| Even many of the ex-President’s opponents haven’t grasped the scale of the man’s villainy.  Illustration by Brian Stauffer Adam Gopnik has been closely analyzing Donald Trump’s political power for nearly a decade. In 2016, he warned of the danger of assuming Trump could be controlled; in 2022, he explored an emerging type of authoritarian who has learned to turn citizens into fans; last year, he reflected on how best to heal our ailing democracy, in the wake of Trump’s fascism. Now, in a powerful piece in this week’s issue, Gopnik asks readers to consider the stakes of this election. “Trumpism is a cancerous phenomenon,” he writes. “Treated with surgery once, it now threatens to come back in a more aggressive form, subject neither to the radiation of ‘guardrails’ nor to the chemo of ‘constraints.’ It may well rage out of control and kill its host.” If elected, Gopnik argues, Trump will pardon and celebrate the January 6th insurrectionists, allowing the existence of a paramilitary organization capable of committing consequence-free violence on his behalf. He will attempt to persecute his political rivals. He will abandon Ukraine, NATO, and the democratic alliance of Europe. And these are just a few of the fearsome outcomes we can predict, based on his malignant acts as President and his blustering, vengeful claims for the future. “An oncologist who, in the face of this much evidence, shrugged and proposed watchful waiting as the best therapy would not be an optimist,” Gopnik writes. “He would be guilty of gross malpractice.” Thank you for supporting The New Yorker's journalism with your subscription. | 
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