Both the United States under President Trump and Brazil under Jair Bolsonaro experienced a period of anti-democratic rhetoric. That led to the decline of significant indicators of stable democratic regimes. Among these indicators are election intimidation, attacks on the judiciary, and the restriction of academic freedoms.

Election Interference

To start off, both countries had a significant increase of governmental intimidation during elections, as evidenced in the Varieties of Democracy index. During the lead up to the 2020 U.S elections there was some increase in election intimidation under President Trumps administration. Including an attempt by Trumps supports to storm the capital in aims to get electors to change their votes and overturn the results of the 2020 election. This is also evidenced by the reduction in the V-Dem score for governmental intimidation during elections. The United States saw a drop of almost a whole point on a 4-point scale. This was a historic and unprecedented drop in the history of tracking this metric on V-Dem. We also see a similar shift in Brazil under Bolsonaro. In which Brazil saw a drop of almost 1.5 points on the scale indicating an increase of governmental intimidation. Bolsonaro similar to trump also took extreme measures to secure election including using the federal police to stop busses used to get citizens to polling stations. This kind of voter intimidation is severely detrimental for a democracy. Where it can lead to reducing trust in the democratic process thus weaking vertical accountability. Making way for authoritarian figures like Bolsonaro and Trump to consolidate power, off the back of eroding democratic systems.

Attacks on the Judiciary

Additionally, another more severe example of Trump and Bolsonaro attacking democratic institutions is the attack in the judicial branch that both seem to love so very much. The judicial branch serves as on of the core protections from an executive exceeding their authority. It is extremely evident that President Trump has no regard for the judicial branch beyond putting his supporters on the bench. His administration is no stranger to defying court orders. And even President Trump himself has made his distaste for the judicial branch know on numerous occasions through posts on social media. This is also shown in the V-dem score of governmental attacks on the judiciary, where the United States experienced a hundred year low under President Trump during the 2020 elections. This blatant disregard for the Judicial Branch is also evident in Brazil under Bolsonaro. Where they had an even further dip in their V-dem score almost reaching a zero on the scale meaning attack on the judicial branch were happening almost every day. However, I think that Bolsonaro had even more of a hatred for the Judicial branch than Trump does. Given that he was willing to stage a coup to dismantle the judicial branch during the aftermath of his loss in the 2022 elections. Clearly there is a pattern of wannabe authoritarians making the judicial branch one of their primary targets on their list of how to take over a country’s democracy.

Overall, both Bolsonaro and Trump have used many of the same tactics from the authoritarian playbook. And were both successful in eroding major democratic institutions like faith in elections and the judicial branch. Both of which can destabilize democracies and lead to these authoritarian figures gaining even more power. However, all is not lost for democracy. Even though many of the same tactics were used in Brazil they managed to get Bolsonaro out of office and ban him from elections for the next decade. Also since his departure the V-dem scores mentioned above have gone back up to better levels. Both Brazil and the United States have rigorous democratic institutions that I believe can withstand the onslaught that Trump has sent their way. Just like Brazil kicked Bolsonaro out through an election so too can the US during the 2028 elections.