Trump’s Hostility to Democracy

We explore the ways that Trump could undermine democratic traditions.

Donald Trump has shown more hostility to American democracy than any other president in the country’s history. He tried to overturn an election result. He celebrates political violence. The list goes on, and it is familiar by now.

A central question about a second Trump term is how this hostility might manifest itself. The country’s political system survived his first term, after all, and many Americans understandably wonder how much different a second term would be.

It really could be different.

Trump is now far better positioned to accomplish his goals, as my colleagues Maggie Haberman, Charlie Savage and Jonathan Swan have explained in a series of stories. His aides are vetting job candidates for loyalty, trying to exclude establishment Republicans who might resist his wishes. Both Congress and the judiciary would likely be friendlier to him than they were eight years ago.

In today’s newsletter, I want to help you understand the main ways that Trump could undermine democratic traditions. Along the way, I’ll point to Times coverage from the past two years. I will also address some objections that I expect some readers to have.

The dangers

There are at least six major ways Trump could weaken American democracy:

1. Prosecute critics. Trump has promised to use the Justice Department to punish his political opponents if he is president again, including with “long term prison sentences,” as he wrote online.

Presidents have traditionally not inserted themselves into criminal cases. But that has been a choice; a president has the power to issue orders to the Justice Department. In his first term, Trump demanded investigations of at least 10 people, sometimes damaging their lives, as my colleague Michael Schmidt has documented. Trump could order more investigations in a second term, given his staffing plans. (This graphic lays out how Trump could seek to jail his political opponents.)

2. Silence critics in other ways. Trump may also try to use his regulatory powers to shape public discourse. He has suggested that NBC, MSNBC and CBS deserve to lose their broadcast licenses because of their critical coverage of him. He has talked about punishing Amazon because its founder, Jeff Bezos, owns The Washington Post.

These comments echo the silencing campaigns that foreign leaders like Viktor Orban in Hungary and Narendra Modi in India have conducted (as this essay by A.G. Sulzberger, The Times’s publisher, explains).

3. Reward allies and campaign donors. Trump, as The Times has reported, “is sometimes making overt promises about what he will do once he’s in office, a level of explicitness toward individual industries and a handful of billionaires that has rarely been seen in modern presidential politics.” Both the oil and vaping industries — and perhaps Elon Musk — seem likely to benefit.

4. Replace federal employees with loyalists. Late in his first term, Trump issued an executive order that gave him the power to fire and replace tens of thousands of federal workers, including economists, scientists and national security experts. The order would have vastly increased the number of political appointees, which is now about 4,000. President Biden rescinded the order.

True, there is an argument that such an order promotes democracy by causing the federal work force to reflect the elected president. But the moves may also strip the government of nonpartisan expertise that connects policy with reality. And combined with Trump’s many anti-democratic promises, the wholesale firing of federal employees could allow him to use the government for his personal whims.

5. Undermine previously enacted policies. Rather than trying to repeal laws he opposes, Trump and his allies have suggested that he may simply “impound” funds — effectively ignoring laws that Congress previously passed. One example: He could try to block money for clean energy.

6. Refuse to transfer power peacefully. Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, still do not acknowledge that Biden beat Trump in 2020. Trump even vows to pardon some of the rioters who attacked Congress when it was meeting to certify the result on Jan. 6, 2021.

This combination suggests that a transfer of power took place in 2021 only because enough Republicans stood up to Trump. And they may not do so in the future.

Policy isn’t democracy

I know that Trump supporters may ask why we’re not writing a similar newsletter about the Democratic Party. And it’s true that liberals have violated democratic norms at times — with aggressive executive orders, for example, or attempts to stifle debate during the Covid pandemic. But Trump’s anti-democratic behavior is of a different order of magnitude. Pretending otherwise is false balance.

As an example of how different Biden and Trump are, look at Biden’s Justice Department. It has indicted not only prominent Republicans (like Trump) but also prominent Democrats (like Mayor Eric Adams and Senator Robert Menendez), a major Democratic fund-raiser (Sam Bankman-Fried, the now imprisoned crypto executive) and even the president’s son (Hunter Biden).

I also know that some Democrats will argue that the list here is too short and should include Trump’s potential policies on abortion, immigration, climate change and more. But it’s worth distinguishing between policy disputes and democracy itself.

There is nothing inherently anti-democratic about reducing environmental regulations, allowing states to restrict abortion access or deporting people who entered the country illegally. Democrats can make the case that these policies are wrong — and voters can decide who’s right. Voters can also change their minds if the policies don’t succeed.

Attacks on democracy are different. If democracy breaks down, the political system can lose the ability to self-correct.

More on Trump

• A second Trump administration would likely expand presidential power and reduce the independence of federal agencies, including the Federal Reserve.

