Edited sentence: " Independent assessments by Freedom House and Bright Line Watch found a similar decline on checks on executive power, along with a significant decline in overall democratic functioning.According to the 2018 V-Dem Annual Democracy Report for the United States, there has been "a significant democratic backsliding in the United States [since the Inauguration of Donald Trump] ... attributable to weakening constraints on the executive.Since the beginning of the presidency of Donald Trump, ratings of U.democracy had already sharply plunged in the United States