In the first chapter, Jack Janes argues that Trump’s second term will be forever associated with US democratic backsliding. In domestic terms, that means rounding up and deporting migrants, often without due process, firing federal workers in ways that will diminish state capacity for years to come, eliminating government agencies, and brandishing coercive legal and economic instruments at home and abroad. During the first year in office, Trump has embarked on a dizzying teardown of the federal government and attacks on long-standing institutions in an attempt to increase his own authority and remake the American constitution, neutering the legislative and judicial checks on executive power and bringing previously independent economic and societal institutions to heel. It is a vision of the American state and society at the service of the chief executive, and the most dramatic departure from American political principles since the nation’s founding.