Why Trump’s Supporters Should Also Be Wary if He Returns to Power

I don’t know who will win the presidential election. Nobody does. But there’s obviously a substantial chance that Donald Trump will return to power. I’m worried for our country and I’m concerned about what my own life would be like under a second Trump term. And you should be, too.

Trump’s first term, in which our democracy remained fairly intact, is a bad model for what will happen if he gets a second. The guardrails that constrained him last time are gone. If he regains power, this could very easily be America’s last more or less free and fair election for a long time.

Then what? Some have suggested that we may be heading for a “soft autocracy” like that in Viktor Orban’s Hungary, in which the ruling party has a lock on power maintained by rigging elections, controlling the courts and muzzling the media rather than through violent repression.

We should be so lucky.

There are plenty of reasons to think that Trump and his most ardent supporters are itching to deploy violence against their opponents: Nearly four years ago, a violent mob descended on the United States Capitol and tried to overturn the results of the last presidential election. More recently, Trump, who has called his political adversaries “vermin,” suggested using our military against “the enemy from within.” Last week he criticized the hawkish views of Liz Cheney — who has endorsed Kamala Harris — then fantasized, “let’s put her with a rifle standing there” and see how she would feel “when the guns are trained on her face.” On Sunday at a rally, he declared that someone trying to get him “would have to shoot through the fake news and I don’t mind that so much.”

It’s also important to realize that Trump wouldn’t need to use the military against American citizens to create a climate of fear and repression. All he would have to do is tacitly grant permission, to the many extremists who are among his supporters, to go vigilante.

Still, you may imagine that even if America becomes MAGAfied, you won’t personally be at risk. If that’s what you believe, you might want to think again.