• Trump says he will use the military for domestic law enforcement, including to fight crime in Democratic-run cities.
• His ties to foreign governments and to regulated companies would probably make him the most conflicted president in U.S. history.
• Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, but he has many links to it. It could offer a preview of how he would govern.
• Trump has promoted false conspiracies about plots against him or the American people more than 300 times, a Times analysis revealed.

THE LATEST NEWS

More on 2024

• Kamala Harris spoke to a crowd of about 75,000 people outside the White House, the same spot where Trump spoke on Jan. 6, 2021. She called Trump a “petty tyrant” who threatens democracy.
• Harris also outlined her plans to lower housing, health care and other costs. “On Day 1, if elected, Donald Trump would walk into that office with an enemies list. When elected, I will walk in with a to-do list,” she said.
• Trump claimed he didn’t know the comedian who called Puerto Rico “garbage” at his Madison Square Garden rally and hadn’t seen his remarks. Trump described the rally as a “lovefest.”
• Biden, addressing the comedian’s remark, appeared to insult Trump supporters: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable.” A White House official said that Biden was referring to the racist language not to Trump supporters in general.
• Trump held a rally in Pennsylvania featuring speakers with ties to Puerto Rico. Nearby, Democrats put up billboards highlighting the comedian’s comments.
• The China-linked hackers who targeted Trump and Vance’s phones also targeted phones belonging to Eric Trump, Jared Kushner and members of Harris’s staff.
• Barbara Bush, whose father and grandfather were Republican presidents, knocked on doors in support of Harris.

Middle East

• The Israeli military struck Beit Lahia, a town in northern Gaza, for the third time in just over a week, killing dozens of people including children, Gazan officials said.
• Israeli airstrikes in eastern Lebanon killed at least 60 people, according to Lebanese officials.
• October has been the deadliest month of the year for Israel’s military; more than 55 soldiers have been killed in operations in Gaza and Lebanon.

More International News

• A global slump in demand for diamonds has become an issue in Botswana’s national election.
• Flash floods in eastern Spain have killed at least 51 people, according to officials.
• Delivery at the doomsday shed: The Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway, which safeguards plant species in case of a global catastrophe, has received a huge shipment of new seeds.

Other Big Stories

• A California judge sentenced the man who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer to life in prison.
• Airlines in the U.S. must now provide automatic refunds when a flight is significantly delayed — three hours for domestic flights and six hours for international flights.
• Scientists discovered the second-smallest vertebrate known on Earth: a “toadlet,” smaller than some ant species.
• Some prosecutors have used laws unrelated to abortion — like ones for child abuse or murder — to charge women accused of trying to end their pregnancies. Read one woman’s story in The Washington Post.

Opinions

Highly educated women and less educated men will decide this presidential election. A populist message can appeal to both, Celinda Lake and Amanda Iovino argue.

Progressives point to civil rights and the New Deal to say they’re on the right side of history. But progressives have been wrong, too, on immigration, policing and more, Oren Cass writes.

Here are columns by Bret Stephens on his vote for Harris, and Thomas Friedman on the future of A.I.

MORNING READS

Extra! Extra! When disaster movies want to show that the end is nigh, they flash a newspaper. See some of the best front pages.

Ask Well: “What should I eat while taking antibiotics?”

Get a slice: See a list of the 25 best pizza places in New York.

Real-life Wonka: See inside the factory where Nerds gummies are made.

Three tips: Make your commute more enjoyable.

Lives Lived: If Teri Garr’s best-known roles — in films like “Tootsie,” “Young Frankenstein” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”— had a common thread, it was the erratic behavior of the men in her characters’ lives. She died at 79.

SPORTS

M.L.B.: The New York Yankees forced a Game 5 in the World Series with an 11-4 rout of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Two Yankees fans were ejected during the game for prying open a Dodgers player’s glove.

New signing: After the Chicago White Sox had the worst season in league history, the team is hiring Will Venable, the Texas Rangers’ associate manager.

N.F.L.: The Indianapolis Colts benched quarterback Anthony Richardson, whom they selected at No. 4 in the 2023 draft.

ARTS AND IDEAS

Planning a vacation for the week between Christmas and New Year can be difficult. Hotel rates are high, and room availability is low. T Magazine has a list of 15 destinations where you can still find a hotel room, including Mendoza, Argentina, for those in search of a great meal, and Marrakesh, Morocco, for those who want to go someplace warm. See the full list here.

More on culture

• A new book, “Nora Ephron at the Movies,” examines her work, including “When Harry Met Sally” and “Heartburn.”
• “Tonight’s monologue is for Republicans”: Jimmy Kimmel made a 19-minute case against Trump.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …

Make ruby chocolate badam burfi bark for Diwali.

Purée soup with an immersion blender.

Prepare for the end of daylight saving time.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was mortify.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. —David

Correction: A picture caption in yesterday’s newsletter misidentified the location of one of the top photos. The photos showed Dayton, Ohio, (left), and New Haven, Conn. (right). They were not both from New Haven.

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