April 28, 2025: The Death of American Democracy Continues With Executive Militarization

Introduction

Washington, D.C., April 28, 2025 – The door to the Oval Office closes with a thud as aides shuffle out, leaving President Trump alone with his inner circle. Moments ago, he signed a directive that jolts the core of American governance: an executive order instructing the Secretary of Defense and Attorney General to “see how the military and other national security personnel can help in preventing crime”​ on U.S. soil. In that brief moment, the United States edges further away from its democratic traditions. Sirens wail in the distance as if on cue – a fitting soundtrack to a republic in peril. The death spiral of American democracy continues, one unprecedented order at a time.

Trump’s Executive Order: Domestic Militarization of Law Enforcement

President Trump’s April 28 directive, unveiled quietly this morning, marks a historic militarization of domestic law enforcement. The order pledges to “unleash high-impact local police forces” and protect officers accused of misconduct, but its most alarming provision goes further​. It directs Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to evaluate how U.S. military assets can be used inside the country to fight crime​. In effect, Trump is prying open a door that has been sealed since 1878 – the door separating the armed forces from civilian policing. For nearly 150 years, a “strong presumption against military enforcement of civil law” has undergirded American democracy​. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 even “makes it a crime to use federal military forces ‘to execute the law’” except where expressly authorized by Congress​. Trump’s new order pointedly shatters this democratic norm, blurring soldiers and beat cops into a single force of state power.

Such executive militarization is being justified under the banner of law and order – and even national security. Trump casts the crime wave in hyperbolic terms, from an “invasion at the southern border” to “lawless insurrection” by sanctuary cities​. Now, with a stroke of his pen, he effectively invites boots on American streets in the name of “preventing crime.” Attorney General Pam Bondi, a fiercely loyal lieutenant, is simultaneously empowered to take “all necessary legal remedies” against any state or city that doesn’t cooperate​. It is a one-two punch: federalize policing with military muscle, and punish the dissenters.

Behind closed doors, officials also whisper about an even more extreme move: declaring the drug fentanyl a Weapon of Mass Destruction. The administration is reportedly drafting an executive order to label illicit fentanyl as a WMD – a designation typically reserved for nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons. This rumored “Fentanyl WMD” order, if signed, would place a public health scourge into the realm of warfare. Political observers note that such a step would grant the President sweeping emergency powers to combat the opioid crisis as if fighting al-Qaeda. Indeed, pressure has been mounting within Trump’s inner circle to take this “additional step.”. Security experts warn that treating fentanyl as a WMD could justify extraordinary measures at home and abroad. As Vanda Felbab-Brown of Brookings cautions, portraying fentanyl as a terrorist-level threat might “create [a] political if not legal atmosphere for U.S. military air strikes into Mexico.,” ostensibly to destroy drug labs. In Trump’s America, the war on drugs and the war on crime are merging into a single domestic war – one where the commander-in-chief wields the military as his police.

This approach echoes the playbook of authoritarian regimes, and even philosophical justifications from a darker era. “Authority, not truth, produces law,” wrote Nazi-era jurist Carl Schmitt, who argued that “Sovereign is he who decides on the exception,” and thus the state of emergency Trump’s directive—and the mooted WMD order—are manifestations of this Schmittian vision in real time. By invoking extraordinary threats (a “crime epidemic” or a “drug invasion”) to justify extraordinary powers, Trump is asserting that his authority defines the exception. America is now living in that exception. As one human rights watchdog observed two weeks ago, “President Donald Trump’s use of the military domestically is dangerous and deeply misguided.”​ With today’s order, the United States has taken a decisive step into uncharted territory: soldiers patrolling neighborhoods, generals consulted on local police beats, and the line between military and civilian governance growing ever thinner. The death of American democracy is being executed under the banner of security – rifle in one hand, gavel in the other.

