Civicus, an international alliance dedicated to strengthening civic space and civic freedoms, has placed the United States on its watchlist. This troubling decision highlights the growing concerns about the alarming state of civic space under Trump. Mandeep Tiwana, secretary general of Civicus, called attention to a worrisome trend. According to him, the recent moves by the federal and state governments wielding an axe on civic space in the nation.
Tiwana noted a number of recent examples that illustrate this crackdown. Among those jailed were foreign-born student activists such as Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi, and Rümeysa Öztürk. He noted that Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, was sanctioned. This action is part of a larger pattern of shutting down dissenting voices.
It feels like the United States is lurching further into the quicksands of authoritarianism. Non-violent protesters are met with military aggression, not protection. Critics have been criminalized, journalists have been threatened or murdered, and support for civil society and international cooperation has been cut nearly to the bone. Tiwana stated.
As noted by Tiwana, the Trump administration has taken a number of direct actions to erode civic freedoms. These manifest in measures to restrict media networks, especially through funding limitations on public broadcasting platforms such as PBS and NPR. In reaction to their implementation, he sounded an alarm. He thinks they seek to defund key sources of news for the public and deprive the American people of accurate, independent, fact-based reporting by removing their resources.
Tiwana highlighted Trump’s controversial deployment of marines and national guard troops to California in response to widespread protests against immigration raids. He cautioned that this amount of militarization creates an alarming precedent. It signals a dangerous new trend in deploying heavy-handed force to suppress popular protest.
As Civicus’s report points out, in many instances, the authorities will deny permission for a peaceful protest, claiming a threat to security. Further, when protests are given the opportunity to take place, protesters are threatened with violent response from police—including the danger of tear gas and rubber bullets.
“Six months into Donald Trump’s second term, a bizarre assault on fundamental freedoms and constitutional safeguards has become the new normal,” Tiwana remarked. He called on U.S. authorities to reverse their current trajectory toward undemocratic practices and instead uphold citizens’ first amendment rights to organize and dissent legitimately.