Democratic Backsliding in the United States
By: Zachary Schwarz
Edited by: Micah Sandy and Valerie Lane
January 6, 2021, marked an unprecedented moment in United States history. For the first time, citizens attacked the Capitol building in a failed attempt to disrupt the peaceful transfer of presidential power. Five years later, the man deemed “most culpable and most responsible” for the attack by a special counsel investigation is serving his second presidential term. [1] Since his 2020 electoral defeat, Donald Trump’s rhetoric and broader behavior have been characterized by efforts to undermine the strength and stability of American democracy. In her 2016 article “On Democratic Backsliding,” political scientist Nancy Bermeo argues that current practitioners of democratic backsliding—“the state-led debilitation or elimination of the political institutions sustaining an existing democracy”— have shifted away from the conspicuous tactics of the past, opting instead for subtle policy changes implemented through legitimate means. [2] Specifically, she identifies executive aggrandizement and strategic election manipulation as the favored, modern-day approaches of leaders seeking to consolidate power. [3] Indeed, Trump’s actions as president closely reflect the strategies described by Bermeoand have facilitated the United States’ entrance into a period of democratic backsliding that extends far beyond the events of January 6, 2021.
Executive aggrandizement, according to Bermeo, occurs when “elected executives weaken checks on executive power one by one, undertaking a series of institutional changes that hamper the power of opposition forces to challenge executive preferences.” [4] In other words, it is the process by which an executive expands the authority of their elected office. Many federal agencies in the United States regularly employ lawyers to ensure their compliance with relevant statutes and regulations. To the Trump administration, though, these lawyers act as “roadblocks” to an ambitious policy agenda. [5] For instance, the military‘s Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps exists to “provide candid and apolitical legal advice to top leaders” and “empower commanders and troops to fulfill their duty to disobey illegal commands.” [6] Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth does not see the value in their role and has fired or relocated many JAGs to, as he phrased it, “get them out of the way.” [7] The consequences of this attitude became particularly apparent in the fall of 2025. Despite repeated warnings from remaining JAG officers about violations of international law, the Department of Defense (DoD) continued to authorize strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea. [8]
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has likewise experienced a significant reduction in career attorneys. [9] The DOJ was historically insulated from politics by codified civil service protections, granting it a unique independence from the president despite being part of the executive branch. [10] However, during Trump’s second term, Attorney General Pam Bondi fired 230 department employees for their assigned work on cases against Trump or for past criticisms of him. [11] Additionally, about 6,400 employees voluntarily left the DOJ in 2025, with more stepping down in early 2026 to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s killings of American citizens in Minneapolis. [12] This mass exodus has unsurprisingly led to staffing shortages, lesser overall expertise, and a weaker ability to prosecute cases that serve national security interests. [13] In the service of shielding himself from prosecution, Trump gutted a primary law enforcement arm of the federal government. Not only does this threaten key checks and balances on the president’s conduct, but it also jeopardizes the safety of the American people.
The free press functions as another important check on executive power, with Bermeo calling it an “institution of accountability.” [14] Yet, Trump has made it the target of a myriad of punitive measures. In late 2025, he filed a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times based on reporting that framed his business success as fraudulent. [15] In January 2026, as further evidence in the same case, he submitted a Times poll displaying an approval rating of 40%. [16] Similarly, after The Wall Street Journal released an image of a “bawdy” birthday card that Trump allegedly sent to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2003, he filed a libel lawsuit for $10 billion against the publication. [17] While Trump may not appreciate being portrayed in a negative light, sharing truthful information about a public figure rarely amounts to defamation. Should he win any of these lawsuits, newspapers will almost certainly reconsider what they publish, allowing potential future misconduct to go unreported.
