Beware Trump's Reichstag fire

There will almost certainly be a terrorist attack on U.S. soil over the next four years. Here's how President Trump might try to exploit it.

Be prepared.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Carlos Barria)

I like to think I'm a little less prone to panic than some of my liberal brethren. I haven't called President Trump a fascist, mostly because the idea of him having a coherent ideology is absurd. Much as I fear how he'd act in a crisis — a fear that has only grown since he became president — I grant that most of what he'll do in office is exactly what any Republican president would do. I don't doubt that there will be an election in 2020. And while Trump has a remarkable lack of human virtues and an even more remarkable set of character flaws, I don't think he's Hitler.

That doesn't mean, however, that certain historical events don't offer us a warning of the kind of thing we should watch out for. In particular, the Trump administration's move to shut America's doors to refugees and stop all entry from nationals of seven Muslim countries has me thinking more and more about the Reichstag fire. There will come a moment when something awful happens, and Americans need to be ready for the Trump administration's effort to exploit it.

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Paul Waldman

Paul Waldman is a senior writer with The American Prospect magazine and a blogger for The Washington Post. His writing has appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines, and web sites, and he is the author or co-author of four books on media and politics.