Donald Trump is invoking a vision of an extreme new White House term that would transform America and rock the world.
And Vice President Kamala Harris has only three weeks to avert it, as she struggles to restore momentum in a neck-and-neck race to Election Day.
The Republican nominee is escalating the most toxic anti-immigrant rhetoric in modern US history, warning outsiders with “bad genes” have “invaded” the country after falsely claiming that Haitian migrants here legally were eating pets in Ohio. At a rally in Arizona on Sunday, Trump baselessly suggested that if Harris were elected, “the entire country will be turned into a migrant camp.” In Colorado two days earlier, he again vowed to “begin the largest deportation operation in the history of the United States,” promising, “We will close the border. We will stop the invasion of illegals into our country. We will defend our territory. We will not be conquered.”
And he escalated his threats against political opponents this weekend, saying on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” he could turn the military on “the enemy from within.” The ex-president, who incited violence to try to stay in power after the 2020 election, also said at a rally Saturday that a heckler exercising the right to free speech should “get the hell knocked out of” her.
In another preview of how he could use presidential power to serve his personal and political whims, Trump this weekend threatened to withhold federal disaster aid to Democratic-run California — even as he falsely accuses Harris and President Joe Biden of doing the same to hurricane-hit Republican districts. Trump also said CBS should lose its license because he faults its editorial choices over a Harris interview on “60 Minutes” that he declined to sit for. Trump’s allies, meanwhile, raised concerns about how a new administration might deal with big business by threatening to cancel Deloitte’s federal contracts after an employee apparently leaked Sen. JD Vance’s private messages critical of the former president.
And new details are emerging of the former president’s genuflection to foreign tyrants like Vladimir Putin after the Kremlin confirmed Trump sent Covid-19 tests to a Russian authoritarian who is a sworn enemy of the United States during a pandemic he frequently downplayed.
History suggests that Trump doesn’t always act on everything he says. But his past behavior suggests his threats should be taken seriously.
And a Supreme Court ruling granting presidents substantial immunity suggests few impediments to imperial executive power.
Trump’s deepening extremism is increasing already massive pressure on Harris. And a phalanx of senior Democratic leaders — including former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama — are pleading with voters in swing states, especially the Black and Latino voters Harris needs, not to let Trump return.
