{"id":40537,"date":"2025-09-10T07:15:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T14:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=40537"},"modified":"2025-09-16T09:16:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T16:16:17","slug":"why-journalists-are-reluctant-to-call-trump-an-authoritarian-and-why-that-matters-for-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/why-journalists-are-reluctant-to-call-trump-an-authoritarian-and-why-that-matters-for-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Why journalists are reluctant to call Trump an authoritarian \u2013 and why that matters for democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Karrin Vasby Anderson<\/a>, Colorado State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an authoritarian state, the leader engages in unconstitutional or undemocratic practices for the purpose of consolidating power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key components of authoritarianism<\/a> include rejecting democratic rules; denying the legitimacy of opponents; tolerating or encouraging political violence; and curtailing the civil liberties of opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since he took office for a second time, President Donald Trump has sent National Guard troops to Los Angeles<\/a> and Washington<\/a>, named other cities run by Democrats as targets<\/a> for military intervention, deployed masked and unidentifiable agents<\/a> in immigration raids, explicitly threatened the city of Chicago with a military invasion<\/a> and used government power to persecute his perceived political enemies<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But many journalistic outlets have yet to call him what he is \u2013 an authoritarian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a political communication scholar<\/a>, I study how media framing shapes people\u2019s understanding of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because authoritarianism is most visible in hindsight<\/a>, people often don\u2019t recognize it until it\u2019s too late. Erica Chenoweth, a Harvard political scientist, notes that when it comes to democratic backsliding, \u201cthere are no bright lines<\/a> \u2026 people often find out the world they\u2019re in after the fact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why it\u2019s particularly important for journalists to label authoritarians as such when the evidence warrants. In Trump\u2019s case, I believe the U.S. is well past that point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Armed National Guard soldiers patrol near the Labor Department in Washington, where a banner of President Donald Trump is displayed, Aug. 26, 2025. AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s authoritarianism<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Scholars with expertise in authoritarianism have been sounding the alarm about Trump for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt\u2019s book \u201cHow Democracies Die\u201d describes how, during the 2016 campaign and his first presidential term, Trump exhibited the key indicators of authoritarian behavior<\/a>. He undermined the legitimacy of elections Republicans lost, baselessly described his rivals as criminals, refused to unambiguously condemn violence committed by his supporters, and threatened to punish critics and members of the media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levitsky and Ziblatt argue that \u201cno other major presidential candidate in modern U.S. history, including Richard Nixon, has demonstrated such a weak public commitment to constitutional rights and democratic norms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That intensified when Trump returned to office<\/a> in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levitsky and Lucan A. Way documented Trump\u2019s \u201cpath to American authoritarianism<\/a>\u201d for the journal Foreign Affairs in early 2025. In March, Levitsky told New York magazine that things were going worse than even he expected<\/a>, asserting, \u201cWe\u2019re pretty screwed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levitsky is not alone in that view. In a February 2025 survey of political scientists conducted by Bright Line Watch<\/a> \u2013 an academic organization that researches democratic health \u2013 the percentage of scholars plummeted who said that the U.S. \u201cmostly or fully\u201d meets the standard for democratic health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was before Trump, via social media, promised to go to war in Chicago<\/a>. When asked about his post, Trump said<\/a>, \u201cWe\u2019re not going to war. We\u2019re going to clean up our cities,\u201d but he did not back away from the intent to deploy troops against the wishes of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pritzker responded to Trump\u2019s post by noting, \u201cThis is not a joke. This is not normal<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sept. 7, 2025, New York Times opinion columnist Ezra Klein itemized some of Trump\u2019s authoritarian actions, concluding, \u201cThis is not just how authoritarianism happens. This is authoritarianism happening<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
President Donald Trump\u2019s Sept. 7 post threatening the city of Chicago with federal intervention. Truth Social Donald Trump account<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What journalists have been saying<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although other opinion journalists like Jamelle Bouie<\/a>, M. Gessen<\/a>, Jonathan Chait<\/a> and nearly<\/a> every<\/a> MSNBC<\/a> anchor<\/a> have been labeling Trump an authoritarian for some time, much hard news coverage of the Trump administration has not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Trump deployed troops to Washington, The Atlantic\u2019s Quinta Jurecic dismissed<\/a> it as \u201cfarcical\u201d and \u201cnot a likely prelude to full authoritarian takeover.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A CNN analysis similarly minimized the action<\/a> as a \u201cgambit,\u201d a \u201cdistraction\u201d and a \u201cneat political trick.