In this episode of Democracy Works from The McCourtney Institute for Democracy, the team discusses democracy’s many doomsayers and how to heed their warnings for the future without falling into despair.
Podcast: On democracy's doomsayers
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Trump's reliance on inflammatory, and often dehumanizing, language is not an unfortunate quirk—it’s a deliberate tactic.
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
From ‘Obliteration’ to ‘Enemies Within’: Trump’s Language Echoes Authoritarianism
Jun 27, 2025
When President Trump declared that the U.S. strikes “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program, it wasn’t just a policy claim—it was an exercise in narrative control. Predictably, his assertion was met with both support and skepticism. Yet more than a comment on military efficacy, the statement falls into a broader pattern that underscores how Trump uses language not just to communicate but to dominate.
Alongside top officials like CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump claimed the strikes set Iran’s nuclear ambitions back by years. However, conflicting intelligence assessments tell a more nuanced story. A leaked Defense Intelligence Agency report concluded that while infrastructure was damaged and entrances sealed, core components such as centrifuges remained largely intact. Iran had already relocated much of its enriched uranium. The International Atomic Energy Agency echoed that damage was reparable.
Given this, it's not partisan to question Trump’s sweeping claim—it's responsible journalism. And yet, he has once again lashed out at the press and intelligence agencies, accusing them of spreading “fake news” and undercutting American pilots. This reaction—deflecting criticism with outrage—is part of a now-familiar pattern in his public playbook.
Trump's reliance on inflammatory, and often dehumanizing, language is not an unfortunate quirk—it’s a deliberate tactic. Over the years, he has referred to immigrants as “vermin,” accused critics of being “poison” to America, and described political opponents as “enemies from within.” These aren’t casual insults. They are rhetorical devices with a dark history.
There are several reasons why this behavior continues to go largely unchecked:
- Repetition breeds normalization. Trump’s use of personal attacks has been so consistent that many Americans have become desensitized. What once might have been shocking now barely registers.
- Political survival instincts. Many of his allies remain silent out of fear—either of political fallout or of becoming his next target.
- Institutional restraint. Leaders like General Colin Powell have opted not to trade insults, choosing professionalism over confrontation.
- The media’s whirlwind pace. Provocative remarks often get lost in the avalanche of breaking news, limiting sustained public attention.
But language is not harmless. It shapes perception, frames debate, and influences behavior. When politicians label tax cuts as “relief” or describe policies in terms that evoke cultural identity—like “Make America Great Again”—they’re leveraging powerful emotional currents. It’s a common tool, but when wielded irresponsibly, it becomes dangerous.
A 2024 linguistic analysis of Trump’s speeches revealed a sharp uptick in violent and exclusionary terms, outpacing democratic norms and nearing the rhetoric of authoritarian regimes. What’s striking is that this trend doesn’t correspond with national crises. Rather, it appears intentional—language tailored to cast politics as an existential battle between “us” and “them.”
History warns us where this can lead. Dehumanizing language reduces the moral barriers to violence. It erodes our democratic foundations by normalizing division and incivility.
Harsh political rhetoric is nothing new in America. But the sheer volume, intensity, and repetition from someone with such a vast platform sets a dangerous precedent. The question now isn’t whether we agree with Trump’s policies. It’s whether we’re willing to accept this weaponization of language as the new political norm.
David Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.
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Guests in the audience await the arrival of U.S. Vice President Mike Pence during the Federalist Society's Executive Branch Review Conference at The Mayflower Hotel on April 25, 2023, in Washington, D.C.
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Trump Shows That Loyalty Is All That Matters to Him
Jun 24, 2025
Last week, the Court of International Trade delivered a blow to Donald Trump’s global trade war. It found that the worldwide tariffs Trump unveiled on “Liberation Day” as well his earlier tariffs pretextually aimed at stopping fentanyl coming in from Mexico and Canada (as if) were beyond his authority. The three-judge panel was surely right about the Liberation Day tariffs and probably right about the fentanyl tariffs, but there’s a better case that, while bad policy, the fentanyl tariffs were not unlawful.
