Why Trump ’24 Is Far More Dangerous Than Trump ’16

Donald Trump was backout on the campaign trail on Saturday. There’s a temptation to dismiss thisbuffoon and his tired act, and in some sense it’s understandable—he’s awheezing old third-tier Rat Packer spewing out his two or three long-ago hits ata shabby, seen-better-days hotel a couple miles off the Strip.

But simultaneously, he isdangerous. More dangerous than he was in 2016. I watched his Waco speech, or asmuch of it as I could take, and this much was unmistakable: Yes, he’s stillrecycling the old hits, like xenophobia and racism, but there are two argumentsfrom this new Trump that make him a much bigger threat to the republic than hewas in 2016: revenge and apocalypse.

The revenge he seeks against thedeep state and the prosecutors who are closing in on him. Many in the audienceheld signs that said “Witch Hunt” as Trump spun out a fantastical storyinvolving Chuck Schumer’s brother, a corporate lawyer in New York, who issupposedly part of the enormous conspiracy to take down Trump. “Theabuses of power that we’re currently witnessing at all levels of governmentwill go down as among the most shameful, corrupt, and depraved chapters in allof American history,” Trump said. He called it “the central issue of our time,”and he told his audience, as he always does, that “they’re not coming after me,they’re coming after you,” which enlists them emotionally and psychologicallyin the revenge plot.

The apocalypse part was even worse.Get this: “Our opponents have done everything they can to crush our spirit andbreak our will. But they’ve failed. They’ve only made us stronger. And 2024 isthe final battle. That’s gonna be the big one. You put me back in the WhiteHouse, their reign will be over, and America will be a free nation once again.”

The final battle.What? So now the Dark Lord is dragging us into his science fiction movie.Except this isn’t fiction. He means it. A man who wanted a mob to kill his ownvice president also wants—hungers for, lusts for—a Book of Revelations–level battle, fought, of course, in his name and for his greater glory.

In 2016, Donald Trump didn’treally want to be president. He wanted attention. He wanted to jack up thevalue of his brand. And yes, he wanted to air his Archie Bunker grievances onbehalf of America’s Archie Bunkers. But he didn’t really want the job, and oncehe got it, he didn’t really know what to do with it.

This time around it’sdifferent. He craves returning to the job. And he knows precisely what he’ll dowith it. As he said in that bone-chilling videohe released in mid-March: “Evicting the sick and corrupt establishment is themonumental task for the next president, and I’m the only one who can do it.… Iknow exactly what has to be done.”

We’ve all read the storiesabout this. Most notably there was Jonathan Swan’s stunning Axiosreport in July 2022 about the so-called Schedule Fexecutive order—a plan, in a second Trump term, to fire thousands uponthousands of career professional experts in governmental agencies and replacethem with people who are loyal to Trump.

The havoc this would wreak ishard to comprehend. For example, there are about 19,000 employees in theDepartment of Energy. Only a few hundred are political. The rest stay in theirjobs from administration to administration, and many of those jobs are highlytechnical. Check out this DOE orgchart and imagine Trump lackeys in charge of nuclearnonproliferation, energy security, energy supply chains, and the dozens ofother jobs that require tremendous knowledge and experience.

But that’s not even the worstof it. Who would be President Trump’s secretary of state? National securityadviser? Whom would he name to be the U.S. ambassador to NATO? In 2017,Trump tried to hide his Putin affections, which only came into full flower atthat Helsinki press conference in July 2018. If there’s a next time, he’ll beopenly pro-Putin from jump street.

But the very worst of itwould be the way Trump would abuse the justice system. His rhetoric today isthe time-honored rhetoric of fascists throughout history—accuse the otherpeople of doing what you are doing, or planning to do, and that way you’ll foolat least half the people into thinking you’re the solution and not the problem.So in describing the allegedly corrupt people coming after him now, he is infact signaling his own intentions.

Imagine who would run Trump’sDepartment of Justice. In 2017, he didn’t care very much, and he gave the gigto an early supporter from the Senate (Jeff Sessions) who had a record ofracist comments and positions that Trump surely admired. But if Trumpreturns to the White House in 2025, he will care a lot. He will install a totallapdog at Justice, like Jeffrey Clark, who worked at the department in 2020 andplotted withTrump to steal the election, and in the U.S. Attorneys Offices. Canyou picture Alina Habba,so bad that she wasdisliked even by the rest of Trump’s third-rate legalteam, running the prestigious Southern District, pursuing nakedly politicalprosecutions of Trump’s foes?

Trump is today the favoriteto win the GOP nomination. He also bragged in Waco about some recentpolls that showed his lead over Ron DeSantis and the fieldwidening. As I’ve written, I’m basically OK with this. I can’t imagine theswing voters of Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, and a few other statesrolling the dice on him again as they did in 2016. A reasonably sentient JoeBiden beats him handily.

All the same … you neverknow. It’s not impossible that he could win. Voter turnout in 2020 was a recordhigh, 67 percent, but even so, 80 million adults didn’t vote. What chunk ofthat 80 million are potential fascists who couldn’t be roused to vote for abumbler who botched the pandemic but just might be willing to get in linebehind a persecuted martyr leading his charges into a “final battle”?

We don’t know, and I hope wenever find out. I think Trump’s more likely to be in an orange suit in 2025than a white house. But the 2024 Trump will have plans and motivations that the2016 Trump couldn’t have imagined, and that had better scare you.