Watch: Atlantic editor lays out disturbing reasons why Trump 2.0 'will be worse'
The Atlantic is devoting its January/February 2024 issue to an overriding theme: the authoritarian dangers that a second Donald Trump term would pose to the United States if he wins the 2024 GOP presidential nomination and defeats incumbent President Joe Biden in the general election. The issue features articles by 24 different writers, including Editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.
The Atlantic published Goldberg's piece "A Warning" online on Monday morning, December 4. And Goldberg laid out some reasons why Trump 2.0 "will be worse" than his 2017-2021 term if he returns to the White House on January 20, 2025.
Goldberg told "Morning Joe" hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, "I wanted our writers to describe, as best as they could, what would happen, in their areas of expertise, should Trump become president again. And the theory, of course, is that the next Trump presidency will be worse. The restraints will be off; there won't be any, quote-unquote, adults in the room anymore…. I have a multitude of pieces."
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The Atlantic's editor-in-chief added that the issue examines a variety of dangers that a second Trump presidency would pose, from an administration filled with unquestioning loyalists to Trump's impact on the U.S. military.
"What I wanted was a package — an easy-to-understand package, like: Look, this is what is going to happen," Goldberg told Scarborough and Brzezinski. "And it's not just pure speculation…. All you have to do is listen to Donald Trump and the loyalists around Donald Trump. He's telling you what's going to happen. He's going to use the power of the Justice Department to persecute — not prosecute, but persecute — his enemies."
Goldberg continued, "We know what's going to happen to the civil service. We know what's going to happen on immigration. We know that the generals that we count on to be apolitical when they run the military — we know that they're in danger. And that they're going to be replaced by — I think the technical term would be nutjobs. This is all apparent."
Scarborough, a former GOP congressman, noted that The Atlantic's special issue includes its share of conservatives, including Tom Nichols and David Frum. And Goldberg stressed that the issue isn't about liberalism versus conservatism — it's about saving the U.S. from "autocracy."
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"In the first term," Goldberg noted, "there were a lot of people in government who held on in their jobs: the Justice Department, the State Department, the Defense Department, and so on. But in a plausible second term, I think that what you'll see is: (A) a direct attack, very early on, on the civil service…. And (B) a lot of people who would gum up efforts by Trump and Trump's people to subvert democracy will just simply quit in disgust or horror."
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