in the midst of signing executive orders ending cashless bail and criminalizing flag burning — again, suggested he'll send troops to Chicago and maybe also Baltimore, potentially putting nearly four million Americans under this dark new rule of law and order regime in America," Wallace said, before playing a clip of Trump in the Oval Office complaining about people accusing him of "trying to take over the Republic."

"Is the water hot enough for you yet?" Wallace asked. "...The Trump administration will publicly, in statements like that, say that these drastic, unprecedented measures are designed to fight crime. The reality is that, as far as we can tell so far, it is not about that. It's a show of force."

Wallace pointed to a New York Times report detailing how, since the occupation of Washington D.C. began, high-level federal charges have been brought against people who allegedly committed low-level offenses. She noted that one man had been arrested over an open container of alcohol, while another person was charged with threatening the president following a "drunken outburst" while they were being arrested for vandalism.

"Many of the cases that have landed in court have raised concerns that the takeover seems intended to artificially inflate its effect, because government lawyers have been instructed to file the most serious federal charges, no matter how minor the incident," she said. "Which brings us back to where we started. When will we know? When will all of us know we've crossed into something new, into authoritarianism?"

Watch the segment below, or by clicking this link.

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