Column: Think Donald Trump isn’t really serious about being a dictator? Think again

Former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris seen on a monitor during last week’s debate in Philadelphia. One of the pleasures of last week’s presidential debate was watching Vice President Kamala Harris deftly filet former President Trump over his affinity for dictators such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. “And eventually,” Trump said, “maybe he’ll use them.” He spoke approvingly of Viktor Orban, Hungary’s autocratic leader and a MAGA media darling. “I consider Trump a very serious threat to American democracy,” said Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and the author of numerous books about democracy. “He is much more unhinged now than he was when he ran in 2016 or 2020, and I truly fear for his potential to abuse presidential power and weaponize it against his opponents,” Diamond wrote, “even more so in light of the recent Supreme Court decision expanding immunity from prosecution for virtually anything a president does in office that can be claimed to be an official act.” One of the most distressing aspects of Trump’s popularity is his supporters’ willingness to accept a president with unchecked authority.