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https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/donald-trump-15-most- dangerous-statements/675970/


November 13, 2023
Trump IsnAt Merely Unhinged

Many of his recent statements illustrate a profoundly un-American set of ideas.

November 13, 2023, 7:30 AM ET

With apologies to a certain newspaperAs slogan, many of Donald TrumpAs most dangerous statements hide in the plain light of day.

The problem is not that they donAt get reported onuthey doubut even so,
they are easy to tune out, perhaps because heAs been saying outlandish
things for so long that people simply canAt bring themselves to parse the
new ones; or perhaps because theyAve become accustomed, or at least numb,
to his utterances; or perhaps because they donAt want to let him occupy
their headspace; or perhaps because he got kicked off Twitter (now X) and
they had no interest in joining Truth Social. Or maybe itAs because the
more sinister material gets mixed up with his strange elocutions (oWeAre
gonna have a great countryuitAs gonna be called the United States of Americao), contrarian hot takes (oYou know, Hezbollah is very smart.
TheyAre all very smarto), and gibberish (oAll of these indictments that you seeuI was never indicted. Practically never heard the word. It wasnAt a
word that registeredo).

From the November 2023 issue: How we got ademocracy dies in darknessA

Whatever the case may be, Trump has continued to make plainly dangerous and stunning remarks. Notwithstanding his rival Governor Ron DeSantisAs recent claim that Trump has olost the zip on his fastball,o the former president continues to produce substantive ideasuwhich is not to say they are wise or prudent, but they are certainly more than gibberish. In fact, much of what Trump is discussing is un-American, not merely in the sense of being antithetical to some imagined national set of mores, but in that his ideas contravene basic principles of the Constitution or other bedrock bases of American government.

They are the sorts of ideas that would have been shocking to hear from any mainstream politician just a decade ago. And yet, today, Trumpuarguably the single most influential figure in the United Statesusays these things, and they hardly register. Consider the following examples, all from just the
past few months:
1. Promised to destroy the federal government as we know it.

Trump has been promising in speeches to odemolish the deep state.o What he means by that is to end the federal government as it exists today,
eliminating the civil-service jobs that have been in place since the late
19th century. This is clear because former Trump aides who are designing
the effort, part of a sort of shadow government housed at conservative
think tanks, are open about what they have in mind, as my colleague Russell Berman reports: a federal workforce that can be fired by the president at
will and must follow his personal whims. That would be a major departure
from the current system, where employees are permanent professionals who
work for administrations of both parties and are meant to focus on
effective implementation, rather than political hacks chosen for their loyalty.
2. Argued that a presidential candidate should be immune from prosecution.

While attempting to dodge the 91 criminal indictments against him, Trump argued in a July 10 court filing that he shouldnAt have to deal with the hassle of a federal trial, because running for president orequires a tremendous amount of time and energy.o This goes directly against the idea that no U.S. citizen is above the law.
3. Insulted and attempted to intimidate judges, prosecutors, witnesses, and others.

Trump hasnAt just made arguments in court related to the criminal and civil cases against him; he has also produced a steady stream of invective
directed at anyone involved in the cases, to the point of seeking to intimidate witnesses, court staff, and even prosecutorsA family members. Subjects of his threats include the federal judge Tanya Chutkan; New York Justice Arthur Engoron; EngoronAs law clerk (for which Trump was slapped
with a gag order); New York Attorney General Letitia James, including his inscrutable and maybe racist nickname for her; Mark Meadows, the former
White House chief of staff and a possible witness; Special Counsel Jack
Smith; and even SmithAs wife, a documentary filmmaker. SmithAs team successfully convinced Chutkan that some of these infractions could
threaten the likelihood of a fair trial, and she ordered Trump to stop,
though she permitted him to attack her and President Joe Biden, among
others, and to call his prosecution political. Trump appealed the order but lost, then promptly attacked another potential witness, former Attorney General Bill Barr. (An appeals court has now paused the order once more.)
4. Continued to claim that the election was stolen.

Trump continues to insist, despite presenting no real evidence and losing every relevant court case, that he actually won the 2020 election. oI donAt consider us to have much of a democracy right now,o he said on Meet the
Press on September 17. Perversely, Trump now has some incentive to keep
lying about the election rather than acknowledge that he lost: Part of
SmithAs case is premised on the idea that Trump knew he had been defeated.
A functioning democracy depends on the consent of the losers; throughout
U.S. history, losers of elections have sometimes grumbled fiercely and
other times taken losses gracefully, but none has ever tried to stay in
office and then continued to claim he was the rightful winner in the manner Trump has.

Read: Democracy depends on the consent of losers
5. Excused the January 6 riot.

On Meet the Press and elsewhere, Trump has continued to excuse the riot on January 6, 2021, and to argue that people charged in the riots are
political prisoners. He told the Meet the Press moderator, Kristen Welker, that he might pardon people convicted of federal crimes for their
involvement in the assault on the seat of U.S. government: oWell, IAm going
to look at them, and I certainly might if I think itAs appropriate. No,
itAs a very, very sad thing. And itAsutheyAre dividing the country so
badly, and itAs very dangerous.o He has since referred to these people as ohostages,o a description that makes sense only if you find the very idea
of policing the insurrection illegitimate.
6. Entertained pardoning himself.

Trump also continues to flirt with the idea of granting himself a pardon, typically saying he doesnAt see any need for it but refusing to rule it
out. Most mainstream scholars say a self-pardon is probably not
constitutional and certainly not something the framers intended.
7. Menaced American Jews for not voting for him.

