section_path: Historical evaluations and public opinion/Evaluations
section_name: Evaluations
paragraph_text: Evaluations
  
  Professor Christina Pagel mapped the first actions of the Trump administration in a Venn diagram that identifies "five broad domains that correspond to features of proto-authoritarian states". These five domains are: undermining democratic institutions and the rule of law, dismantling federal government; dismantling social protections and rights, enrichment and corruption; suppressing dissent and controlling information; attacking science, environment, health, arts and education; aggressive foreign policy and global destabilization.
  
  Journalist Martin Sandu and authoritarian politics researcher Alex Norris described the maximalist interpretation of executive power in Trump's second term as president, including sweeping executive orders, the federal funding freeze, actions against political opponents and the media, pardons of those involved in the 2021 attempted self-coup, the actions of Elon Musk 's Department of Government Efficiency, and the like as an attempted self-coup. Political scientist Lee Morgenbesser argued the actions of DOGE are a form of state capture.