As his support drops, Trump will "lash out in dangerous, unimaginable ways"

On Saturday, Donald Trump finally got his military parade in Washington, D.C. Ostensibly to honor the U.S. Army on its 250th birthday, the event was, in reality, an authoritarian spectacle where Trump, like a Third World dictator, could play “El Generalissimo” and watch "his" troops celebrate his own 79th birthday and return to power.

But the parade was not the grand pageant he and his MAGA movement desired. Attendance was modest, estimated to be in the thousands. The weather was poor, and the event was described by journalists and other observers who were there as being low-energy — a descriptor Trump himself loves to leverage against his opponents — and boring.

In split-screen images, the "No Kings" marches were playing out across the nation in protest of Trump's attempts to end America’s multiracial democracy and to crush civil society. An estimated 5 million people participated at more than 2,100 locations across the country, making the protests among the largest in American history. They also reflect deeper currents: Public opinion polls and other data increasingly show Trump's approval ratings are sagging. 

Like someone who has suffered a narcissistic injury, he responded to the protests with anger and fury. On Sunday, in a series of posts on his Truth Social platform, Trump commanded Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal law enforcement to target Democrat-led cities, such as Chicago and New York, as part of his nationwide mass deportation campaign. He described these cities as basically being hives of scum and villainy, full of “invaders” and other people deemed enemies of the MAGA movement and, therefore, un-American.

Trump's rhetoric and actions seem to mark a long-planned escalation of tensions with the goal of creating civil unrest, a situation he could use to invoke the Insurrection Act and suspend civil liberties and the Constitution. 

To better understand this unprecedented time in American history, I recently spoke to four experts about Trump’s military parade, the "No Kings" protests and what could happen next in the country’s rapidly spiraling democracy crisis.  

Rick Wilson is a co-founder of The Lincoln Project and a former leading Republican strategist. He is the author of two books, "Running Against the Devil: A Plot to Save America from Trump — and Democrats from Themselves" and "Everything Trump Touches Dies." 

Trump crossed a line with this Army parade on his birthday. In a less power-hungry (i.e. normal) administration, there wouldn’t be cause for alarm. The parade would celebrate the Army and pay respects to the soldiers who gave their lives and fortunes for the nation. 

Instead, we saw a spectacle meant to showcase a man who didn’t serve and called soldiers “suckers” and “losers.” It’s authoritarian theater designed to normalize Americans seeing troops on the street. 

I am, however, still optimistic because of the "No Kings" protests. Americans of all walks of life from around the nation hit the streets to stand up for true American ideals of democracy and in support of the rule of law. That’s what I will be paying attention to — not the small man with a big stage using the military to stroke his overinflated ego. 

Barbara McQuade is a professor at the University of Michigan Law School. She is the author of the book “Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America.” McQuade is also a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, and a co-host of the podcast #SistersInLaw.

I am alarmed that our president and his administration are so willing to bust through legal norms and further divide our country. For example, the president campaigned on aggressive immigration enforcement, which is certainly a valid policy choice, but the administration has deported people without due process and demonized them in their rhetoric. Treating people like animals not only dehumanizes the people he is targeting, it also dehumanizes the rest of us. In addition, using the National Guard and U.S. Marines to respond to protesters in Los Angeles against the wishes of local leaders seems to be more of a political stunt than the best use of military troops, whose expertise and resources could be put to other uses, such as helping to mitigate the damage of wildfires. Trump's order to send troops to Los Angeles also seems likely to escalate tensions rather than calm them.

I see the parade on Trump's birthday as an effort to create imagery of a strongman leader. We will spend millions of dollars of funds that could be used for other purposes, such as relief from natural disasters, law enforcement or education. Instead, we will demonstrate our military dominance to the world. In addition, the parade is likely to have a divisive effect as some people celebrate the military and others protest Trump's aggressive use of executive power. The military is supposed to be apolitical and does not belong to anyone. We should all be grateful for the sacrifices made by our service members, and this display could turn some members of the public against them.

As for what comes next? I worry that Trump's divisive tactics will further fracture American society, leading to political and vigilante violence. I also worry that by using law enforcement and military personnel to advance his goals, he is tainting their reputations in a way that will be hard to shake, making it difficult for them to recruit and do their jobs.

