{"id":41209,"date":"2025-05-11T20:12:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T03:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=41209"},"modified":"2025-05-11T20:12:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T03:12:20","slug":"is-trumps-america-still-a-democracy-ruth-ben-ghiat-autocracy-scholar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/05\/11\/is-trumps-america-still-a-democracy-ruth-ben-ghiat-autocracy-scholar\/","title":{"rendered":"IS TRUMP\u2019S AMERICA STILL A DEMOCRACY? | RUTH BEN-GHIAT, AUTOCRACY SCHOLAR"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Is Trump\u2019s America still a democracy? | Ruth Ben-Ghiat, autocracy scholar, on the Prospect Podcast\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xUMATTj3Ai0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Prospect Ma \u2022 May 1, 2025 \u2022 The Prospect Podcast Has the United States become an autocracy? As Donald Trump marks his 100th day in office, Ellen Halliday and Alona Ferber are joined by Ruth Ben-Ghiat, scholar of authoritarianism and author of \u2018Strongmen: from Mussolini to the present\u2019 (2020). Ruth analyses the Trump administration\u2019s rapid shift towards authoritarianism. She talks about Trump\u2019s personality cult, how strongmen portray machismo and the potential for a female strongman figure. She also discusses how autocrats use corruption, violence and propaganda to stay in power, and how ICE roundups echo the past, resembling a \u201csecret police force\u201d. Ruth answers: can the Democrats can learn anything from Trump? What\u2019s the best way to challenge an illiberal president? And how does this end?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prospect Ma \u2022 May 1, 2025 \u2022 The Prospect Podcast Has the United States become an autocracy? As Donald Trump marks his 100th day in office, Ellen Halliday and Alona Ferber are joined by Ruth Ben-Ghiat, scholar of authoritarianism and author of \u2018Strongmen: from Mussolini to the present\u2019 (2020). Ruth&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/05\/11\/is-trumps-america-still-a-democracy-ruth-ben-ghiat-autocracy-scholar\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41209"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41211,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41209\/revisions\/41211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}