Rosenberg: Yeah, I mean, I think that there are two things that are happening simultaneously that we have to keep in our minds. One is that Trump is doing incredible harm to the country and breaking things that are going to be difficult, if not impossible, to repair. And we must act with incredible vigor to mitigate the damage and to win back power.
But the second thing that’s happening, and that’s equally important, is that he’s in physical, cognitive, and political decline, and that he’s growing, I think, ever more distant from the American people. He’s struggling to rally even his own voters behind major parts of his agenda. And as a political project, he’s failing.
And I think, to some degree, Greg—if I can just say—these two things are related. I think the further, the more there’s a perception that his government and his political project have failed, it’s encouraging them—or encouraging greater escalation toward authoritarianism. And that because they’re growing to believe that winning the elections, staying in power through winning the elections next year, is starting to become difficult, if not impossible … therefore, they’re going to door two—which is greater illiberalism, crushing their opposition.
I call it the vicious cycle of a failing strongman—that the more he fails, the more he grows distant from the public, which encourages him to become more of an illiberal strongman and to crack down on his opposition. And I think that he’s in that dynamic right now. And unfortunately, what it’s doing is accelerating his experimentation with becoming a total autocrat.
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