I'm Ann Applebaum.
Over the past year, as I watched Donald Trump demand unprecedented new powers, I wondered,
don't he and his team fear that these same powers could one day be used by a different administration and a different president to achieve very different goals?
Well, maybe they are afraid.
And maybe that's why they're using their new tools to change our institutions,
even to alter the playing field in advance of midterm elections later this year.
to make sure their opponents can't win.
Ultimately, destroying trust is the currency of autocrats.
We could win, but we are very, very,
very likely to lose if we keep treating this as business as usual.
Reporting on the sweeping changes unfolding in our country and preparing you to think about what might happen next.
The new season of Autocracy in America, available now.
Seven years ago, around this time, the Washington Post ran an ad in the Super Bowl.
Democracy dies in darkness.
It showed scenes of fires, explosions, floods, tanks,
and journalists who have risked their lives for their profession,
all with swelling music and a voiceover by Tom Hanks.
Knowing helps us decide.
Knowing keeps us free.
But then just before the Super Bowl this year,