Analysis: Trump already shows how wild and extreme a second term would be

Donald Trump is conjuring up the most ominous vision of a possible second term, telling supporters, in language resonant of that before the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, that they must “fight like hell” or lose their country.

The rhetorical escalation of the former president, indicted four times, occurred at a rally in South Dakota on Friday night (8), where he accused his possible opponent in the next elections, in 2024, President Joe Biden, of ordering his indictment on 91 counts in four criminal cases as a form of election interference.

“I don’t think there has ever been a darkness around our nation like there is now,” Trump said, in a dystopian speech in which he accused Democrats of allowing an “invasion” of immigrants across the country’s southern border and of trying to restart the “hysteria” of Covid-19.

The Republican leader’s blunt speech raised the prospect that a second presidency would be even more extreme and challenging to the rule of law than the first.

His view that the Oval Office confers unfettered powers suggests that Trump would engage in conduct similar to that for which he is awaiting trial, including intimidating local officials in an alleged attempt to overturn his 2020 defeat.

Trump also turned his criticism on the behavior of his political enemies, implicitly arguing that the real danger to US political freedom arose not from his attempt to invalidate a free and fair election, but from efforts to make him face legal responsibility for doing so. .

“It really is a threat to democracy when they trample on our rights and freedoms every day of the year,” he said. “This is a big moment in our country because we are either going one way or the other. And if we go the other way, we won’t have a country anymore,” she told supporters in South Dakota.

“We will fight together, we will win together and then we will seek justice together,” he added.

The speeches came after, at a March rally, Trump classified his 2024 campaign and potential second term as an instrument of “retribution” for supporters who believe they have been wronged.

Trump is a highly skilled demagogue whose ease at injecting falsehoods and conspiracies into the country’s political bloodstream creates a maelstrom of chaos and acrimony in which he alone seems to thrive. And his words shape public opinion.

A recent survey by CNN for example, showed that only 28% of Republicans considered that Biden legitimately obtained enough votes to win the 2020 elections.

This comes after years of Trump incessantly denying that he lost, despite courts rejecting his multiple challenges to the result.

Trump’s authoritarianism could make the 2024 election a profound choice

The autocratic cast of Trump’s campaign is creating a sinister atmosphere around the 2024 elections and creating deep dilemmas for his opponents and voters.

This, for example, gives extra importance to the growing debate about whether Biden, at 80 years old, has the stamina and political resilience necessary to defeat Trump for a second time.

While his predecessor spent the weekend casting doubt on the US electoral system, Biden was on the other side of the globe, in India and Vietnam, building international support for his foreign policy strategy to combat the threat to Western democracy by part of authoritarian leaders in China and Russia.

At home, the former president’s extremism also exposes the timidity of most of his Republican primary rivals, who have recently rallied against rookie candidate Vivek Ramaswamy but are only willing to criticize Trump in the most oblique terms to avoid angering his millions. of Republican supporters.

The closest a candidate, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, has come to criticizing Trump’s conduct in CNN on Sunday (10), warning that “we need to leave the negativity of the past behind” while promoting herself as an example of a new generation of leadership.

The former president’s growing demagoguery also highlights the main unknowns of the 2024 elections:

• The Republican Party risks nominating a candidate whose indomitable behavior will alienate voters in many swing suburban districts that turned against him in the 2020 election, especially given the possibility that he may be a convicted felon at the time voters make your choice?
• If Trump wins the nomination, will his responsibilities and the prospect of four more years of chaos and recriminations ease concerns about Biden’s physical and mental competence and worries about the economy, a poll by the CNN last week that captured a largely negative view of his presidency?

At the same time, Trump’s strong lead in the primaries shows there is a market for his brand of strongman theater. Millions of voters trust and admire him, have been persuaded by his false claims that he won the 2020 election and that the criminal charges he faces are an attempted persecution.

Trump’s outspokenness and carefully maintained image as an outsider despite having lived in the White House allow him to endlessly explore a strain of resentment against Washington and political, economic and media “elites” that is deeply felt by many who support the movement Make America Great Again.

This perhaps explains why his accusations seem to make him more popular in the Republican Party primaries.

Educated by Trump, Republicans widely complain that the current president’s son, Hunter Biden – who is being investigated by a special counsel for alleged violations of tax and gun laws after a failed plea deal – is receiving preferential treatment from the Department of Justice.

And they denounce corruption in what they see as Hunter Biden’s attempts to take advantage of his father’s former position as vice president to close deals in places like China and Ukraine.

Trump has seeded and propagated many of these narratives for months, putting political pressure on Republican Party leaders on Capitol Hill to consider the possibility of an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.

Supporters of the measure have not yet demonstrated which high crimes or misdemeanors, or cases of treason or bribery — the constitutional standard for impeachment — apply to Biden.

The president has denied being involved in any of his son’s business dealings, and Republicans have not presented any evidence of wrongdoing on his part in connection with those dealings.

Still, in a recent survey by CNN the majority of Americans, 61%, say they think Joe Biden had at least some involvement in Hunter Biden’s business dealings, with 42% saying they think he acted illegally, and 18% saying his actions were unethical but not illegal .

A 55% majority also say the president acted inappropriately regarding his son’s investigation into potential crimes, while 44% say he acted appropriately.

These national divisions that Trump skillfully widens speak to a deep sense of alienation in American politics that will only be exacerbated by a bitter election.

Such division was evident at an American football game on Saturday (9), in the first Republican Party state in the country, where Trump, one of several Republican Party candidates attending the game, was greeted by a mix of cheers and boos.

Several sports fans greeted him by showing the finger, in gestures captured on social media. The host Iowa State Cyclones lost to the University of Iowa Hawkeyes in the game in Ames, a college town in Story County, a liberal bastion in an increasingly conservative state that Trump won twice in the general election.

Why is Trump’s language the engine of his political power?

Some commentators have already questioned what they consider to be alarmist media coverage of Trump, suggesting that his performative belligerence is often taken too literally.

But the hundreds of pages of evidence in criminal indictments alleging Trump’s use of presidential power to try to steal an election and the way he is using appearances and social media to try to intimidate judges and potential juries before his trials have left such outdated reviews.

Trump’s fiery rhetoric is fundamental to his political appeal and method of building power.

From his scathing critiques and belittling nicknames for rivals, to his speech in Washington before telling the crowd to “fight like hell” or they wouldn’t have a country on January 6, 2021, Trump uses language to drive his political movement.

In his remarks in South Dakota — where he accepted the support of Governor Kristi Noem, a potential vice presidential pick if he is the Republican nominee — Trump said he was the victim of “corrupt and egregious” victimization and “election interference.”

He said the lawsuits filed against him would “allow” him, if elected president, to summon his attorney general and demand an investigation of his political opponents. “Impeach my opponent, he’s doing well,” Trump said, implying that’s exactly what Biden did.

The former president used a sarcastic tone in the raucous atmosphere of a campaign rally, so context is important. But given his example of following through on threats, his comments could end up being predictive if he wins in 2024.

As president, he frequently argued that he had virtually unfettered constitutional power, an attitude that is clearly in evidence in three of his accusations – about attempts to overturn the election and about withholding confidential documents after leaving the White House.

So when Trump makes threats on the campaign trail, it pays to listen.

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Waack: Accusation against Trump is very serious | WW