WASHINGTON, DC – Five years after January 6, 2021, the threat to American democracy hasn’t faded – it has evolved and grown stronger. Political violence has surged, senior elected officials now openly minimize – or actively encourage – violence against their opponents, public trust in democratic institutions has plummeted to historic lows, and international watchdogs have downgraded the United States from a full democracy to an “electoral autocracy.”
This fact sheet documents three interconnected crises: the sharp rise in political violence and violent rhetoric; the collapse of public confidence in elections and governing institutions; and democratic backsliding confirmed by leading international democracy rankings.
Trump’s Normalization and Escalation of Political Violence
The January 6th attack sparked an unprecedented wave of political violence – the worst surge since the 1970s.
Political Violence Has Reached Crisis Levels
A Reuters analysis identified at least 300 cases of political violence across the U.S. between the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol and the 2024 presidential election, marking “the most significant and sustained surge in such violence since the 1970s.” These represent a systematic pattern of violence targeting public officials, election workers, and democratic institutions.
Violent Rhetoric Has Escalated from Mockery to Calls for Execution
Rather than condemning political violence, prominent political leaders have steadily normalized and escalated violent rhetoric. In 2023, Donald Trump mocked Paul Pelosi after a hammer-wielding assailant fractured his skull, promoting far-right conspiracies about the assault. By 2025, Senator Mike Lee spread conspiracy theories falsely claiming the murderer of Minnesota State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband was a “Marxist” and evenjoked about the killings before deleting his posts following widespread condemnation. Most alarmingly, Trump expressed support for executing Democratic lawmakers who urged military members to refuse illegal orders – a stark escalation from mocking victims to openly advocating for their deaths.
Americans Are Losing Faith in Their Own Democracy
Americans are experiencing a crisis of confidence in their democracy. Public trust in democratic institutions has collapsed, creating a vicious cycle where declining faith weakens the very institutions that sustain democracy.
Trust in Government Has Collapsed
The scale of this collapse is staggering. Gallup polls confirm that Americans’ trust in federal government institutions “remains mired near five-decade lows,” ranging from just 32% for the legislative branch to 49% for the judicial branch. Two decades ago, all five measures of institutional trust stood above 50%. Today, not a single branch commands majority trust from the American people.
Faith in Elections Now Depends on Who Wins
When citizens only trust election results that favor their preferred candidate, the foundation of democratic legitimacy crumbles. Surveys by the University of California San Diego’s Yankelovich Center show trust in elections has become completely untethered from election integrity, tracking solely with partisan outcomes. After the 2020 election and unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud, Republicans became significantly less confident that results accurately reflected the vote, while Democrats grew more confident. After Trump’s 2024 victory, the pattern flipped: Republican confidence soared while Democratic trust declined.
Experts Confirm: American Democracy Is Backsliding
As Americans’ faith erodes, international experts are confirming their fears—what was once a domestic perception is now a globally recognized crisis.
America Is Now an “Electoral Autocracy”
The V-Dem Institute, a leading Swedish democracy research organization tracking nearly 200 countries, made an unprecedented assessment. In September 2025, V-Dem Director Staffan I. Lindberg declared: “The United States, by my analysis, at this point is no longer a democracy” and is instead an “electoral autocracy.” The V-Dem Institute’s Democracy Report 2024 had already reclassified the United States as a “backsliding democracy,” documenting significant declines in freedom of expression and judicial independence.
A Consensus of Decline Across Independent Monitors
The Economist Intelligence Unit downgraded the United States from a “full democracy” to a “flawed democracy” in 2016 and has lowered the U.S. democracy rating every year since, citing declining trust in government institutions and intensifying political polarization.Similarly, Freedom House’s 2025 report found that democratic institutions in the United States have “suffered erosion” due to “rising political polarization and extremism, partisan pressure on the electoral process, and growing disparities in wealth and political influence.” The organization has downgraded the United States’ democracy score for five consecutive years.