MAGA Is Telegraphing How They'll End Democracy (w/ Anne Applebaum) | The Michael Steele Podcast

Aug 15, 2024 | Michael Steele speaks with Pulitzer Prize-winning author and staff writer at The Atlantic, Anne Applebaum about her new book, "Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World.” The pair discuss the network of countries united by their common interest in maintaining absolute power, the reasons why people are attracted to autocratic regimes, the tactics used by modern autocrats, and the importance of civic engagement in preserving democracy.

Trump Wants to Remodel America: Historikerin Anne Applebaum zu Trumps Politik in den USA - Englisch

Mar 9, 2025 | The USA is “still a democracy”, but Trump and his team are trying to change the rules of the political system, says historian Anne Applebaum.

Die USA seien zwar "immer noch eine Demokratie", aber Trump und sein Team würden versuchen, die Regeln des politischen Systems zu ändern, sagt die Historikerin Anne Applebaum.

‘People Are Going Silent’: Fearing Retribution, Trump Critics Muzzle Themselves

THE NEW YORK TIMES: People say they are intimidated by online attacks from the president, concerned about harm to their businesses or worried about the safety of their families.

The silence grows louder every day.

Fired federal workers who are worried about losing their homes ask not to be quoted by name. University presidents fearing that millions of dollars in federal funding could disappear are holding their fire. Chief executives alarmed by tariffs that could hurt their businesses are on mute.

Even longtime Republican hawks on Capitol Hill, stunned by President Trump’s revisionist history that Ukraine is to blame for its invasion by Russia, and his Oval Office blowup at President Volodymyr Zelensky, have either muzzled themselves, tiptoed up to criticism without naming Mr. Trump or completely reversed their positions.

More than six weeks into the second Trump administration, there is a chill spreading over political debate in Washington and beyond.

People on both sides of the aisle who would normally be part of the public dialogue about the big issues of the day say they are intimidated by the prospect of online attacks from Mr. Trump and Elon Musk, concerned about harm to their companies and frightened for the safety of their families. Politicians fear banishment by a party remade in Mr. Trump’s image and the prospect of primary opponents financed by Mr. Musk, the president’s all-powerful partner and the world’s richest man. » | Elisabeth Bumiller | Reporting from Washington | Thursday, March 6, 2025

"Are We Sleepwalking into Autocracy?" Trump Embraces Authoritarian Playbook of Hungary's Orbán

Feb 12, 2025 | Is Trump embracing the authoritarian playbook of far-right Hungarian dictator Viktor Orbán? Princeton professor Kim Lane Scheppele walks us through Orbán's sudden rise to power and how the Trump administration's recent actions appear to follow his anti-democratic "blueprint," with Trump "echoing a lot of Orbán's rhetoric," consolidating power in the executive branch and bypassing federal checks and balances. "Trump is trying to break things quickly," says Scheppele, a professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University. She also notes Orbán's involvement in the right-wing Project 2025 initiative and his adoption of the motto "Make Europe Great Again" during Hungary's presidency of the Council of the European Union last year as further evidence of the close ties between the two leaders. As Orbán works to "consolidate this movement of anti-democratic far-right forces" in Europe, warns Scheppele, Trump is tightening his grasp on the other side of the Atlantic.

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Is the U.S. Heading for Autocracy?

Since he took office four weeks ago, President Trump has taken a series of actions that have upended the traditional role of government. Are they pushing the United States closer to an autocracy?

Anne Applebaum: Autocracy Is “Infecting U.S. Politics” | Amanpour & Company

Aug 5, 2024 | In a momentous deal struck between Moscow and several Western nations, the biggest prisoner swap since the Cold War was concluded last week. Some 24 detainees were returned to their home soil, including American Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. Many of those released by Russia were opposition figures imprisoned for criticizing the Kremlin. In her new book, "Autocracy Inc.," journalist Anne Applebaum argues that many of today's dictators collaborate to help keep one another in power. She joins the show to discuss this phenomenon. Originally aired on August 5, 2024

The Biggest Electoral Year in History: Will Democracy Survive 2024? | DW News

Feb 3, 2024 | 2024 is the biggest electoral year in history, with people heading to the polls in dozens of countries. This is DW’s preview to the most consequential elections of 2024 across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas – and what they mean for the health and future of democracy. Correspondent Rosie Birchard speaks to DW experts on Taiwan, India, South Africa, Mexico, the EU and the US.

