Restriction of scientific freedom, undermining of LGBT+ rights, cuts in funding for ‘biased media’. …
Similarly to Orban and Erdogan in their respective countries, Trump enacted a series of policies eroding United States’ (US) democracy since he took office for the second time on 20 January 2025. However, the particularity of the above-cited measures is that the 47th President of the United States of America implemented them unilaterally while following valid legislative procedures, thereby revealing the weaknesses of the US democratic system.
US liberal democracy as self-proclaimed model
Since the end of WWII, the US has led the development of the liberal international order and played a prominent role in building and administering its institutions including the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization. Through these institutions, the US attempted to spread and at times impose ideals of liberalism and democracy all around the world, while propagating a self-image as a “global champion of democracy”.
The weaknesses of US liberal democracy
However, looking at the American democratic system reveals that the US is far from being a perfect example of liberal democracy. Indeed, a liberal democracy can be minimally understood as a political system characterised by free and fair elections, “the constitutional protection of civil liberties, an independent judiciary, (and) the separation of power through institutional checks on the government”. The US presidential elections – although relying on an Electoral college, the democratic value of which is debatable – are generally considered free and fair, and the US Constitution theoretically enshrines civil liberties. However, the independence of the judiciary and checks and balances accounting for the separation of powers are poorly ensured by the US democratic system.
First, the Supreme Court of the United States, which is the highest jurisdiction in the US judicial system, is composed of explicitly politicised judges who are appointed for life by the incumbent President with the consent of a two-thirds majority in the Senate. Therefore, the judges are most of the time designated by the President to favour his own interests, and one could thus assume that the Supreme Court is not independent but politically instrumentalised.
Second, executive orders enable the President of the United States (POTUS) to implement directives which have the force of law while bypassing the Congress. These unilateral executive tools can hardly be blocked – and are in effect rarely blocked – by the Congress. Nevertheless, they could be stopped by federal judges if the latter interpret them as unconstitutional or violating a federal statute.
Trump’s exploitation of the weaknesses of US liberal democracy
Since the beginning of his second term, Trump has taken advantage of these two flaws to successfully enact reforms undermining US liberal democracy, especially targeting civil liberties.
Indeed, from the inauguration day onwards, Trump abundantly signed executive orders notably ending all government-funded ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) programmes, prohibiting the use of DEIA-related terminology in government-funded scientific research, and banning transgender people from the military, therefore undermining the principles of freedom and equality enshrined as inalienable human rights in the US Constitution. Moreover, Trump issued further executive orders including cutting federal funds for so-called ‘biased media’. However, these illiberal measures met opposition by some federal judges who suspended some executive orders on behalf that they violated the US Constitution. Nevertheless, in June 2025, the Supreme Court, relying on its conservative majority – partly explained by the fact that Trump had had the chance to nominate three of them during his first term – decided to strongly limit federal judges’ capacity to block presidential laws, thereby leaving the field open for Trump’s executive orders.
US democracy gives the stick to be beaten with
President Trump, similarly to other illiberal leaders, already challenges democratic principles through extra-legal means. For instance, the White House recently exerted pressure on the TV channel ABC to take the talk show host Jimmy Kimmel off air after his comments on the death of Charlie Kirk, thereby attacking the right of free speech that the Trump’s administration had nevertheless made one of its key priorities. In addition to this, the structure of the US democratic system further empowers Trump to undermine American democracy by allowing the executive power to implement unilateral directives and get the highest federal court on its side.
The flaws of the US democratic system only make Trump’s autocratisation of American politics easier. Accordingly, one can assume that if judicial and parliamentary checks and balances on the POTUS were more binding, Donald Trump would face much more difficulty eroding US democracy.
Photo by Wenhan Cheng via https://pixabay.com/photos/united-states-washington-dc-2361405/
