On a Monday evening panel entitled “Democracy in the World,” Freeman Spogli Institute director Michael McFaul ’85 M.A. ’86 and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice ’86 said that the United States — particularly under the second Trump administration — has contributed significantly to a current trend of global democratic backsliding.
In the panel, which was the final lecture in the series POLISCI 31: “Which Side of History? How Democracy, Technology, and Our Lives are Being Reshaped in 2025,” McFaul said that the Trump administration’s first 10 months have caused the degradation of the United States’ “soft and hard power[s].”
Rice agreed with McFaul, saying that the Trump administration is responsible for the U.S.’s “superpower suicide.” Rice warned of “very serious, very lasting” impacts of Trump’s leadership.
The discussion panel was also joined by Margrethe Vestager, former Executive Vice President for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age and European Commissioner for Competition, who offered perspectives from Europe to the panel.
The discussion began with an assessment of the current state of democracy around the world. McFaul quoted data from the Freedom House, saying that 2024 was the 11th consecutive year in which democracy in the US declined, and that he is “pretty sure” the data will prove it goes down again in 2025.
McFaul especially noted the U.S. leadership’s role in democratic backsliding happening across the globe.
While China and Russia have become only more autocratic in the past years, McFaul said, “Donald Trump frames the world between strong and weak leaders, not democracies versus autocracies.”
Rice echoed McFaul’s sentiment, saying that the American withdrawal from global pro-democracy campaigns such as USAID is “basically creating vacuums where the Chinese could fill.”
Referencing Trump’s previous stated aims to purchase Greenland and make Canada the 51st state of the United States, Rice also said that the current administration is “democratically and internationally taking the U.S. back to the 19th century” by ignoring the rule of law.
In a discussion regarding Russia and Ukraine, McFaul said that the goal of American foreign policy should be serving American interests and values overseas, but he “does not see any of that” in the Trump administration’s dealings with Putin.
McFaul served as the U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014. Prior, McFaul worked as a senior advisor to the Obama administration in 2009 focusing on policies related to Russia.
McFaul says that “ it is embarrassing” to see that the current administration is not providing any economic assistance to Ukraine, which he believes to be important for American values.
“I can’t believe that we have to fight this bastard alone,” McFaul said, quoting from one Ukrainian source who expressed frustration at the withdrawal of U.S. support.
Vestager added that the world will change as a result of frequent U.S. foreign policy shifts. “If the U.S. comes back, it is coming back to a different world,” she said.
At the end of the discussion, the panelists expressed hope for the future of global democratic developments.
Rice called for action, especially for mass, sustained, peaceful protest in the U.S. against this administration. “We have to stand up, because if we don’t, nobody will,” she said.
McFaul said that he still holds a normative belief in the democratic system and the free world despite current analytical pessimism. He quoted Martin Luther King Jr., saying, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
“In the long run, we will always win with human rights and the rule of law,” Vestager said.