Timothy Ryback is the director of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation in The Hague. He is the author of "Takeover: Hitler's Final Rise to Power," "Hitler’s First Victims: The Quest for Justice" and other books. His writing has also been featured in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, the Financial Times, the New York Times Magazine and elsewhere.

I think the word “escalations” strikes the right tone. As we all know, history does not repeat itself. Donald Trump is not Adolf Hitler. America will not become the Fourth Reich. But I am reminded of Hitler’s “escalations” attacking democratic structures and processes during his first weeks in office. Hitler sought to disable the constitutional checks and balances. He attacked the press and political opponents. He courted big business. He purged the civil service. Thousands of people were snatched off the street, from their workplaces, in their homes and placed under "protective custody," a form of detention beyond the reach of normal judicial procedures.    

Trump’s military parade was on Saturday. That was important of course. But the assassination of a Democratic state representative and her husband, and the attempted murder of a state senator and his wife in Minnesota, demand to be highlighted because this is all connected and is context for where the country is right now. I will also recall here the attempted assassination of Donald Trump last summer. Whether from the radical left or the radical right, “political murder” is a frightening development in any society. Public violence in politics became so prevalent in the final years of the Weimar Republic that newspapers were publishing casualty lists in what they referred to as the country’s ongoing civil war. It does not bode well for the future of democracy when elected representatives need to fear for their lives, when people turn to guns rather than the ballot box to register their political opposition.   

My thoughts on what comes next? Let’s start with what I hope does not come next: a dramatic event like the 1933 Reichstag Fire that became an excuse for declaring a national emergency and suspending civil liberties. That event paved the way for the Hitler dictatorship. As to what I hope comes next in America: free and open midterm elections in November 2026. This is when the American people will have a chance to pass judgment on their elected representatives, those who hold the chief executive accountable for his actions.

Here I return to historical precedent. It is said that the Weimar Republic died twice. It was murdered and it [died by] suicide. Hitler vowed to destroy democracy through the democratic process and he did. But it also required the cooperation of the voting public and their elected representatives. Here is where I think contemporary America can take a lesson from Weimar Germany.

D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters." His website is Enough Already.

I feel no different than I did the second the election was called for him: dread, and absolute defiance.

June 14 ended one of the most consequential weeks in American history, yet it’s fair to wonder if, in three weeks, it will be remembered at all, given the furious pace of Trump’s unrelenting attacks on America.

We watched a United States senator — a son of Los Angeles — tackled and handcuffed in a federal building for simply asking Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to explain herself, and to stop her relentless lying about the reason for her agency’s invasion of the city he grew up in. Instead of apologizing for this attack on [Democratic] California Senator Alex Padilla, Noem and her screaming allies in the GOP intimated that Padilla deserved this treatment.

That followed Trump’s partisan invasion of Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where he whipped young, impressionable soldiers into a frenzy — but not before making sure to empty their pockets and filling his by selling them warped MAGA memorabilia [at] one of our military facilities.

Finally, Saturday came along and with it 20 news cycles worth of jarring headlines, starting with the tragic political shootings in Minnesota, followed by “No Kings” protests attended by millions of Americans and ending with Trump once again celebrating himself by bastardizing our military with his pathetic march in Washington.

We have gone so far past the unimaginable in this country, it is impossible to know where to begin to connect with the normal. Worse? It’s all by design.

The worse things get for Trump, the worse he will try to make things for everybody else. He is a dangerous person who is trying to make his disintegrating grasp of reality into America’s reality.

We need to continue to pay close attention to his use of our military as a prop for his strongman act to satisfy his insatiable ego, but mostly as a weaponized force to be used against those millions of Americans who marched against him on Saturday. I typed this two weeks after the election in November, and I will keep repeating it: Nothing Trump does with our military will be to protect the citizens of the United States of America. Everything Trump does with our military will be to protect himself from the citizens of the United States of America.

As his poll numbers continue to drop, and the heat from the fires he has started begins to burn more and more Americans, Trump will become cornered and lash out in dangerous, unimaginable ways.

Donald Trump is only getting started, and we damn well better be on high alert for what’s coming.