One playbook, seven tactics

Protect Democracy tracks seven moves authoritarians reuse, then rates how fast each is moving in the U.S. The scale is directional: it measures speed and direction, not an absolute score.

The dial reads six

As of September 10, 2026, the overall rating sits at 6 on a seven point scale running from improving to worsening. Status: rapidly escalating.

Pentagon buys Venezuelan oil

In early September the president announced the Pentagon now owns a stake in an obscure Venezuelan oil company, eight months after he approved a raid to take out Nicolás Maduro. The goal: cheaper gas before the midterms.

Congress was never asked

Congress holds the power to tax and to declare war, yet it was left out of every Venezuela decision. Its inaction let the Pentagon and State Department co-opt the oil, and opened a new vector for corruption.

“This return to 19th century imperialism has come without any consultation with Congress.”

Blanche runs the DOJ

Todd Blanche is now Attorney General. He has overseen inquiries into Gavin Newsom, Adam Schiff, Cassidy Hutchinson, and James Comey, and bragged about purging lawyers who worked on January 6 prosecutions.

A $1.8 billion settlement

Blanche personally signed off on an anti-weaponization fund worth $1.8 billion, part of settling Trump's lawsuit against the IRS.

Every lawful order, always

The New York Times read his confirmation as Congress endorsing the view that he must carry out any lawful White House order, even when it breaks rule-of-law norms or what he himself thinks is right.

“he has a constitutional obligation to execute every lawful White House order”

The AG takes the stage

Blanche was a featured speaker at the Republican mid-term convention in Texas. Whatever apolitical standing the office had left probably ended there.

Deported with nothing

After Temporary Protected Status ended for many Haitians, deportees are landing in Cap Haitien with no money and no possessions, some without the passports they paid for.

“They didn't give me back my passport, and my passport cost me $600!”

Sent anywhere but home

Some deportees are returned to countries they are not from, including people flown to the Central African Republic. The State Department tells Americans to avoid traveling to Haiti.

“We cannot leave, we don't have documents and we're suffering and missing our families, in a continent we don't know”

A federal list of voters

A March executive order has DHS, the Social Security Administration, and the State Department pooling Social Security numbers, addresses, birthdates, and citizenship records into one untested system.

Days before early voting

States get only days to run their rolls against that list before early voting starts in 2026. Unknown contractors operate it, and the DHS secretary threatened to prosecute officials who withhold voter data.

Why the rush now

Protect Democracy is suing over the database. Its read: the closer the midterms get, the harder a White House expecting to lose reaches for ways to decide who votes.

“the closer we get to an election the White House expects to lose, the more they are reaching for ways to decide who votes in it”

Three things you can do

Check your registration now and again in October. Ask your county clerk what the federal government has requested. Sign up to work the polls.

Reported to the FCC

Trump posted that Meet the Press host Kristen Welker would be reported to the FCC after she said on air that his endorsement record in Republican primaries was mixed.

“How can anyone be allowed to say this, working for freely given Public Airwaves?”

The Kimmel precedent

A day after Trump attacked Jimmy Kimmel over a joke, the FCC ordered all eight ABC owned stations to file early for license renewal. Kimmel later said an interview was pulled over FCC threats.

A warning label on history

An executive order makes the National Museum of American History post signs warning of possible inaccuracies. It follows a report branding the Smithsonian a tool of extreme political activism.

Fifty years for zines

Sixteen people were convicted over a 2025 protest outside a Texas ICE facility where one attendee shot an officer. One got 30 years for moving a box of antifascist zines; a couple got 50 years each.

A message to anyone

The charges leaned on a material support to terrorists theory tied to a 2025 antifa designation that has no formal legal definition. The judge said the sentences were meant to send a message.

“send a message to anyone who shares a similar ideology”