En la Feria Internacional de Alta Tecnología (Shenzhen-China)

En la Feria Internacional de Alta Tecnología (Shenzhen-China)

sábado, 29 de marzo de 2025

 

¿Cuánto más tonto será esto?

“Si se gobierna como una república bananera, con corrupción flagrante y un líder que se pone por encima de la ley, perdemos las cualidades que han hecho a Estados Unidos excepcional e indispensable”, afirma en una columna en The New York Times la ex canciller y ex senadora demócrata.


Hillary Clinton con Bill Clinton y George Bush REUTERS I
magen: 1/3


No es la hipocresía lo que me molesta, sino la estupidez. Todos estamos impactados —¡impactados!— de que al presidente Trump y a su equipo no les importe proteger la información clasificada ni las leyes federales de retención de registros. Pero eso ya lo sabíamos. Lo que es mucho peor es que altos funcionarios de la administración Trump pusieron en peligro a nuestras tropas al compartir planes militares en una aplicación de mensajería comercial e invitar sin querer a un periodista al chat. Eso es peligroso. Y es simplemente absurdo.

Esta es la última de una serie de heridas autoinfligidas por la nueva administración, que están desperdiciando la fuerza de Estados Unidos y amenazando nuestra seguridad nacional. Despedir a cientos de empleados federales encargados de proteger las armas nucleares de nuestra nación también es absurdo. También lo es suspender los esfuerzos para combatir las pandemias justo cuando un brote mortal de ébola se extiende por África. No tiene sentido purgar a generales, diplomáticos y espías talentosos en un momento en que rivales como China y Rusia intentan expandir su alcance global.

En un mundo peligroso y complejo, no basta con ser fuerte. También hay que ser inteligente. Como secretaria de Estado durante la administración Obama, abogué por un poder inteligente, integrando el poder duro de nuestras fuerzas armadas con el poder blando de nuestra diplomacia, la ayuda al desarrollo, el poder económico y la influencia cultural. Ninguna de estas herramientas puede lograrlo por sí sola. Juntas, convierten a Estados Unidos en una superpotencia. El enfoque de Trump es un poder tonto. En lugar de un Estados Unidos fuerte que utilice todas sus fuerzas para liderar el mundo y enfrentarse a nuestros adversarios, el Estados Unidos del Sr. Trump será cada vez más ciego y torpe, débil y sin amigos.

El Enola Gay, borrado

Empecemos por el ejército, porque eso es lo que dice importarle. No se dejen engañar por su fanfarronería. El Sr. Trump y el secretario de Defensa, Pete Hegseth (famoso por su chat grupal), aparentemente están más centrados en peleas performativas sobre la concienciación que en prepararse para batallas reales con los adversarios de Estados Unidos. ¿De verdad alguien cree que borrar los homenajes a los aviadores de Tuskegee nos hace más seguros? El Pentágono de Trump borró las imágenes del avión que lanzó la bomba atómica que puso fin a la Segunda Guerra Mundial porque se llama Enola Gay. ¡Qué tontería!

En lugar de colaborar con el Congreso para modernizar el presupuesto militar y reflejar las amenazas cambiantes, el presidente está despidiendo a generales de alto rango sin una justificación creíble. Cinco exsecretarios de defensa, republicanos y demócratas, advirtieron con razón que esto "socavaría nuestra fuerza de voluntarios y debilitaría nuestra seguridad nacional". Los despidos masivos también están afectando a las agencias de inteligencia. Como lo expresó un exespía de alto rango: "Nos estamos disparando en la cabeza, no en el pie". Qué mala idea.

Donadl Trump sale del Salon Oval EFE Imagen: 2/3


Si son tan imprudentes con el poder duro de Estados Unidos, no es de extrañar que estén destrozando nuestro poder blando. Como exsecretaria de Estado, me alarma especialmente el plan del gobierno de cerrar embajadas y consulados, despedir diplomáticos y destruir la Agencia de Estados Unidos para el Desarrollo Internacional. Permítanme explicar por qué esto es importante, porque es menos comprendido que la importancia de los tanques y los aviones de combate. 

Visité 112 países y recorrí casi un millón de kilómetros como principal diplomático de Estados Unidos, y he visto lo valioso que es para nuestro país tener representación en el terreno en lugares remotos. Las fuerzas armadas estadounidenses han comprendido desde hace tiempo que nuestras fuerzas deben estar desplegadas en la vanguardia para proyectar el poder estadounidense y responder con rapidez a las crisis. Lo mismo ocurre con nuestros diplomáticos.

Nuestras embajadas son nuestros ojos y oídos, informando sobre las decisiones políticas en nuestro país. Son plataformas de lanzamiento para operaciones que nos mantienen seguros y prósperos, desde el entrenamiento de fuerzas antiterroristas extranjeras hasta la ayuda a empresas estadounidenses para entrar en nuevos mercados.

China comprende el valor de la diplomacia desplegada en la vanguardia, por lo que ha abierto nuevas embajadas y consulados en todo el mundo y ahora tiene más que Estados Unidos. La retirada de la administración Trump dejaría el campo libre para que Pekín extienda su influencia sin oposición.

Los diplomáticos se ganan el apoyo de Estados Unidos para que no tengamos que enfrentarnos solos en un mundo competitivo. Así fue como mis colegas y yo logramos movilizar a las Naciones Unidas para imponer sanciones devastadoras contra el programa nuclear iraní y, en última instancia, obligar a Teherán a detener su avance hacia una bomba, algo que las bravuconadas del Sr. Trump no han logrado. (De hecho, retiró la financiación a los inspectores que vigilaban los centros de investigación iraníes. ¡Qué tontería!).

