“Donald Trump poses an existential threat to liberal democracy”
That depends on the interpretation. Mine is Trump is indeed a threat to the liberals and their idea of democracy.
Examples I’m thinking of are the Peoples Democratic Republic of Korea and the Peoples Democratic Republic of China. These are examples of what our ultra liberal democrats want as a form of democracy.
Same sort of thing is happening in Germany. Those in power consider anything that threatens their power to be “a threat to democracy” to the point that they are openly scheming to rig and even cancel elections.
For them, “Democracy” simply means their own personal power or the power of their party. It’s the antithesis of what the word actually means.