Tunde Chris Odediran
America stands at a crossroads.
The nation that has long prided itself as a beacon of democracy now faces an unprecedented challenge to its fundamental character, under its 47th President, Donald Trump, who is determined to refashion the US constitution as if it is one of his Trump towers.
Feelings and expectations around the globe have transitioned from apprehension to a critical reassessment of what America will become, as it metamorphoses from a modern democracy to a fusion of autocracy and oligarchy.
Americans and America’s allies are waking up to a new reality that nothing is beyond the reach of President Trump to tinker with or destroy.
His reoccupation of the White House has ushered in a rapid transformation of American governance that bears striking resemblance to Vladimir Putin’s Russia – where democratic institutions exist in name while power concentrates among a loyal elite.
America is now in the hands of billionaires, who have a disdain for the rule of law as they impose executive decisions that trample on the separation of powers, weaken traditional institutions and exercise oligarchic control over the economy, political life and culture.
Trump’s inauguration was sponsored by an array of the richest men in the world, including the richest human, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and Space X, as well as the CEOs of the most valuable companies such as Oracle, Facebook, Apple and Google.
The corporate giants communicated, by standing with Trump, the class of society that the new government would serve – the affluent.
The inauguration of Donald Trump delivers a statement of an emerging oligarchy power structure.
Oligarchy is a form of government where control is concentrated in the hands of a small, privileged group of people, typically distinguished by wealth, family ties or corporate control.
Growing executive power
The transformation of America’s democratic landscape began almost immediately after Trump’s inauguration in January.
His administration quickly released executive orders reversing many laws and displaying faithfulness to significant portions of the ideas of an extreme right-wing group, Project 2025.
Project 2025’s blueprint, which Trump had denied being involved with during the campaign, is being implemented at full throttle to demolish the so-called “deep state” through systematic restructuring of key government agencies.
The newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which some courts have found to be unlawful, is moving at remarkable speed under two billionaires – Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy – to dismantle established institutions with unprecedented authority.
It’s disruptive and vast structural changes are being carried out with minimal congressional oversight.
“What we’re witnessing is the deliberate weakening of institutions designed to check executive power,” explains Eleanor Matthews, a professor of constitutional law at Georgetown University. “These changes aren’t random – they follow a pattern seen in other democracies that have slid toward authoritarian rule.”
The nation is now under a constitutional crisis watch, after Trump invoked the Insurrection Act to deploy military forces for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
The move bypassed traditional limitations on using military for domestic law enforcement, creating a dangerous precedent.
Trump has threatened a federal judge who demanded details of a deportation of Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador, causing Chief Justice John Roberts to issue an extremely rare warning for Trump to desist.
Feelings of betrayal
Many of Trump’s voters are feeling betrayed.
Most of the demographics that Trump is deporting comprise those who showed him love during the election.
No fewer than 54% of Latino-Hispanic men and 39% women who voted for Trump are quickly realising they have committed a grave error.
The red states, packed with Trump loyalists, are not spared by the onslaught.
Jobs and benefits from government are being lost as Elon Musk’s DOGE swings the chainsaw indiscriminately against social benefits and business that thrive on exports.
China, EU and Canada are adding to the squeeze on Trump voters, responding to Trump’s tariffs by targeting his voters in reciprocal tariffs.
Veterans and MAGA enthusiasts are losing government benefits, causing Steve Bannon, a right-wing ideologue, to issue a warning that Trump loyalists are beginning to hurt from Trump’s policies.
But Trump is not targeting his followers, he is just being faithful to his rich friends.
Day after day, America is smelling more like Russia.
Checks and balances
The Congress, which should have been able to withstand executive overreach has yielded its power to Trump, under the threat that any legislator who dared raise their voice will be weeded out through presidential power of Trump or the economic power of Musk at the next election.
The Democratic Party, which could have stood as the bulwark, is in a most weakened state, not just as a minority but also because the party has been wandering in the wilderness after the loss of the election.
With the legislature unable to provide the necessary checks and balances, there is only one more place to look – the judiciary.
But the judiciary, once a power against executive overreach, has increasingly shown deference to presidential power.
The Supreme Court’s June 2024 decision in Trump v. United States established broad immunity for presidential actions, with Justice Clarence Thomas writing that “the President must be free from constant judicial interference.”
US Attorney-General, Pam Bondi, formerly a Trump defense lawyer, has overseen a restructuring of the Department of Justice, replacing career prosecutors with individuals who have publicly aligned themselves with the administration’s agenda.
Many career prosecutors are walking away in refusal of executing tasks that breach the law.
The FBI has become a political wing of the Republican Party, headed by loyalist podcasters – Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, who are purging career professionals in a bid to establish a federal investigative agency that serves Trump.
Sounds very much like Putin’s Russia.
The Pentagon and other departments of government have seen a wave of purges, and merit is giving way to loyalty under the guise of ending Diversity, Equality and Inclusion initiatives.
International Realignment
America continues on a dangerous descent even in international relations.
Its realignment has been swift and consequential.
The administration’s threats to withdraw from NATO, coupled with its embrace of strongman leaders like Viktor Orbán, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong-un, signal a preference for authoritarian regimes.
The United States has withdrawn from multiple human rights commitments, including the UN Human Rights Council and World Health Organisation, while reducing support for pro-democracy movements worldwide.
This retreat from America’s traditional role as a defender of democratic values creates a vacuum that authoritarian powers are eager to fill.
