Dr Ben Worthy, Reader in Politics and Public Policy at Birkbeck’s School of Social Sciences shares his thoughts on the President Trump’s latest actions.
Since his second term began Donald Trump has dismantled, undermined and destroyed some of the essential features of American democracy. The signs have long been there that Trump doesn’t support or like democratic institutions or ideas. In his first term, remember, he tried to deny he’d lost and supported an armed coup that stormed Congress. Now, just two months into his second term, the US political system itself is under sustained attack.
It is true that even before Trump American democracy was, shall we say, a work in progress, and actually far younger than it looks. Until the 1960s claims of democracy and the ringing belief in ‘We the People’ co-existed with slavery and severe inequality, and, at least in terms of voting rights, it has only been a full democracy since 1965. But since January 2025 even this imperfect system is being pulled apart.
So what exactly has Donald Trump done? Since he came to power he has launched a flurry of so called Executive Orders (which are essentially memos) attacking various democratic rights, and made a series of attacks minority groups and vulnerable people, especially in the trans community and immigrants. Immigration officials and other agencies have moved quickly to target opponents who may oppose or speak out, from lawyers to universities, spreading terror and intimidation. Just read this headline out loud ‘A PhD student was snatched by masked officers in broad daylight. Then she was flown 1,500 miles away’. This is the story of a student writing in a student newspaper, who was snatched from the street by masked and unidentifiable police. Yes, secret police and snatched away. Opponents and critics are disappearing are being silenced, heading towards the concentration camps that have been created exactly to sit outside of the law (though they haven’ been called that). This is only the beginning of Trump’s plans for mass deportation.
As well as being horrific, Trump’s action run against several important rules of democracy. The first is the rule of law, and the idea that everyone, from the President downwards, must be subject to it, equally. Trump very clearly believes otherwise. He has pardoned people convicted of attempting to overthrow the government. He has also suspended the vital legal processes for critics, simply deporting them and making up reasons afterwards. As this article puts it ‘the lawlessness is the point’. Without the rule of law, the law is simply whatever Trump says it is.
The second rule of democracy is about following the constitution, the rules and procedures that set out the rules of the game. The US constitution is one of the world’s most famous, setting out the ‘checks and balances’ to make sure no one can…erm… become a dictator. In theory, the President is balanced by the Supreme Court and Congress, who all block each other.
In July 2024 a Supreme Court ruling gave any future President (and especially Trump) immunity and, effectively’ the power of a king’ and Trump is now using it to the full. So far Trump has unconstitutionally and illegally abolished government departments and pursued law firms who he believes are opposed to him, while Musk, who has no proper constitutional position, has illegally taken control of government data. Trump’s day one orders on immigration were ‘unconstitutional, illegal and cruel’ as has been his unconstitutional use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 . Each of these acts should have been stopped, and each would probably be an impeachable office, meaning the President could be removed.
So far, the checks have failed. Some Judges at various levels are working to stop or slow down Trump. The problem at the moment is that the legislature (Congress) and the highest court (the Supreme Court) are filled (and better say ‘packed’) with Trump’s supporters, who have decided that their loyalty to Trump is more important that defending the Constitution.
Trump is now mulling possibility of somehow, someway serving a Third term. As this piece argues Trump cannot, in constitutional terms, be elected for a third term but could try to reach the White House by becoming Vice President, Putin style, or some complex swap arrangement.
Finally, the third way of thinking about democracy is through elections. Adam Przeworski famously argued that Democracy is ‘a system in which parties lose elections’. Free and fair elections are the most important part of democracy, and perhaps the one true way to judge a democracy is whether the party that loses agrees to step down. Leaving office willingly is the fundamental difference between democracies and dictatorship. Trump tried all he could to not leave, as a clear warning sign, in 2020.
Trump’s issued a new set of Executive Orders in March 2025 aimed to ‘Protect and Preserve Elections’. Like in any other authoritarian regime, we need to remember that anything the government says now means the precise opposite. Trump’s instructions are an attempt to restrict mail voting and create new proofs for ID to undermine his opponents and manipulate the elections in his favour.
Trump’s actions fit with a longer term voter suppression by Republicans across many states of America. This report maps the ‘barrage of restrictive voting legislation over the course of the last decade’ which have targeted ‘voters of colour’ as well as ‘voters with disabilities and low-income voters who can face significant obstacles to obtaining photo identification’.
Beyond the direct attack on the electoral system, the fear of revenge is intimidating parts of the media, lawyers and anyone who could fight it, rolling the pitch for Trump and weakening his opponents. Trump is, in short, trying to create a situation where he doesn’t lose elections. Tim Walz, who ran as VP for Kamala Harris, warned that ‘the road towards authoritarianism has been paved with people saying, ‘You’re overreacting,’ ”. He went on to warn ‘I think you should assume a worst-case scenario’. We should all assume that now.
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