Please forgive a lengthy excerpt of Trump’s response on Truth Social, but it speaks volumes:
“How is it possible for (the CIT judges) to have potentially done such damage to the United States of America? Is it purely a hatred of ‘TRUMP?’ What other reason could it be? I was new to Washington, and it was suggested that I use The Federalist Society as a recommending source on Judges. I did so, openly and freely, but then realized that they were under the thumb of a real ‘sleazebag’ named Leonard Leo, a bad person who, in his own way, probably hates America, and obviously has his own separate ambitions. … In any event, Leo left The Federalist Society to do his own ‘thing.’ I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations. This is something that cannot be forgotten!”
Let’s begin with the fact that Trump cannot conceive of a good explanation for an inconvenient court ruling other than Trump Derangement Syndrome. It’s irrelevant that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the 1977 law the administration invoked to impose the relevant tariffs, does not even mention the word “tariff” or that Congress never envisioned the IEEPA as a tool for launching a trade war with every nation in the world, the “Penguin Islands” included. Also disregard the fact that the decision was unanimous and only one of the three judges was appointed by Trump (the other two were Reagan and Obama appointees). (The decision has been paused by an appeals court.)
Trump is the foremost practitioner of what I call Critical Trump Theory — anything bad for Trump is unfair, illegitimate and proof that sinister forces are rigging the system against him. No wonder then that Trump thinks Leonard Leo, formerly a guiding light at the Federalist Society, the premier conservative legal organization, is a “sleazebag” and “bad person.” Note: Leo is neither of those things.
But Trump’s broadsides at Leo and the Federalist Society are portentous. Because Congress is AWOL, refusing to take the lead on trade (and many other things) as the Constitution envisions, it’s fallen to the courts to restrain Trump’s multifront efforts to exceed his authority. That’s why the White House is cynically denouncing “unelected” and “rogue” judges on an almost daily basis and why Trump’s political henchman, Stephen Miller, is incessantly ranting about a “judicial coup.”
The supreme, and sometimes seemingly sole, qualification for appointments to the Trump administration has been servile loyalty to Trump. But that ethos is not reserved for the executive branch. Law firms, elite universities and media outlets are being forced to kneel before the president. Why should judges be any different?
Trump has a history of suggesting “my judges” — i.e., his appointees — should be loyal to him. That’s why he recently nominated Emil Bove, his former personal criminal lawyer turned political enforcer at the Department of Justice, for a federal judgeship.
The significance of Trump’s attack on the Federalist Society and Leo, for conservatives, cannot be exaggerated. The legal movement spearheaded by the Federalist Society has been the most successful domestic conservative project of the last century. Scholarly, civic-minded and principled, the Federalist Society spent decades developing ideas and arguments for re-centering the Constitution in American law. But now Trump has issued a fatwa that it, too, must bend the knee and its principles to the needs of one man. The law be damned, ruling against Trump is ingratitude in his mind.
Speaking of ingratitude, the irony is that the Federalist Society deserves a lot of credit — or blame — for Trump being elected in the first place. In 2016, the death of Antonin Scalia left a vacancy on the Supreme Court. Many conservatives did not trust Trump to replace him. To reassure them, Trump agreed to pick from a list of potential replacements crafted by the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society. That decision arguably convinced many reluctant conservatives to vote for him.
In the decade since, the Heritage Foundation has dutifully reinvented itself in Trump’s image. The Federalist Society stayed loyal to its principles, and that’s why the Federalist Society is in Trump’s crosshairs.
Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.
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California Governor Gavin Newsom (right) speaks as California Attorney general Rob Bonta looks on during a news conference at Gemperle Orchard on April 16, 2025, in Ceres, California.
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Democrats, Gavin Newsom Is Not Your Blueprint
Jun 23, 2025
Few in American politics are as desperate as California Gov. Gavin Newsom is right now.
Newsom, long considered — by himself, anyway — a frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for president, has been positioning himself and repositioning himself to be next in line for years.
And this week, through the Los Angeles smog, he can see the prize on the horizon.
With L.A. the epicenter of immigration protests, the camera-loving gov isn’t just on the story, he’s made himself the story — just turn on any cable news outlet and you’re likely to see him there, taking on President Trump and his administration.
