The Atlantic Magazine has devoted its latest edition to sounding the alarm of a second Trump administration (sic), saying it’ll be much worse than his first. This should be taken seriously because if you were alive between 2017 and 2021, then you should be able to recall just how truly horrible and terrifying that first term (sic) was. Ugh.

The Atlantic link has a paywall, so you probably won’t be able to read the article, but I will give you a report on it from The Hill.

Besides, you don’t have to read the article if you’ve been reading my cartoons over the past few years because I can’t imagine the Atlantic warning you about anything that I haven’t already covered. You already know that a second Trump term (sic) is a threat to democracy. And you don’t need the Atlantic to tell you Donald Trump is a threat to democracy…Donald Trump will tell you, which is what he’s saying when he talks about building concentration camps and imprisoning his enemies. It’s what he’s saying when he literally said we should TERMINATE the Constitution.

Donald Trump is also projecting when he talks about President Joe Biden destroying democracy. It was Donald Trump who refused to leave office peacefully and attempted to cling to power by attempting to steal the 2020 election and sending a white nationalist mob of goon terrorists to attack the Capitol while Congress was certifying the election.

The Atlantic’s warning comes in a 24-page article which guarantees no Trumper will read it. Words to MAGAts are like stairs, rain, and broccoli to Trump. The title is, “If Trump Wins” and has a note from editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg introducing the series titled, “A Warning.”

Goldberg writes, “And so here we are. It is not a sure thing that Trump will win the Republican nomination again, but as I write this, he’s the prohibitive front-runner. Which is why we felt it necessary to share with our readers our collective understanding of what could take place in a second Trump term.”

“Our team of brilliant writers makes a convincingly dispositive case that both Trump and Trumpism pose an existential threat to America and to the ideas that animate it. The country survived the first Trump term, though not without sustaining serious damage. A second term, if there is one, will be much worse,” Goldberg continued.

And it will be worse. Trump is putting together a team of yes men (and women) who are more committed to putting Trumpism over the Constitution and the rule of law. Every U.S. Attorney in a second Trump administration (sic) will never say “no” to anything Trump does. Trump will be sure every unqualified nominee for a seat in federal courts is a committed cultist, instead of just most of them like in the first term (sic).

Trump will install an Attorney General to use the Justice Department to go after his enemies for imaginary crimes. The next AG will be like William Barr on crack. Maybe Rudy Giuliani will get the job this time (OK, maybe not crack but vodka and Viagra). He’ll probably put Stephen Baby Goebbels Miller in charge of Homeland Security. In addition to Trump critics, the gulags will be full of people who made fun of Miller using spray-can hair. That shit was funny, yo. Oh, shit.

The Atlantic Article is a collection of columns by 12 writers, David Frum, Anne Applebaum, McKay Coppins, Caitlin Dickerson, Barton Gellman, Sophie Gilbert, Zoë Schlanger, George Packer, Sarah Zhang, Franklin Foer, Michael Schuman, and Adam Serwer.

David Frum, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, tweeted that his article in the series argues “Trump’s attempt to destroy the legal system will lead — not to dictatorship — but to chaos, to the paralysis of the presidency, the US government, an open door to US enemies.”

Yesterday, The New York Times published an article also warning of a second Trump term, stating, “As he runs for president again facing four criminal prosecutions, Mr. (sic) Trump may seem more angry, desperate and dangerous to American-style democracy than in his first term. But the throughline that emerges is far more long-running: He has glorified political violence and spoken admiringly of autocrats for decades.”

A spokesgoon for the Trump campaign, Steven Cheung, said to The Hill, “This is nothing more than another version of the media’s failed and false Russia collusion hoax. The Atlantic will be out of business soon because nobody will read that trash.”

If Trump does “win” the 2024 election, the Atlantic will probably be put out of business by the new and ‘improved” fascist Trump admin (sic)…and all its writers placed into detention centers.

I disagree with Frum on one point. I agree that Trump will destroy the legal system, bring chaos, paralyze the presidency and government, and open the door to our enemies, but I disagree with Frum that Trump will not be a dictator. Trump will attempt to install himself as a dictator. Fascism will reign. Trump doesn’t care if the majority of voters elect him. He’ll settle for enough people to overthrow the government for him.

Donald Trump is a danger to our democracy, but perhaps the greatest danger to our republic is his followers. The Republican Party, now the MAGA Party, doesn’t care about the constitution or democracy. They don’t care about the rule of law. Many of them are howling for pardons for Trump’s Jan 6 terrorists. A majority of Republicans still claim Trump won in 2020 without any evidence.

I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say our nation will be destroyed if Donald Trump becomes president (sic) again.

That’s a nice democracy you have there. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.

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Visit Clay Jones’ website and email him at [email protected].