Sweeping Raids, Giant Camps and Mass Deportations: Inside Trump’s 2025 Immigration Plans

THE NEW YORK TIMES: If he regains power, Donald Trump wants not only to revive some of the immigration policies criticized as draconian during his presidency, but expand and toughen them.

Donald Trump wants to reimpose a Covid 19-era policy of refusing asylum claims — this time basing that refusal on assertions that migrants carry other infectious diseases like tuberculosis. | Doug Mills/The New York Times
Former President Donald J. Trump is planning an extreme expansion of his first-term crackdown on immigration if he returns to power in 2025 — including preparing to round up undocumented people already in the United States on a vast scale and detain them in sprawling camps while they wait to be expelled.

The plans would sharply restrict both legal and illegal immigration in a multitude of ways.

Mr. Trump wants to revive his first-term border policies, including banning entry by people from certain Muslim-majority nations and reimposing a Covid 19-era policy of refusing asylum claims — though this time he would base that refusal on assertions that migrants carry other infectious diseases like tuberculosis.

He plans to scour the country for unauthorized immigrants and deport people by the millions per year.

To help speed mass deportations, Mr. Trump is preparing an enormous expansion of a form of removal that does not require due process hearings. To help Immigration and Customs Enforcement carry out sweeping raids, he plans to reassign other federal agents and deputize local police officers and National Guard soldiers voluntarily contributed by Republican-run states. » | Charlie Savage, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan | Saturday, November 11, 2023

Giant camps and mass deportations? This sounds exactly like Hitler's Third Reich! Any American who votes for this man will be voting for the death of American democracy and the birth of an American dictatorship. Only the seriously deluded would vote for anyone who would bring this about. For heaven's sake, learn the lessons of history!

One can but feel sorry for Americans who are going to have to live through this catastrophe. To use the vocabulary of the Palestinians, Americans will have to live through their very own Nakbah if they err and elect this man.

Unfortunately, it is not only Americans who will have to suffer if Trump is re-elected president for a second term, the rest of the world will have to suffer too! – © Mark Alexander

Democracy Now! Trump Indictment: Scholar of Fascism Says GOP Has Become an “Autocratic Party” Led by a “Cult Leader”

Autocracy Intensifies in Europe | The Mehdi Hasan Show

Apr 5, 2022 • The far-right leader of Hungary, Putin-ally Viktor Orbán, just secured a fourth term. Mehdi discusses his reelection with Trump-Ukraine whistleblower Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the former director for European Affairs at the National Security Council.

Velshi: When Biden Said Putin 'Cannot Remain in Power', He Was Right. And He Should Stick to It

Mar 27, 2022 • America is backsliding on democracy, largely because of the after effects of Donald Trump’s undermining and denial of the outcome of the 2020 election. But democratic backsliding is the norm all over the world today. According to a report by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, the number of countries moving in an authoritarian direction in 2020 outnumbered those going in a democratic direction. So when President Joe Biden said Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” he was right. And he should stick by it.

Is Turkey On the Road to Autocracy? – Video Explainer

President Erdoğan is set to benefit from sweeping new powers over parliament and the judiciary if Turkish voters support his constitutional reforms in this Sunday’s referendum. But with a heavy crackdown on opponents and the press, many of his critics fear the country is on a path to autocracy

Trump's America: Democracy at the Tipping Point

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Some have criticized the image on the cover of this week's DER SPIEGEL, but the symbol it depicts is a serious one: the very real threat that President Donald Trump poses to liberal democracy.

Ultimately, indifference is deadly. The apathy. The feeling of impotence. And the idle silence that follows. People, including journalists, start thinking they can't do anything anyway. That proved to be the case in Turkey and Hungary and it has long been the situation in Russia and China as well. Will it also happen in the United States?

When democracy begins to erode, it seldom happens very quickly. Looking back, one can often determine the moment in which it became serious -- usually it was an election. How could Turkey have elected Erdogan, Russia Putin, Hungary Orbán and how could America have chosen Donald Trump with a clear conscience? When political discourse leads to a situation in which the discourse itself is replaced by demagogy, and when that demagogue is brought to power through a democratic process, then it's possible that democracy itself will be replaced by autocracy. » | A Commentary by Klaus Brinkbäumer | Tuesday, February 7, 2017