The Threat Index, Vol. 2: The Top 100 Threats to American Democracy

This new global assessment offers a journalistic perspective on which individuals pose the gravest danger to American democracy—as confirmed by major-media reporting.

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{Note: Due to the layout of the Threat Index, it is best viewed on either a desktop or laptop. You can find the first edition of the Index at this link.}

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Introduction

Professional journalism has undergone a sea change over the last eight years. One of the most momentous shifts we’ve seen is the emergence of a new genre of journalism we might denominate “democracy journalism”—journalism that aims to establish the state of American democracy.

This recent report by The Daily Beast is one example of such journalism.

As you might imagine, democracy journalism can be done well or poorly, responsibly or irresponsibly, via long-form investigative reporting or short-form metajournalism.

But one component we always see in such reporting is an attempt to identify current threats to the continuation of America’s democratic experiment. Sometimes these threats are voter-suppression statutes; sometimes it’s the rise of an anti-democratic militia movement; sometimes it comes in the form of partisan redistricting; and sometimes we encounter revelations about a burgeoning plot to interfere with or steal a U.S. election—whether that threat hails from inside the United States or outside it.

But sometimes the reporting just focuses on a single individual who’s come to be seen as a unique threat—a clear and present danger—to maintaining American governance as democratic and representative rather than autocratic and tyrannical.

We’re in a moment in American history that’s reminiscent of the 1850s, inasmuch as—whether or not America is actually headed toward mass civil unrest—it is possible to identify U.S. citizens and foreign nationals who’ve made it their explicit or implicit project to to bring an end to American democracy as we know it. And as a U.S. media outlet focused on curatorial journalism, open-source intelligence (OSINT), and other forms of metajournalism rather than conventional on-location news reportage, Proof is well positioned to zoom out from individual acts of “democracy journalism” to try to determine what, in sum, they’re telling us about the state of American democracy.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but “democracy metajournalism” is advanced—and can readily be advanced at this sensitive moment in American history here at Proof—by stating with specificity which men and women, both at home and abroad, both in and out of government, presently pose a threat to American democracy.

And Proof can offer a further service by tracking this question over time and thereby revealing what otherwise might be missed: subtle alterations in the threat trajectories we’re seeing in anti-democratic movements both domestically and overseas.

With all this in mind, this Threat Index—available only at Proof—has been created.

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The Threat Index

Though the ranking below identifies a hundred individuals rightly regarded as clear and present dangers to the preservation of American democracy, Proof is now—and has always been—categorically opposed to harassment, intimidation, and vigilantism.

The purpose of this index is to identify individuals who, based on their public actions as reported by reliable major media, have positioned themselves as being eligible for peaceful, legal, and judicious remonstration by one or more of several applicable justice systems and proxy justice systems: (1) cultural, (2) market, (3) professional, (4) civil, (5) regulatory, (6) criminal, (7) diplomatic or (8) military. Nothing in this Index should be construed as wishing harm of any kind to any of the individuals below, or be taken as an accusation of a specific course of wrongdoing (as where such accusations are intended, they will be clearly indicated in reports published under separate title).

The focus of this listing is exclusively on how existing cultural, ethical, legal, market, administrative and geopolitical pressures can be brought to bear on those who have engaged in conduct that may threaten American democracy and its institutions.

For instance, cultural repercussions for such malfeasance might include shunning; market repercussions might include boycotts; professional repercussions might include referrals to state bar associations; regulatory repercussions might include increased federal oversight or the passage of new regulations to close loopholes; civil repercussions might include injunctive relief or tort litigation; criminal repercussions might include investigation, arrest, and prosecution; diplomatic repercussions might include some substantive change in the current diplomatic relationship between the United States and another country; and military repercussions could range from the United States refusing to continue providing military assistance to another country or even as dramatic a development as engaging in new hostile military operations abroad.

