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.
Iranian director Jafar Panahi's latest movie, It Was Just An Accident,
Shot and Secret in Tehran, is nominated for two Oscars.
In it,
a group of misfits roam around in a white van trying to figure out what to do with the person they just kidnapped.
One of the women is wearing a wedding dress the whole time.
One of the men is a hothead, perpetually at 11.
They bicker about what to do with their victim, who is sedated and locked in a box.
It's the setup for a caper.