America’s Slide from Democracy to Competitive Authoritarianism

This is not an isolated event. It is the latest waypoint on America’s slide into competitive authoritarianism – a regime type political scientists use to describe hybrid governments that are part democracy, part dictatorship. Under competitive authoritarian systems, elections still occur and institutions still exist, but incumbents weaponize state power to tilt the playing field decisively in their favor​. Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way, scholars of hybrid regimes, have bluntly stated that “America is heading toward competitive authoritarian rule, not [a] single-party dictatorship.”​ In such a system, the forms of democracy remain, but the substance is hollowed out by autocratic practices. Unfortunately, this description increasingly fits the United States in 2025.

Democratic backsliding in America has accelerated at a pace few imagined possible. In a competitive authoritarian regime, “a leader comes to power democratically and then erodes the system of checks and balances,” typically by filling the bureaucracy and courts with loyalists and attacking independent institutions​. Exactly this pattern has unfolded since Trump’s return to office in January. Consider the pillars of constitutional democracy that have been cracked in just 100 days:

• Judicial and Congressional Constraints: Trump routinely flouts court orders and pressures judges. He has openly called to “impeach [judges] who rule against him”​ and encouraged GOP allies in Congress to defund or investigate prosecutors handling his cases. The message is clear – the executive will not be checked. Even when federal courts pushed back on his more extreme measures (like his March use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to detain hundreds of immigrants abroad), the administration persisted with “willful disregard” for judicial orders​. Such defiance erodes the rule of law, a classic warning sign of backsliding.
• Eroding Institutional Neutrality: Key institutions that should be nonpartisan have been politicized or purged. Civil servants, inspectors general, and military officers deemed insufficiently loyal have been removed or sidelined. In fact, one of Trump’s first acts was to reinstate “Schedule F,” a policy enabling mass firings of federal employees in policy roles​. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint explicitly declared that “no one in a leadership position on the morning of January 20 [2025] should hold that position by day’s end.” Trump delivered: by the end of Inauguration Day, career officials were replaced with loyalists across departments. This purge of the civil service mirrored the tactics of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Poland’s Law and Justice party, which purged bureaucracies and judiciaries to entrench their rule​. The United States is now following a similar script, with Trump allies openly boasting that “this time, loyalty would be absolute.”​
• Weaponization of State Agencies: The Trump administration has systematically weaponized government agencies against political opponents, while shielding its allies – a textbook competitive authoritarian tactic​. The Justice Department, now led by Attorney General Bondi, has focused on investigating “anarchist” Democratic city leaders and launching spurious cases against opposition figures. At the same time, Trump has pardoned or clemenced his supporters en masse – 1,600 individuals tied to the January 6th insurrection were granted clemency in one sweeping gesture​. This dual use of state power – punish enemies, reward loyalists – “undermine[s] liberal democracy” by turning law enforcement into a partisan tool​. As Levitsky and Way note, politics under such conditions becomes “like a soccer match in which the referees, groundskeepers, and scorekeepers work for one team.” Trump’s team has effectively made this a reality, from DOJ lawyers to election officials installed at the state level.

The cumulative effect of these moves is profound. The guardrails of American democracy – an independent judiciary, a merit-based civil service, autonomous law enforcement – have been deliberately weakened or broken. We now see the contours of a competitive authoritarian state emerging: elections still happen, but the field is no longer free or fair​; opposition voices exist, but they are harassed by state power; laws exist, but the rule of law is subverted by the regime’s arbitrary whims. Democracy’s substance has been drained, leaving behind a shell. As one observer summarized, “In a competitive authoritarian system,…the executive fills the civil service and key appointments with loyalists [and] then attacks the media, universities, [and other pillars of civic life].”​ All of this is happening in the United States right now. America in 2025 is no longer a fully democratic regime by any meaningful measure – a reality even Trump’s own former officials and many scholars now openly acknowledge. We are living through a regime change.

