@rorytruex.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton, host of The Civic Forum podcast (https://www.youtube.com/user/rorytruex). Subscribe on Substack: https://rorytruex.substack.com/
Full Substack post here: rorytruex.substack.com/p/word-of-th...
04.03.2026 20:10 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0"Trash-talking democracy" - a new concept every American needs to know. Budding dictators attack democratic institutions as corrupt, unresponsive, or captured by foreign interests. This provides the pretext for them to “reform” said institutions in ways that erode guardrails in the system.
04.03.2026 20:10 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0I am such a huge fan Elle! Keep it up!
04.03.2026 20:06 — 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
The Civic Forum 🚨NEW EPISODE🚨
Last week I spoke with @marceldirsus.com on his perspective on American authoritarianism, why strongmen are actually weak, and the long term costs of the US-Europe breakup.
Link in the replies 👇
There goes $300 million dollars.
02.03.2026 20:08 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Got invited by @rorytruex.bsky.social to discuss American democracy and US-EU relations. I told him both are in crisis because of Trump. But, as always, there's hope. Watch below:
youtu.be/fOy1uuKo-vs?...
Had the honor of joining Edi on @sinobabble.bsky.social to talk about the dismal state of US-China academic exchange.
open.substack.com/pub/sinobabb...
youtu.be/aSOgiQbohk4?...
Also on Spotify, Apple Podcast, or anywhere you get your pods: open.spotify.com/episode/3h12...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/n...
The Civic Forum 🚨NEW EPISODE🚨
This week I spoke with Stephen Cash of the @thesteadystate.org on the authoritarian threats posed by Trump, the rise of ICE, how the intelligence community has changed under Trump 2.0, and the consequences for national security and democracy.
Link in the replies 👇
Why does the United States need to better understand China?
Rory Truex (@princeton.edu) joined us to discuss the high barriers to studying China and the consequences a lack of China expertise could have for the future of U.S. foreign policy.
▶️ Watch: https://www.ncuscr.org/video/china-expertise/
You should read this. It is the type of detail that experts in authoritarian regimes see as telling.
In this case, state agents are offered impunity from higher ups, and the legal system is rendered inoperative as a mode of accountability.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/u...
The top fraud experts in the office left. So did...a veteran in prosecuting sex crimes & child pornography cases. Calhoun-Lopez, who oversaw the major violent crimes unit, also departed. “It will take years to build the contacts in state and local law enforcement that has been lost,” Mr. Luger said.
07.02.2026 14:14 — 👍 5 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
Name them
shame them
The majority of organizing happening in Minnesota isn’t just peaceful, it’s INVISIBLE. Moms showing up who won’t be interviewed on TV, people whose ICE patrols don’t turn into viral video. The grocery runs, the donations, the people filming bc they happen to be there. Please remember this.
25.01.2026 17:00 — 👍 17464 🔁 4325 💬 143 📌 119Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara: "People have had enough. This is the third shooting in less than 3 weeks. The MPD went the entire year last year recovering about 900 guns from the street, arresting hundreds of violent offenders, and we didn't shoot anyone ... this is not sustainable."
25.01.2026 15:47 — 👍 50086 🔁 16352 💬 1164 📌 633Just staggered by the complete moral void of not even *pretending* to wait for more information before pivoting to “the opponent of the state deserved it.” It is so insanely depraved. Soulless.
24.01.2026 19:34 — 👍 9397 🔁 1991 💬 144 📌 54
From Civic Forum interview with Paul Poast:
"Go back to 1895, New York. Find a businessman, bring him to the present, make him president of the United States, and then ask yourself what would make sense to him and what would make no sense to him."
open.spotify.com/episode/6836...
This has been the plan all along.
- Foment violence and chaos in the streets of MN
- Implement the Insurrection Act
- Declare Martial Law
- Suspend elections
@chrislhayes.bsky.social: “A 37-year-old American citizen, the mother of a young child is dead tonight. She was shot in the face by an agent of the federal government, and that government has spent the day telling despicable lies about her.”
08.01.2026 01:05 — 👍 27420 🔁 9376 💬 630 📌 378
I am impeaching Secretary Kristi Noem, who is an incompetent leader and a disgrace to our democracy.
She wreaked havoc in the Chicagoland area and has brought her reign of terror to Minneapolis. One of her rogue ICE agents shot and killed an innocent woman today. It must come to an end.
Distraught woman says ICE killed her wife in video after deadly Minneapolis shooting "They killed my wife," the distraught woman says, adding, "They shot her in the head." An ICE agent shot and killed a 37-year-old woman who was driving an SUV in Minneapolis on Wednesday. / Screenshot/@Breaking911
"They killed my wife. I don't know what to do," the woman says through sobs in the footage, with a damaged SUV visible in the distance behind her. "We stopped to videotape, and they shot her in the head," the woman cries. "We have a six-year-old at school," she says, almost unable to breathe, as a chaotic scene in which federal officers prevented at least one doctor who was on the scene from assisting the shot victim unfolds. "We're new here," the distraught woman says in despair.
You and your wife drop your 6-year-old off at school. You just moved here. You see ICE terrorizing your new neighbors. You film them, as is your legal right. Your wife complies with orders. She is then shot in the head. You still have to pick up your child later today.
This could be you.
I wrote up a Year in Review for 2025, “Our Authoritarian Year.” So much has happened, I tried to synthesize the story into chapters— The Authoritarian Onslaught, Overreach, Popular Backlash, and Defection. I am optimistic about the chapters to come in 2026.
open.substack.com/pub/rorytrue...
The White House claims the vote to rename the Kennedy Center was “unanimous.” That is false. I was muted on the call and denied the opportunity to speak or register my opposition. That is not consensus. That is censorship.
18.12.2025 19:42 — 👍 15190 🔁 5748 💬 291 📌 450Come for the insightful analysis from Michael, stay for my lite conspiracy theories about oil at the end. Thanks Michael for joining, I learned a lot from our conversation.
18.12.2025 16:39 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0My conversation with Princeton Professor Rory Truex on the American confrontation with Venezuela: where it's coming from and where it could be headed
18.12.2025 14:30 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
Will Maduro hold onto power? Why is Trump so interested in Venezeula? What are the best paths forward for the Venezuelan people? @mikealbertus.bsky.social came on The Civic Forum this week to break down all things Venezuela. Available wherever you get your pods: youtu.be/iHTnb2wO2SA
16.12.2025 20:52 — 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 1
Just when I thought I couldn't admire the man more...
🎯 🎯 🎯 💯 💯 💯 👍 👍 👍
MAGAZINER: How many veterans have you deported?
NOEM: We haven't deported veterans
MAGAZINER: We are now joined on Zoom by a combat veteran you deported to Korea
Last week I had @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social on The Civic Forum to talk about the state of American democracy, and the role that state politics is playing in our authoritarian turn. Particularly relevant for the unfolding situation in Texas. youtu.be/tbxCMSwJ-o4
10.12.2025 16:46 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