La ​​diplomacia es rentable, especialmente en comparación con la acción militar. Prevenir guerras es más barato que librarlas. El propio exsecretario de Defensa del Sr. Trump, Jim Mattis, un general retirado de cuatro estrellas del Cuerpo de Marines, declaró al Congreso: «Si no financian completamente al Departamento de Estado, entonces necesito comprar más munición».

Nuestra ayuda al desarrollo siempre ha sido una pequeña porción del presupuesto federal, pero también tiene un impacto enorme en la estabilidad internacional, especialmente si se combina con una diplomacia eficaz. Cuando la ayuda estadounidense ayuda a detener una hambruna o un brote, cuando respondemos a un desastre natural o abrimos escuelas, nos ganamos el apoyo de personas que, de otro modo, podrían ir a parar a terroristas o rivales como China. Reducimos el flujo de migrantes y refugiados. Fortalecemos gobiernos amigos que, de otro modo, podrían colapsar.

No quiero fingir que nada de esto es fácil ni que la política exterior estadounidense no ha estado plagada de errores. Liderar es difícil. Pero nuestra mejor oportunidad para acertar y mantener a nuestro país seguro es fortalecer a nuestro gobierno, no debilitarlo. Debemos invertir en los patriotas que sirven a nuestra nación, no insultarlos.

Unas reformas inteligentes podrían hacer que las agencias federales, incluyendo el Departamento de Estado y la USAID, sean más eficientes y eficaces. Durante la administración Clinton, la iniciativa Reinventing Government de mi esposo, liderada por el vicepresidente Al Gore, colaboró ​​con el Congreso para simplificar la burocracia, modernizar la fuerza laboral y ahorrar miles de millones de dólares. En muchos sentidos, fue lo opuesto al enfoque desmantelado de la administración Trump. Hoy no están reinventando el gobierno; lo están destruyendo.

Donald Trump, Volodimir Zelenski y Vladimir Putin AP I
magen: 3/3

Todo esto es absurdo y peligroso. Y ni siquiera he mencionado el daño que está causando el Sr. Trump al congraciarse con dictadores como el ruso Vladimir Putin, destruyendo nuestras alianzas —multiplicadores de fuerza que amplían nuestro alcance y comparten nuestras cargas— y destruyendo nuestra influencia moral al socavar el Estado de derecho en nuestro país. O cómo está hundiendo nuestra economía y disparando nuestra deuda nacional.

Los propagandistas de Beijing y Moscú saben que estamos en un debate global sobre sistemas de gobierno en pugna. Personas y líderes de todo el mundo están observando si la democracia aún puede brindar paz y prosperidad, o siquiera funcionar. Si Estados Unidos se gobierna como una república bananera, con corrupción flagrante y un líder que se pone por encima de la ley, perdemos ese argumento. También perdemos las cualidades que han hecho a Estados Unidos excepcional e indispensable.

Si hay una gran estrategia en juego, no sé cuál es. Quizás el Sr. Trump quiera regresar a las esferas de influencia del siglo XIX. Quizás solo lo guíen rencores personales y esté demasiado metido en la situación. Como empresario, llevó a la quiebra sus casinos de Atlantic City. Ahora está jugando con la seguridad nacional de Estados Unidos. Si esto continúa, una falta en un chat grupal será la menor de nuestras preocupaciones, y ni todos los emojis de puños y banderas del mundo nos salvarán.

* Hillary Clinton fue canciller y senadora, y candidata demócrata a la presidencia en 2016.



miércoles, 26 de marzo de 2025

 

Redes sociales

“Hipnocracia” o el régimen de la sociedad adormecida con dos sumos “sacerdotes”: Trump y Musk

Un encuentro internacional sobre IA advierte del uso de las tecnologías de la información sin límites para acabar con la ciudadanía crítica e informada.


Elon Musk escucha al presidente de EE UU, Donald Trump, en una comparecencia en el Despacho Oval de la Casa Blanca el pasado 14 de marzo.Kevin Lamarque (REUTERS)

EL PAÍS/TECNOLOGÍA

Raúl Limón

26 MAR 2025 - 01:20 ART

Multitud de investigaciones lo vienen advirtiendo: los memes no son inocuos; para los extremismos, es el lenguaje más eficaz de difusión de sus ideas. Las redes son herramientas de polarización e injerencia sofisticadas. Los bulos creados con inteligencia artificial (IA) generan una realidad falsa indistinguible y amenazan la democracia. La propia IA nace con sesgos que no son inocentes. Detrás de todo este arsenal hay una estrategia que el filósofo hongkonés Jianwei Xun define como “hipnocracia”, un concepto que Cecilia Danesi, investigadora en el Instituto de Estudios Europeos y Derechos Humanos (Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca), resume como “dictadura digital que permite modular directamente estados de conciencia” mediante la “manipulación a través de las historias que consumimos, compartimos y creemos”. La finalidad es la eliminación de una ciudadanía crítica e informada, y precisa de la supresión de cualquier salvaguarda.

Jianwei Xun, autor de Hipnocracia: Trump, Musk y la nueva arquitectura de la realidad (aún no editado en español), afirma que este régimen es “el primero que opera directamente en la conciencia”: “No reprime el pensamiento, sino que induce y manipula los estados emocionales”. El objetivo es “adormecer el pensamiento crítico” utilizando la información como “humo hipnótico” a partir de “abrumar los sentidos con estímulos constantes” y conseguir que “realidad y simulación se vuelvan sinónimos”.

