“The United States Is No Longer a Functional Democracy” — And Trump’s America Deserves Every Inch of It

When the world stops seeing you as a democracy, maybe stop acting like a dictatorship.

Dean Blundell

America woke up today with a new global label — one normally slapped on countries with collapsing institutions, criminalized dissent, and governments that treat journalists like contagions.

Bottom of Form

The United States has officially been downgraded from “narrowed” civic space to “obstructed.”

Let that sink in.

Obstructed.
That’s the category where democracies go to die.

And here’s the part that should terrify everyone — this isn’t just an academic downgrade or a bunch of international policy nerds wagging their fingers. These civic ratings are the same tools used by governments, investors, international courts, and security alliances to figure out which countries are stable… and which ones are sliding into authoritarian rot.

For the first time in modern history, the United States is being treated as a country in structural democratic decline.

Not temporary. Not atmospheric. Structural.

And spoiler alert: that decline has one author. His name is Donald Trump.

The Downgrade Heard ‘Round the World

Civic space ratings track the conditions that make a democracy a democracy — the freedom to protest, criticize government, publish journalism, speak openly, organize politically, and exist without the state knocking your door down at 4:00 a.m. in a ballistic vest.

Here’s why America got hammered:

1. Militarized ICE Raids Became Standard Operating Procedure

What used to be immigration enforcement now looks like a cross between military counterinsurgency and political intimidation.

Armed agents storm homes. People — including legal residents — are detained without clear justification. Families vanish into custody while Trump rants that “law and order” requires “rough justice.”

This is what authoritarian creep looks like: security forces turned inward, treating the population as an enemy.

2. Protesting Is Now a Criminal Offense

Under Trump, states rushed to pass laws redefining peaceful demonstration as “rioting,” “sabotage,” or “economic terrorism.”

• A protester blocking a road? Jail.
• A journalist covering a protest? Arrest first, ask questions never.
• An activist livestreaming from a march? Congratulations — you’re now a threat to national stability.

This is how civic space closes: not with tanks, but with legislation.

3. Government Power Turned Against Journalists

Trump didn’t just attack the media rhetorically. His administration used:

• Lawsuits
• Subpoenas
• Investigations
• IRS pressure
• Credential revocations
• Criminal leak prosecutions

The message was unmistakable: Tell the truth, lose your job. Tell the wrong truth, lose your freedom.

And as if that wasn’t enough, Trump carved out a new propaganda agency run by loyalists whose job is to flood the information environment with state-approved narratives.

Russia and Hungary call this “information management.” America now calls it Tuesday.

4. Public Media Defunded Into Silence

You know who cuts funding to public broadcasters? Regimes that need the silence more than the criticism.

NPR, PBS, and other public outlets became targets not because they were biased — but because they were independent. That’s all an aspiring authoritarian needs to consider you an enemy.

5. Expanding Domestic Surveillance

• Activists monitored.
• Reporters tracked.
• Political opponents flagged.
• Protests infiltrated.
• Digital speech scraped and catalogued.

Under Trump, surveillance wasn’t about safety. It was about control.

America didn’t stumble into this downgrade. It earned it.

Why This Matters More Than Any Headline You’ll See Today

People hear “downgrade” and think it’s symbolic. Academic. Toothless.

Wrong.

This is the kind of rating that changes how the world deals with you.

1. Foreign Investors Hate Authoritarian Instability

• When civil liberties collapse, investment pulls back.
• Businesses fear unpredictability.
• Weak institutions mean weak contracts.
• Criminalized dissent means unrest.

Money doesn’t like chaos. And Trump built chaos into the foundation of the American state.

2. Diplomatic Trust Evaporates

Democracies share intelligence with democracies — not with countries that target journalists or weaponize immigration agencies as paramilitary forces. This rating won’t just hurt America’s image. It will hurt its alliances.

3. America’s Soft Power Collapses

A country that jails protesters, sues journalists, and builds a propaganda bureau doesn’t get to preach about liberty. For decades, America sold democracy as its #1 export. Today, the world is returning the shipment.

4. It’s Not About Trump the Man — It’s About the System He Rewired

Civic watchdogs aren’t punishing America for vibes.
They’re documenting measurable structural decay:

• Laws rewritten to punish dissent
• Agencies militarized
• Public media dismantled
• Civil liberties weakened
• Surveillance normalized
• Propaganda institutionalized

America didn’t get downgraded because Trump is mean on social media.
America got downgraded because Trump rearranged the architecture of federal power to suppress the public rather than serve it.

The United States Now Shares a Category With… Countries It Used to Lecture

This is the geopolitical humiliation.

America now sits beside countries known for:

• Flawed elections
• Harassment of activists
• Restricted media
• Politicized policing
• Disinformation ministries
• Suppression of protest
• Fragile institutions

Not authoritarian — not yet. But no longer a reliable democracy.

Imagine explaining this to the world twenty years ago.

Imagine explaining this to yourself ten years ago.

Now imagine explaining it to your kids.

How Did America Get Here? Follow the Footprints

Every indicator in the downgrade leads back to one architect

1. Trump Promised to “Crush Opposition” — Then Built the Machinery to Do It

• He didn’t hide it.
• He bragged about it.
• His allies bragged about it.
• His agencies carried it out.

2. Weakening Civil Society Was the Point

• Independent institutions? Enemies.
• Free press? Enemies.
• Public broadcasting? Enemies.
• Protesters? Enemies.

Autocrats don’t fear armies. They fear organized citizens.

3. Trump Replaced Civic State With Propaganda State

• Career professionals were purged.
• Experts dismissed.
• Loyalists installed.

The goal wasn’t competence — it was obedience.

4. The Decline Has Been Measured Since 2017

Democratic erosion doesn’t happen overnight. It happens in legislative increments.

• In agency restructurings.
• In executive orders.
• In norm-shattering behavior that becomes policy.

This is why the downgrade isn’t “political.” It’s empirical.

What Happens Now? A Forecast of Trump’s America

1. More Crackdowns

Authoritarian systems don’t loosen up when challenged. They tighten.

2. International Isolation Grows

Allies protect themselves from unstable partners.

3. Brain Drain Accelerates

Doctors, scientists, journalists, and tech workers are already leaving for countries where democratic norms aren’t dissolving.

4. More Downgrades Are Coming

America hasn’t hit bottom. It’s only hit recognition.

This Isn’t Democracy Dying — It’s Democracy Being Sabotaged

America didn’t trip and fall into authoritarian decay.

It was shoved.

By a movement that treats institutions like inconveniences, dissent like treason, and truth like an expendable detail.

By a man who believes the state exists to protect him, punish his enemies, and silence whoever remembers what a free society is supposed to look like.

And now the world is calling it what it is.

Obstructed.

• Not free.
• Not open.
• Not trustworthy.
• Not functioning.

The question isn’t why America was downgraded.

The question is why Americans tolerated the decline for so long.

And whether they’re willing to accept living in Trump’s version of a democracy — one where civic space isn’t just shrinking…

It’s being smothered.