Watchdog warns Trump is leading a 'global turn away from democracy'

Over the past year, Donald Trump has pushed the bounds of executive power, and now a leading democracy watchdog has come to an alarming conclusion: “the US is no longer a democracy.”

This is according to the Varieties of Democracy Institute at Gothenburg, widely considered to be the foremost source on the health of democratic nations. In its annual report, it determined that the US has raced toward authoritarianism faster than other countries that have slipped into autocracy recently, like Hungary, Turkey, and India. While these all took between 4-10 years for their respective dictatorial leaders to consolidate power, the US has gone through a similar process of what the report calls “autocratisation” in just one year.

Based on data stretching back to 1789, says institute founder Staffan Lindberg, “What we’re seeing now is the most severe magnitude of democratic backsliding ever in the country.”

Trump is the key factor in this, as he has driven a “rapid and aggressive concentration of powers in the presidency,” marginalizing Congress, attacking the courts, and breaking down fundamental checks and balances. His administration has removed a range of internal guardrails designed to prevent abuses of power, replacing inspector generals and civil servants with loyalists, which is “exactly what [autocrats] Orbán and Erdoğan did.” As a result, says the report, American civil rights are plummeting, and freedom of expression is at its lowest since the 1940s.

“It should be obvious by now that Trump is aiming for dictatorship,” says Lindberg.

The US isn’t alone in this problem. The assessment also reveals that global democracy is at its lowest levels in over 40 years, with 41 percent of the population living in nations where democratic institutions are crumbling. According to Lindberg, “The world has never before seen as many countries autocratizing at the same time.”

The report specifically singles out the United States for “leading this global turn away from democracy."

But the assessment isn’t all bad news, as it points out that “for now,” the US still has free and open elections, though Lindberg notes that the American election process is on shaky ground due to executive orders and impending legislation that endanger electoral validity, threats against election and poll staff, and Trump’s tendency to deny losses.

“If we see a denial of the election results in 2026,” warns Lindberg, “then it’s a complete democratic breakdown.”