Loyalty Purges, Annexation Talk, and Institutional Collapse in Trump’s Second Term

Trump’s second term has been a relentless campaign of institutional demolition and consolidation of power – a holistic picture of a collapsing republic. Beyond today’s executive militarization, numerous actions in the past three months underscore how American governance is being refashioned in the mold of autocracy:

• Purging Dissent and Demanding Loyalty: From Day 1, Trump undertook sweeping purges to ensure total personal loyalty in the government. He boasted that this time he “knew the people in Washington” and would not repeat the mistakes of hiring anyone who wasn’t “committed to the agenda last time.”​ Lists of those to be excluded were drawn up even before inauguration – anyone deemed disloyal or even insufficiently enthusiastic (never-Trump Republicans, officials from the prior administration, etc.) was banned from serving​. This “coalition of loyalists” now runs the executive branch​. Independent-minded officials have been fired or forced out en masse. Inspectors General who previously reported misconduct were sacked. At the Pentagon, “woke” generals were retired early and replaced with Trump-aligned officers, as he vowed during his campaign​. The result is a government largely stripped of internal checks: agencies from Justice to State to Defense are helmed by Trump devotees, willing to carry out legally dubious orders. Career professionals, once a bulwark against abuse, have been silenced or removed – an institutional collapse of civil service neutrality​.
• Politicization of Justice and Impunity for Allies: Trump has unabashedly turned the justice system into an instrument of his will. He famously declared “I am the nation’s chief law-enforcement officer”​ – a statement of presidential supremacy that sent chills through rule-of-law advocates. In practice, this philosophy means using federal law enforcement to target those he labels enemies and protect those he considers friends. We saw this in February when the DOJ, at Trump’s urging, opened a spurious corruption probe into a prominent Democratic mayor who had criticized him – an act of retribution that led senior Public Integrity prosecutors to resign in protest​. Conversely, Trump’s mass pardon of January 6 rioters (including individuals caught on film assaulting police) broadcast that loyalty to Trump grants immunity​. Such actions eviscerate the principle of equal justice under law. The pattern is clear: loyalty is rewarded above legality. This impunity extends even to talk of extrajudicial punishment – Trump has mused about revoking citizenship from political opponents or “disappearing” them to offshore prisons​. In March, his administration actually did something hauntingly close: citing wartime authority, it abducted 238 immigrant men in a gang crackdown and shipped them to a prison in El Salvador with no due process​. A federal judge likened the action to something even Nazis didn’t attempt on U.S. soil​. American institutions are being bent to serve one man’s vendettas and vanities, drawing stark comparisons to authoritarian regimes past and present.
• Undermining Alliances and Flirting with Annexation: Trump’s authoritarian vision doesn’t stop at America’s borders – it extends to a radical reshaping of the international order and even U.S. territory. He has openly undermined NATO and traditional alliances, aligning more with strongmen than democratic partners. In a shocking departure from 80 years of U.S. foreign policy, Trump has berated America’s democratic allies while “praising the leader of [an] invading country, Russia, as ‘very smart.’”​ This reversal sent NATO countries into a panic, “preparing for their own defense, without the protective umbrella of American power, for the first time since 1945.”​ European diplomats now quietly discuss contingency plans for a post-NATO Europe, unsure if the U.S. would honor Article 5 in a crisis. Meanwhile, Trump’s vision of American greatness has taken an expansionist turn. In an extraordinary intervention last month, he tried to insert himself into Canada’s federal election – urging Canadians to “become the 51st state of the US.”​ On the eve of Canada’s vote, Trump posted a message calling their national border an “artificially drawn line” and dangled promises of tax cuts and military might “if Canada becomes the cherished 51st state.”​ This was not a joke: the President of the United States essentially suggested annexing a neighboring democracy. The incident sparked outrage in Ottawa (Canada’s leaders told Trump to “stay out of our election”​), but in the U.S. it barely registered amid the daily chaos. The unthinkable is becoming normalized. Floated annexations, trade wars declared by emergency decree, NATO allies cast adrift – all of it contributes to a world order as unstable as American democracy itself. Trump’s America is increasingly a rogue among nations: unreliable to friends, unapologetic to foes, and unmoored from the rules that governed it for decades.
• Toward a Cult of Personality: Internally, the United States is seeing a tilt toward personalist rule. Institutions that once commanded respect in their own right – the FBI, CIA, military, courts – are being subsumed under the cult of Trump. Dissent within is stamped out; loyalty is enforced not just by firing, but by public shaming and threats. Republican legislators who challenge Trump’s agenda find themselves quickly punished. For example, when a GOP senator voiced hesitation about one of Trump’s extreme cabinet nominees, the Trump media machine (from Steve Bannon’s podcast to Breitbart News) launched a concerted attack on her reputation​. The senator promptly fell back in line. Through such tactics, Trump is hollowing out the legislative branch’s independence as well – lawmakers now toe the line or face the wrath of Trump’s base and propaganda outlets. The message is unmistakable: there is no room for dissent in the ruling party. Combined with the purges of the bureaucracy and litmus tests for military promotions, America is experiencing a de facto merger of party, state, and security forces under one leader’s banner. The last vestiges of Madisonian checks and balances are crumbling. In their place rises a system of governance by personal decree and patronage, characteristic of competitive authoritarian and outright autocratic regimes.