Para Danesi, integrante del reciente encuentro AI Action Summit celebrado en Cannes (Francia) que abordó la situación, esta fragmentación “erosiona y cambia radicalmente la manera en que los ciudadanos perciben la realidad y toman decisiones políticas, una situación que exige un análisis profundo y una regulación eficaz”. “La primera perjudicada es, sin duda, la democracia”, alerta.


El poder evoluciona más allá de la fuerza física y la persuasión lógica. Se ha vuelto gaseoso, invisible, capaz de infiltrarse en todos los aspectos de nuestras vidas.


En estas condiciones, según escribe el pensador hongkonés, “el poder evoluciona más allá de la fuerza física y la persuasión lógica”. “Se ha vuelto gaseoso, invisible, capaz de infiltrarse en todos los aspectos de nuestras vidas (…) Estamos en un estado permanente de hipnosis donde la conciencia permanece atrapada, pero nunca completamente tranquila”, sostiene.

Como ha recordado en el foro francés Gianluca Misuraca, director científico de la iniciativa europea AI4Gov, los sumos “sacerdotes” de este nuevo régimen son el presidente de EE UU, Donald Trump, y su mano derecha, el multimillonario Elon Musk. Ambos lideran lo que Jianwei Xun identifica como “capitalismo digital”, donde “los algoritmos no son herramientas de cálculo y pronóstico, sino tecnología hipnótica de masas”. Según abunda Danesi, codirectora del máster en gobernanza ética de la IA en la UPSA, “la hipnocracia permite una injerencia más profunda y silenciosa, manipula nuestro pensamiento sin que nos demos cuenta, lo cual es más peligroso todavía porque es más difícil de advertir”.

Y para que la capacidad hipnótica de este exacerbado liberalismo digital funcione hay una premisa fundamental: la ausencia de regulación. Empresas de redes sociales, como X, propiedad de Musk, o Meta, de Mark Zuckerberg, han eliminado la moderación de contenidos. Otras plataformas de IA han comenzado a eliminar restricciones a respuestas sobre cuestiones potencialmente dañinas.

El Instituto Nacional de Estándares y Tecnología (NIST, por sus siglas en inglés) ha requerido a los científicos del Instituto de Seguridad de Inteligencia Artificial de EE UU (AISI, por sus siglas en inglés), creado por Joe Biden en 2023 para anticipar los problemas que pueda generar la IA, a que eludan el desarrollo de herramientas “para autenticar y rastrear la procedencia de los contenidos” o “etiquetar” el elaborado con los nuevos modelos de lenguaje. Trump rechaza la moderación de contenidos y reclama su supresión en aras de una supuesta libertad de expresión. Una orden ejecutiva emitida por el presidente estadounidense en enero justifica la medida: “Para mantener el liderazgo, debemos desarrollar sistemas de IA que estén libres de sesgos ideológicos o agendas sociales diseñadas”.

“Es una falacia”, replica Danesi: “Esta idea de a mayor regulación menor desarrollo o progreso es una idea falsa porque los sectores más regulados, como el farmacéutico o los bancos, son los que más ganancias tienen. El problema es cuando la regulación está mal hecha y eso sí implica una obstrucción a la innovación. La clave está en cómo regular para garantizar valores supremos como los derechos humanos o fundamentales”.

La proliferación de imágenes generadas por IA que fundamentan noticias falsas (deep fakes), la fácil viralización del contenido, independientemente de su veracidad, y las narrativas manipuladas han convertido la desinformación en una de las amenazas más graves para los sistemas democráticos

Esta ausencia de control y moderación genera, según explica la investigadora, “la proliferación de imágenes generadas por IA que fundamentan noticias falsas (deep fakes), la fácil viralización del contenido, independientemente de su veracidad, y las narrativas manipuladas”. “Han convertido la desinformación en una de las amenazas más graves para los sistemas democráticos”, advierte.

Ante esta situación, y en contradicción con el liberalismo sin límites en la red defendido por Trump y plataformas tecnológicas masivas, la mayoría de los usuarios de herramientas digitales piden restricciones al contenido dañino internet, como las amenazas físicas, la difamación, la intolerancia y el odio, según una encuesta a gran escala realizada por la Universidad Técnica de Múnich (TUM) y la Universidad de Oxford en 10 países de Europa, América, África y Australia, donde se ha prohibido el acceso a redes sociales a los menores de 16 años.

De media, el 79% de los encuestados cree que las incitaciones a la violencia en internet deben eliminarse. Los más favorables (86%) son alemanes, brasileños y eslovacos mientras que, en EE UU, el apoyo a estas restricciones baja al 63%.

Solo el 14% de todos los encuestados cree que las amenazas deben mostrarse para que los usuarios puedan responder a ellas y el 17% defiende que debe permitirse el contenido ofensivo para criticar a ciertos grupos de personas o para que una opinión capte la atención (20%). El país con el mayor nivel de respaldo a esta actitud es Estados Unidos (29%) y el apoyo más bajo se registra en Brasil (9%).

A la pregunta de si prefieren redes con libertad de expresión ilimitada o libres de odio o desinformación, en todos los países, la mayoría optó por plataformas seguras frente a la violencia digital y la información engañosa.


