Recently, The White House Terminated multiple U.S. attorneys within the Justice Department, which in itself can be seen as executive aggrandizement considering The White House is typically not involved in the terminations, as they usually come from the Department of Justice itself. While The White House did not respond, it’s clear that at least two court-appointed U.S. attorneys were sent a letter stating, “At the direction of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you of your position as U.S. Attorney is terminated, effective immediately.” It is important to keep in mind that the two known attorneys were previously appointed by Joe Biden, and one was a federal prosecutor who had previously worked on January 6 cases surrounding the riot at The Capital. At the end of the day, democracy is centered around the peoples trust in political institutions, therefore since Trump is an example of a political leader that can act autonomously and can make decisions at their own personal digression, it is hard for people to put Trump in his irrational decisions that do not follow the typical protocol or act only in his favor. Trump exemplified this behavior when he issued a mass pardon for January 6th rioters, proceeded to name and advocate for said Capital rioters as interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, and fired federal prosecutors who had originally been hired to work on Capital cases. His illogical decisions fueled by his own disposition leave political culture threatened, as he continues to build his calvary of those who will make decisions in his favor and slowly undermine democracy. Donald Trump had no right terminating those U.S. Attorneys, but even more so, he exhibited forbearance by issuing a pardon for a group of individuals who clearly committed a crime. It is interesting because if a situation like the Capital Riots took place as a form of rebellion against Donald Trump, he would most definitely not have the same reaction or perform the same courtesies that exhibit forbearance and bend the rules in such a way that rewards fugitives. When thinking about what strengthens democracy, a facet of that is leaders being able to take action against threats from extremist parties. Trump’s pardons and irrational termination of DOJ members does the exact opposite, his tactical judgement ends up getting clouded by his personal views and beliefs. An even smaller example of this is how he recently changed “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America.” As Donald Trump continues to make decisions that polarize the country, democratic norms become threatened and a lack of trust is displayed between the citizens of the US and the political institutions that are supposed to be used to both govern them, and support them. The idea of democratic erosion itself is that democracy is being undermined overtime, sometimes at a slow rate to the point that it can be hard to know when the boundary between democracy and non-democracy has been crossed. Therefore, these little decisions that are made by the Executive brand and President, all add up, and all matter.