Author: Natasha Lindstaedt, Professor in the Department of Government, University of Essex

There is nothing more dangerous than an autocrat who has managed to dupe the public into thinking that they are good at managing the economy, or are the key to maintaining security. That the Trump years saw reasonable levels of economic and job growth while inflation stayed under control, helped the public look the other way from the constant stream of warnings that Trump was the biggest threat to democracy since the civil war. But will the US actually fall to autocracy? Full blown authoritarianism is unlikely, but the signs are clear that the US will at the very least…