Or in a primetime televised address he’s calling “Democracy at a Crossroads.” Or on social media, where he’s uploading satirical responses to Trump from his official press office account, comparing him to “Star Wars” villain Emperor Palpatine in a pair of AI-generated TikToks.
Make no mistake, Newsom is relishing his moment in the spotlight, and he’s making the most of his brushes with Trump, who seems to know exactly who Newsom is.
After Trump border czar Tom Homan suggested Newsom be arrested (for what, who knows?) Trump responded, “I think it’s great. Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing.”
Trump is of course exploiting tensions in Los Angeles, too. It’s surprising to no one that Trump would throw gasoline on an ember if it meant more red meat for the base. He loves the protests and all that come with them — the optics for him are priceless.
And Newsom isn’t wrong to oppose Trump’s obvious overreach in California. Sending in the literal Marines is a gross abuse of power and a wholly unnecessary escalation in response.
But don’t be fooled — Newsom is very much in on the bit, even going so far as to taunt Homan to go ahead and arrest him. He knows that by drawing Trump in as a foil, he only elevates himself.
See, Newsom badly needs Trump and he needs this moment. After a disastrous effort to rebrand as a centrist, during which he welcomed far-right creepers like Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon onto his podcast and attempted to scold his own party for going too far on social issues (that he also supported), Gavin needs to remind his base that he’s still a good Democrat.
Being a vocal Trump opponent is an easy win, but that no longer has the cachet it once does. In 2024, voters got wise to the cheap calorie thrills of watching their Democratic leaders bluster about Trump’s awfulness while they simultaneously dismissed the impacts of a cratering economy, an exploding migrant crisis on the border, and unchecked crime.
Newsom’s California is an unmitigated mess, and to many voters the state — like him — has become the poster child for everything that’s failing in America.
Including among Californians themselves.
A recent L.A. Times/UC Berkeley poll found that California registered voters believe by more than 2 to 1 that Newsom is more focused on boosting his presidential chances than fixing the state’s problems.
Only 46% approve of his performance in his final term, and a majority think things are generally going in the wrong direction.
Maybe that’s because the state has the highest cost of living in the country. While Newsom closed prisons and passed soft-on-crime laws, the crime rate went up. California has America’s most homelessness, highest health care costs, worst pollution and highest taxes.
Last year, ConsumerAffairs ranked California the worst state to move to, due to low scores in education, health, quality of life and safety.
Meanwhile, Newsom has exploded the size of California’s government, with the number of government employees reaching its highest level in more than five decades. Per CalMatters, Newsom even doubled the size of his own office, going from 150 employees in 2018 before he became governor to 381 people in 2024.
Perhaps Newsom’s hoping that this new fight with Trump over immigration will make voters turn a blind eye to his demonstrable failures as an executive, and just in time for 2028.
But after the reckoning Dems faced in 2024, with Trump winning all seven swing states and all kinds of voters Dems used to claim, no one should believe a far-left, big-government, self-promoting California pol like Newsom is their best shot at beating Republicans.
And no one should believe he’s not laser-focused on becoming just that either.
As L.A. Times columnist Mark Z. Barabak put it, Newsom’s denials of his presidential ambition, “all the while very purposefully thrusting himself into the conversation” is “sort of like someone stripping naked, standing in a department store window, then asking why everyone is staring.” No one’s buying it.
S.E. Cupp: Democrats, Gavin Newsom Is Not Your Blueprint was originally published by the Tribune Content Agency. S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.
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Protestors march during an anti-Trump "No Kings Day" demonstration in a city that has been the focus of protests against Trump's immigration raids on June 14, 2025 in downtown Los Angeles, California.
Getty Images, Jay L Clendenin
Americans Want To Rein In Presidential Power
Jun 18, 2025
President Trump has been attempting to expand presidential power more than any president in recent history, in large part by asserting powers that have been held by Congress, including federal funding and tariffs. Public opinion research has shown clearly and consistently that large majorities—often bipartisan—oppose expanding presidential powers and support giving Congress more power.