El 79% de los encuestados cree que las incitaciones a la violencia en internet deben eliminarse. Los más favorables (86%) son alemanes, brasileños y eslovacos mientras que, en EE UU, el apoyo a estas restricciones baja al 63%.


Encuesta de la Universidad Técnica de Múnich (TUM) y la Universidad de Oxford en 10 países

“La mayoría de las personas quieren plataformas que reduzcan el discurso de odio y el abuso. También en Estados Unidos, un país con un compromiso histórico con la libertad de expresión en el sentido más amplio”, comenta Yannis Theocharis, principal autor del estudio y profesor de Gobernanza Digital en la Escuela de Política y Políticas Públicas de Múnich.

No obstante, según matiza Spyros Kosmidis, coautor del trabajo y profesor de Política en la Universidad de Oxford, “Los resultados también muestran que no hay un consenso universal en relación con la libertad de expresión y la moderación. Las creencias de las personas dependen en gran medida de las normas culturales, las experiencias políticas y las tradiciones jurídicas de los distintos países. Esto hace que la regulación global sea más difícil”.

Tampoco está claro quién debe mantener la seguridad en internet frente a contenidos dañinos y los porcentajes se reparten de forma similar entre quienes atribuyen esta responsabilidad a las plataformas, a los gobiernos o a los propios usuarios.

En cualquier caso, sea quien sea el responsable, la mayoría de los usuarios (59%) considera que los contenidos ofensivos, de intolerancia u odio son inevitables y cuentan con reacciones de esta naturaleza (65% de media y 73% en Estados Unidos) cada vez que publican algo.

“Notamos una resignación generalizada. La gente tiene la impresión de que, a pesar de todas las promesas de lidiar con el contenido ofensivo, nada está mejorando. Este efecto de aclimatación es un gran problema porque está socavando gradualmente las normas sociales y normalizando el odio y la violencia”, advierte Yannis Theocharis.

Ivado, un grupo de investigación canadiense, e Iniciativa AI y Sociedad de la Universidad de Ottawa, proponen cuatro medidas para evitar la erosión del sistema de convivencia democrático: un marco regulatorio claro que incluya normas para la IA durante las elecciones, códigos de conductas en este campo para los partidos, equipos de seguimiento con planes de respuesta a amenazas y la creación de un consorcio internacional para actuar en caso de interferencia.

“Con nuestras democracias amenazadas, la interferencia impulsada por la IA requiere acciones rápidas y concretas por parte de los líderes, tanto a nivel nacional como internacional. Sin un esfuerzo global concertado para alinear las leyes, crear capacidad y desarrollar procesos para mitigar los riesgos de la IA, las democracias de todo el mundo siguen siendo vulnerables”, advierte el profesor Florian Martin-Bariteau, director de la Iniciativa IA y Sociedad de la Universidad de Ottawa.

Europa comenzó a andar ese camino normativo con la AI act, pero Danesi lamenta: “Ante la coyuntura internacional, la UE ha puesto el freno de mano por esta idea de que, si sobrerregulamos, frenamos la innovación”. “Pero no se trata de dejar de regular, sino de cómo lo hacemos, de qué valores tenemos y queremos potenciar”, insiste.-



domingo, 23 de marzo de 2025

The Trump administration is descending into authoritarianism.

From media to culture and the arts to the refusal to abide by court orders, we’re nearing ‘Defcon 1 for our democracy’, experts say.

David Smith/The Guardian

Sat 22 Mar 2025 11.00 GMT

Entering the magnificent great hall of the US Department of Justice, Donald Trump stopped for a moment to admire his portrait, then took to a specially constructed stage where two art deco statues, depicting the Spirit of Justice and Majesty of Justice, had been carefully concealed behind a blue velvet curtain.

The president, who since last year is also a convicted criminal, proceeded to air grievances, utter a profanity and accuse the news media of doing “totally illegal” things, without offering evidence. “I just hope you can all watch for it,” he told justice department employees, “but it’s totally illegal.”

Trump’s breach of the justice department’s traditional independence last week was neither shocking nor surprising. His speech quickly faded from the fast and furious news cycle. But future historians may regard it as a milestone on a road leading the world’s oldest continuous democracy to a once unthinkable destination.

Eviscerating the federal government and subjugating Congress; defying court orders and delegitimising judges; deporting immigrants and arresting protesters without due process; chilling free speech at universities and cultural institutions; cowing news outlets with divide-and-rule. Add a rightwing media ecosystem manufacturing consent and obeyance in advance, along with a weak and divided opposition offering feeble resistance. Join all the dots, critics say, and America is sleepwalking into authoritarianism.

“These are flashing red lights here,” Tara Setmayer, a former Republican communications director turned Trump critic. “We are approaching Defcon 1 for our democracy and a lot of people in the media and the opposition leadership don’t seem to be communicating that to the American people. That is the biggest danger of the moment we’re in now: the normalisation of it.”

Much was said and written by journalists and Democrats during last year’s election campaign arguing that Trump, who instigated a coup against the US government on 6 January 2021, could endanger America’s 240-year experiment with democracy if he returned to power. In a TV interview, he had promised to be “dictator” but only on “day one”. Sixty days in, the only question is whether the warnings went far enough.

The 45th and 47th president has wasted no time in launching a concerted effort to consolidate executive power, undermine checks and balances and challenge established legal and institutional norms. And he is making no secret of his strongman ambitions.

Trump, 78, has declared “We are the federal law” and posted a social media image of himself wearing a crown with the words “Long live the king”. He also channeled Napoleon with the words: “He who saves his country does not violate any law.” And JD Vance has stated that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power”.

