Trump's first 100 days
President Trump has now completed the first 100 days of his second term in office.
Democracy in the US has taken a serious beating.
The new President has pushed the limits of his presidential power and attacked the legal system when it stands in his way. He has threatened a judge who ruled against him with impeachment [1] and is targeting law firms to scare them out of challenging him [2].
Trump has also shown little regard for freedom of speech. He is suing media organisations that criticise him [3] and suing pollsters whose results he doesn't like [4]. He's now threatening to remove federal funding from universities who don't accede to his demands [5].
It's exhausting to keep track of all the ways Trump is undermining democracy. Almost every day brings a new story about how he has further expanded his own power at the expense of democratic norms.
This brute-force attack on democracy is so relentless and multi-faceted that some of the worst developments slip through the cracks and fail to get the attention they deserve.
One overlooked story is Trump's attacks on the Democratic Party's ability to fundraise for their campaigns.
Last week, Trump used his executive power to launch a dubious investigation into ActBlue, an online platform that the Democrats use to fundraise for their electoral candidates [6]. It's a major part of their fundraising operation, with ActBlue reporting that over 16 billion dollars have been raised for Democratic candidates and causes using their platform [7].
Trump's sidekick, Elon Musk, is also going after ActBlue. He claimed, without evidence, that the platform funded groups who protested at Tesla dealerships [8].
This new escalation is particularly worrying as it’s right out of the authoritarian playbook. Putin, Orbán, Erdogan and other authoritarians have used Government power to silence their domestic opposition.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán hit six opposition political parties with huge fines to stop them effectively campaigning for European and local elections in 2024 [9].
In the US, it looks like it’s increasingly going to be down to the courts to protect democracy and any sense of fair elections.
That also makes us think of the UK and the protections we have here.
We might not yet have the same threat level as exists in the US, but we shouldn’t take this for granted.
Elections in the UK are policed by the Electoral Commission which used to be independent of Government. Yet the last Government gave itself the power to set a strategy and policy statement for the Commission.
We, and the Electoral Commission, think that’s very dangerous. We fought against it at the time and we’ve continued to call for this power to be removed.
In opposition, Labour also resisted this step. Shadow Ministers rightfully criticised the Conservative government’s move to end the independence of the Electoral Commission. Alex Norris MP said that “it is not for this Government or any Government, be they Labour or Conservative, to dictate the priorities of an independent watchdog, especially one that regulates our own elections” [10].
Will they fix this now they are in power?
If they don’t, we could see a Trump imitator come to power in the UK and use this power to undermine democracy. They could force the Electoral Commission to focus solely on investigating their political opponents.
This isn’t where we want our democracy to go. That’s why we will campaign hard on this issue in the coming months.
The government must restore the independence of the Electoral Commission in the upcoming Elections Bill.
This MUST be a priority. It can’t wait.
If you agree, please sign our petition today.