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Anne Applebaum in conversation on The Paul Wells Show after the release of the paperback version of her book Autocracy, Inc. in which she has written a new preface after the re-election of Donald Trump as President, whom she describes as 'a president who is not especially interested in democracy or democracies'. Applebaum points out that the preface was written a few months ago and while trying not to be fearmongering, admits that it is now somewhat of an understatement. America is under President Trump sharing many of the same practices and behaviours of autocracies. American foreign policy is being sacrified to the will of the President and his family.
She points out that during his campaign 'he talked about his enemies as vermin' and 'by enemies he meant democrats and judges and journalists', 'using the kind of language that has never been used in US presidential politics before'.
The fact that a lot of people must have chosen not to believe it, she sees as a lack of imagination in that Americans are so confident in their system that they cannot imagine it being undermined to this degree.
Another point that Americans may not be able imagine and that Applebaum makes clear, is that automatic trust and faith in the United States from democratic nations has gone and won't come back. Democratic nations can and will form political and trade alliances that do not include America.
