Is a Revolution Ongoing in the US?

Very interesting episode of The Prof G Pod podcast: The Biggest Global Risks for 2026. The above link goes to 25:03 of that episode, where I quote Ian Bremmer below.

The full report.

So we don’t think that the US political revolution is a possibility. We think it’s happening. We just don’t know if it will be successful or not. And some people want it to be successful and others don’t, but we think it’s happening. What is it? Trump believes and his supporters agree that the political system was weaponized against him, leading to unprecedented two impeachments, felonies and convictions and.. felony charges and convictions, and a near assassination. And that that justifies urgently Trump taking political control of the administrative state, making it fully loyal to him, answerable and accountable to him, weaponizing the power ministries of the US, specifically the FBI, the Department of Justice, the IRS, other such organizations and ensuring that there are no further checks and balances that constrain the President so that the principle enemies of Trump and therefore the United States, not Russia, not China, but the Democratic Party in the US can no longer come to power.

That is what Trump is intending to do. I think he will likely fail. We can talk about why, but it is very clear through his actions and his efforts that he is on a number of different fronts attempting to bring about such a revolution. And it is also clear that the US political system has only partially been able to constrain that breakage. Breakage of erosion and erosion of norms as well as of actual checks and balances. And you know, in my lifetime I’ve seen now three revolutions that have mattered on the global stage.

The first with Deng XO pen in China, opening the economy to the global system leading to 50 years of unheralded Chinese economic growth. That was successful.

Then we saw Gorbachev’s political and economic revolution changing the nature of that system over the course of six years that led to the fall of the wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. That revolution was unsuccessful.

Now we see Trump’s political revolution, not an economic revolution, only the second revolution really attempted by a US president. The first was FDR. Trump’s is much more structurally significant than FDRs. And we make that comparison in detail in the report. And we don’t know if it’s gonna be successful. It’s actually in process right now. But given that the US is the most powerful country in the world with more allies than anyone else has that rely on it, then obviously that kind of uncertainty and structural change in the US is gonna be the top risk.

Definitely worth listening to the entire episode.