When MSNBC's Rachel Maddow's interviewed Stormy Daniels, the adult film star told Maddow that death threats against her had greatly increased during former President Donald Trump's hush money/falsified business records trial.
"Donald Trump is trying to make an example out of me," Daniels argued.
Maddow emphasized that anyone who gets on Trump's bad side — be it Daniels, writer E. Jean Carroll or judges and prosecutors — can easily be targeted for threats, harassment and abuse by Trump's MAGA followers. And the MSNBC host added that the U.S. Supreme Court's controversial 6-3 immunity ruling in Trump v. the United States makes the MAGA movement's authoritarian threat all the more dire.
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Salon's Amanda Marcotte has similar warnings in an article published on July 3, emphasizing that MAGA Republicans are salivating over the possibility of Trump imposing a full-fledged "dictatorship" if he wins the 2024 presidential race.
During a July 1 appearance on Fox News, Marcotte observes, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) was "gaslighting" viewers when he defended the High Court's immunity ruling and claimed that "no one who is elected to" the presidency "is going to be prone to" the "kind of crazy criminal activity" opponents of the decision fear.
"That Johnson is lying is beyond dispute," Marcotte writes. "Of course an elected president can be engaged in 'crazy criminal activity.' That's how Trump spent most of his time in the White House. The reason Trump asked for 'immunity' is he cannot prove his innocence in any of the four felony trials he's facing. He's already been convicted on 34 charges in the trial that finished in May…. As irritating as Johnson's trolling is, however, it does settle one debate that's been roiling the chattering class for 8 years now: Do Republican politicians back Trump out of fear? Or are they just really stoked over this chance to follow a would-be dictator?"
Marcotte continues, "Johnson's glee as he wallows in Trump's newly granted powers to commit crimes — even killing — tells the story. It's the latter."
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The Philadelphia-based journalist argues that in many cases, "fear" isn't the main thing "keeping Republicans lined up behind Trump."
"No doubt Trump uses intimidation to keep party members in line," Marcotte explains. "But his real power comes less from scaring people and more from the widespread longing in the GOP ranks for a right-wing dictatorship. You can see it on Johnson's face in that clip."
Marcotte adds, "Even though he's one of the politicians the Washington Post characterized as 'afraid,' nothing about his smiling face suggests that. He's ecstatic that Trump just got a leg up in his quest to be America's Führer… If Republicans were as afraid of Trump as they claim in anonymous quotes, they would have taken one of the many past opportunities (to) throw Trump overboard, such as voting to convict him in the Senate after his second impeachment. They chose not to. Now we know why: Because Trump wants to be a dictator. Republicans want that, too.
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Amanda Marcotte's full article for Salon is available at this link.