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Donald J. Trump’s campaign, marked by apocalyptic extremes, took a darker turn in its final days.
Voting has already begun in battleground states, and the former president on Friday stepped up his threat to prosecute and jail a wide range of people involved in elections and politics. Hours later, on the wildly popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast, he said that the term “enemy within,” which he has been using to describe his political opponents, poses a greater threat to the nation than North Korea. He said he is doing so.
For eight years, Democrats have warned that Mr. Trump’s political ambitions are fueling some of the nation’s deepest divisions. But now, as he runs for president for a third time, those concerns have metastasized into fears that Trump’s reelection could threaten the founding principles of our republic. As the campaign nears its final stages, a number of people who know him well, including military leaders and former administration officials, have warned Trump, who has almost assured his victory, that: If given the chance, he would rule as a dictator.
Republicans say such concerns are overdone. But Vice President Kamala Harris has grown increasingly wary of Trump, with her jovial tone early on the campaign suggesting that Trump will rule as an authoritarian, and that Trump will continue to support core American freedoms such as women’s rights. The government has now issued a stern warning that it will suppress what it advocates. Aborting a life-threatening pregnancy. There are also suggestions that Trump’s dark promises are influencing the political choices of business leaders and the media they own.
For Trump, the personal stakes go beyond what polls show is a close race. The former president aims not only to run for the White House, but to remain a free man. If he loses, there is a good chance he will be sentenced to prison.
This left voters facing tough choices about the country’s democracy — choices that have never before been litigated in a U.S. presidential election.
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