Trump and Dictatorship

Robert Kagan’s essay warning that a second Trump presidency could veer into dictatorship has lit a debate here and elsewhere about whether the claim was reasonable, absurd, alarmist, offensive, dutiful, or what.

I don’t imagine most people think they can know with certainty whether Trump would be a dictator. I am not even sure how we would put useful odds on it. I take the dispute instead to be about how strongly we are supposed to feel the concern. “It’s absurd to worry” seems to be clashing with “It’s absurd not to.”