The leader of the Republican Party was not onstage at its first presidential debate on Wednesday night. Instead, Donald Trump was appearing in an interview with Tucker Carlson, entertaining Carlson’s fantasies about a second Civil War.
Carlson, the disgraced former Fox News host, asked Trump twice whether he believed America might be heading toward a “civil war” or “open conflict.” In response, the former president suggested that such violence was within the realm of possibility.
“There’s a level of passion I’ve never seen, there’s a level of hatred I’ve never seen. And that’s probably a bad combination,” Trump told Carlson.
It’s hardly the most offensive thing Trump has ever said. But it is dangerous: The idea that the United States is careening toward civil conflict is a central animating idea among violent far-right extremists. Trump indulging such dark speculation, given his influence on the American right, runs the risk of even further mainstreaming their ideas, creating conditions where actual, non-speculative violence becomes more likely.
On Wednesday night, nothing said by any of the other Republican contenders onstage in Milwaukee really mattered: Trump leads the field by an average of over 40 points, a lead that has only grown more stable over time. He will, barring some true shock, again be the Republican nominee for president.
And the interview with Carlson is the latest reminder of what that means: An authoritarian-minded leader has correctly realized that he’s bigger than his party. He sets the rules, not them. Whatever dark territory Trump wants to enter, he can be confident that a pliant GOP will follow him.
How the Trump-Tucker interview previews a dangerous campaign to come
The civil war questions were part of a series in which Carlson tried to goad Trump into saying something extreme even by the former president’s standards. Carlson repeatedly asked Trump if he believed there was a conspiracy to kill him…
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