Trump quickly pardoned those who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, placed loyalists in key positions within the FBI and military and purged the justice department, which also suffered resignations in response to the dismissal of corruption charges against the New York mayor Eric Adams after his cooperation on hardline immigration measures.



The president now has the courts in his sights. Last weekend, the White House defied a judge’s verbal order blocking it from invoking the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law meant only to be used in wartime, to justify the deportation of 250 Venezuelan alleged gang members to El Salvador, where they will be held in a 40,000-person megaprison.

Trump accused James Boasberg, the chief district judge in Washington who made the ruling, of being “crooked”, said he should be “impeached” and labelled him a “radical left lunatic of a judge”. The outburst prompted John Roberts, the chief justice of the supreme court, to deliver a rare rebuke of the president, emphasing that “impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision”.

In an interview on the conservative Fox News network, Trump denied defying a court order and said he would not do so in future. But he added ominously: “We have very bad judges and these are judges that shouldn’t be allowed. I think at a certain point, you have to start looking at what do you do when you have a rogue judge?”

David Frum, a former speechwriter for George W Bush, posted on the X social media platform: “Almost every major Trump action is intentionally illegal. Trump is gambling that the US democratic system is too broken to stop him. He assumes, to borrow a phrase: ‘All we’ve got to do is kick the door in and the whole edifice will come crumbling down.’ Testing hour is here.”

The White House has yet to release the names of the deported Venezuelans or proof that they were indeed criminal gang members. In another recent incident, it sent 40 undocumented immigrants to the notorious detention facility at the Guantánamo Bay naval base, only for a judge to intervene and force their return to the mainland.

Some commentators suggest that the Trump administration is exploiting the power of sadistic spectacle. They say it is priming the public for future crackdowns and testing its level of tolerance for a moment when, for example, it might invoke the Insurrection Act to target anti-Trump protesters.

Steve Schmidt, a political strategist and former campaign operative for George W Bush and John McCain, said: “Donald Trump is producing a Washington television show from the Oval Office that’s authoritarian in nature. You go on TikTok and see the deportations scored to songs and videos released by the administration. It’s a theatre of the absurd. It’s a theatre of malice. All of it is desensitising people to the use of authority and power.”

Violations of civil liberties are piling up on an almost daily basis. They include incidents that, if they had happened anywhere else in the world before 2025, the US would have been among the first to condemn.

Jasmine Mooney, a Canadian entrepreneur and actor in the American Pie movie franchise, was detained for almost two weeks in “inhumane” conditions by US border authorities over an incomplete visa. She wrote in the Guardian: “I was taken to a tiny, freezing cement cell with bright fluorescent lights and a toilet. There were five other women lying on their mats with the aluminum sheets wrapped over them, looking like dead bodies. The guard locked the door behind me.”

Fabian Schmidt, a German national who is a permanent US resident, was detained and, his mother said, “violently interrogated”, stripped naked and put in a cold shower by US border officials. A French scientist was denied entry to the US after immigration officers at an airport searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration, according to the French government.

Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist who previously worked and lived in Rhode Island, was deported despite having a US visa. Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral scholar at Georgetown University and citizen of India married to a Palestinian, was detained by immigration agents who told him his visa had been revoked.

Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil, a legal US resident with no criminal record, was detained over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations and is fighting deportation efforts in federal court. Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator, reacted on social media: “In dictatorships, they call this practice ‘being disappeared’. No charges, no claims of criminal behaviour. The White House doesn’t claim he did anything criminal. He’s in jail because of his political speech.”

Another trigger for alarm is Trump’s close relationship with tech oligarchs, many of whom donated to and attended his inauguration. Tesla and SpaceX head Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) has been taking a chainsaw to the federal bureaucracy, firing thousands of workers in indiscriminate ways that have been challenged in court.

Musk’s X regularly parrots pro-Trump propaganda. Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon and the Washington Post, recently ordered that the newspaper narrow the topics covered by its opinion section to personal liberties and the free market. Several star reporters and columnists have quit in recent months.

Trump has escalated attacks on media outlets whose coverage he dislikes, including barring them from workspaces and events. He has filed lawsuits against media outlets and falsely claimed the flagship series 60 Minutes admitted guilt regarding a lawsuit.

His appointee to head the Federal Communications Commission is investigating PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) and NPR (National Public Radio). Last weekend, the Trump administration put almost the entire staff of Voice of America – which began broadcasting in 1942 to combat Nazi propaganda – on leave and ended grants to Radio Free Asia and other media with similar news programming.

Trump’s moves in the foreign policy arena hold up a mirror to his domestic vision. He has rattled longtime allies in Europe over whether the US remains committed to Nato and has sided with Russia in talks to end the war in Ukraine. He even called the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a “dictator” and berated him in the Oval Office.


Trump has long shown an affinity for autocrats such as Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping of China and Kim Jong-un of North Korea and his actions have been compared with those of Viktor Orbán in consolidating power in Hungary, including remaking the judiciary, gaming elections and cracking down on media and civic organisations.

At the Center for American Progress thinktank in Washington this week, JB Pritzker, the Democratic governor of Illinois, told the Guardian: “If you haven’t already read about Orbán in Hungary, go read about what he did steadily, not that slowly, to put the noose around that country. Donald Trump admires Orbán and I believe he and his team have learned from that and are replicating that.”

