(Washington) The degree of freedom in the United States has reached its lowest level ever recorded, the American NGO Freedom House said Thursday, which denotes an authoritarian drift by Donald Trump.
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According to this Washington-based NGO which defends individual freedoms, freedom has eroded around the world in 2025 for the 20e consecutive year, a “sad milestone” according to her.
The United States retained the “free” rating, but its score fell to 81 points out of 100, its lowest score since the publication of this index in 1972.
This score places the United States on par with South Africa and below a number of European allies, as well as South Korea and Panama.
The non-profit organization, which receives subsidies from the American government, establishes a ranking each year, on the basis of an index including for each country the degree of democracy and civil liberties.
The Trump administration, however, reduced its subsidies, no longer making democracy promotion a priority.
The decline in the United States is due to “both legislative dysfunction and executive dominance, increasing pressure on citizens’ ability to express themselves freely, and efforts by the new administration to undermine anti-corruption measures,” Freedom House said.
Since returning to office more than a year ago, President Donald Trump has ordered the shutdown of entire government agencies and deployed armed, masked anti-immigration agents across the country.
The United States fell three points, a drop experienced by only one other “free” country, Bulgaria, where the 2024 elections were marred by allegations of fraud.
Overall, only 21% of the world’s population lives in countries classified as “free.”
Over the past two decades, globally, “far more countries have fallen into the ‘unfree’ category than those that have democratized,” noted Cathryn Grothe, an analyst at Freedom House and co-author of the report.
“The world is becoming less and less free, the middle zone is shrinking, while free countries remain relatively stable,” she added.
On a positive note, three countries moved from the “partly free” category to “free”: Bolivia and Malawi, which both held competitive elections, and Fiji, which strengthened the rule of law.
The only country that scores a perfect 100 for freedom is Finland. In contrast, only South Sudan received a score of 0.
