US placed on rights watchlist over health of its civil society under Trump
Guardian3 days
South Africa Rights Group Keeps US on Watchlist
Above: U.S. Marines and National Guard troops outside a federal building in Los Angeles amid "No Kings" protests on July 4, 2025. Image copyright: Etienne Laurent/AFP/Getty Images
The Spin
Democratic narrative
CIVICUS has again sounded the alarms that the current Trump administration may have dire and difficult-to-reverse effects on the American democracy as the U.S. president and his allies behave in the same way that dictatorial regimes often do. That Trump has authoritarian tendencies is no surprise, but the deployment of the military against protesters in Los Angeles and the use of force against journalists cross any red lines.
Republican narrative
This announcement is nothing but another political statement on the Trump administration — and one that shows that the globalist elite is in despair. After all, the George Soros-backed CIVICUS Monitor placed the U.S. on its watchlist only after USAID funding cuts, obviously indicating that this is mere retaliation rather than an objective evaluation of each country's civic space.