If Trump is re-elected, how does Australia engage with such a powerful ally led by such an authoritarian and unstable leader? More importantly, how can Australia prevent the same slide toward authoritarianism happening in our own democracy?

Comparing a politician to Hitler used to be seen as the quickest way to lose an argument, but this week Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, former US Marine Corps general and Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, told multiple news outlets that Trump liked “the dictator approach” to running a country and meets the definition of a fascist. Mr Kelly told The Atlantic, in a conversation confirmed by two sources, that Trump said: “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had”.

In any functional democracy, a former White House chief-of-staff going on the record to reveal these comments would represent the end of Trump’s political career. But for Trump that was just Tuesday. Let’s be clear: racism and extremism have always been part of US politics. The late Molly Ivins, a Texan journalist and columnist, once observed that “It is possible to read the history of this country as one long struggle to extend the liberties established in our Constitution to everyone in America”. But politics in the United States is less a contest between two rational political parties who disagree on policy issues, than a pitched battle between democracy and authoritarianism.

America is now reaping what Rupert Murdoch, Trump and the extreme right wing of American politics have spent years sowing. Back in 2008, Trump and the Murdoch press were instrumental in spreading the “birtherism” lie that Barack Obama was a Muslim who was not born in the US. Then Republican Presidential nominee John McCain asserted the truth to a voter who had fallen for the lies, defending Barack Obama as a “decent family man and citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues”. Compare that to Trump’s venal vice presidential candidate JD Vance, who could not bring himself to publicly admit that Trump lost the election.

Trump’s team denied the Hitler comments, but why would anyone believe that? At this point, it has been well established that Trump couldn’t lie straight in bed. He’s a serial liar about anything and everything from the size of the crowds at his rallies to the fact he lost the last presidential election. No lie is too big or too small.

It’s entirely believable that Trump covets Hitler’s loyal generals because it fits the pattern of a man who has consistently admired and praised dictators. His actions and his policies are also authoritarian. Not only did Trump encourage the January 6 insurrection, but he has been openly talking about stripping broadcasting licenses from media networks he sees as “enemies” and he has talked about deploying the United States military against “the enemy within” when the election takes place.

This is textbook authoritarianism, yet Trump has been so successful at normalising extremism that MAGA supporters at rallies regularly say they would prefer Vladimir Putin to Kamala Harris. As Trump’s former advisor Steve Bannon once said, “Putin ain’t woke’. Democracy has so badly deteriorated that literal fascist policies are now being polled – as though rounding up immigrants into militarised camps for mass deportation is a similar policy proposition to whether or not Americans support tax cuts.

The last time Trump was president, it was vice president Mike Pence and a handful of State Republican officials who upheld their constitutional responsibilities to stymie Trump’s efforts to overturn the election result … Will there be enough Republicans with integrity to stop Trump if he’s re-elected this time?

Kamala Harris responded to the comments by saying Trump wants a military that is loyal to him, not the constitution. “We know what Donald Trump wants. He wants unchecked power. The question in 13 days will be: What do the American people want?”

How does this change the world?

But what if Trump is what the American people want? Trump’s re-election would obviously have profound implications globally, not just for democracy in the United States.

The possibility that Trump and his MAGA Republicans may withdraw US military weapons and aid from Ukraine is alarming to many in Europe. Europe is not in a position to replace America’s armaments and aid to Ukraine. Without US support, Ukraine will find it increasingly difficult to fight Russia’s invasion. In short, as one commentator in Le Monde put it: “Ukraine’s defeat, if Trump were elected, would also be Europe’s defeat’.

In Australia, it seems highly unlikely that we will ever get nuclear submarines under AUKUS. But that could be a blessing in disguise. Would it really be in Australia’s interests to tie ourselves so closely to Trump’s version of America? It would certainly be against Australia’s interests to maintain blind bipartisan support for the US alliance if it means aligning with authoritarians in Congress or in the White House.

Now is the time to recalibrate the US-Australia alliance to ensure it really is in Australia’s best interests, but it’s also the perfect time for Australians to reflect the democratic institutions and ideals that will prevent our democracy from travelling the same path as the United States.

Australia and the United States might share democratic values, but it has become clear that the democratic institutions and norms of the United States are weak and deteriorating. Optional voting means political parties have to find issues that will encourage their base to “turn out” on election day, meaning divisive and polarising issues are often powerful motivators. The Republican party has also attempted to suppress the votes of certain sections of the community, by introducing barriers to enrolling with voter ID laws, as well as states like Texas announcing it had removed more than 1 million people from its voter rolls since 2021.

If nothing else, the US election can help Australians appreciate compulsory voting, preferential voting and short lines at the ballot box – where people can and often vote in their budgie smugglers – as some of the key bedrocks that keep our democracy healthy.