Political pundits and experts are sounding the alarm that ex-President Trump is planning a much more authoritarian second term if he wins the November 2024 presidential election. The warnings bubbled up to full brew early in the week as ex-Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) went on a media tour to promote her new book, Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning. 

After Cheney appeared on Anderson Cooper 360, CNN followed-up with the comments of Trump’s former national security advisor turned critic John Bolton, who said checks and balances of Congress and the courts would keep the ex- and potentially future president’s authoritarianism in-check. When Trump himself appeared for a Fox News town hall and Sean Hannity asked if he would be a dictator, Trump replied, “Only on the first day.” This was after Hannity gave Trump every possible opportunity to claim he would only back the Constitution and preserve American democracy. 

On Friday, David Graham, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic talked about the magazine’s January 2024 issue, which is filled with essays by various writers and journalists warning that Trump would be a dictator and kill American democracy if he becomes president again. But Graham admitted to NPR’s Steve Inskeep on Morning Edition that the magazine – whether print or online – will not reach many of the voters the January issue most needs to convince.

So here’s your chance to discuss whether warnings of a second Trump administration’s authoritarianism are reasonable or overblown. If you lean conservative – whether pro-MAGA or never-Trump or anywhere between or near this spectrum – please enter your civil, fact-based opinions on the matter in the Comment section in this column, or email editors@thehustings.news and indicate you are conservative in the subject line. 

If you lean left, please see the left column.