A former Trump White House official warned of autocracy in the U.S. if the former president gets a second term, Newsweek reports.
Trump White House communications director, Alyssa Farah told CNN’s Jake Tapper that the former president “is a man who has challenged our institutions near to the breaking point.”
Trump has not officially announced plans to run in 2024, but has repeatedly teased the idea, telling supporters they’re going to be “very happy” with his decision.
Farah warned of a “nightmare scenario.” If Trump runs, “he’ll likely be the nominee of the Republican Party, assuming nobody attempts to challenge him credibly,” she told Tapper in a clip from CNN documentary, Trumping Democracy: An American Coup. President Joe Biden “is going to be 82 years old by 2024, many around him don’t think he’s going to run again. There’s very much a scenario where Donald Trump would be president again, she said.
Asked if Trump “will try to impose some form of autocracy?” Farah replied, “I think that he absolutely would.”
“There were things that he wanted to do when he was in power the first time that were well beyond the scope of what the U.S. president should be able to do, but oftentimes it was simply the motivation of hoping to win reelection that kept him from doing things. It’s very different in the second term and I think that’s what scares me the most,” she added.
Asked for an example of things Trump would do differently if he wins in 2024, Farah told Tapper, “Whether it’s weaponizing the justice department against political opponents, whether it’s going after the free press, he would certainly be open to using the military for political reasons as well.”
