People Are Going Silent: Fearing Retribution, Trump Critics Muzzle Themselves

The silence grows louder every day.Fired federal workers who are worried about losing their homes ask not to be quoted by name.University presidents fearing that millions of dollars in federal funding could disappear are holding their fire.

Chief executives alarmed by tariffs that could hurt their businesses are on mute.Even longtime Republican hawks on Capitol Hill, stunned by President Trump’s revisionist history that Ukraine is to blame for its invasion by Russia, and his Oval Office blowup at President Volodymyr Zelensky, have either muzzled themselves, tiptoed up to criticism without naming Mr.Trump or completely reversed their positions.More than six weeks into the second Trump administration, there is a chill spreading over political debate in Washington and beyond.People on both sides of the aisle who would normally be part of the public dialogue about the big issues of the day say they are intimidated by the prospect of online attacks from Mr.

Trump and Elon Musk, concerned about harm to their companies and frightened for the safety of their families.Politicians fear banishment by a party remade in Mr.

Trump’s image and the prospect of primary opponents financed by Mr.Musk, the president’s all-powerful partner and the world’s richest man.“When you see important societal actors — be it university presidents, media outlets, C.E.O.s, mayors, governors — changing their behavior in order to avoid the wrath of the government, that’s a sign that we’ve crossed the line into some form of authoritarianism,” said Steven Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard and the co-author of the influential 2018 book “How Democracies Die.”...