Readers should remember that the Threat Index is composed from an Americocentric perspective, so it’s not a measure of the worst or most dangerous people on Earth but specifically only those who threaten the continuation of the American democratic experiment. For this reason, one might find a given American politician ranked much higher on this list than, say, a foreign terrorist; this isn’t a measure of the comparative dangerousness of the parties but rather which one is better positioned to pose a threat to American democracy. As one might imagine, with a number of notable exceptions, the biggest threats to American democracy can be found inside America’s borders.

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How the Index Works

Some of those whose names appear on this Index may be eligible for certain of the penalties broadly referenced above; others may not be eligible for any penalties at all.

Consider, for instance, an independent 2024 presidential candidate who has decided to run for the highest office of the land merely out of vanity, folly, and/or a misguided sense of right and wrong. Such a person may not deserve any formal censure—those who are eligible have a right to run for President of the United States if they wish—yet might still be enough of a threat to democracy, given the odds of a third-party run in the 2024 presidential election leading to an anti-democratic second Donald Trump administration, to be deserving of a shunning in American culture; significant direct critique by experts, academics, and media; or simply an appearance on a list like this.

Individuals in the list below are preceded by a yellow box if they haven’t been moved up or down on the Threat Index since its last iteration. Individuals who have become a greater threat to American democracy since the prior edition of the Index are shown with a red box, while those who have become less of a threat are preceded by a green box. First-time entrants to the list receive an orange box.

The nationality of each entrant to the list is indicated via the flag of his or her country.

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Changes in This Edition

Individuals move up or down in these rankings based on myriad factors. For instance, Alex Jones has moved down slightly due to being financially ruined; Rupert Murdoch due to his semi-retirement for health reasons; Mitch McConnell due to his failing health, and therefore reduced efficacy; Ronna McDaniel because she’s about to lose her job; Ginni Thomas because there are so many eyes on her now that she can’t be as effective an enemy of American democracy as she once was (and the same goes, albeit to a lesser extent due to her facing somewhat lesser scrutiny, for her best friend Cleta Mitchell).

Just so, Ron DeSantis dropped out of the GOP primary and was forced to admit that some of his major policy initiatives in Florida have been failures; Lauren Boebert had a sex scandal and divorce-proceeding fiasco that caused her to start avoiding much of her usual the limelight (coupled with her running feud with Marjorie Taylor Greene, who’s now on Donald Trump’s VP shortlist, and her horrid showing in a GOP primary straw poll in her new congressional district, Boebert has seen her once-bright MAGA star diminish significantly); and Cornel West is proving to be a polling non-entity.

Other figures who have dropped in the rankings include a number of foreign leaders who have begun working to end the Israel-Gaza War rather than to stoke its fires.

On the other side of the coin, Robert Kennedy Jr. currently leads (albeit by just one point) both Joe Biden and Donald Trump with voters aged18 to 45; Tucker Carlson has gotten much more aggressive about spreading Russia propaganda in the United States; Elon Musk is now openly spreading “Great Replacement Theory” on a daily basis, as well as spreading vile election-related disinformation on a near-daily basis; Elise Stefanik, J.D. Vance and Vivek Ramaswamy are now Trump VP-list shortlisters, causing them to amp up their anti-democratic rhetoric significantly; Greg Abbott has orchestrated a dangerous constitutional crisis in Texas over the ongoing border crisis; the FBI says that China is prepared to launch, should the U.S. interfere with its plans for Taiwan, a massive attack on America’s communications infrastructure, leading its president Xi Jinping to move up in these rankings (in part because these same attacks could be leveraged to cause chaos during the 2024 U.S. presidential election); and many people who were already ranked very high in the ranking—for instance Stephen Miller, Stew Peters, Erik Prince, David Sacks, Kari Lake, Ken Paxton, and Newt Gingrich—have recently taken steps to increase their public profiles significantly.

