The first Trump administration ended with a brazen assault on our democratic electoral system which culminated with the unthinkable: a violent attack on the US Capital intended to overturn a free and fair presidential election. The culpability for this attack, as the bipartisan House select committee found, lay solely on Donald Trump and his supporters. In spite of this and Trump’s subsequent felony conviction the American people again voted to entrust him with the most powerful office in the world. 

Now, unrestrained by law or conscience, the Trump administration has broken with all precedent and repeatedly and flagrantly violated our democratic laws, traditions and norms. It has illegally, unconstitutionally and arbitrarily fired thousands of government employees and frozen trillions of dollars in federal spending while the Republican-controlled Congress negligibly ceded its Constitutionally mandated authorities by doing nothing. It is politicizing and weaponizing vast tracts of the federal government in the pursuit of retribution against perceived political enemies. It has defied federal court rulings, raising the specter of a constitutional crisis. It granted clemency to over 1,500 convicted criminals, many of them right wing militia members, who violently attacked the US Capital on 6 January 2021. It continues to illegally and unconstitutionally deport US persons, some legal citizens, without legal due process granted to all Americans, citizen or non. Abroad, it has shamefully threatened the national sovereignty of our democratic neighbors, upended our transatlantic ties and collective security partnerships, and threatened to abandon democratic Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. In sum, Trump, the larger MAGA movement and its supporters in Congress and elsewhere is responsible in the following extremist actions which we hold to be inimical to our democratic way of life:

• Using the power of the presidency to undermine public confidence in the integrity of the US election system, most specifically by voicing inaccurate claims that the US electoral system is not free and fair.

• Mounting a violent attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 in an attempted coup against a free and fair election. 

• Using the false pretext of a national security emergency to enact emergency powers to subvert the constitution balance of power

• Undermining the rule of law in the United States through illegal and unconstitutional executive orders that undermine the separation of powers

• Attacking and threatening to fire federal judges

• Assaulting civil society by threatening the free press, academia and businesses that do not conform with the administrations agenda.

These are not debatable policy points but a massive abuse of power totally unprecedented in American history. They are clear evidence of the rapid erosion of democracy in America. The sheer volume and brazen nature by which the administration has carried out these violations indicates that it now believes that it is beyond reproach, above the law and unbound by the checks and balances enshrined by the Constitution. This behavior bears all the hallmarks of despotism. As such we deem this administration and the larger MAGA movement a clear and present threat to our democracy.