The global view of America's Trump threat

We need more clarity and less American parochialism when assessing this president

President Donald Trump.
(Image credit: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

In recent months, a divide has opened up among those seeking to understand President Trump and the threat he poses to American democracy.

On one side are those who see him as a potential authoritarian whose anti-democratic instincts continually endanger core American norms and institutions. So far, the system — including the courts, long-established bureaucratic procedures, and federal law enforcement — is managing to constrain him, aided by his own ignorance and incompetence. But a halfway capable version of Trump? Such a president could seriously threaten the functioning and even survival of liberal democratic government in the United States.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.