Equally insane is the complete lack of both condemnation from political elites and spontaneous mass protests from citizens. Indeed, grand corruption is already a fully normalised feature of authoritarian rule in the United States.

Waiting to access Canvas to start marking assessment. Waiting to hear from the university's Cyber Security Officer. Waiting to see how my personal data will be sold again. Waiting to be freed from our corporate tech overlords. Waiting to hear how I have to bear the consequences. Waiting 😢

Do anthropologists have a formal set of criteria for a functioning society? Asking as a political scientist, with America in mind of course.

America’s mainstream media was never ready for democratic backsliding. It has proven itself to be woefully inept at this moment. Historians and political scientists will write - with ease - about the failure of the fourth estate to act as a watchdog, educator, and scrutineer for what has occurred.

I don’t get why people simply accept his professed Catholicism? Surely we can be more cynical in the age of Trump? Maybe, just maybe, his varying faith - look it up! - is a means to a political end… www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

Ruh fucking roh

Reposting my own thread in the hope it makes a difference to all those in Hungary who believe in democratic ideas, values, norms, and institutions. Best wishes to them.

With Hungary’s crucial election a few days away, its National Election Office has published a list of accredited international observers (n. 859). Having spent nearly a decade researching the behavior of international observers, I decided to take a closer look 😊 www.valasztas.hu/en/internati...

With Hungary’s crucial election a few days away, its National Election Office has published a list of accredited international observers (n. 859). Having spent nearly a decade researching the behavior of international observers, I decided to take a closer look 😊 www.valasztas.hu/en/internati...

Every time I go to type something snarky about the dumb shit Trump just said, he says something even dumber. So I delete the post and start again. It is a vicious cycle.

I asked Copilot to give me a list of closed autocracies and electoral autocracies from V-Dem's latest report. It promptly listed 92 countries, but I noticed a few glaring omissions 😶

My book - “Purges” - has a release date (August 15) and a front cover. I started work on this as my PhD dissertation at the end of 2017 - excited for it to finally be coming out! www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

The Trump-Orban comparison has always suffered from a bunch of different cognitive biases. Trump is both a “playbook autocrat” (like Orban) and a “mad king” (not like Orban) I wrote this duality here. In my view, the mad king persona will always prevail. www.thebulwark.com/p/crazy-or-c...

And so it begins! Watch now as Western media proclaim Khamenei's son to be more moderate/progressive/Western-influenced etc etc than his father. They said the same about Kim Jong Un, Baby Doc Duvalier, Ilham Aliyev, Bashar al-Assad, Hun Manet, and just about every other next dictator ffs.

Has it occurred to anyone that competitive authoritarianism has achieved ascendancy as the operative term for the United States, even though a national election has not occurred? Given there are 100s of diminished subtypes capturing authoritarianism outside of elections, should we excercise caution?

Russia, Venezuela, Iran, China, the Sahel region, the United States ... Want to know why state agents carry out brutal repression — or participate in illegal coups? Our new book "Making a Career in Dictatorship" provides answers — it just got published by @academic.oup.com: tinyurl.com/ystwm3tf

If the Trump administration is brazen enough to close a major airport without notification and without reason, just imagine all the horrible things they are not being transparent about. It will take a generation to uncover all their dirty secrets.

In case anyone is still wondering whether the United States has transitioned to authoritarian rule, I previously listed funding foreign think tanks as 1 of the 20 modern techniques of autocratic innovation. Paper available here - 61eb8c0a-6652-49a6-902e-3063f76b517e.filesusr.com/ugd/ca20d0_a...

I give it less than three months before CBP/ICE are authorized to quell mass demonstrations (under the pretext that such demonstrations are disrupting immigration enforcement operations). Many innocent people will die.

We had three papers under review in APSR, AJPS, and JoP & every time a new tranche of reviews came in they just magically whittled away until they were rejected. It looks on its face to be fraudulent. Can I prove it? No.

The fact there are infinitely more people discussing the Epstein files (which Trump has been removed from) than participating in a spontaneous protest at the Kennedy Center (which Trump is going to destroy and plunder) says everything about the state of authoritarian rule in the United States.

Does this also mean the media is going to stop making awful comparisons between Trump’s America and Orban’s Hungary? What about Erdogan’s Turkey? Modi’s India? So much unhelpful analysis of non-democracy in recent years. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

"The media tends to treat Trump's more insane statements as ephemeral, but then turns around and treats his climb-downs as binding....This is a mistake, and a dangerous one....It's a form of sane-washing....It contributes to the authoritarian's progress." www.thebulwark.com/p/how-the-me...

I really think there needs to spontaneous protests against ICE happening right now in front of every federal building in the country and especially in Washington D.C. Otherwise those opposed to the Trump administration will not gain enough momentum or control the narrative.

