Are Trump’s most blatant authoritarian moves backfiring? | Jan-Werner Müller

The president’s methods, from ‘flooding the zone’ with scandals to prioritizing loyalty over competence, could ultimately weaken rather than strengthen himThe pattern is by now all too familiar: with every power grab Trump tries – from a fraudulent speech about voter fraud to appeals to his supreme court to let him rig the midterms – a debate kicks off about whether these moves are signs of strength or of desperation. Maybe we keep getting caught in this debate because the question is badly posed. So much of what is distinctive about Trump’s governance during his second term can serve the consolidation of an autocratic regime and at the same time create particular vulnerabilities for the regime. We have to become better at identifying these weaknesses, as opposed to being shell-shocked by