After one year of Trump’s second term, columnist warns of shift toward electoral authoritarianism

A year into Donald Trump’s second term, M. Gessen writes that the United States has changed dramatically, citing developments from a new legal filing over a large immigrant detention facility in Florida to broader signs of authoritarianism across the country. The columnist contrasts steady European attention to U.S.

developments with a domestic normalization of those changes, saying Americans have become used to mass detentions and paramilitary operations that “disappear” people. M. Gessen recounts videos of ICE arrests that once went viral and says even high-profile detentions have faded from view.

The killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent on Jan. 7 is cited as an instance the author says federal officials defended as self‑defense while pointing to her alleged affiliations. M. Gessen describes widespread federal deployments to cities including Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, Memphis and New Orleans, and says the number of armed federal agents in Minneapolis may now be “five times the size of the city’s police force.” The piece also details attacks on universities, curbs on media independence, and a series of executive actions and lawsuits that the author says aim to restrict voting access — noting measures in Florida, Ohio, Georgia and a Texas congressional map the Supreme Court has allowed for use in the 2026 midterms.

Key Topics

Politics, Donald Trump, Alligator Alcatraz, Minneapolis, Ice, Renee Good