The Pew Research Center has asked for nearly a decade whether presidents should not have to “worry so much about Congress and the courts” or if giving presidents more power is “too risky.” Over seven in ten have consistently said that giving presidents more power would be too risky, including majorities of Democrats and Republicans, no matter which party is in power. In February 2025, 66% of Republicans and 89% of Democrats took this position.
Very few support presidents being able to act unilaterally in defiance of the other branches of government. An AP-NORC poll in March 2024 found just two in ten saying it would be “a good thing” for presidents to be able to change policy without Congress or the courts. The president being able to disobey federal court rulings is supported by just 14%, per a recent Ipsos/Reuters poll; and support rises to just three in ten when told that the court ruling could impede the president’s ability to prevent a terrorist attack, per a recent Annenberg Public Policy Center poll.
As political scientist Andrew Reeves noted in his 2022 book “No Blank Check”, in which he analyzed decades of public opinion data, the public has consistently “express[ed] low levels of support for presidents acting unilaterally,” and that “even when the president changed, these views shifted only slightly over time.”
Specific expansions of presidential power have been met with large public opposition. President Trump has declared he has the authority to directly control federal agencies that were designed by Congress to be independent from presidents. Two thirds oppose presidents having this authority, including majorities of Republicans (52%) and Democrats (81%), according to a March 2025 survey by the Program for Public Consultation (PPC). A YouGov poll found just a quarter (24%) of respondents said it is acceptable for the president to “[assert] control over previously independent federal government agencies.”
The March PPC survey also found that majorities of about two in three prefer to keep seven currently independent agencies free from direct presidential control (FCC, FTC, SEC, NLRB, FEC, OSC, and the Federal Reserve’s regulatory arm), including majorities of Republicans in all but one case (the FTC).
The Trump administration has asserted it has the authority to refuse to spend funds allocated by Congress, known as impoundment. In the March PPC survey, 63% opposed presidents having the power to impound funds, with Republicans being roughly divided. A New York Times/Siena poll found a majority opposition to presidents being able to “eliminate government programs enacted by Congress” (54%, with just 21% in favor). A similar majority opposed presidents having the power to “impose tariffs without authorization from Congress.”
The effort to give the president more direct control over the hiring and firing of civil servants is broadly opposed. Over six in ten Americans oppose the idea of “allowing presidents to fire civil service workers for any reason,” including a 47% plurality of Republicans, according to a June 2024 YouGov poll. A majority find the idea of presidents “dismissing officials because they are perceived as disloyal to the president” unacceptable, per another YouGov poll. Even the more narrow proposal in a recent Executive Order that allows policy-related civil servants to be replaced for any reason under the direction of the president is opposed by a majority (55%) in a PPC survey.
Not only do Americans oppose expanding presidential powers but they favor reining presidents in and giving Congress a greater role. Six in ten oppose presidents being able to directly change policy, such as through executive order, without Congress voting on them, according to YouGov and Annenberg polls.
Even on national defense—where presidents are typically understood to have the most discretion—the majority of Americans support taking away power from presidents and giving it to Congress. Six in ten favor requiring congressional approval for military operations initiated by presidents (Republicans 53%, Democrats 62%), according to a 2022 PPC survey. Another bipartisan majority of six in ten favor requiring congressional approval for presidents making arms sales over $14 million. And a 2019 PPC survey found a bipartisan majority of nearly seven in ten in favor of requiring congressional approval and a formal declaration of war by Congress in order for a president to use nuclear weapons first in a military engagement.
Efforts to expand presidential power are not completely unique to President Trump. Over the last few decades, political scientists agree that the balance has shifted towards the presidency, as a result of presidents taking more power or Congress giving it to them.
One may wonder why Americans favor giving Congress more power when Americans express so much dissatisfaction with them. Though the public is frustrated with congressional gridlock and believes it is too responsive to moneyed interests, Americans appear to nonetheless embrace the Founders’ idea that there should be a balance of power and see the office of the presidency as holding too much power.
Steven Kull is director of the University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation.
Evan Lewitus is a senior research analyst for the Program for Public Consultation.Keep ReadingShow less
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