What some find most frightening of all is the relative lack of resistance so far. Trump’s approval rating equals his best-ever mark as president at 47%, according to a recent NBC News poll, although a majority – 51% - disapproves of his performance. Some 55% of voters approve of his handling of border security and immigration, while 43% disapprove.

Setmayer, who now heads the Seneca Project, a women-led super political action committee, commented: “The fact that Donald Trump’s approval rating is still in the mid-40s should scare the hell out of every American who understands the value of our constitutional republic, the freedoms that we enjoy and the rule of law, because what he is doing is categorically against everything this country was founded on.”

This is reflected in Congress, where the Republican party is more loyal to and unquestioning of Trump than ever. Few members have dared to speak out against the president’s support for Putin, haphazard tariff policy or bullying of neighbour Canada. They know that dissent would likely result in public humiliation on social media and a primary election challenge funded by Musk.

Democrats, for their part, are still struggling to meet the moment as swelling protests across the country hunger for leadership. Last week, Chuck Schumer, the minority leader in the Senate, reversed his position by voting to pass a Republican budget plan that will make cuts to housing, transportation and education while also empowering Trump and Musk to slash more programmes.

Faced with the prospect of a government shutdown, Schumer argued that he was choosing the lesser of two evils but ignited a furious backlash from Democrats in the House of Representatives and grassroots activists. NBC’s poll found that just 27% of voters say they have positive views of the party, its lowest rating since the question was first asked in 1990.

Meagan Hatcher-Mays, a senior adviser for United for Democracy, a coalition of 140 organisations aimed at reforming the courts, said Democrats were wrongfooted by Trump’s narrow victory in the national popular vote last year.

“They took the wrong lesson from the outcome of that election and they think Donald Trump is a lot more popular than he actually is,” she said. “Their baseline is already to be scared but that made them more scared to push back or resist against some of Donald Trump’s worst impulses. What you have now is they’re more comfortable caving and that’s what they have been doing.

“They have not been able to mount a durable opposition to Donald Trump or to congressional RepublicansYou can’t just be not Donald Trump. You have to be for something and you have to paint a vision for what you want for the American people. Instead what they’ve decided to do is just say nothing and hope for the best and that is not going to win them any seats in 2026.”

The courts are potentially the last line of defence. Federal judges have blocked dozens of Trump’s initiatives, including attempts to eliminate agencies, end birthright citizenship and freeze federal funding. This week, a judge found that Doge likely violated the constitution “in multiple ways” with its dismantling of the development agency USAID.

Jamie Raskin, a Democratic representative from Maryland, noted that Democrats and their allies have filed more than 125 cases against various attacks on the rule of law and obtained more than 40 temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions.

“We’re in the fight of our lives,” he told the Guardian. “This is not a two-week, two-month or even two-year fight that we’re in. This is going to take us many years to defeat the forces of authoritarian reaction, and the Democrats are rising to the occasion.

“If you look at the way democratic societies responded to fascism a century ago, it just takes time for people to realign and refocus and mobilise a concerted and unified response. Are we there yet? No. But are we going to be in a place where we can stand together and defeat authoritarianism in our country? Yes, we are going to get there.”

Norm Eisen, a lawyer and founder of State Democracy Defenders Action, has brought successful cases that stopped Trump targeting thousands of FBI employees and blocked Musk’s access to sensitive data at the treasury department. He said: “Donald Trump is definitely pushing towards authoritarianism. He promised to be a dictator on day one and he hasn’t stopped. That’s the bad news.

“The good news is that he has met vigorous pushback from litigants like myself and many others and from courts at every level. So far, his most outrageous illegal conduct has been countered.

If the Trump administration ignores such orders, the US could face a full-blown constitutional crisis. But Eisen retains measured optimism, saying: “It’s a mistake to count us out. We have so surprised ourselves and the world over and over again in our history and there is cause for hope here when you see the furious legal pushback by lawyers.

“There is reason for hope but nobody knows. Will we go the way of Brazil, Poland, Czech Republic, where I was ambassador, all of which pushed out autocratic regimes in recent years? Or will we go the way of Hungary and Turkey, which failed to oust autocrats? It remains to be seen but I, at least, am hopeful.”

There is a lot at stake

The world’s most powerful man is using his office to punish journalistic organisations that won’t follow his orders or who report critically on his policies. Donald Trump’s actions against the press include bans, lawsuits and hand-picking his own pool of reporters. 

But the global threat against the press is bigger than just Trump.

Economic and authoritarian forces around the globe are challenging journalists’ ability to report. An independent press, one that those in power can’t simply overrule, is crucial to democracy. Figures such as Trump and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán want to crush it through exclusion and influence. 

The Guardian is a global news organisation that will stand up to attacks on the free press. We have no interest serving those with immense power or immense wealth.  

We are owned by an independent trust devoted only to protecting and defending our journalism. That means we don’t have a billionaire owner dictating what our reporters can cover or what opinions our columnists can have, or shareholders demanding a quick return.

The global situation is shifting hour by hour, making this an extremely challenging moment. It will take brave, well-funded, committed, quality journalism to call out what is happening. 

Our job is to make sure we do not get overwhelmed as Trump floods the zone. We must focus on the stories that will make the biggest impact on people’s lives, while holding the powerful to account. We’ll also continue to focus on the ideas people need to create a better world: a reason for hope. 

As the writer and Guardian columnist Rebecca Solnit says: “authentic hope requires clarity … and imagination”.

The Guardian can provide both and, with the help of readers like you in Argentina, we can drive hope by reporting truthfully on what is happening and never pulling our punches.

