Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the ‘New Authoritarianism’ Leading the US Down an Increasingly Dangerous Path

In late 2019, I published an academic journal article in which I compared the Erdogan administration in Turkey to the Trump administration. The logic of the piece was that while the Erdogan regime was closer to what has been called “neo-authoritarianism” or “new authoritarianism,” the signals from the US were worrying. Trump was unambiguously drifting into anti-democratic territory. 

Little did I know, however, just how many of the things that I wrote about would actually happen in the US, and how Trumpism would align so quickly and so tightly with “new authoritarianism.” 

In the article, I coined the phrase “weaponisation of doubt” to describe the practice of politicians and their media supporters, “generating and encouraging a sustained rhetoric of questioning the impartiality, patriotism and national allegiance of core social institutions (such as the media, judiciary and higher education).”

This tsunami of rhetoric, I wrote, would create doubt among a significant portion of the general population, laying the groundwork for the next stage of the process: “organisational or even legal changes to and within those institutions; for example, imposing new media regulation or firing judges, government bureaucrats or university staff (all of which are also common neo-authoritarian practices).” 

And what have we seen during the first weeks of Trump’s second term? A purge of prosecutors seen as enemies of Trump by the Justice Department. Firings for the same reason at the FBI. An attempted freeze on academic research funding. An investigation into the activities of US public broadcasting. The firing of 18 watchdogs tasked with overseeing corruption and mismanagement at government agencies. Repealing a federal order that bans discrimination in federal contracting. Removing civil service protections that previously insulated government employees from political pressures so that they can now be fired at will. 

But the parallels do not end there. A second consequence of the “weaponisation of doubt” was that authoritarian threats levelled against the news industry could, I wrote, “lead to uncertainty and pervasive self-censorship on the part of news workers.”

This has also started. The Los Angeles Times editing an opinion piece (without informing the author) so it is more pro-Trump. Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, who has billions in contracts with the US government, blocking an endorsement of Kamala Harris and spiking a cartoon critiquing US media and Big Tech. ABC News agreeing to pay Trump $15 million in a defamation suit many experts felt Trump wouldn’t win. Mark Zuckerberg agreeing to pay Trump $25 million after Trump’s account was suspended in 2021, followed by Meta eliminating content restrictions. And then there is Elon Musk, whose companies have billions in contracts with the US government and whose platform X was shown to have amplified pro-Trump content in the run-up to the November elections. Musk is now being given direct access to government databases. 

Ten years ago, any claim that within a decade the US would be close to becoming a quasi- or neo-authoritarian state would have been waived off as ridiculous scare-mongering.

After Trump’s victory the mood was darker, but there was still optimism. Yes, Trump had inflicted damage, but an election was coming that could wipe the slate clean. And, right on cue, Joe Biden’s defeat of Trump was held up as a triumph for democracy.

But there were echoes in 2020 of the aftermath of the 2002 Presidential election in France when Jacques Chirac defeated Jean-Marie Le Pen by 82% to 18%. The result was framed as the supremacy of liberté, égalité, fraternité over anti-democratic aspirations. Yet the result sent a disturbing message many chose to ignore: one in five French citizens supported a neo-Nazi who called gas chambers a “detail of history.”

And, if one in five would vote for someone as openly racist and anti-democratic as Jean-Marie Le Pen, what might that say about the future of French democracy? 

People can be forgiven for thinking Trump wouldn’t win in 2016. Fear combined with disbelief can make you wilfully naïve. Once Trump won and his psyche was revealed to the nation, however, there were no more alibis. Biden’s victory in no way hid the radicalisation of the Republican party. It amplified it. And, the start of Trump’s second term has confirmed many of the fears expressed, and sometimes derided, during his first. 

Two decades after Jean-Marie Le Pen’s defeat, and a decade after Trump’s candidacy, time has sent us two clear messages. First, we over-estimate the redemptive, healing power of elections at our own peril.

And, second, we must be willing to recognise and react to disturbing signs when we see them. Naivety combined with denial has taken us down a dark and dangerous path.