A Political Revolution In US? Ian Bremmer Explains To NDTV What It Means

The United States is in the midst of a political revolution, with President Donald Trump attempting to systematically dismantle the checks on his power, capture the machinery of government, and weaponise it against his enemies, said Ian Bremmer, the chief of the Eurasia Group.

In an exclusive interview with NDTV's Editor-in-Chief and CEO Rahul Kanwal, Bremmer noted that Trump believes that the Democratic Opposition is the principal enemy of him and the entire United States, and therefore, he wants to break the "checks and balances on the executive authority of the American president before 2028."

"The belief is that President Trump sees that the US political system was weaponised by the Democrats against him and led to an unprecedented two impeachments, unprecedented felony charges and convictions, and sadly, a near assassination," the Eurasia Group chief noted. 

"He considers, on the basis of that, that the principal enemy of the United States and of President Trump himself, of course, is not the Russians, not the Chinese, not the Iranians, not the North Koreans, but is inside the United States. It's the Democratic opposition," he added.

Bremmer said as a consequence of that, Trump, with urgency, is weaponising the power ministries in the US, especially the Justice Department and the FBI.

"He (Trump) must control and politicise the administrative state, and he must break the checks and balances on executive authority of the American president before 2028. That is urgent, because otherwise he and his family and others are going to go to jail. And so, that is the political revolution that is underway in the United States," he said.

Over the past year, since Trump returned to the White House for the second term, the Republican leader has made sure that weaponisation and politicisation of the US political process are far greater than any observers had expected at the beginning of 2025, Bremmer noted.

"And the resistance has been more spotty and less strong than any observers would have expected in 2025. So, that is, and of course, because the United States is the most powerful country in the world, a political revolution in the US is a pretty big deal," he added. 

In 2025, the Trump administration moved to politicise the state, with career civil servants purged for political rather than performance-related reasons, from investigating corruption and providing unwelcome intelligence assessments to having ties to political enemies. Inspectors general, ethics watchdogs, and independent agency leaders were sacked.

The power ministries – especially the Justice Department and the FBI – became fully political arms of the White House, stripped of the operational independence that had insulated them since Watergate. Media companies, law firms, and universities faced investigations, lawsuits, and threats designed to force compliance.