Is Trump’s America becoming a FAILED STATE?

What happens when a democracy stops functioning like one

Donald Trump’s America is becoming a failed state. I don’t say that lightly. The phrase “failed state” sounds like something reserved for fragile nations halfway around the world, not the United States of America. But when you strip away the slogans and look squarely at the facts, the data, and the reality in our communities, it starts to resemble what international observers describe as a country in decline.

You can see it with your own eyes. Walk through any major American city. Tent encampments stretch for blocks, filled with people who have become economic refugees in their own country. In the Rust Belt, towns that once had thriving factories are now hollowed out, with dollar stores, payday lenders, and opioid addiction taking their place.

I was recently in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It was grim. In Flint, Michigan, and Jackson, Mississippi, people still cannot trust their tap water. Newark has faced similar problems. Water mains from the 1800s are still in use, and some bridges appear to be held together more by luck than structure. The American Society of Civil Engineers gives our infrastructure a C-minus. That grade is not for a college essay; it is for whether the bridge you drive over will hold. Remember “Infrastructure Week”? It became a national punchline under Trump. Now it is 2025, and the joke has worn thin. The bridges are still breaking, the pipes are still leaking, and nothing meaningful has been fixed.

Meanwhile, Americans are rationing insulin. People start GoFundMes to pay for cancer treatments. Some take an Uber to the hospital because an ambulance costs too much. Trump has been promising a new health care plan for years. It is still two weeks away. Always two weeks away. And while we wait, American life expectancy continues to fall. That does not happen in developed countries. It happens in places facing civil conflict, famine, or institutional collapse.

Our schools tell another story of decay. Teachers cannot afford to live near the districts they serve. Many are leaving the profession altogether. In rural America, we are banning books like it is 1984, including sometimes the book 1984 itself. Trump’s allies now suggest eliminating the Department of Education entirely. Other countries that lack a functioning national education system are called failed states.

But the real collapse is deeper than infrastructure or education. What truly defines a failed state is the breakdown of shared reality. The social fabric is coming apart. Americans can no longer agree on basic facts. We cannot agree on who won an election, whether vaccines work, or whether January 6 was a peaceful protest or an insurrection. Armed militias are stockpiling weapons, convinced that society is on the brink. And they might not be entirely wrong, because the signs of decay are all around them.

Billionaires launch themselves into space for recreation while children in Appalachia do not have clean drinking water. The wealth gap now rivals the Gilded Age. The richest Americans live in an entirely different country, one with private jets and personal islands, while millions of working people can barely survive. That is not a healthy democracy. It is an oligarchy wearing the costume of a republic.

And what are our leaders doing while all this unfolds? Republicans are arguing about whether drag queens should be allowed to read to children, or whether cartoon candies are feminine enough for Tucker Carlson’s taste. Democrats, meanwhile, are often so intent on finding common ground that they refuse to call out the collapse for what it is. Too many people are afraid to say the quiet part out loud: that we might already be heading toward failure.

There is a psychological reason for that silence. People worry that whoever names the problem will be blamed for it. If you say America is failing, someone will accuse you of hating your country. But ignoring reality does not make it go away. Pretending everything is fine while the ceiling caves in does not make you patriotic. It makes you part of the problem.

I take no joy in saying any of this. I would love to tell you that everything is great, that America is thriving, that we are number one in the ways that matter. But we are not. We are number one in incarceration. We are number one in health care costs. We are number one in military spending. Meanwhile, our infrastructure is collapsing, our schools are struggling, and our citizens are suffering. The people in power either cannot fix it or will not fix it.

This is not about being pessimistic. It is about being honest. Millions of Americans, including seven million in the “No Kings” movement, showed that people still care about democracy. That is a sign of hope. But optimism without action is just denial with better packaging.

Trump is not the cause of this decline. He is a symptom of it. The decay began long before he entered politics, but his rise accelerated it. His administration normalized corruption, lies, and contempt for institutions. He did not create these problems, but he made them worse, and his movement continues to erode what little trust remains in our system.

If we keep pretending there is nothing we can do, then we are choosing decline. But if we face the truth head-on, if we acknowledge what is happening and decide that failure is not acceptable, then we still have a chance to rebuild. The millions of people who turned out for democracy showed that hope is not dead. The question is whether we will turn that hope into action before the collapse becomes permanent.

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—David

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