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The Trump administration is making radical, unprecedented changes to American institutions. By doing so, it is seeking to transform the American political system as well. To explain Donald Trump’s project, and to talk about where it might be going, The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum is returning to host a new season of Autocracy in America. She’ll introduce listeners to Americans whose lives were changed during the administration’s first year, and will ask historians, analysts, and political scientists how new laws and policies might affect the midterm elections in November.
Coming January 2026.
The following is a transcript of the trailer:
Kathleen Walters: No other administration has personally ever asked me to do anything that was illegal, no.
[Music]
Anne Applebaum: I’m Anne Applebaum, and in this season of Autocracy in America, I’ll explain how the Trump White House is rewriting the rules of U.S. politics. I’ll start by introducing you to some of the Americans whose lives have been changed as a result.
George Retes: I’m a U.S. citizen. I’m a veteran. The day I was arrested by ICE agents was July 10.
Joan Brugge: I never imagined that our funding for, you know, lifesaving research would be terminated.
Applebaum: Cuts to research and universities, firings of the civil service, heavily armed troops on our streets—they’re about more than just bravado.
Don Moynihan: There are so many things I thought were illegal that now appear to be legal. It’s hard to keep a full list.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat: You have, obviously, a very strong leader, and everyone has to pay tribute to him.
Donald Trump: We will win together, and then we will seek justice together.
Applebaum: The Trump administration is now making radical, unprecedented changes to our institutions and to our political system. I’ve spent a lot of my life studying the ways democracies fracture and then crumble around the world. This is how elected leaders in other countries have assaulted their own political systems in an attempt to rule without challenge.
Stacey Abrams: When people think that it is going to be too hard, when they think that it is going to be dangerous, they don’t vote.
Applebaum: From The Atlantic, Autocracy in America, Season 3.
Abrams: This is about who wins America.
Applebaum: New episodes arrive January 2026.
