Trump Has Failed Where Many Authoritarians Succeed in One Critical Way

Trump has spent two years working through the authoritarian playbook—and Donald Moynihan, professor of political science and public policy at the University of Michigan, joins the show to score how far he’s gotten. We go category by category: controlling the bureaucracy (a nine out of ten), capturing the legal system, co-opting the military, cracking down through internal security agencies like ICE, and coercing civil society—law firms, universities, and the media. Then we get to the one place where Trump has fallen significantly short of what authoritarians typically accomplish—controlling elections. We discuss why that makes the 2026 midterms so consequential, and why Moynihan, a tenured academic who studies public administration, feels an obligation to speak out even as universities come under attack. Right Now with Perry Bacon: a twice-weekly show diving into U.S. politics, democracy, and the authoritarian threats facing America. Each episode, Perry strives to go beyond daily headlines and actually connect the dots to what’s happening in America. ➡️ View the Right Now vault on TNR’s website: https://newrepublic.com/video/right-n... ➡️ Follow The New Republic on Substack to watch Right Now LIVE: https://newrepublic.substack.com/s/ri...