Media panic over possible Trump second term grows with warnings of 'dictatorship,' dystopia

There's been a spree of alarmist coverage from major media outlets about a possible second Donald Trump presidency in recent days, with stark warnings about the potential end of American democracy and even a "dictatorship" in the works.

The 2024 Republican frontrunner is matching up strongly with President Biden in recent surveys that show him effectively tied or leading the man who vanquished him in 2020, and worried news outlets aren't waiting for the calendar to flip to panic about what it could mean if he returned to office.

The Atlantic launched a special edition of the magazine on Monday about the consequences "If Trump Wins," in perhaps its starkest stance yet against the former president.

On a red cover, the magazine lists 24 pieces from its writers and contributors for the special edition that warns "of the grave and extreme consequences if former President Trump were to win in 2024," including how journalism will flounder, history will be suppressed, China will rise, Trump will get away with his accused criminal acts, the judiciary will be riddled with MAGA loyalists, and more.

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Former President Donald Trump speaks during a Commit to Caucus rally, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023, in Ankeny, Iowa. (AP Photo/Matthew Putney)

The Atlantic' editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said it wasn't a partisan stance.

"We believe that a democracy needs, among other things, a strong liberal party and a strong conservative party in order to flourish. Our concern is that the Republican Party has mortgaged itself to an antidemocratic demagogue, one who is completely devoid of decency," he wrote.

The New York Times published a lengthy piece Monday about Trump's extra-legal aims in office, or at least ones that would blow through previous precedent, including deploying the Department of Justice to investigate his political adversaries. Trump is currently facing myriad criminal charges at both the state and federal levels, adding another extraordinary level of intrigue to the 2024 race.

"As he runs for president again facing four criminal prosecutions, Mr. Trump may seem more angry, desperate and dangerous to American-style democracy than in his first term," the Times reported. "But the throughline that emerges is far more long-running: He has glorified political violence and spoken admiringly of autocrats for decades… There is reason to believe various obstacles and bulwarks that limited Mr. Trump in his first term would be absent in a second one."

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It also noted the array of Trump administration figures who have since warned he is dangerously unfit for office, such as former chief of staff John Kelly, former defense secretaries Jim Mattis and Mark Esper, and former attorney general Bill Barr.

President Biden and former President Donald Trump. (Fox News)

"Mr. Trump in turn has denounced them all as weak, stupid and disloyal," the Times reported. "He has privately told those close to him that his biggest mistakes concerned the people he appointed, in particular his choices for attorney general. The advisers who have stuck with him are determined that if he wins a new term, there will be no officials who intentionally stymie his agenda."

The Washington Post also appears deeply fearful of another Trump term.

"Let’s stop the wishful thinking and face the stark reality: There is a clear path to dictatorship in the United States, and it is getting shorter every day," editor-at-large Robert Kagan wrote in a widely read piece last week about his fears for the future. "In just a few years, we have gone from being relatively secure in our democracy to being a few short steps, and a matter of months, away from the possibility of dictatorship."

Even the usually sunny confines of a network news morning program were dimmed somewhat Monday by the warnings of former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, Wyo., who went from one of the House GOP's most important figures to an outcast for her fierce opposition to Trumpism.

"There's no question," Cheney said, when NBC"s "Today" host Savannah Guthrie asked if Trump would try to stay in power beyond four years if he was re-elected. Cheney was one of two Republicans who served on the House January 6 committee and handily lost her GOP primary battle last year as a result.

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Should he win, Trump is constitutionally limited to serving only one more term in office. Grover Cleveland is the only president in history to serve non-consecutive terms in the White House.

Former Rep. Liz Cheney on NBC's "Today" on December 4, 2023. (NBC News / Screenshot)

Cheney, who has been on a tour to promote her book "Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning," told Guthrie that the vote next year will be about whether the country still is a democracy, and he "absolutely" would stay in office forever if he could.

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In a CBS interview on Sunday, Cheney said the country was "sleepwalking into a dictatorship."