The USA’s descent into authoritarianism is gathering pace. Republicans in Texas have been asked by Trump to ‘find 5 seats’ in the House of Representatives by redrawing district boundaries, to help him win the 2026 midterm elections. Meanwhile, his Attorney General Pam Bondi is attempting to appoint the head of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) as an ‘emergency police commissioner’ for Washington DC to replace the elected police chief, giving control of law enforcement in the US capital to Trump. These are the actions (just two among dozens of others) of an administration that does not intend to relinquish power as it becomes increasingly unpopular. They expect pushback and protests, and they are gearing up to deal with any dissent.
To see how far the political climate has changed in just seven months and how his administration is encouraging an extreme right-wing agenda across the world, I want to draw your attention to the annual report that the American State Department produces on human rights in other countries.
The world has looked to Washington to set global democratic norms for most of the postwar period, but that is all about to change. The department reports each year on human-rights conditions in countries around the world, ever since Congress mandated it in 1977, nearly fifty years ago. These reports are used by civil rights organisations as well as diplomats and legislators. They are (or were) regarded as the gold standard, despite the often questionable approach of some American states to human rights issues at home.
The reports are regularly the most downloaded items on the State Department's website.
The draft 2024 report was ready in January, but the incoming administration delayed publication until three days ago, on 12 August, to allow sections of it to be completely rewritten.
Ann Applebaum has an article in The Atlantic about what this means. She's an American historian and journalist, and the wife of Radoslaw Sikorski, the Oxford-educated and current Polish Foreign Minister. She has written books on Communism and became a Polish citizen in 2013. I imagine she understands authoritarian regimes very well.
She writes:
"...the revisions also go much further than expected, dropping references to corruption, restrictions on free and fair elections, rights to a fair trial, and the harassment of human-rights organizations. Threats to freedom of assembly are no longer considered sufficiently important to mention."
Ms Applebaum also quotes former officials from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), which champions (or used to) democratic values, including the rule of law and individual rights around the world. Dozens of senior DRL staff have been fired over the past six months.
One told her that for democratic activists overseas: “This essentially says the United States is no longer your ally, that the United States doesn’t see clearly beyond the rhetoric of your regime, and I think that’s really, really tragic.”
One example is El Salvador, where Trump has already sent hundreds of undocumented immigrants. A recent Amnesty International report speaks of “arbitrary detentions and human rights violations” in El Salvador, as well as “serious failings in the judicial system.” In overcrowded prisons, “detention conditions were inhumane, with reports of torture and other ill-treatment.”
However, in total contradiction, the US State Department's official report now finds: "There were no credible reports of significant human rights abuses. The government took credible steps to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses."
In democratic Germany, the executive summary declares: "The human rights situation in Germany worsened during the year. Significant human rights issues included restrictions on freedom of expression and credible reports of crimes, violence, or threats of violence motivated by antisemitism."
The 'review' was carried out by one Samuel Samson, a political appointee of Trump, believed to be a recent college graduate and an alumnus of a program designed to put conservative activists into government jobs.
This is Project 2025 in action. The world is being turned upside down.
Trump to meet Putin in Alaska
Finally, as Trump prepares to meet Putin in Alaska later today to try to persuade him to end the bloody war in Ukraine, it is instructive to see what the State Department thinks of Russia. It is scathing - presumably because it's impossible to deny it all:
"There were credible reports of summary execution, torture, rape, and attacks killing and injuring civilians and damaging or destroying civilian infrastructure by Russia’s forces in Ukraine.
"Russia’s forces and officials committed crimes against humanity, including but not limited to deporting thousands of civilians to Russia, including children.
"The government operated an extensive system of filtration and detention operations that sometimes included the use of forced labor. Russia’s occupation and purported annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and four oblasts in eastern Ukraine affected significantly and negatively the human rights situation there, with credible reports of politically motivated arrests, detentions, and trials of Ukrainian citizens in Russia, many of whom claimed to have been tortured (see also Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for Ukraine)."
And in Russia itself:
"... significant human rights issues included credible reports of: arbitrary or unlawful killings; disappearances; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; arbitrary arrest and detention; instances of transnational repression against individuals in another country; serious abuses in a conflict; unlawful recruitment of or use of children in armed conflict by the government; serious restrictions on freedom of speech and media freedom, including violence or threats of violence against journalists, unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists, and censorship; restrictions of religious freedom; trafficking in persons, including forced labor; and significant presence of the worst forms of child labor."
Trump wants to hand control of huge areas of Eastern Ukraine and millions of Ukrainian citizens to such a regime. Bear this in mind over the next few weeks.
