MSNBC's Joe Scarborough warned that Donald Trump couldn't be more "explicit" about his authoritarian plans for a second term.
The former president already weakened democratic institutions and violated constitutional norms in his first term, which ended with a violent attempt to overturn his election loss, and the "Morning Joe" host asked Atlantic columnist Anne Applebaum whether his threat was worse than Hungary's Viktor Orbán or Poland's right-wing Law and Justice Party.
"As you studied in your book, as you studied what Orbán did on the path to power, as you studied what Law and Justice Party did on the path to power, I don't remember it even being as explicit," Scarborough said. "Their threats against democracy in Hungary and Poland, ever being as explicit as having a presidential candidate promising to terminate the Constitution, execute generals that are insufficiently loyal, and ban television news networks that he doesn't like. Again, in the campaign phase, this seems far more explicit, far more extreme than even what we saw in Orbán's rise and the Law and Justice's rise in Poland."
Applebaum, who has written extensively about authoritarianism, said Trump has made clear he intends to crush democracy if given another chance in the White House.
"I think people are suddenly realizing Trump is likely to be the Republican candidate, and they're also realizing just about now that he is running on an explicitly anti-constitutional platform," Applebaum said. "He's running as someone who would overthrow the Constitution, who would undermine it, who would, you know, undermine the American civil service, maybe the military."
"I think that's why you're suddenly seeing so many people writing about it," she added. "In fact, you know, your previous item, we're already having a taste of what a Trump second term could look like, really, in this irresponsible battle for funding over Ukraine. Here is an ally we have been supporting bravely for the last, you know, 19 months. They are fighting on the ground, they're undermining the army of one of our important geopolitical rivals, Russia. We're, you know, arguing in Washington about whether or not to keep helping them? I mean, that's outrageous, but it's a taste of what could happen if Trump were to win. In which case, he is very likely to say, 'I don't care about Europe, I don't care about NATO – I'm leaving."
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