Trump has caved in to Putin on the Russian war on Ukraine, accepting all Russian demands even before meeting with Ukraine.
By the time the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was able to get an audience with Trump, the damage was already done.
The closest friend of the United States is Canada.
These two nations are so intertwined in their relationship that all major professional sports leagues cover both countries.
While not even the English Premier League covers Scotland, the American soccer, baseball, hockey, basketball and lacrosse leagues unify US and Canada.
That relationship is being ripped apart by Trump, who has started a trade war and demanded an occupation of Canada as the 51st state of the US.
How he will do it, nobody knows; but Canadians are not taking it as a joke, knowing what Putin, a friend of Trump, is trying to accomplish in Ukraine.
Panama and Greenland are equally worried, as they have become a target of Trump’s expansionist vision for a return to the old world order where powerful nations eat the weaker ones for a meal.
Danger of oligarchy
Economically, the administration has accelerated wealth concentration reminiscent of post-Soviet Russia’s oligarchic structure.
Analysts believe Trump is gutting federal institutions and programmes such as USAID, Veteran Affairs, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security Administration and the Department of Education in order to give more money to his billionaire friends through tax.
Meanwhile, the gutting of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Security and Exchange Commission’s enforcement division has removed critical protections for average citizens.
Last week, one of America’s largest and most respected law firms, Paul Weiss, caved in after being targeted by an executive order.
Before targeting Paul Weiss, the Trump administration had imposed penalties on two other firms, Covington & Burling and Perkins Coie, a case that is now in court.
“We’re witnessing the capture of American democracy by a small economic elite in real-time,” notes economist Joseph Stiglitz. “The parallels to Russia’s transition to oligarchy in the 1990s are impossible to ignore.”
The revolving door between corporate America and government positions has never spun faster.
The second Trump administration is filled with wealthy Americans and Elon Musk is their poster boy.
War against the media
The administration’s approach to information and media bears hallmarks of authoritarian regimes.
Beyond merely labeling critical reporting as “fake news,” Trump has directed the FCC to review broadcasting licenses of networks producing what he terms “unpatriotic content.”
The Associated Press was suspended from the White House simply for refusing to recognise Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America!
Government-funded media institutions have found themselves in Trump’s crosshairs.
Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe have been shuttered.
The respected Colombia Journalism Review wrote: “For the first time since its creation, in 1942, to combat Nazi propaganda, VOA went silent.”
The White House has been tinkering with media protocols to favour friendly media.
With social media gaining more power and leverage than ever, the cozy relationship with the owners of Facebook, Twitter and TikTok is regarded as a threat to the traditional role of the media.
First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams warned, “When government becomes the arbiter of truth, we’ve crossed a dangerous line into territory incompatible with democratic values.”
Democratic norms in a free fall
Perhaps most concerning is the erosion of democratic norms that, while not enshrined in law, have sustained American democracy for centuries.
There are currently about 80 agencies across the US federal government designed by Congress to be independent of the executive, including at least two agencies related to elections.
Trump’s executive order requires these agencies to run new policies, rulings and regulations by the president.
One of those agencies is the Federal Election Commission, which is in charge of enforcing the country’s campaign finance laws.
“The FEC, unlike basically every other federal agency, has a role in enforcing the law against the president as a candidate and as a holder of federal office,” said Adav Noti, a former FEC official who’s now executive director at the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center. “And so, for President Trump to purport to bring the FEC under his direct control seems contrary.”
The move by Trump should not be surprising.
Russell Vought, the current director of the United States Office of Management and Budget, who is one of the founders of Project 2025, said in 2023 that civil servants should serve the president’s political agenda.
In effect, America no longer has any guarantee that under the Trump administration that elections will be free and fair.
The labeling of political opponents as “enemies of the state” has moved beyond rhetoric to action.
Planned investigations targeting former administration critics serve as warnings against opposition.
As I was writing this story, news broke that security briefs which former top government officials receive will no longer be provided to perceived enemies of Trump.
Those whose security clearances were revoked include his election rivals, Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton, as well as a number of other former officials and critics such as Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.
“Democracies don’t typically die through military coups anymore,” explains political scientist, James Wilson. “They die through the slow erosion of norms and institutions, often with a veneer of legality that masks authoritarian consolidation.”
America is being destroyed by its own elected leaders and the people feel helpless in the run towards becoming a “Putinized” society.
The Path Forward
The parallels between America’s current trajectory and Putin’s Russia represent not just a political transformation but an existential threat to American democracy itself. As constitutional scholar Kim Lane Scheppele observed, “What we’re witnessing isn’t just a policy shift but a fundamental restructuring of American governance toward the Russian model – a façade of democratic institutions concealing rule by a powerful few.”
Yet, America’s democratic traditions have not fully bent.
Not yet.
Journalists continue investigating despite intimidation. Judges increasingly rule against executive overreach. Civil society organizations keep advocating for accountability. Citizens organize and protest all over America.
The question facing Americans now is whether these democratic antibodies are strong enough to withstand the systematic assault on constitutional governance.
The answer will determine whether the American experiment endures or joins the growing list of democratic backsliders.
For those committed to constitutional principles and the rule of law, the path forward requires vigilance, courage, and an unwavering commitment to democratic values – even when those in power abandon them. The slide toward what I call Putiny -because of similarities to Putin’s Russian agenda – may, in the end, not define this generation.
Putiny may face the penalty of a mutiny, if Americans don’t give up and ensure that the long arc of American democracy bends towards their constitution.
