'A clear and present danger': former RNC head raises alarm over Trump's surge with voters

Reacting to new polling that shows Donald Trump surging with voters in a potential 2024 presidential match-up with President Joe Biden, the former leader of the Republican National Committee called him a "clear and present danger" to the country.

In an interview with the Guardian's David Smith, Michael Steele joined with noted historian Allan Lichtman in explaining the damage the former president will inflict on the country should he be returned to the Oval Office based upon his recent comments.

With Trump promising his fanatical base he will be their "retribution," Steele explained, "The fact that Donald Trump in polling is beating Joe Biden in five out of the six battleground states is mind-numbingly painful to believe because it says to me that you value the country and its constitution far less than you value your own self-gratification."

"I’m not buying what folks out there are trying to sell with thinking that it will be better with Donald Trump,” he elaborated before adding, "He is a threat and I take him at his word. When a candidate says, ‘I am your retribution’ to his base, that’s not good for the rest of us. People need to get their heads out of their behinds when it comes to what that threat is.”

American University historian Lichtman got right to the point in his prediction about a second Trump term, bluntly stating: "It would be a disaster for America."

"He’s already made it very clear that his second term is going to be a revenge term. He’s going to use the power of government to persecute and prosecute his enemies and to cement his own power, or at least the power of his allies and cronies," he claimed.

He then added, "He’s already shown he has no respect for the law or for the traditions of American democracy and so a second Trump term would be very frightening."

The Guardian's Smith contributed, "Trump would be unlikely to meet much resistance from the rank and file of the Republican party, which recently elected Mike Johnson, an election denier and ardent opponent of abortion rights, as speaker of the House of Representatives. An election that produces a Trump presidency would also be likely to give Republicans control of both the House and Senate, just as it did in 2016."

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