No one told me we were going by country, rather than by individual. I proudly stand by my list! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION IN THIS MATTER.

In announcing the final makeup of the board, Trump highlighted how Putin will be joined by other distinguished individuals, including Genghis Khan King Leopold II Caligula Pol Pot Lucky Luciano Curtis LeMay Tony Blair Sauron Hernán Cortés Count Dracula Benito Mussolini Henry Kissinger Thanos

America is afflicted by a rare combination: early-stage authoritarianism, but with a late-stage dictator. Think El Salvador today ruled by a crazy Papa Doc Duvalier. While chaos is the defining feature of this struggle, pro-democratic forces can still prevail… www.thebulwark.com/p/crazy-or-c...

Any far superior writers out there who want to present their Pulitzer Prize to me? Will go to a happy home.

Has any country ever been in both a civil war (say Minneapolis) and a foreign war (say Greenland, Iran, or Venezuela) at the same time?

The worst opposition party in the history of democratic backsliding.

I’d add that when regimes are transitioning to authoritarian rule, the government faces the problem of transmitting propaganda without having sufficient control of the media. So calling an innocent women a left-wing agitator strikes people as outlandish. It fails to sow enough cognitive dissonance.

I wrote this article about ICE becoming a secret police force in April last year. It is crucial to the Trump administration’s repressive apparatus. The murder of Renee Good is a sad, infuriating, and yet entirely inevitable event. She won’t be the last 🤬 theconversation.com/how-ice-is-b...

What happens next? Trump admin does not recognise Delcy Rodriguez (or removes her from office) Announces Venezuela’s constitution is abolished Trump declares himself the country’s ruler Holds a Saddam-style referendum on his rule (>90 percent of the vote) Demands to be officially called emperor

America has so clearly betrayed its self-proclaimed exceptionalism that it has nothing left to offer the world You cannot be a unique experiment or an exemplar nation or on a divine mission when you are just like every other belligerent empire that has risen and fallen Begone to your dictatorship

Some strong New Light of Myanmar vibes coming from CBS Evening News these days.

So easy… From Consultants with Love Consultants are Forever The Consultant with the Golden Gun Consulpussy Consultant Never Dies Quantum of Consultants

If only.

The ‘No Kings’ protests have been important, but smaller, more sustained acts of resistance have proven successful in other countries around the world. 👉 theconversation.com/has-the...

PUBLISHED! My latest piece addresses the inactivity and passivity of the anti-Trump resistance. From my vantage point, it is not doing enough 🫣 I highlight seven lessons from those who have resisted authoritarian rule around the world. theconversation.com/has-the-trum...

PUBLISHED! My latest piece addresses the inactivity and passivity of the anti-Trump resistance. From my vantage point, it is not doing enough 🫣 I highlight seven lessons from those who have resisted authoritarian rule around the world. theconversation.com/has-the-trum...

Happy to announce that I have received an @erc.europa.eu Consolidator grant for the project "Authoritarian Threats to Scientific Knowledge". AutoKnow will study how authoritarian regimes and politics affect scientific progress, contents and topics in different fields. www.sv.uio.no/isv/english/...

A bet these guys would have been great friends.

What happens when you combine @jacobnyrup.bsky.social fondness for turning dictators into Pepper Pig characters with my PowerPoint slides for the course I teach, Way of the Dictator. You get one of the greatest collaborations in the history of comparative authoritarianism 😆 @chknutsen.bsky.social

I’ve lost track of how many times Orban’s regime has been used as a model for Trump’s regime. That comparison has never made sense; it has a laziness about it. Trump’s rule is not sophisticated like Orban’s Instead, pick a 1970s African dictator and you will find Trump’s inspiration. Warts and all

Good riddance! Nine months on and I think my argument that DOGE was an attempt at state capture (and not a coup) has held up well. The actions of Musk and co. have clearly produced worst decisions, less accountability, and more corruption. theconversation.com/is-elon-musk...

Like I said: The thing about "bad" authoritarianism is the transparent nature of its repression, whereby dictators target their perceived enemies without a plausible justification for doing so. It is a sign of a weak regime. When you fool no one, you become the fool.

Trump plastering his orange face all over US currency will be put him in the same company as some of history’s worst dictators, including Mao Zedong, Bashar al-Assad, and Saddam Hussein. It is a sign that political power is personalized. people.com/donald-trump...

Like I fucking said.

I’ve been commissioned to write an op-ed on why the resistance to democratic backsliding in the United States is failing (and what to do about it). Given the many American friends and colleagues I have, it just won’t be an enjoyable piece to write 🙃

Just getting out in front of everyone to say that I think Trump will propose building a new capital city by the end of his term (if there is an end). Washington D.C is a crime-ridden hellhole etc etc, and America needs a big, beautiful city etc etc.