Retired federal judge J. Michael Luttig, a longtime figure in the conservative legal movement, continues to raise serious concerns about President Donald Trump as the president moves deeper into his second term. Like attorney George Conway, Luttig became a prominent Never Trumper and publicly supported Democratic nominee Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential election, warning that a Trump victory would threaten the rule of law and push the country toward authoritarianism.
Now nearly 11 months into Trump’s second presidency, Luttig says those fears have only intensified. During a December 14 episode of How to Fix It, a vodcast hosted by conservative outlet The Bulwark, Luttig joined host John Avlon, formerly of CNN, and former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to discuss the state of American democracy and possible paths forward.
Luttig, who now serves alongside Johnson as a co-chair of the American Bar Association’s bipartisan Task Force on American Democracy, argued that the Republican Party’s approach to voting rights is especially troubling. He warned that Republicans heading into 2025 “almost universally favor more limited access to voting because they believe that the political demographics have moved away from them.”
Speaking directly to Avlon and Johnson, Luttig delivered a stark assessment of the current moment. “The president of the United States has literally corrupted America’s democracy and its rule of law,” he said. “For the first time in American history, in almost 250 years, America has never experienced anything like this at all. Not a single time in American history.”
Despite his dire warnings, Luttig also pointed to solutions he believes could help stabilize the country’s democratic foundations. One of his primary recommendations was renewed investment in civics education, which he described as essential to restoring trust and participation in democratic processes.
“For years now, there has been a decline in the civics knowledge of American citizens…,” Luttig told Avlon and Johnson. “You cannot have a democracy that is enforced by partisans at the election booth. That, of course, is what has occurred over the past several cycles. We must fix this if we fix nothing else.”
Johnson echoed those concerns and focused on what he described as a growing national “distrust of government.” He argued that conspiracy theories and extreme rhetoric have hollowed out public confidence in democratic institutions.
“We talk about how Americans distrust their government…,” Johnson said. “Trust in government has spiraled downward. Americans are drowning in conspiracy theories; they’re deeply suspicious of the institutions of government.”
Johnson placed much of the blame on political leaders themselves, saying they have “pandered to that level of suspicion with extreme rhetoric” to energize both ends of the political spectrum. As a remedy, he proposed structural reforms aimed at rewarding moderation rather than extremism.
“The way you reincentivize political behavior is you get politicians incentivized to appeal to the political center as opposed to the political extremes,” Johnson said. “Open nonpartisan primaries are a big step in that direction.”
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