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Key

🟨 = Current Threat Index Entrant (No Movement)
🟥 = Current Threat Index Entrant (Upward Movement)
🟩 = Current Threat Index Entrant (Downward Movement)
🟧 = New Threat Index Entrant (First Appearance)
🟫 = Current Threat Index Entrant (Foreign Democracies Only)
🟪 = Possible Future Threat Index Entrant (Just Missed the Cut)
⬛️ = Formerly Listed Threats (Off the List)

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Threat Index: The Top 100 Threats to American Democracy

{with ranking, recent Index movement, nationality, and title; the appearance of a name on this list doesn’t indicate or assess whether the individual in question is guilty of criminal conduct}*

01 | 🟨 | 🇺🇸 | Donald Trump, former POTUS
02 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Elon Musk, owner of Twitter (or “X”)
03 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Steve Bannon, adviser to Donald Trump
04 | 🟥 | 🇷🇺 | Vladimir Putin, president of Russia
05 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), Speaker of the U.S. House
06 | 🟧 | 🇺🇸 | Jack Posobiec, propagandist at Human Events
07 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Tucker Carlson, propagandist on Twitter
08 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Charlie Kirk, CEO of Turning Point
09 | 🟨 | 🇮🇱 | Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel
10 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Robert Kennedy Jr. (I-VA), presidential candidate
11 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Stephen Miller, adviser to Donald Trump
12 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Leonard Leo, co-chair of Federalist Society
13 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Nick Fuentes, leader of The Groypers
14 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), member of the U.S. House
15 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Donald Trump Jr., executive at Trump Organization
16 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), member of the U.S. House
17 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Kash Patel, former chief of staff at the Pentagon
18 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Michael Flynn, conspiracy theorist
19 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Greg Abbott (R-TX), governor of Texas
20 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Marjorie Greene (R-GA), member of the U.S. House
21 | 🟧 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. James Comer (R-KY), member of the U.S. House
22 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), member of the U.S. Senate
23 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Chaya Raichik, propagandist at Libs of TikTok
24 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), member of the U.S. Senate
25 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Chris Rufo, fellow at The Manhattan Institute
26 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Roger Stone, adviser to Donald Trump
27 | 🟩 | 🇺🇸 | Alex Jones, owner of InfoWars
28 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Clarence Thomas, associate SCOTUS justice
29 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Samuel Alito, associate SCOTUS justice
30 | 🟨 | 🇵🇸 | Ismail Haniyeh, leader of Hamas
31 | 🟨 | 🇵🇸 | Ziad al-Nakhleh, leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad
32 | 🟩 | 🇺🇸 | Rupert Murdoch, ex-owner of News Corp
33 | 🟥 | 🇨🇳 | Xi Jinping, president of China
34 | 🟨 | 🇮🇱 | Isaac Herzog, president of Israel
35 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Stew Peters, propagandist at The Stew Peters Show
36 | 🟧 | 🇺🇸 | Mike Cernovich, conspiracy theorist
37 | 🟨 | 🇷🇺 | Sergey Lavrov, foreign minister of Russia
38 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Sean Hannity, adviser to Donald Trump
39 | 🟩 | 🇺🇸 | Cleta Mitchell, chair of the Public Interest Legal Foundation
40 | 🟨 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), member of the U.S. House
41 | 🟨 | 🇺🇸 | Mark Levin, propagandist at Fox News
42 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), member of the U.S. House
43 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Erik Prince, adviser to Donald Trump
44 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Jesse Watters, media personality at Fox News