In sum, the institutional collapse is comprehensive. What we are witnessing is not politics as usual, nor even a series of aggressive policies. It is the systematic unraveling of a constitutional order. Each purge, each norm broken, each power unchecked is a nail in the coffin of the republic. President Trump has leveraged his second term to eliminate or neuter any center of power that could challenge him – from the bureaucracy to the judiciary to allies abroad. The result is an American government increasingly resembling the autocracies the United States once opposed. The “death of American democracy” is not hyperbole; it is an observable process, accelerating day by day.

Conclusion: Recognizing the Regime Change

The events of April 28, 2025, and the broader pattern of this year, compel one conclusion: the United States is undergoing a regime change from within. The liberal democracy that stood for nearly 250 years is effectively no more – it has been replaced by a nascent authoritarian system wearing democratic trappings. Scholars, journalists, and civic leaders are raising the alarm with unprecedented candor. Steven Levitsky, a leading expert on democratic erosion, stated plainly last week that “we are no longer living in a democratic regime.”​ The facade of elections and courts remains, but the essence of democracy – free competition for power, rule of law, accountability – has died.

It is crucial to recognize this reality. Competitive authoritarianism, as experts note, creeps in through a series of small abuses that cumulate into a different form of government​. Many Americans, understandably, have been reluctant to use the word “authoritarian” for their own country. But the dispatches from the past 100 days leave little doubt. The President’s latest moves – using the military at home, skirting Congress via emergency decrees, preparing to label fentanyl a WMD – are not isolated excesses but part of a coherent pattern of authoritarian consolidation. The death of American democracy is unfolding in plain sight, and each new executive order is another lowering of the flag.

Recognizing regime change is the first step toward confronting it. The United States now meets many criteria of an autocratic state, and pretending otherwise only aids the authoritarian project by delaying a necessary response. This crisis is urgent. Democratic backsliding has given way to outright breakdown. The “Land of the Free” is being refashioned into something unrecognizable: a land of loyalists, strongmen, and state-sanctioned force. Today’s executive militarization directive is a warning siren that cannot be ignored. America is not sliding toward competitive authoritarianism – it has arrived.​ The task before those who care about the Republic is monumental: to resist and reverse this authoritarian entrenchment, or risk finalizing the obituary of the American democratic experiment.

The hour is late, but not beyond hope. The world has seen nascent autocracies reversed by popular mobilization and institutional bravery. It will take extraordinary civic engagement, unified opposition across the political spectrum, and an unwavering commitment to democratic principles to salvage what remains of American democracy. But none of that is possible without first acknowledging the stark truth of the moment. The death of American democracy is underway – and only by recognizing that fact can Americans muster the will to revive it. The United States has experienced a regime change from within. History will judge how the country responds. The choices made in the coming days, weeks and months will determine whether this dark chapter solidifies into permanent tyranny or becomes the moment the American people, at last, opened their eyes and demanded their democracy back.