Simultaneously, journalists’ access to prominent centers of power is being challenged. Before the second Trump administration, the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA), a group of reporters based in Washington, DC, dictated the makeup of the White House press pool. [18] In February 2025, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the administration itself would become the arbiter of media access to the White House. [19] This prompted criticism from the WHCA president, who claimed that the change would result in a pool of exclusively news agencies allied to Trump. [20] Press access to the Pentagon was curtailed, too. [21] Secretary Hegseth announced a policy in October, 2025 that presented journalists with an ultimatum of relying purely on the DoD's press briefings for information or relinquishing their Pentagon press badges. [22] Virtually every major outlet refused to acquiesce, marking an end to the eight-decade-long practice of reporters operating within the DoD. [23] Predictably, Hegseth’s announcement was met with criticism, with National Public Radio’s Tom Bowman arguing that the loss of access would correlate with a loss of accountability. [24] Especially in an administration comfortable with unilateral military action, an opaque DoD may be empowered to operate on a whim, feeling unburdened by congressional or public approval if their plans remain secret.
Strategic election manipulation, “a range of actions aimed at tilting the electoral playing field in favor of incumbents,” is the other core tenet of modern democratic backsliding mentioned by Bermeo. [25] Perhaps the most striking example of such behavior was Trump’s advocacy for mid-decade congressional redistricting with the stated intent of securing a Republican majority in the House of Representatives. [26] Generally speaking, redistricting occurs at the beginning of every decade, following the release of the United States Census. [27] Yet, the Texas State Legislature approved a hyper-gerrymandered redistricting plan for the 2026 midterm elections at the behest of Trump. [28] Other Republican-dominated states, including Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and Utah, have heeded Trump’s call and legislated new maps, too. [29] The issue has become quite contentious as Democratic states like California and New York sought to counter the predicted Republican advantage, adjusting their own maps. [30] With the abandonment of the redistricting-after-the-Census norm, election results will be increasingly dictated by the party already in control. That would limit voters' ability to peacefully select new leadership.
Trump, in early February 2026, took another bold step when he came out in support of “nationalizing” the 2026 midterms, or assuming federal control over the voting process. [31] He asserted that Republicans should administer elections in 15 places, explicitly naming three large Democratic cities. [32] It is worth noting, though, that elections are constitutionally under the purview of the states. [33] Even so, the Trump administration has been actively attempting to procure voter data from states, which it is not supposed to have. [34] This could fit into a broader Republican agenda surrounding the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require prospective voters to show documentary proof of United States citizenship to register [35]. The approved documents include Real ID, some government-issued photo IDs, active passports, and certain birth certificates that meet strict requirements [36]. With an estimated 12% of the voting age population, or 28.4 million Americans, lacking qualifying documents, the SAVE Act would effectively be a “voter suppression bill” in the words of Wendy R. Weiser, Vice President of Democracy at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. [37]
Through the purging of attorneys, restrictions on the press, and advocacy for unfair voting practices, Trump is pushing the U.S. into a period of democratic backsliding. Lawyers in government serve as a crucial check on the vast power and scope of the executive branch; the free press acts as an enforcer of government accountability; established redistricting practices exist to promote fairness; and states control federal elections because of the Constitution’s Election Clause. For Trump, however, these robust justifications for well-established norms of American democracy hold little weight. This should be concerning. At a time when the American people value basic economic security over republican ideals—with only 52% of financially struggling citizens believing democracy is the best form of government—Trump’s degradation of key institutions will likely be met with apathy [38]. Unless the U.S. wakes up to its current reality, its 250-year experiment may soon come to an end.
Notes:
Eric Tucker, “Jan. 6 Attack ‘Does Not Happen’ Without Trump, Jack Smith Told Congress,” PBS NewsHour, January 1, 2026, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/jan-6-attack-does-not-happen-without-trump-jack-smith-told-congress.
Nancy Bermeo, “On Democratic Backsliding,” Journal of Democracy 27, no. 1 (2016): 1, https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jod.2016.0012.
Bermeo, “On Democratic Backsliding,” 9, 12.
Bermeo, “On Democratic Backsliding,” 9.
Jake Tapper, “How the Pentagon Sidelined Lawyers While Testing the Legal Limits of Military Action,” The Lead with Jake Tapper, CNN, October 15, 2025, https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/15/politics/pentagon-lawyers-sidelined-jags.
Tapper, “How the Pentagon Sidelined Lawyers.”
