Former U.S. Naval War College professor and Atlantic staff writer Tom Nichols warned that President Donald Trump’s social media eruptions this week reflect something more alarming than routine presidential tirades: a loss of control over himself.
Presidents often lose control over policy, legislation, or even their parties, Nichols wrote in his Friday opinion piece. “But Donald Trump seems to have lost control over the one thing every person, and especially those with immense power, should always maintain control over: himself.”
Nichols built his case for readers by reminding them that just two days ago, the MAGA leader publicly called for the arrest and execution of elected officials he views as “traitors” for their alleged fidelity to the Constitution. Nichols describes the posts as unprecedented in modern U.S. history, likely fueled by panic over the long-awaited release of files on Jeffrey Epstein.
“It would be easy merely to note, yet again, that the president is a depraved man and a menace to the American system of government,” Nichols wrote. “As remarkable as it is to say it, however, the outbursts of this past week are different, and were likely triggered by Trump’s panic over the release of files about his former friend, the dead sex offender Jeffery Epstein.”
But, Nichols added, “no one should treat this new phase in the president’s aggression against democracy as just another episode in the Trump reality show.”
The Atlantic writer and former professor went on to tell readers that Trump’s reaction to a group of Democratic legislators who reminded U.S. troops that their oath is to the Constitution, not any president, was extreme.
“He is acting like a man who is cornered, terrified, and irrational,” Nichols wrote, as he compared the moment to Nixon’s final days in 1974. He concluded his Friday piece with a dire warning.
“Americans, and especially their elected representatives, must pay attention to Trump now in a way that many of them have never thought to do before,” he advised. “The president of the United States is publicly howling for the arrest and execution of members of Congress, knowing that he commands a base that will take him seriously and has people in it that might act on his demands.”
“This is a new and dire development in the ongoing American constitutional crisis,” Nichols concluded. “The voters, Congress, and, yes, the U.S. military must all now be more vigilant than at any time in our modern history.”
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