Staffan Lindberg, the main political scientist at V-Dem, noted in a paper on the global loss of democracies: “Under President Trump, the USA today appears to be moving away from democracy. I believe that this will have far-reaching effects on the entire world.
American leaders like former Republican communications director Tara Setmayer share this opinion. “A lot of people in the media and the opposition leadership don’t seem to be communicating that to the American people,” Setmayer told the Guardian, referring to the impending Defcon 1 for our democracy.
“That is the biggest danger of the moment we’re in now: the normalisation of it.” This has been more apparent as a result of some of the administration’s actions, including an event earlier this month.
Following the discovery of communications critical of the Trump administration on their phone, a French scientist was reportedly denied entry to the United States. The scientist was refused admission “because the researcher’s phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration’s research policy,” according to the French ministry of higher education and research.
Even if Vance were elected president, many fear he may simply continue where Trump left off, rather than reducing tensions.
