US Democracy Under Pressure, Oil As A Weapon, And Believing In The Apocalypse

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Welcome to our press review of events in the United States. Every Wednesday I look at how the Swiss media have reported and reacted to three major stories in the US – in politics, finance and science. Select your language

Generated with artificial intelligence. Listening: US democracy under pressure, oil as a weapon, and believing in the apocalypse This content was published on March 18, 2026 - 17:00 9 minutes

I write articles on the Swiss Abroad and“Swiss Oddities” as well as weekly briefings and press reviews. I also translate, edit and sub-edit articles for the English department and do voiceover work for videos. Born in London, I have a degree in German/Linguistics and was a journalist at The Independent before moving to Bern in 2005. I speak all three official Swiss languages and enjoy travelling the country and practising them, above all in pubs, restaurants and gelaterias.

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US President Donald Trump is dismantling democracy at an unprecedented rate, says Swiss public broadcaster SRF, analysing an annual international report on democracy.“The midterm elections in November can stop this – or accelerate it,” it says.

“Nowhere is democracy being dismantled as quickly and comprehensively as in the United States,” SRF wrote on Tuesday, the day the V-Dem Institute at Gothenburg University published its annual report on the health of democracy around the world.

“The general conditions for a functioning democracy are deteriorating on various fronts in the US,” SRF said in a dispiriting analysis.“The check on power by parliament is virtually non-existent – Trump rules by decree and Congress and the Senate do nothing to counter this. Civil rights and equality before the law have fallen back to the level of the late 1960s. Freedom of speech is at its lowest level since the end of the Second World War.”

Swiss news portal Watson pointed out that the US had lost its long-term status as a liberal democracy – for the first time in over 50 years.

It should be said, however, that the US is not on its own when it comes to democratic backsliding.“Never before have so many countries become autocratised at the same time as in the past few years,” Watson said on Wednesday.“While a trend towards autocratisation was identified in 12 countries in 2005, by 2025 this had risen to 44 countries.” Of these, five are in Europe: Italy, the UK, Croatia, Slovenia and Slovakia.

SRF thinks the Democrats' chances of overturning the Republican majority in the autumn elections are good, at least in Congress. But it warned there were increasing signs that Trump wants to gain control of the midterm elections. SRF quoted Gréta Bedekovics, director of the left-leaning Center for American Progress:“There are major concerns about whether the 2026 elections will be free and fair. We're seeing very overt efforts, including the presence of the federal police or possibly even the military at polling stations, to deter people,” she said.

SRF concluded that the midterms were therefore also an important opportunity for the US to assert itself as a democracy and put the brakes on autocratisation.“Experience in other countries shows that the first elections after an autocratisation process has started are the most important for reversing the trend.”

US democracy under pressureExternal link – SRF analysis (German)

Coverage of the V-Dem reportExternal link – Watson (German)

V-Dem democracy report 2026External link

Global democracy in 2026: what's on the horizon? – Swissinfo

Donald Trump wanted a quick victory against Iran – but he overlooked the fact that his enemy could use oil as a weapon, says the Tages-Anzeiger.

“What's now happening to US President Donald Trump seems almost unreal,” the Zurich paper wrote on Monday.“He has started a war against Iran without considering that the Islamic Republic might use oil as a weapon. By their own admission, Trump's people didn't prepare for the obvious possibility that Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz and thereby stop a fifth of global supplies. Now he's demanding that NATO partners help secure the strait. He is threatening the alliance with a 'very bad future' if the allies don't follow his orders.”

“Who could have imagined that a 33-kilometre-wide sea passage between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman would so destabilise Donald Trump's America?” asked Le Temps on Tuesday.

“Such is the panic in the White House that Donald Trump, who has scorned the members of NATO and the European Union since returning to the Oval Office, is now begging for their help in ensuring transit under military escort through the Strait of Hormuz,” the Geneva paper continued.“But forming a coalition, as George HW Bush did during the first Gulf War, requires planning beforehand rather than afterwards. The European countries are right to refuse such a request – to avoid being dragged into a war with no goal and no end in sight. And out of dignity.”

The consequences are also affecting the US president domestically, according to the Tages-Anzeiger.“Trump has praised himself for driving down prices and making the US 'energy independent' for the first time in decades. Not through the expansion of renewable energies, for which Trump can only muster contempt, but through unrestrained oil and gas production in his own country. However, it's now clear that Trump's understanding of energy independence is deceptive. It's true insofar as the US produces more energy than it consumes. But its refineries still need imported crude oil, which means that the US is not detached from the global oil markets and their disruptions,” the paper wrote.

“That's why American motorists now have to pay more, and the petrol station is becoming Trump's toughest opponent. At the pump, his fellow citizens remember that he was elected on the promise of lower prices. His supporters expect him to beat inflation, not Iran.”

Le Temps pointed out that petrol in the US now costs an average of $3.72 (CHF2.92) per gallon (3.78 litres), an increase of 25% since the start of the war on February 28.“If the rise continues, the Republicans are certain to lose the midterm elections in November.”

'Trump's toughest opponent is the petrol station'External link – Tages-Anzeiger analysis (German, paywall)

'The oil trap is closing in on Donald Trump'External link – Le Temps editorial (French)

Temporary lifting of US sanctions on Russian oil in response to rising pricesExternal link – RTS (French)

Apocalypse now? One in three Americans thinks the world will end in their lifetime, the Tages-Anzeiger reports. Deeply religious people believe this just as much as secular citizens, but how does this influence their thoughts and actions?

The belief in the imminent end of the world is so widespread that it represents“an unexpected point of agreement in the polarised climate of the US”, wrote the authors of a study at the University of British Columbia. This view unites“very different communities, including Pentecostal preachers, nuclear scientists, climate change activists, UFO cults, rural doomsday preppers and artificial intelligence engineers”.

According to the Tages-Anzeiger,“belief in the apocalypse is therefore no longer a religious privilege – the scientific community is also one of the most vociferous warning voices”.

The Zurich newspaper said that while previous studies had made the“obvious link” that people who expect the world to end soon are less concerned about how they want to shape the future – because this future will soon no longer exist – the analysis of the data from almost 3,500 participants in the current study revealed“a more complex picture”.

In a nutshell, people who see human influences as the trigger are more likely to support drastic measures than those who believe in supernatural causes.

However, the data also showed that if test subjects associated positive feelings with the supposedly imminent disaster, they were more likely to support extreme measures to prevent it.“An initially confusing finding,” the Tages-Anzeiger admitted.“After all, the prospect of the end of the world triggers good feelings only if something better awaits – paradise or something similar.”

So where does the motivation to prevent this come from? One possible explanation, according to the psychologists, is that it is mainly radical people who welcome the end of the world.“And radicals,” the Tages-Anzeiger concluded,“tend to be in favour of radical measures, regardless of whether paradise is coming or not”.

One in three Americans expects to experience the end of the world themselvesExternal link – Tages-Anzeiger (German, paywall)

The next edition of 'Swiss views of US news' will be published on Wednesday, March 25. See you then!

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