\u201d CNN characterized concerns about authoritarianism as \u201chyperbolic warnings of looming tyranny that circulate all day on liberal media programs \u2014 whatever Trump does\u201d and asserted that such reports \u201cdon\u2019t really help voters understand what is going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New York Times\u2019 Aug. 3 story by Peter Baker<\/a> on Trump\u2019s \u201ctendency to suppress facts he doesn\u2019t like and promote his own version of reality\u201d bore a headline that read \u201cTrump\u2019s Efforts to Control Information Echo an Authoritarian Playbook,\u201d suggesting that his actions were authoritarian without applying the label to Trump directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the April 14, 2025, broadcast of CNN News Central<\/a>, anchor Jessica Dean spoke with Nikolas Bowie, a Harvard Law School professor participating in a lawsuit against the Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bowie repeatedly called Trump an authoritarian for illegally freezing federal research funding<\/a> awarded to Harvard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Dean noted that the \u201cTrump administration says it\u2019s doing all of this in an effort to combat antisemitism on campus,\u201d Bowie responded that \u201cantisemitism is really just a pretext for what is really an authoritarian attack on higher education.\u201d Federal Judge Allison Burroughs later agreed with<\/a> that interpretation in her ruling against the Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dean, however, sidestepped that interpretation, saying, \u201cWhat I\u2019m hearing is you think that enough was done to combat antisemitism, that this is about something else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
The headline on a recent NPR story, echoing other journalism outlets\u2019 use of the terms \u2018echo\u2019 and \u2018authoritarian playbook.\u2019 NPR<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Competitive authoritarianism<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are reasons why journalistic outlets may hesitate to identify the \u201csomething else\u201d as authoritarianism, or portray it as a looming threat rather than a current danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s propensity to sue journalists<\/a>, and large media corporations\u2019 decisions to settle even when the law was on their side<\/a>, have likely made journalists and editors hesitant to describe Trump as an authoritarian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the imperative for balance sometimes results in a \u201cboth sides-ism\u201d that misrepresents what authoritarianism actually looks like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When California Gov. Gavin Newsom gave a speech asserting Trump\u2019s military response to immigration protests in California was an assault on democracy, the New York Times covered it<\/a>, quoting Newsom at length about the danger Trump presented. The article also quoted Republicans who alleged that Newsom\u2019s public health directives during the COVID-19 pandemic made him \u201cthe ultimate authoritarian.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the particular nature of the authoritarianism the U.S is facing in the 21st century also plays a role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levitsky and Way have written about \u201ccompetitive authoritarianism<\/a>,\u201d a new version of authoritarianism that doesn\u2019t look like 20th-century fascism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many laypeople associate the word authoritarianism with military dictatorships and totalitarian rule. In competitive authoritarian regimes, however, there\u2019s a constant push and pull between democratic and autocratic impulses. Levitsky and Way write that elections are held, but they may not be fair<\/a>. The authoritarian regime uses power gained democratically to break democratic norms, undermine democratic institutions and tilt the playing field in its own favor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Constraining free speech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Journalistic norms of independence can pressure even ethical journalists into acquiescence to competitive authoritarianism because they want to avoid looking partisan when all coverage that falls outside the authoritarian\u2019s approved message gets characterized as resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paramount settled what one free speech advocate described as a \u201cwidely derided lawsuit brought by Donald Trump against \u201960 Minutes<\/a>,\u2019\u201d and CBS recently pledged to stop editing recorded interviews<\/a> on \u201cFace the Nation\u201d after complaints lodged by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Paramount and CBS cases suggest that, left unchallenged, a competitive authoritarian leader will use their leverage to influence what should be independent journalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Words matter. And how a democratic society responds to its leaders can make the difference between a free society and one in which a leader increasingly suppresses the voices, rights and will of the governed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karrin Vasby Anderson<\/a>, Professor of Communication Studies, Colorado State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Karrin Vasby Anderson, Colorado State University In an authoritarian state, the leader engages in unconstitutional or undemocratic practices for the purpose of consolidating power. Key components of authoritarianism include rejecting democratic rules; denying the legitimacy of opponents; tolerating or encouraging political violence; and curtailing the civil liberties of opponents. Since he took office for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":40538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8025,46,295,10,47,296,36,4,38],"tags":[2000,473,16867,479,2254,1614,785,1822,885,891,886,860,308],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40537"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40537"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40617,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40537\/revisions\/40617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}