A lot is at stake.

If you can, please support us on a monthly basis. It takes less than a minute to set up, and you can rest assured that you're making a big impact every month in support of open, independent journalism. Thank you.

Katharine Viner

Editor-in-chief, the Guardian

Picture of Kath Viner




Trump accused James Boasberg, the chief district judge in Washington who made the ruling, of being “crooked”, said he should be “impeached” and labelled him a “radical left lunatic of a judge”. The outburst prompted John Roberts, the chief justice of the supreme court, to deliver a rare rebuke of the president, emphasing that “impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision”.
In an interview on the conservative Fox News network, Trump denied defying a court order and said he would not do so in future. But he added ominously: “We have very bad judges and these are judges that shouldn’t be allowed. I think at a certain point, you have to start looking at what do you do when you have a rogue judge?”
David Frum, a former speechwriter for George W Bush, posted on the X social media platform: “Almost every major Trump action is intentionally illegal. Trump is gambling that the US democratic system is too broken to stop him. He assumes, to borrow a phrase: ‘All we’ve got to do is kick the door in and the whole edifice will come crumbling down.’ Testing hour is here.”
The White House has yet to release the names of the deported Venezuelans or proof that they were indeed criminal gang members. In another recent incident, it sent 40 undocumented immigrants to the notorious detention facility at the Guantánamo Bay naval base, only for a judge to intervene and force their return to the mainland.
Some commentators suggest that the Trump administration is exploiting the power of sadistic spectacle. They say it is priming the public for future crackdowns and testing its level of tolerance for a moment when, for example, it might invoke the Insurrection Act to target anti-Trump protesters.
Steve Schmidt, a political strategist and former campaign operative for George W Bush and John McCain, said: “Donald Trump is producing a Washington television show from the Oval Office that’s authoritarian in nature. You go on TikTok and see the deportations scored to songs and videos released by the administration. It’s a theatre of the absurd. It’s a theatre of malice. All of it is desensitising people to the use of authority and power.”
Violations of civil liberties are piling up on an almost daily basis. They include incidents that, if they had happened anywhere else in the world before 2025, the US would have been among the first to condemn.
Jasmine Mooney, a Canadian entrepreneur and actor in the American Pie movie franchise, was detained for almost two weeks in “inhumane” conditions by US border authorities over an incomplete visa. She wrote in the Guardian: “I was taken to a tiny, freezing cement cell with bright fluorescent lights and a toilet. There were five other women lying on their mats with the aluminum sheets wrapped over them, looking like dead bodies. The guard locked the door behind me.”
Fabian Schmidt, a German national who is a permanent US resident, was detained and, his mother said, “violently interrogated”, stripped naked and put in a cold shower by US border officials. A French scientist was denied entry to the US after immigration officers at an airport searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration, according to the French government.
Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist who previously worked and lived in Rhode Island, was deported despite having a US visa. Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral scholar at Georgetown University and citizen of India married to a Palestinian, was detained by immigration agents who told him his visa had been revoked.
Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil, a legal US resident with no criminal record, was detained over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations and is fighting deportation efforts in federal court. Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator, reacted on social media: “In dictatorships, they call this practice ‘being disappeared’. No charges, no claims of criminal behaviour. The White House doesn’t claim he did anything criminal. He’s in jail because of his political speech.”
Another trigger for alarm is Trump’s close relationship with tech oligarchs, many of whom donated to and attended his inauguration. Tesla and SpaceX head Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) has been taking a chainsaw to the federal bureaucracy, firing thousands of workers in indiscriminate ways that have been challenged in court.
Musk’s X regularly parrots pro-Trump propaganda. Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon and the Washington Post, recently ordered that the newspaper narrow the topics covered by its opinion section to personal liberties and the free market. Several star reporters and columnists have quit in recent months.
Trump has escalated attacks on media outlets whose coverage he dislikes, including barring them from workspaces and events. He has filed lawsuits against media outlets and falsely claimed the flagship series 60 Minutes admitted guilt regarding a lawsuit.
His appointee to head the Federal Communications Commission is investigating PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) and NPR (National Public Radio). Last weekend, the Trump administration put almost the entire staff of Voice of America – which began broadcasting in 1942 to combat Nazi propaganda – on leave and ended grants to Radio Free Asia and other media with similar news programming.
Trump’s moves in the foreign policy arena hold up a mirror to his domestic vision. He has rattled longtime allies in Europe over whether the US remains committed to Nato and has sided with Russia in talks to end the war in Ukraine. He even called the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a “dictator” and berated him in the Oval Office.
white house falling apartView image in fullscreenTrump has long shown an affinity for autocrats such as Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping of China and Kim Jong-un of North Korea and his actions have been compared with those of Viktor Orbán in consolidating power in Hungary, including remaking the judiciary, gaming elections and cracking down on media and civic organisations.
At the Center for American Progress thinktank in Washington this week, JB Pritzker, the Democratic governor of Illinois, told the Guardian: “If you haven’t already read about Orbán in Hungary, go read about what he did steadily, not that slowly, to put the noose around that country. Donald Trump admires Orbán and I believe he and his team have learned from that and are replicating that.”
What some find most frightening of all is the relative lack of resistance so far. Trump’s approval rating equals his best-ever mark as president at 47%, according to a recent NBC News poll, although a majority – 51% - disapproves of his performance. Some 55% of voters approve of his handling of border security and immigration, while 43% disapprove.
