Strongman Watch
Donald Trump
A contested inclusion: some scholars and indices describe aspects of his second term as democratic backsliding; others strongly dispute the framing as partisan.
Donald Trump began his second, non-consecutive presidential term in January 2025. His inclusion on this list is genuinely contested and presented here with that caveat upfront. Political scientist Steven Levitsky, co-author of How Democracies Die, has described the opening months of the second term as, in his assessment, the most aggressively authoritarian case of democratic backsliding he has observed, pointing to attacks on the judiciary and expansions of executive power. Wikipedia's overview of the broader debate documents that Freedom House and a number of academic indices have raised similar concerns, citing pardons issued to January 6th Capitol attack defendants and reduced federal agency oversight.
This characterization is far from universally accepted. Many supporters and some scholars reject the "authoritarian" framing entirely, arguing it reflects partisan disagreement over policy rather than a genuine erosion of democratic institutions, and note that the US continues to hold competitive elections with peaceful transfers of power historically intact. We present this entry to reflect that an active, substantial scholarly and public debate exists — not as a settled classification.