Tapper, “How the Pentagon Sidelined Lawyers.”
Tapper, “How the Pentagon Sidelined Lawyers.”
Eric Tucker, “Firings at Justice Department Create Fear Among Career Lawyers,” AP News, February 11, 2026, https://apnews.com/article/justice-department-bondi-trump-firings-prosecutors-b4134e5db9d9ff7963fc8c4bf7a0a166.
Tucker, “Firings at Justice Department Create Fear Among Career Lawyers.”
Tucker, “Firings at Justice Department Create Fear Among Career Lawyers.”
Tucker, “Firings at Justice Department Create Fear Among Career Lawyers.”
Tucker, “Firings at Justice Department Create Fear Among Career Lawyers.”
Bermeo, “On Democratic Backsliding,” 10.
Lucy Campbell, “Trump Says He’s Expanding Defamation Suit Against New York Times After Unfavorable Poll,” The Guardian, January 22, 2026, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/22/trump-defamation-suit-new-york-times-poll.
Campbell, “Trump Says He’s Expanding Defamation Suit.”
James Hill and Peter Charalambous, “Trump Seeks to Proceed with $10B Lawsuit over WSJ Story on Epstein’s Birthday Book,” ABC News, October 21, 2025, https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-seeks-proceed-10b-lawsuit-wsj-story-epsteins/story?id=126717491.
Liam Reilly, “Trump White House Scraps Decades-Old Press Pool System,” CNN, February 25, 2025, https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/25/media/white-house-correspondents-pool.
Reilly, “Trump White House Scraps Decades-Old Press Pool System.”
Reilly, “Trump White House Scraps Decades-Old Press Pool System.”
Ellen Mitchell, “Media Outlets Decline Pentagon Policy on Covering Armed Forces,” The Hill, May 26, 2025, https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5555797-media-outlets-decline-pentagon-policy.
Mitchell, “Media Outlets Decline Pentagon Policy on Covering Armed Forces.”
Mitchell, “Media Outlets Decline Pentagon Policy on Covering Armed Forces.”
Mitchell, “Media Outlets Decline Pentagon Policy on Covering Armed Forces.”
Bermeo, “On Democratic Backsliding,” 12.
John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, “Explainer: Understanding the Mid-Decade Redistricting Push in Texas,” accessed February 13, 2026, https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-research/policy-topics/politics/explainer-understanding-mid-decade-redistricting-push-texas.
John F. Kennedy School of Government, “Understanding the Mid-Decade Redistricting Push.”
John F. Kennedy School of Government, “Understanding the Mid-Decade Redistricting Push.”
National Conference of State Legislatures, “Changing the Maps: Tracking Mid-Decade Redistricting,” accessed February 13, 2026, https://www.ncsl.org/redistricting-and-census/changing-the-maps-tracking-mid-decade-redistricting.
National Conference of State Legislatures, “Changing the Maps.”
Stephen Fowler, “What Does It Mean When the President Calls to Nationalize Voting?” NPR, February 7, 2026, https://www.npr.org/2026/02/07/nx-s1-5704400/what-does-it-mean-when-the-president-calls-to-nationalize-the-voting.
Fowler, “What Does It Mean When the President Calls to Nationalize Voting?”
Fowler, “What Does It Mean When the President Calls to Nationalize Voting?”
Fowler, “What Does It Mean When the President Calls to Nationalize Voting?”
Wren Orey and William T. Adler, “Do Documentary Proof of Citizenship Requirements Disadvantage One Party More Than the Other?” Bipartisan Policy Center, March 16, 2026, https://bipartisanpolicy.org/article/do-documentary-proof-of-citizenship-requirements-disadvantage-one-party-more-than-the-other/
Orey and Adler, “Do Documentary Proof of Citizenship Requirements.”
Orey and Adler, “Do Documentary Proof of Citizenship Requirements.”, Fowler, “What Does It Mean When the President Calls to Nationalize Voting?”
Neil Irwin, “Americans’ Views on Democracy Linked to Economic Situations,” Axios, November 20, 2025, https://www.axios.com/2025/11/20/democracy-income-inflation-poll
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