Trump will run in 2024 and send America to 'its greatest constitutional crisis since the Civil War': columnist

Washington Post columnist Robert Kagan on Thursday delivered a stark warning about the future of the American republic, which he said was going to come under great strain thanks in large part to the actions of former President Donald Trump.

Kagan starts off by dispelling the notion that Trump will not run for president in 2024.

"Donald Trump will be the Republican candidate for president in 2024," he writes. "The hope and expectation that he would fade in visibility and influence have been delusional. He enjoys mammoth leads in the polls; he is building a massive campaign war chest; and at this moment the Democratic ticket looks vulnerable. Barring health problems, he is running."

Kagan goes on to warn that Trump and his allies are "preparing for victory by any means necessary," through "an organized nationwide campaign to ensure that Trump and his supporters will have the control over state and local election officials that they lacked in 2020."

Kagan then warns Americans that they should not be certain that the constitutional order will again hold if it comes under assault for a second time in three years.

"All that prevented it was a handful of state officials with notable courage and integrity, and the reluctance of two attorneys general and a vice president to obey orders they deemed inappropriate," he writes. "These were not the checks and balances the Framers had in mind when they designed the Constitution, of course, but Trump has exposed the inadequacy of those protections."

Read the whole essay here.