Would-be autocrats often move to eliminate structural checks on their power. They intimidate opposition parties, threaten potential dissenters within their own ranks, and defy the courts. Autocrats punish and bully the news media, protect allies from legal prosecution while targeting political opponents, and purge senior military and government ranks of career staff in favor of loyalists.
President Trump has checked all of those boxes, says Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution who has spent four decades studying how and why democracies fail.
“If we were slipping into an authoritarian situation, step by step, it would pretty much look like what’s happening right now,” he says.
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“It’s very important to keep an intense focus on the rule of law,” says Dr. Diamond of the Hoover Institution. “The more that [Mr. Trump] defies and disrespects the federal courts along the way, the more we have indicators of a gathering constitutional crisis. And the more that he seeks to abuse his authority by trying to weaponize the power of the federal government against his enemies, the more people should be concerned about the future of our democracy.”
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2025/0509/donald-trump-authoritarian-playbook-democracyDemocracy Matrix ranking:
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30 Slovakia 0.836 Working Democracy
31 Greece 0.834 Working Democracy
32 Czech Republic 0.834 Working Democracy
33 Latvia 0.83 Working Democracy
34 Barbados 0.83 Working Democracy
35 Israel 0.821 Working Democracy
36 United States of America 0.811 Deficient Democracy
37 Cape Verde 0.792 Deficient Democracy
38 Jamaica 0.787 Deficient Democracy
39 Trinidad and Tobago 0.784 Deficient Democracy
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https://www.democracymatrix.com/ranking ranks the USA at 57th, below Argentina and equal with Mongolia.
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