Beware Trump's Two-Pronged Strategy Undermining Democracy
Donald Trump pursues a two-pronged strategy to undermine democracy by invoking non-existent emergencies to seize extraordinary powers and punishing dissent to suppress civil society.
His first tactic involves reframing drug enforcement as an armed conflict, which enables killings without trial and allows use of the Alien Enemies Act to detain or deport non-citizens. For example, Trump deported over 100 Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador despite a court order. These deportations were justified by alleging that the Venezuelan criminal group Tren de Aragua is at war with the US, even though the US is not formally at war.
The second tactic is neutralizing opposition by pressuring civil society; this includes penalizing law firms, clamping down on campus speech, punishing media outlets, and threatening to designate nonprofits as domestic terrorists. The Associated Press was expelled from the Oval Office press pool for not using the term Gulf of “G.”
Corporate and NGO compliance has been achieved under coercive funding. Nine law firms settled with Trump, providing almost $1 billion in pro bono work. ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel, and Paramount paid about $16 million to settle a suit over edits of a Kamala Harris interview.
However, courts have begun pushing back. A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled the Harvard funding freeze unlawful, and courts blocked deployment of the National Guard to Chicago and Portland. The Just Security tracker cites over 120 injunctions against Trump initiatives in the first year of his second term.
Civil society’s strength has depended on government subsidies, which Trump exploits as leverage to chill dissent. Many institutions complied with funding threats, limiting speech and actions.
The piece argues that defending the rule of law and constitutional democracy requires courts and citizens to stand up to power. This analysis is authored by David Cole, Georgetown University law professor and former ACLU legal director, adapted from an international rule of law lecture.