Setmayer, who now heads the Seneca Project, a women-led super political action committee, commented: “The fact that Donald Trump’s approval rating is still in the mid-40s should scare the hell out of every American who understands the value of our constitutional republic, the freedoms that we enjoy and the rule of law, because what he is doing is categorically against everything this country was founded on.”
This is reflected in Congress, where the Republican party is more loyal to and unquestioning of Trump than ever. Few members have dared to speak out against the president’s support for Putin, haphazard tariff policy or bullying of neighbour Canada. They know that dissent would likely result in public humiliation on social media and a primary election challenge funded by Musk.
Democrats, for their part, are still struggling to meet the moment as swelling protests across the country hunger for leadership. Last week, Chuck Schumer, the minority leader in the Senate, reversed his position by voting to pass a Republican budget plan that will make cuts to housing, transportation and education while also empowering Trump and Musk to slash more programmes.
Faced with the prospect of a government shutdown, Schumer argued that he was choosing the lesser of two evils but ignited a furious backlash from Democrats in the House of Representatives and grassroots activists. NBC’s poll found that just 27% of voters say they have positive views of the party, its lowest rating since the question was first asked in 1990.
Meagan Hatcher-Mays, a senior adviser for United for Democracy, a coalition of 140 organisations aimed at reforming the courts, said Democrats were wrongfooted by Trump’s narrow victory in the national popular vote last year.
“They took the wrong lesson from the outcome of that election and they think Donald Trump is a lot more popular than he actually is,” she said. “Their baseline is already to be scared but that made them more scared to push back or resist against some of Donald Trump’s worst impulses. What you have now is they’re more comfortable caving and that’s what they have been doing.
“They have not been able to mount a durable opposition to Donald Trump or to congressional Republicans. You can’t just be not Donald Trump. You have to be for something and you have to paint a vision for what you want for the American people. Instead what they’ve decided to do is just say nothing and hope for the best and that is not going to win them any seats in 2026.”
The courts are potentially the last line of defence. Federal judges have blocked dozens of Trump’s initiatives, including attempts to eliminate agencies, end birthright citizenship and freeze federal funding. This week, a judge found that Doge likely violated the constitution “in multiple ways” with its dismantling of the development agency USAID.
Jamie Raskin, a Democratic representative from Maryland, noted that Democrats and their allies have filed more than 125 cases against various attacks on the rule of law and obtained more than 40 temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions.
“We’re in the fight of our lives,” he told the Guardian. “This is not a two-week, two-month or even two-year fight that we’re in. This is going to take us many years to defeat the forces of authoritarian reaction, and the Democrats are rising to the occasion.
“If you look at the way democratic societies responded to fascism a century ago, it just takes time for people to realign and refocus and mobilise a concerted and unified response. Are we there yet? No. But are we going to be in a place where we can stand together and defeat authoritarianism in our country? Yes, we are going to get there.”
Norm Eisen, a lawyer and founder of State Democracy Defenders Action, has brought successful cases that stopped Trump targeting thousands of FBI employees and blocked Musk’s access to sensitive data at the treasury department. He said: “Donald Trump is definitely pushing towards authoritarianism. He promised to be a dictator on day one and he hasn’t stopped. That’s the bad news.
“The good news is that he has met vigorous pushback from litigants like myself and many others and from courts at every level. So far, his most outrageous illegal conduct has been countered.”
If the Trump administration ignores such orders, the US could face a full-blown constitutional crisis. But Eisen retains measured optimism, saying: “It’s a mistake to count us out. We have so surprised ourselves and the world over and over again in our history and there is cause for hope here when you see the furious legal pushback by lawyers.
“There is reason for hope but nobody knows. Will we go the way of Brazil, Poland, Czech Republic, where I was ambassador, all of which pushed out autocratic regimes in recent years? Or will we go the way of Hungary and Turkey, which failed to oust autocrats? It remains to be seen but I, at least, am hopeful.”
There is a lot at stakeThe world’s most powerful man is using his office to punish journalistic organisations that won’t follow his orders or who report critically on his policies. Donald Trump’s actions against the press include bans, lawsuits and hand-picking his own pool of reporters. 
But the global threat against the press is bigger than just Trump.
Economic and authoritarian forces around the globe are challenging journalists’ ability to report. An independent press, one that those in power can’t simply overrule, is crucial to democracy. Figures such as Trump and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán want to crush it through exclusion and influence. 
The Guardian is a global news organisation that will stand up to attacks on the free press. We have no interest serving those with immense power or immense wealth.  
We are owned by an independent trust devoted only to protecting and defending our journalism. That means we don’t have a billionaire owner dictating what our reporters can cover or what opinions our columnists can have, or shareholders demanding a quick return.
The global situation is shifting hour by hour, making this an extremely challenging moment. It will take brave, well-funded, committed, quality journalism to call out what is happening. 
Our job is to make sure we do not get overwhelmed as Trump floods the zone. We must focus on the stories that will make the biggest impact on people’s lives, while holding the powerful to account. We’ll also continue to focus on the ideas people need to create a better world: a reason for hope. 
As the writer and Guardian columnist Rebecca Solnit says: “authentic hope requires clarity … and imagination”.
The Guardian can provide both and, with the help of readers like you in Argentina, we can drive hope by reporting truthfully on what is happening and never pulling our punches.
A lot is at stake.
If you can, please support us on a monthly basis. It takes less than a minute to set up, and you can rest assured that you're making a big impact every month in support of open, independent journalism. Thank you.
Katharine Viner
Editor-in-chief, the Guardian
View image in f