Consider it an authoritarian index: 12 markers that, time after time, indicate when a democracy is sliding toward illiberalism. It’s a pattern replicated around the globe — and increasingly so in the United States under the second Trump administration. This list, meticulously assembled by The Times editorial board, demonstrates what democracy experts have been worrying on for a while now: America is not an autocracy, but its democratic sheen is tarnishing. One year ago, the editorial board sounded the alarm about what Donald Trump would do were he to win a second term. His administration now has done many of those things, echoing in certain ways how authoritarian regimes operate worldwide. Key democratic institutions have been shaken by Trump’s assaults; his disdain for judicial independence and legislative authority lays bare a willful subversion of democratic checks. While the Supreme Court and Congress occasionally defy, too often they capitulate, nurturing a government more invested in political loyalty than accountability. The editorial board is committed to regularly assessing the president’s actions and calling out his unlawful impulses, and we plan to update this index. We stand, however, at a crossroads where citizen action and institutional resilience must respond in kind, to defend democracy not just as a concept but as a practice central to American identity.
Here’s what we’re focusing on today:
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