Lawfare Archive: The Authoritarian Playbook in 2025

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4.7 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

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Summary

From February 21, 2024: The advocacy group Protect Democracy last month issued an updated version of its report entitled, “The Authoritarian Playbook.” The new report is called, “The Authoritarian Playbook for 2025: How an authoritarian president will dismantle our democracy and what we can do to protect it.” It is a fascinating compilation of things that Donald Trump has promised to do and how they could likely be expected to affect American democracy if he is elected to a second term in office.

To discuss the report, Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes spoke with two of its authors: Genevieve Nadeau and Erica Newland, both of Protect Democracy. They talked about what's new in the report, how much of it is speculation and how much of it is simply taking Donald Trump's words seriously, opportunities to mitigate the most dire consequences of which the report warns, and whether this is just baked into the American presidency when occupied by a truly authoritarian personality.

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0:00.0	The following podcast contains advertising.
0:04.4	To access an ad-free version of the Lawfare podcast, become a material supporter of Lawfare at
0:11.5	patreon.com slash lawfare. That's patreon.com slash lawfare.
0:18.2	Also, check out Lawfare's other podcast offerings, Rational Security, Chatter,
0:25.2	Lawfare No Bull, and The Aftermath.
0:46.3	I'm Caroline Cornett, intern at Lawfare, with an episode from the Lawfare Archive for March 2nd, 2025. In the first month of President Donald Trump's second term, he has fulfilled his campaign promises to pardon convicted January 6 rioters, made preparations
0:56.7	to invoke the Alien Enemies Act and deploy the military domestically, continued attacks
1:02.3	on journalists, and consolidated federal regulatory power via executive orders.
1:08.3	For today's archive episode, I selected an episode from February 21st,
1:12.6	2004, in which Benjamin Wittes sat down with John Biav Nadu and Erica Newland,
1:17.6	two of the authors of the Authoritarian Playbook for 2025,
1:21.6	How an Authoritarian President Will Dismantle Our Democracy and What We Can do to protect it. They spoke about what then
1:28.8	candidate Trump promised to do in his second term, how such actions could affect American democracy,
1:35.1	opportunities to mitigate the most dire consequences of which the report warns, and whether this is
1:41.0	just baked into the American presidency when occupied by a truly authoritarian personality.
1:47.0	I'm Benjamin Wittes, and this is the Lawfare Podcast, February 21st, 2024. The advocacy group Protect Democracy last month issued an updated version of its report entitled The Authoritarian Playbook.
2:11.6	The new report is called The Authoritarian Playbook of 2025, how an authoritarian president will
2:20.0	dismantle our democracy and what we can do to protect it.
2:25.5	It is a fascinating compilation of things that Donald Trump has promised to do and how they
2:33.2	could likely be expected to affect American democracy
2:37.1	if he is elected to a second term in office.
2:41.0	Joining me in the Virtual Jungle Studio to discuss the report are two of its authors,
	...

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