Donald Trump is dangerous. Not because he’s Republican, or rich, or has political views different to Americans that oppose him.
Donald Trump is dangerous because he is a threat to the democracy that he and all Americans live within. With his history as a businessman and CEO, Trump is used to assuming major power. He’s used to no one stopping or correcting him.
What he says goes, without concern for rules broken, lives damaged or people taken advantage of. This is the mindset he’s carried into his politics.
His former chief of staff John Kelly detailed Trump’s approach to business and politics in an interview with The New York Times, saying he falls into “the general definition of fascist.”
“He’d love to be just like he was in business — he could tell people to do things and they would do it, and not really bother too much about what the legalities were and whatnot,” Kelly said.
Kelly is just one of Trump’s former administration officials who call him a fascist, a dictator or an authoritarian. Former cabinet officials assessing their president this way is unprecedented. It’s not normal, and it should be alarming to all Americans.
Recently, Trump suggested he might use the military following this year’s election results to go after Americans who he calls “the enemy from within.” He describes them as “radical left lunatics” and “sick people.”
He didn’t explain why these people should face military action or what the military would do to them. His former defense secretary Mark Esper said in an NPR interview that the worst-case scenario would include people being shot at.
When Trump suggested deploying military force against Americans while in office, Esper pushed back. But Trump is unlikely to face this kind of pushback in a second term. As a result, he will be even more dangerous.
“Trump and those around him learned the lesson that you have to get the right people in, people who will be loyal to you and what you want to do in your policies, people who aren’t necessarily loyal to the Constitution, but to the president,” Esper said.
Trump has shown a dangerous disregard for one of the most sacred and essential tenets of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power. In 2020, he led one of the biggest conspiracy theories in the history of American elections, asserting claims that there was mass voter fraud in favor of President Joe Biden–claims that lost in every court that heard them.
Knowing he lost the election without voter fraud, Trump kept feeding his base this lie, eventually inspiring his supporters to violence during the Capitol riots of Jan. 6, 2021. His dangerous desire for power led him to cling onto every last ounce he could, even if that meant overseeing an insurrection against his own country’s government.
The same seeds are being planted in 2024. He and some Republicans have already made false claims that undocumented immigrants are registering to vote in support of Kamala Harris.
If Trump loses on Tuesday, he will likely once again try to convince supporters that everything was “rigged” against him, causing them to rally behind him in fear and anger that could be as dangerous as before.
Election fraud claims are nothing new from Trump. In 2012, he claimed President Barack Obama didn’t beat Mitt Romney. In 2016, he claimed Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz “stole” the Iowa caucuses, later that year claiming Hillary Clinton “rigged” the 2016 presidential election.
Making these kinds of baseless claims sets a dangerous precedent for elected officials. When politicians frame themselves as victims, they do more than just take the public’s trust away from the media and the government – they relocate that trust towards themselves to further their agendas.
When politicians frame themselves as victims, they do more than just take the public’s trust away from the media and the government – they relocate that trust towards themselves to further their agendas.
The policies Trump will try to enforce if elected president again add to the danger he poses.
Outside of his “concepts of a plan” blunder during September’s presidential debate, his proposed economic policies could be disastrous. AP compiled research from multiple sources and economic experts and concluded that Trump’s plans for high tariffs, tweaking the Federal Reserve’s interest rates and deporting working immigrants could potentially raise inflation as high as 9.3 percent. America’s annual inflation rate has been decreasing since reaching 7 percent in 2021, currently sitting at 2.4 in 2024.
What’s left of abortion rights could be further threatened with Donald Trump in office. Though has stated he wouldn’t enact a national abortion ban, he has said “we’ll see what happens” and has dismissed the issue’s current importance. He has repeatedly expressed pride in the fact that he and his appointed Supreme Court justices overturned Roe v. Wade. Trump would likely choose at least one new Supreme Court justice if reelected.
Immigration is where Trump has some of his most well-known policies–and his most explicitly authoritarian and harmful.
He’s proposed using the National Guard and invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act for the “largest deportation operation in American history.” He plans to end birthright citizenship, which has existed since the 1800s. He has stated he’ll bring back his previously enacted travel ban, known as the “Muslim ban.”
Trump’s rhetoric to justify these policies is often based on xenophobia and lies about undocumented immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers from Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. He recently stated migrants like these are turning America into “a dump for the rest of the world.”
Let’s not forget that in 2016, when announcing his presidential campaign, Trump described undocumented immigrants from Mexico as people who bring drugs, crime and rape into America. When discussing asylum seekers in 2018, Trump asked why America should let in people from what he referred to as “sh—hole countries.”
More recently, he has repeated claims of undocumented immigrants “poisoning the blood of our country”–a statement that has been criticized by experts and researchers because it’s the exact same phrase Adolf Hitler used to describe Jewish people in Germany.
Let’s face it: Kamala Harris is far from perfect. She hasn’t indicated she’ll be much different than President Joe Biden when it comes to Palestine and Israel, and she has run a campaign catering to disaffected Republicans, turning off many progressives. But Harris’s domestic policies–and her rhetoric–are not nearly as dangerous as Trump’s.
Having two presidential candidates who aren’t incredibly popular has become a common theme in American politics. Regardless of the candidates’ quality or popularity, the election is going to happen on November 5, and either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump will win.
They are the only two real options. And only one poses an existential threat to our democracy.
The editorial board of Velocity consists of Editor-in-Chief Ryan Anderson, Managing Editor Niki Kowal, Creative Director Emily Stephens, Opinion Editor Juan Carbajal and Political Editor Yasmeen Nogura. The board comes to a consensus on the publication’s position on important issues, and a writer is assigned to capture that position in an editorial.
Velocity is written and edited by students of Moraine Valley Community College, and they are solely responsible for its editorial policy and content. Velocity does not represent the views of Moraine Valley Community College or its faculty, staff or administration.
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