Editor's Note: A Warning
America survived the first Trump term, though not without sustaining serious damage. A second term, if there is one, will be much worse.
If Trump wins: 24 writers consider what could happen in his second term. Plus Tim Alberta on the church of America, George Packer on what the working class wants, the IBM way, Camille Claudel’s “revolt against nature,” SNL’s Please Don’t Destroy, a poem by Dong Li, and more.
America survived the first Trump term, though not without sustaining serious damage. A second term, if there is one, will be much worse.
The staff of The Atlantic on the threat a second term poses to American democracy
If Donald Trump returns to the White House, he’d bring a better understanding of the system’s vulnerabilities, more willing enablers, and a more focused agenda of retaliation against his adversaries.
If reelected, he would end our commitment to the European alliance, reshaping the international order and hobbling American influence in the world.
In a second Trump term, there would be no adults in the room.
Donald Trump and his allies have promised to restore their draconian zero-tolerance immigration policy.
If reelected, he could use the powers of the presidency to evade justice and punish his enemies.
In a second Trump term, women would once again be targets.
His approach to the environment: ignore it.
The press has repeatedly fallen into Donald Trump’s traps. A second term could render it irrelevant.
A reelected Donald Trump would continue to attack studies that stand in the way of his agenda—and to make support for scientific inquiry a tribal belief.
Donald Trump and his cronies left his first administration with a playbook for self-enrichment in a second term.
A second Trump term would allow China to cement its grip on the developing world.
In a second term, Donald Trump would appoint more judges who don’t care about the law.
A second Trump term would validate the violent ideologies of far-right extremists—and allow them to escape legal jeopardy.
Activists hope a Trump Justice Department would criminalize the procedure, with or without a federal ban.
If reelected, Donald Trump will once again churn out absurdity and outrage with factory efficiency.
He has promised to impose his harmful, erroneous claims on school curricula in a second term.
In a second term, Trump would punish the cities and states that don’t support him.
We’ve become inured to his rhetoric, but his message has grown darker.
How Trump could unwind generations of progress
His campaign is promising a more repressive and dangerous America.
In 2020, the armed forces were a bulwark against Donald Trump’s antidemocratic designs. Changing that would be a high priority in a second term.
A second Trump term would require an opposition that focuses on his abuses of power—and seeks converts rather than hunting heretics.
Our bodies are not designed to handle chronic stress.
If he wins a second term, perhaps we’ll finally dispense with the myth that “this is not who we are.”
Here, in our house of worship, people were taunting me about politics as I tried to mourn.
The Gen Z zaniness of Please Don’t Destroy
Vying for its crucial support, neither Democrats nor Republicans are focusing on the essential question.
In a haunted novel, memories of a brutal past transform bodies as well as psyches.
What the tech pioneer can, and can’t, teach us
In a new exhibition, the sculptor escapes the shadow of her mentor Rodin, and claims a place as one of the finest artists of her era.
Readers respond to our November 2023 cover story and more.
A devilish crossword puzzle