Last year, in my article titled "Team Trump's Drive from Democracy to Autocracy: Are we there yet?" I explored these questions:
- Is our democracy weakening under the Trump administration's many efforts to undermine it?
- Could Trump actually reduce our democracy to an autocracy?
I asked Perplexity AI to help me find the answers. Specifically, I gave Perplexity two assignments:
1. List the specific stages through which a democracy moves towards an autocracy and fascism, then explain each stage.
2. For each of the specific steps listed describe how the current executive branch is implementing this step.
Stages of Democratic Decline to Autocracy and Fascism
Below are Perplexity's responses from one year ago. Included with each is Perplexity's new (updated) assessment of progress that Trump has made in the first year toward implementing this step and consolidating power. (Quotation marks denote direct responses from Perplexity.)
1. Normalization of Anti-Democratic Rhetoric -- Leaders exploit post-truth narratives and cultural conservatism to erode trust in institutions, often framing opponents as threats to national identity.
From last year: "The current administration has amplified divisive rhetoric, portraying political opponents as threats to national security and identity. This polarizing language undermines trust in democratic institutions and fosters a 'us vs. them' mentality."
Latest analysis: "Trump has repeatedly framed opponents, critics, and parts of the state as enemies, explicitly promising 'retribution' against perceived foes and casting his role as punishing those who 'betrayed' his movement. This matches the statement’s description of polarizing 'us vs. them' language that undermines democratic norms and paints opponents as existential threats to the nation."
2. Dismantling Checks and Balances - Judicial and legislative constraints on executive power are weakened, enabling centralized control. Media and civil society face censorship or repression.
From last year: "The administration has expanded presidential immunity, limiting the judiciary's ability to hold the president accountable for potentially illegal acts. This weakens legislative and judicial oversight, consolidating executive power. Congressional reluctance to act as a check further accelerates this erosion."
Latest analysis: "In 2024, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. United States created broad 'presumptive immunity' for presidents’ official acts and absolute immunity for a core set of them, substantially raising the bar for holding presidents criminally liable for abuses of official power. This legal shift effectively strengthens the presidency relative to the judiciary and Congress, and it aligns with the statement’s concern that 'expanded presidential immunity' weakens oversight and moves toward an executive above the law, even though Congress has not itself enacted these changes."
3. Exploiting Crises - Emergencies (e.g., pandemics, economic instability) are used to justify authoritarian measures, such as restricting civil liberties or suspending democratic norms.
From last year: "Emergencies like economic instability have been used to justify executive overreach, sidelining Congress and centralizing decision-making in the presidency."
Latest analysis: "Analyses over the past year describe the Trump administration pushing the outer limits of executive authority and benefiting from sympathetic Supreme Court 'shadow docket' decisions that allow contested actions to proceed while litigation drags on. This dynamic fits the pattern of leveraging legal ambiguity and ongoing 'crises' (for example, security, immigration, or economic pressures) to expand executive discretion and sideline effective congressional checks, although it has not yet amounted to formal suspension of elections or emergency rule."
4. Populist Mobilization - Mass movements coalesce around a charismatic leader promising to restore order, often through nationalist or anti-establishment rhetoric.
From last year: "The executive has cultivated mass support by framing itself as a defender of 'ordinary Americans' against elites, leveraging populist narratives to consolidate political loyalty."
Latest analysis: "Trump continues to mobilize a mass base through populist, anti‑elite rhetoric, presenting himself as the champion of 'ordinary Americans' against corrupt elites and the 'deep state.' His explicit governing focus on retribution—pressuring the Justice Department to investigate rivals, targeting critical law firms, and punishing civil servants who dissent—goes beyond normal partisan conflict and is consistent with the stage describing populist mobilization fused with the use of the state against perceived enemies."
5. Project 2025 and constitutional manipulation - Leaders amend or rewrite constitutions to consolidate power, bypassing democratic safeguards and enabling autocratic rule.
From last year: "Proposals like 'Project 2025' outline plans to restructure the federal government, concentrating power in the executive branch and bypassing traditional checks and balances."
Latest analysis: "Project 2025, developed by allied conservative groups, lays out a blueprint to put the entire executive branch—DOJ, FBI, independent agencies—under direct presidential control, grounded in a maximalist 'unitary executive' theory. Analysts warn that implementing this plan would gut traditional checks and balances by politicizing the civil service, subordinating independent regulators, and enabling more direct presidential control over law enforcement and federal funds, which aligns with the statement’s concern about 'restructuring' government to concentrate power in the executive, even though the Constitution itself has not yet been amended."
6. Oversight, dissent, and early authoritarian consolidation - Elections become controlled, dissent is criminalized, and opposition is suppressed, establishing autocratic governance.
From last year: "Efforts to weaken independent oversight bodies and suppress dissent through legal mechanisms reflect a move toward authoritarian governance."
Latest analysis: "Reporting on Trump’s second term describes efforts to use administrative tools and disciplinary measures to punish civil servants and other critics, such as EPA staff who opposed environmental rollbacks being placed on leave or pushed out. There are also documented efforts to pressure media and revoke licenses or government contracts for institutions seen as hostile, which reflects movement toward controlled information environments and legal harassment of dissent but still falls short of outright bans on opposition parties or fully controlled elections."
7. Fascist transformation? - Totalitarian control intensifies with hypermodern propaganda, mass mobilization, and violent suppression of dissent. Ideological indoctrination and radical societal transformation are enforced.
From last year: "While not fully realized, there are signs of ideological enforcement through propaganda and suppression of opposition narratives, setting the stage for more radical control."
Latest analysis: "The statement’s final stage—totalitarian control, systematic violent suppression of dissent, and comprehensive ideological indoctrination—has not been reached in the U.S. context. Elections still occur, opposition parties operate, and courts and civil society organizations (including groups like the ACLU) continue to challenge administration actions, even if under increasing strain. However, observers note that the combination of retribution rhetoric, plans like Project 2025, and expanded presidential immunity 'set the stage' for a more radical concentration of power if future crises or political decisions further weaken remaining checks, which is broadly consistent with the statement’s warning about preconditions for a more authoritarian turn."
So... Are we there yet?
Perplexity summarized (somewhat optimistically?) as follows: "Trump’s rhetoric, legal environment, and policy agenda over the last year align with many early and mid‑stage patterns in that 'stages of democratic decline' framework, but the U.S. has not yet reached the final stages of full authoritarian consolidation or fascist transformation."
Conclusion
In "How democracies prevail: democratic resilience as a two-stage process" the authors tell us: "Ominously, we find that once autocratization begins, only one in five democracies manage to avert breakdown."
So what do you think? Given the analysis above, are we on our way to an autocratic takeover by a man who once said, "I alone can fix it?"
Action Item: All those who would save our democracy must take steps to band together to amplify their individual voices and then locate and apply maximum pressure on all the available political levers of power. So do your own search for "Trump Resistance" to locate like-minded organizations and figure out how you can get involved. Nothing less than our democratic freedom is at stake.
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For links to lots of activist resources and organizations, see:
