Is Trump Losing? A Debate
About this episode
Zack Beauchamp and Andrew Marantz debate whether Trump is actually losing his bid to consolidate authoritarian power. Beauchamp, drawing on his Vox essay, argues the project is failing: courts keep ruling for targeted students, the press hasn't been neutralized, and universities — Harvard, the Big Ten compact — are resisting rather than bending. Marantz, reporting from Hungary and Columbia, counters that hybrid regimes hollow out institutions and chill speech while opposition stays visible; disappearances like Mahmoud Khalil's and open Supreme Court defiance already mark real losses. They agree America sits in 'quantum superposition' — early enough that trajectories can still shift — and that the old order may already be gone, leaving an interregnum between political orders. They close on what to watch: the Supreme Court, media compliance, and strain in Trump's coalition.