In less than three weeks, President-elect Donald Trump will be serving his second term and he will be joined in Washington by small GOP majorities in both chambers of Congress.
Trump, during his first term, often clashed with the more traditional conservatives in his administration — from former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to ex-White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly. But this time, he is hoping to avoid that by nominating a lot of far-right MAGA loyalists, including Kash Patel for FBI director, former Fox News host Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi for U.S. attorney general.
In a sobering op-ed published by The Hill Thursday, Democratic strategist Max Burns argues that members of his party are woefully unprepared for Trump's second term and the assault on U.S. democracy it will bring.
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"In his second term," Burns warns, "expect Trump to push his personality cult as far as it can go — and for Democrats to once again underestimate their adversary. Trump will lead a nation very different from the one that booted him from office four years ago. Since then, millions of Americans have told campaign pollsters that they place a personal allegiance to Trump above their belief in the Constitution. The number of people willing to consider alternatives to democracy is at a level last seen during the crises of the 1930s."
Burns continues, "Trump knows he speaks for these people, and he's awarded his base voters' loyalty with a series of increasingly outlandish and aggressive statements, from a promise to seize Panama and Greenland to his more serious intention to pardon nearly 1000 federal criminals behind bars for their roles in the violent January 6 attack on the Capitol."
The Democratic strategist stresses that Trump's promise to "prosecute his political opponents," including former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and outgoing U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, must not be taken lightly.
"Soon, Trump will find himself in the Oval Office with few practical limits on his capacity to seek revenge," Burns explains. "It doesn't take a political science expert to realize that the America Trump has in mind can't coexist with democracy — and that Trump's most committed voters don't actually want to coexist in a constitutional democracy. Now, it seems even more Republicans are getting in line with Trump's authoritarian ideas. Just one year ago, three in 10 Republican voters told Fox News that they wanted a president 'willing to break rules and laws.' Now, that number is nearing half of all Republicans."
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Burns adds, "A Monmouth University poll conducted last month found largely similar results. When asked if they had any concerns about Trump's repeated pledges to suspend the law in order to jail his political opponents, most Republicans said it didn't bother them at all."
According to Burns, polls indicate that "even Trump-leaning independent voters" are "getting more comfortable with a lawless presidency."
"The frightening reality of 2025 isn't that Trump might attempt some end-run around the democratic process," Burns argues. "It's that he may not need to. Both the MAGA faithful and Trump-leaning independents are still racing rightward in terms of what they'll excuse from a Trump Administration."
The Democratic strategist adds, "If Democrats think they can rely on the same anti-Trump messaging that carried them in 2020, they are catastrophically wrong. That audience is gone, and it isn't coming back. Democrats are quoting laws to people carrying swords."
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Max Burns' full op-ed for The Hill is available at this link.