President Trump’s war with Iran is the most significant military action in American history that a president has undertaken without any form of congressional authorization.
Yes, past presidents have often pushed the bounds of their constitutional authority in using the military. Nonetheless, they have typically involved Congress for anything more than a brief attack. Sometimes, Congress passed a bill formally approving action, as was the case in Iraq in both 2002 and 1991, Afghanistan in 2001 and Vietnam in 1964. In other instances, such as Korea in the 1950s, Congress offered de facto approval by passing bills that provided additional resources for the military action. Mr. Trump has received no approval whatsoever from Congress, the only branch of government with the constitutional authority to declare war.
The New York Times editorial board is tracking 12 categories of democratic erosion in the United States, based on historical patterns and interviews with experts. Our index places the United States on a scale of 0 to 10 for each category. Zero represents the United States before Mr. Trump began his second term — not perfect, surely, but one of the world’s healthiest democracies. Ten represents the condition in a true autocracy, such as China, Iran and Russia. Based on the war with Iran, we are moving our assessment of one of the categories — bypassing the legislature — up one notch, to Level 5:
Bypassing the legislature
Mr. Trump’s Justice Department has become an enforcer of his personal interests, targeting people for legally dubious reasons while creating a culture in which his allies can act with impunity. The targets include Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chairman, and several Democratic. True authoritarians go much further, but Mr. Trump has already undone the post-Watergate depoliticization of the Justice Department.
Over the past two and half months, Mr. Trump has ordered thousands of strikes against another country and killed its leader. The war has roiled global energy markets and drained American munitions stockpiles. Yet despite its scope and stakes, the president continues to show disdain for members of Congress who ask questions about the war and has not even provided a coherent rationale for it.
Congressional Republicans deserve significant responsibility for the situation. They could and should do much more to constrain him. Congress could pass a resolution expressing its disapproval of the war and hold hearings investigating it, raising the political pressure on the White House. It could refuse to confirm nominees or fund Mr. Trump’s military priorities until he adheres to his constitutional duty to work with the legislature. Otherwise, members of Congress are participating in America’s slide from democracy.
The Autocracy Index
12 markers of democratic erosion
Bypassing the legislature
When a democracy slides toward autocracy, the leader often finds ways to neuter the legislature. Mr. Trump has done so in many ways: by usurping Congress’s power of the purse and imposing widespread tariffs (which courts have often deemed illegal; gutting congressionally authorized agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development; withholding approved funds for schools, libraries and scientific research; using private donations to pay for his White House ballroom during a government shutdown; attacking boats in the Caribbean and invading Venezuela; and more.
Stifling speech and dissent
Modern authoritarian takeovers often do not start with a military coup. They instead involve an elected leader who uses the powers of the office to consolidate authority and make political opposition difficult. The repression of speech and dissent is central to this process. Mr. Trump cracked down on anti-ICE demonstrations in Minnesota, which culminated in federal agents killing two protesters. The Trump administration has also pursued F.B.I. investigations against journalists, punished law firms that had opposed him, revoked the visas of foreign students who criticized Israel’s war in Gaza and contributed to intimidation campaigns against federal judges.
Persecuting political opponents
Autocrats use the immense power of law enforcement as a political tool, and Mr. Trump’s Justice Department has become an enforcer of his interests. It has targeted his perceived enemies, as it did with Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, on shaky grounds while dropping legitimate investigations of Mr. Trump’s allies or pardoning them. In recent months, Mr. Trump has fired his attorney general for not going even further, and the Justice Department secured an indictment against James Comey, the former F.B.I. director, for a second time on spurious charges. If judges and grand juries had not pushed back against Mr. Trump so effectively, this measure would probably be at a higher level.
Would-be authoritarians recognize that courts can keep them from consolidating power, and they take steps to weaken or bypass judges. At times, the Trump administration has accepted court rulings, including its rejection of his tariffs. At other times, the administration has openly defied federal judges. A judge in Minnesota excoriated Immigration and Customs Enforcement for disobeying nearly 100 orders in January alone. On other occasions, the administration has engaged in gamesmanship, ignoring the spirit of judicial orders.
