Gonul Tol: Turkey’s Erdoğan experience holds lessons for the US on Trump

Source:Financial Times Date:10Jan2024

Turkey and the US are surely different. But similar contexts have given rise to their populists: polarisation and distrust in democratic institutions. Erdoğan exploited these to turn Turkey’s imperfect democracy into an autocracy. Imagining a similar scenario in the US is not as far-fetched as it once was. The US Supreme Court could certainly solve America’s Trump problem by disqualifying him from the ballot. That, however, would only strengthen the very forces that paved the way for his rise in the first place, no matter how legally sound the court’s decision might be. For who can guarantee there will not be another Trump?