US democracy indicators hit 50-year low under Trump: Report

Democratic standards in the United States have deteriorated to their lowest point in half a century, with the Trump administration’s “threats and actions” increasingly eroding the rule of law both domestically and internationally, a new report has found.

The United States has been classified as a “backsliding” democracy since 2021, according to the annual Global State of Democracy report by the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), The Guardian reported on Tuesday. The report said a “visible deterioration” in the country’s democratic standards began in 2019.

The report added that President Donald Trump had quickly amassed power in the executive branch and wielded it to further a narrow set of personal goals and pursue retaliation against perceived enemies.

“The results,” it said, “have been far-reaching, undermining the rule of law domestically and internationally and testing longstanding alliances and multilateral cooperation.”

The report, which covers 174 countries and tracks democratic performance since 1975, said the decline in the United States was particularly pronounced but formed part of a broader global deterioration in democratic governance.

It identified judicial independence, credible elections, freedom of expression, press freedom and access to justice among the democratic indicators that have reached their lowest global levels in at least three decades.

According to International IDEA, 2025 marked the 11th consecutive year in which more countries experienced democratic declines than improvements, the longest continuous downturn since the organization began keeping records.

“In 2025, the global challenges to democracy and the difficulty in stemming its erosion were both exemplified and compounded by political developments in the United States,” the report’s authors said.

Democrats poised for house win, setting stage for third Trump impeachment

In the United States, increasing opposition to the ruling Republican Party is likely to translate into a midterm election win for the Democrats in the House of Representatives.

International IDEA Secretary General Kevin Casas-Zamora also warned that the deterioration of democracy was increasing the risk of conflict.

The report identified the rule of law as the weakest area of democracy worldwide in 2025, with 71 countries, or 41 percent of those assessed, rated as low-performing. It also found a rapid deterioration in the rule of law, with 29 countries recording declines.

The findings came as a separate New York Times/Siena poll showed growing voter dissatisfaction with Trump ahead of the November midterm elections.

The poll found that likely voters favored Democratic congressional candidates by nearly nine percentage points, while Trump’s approval rating stood at 38 percent.

The survey also showed that 71 percent of voters disapproved of Trump’s handling of the cost of living. Among independent voters, 57 percent said they planned to vote for a Democratic congressional candidate, compared with 34 percent for a Republican.

The poll also found that about one in 10 voters, including Democrats, Republicans and independents, said they disagreed with both parties on economic issues, with Democrats appearing to win over some of these voters ahead of the midterms.

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