Charlie Kirk’s killing last month has sparked fears that the United States is headed to an all-out second civil war or revolution. According to a YouGov survey earlier this year, “more Americans than not believe it is likely that the United States will see a civil war over the next decade” while several hundred political scientists and historians in an April 2025 survey saw the U.S. slipping into authoritarianism with Trump’s second term. Trump’s deployment of the military at home, combined with his vow to suppress “the enemy within” while his domestic advisor, Stephen Miller labels the Democratic Party a domestic extremist organization, can easily be seen as setting the stage for an authoritarian takeover.
