Serious journalism disguised as slop, yawn

‘Drop the arrogance, drop the exceptionalism’⁠ ⁠ Donald Trump makes no secret of his admiration for strongmen such as Hungary’s Viktor Orbán or El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele.⁠ ⁠ Last month, he praised Orbán’s hardline stance on immigration and urged European leaders to show more “respect” for the president; earlier this year his administration struck a deal with Bukele to send more than 200 detained migrants to a notorious, maximum-security prison in El Salvador.⁠ ⁠ Many international organizations, experts and historians have sounded the alarm about the United States heading in a similar direction as these authoritarian regimes.⁠ ⁠ Nearly a year into Trump’s second term, the Guardian asked activists and opposition leaders from Hungary, El Salvador and Turkey what their experiences have taught them about authoritarianism – and what they wish they’d understood sooner.⁠ ⁠ Americans “should look to other countries, especially in the global south for solutions and for what not to do”, said Ece Temelkuran, a Turkish writer and author of How to Lose a Country. “Drop the arrogance, drop the exceptionalism.”⁠