During Rosh Hashanah, on September 17, Trump shared a meme that read, oJust
a reminder for liberal Jews who voted to destroy America & Israel because
you believed false narratives! LetAs hope you learned from your mistake &
make better choices going forward!o As my colleague Yair Rosenberg wrote, Trump has often made such offensive remarks about the loyaltiesuperceived
or desireduof American Jews, but this was oparticularly ugly in the way it deliberately singled out a specific constituency during that constituencyAs holiest season.o
8. Suggested executing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.

Apparently outraged by the Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey GoldbergAs
profile of General Mark Milley, whom Trump appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Trump on September 22 accused Milley of treason and
suggested that he deserved the death penalty. oThis guy turned out to be a Woke train wreck who, if the Fake News reporting is correct, was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President
of the United States. This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by,
the punishment would have been DEATH!o Trump wrote. TrumpAs loose and
sloppy treason accusations have always undermined the Constitution, and
many past comments like this have precipitated threats and even attacks
from Trump supporters.
9. Accused NBC of treason and threatened to pull it off the air.

Trump has never had any interest in upholding the First Amendment, but his remarks on September 24 were unusually sharp. Trump wrote that NBC News,
and especially MSNBC, oshould be investigated for its aCountry Threatening Treason.A Why should NBC, or any other of the corrupt & dishonest media companies, be entitled to use the very valuable Airwaves of the USA, FREE? They are a true threat to Democracy and are, in fact, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!o This sort of demonization of the press is dangerous per seuas demonstrated by attacks on journalistsuas are TrumpAs casual accusations of treason, but this one carries a clear threat to try to use the power of the federal government to punish a news organization for reporting he doesnAt like. This contradicts even the most limited, basic understanding of the importance of a free press, as protected by the First Amendment. (Set aside the dissonance of saying this shortly after granting an in-depth interview
to NBC News!)
10. Promised to lock up political opponents.

During a September 28 interview, Trump said he would imprison his political adversaries if he is reelected. Glenn Beck asked Trump, oYou said in 2016,
you know, aLock her up.A And then when you became president, you said, aWe donAt do that in America.A ThatAs just not the right thing to do. ThatAs
what theyAre doing. Do you regret not locking her up? And if youAre
president again, will you lock people up?o Trump replied, oUh, the answer
is you have no choice because theyAre doing it to us.o Because Trump
believes, or claims to believe, that he is being prosecuted for purely political reasons, heAs vowing to go after his political opponents for the crime of being his political opponentsua violation of both free-speech and due-process protections.
11. Recommended extrajudicial executions.

At a rally two days later, on September 30, Trump once again advocated
going around the criminal-justice system to administer vigilante
punishment. oVery simply, if you rob a store, you can fully expect to be
shot as you are leaving that store,o he told the California Republican
Party, adding: oShot!o (The Associated Press, either too nonchalantly or
with dry understatement, described it this way: oTrump animates California Republicans with calls to shoot people who rob stores.o) This, too,
violates the basic concept of due process for accused criminals.
12. Called for a judge overseeing his case to be prosecuted.

Among TrumpAs many fulminations against Justice Engoron, Trump told
reporters on October 2 not only that the judge should be removed from the bench, but that he should face prosecutionufor no apparent crime other than being assigned to TrumpAs case and ruling against Trump. oThis is a judge
that should be disbarred,o he said. oThis is a judge that should be out of office. This is a judge that some people say could be charged criminally
for what heAs doing. HeAs interfering with an election.o

David A. Graham: Donald Trump is any defense attorneyAs nightmare
13. Told voters not to bother voting.

During an October 23 rally in New Hampshire, Trump told attendees, oYou
donAt have to vote, donAt worry about voting. The voting, we got plenty of votes, you gotta watch.o As is sometimes the case with Trump, itAs hard to tell whether this is intended as a joke; or a statement that if all votes
were counted, he would win; or as some sort of intimation of stealing the election himself. In any case, discouraging civic participation contradicts the basic principle of a government by, for, and of the people.
14. Celebrated the antidemocratic strongman Viktor Orbbn.

At the same rally, Trump talked about his love for one of the most
repressive leaders in Europe: oThereAs a man, Viktor Orbbn, did anyone ever hear of him? HeAs probably, like, one of the strongest leaders anywhere in
the world. HeAs the leader of Turkey,o Trump said, adding that he had a ofronto on Russia. In fact, Orbbn is the leader of Hungary (Trump later corrected himself), and neither country shares a border with Russia. More
to the point, Orbbnuwho proudly describes himself as oilliberalouis an authoritarian who has become a darling of the Trumpist right, as my
colleague Anne Applebaum has explained.
15. Promised to indict Joe Biden.

The biggest headlines out of TrumpAs October 29 rally in Sioux City, Iowa, came from his confusing the city with Sioux Falls, South Dakotauthe sort of slipup that undermines his attacks on Biden as senile. But the more substantively disturbing thing Trump said at the rally was that his own indictments would give him permission to politically prosecute his predecessor. oThey brought our country to a new level, and, but that allowsuthink of thisuthat allows us to do it to Biden, when he gets out,o Trump said. oAnd that would be very easy.o

In a Univision interview that aired November 9, he added: oThey have done something that allows the next partyuI mean, if somebody, if I happen to be president and I see somebody whoAs doing well and beating me very badly, I
say aGo down and indict them.A TheyAd be out of business, theyAd be out of
the election.o This goes beyond TrumpAs suggestion of going after his opponents in a general way. Few things could be more directly counter to
the idea of a democratic republic, and more redolent of a failed state,
than a pretextual prosecution of oneAs predecessor.
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