45 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), member of the U.S. House
46 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), member of the U.S. Senate
47 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Greg Gutfeld, propagandist at Fox News
48 | 🟨 | 🇺🇸 | Harlan Crow, GOP mega-donor
49 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Alina Habba, attorney for Donald Trump
50 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Anonymous, posting as End Wokeness on Twitter
51 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | David Sacks, partner at Craft Ventures
52 | 🟨 | 🇺🇸 | Laura Ingraham, propagandist at Fox News
53 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Kari Lake (R-AZ), gubernatorial candidate in Arizona
54 | 🟨 | 🇮🇱 | Mark Regev, adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu
55 | 🟨 | 🇧🇾 | Aleksandr Lukashenko, president of Belarus
56 | 🟨 | 🇺🇸 | Christopher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax
57 | 🟧 | 🇺🇸 | Boris Epshteyn, adviser to Donald Trump
58 | 🟨 | 🇺🇸 | Eric Trump, executive at the Trump Organization
59 | 🟧 | 🇺🇸 | Matt Walsh, propagandist at The Daily Wire
60 | 🟨 | 🇱🇧 | Hassan Nasrallah, secretary-general of Hezbollah
61 | 🟨 | 🇺🇸 | Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), member of the U.S. Senate
62 | 🟩 | 🇺🇸 | Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), minority leader of the U.S. Senate
63 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Clay Clark, founder of ReAwaken America
64 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Vivek Ramaswamy (R-OH), commentator
65 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Ben Shapiro, commentator at The Ben Shapiro Show
66 | 🟩 | 🇺🇸 | Ginni Thomas, founder of Groundswell
67 | 🟩 | 🇺🇸 | Ronna McDaniel, chair of the RNC
68 | 🟨 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), member of the U.S. House
69 | 🟨 | 🇺🇸 | Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), member of the U.S. Senate
70 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Owen Shroyer, propagandist at InfoWars
71 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Wendy Rogers (R-AZ), state senator in Arizona
72 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Peter Navarro, ex-official from Trump administration
73 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Peter Thiel, former CEO at PayPal
74 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Neil Gorsuch, associate SCOTUS justice
75 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), member of the U.S. House
76 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Ken Paxton (R-TX), attorney general of Texas
77 | 🟨 | 🇭🇺 | Viktor Orbán, president of Hungary
78 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), member of the U.S. Senate
79 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), member of the U.S. Senate
80 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Julie Green, heretical Christofascist podcaster
81 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Jeanine Pirro, adviser to Donald Trump
82 | 🟨 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX), member of the U.S. House
83 | 🟩 | 🇮🇷 | Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of Iran
84 | 🟩 | 🇹🇷 | Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, president of Turkey
85 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Kimberly Guilfoyle, adviser to Donald Trump
86 | 🟨 | 🇺🇸 | Charles Koch, CEO of Koch Industries
87 | 🟨 | 🇺🇸 | Ron Watkins, ex-administrator at 8kun
88 | 🟩 | 🇸🇦 | Mohammed bin Salman, crown prince of Saudi Arabia
89 | 🟩 | 🇦🇪 | Mohammed bin Zayed, crown prince of the UAE
90 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Phillip Buchanan, propagandist on Twitter as CatTurd
91 | 🟩 | 🇺🇸 | Cornel West (I-NY), presidential candidate
92 | 🟨 | 🇺🇸 | Sebastian Gorka, propagandist at The America First Show
93 | 🟨 | 🇺🇸 | Joe Pagliarulo, propagandist at The Joe Pags Show
94 | 🟩 | 🇺🇸 | Joe Oltmann, founder of FEC United
95 | 🟨 | 🇺🇸 | Mark Finchem (R-AZ), ex-state rep in Arizona
96 | 🟩 | 🇺🇸 | David Clements, ex-professor at New Mexico State University
97 | 🟥 | 🇺🇸 | Newt Gingrich (R-GA), ex-speaker of the U.S. House
98 | 🟨 | 🇺🇸 | Dan Bongino, ex-agent of the U.S. Secret Service
99 | 🟩 | 🇺🇸 | Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), governor of Florida
100 | 🟩 | 🇺🇸 | Tina Descovich, executive director of Moms for Liberty

