Is the US merely in crisis or is it on the road to tyranny?

Donald Trump is using age-old tactics of fear and division to undermine the US constitution and the democracy it defends

Many actions during Trump’s first term raised constitutional questions. Picture: Alex Brandon

Moving from a functioning constitutional order to tyranny takes time. So slow it is sometimes hard to tell the difference between a system going through a political crisis and one in terminal decline.

But the question facing us is whether the US, under Donald Trump, is merely in crisis or whether its current legal and political order is ending, ushering in a tyranny.