Declaring false emergencies
Autocrats often curtail democracy by declaring an emergency and arguing that the threat requires them to exercise unusual degrees of power. Mr. Trump’s recent predecessors were not perfect on this issue, but he has reached another level. His tariffs were one example. Justifying deportations by claiming that a Venezuelan gang had taken over American cities was another example.
Using the military at home
Authoritarians frequently and performatively use the military for domestic control. Mr. Trump deployed the National Guard in Los Angeles to crack down on protests. He has also treated the military as an extension of himself, firing high-ranking officials without good reason and giving overtly political speeches to military leaders. ICE is not part of the military, but it acted largely as a paramilitary force in Minnesota and elsewhere. Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, has raised the chilling prospect of sending ICE agents to polling places.
Vilifying marginalized groups
Authoritarians tend to demean minority groups, trying to turn them into perceived threats that provide justification for a leader to amass power. Mr. Trump has vilified immigrants and transgender Americans. His appointees and political allies have made blatantly racist, Islamophobic and antisemitic statements. Mr. Trump has denigrated Somalis in outrageous ways, such as saying: “They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country.”
Democratic governments prize accurate information. Authoritarians seek to suppress inconvenient truths. The Trump administration has sought to manipulate government information by, among other things, sidelining scientific experts. The administration has also taken steps to control the media, using the threat of regulatory punishment to silence criticism.
Trying to take over universities
Authoritarians, recognizing that universities are hotbeds of independent thought and political dissent, often single them out for repression. A signature policy of Mr. Trump’s second term has been his attack on higher education. He has cut millions of dollars of research funding, tried to dictate hiring and admissions policies and taken steps to dictate what colleges can teach, sometimes suing them to force their compliance.
Creating a cult of personality
Emperors and kings often glorified themselves by displaying their portraits everywhere. The American tradition rejected that hagiography for living presidents — until Mr. Trump. Among recent examples: He is adding his signature to the dollar. He turned the Kennedy Center into the Trump Kennedy Center. He created a new commemorative passport with his face on it. And the government now sells a so-called gold card, with his face on it, that costs $1 million and offers legal residency to immigrants.
Using power for personal profit
Authoritarians often turn the government into a machine for self-enrichment. Mr. Trump glories in his administration’s culture of corruption. He rewards foreign governments that bestow gifts on him (like a 747 airplane) and approve deals with his company. His family has made hundreds of millions of dollars from crypto. In some cases, he has later helped his benefactors, including by giving pardons.
Manipulating the law to stay in power
Authoritarians change election rules to help their party, and they rewrite laws to ignore term limits. In Mr. Trump’s second term, he has shown worrisome signs of trying to entrench the power of the Republican Party. He has pressured Republican-led states to gerrymander congressional districts even more extremely than they had, and his campaign — aided by the Supreme Court — has won several recent victories. He has also made alarming efforts to intimidate election workers. In May, his Justice Department demanded the identities of all workers who staffed the 2020 election in Fulton County, Ga., which could chill participation in future elections.
Background and methodology: The clearest sign that a democracy has died is that a leader and his party make it impossible for their opponents to win an election and hold power. Once that stage is reached, however, the change is extremely difficult to reverse.
The 12 benchmarks in this editorial offer a way to understand how much Mr. Trump is eroding American democracy. The categories are based on interviews with legal scholars, political scientists, historians and other democracy experts. The ratings come from the New York Times editorial board. In our 0-to-10 scales, zero represents roughly where the United States, flawed though it was, had been under presidents of both parties prior to Mr. Trump. Ten represents the condition in a true authoritarian state. Moving even one notch toward autocracy is a worrisome sign.
We first published the index in October. This version is the second update. We plan to publish future updates as events warrant.
Photograph by Damon Winter/The New York Times
