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Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said President Donald Trump is pushing the United States toward authoritarianism, as democracy falls to its lowest level in four decades.
HRW, in its World Report 2026 published on Wednesday, said Trump’s return to the White House has accelerated a “downward spiral” in human rights, already under pressure from countries like Russia and China.
“The global human rights system is in peril. Under relentless pressure from US President Donald Trump and persistently undermined by China and Russia, the rules-based international order is being crushed,” HRW said.
HRW added that to defy this trend, governments, social movements, civil society, and international institutions “that still value human rights” need to form alliances “to push back.”
“To be fair, the downward spiral preceded Trump’s reelection,” HWR said, noting that “the democratic wave that began over 50 years ago has given way to what scholars term a democratic recession.”
The organisation claims that some metrics show that democracy has returned to 1985 levels, with 72% of the world’s population living under autocracy.
It also claims that China, Russia, and the United States are all less free now than they were 20 years ago.
“Of course, democracy is not a panacea for human rights violations; the US and other long-time democracies have their own histories of colonial crimes, racism, abusive justice systems, and wartime atrocities,” HRW said.
“More recently, authoritarian leaders have exploited public mistrust and anger to win elections and then dismantled the very institutions that brought them to power. Democratic institutions are crucial to represent the will of the people and keep power in check.
“It’s no surprise that whenever democracy is undermined, rights are too, as evident in recent years in India, Türkiye, the Philippines, El Salvador, and Hungary.”
The Trump administration, according to HRW, “has undermined trust in the sanctity of elections, reduced government accountability, gutted food assistance and healthcare subsidies, attacked judicial independence, defied court orders, rolled back women’s rights, obstructed access to abortion care, undermined remedies for racial harm, terminated programs mandating accessibility for people with disabilities, punished free speech, stripped protections from trans and intersex people, eroded privacy, and used government power to intimidate political opponents, the media, law firms, universities, civil society, and even comedians.”
HRW also reported that “immigrants and asylum seekers have been subjected to inhumane conditions and degrading treatment; 32 died in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in 2025, and as of mid-January 2026, an additional 4 have died.”
It also claimed that “masked immigration enforcement agents” have targeted “people of colour, using excessive force, terrorising communities, and wrongfully arresting scores of citizens.”
“The US president, of course, has the authority to tighten US borders and enforce stricter immigration policies. The administration is not, however, entitled to deny legal process to asylum seekers, mistreat undocumented migrants, or unlawfully discriminate,” HRW added.
“In a well-functioning democracy, no electoral mandate should supersede domestic legislation, constitutional protections, or international human rights law. Trump’s team has repeatedly bypassed these guardrails.”