*Individuals who were previously a threat to American democracy but have since abandoned or been removed from the roles that enabled them to be such—where such abandonment or removal preceded the first edition of this ranking—aren’t included in this report. The list of those who might have appeared in much earlier iterations of the Threat Index includes Jared Kushner, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Ali Alexander, Enrique Tarrio, Stewart Rhodes, Joseph Biggs, Sidney Powell, Bernard Kerik, Matt Schlapp, Rudy Giuliani, Michael Lindell, Ivanka Trump, Patrick Byrne, Ethan Nordean, and many others.

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“Just Missed” the Cut for the Top 100 (“JM”)

{listed alphabetically; individuals with green-box signifiers were just moved out of the Top 100}

JM | 🟩 | 🇸🇾 | Bashar al-Assad, president of Syria
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Simon Anderson, propagandist at Twitter as Sent Defender
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Ivan Bayoukhi, propagandist at Twitter as Wall Street Silver
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC), member of the U.S. House
JM | 🟩 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), member of the U.S. House
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), member of the U.S. House
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ), member of the U.S. House
JM | 🟩 | 🇺🇸 | Joe diGenova, legal adviser to Donald Trump
JM | 🟩 | 🇪🇬 | Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, president of Egypt
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), member of the U.S. House
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX), member of the U.S. House
JM | 🟩 | 🇺🇸 | Bianca Gracia, founder of Latinos for Trump
JM | 🟩 | 🇺🇸 | Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC), member of the U.S. Senate
JM | 🟪 | 🇱🇾 | Khalifa Belqasim Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army
JM | 🟪 | 🇱🇧 | Jad Hassanieh, propagandist at Twitter as War Monitors
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), member of the U.S. Senate
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA), member of the U.S. House
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Kristina Karamo, head of the Michigan Republican Party
JM | 🟩 | 🇺🇸 | Megyn Kelly, commentator at The Megyn Kelly Show
JM | 🟩 | 🇧🇭 | Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, king of Bahrain
JM | 🟩 | 🇺🇸 | Brian Kilmeade, commentator at Fox News
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Amy Kremer, founder of Women for America First
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Jim Lewis, propagandist at Twitter as Wall Street Silver
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Greg Locke, pastor from Tennessee
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), member of the U.S. House
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), member of the U.S. Senate
JM | 🟪 | 🇵🇱 | Slawomir Mentzen, leader of the Confederation Party of Poland
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Mario Nawfal, podcaster and personality at Twitter
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD), governor of South Dakota
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), member of the U.S. House
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Ted Nugent, founder of long-defunct band The Amboy Dukes
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), member of the U.S. House
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), member of the U.S. House
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Buck Sexton, commentator at The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
JM | 🟩 | 🇺🇸 | Victoria Toensing, legal adviser to Donald Trump
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Jon Voight, actor in films including Getaway
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Kanye West, musician known for albums such as Graduation
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | James Woods, ex-actor from films including The Specialist
JM | 🟪 | 🇺🇸 | Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms

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“Off the List” After a Previous Appearance (“OL”)

{listed alphabetically, with nationality and title; these individuals have voluntarily chosen to cease threatening American democracy or involuntarily are no longer in a position to do so}

OL | ⬛️ | 🇺🇸 | Roseanne Barr, former actress from shows including Rosanne
OL | ⬛️ | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), member of the U.S. House
OL | ⬛️ | 🇺🇸 | Jack Dorsey, chair of Block Inc.
OL | ⬛️ | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), ex-Speaker of the U.S. House
OL | ⬛️ | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), member of the U.S. House
OL | ⬛️ | 🇺🇸 | Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT), member of the U.S. House
OL | ⬛️ | 🇺🇸 | Marianne Williamson, presidential candidate

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“Threat Index Addendum” for Threatening Democracy Abroad (“TIA”)

{listed alphabetically, with nationality and title; these individuals are a threat to democracy in their home country or region but do not presently pose a threat to American democracy per se}

TIA | 🟫 | 🇧🇷 | Jair Bolsonaro, former president of Brazil
TIA | 🟫 | 🇨🇺 | Miguel Díaz-Canel, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba
TIA | 🟫 | 🇰🇵 | Kim Jong Un, supreme leader of North Korea
TIA | 🟫 | 🇫🇷 | Marine Le Pen, member of the French National Assembly
TIA | 🟫 | 🇻🇪 | Nicolás Maduro, president of Venezuela
TIA | 🟫 | 🇮🇹 | Giorgia Meloni, prime minister of Italy
TIA | 🟫 | 🇮🇳 | Narendra Modi, prime minister of India

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Author’s Note

If you’re a full Proof subscriber and believe a name is missing from the Index, please comment in the comment section below and Proof will review your suggestion for the next edition of the Index. Likewise, if you feel a name is ranked too high or too low in the list above, feel free to say so and explain your thinking in the comment section.

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