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OPINION

A TRUMP DICTATORSHIP IS INCREASINGLY INEVITABLE. WE SHOULD STOP PRETENDING.

By Robert Kagan
Editor at large
November 30, 2023 at 8:00 a.m. EST
(Anthony Gerace for The Washington Post; photos by Getty Images, AFP)

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Robert Kagan, a Post Opinions contributing editor, is the author of “Rebellion:
How Antiliberalism Is Tearing America Apart — Again,” which will be published by
Knopf in May.

Let’s stop the wishful thinking and face the stark reality: There is a clear
path to dictatorship in the United States, and it is getting shorter every day.
In 13 weeks, Donald Trump will have locked up the Republican nomination. In the
RealClearPolitics poll average (for the period from Nov. 9 to 20), Trump leads
his nearest competitor by 47 points and leads the rest of the field combined by
27 points. The idea that he is unelectable in the general election is nonsense —
he is tied or ahead of President Biden in all the latest polls — stripping other
Republican challengers of their own stated reasons for existence. The fact that
many Americans might prefer other candidates, much ballyhooed by such political
sages as Karl Rove, will soon become irrelevant when millions of Republican
voters turn out to choose the person whom no one allegedly wants.


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