Concerns, Continued

A little over a month ago, I wrote about some of the concerning developments from the new administration leading the U.S. Even just since then, a lot has been happening. This is an update on some things that have been happening in the areas of concern that I mentioned before. As a quick reminder, these are the things that I found most concerning at the time, (with some updates to wording):

• Dismantling of the Western, democratic world order
• Crusade against immigrants
• Power grabs leading to constitutional crisis
• Propaganda and attacks on the First Amendment

This is what’s been going on in those areas:

Dismantling of the Western, Democratic World Order

What started with the dismantling of USAID has continued with the disintegration of the ralationship between the U.S. and Canada, its closest neighbor and ally, due to tariffs implemented against Canada by the Trump administration as well as Trump’s imperialistic language towards them. The Trump administration has likewise been torching their relationship with Europe, imposing tariffs against them and abandoning Ukraine as it struggles to defend itself against Russian invasion.

Additionally, this past week the Voice of America was dismantled, and ceased operations. Voice of America was, similar to USAID, a means by which the U.S. could wield soft power thoughout the world, and more importantly, a way to give people in authoritarian regimes a reliable and credible source of news. With Voice of America gone, many regions around the world will see the gap filled by propaganda from authoritarian governments in power over them.

Update 2025-03-24: Employees of Voice of America, along with other journalists, are suing the Trump administration to restore Voice of America service.

Crusade Against Immigrants

On the subject of immigrants, fortunately the plan to house immigrants in Guantanamo Bay was abandoned, after only $16M squandered. The bad news is that the Trump administration is now shipping immigrants to El Salvador. This would already be concerning given the El Salvadoran government’s perpetration of human rights abuses, but it is especially alarming given that these immigrants were detained and sent to a detention center in El Salvador without due process, in violation of their rights. It has been discovered that one of those sent to El Salvador is a professional soccer player with no criminal history, and who was working legally within the immigration process to seek asylum.

Power Grabs Leading to Constitutional Crisis

Trump’s executive orders and Elon Musk’s actions have resulted in numerous court cases. Fortunately, in most of the cases where the Trump administration has lost, they have complied with court orders, such as restoring many federal employees to positions they were illegally fired from. In other cases, they have defied court orders, or delayed action, while attempting as much as possible to avoid having to admit to it in court, (such as claiming that they did not need to comply with a spoken order from the judge, but only a written one.)

The consolidation of power into the executive branch is one of the developments that is most threatening to democracy, and it will be important to see how the courts, congress, and the public respond, since Trump is unlikely to back away from his attempts to subdue the other branches of government beneath him. Trump has publicly advocated for the impeachment of a judge who ruled against his administration, and Elon Musk is handing out money to members of congress who are willing to do the same.

Update 2025-03-24: In the court case where the judge ordered the Department of Justice to bring the Venezuelan detainees back so that they can be afforded their right to due process, or at least share information with him so that he can determine whether their due process rights have been violated, the Department of Justice is now claiming that they have no obligation to share details about their deportation operation with the judge. Essentially, they are claiming that they can flat out refuse to comply with a court order. It will likely get uglier and more dangerous from here.

Propaganda and Attacks on The First Amendment

The government has been cracking down on dissenting speech, mostly in ways that they can get away with, which tends to involve targeting vulnerable people. Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian student who participated in protests at Columbia against the Israeli invasion of Palestine, and who recently obtained his green card, was detained by immigration authorities despite being in the country legally and not being accused of any particular crime.

Elon Musk continues to promote and amplify disinformation on X, but is also supporting authoritarianism in other countries. Recently, X has suspended the accounts demonstrators in Turkey who are leading protests against Erdoğan’s action to imprison of his political rival.

Update 2025-03-24: Mahmoud Khalil is not the only legal resident in the U.S. who has been targeted for exercising their First Amendment right. A Korean Columbia student, who has been in the U.S. since she was 7 and is a lawful permanent resident, is suing to halt the Trump administration’s efforts to deport her for participating in pro-Palestine protests on campus.

The Spectre of Global Authoritarianism, Hope for Democracy

The rise of authoritarianism is not a uniquely American problem. In fact, if we only view the American political climate in a vacuum, it will be at our peril, as authoritarians boost each other across countries. Case in point is Elon Musk’s willingness to silence Erdoğan’s political opponents in Turkey. We’ve seen it with Trump’s pandering to Putin. Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s authoritarian leader, was a star speaker at CPAC. Alberta’s Conservative premier described discussions with the Trump administration, in which she asked for tariffs to be paused until after their upcoming election, which would give the Trump-like Conservative candidate Pierre Poilievre, an advantage. It’s a story of authoritarians giving and asking for favors amongst themselves.

But, I’m still hopeful that in the end, democracy will win in the U.S. The authoritarian and oligarchic power structures that have taken root here won’t go down without a fight, but some reasons to be hopeful:

• Elon Musk and DOGE have proven themselves to be incompetent at what they claim they are trying to accomplish, and are left with a thinning curtain of propaganda and PR to try to maintain a veneer of integrity. Their disruption to key programs, including social security, have proved to be deeply unpopular.
• The Tesla brand has become toxic because of Elon Musk’s actions, and amid protests growing across the country and disillusioned Tesla owners selling their cars, Tesla stock has lost all gains it had made after the election, a drop of more than 50% from it’s peak, and has more room to fall. This is one of the ways in which Elon Musk can still be made to answer to public opinion.
• Democrats have started holding rallies across the country, which have amassed large gatherings, like Bernie Sanders and AOC in Colorado and Arizona. John Osoff is getting a strong start to his 2026 campaign in Georgia, and he is the only Democratic senator up for re-election in a state that Trump won.

It’s great to see Bernie Sanders and AOC take the lead on building a political movement on the left. Previously, the Democratic establishment had been sidelining them, opting for a more centrist approach, however that appears to have only created a party that is afraid to take risks and afraid of anything that could have them accused by the right of being “socialist”. That, however, has only given more authority to the right when they decry any meaningful reform as “socialism”. What I’m seeing, and hoping for, is a credible Democratic movement that can build a broad following and far exceed the standard of “not authoritarianism”, because apparently, and depressingly, that doesn’t appear to cut it in the U.S.