Trump’s dark mental state is growing even 'worse' as election draws closer: historian

Having survived an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, Donald Trump vowed to push a message of "unity" at the 2024 Republican National Convention.

But that "unity" messaging didn't last.

Trump, in post-convention speeches, has attacked presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris as a "bum." During a late July speech, Trump acknowledge, "No, I haven't changed. Maybe I've gotten worse." And at a late July 27 rally, Trump promised Christian nationalists that they "won't have to vote anymore" if they help him win the 2024 election.

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New York University historian and author Ruth Ben-Ghiat, during an appearance on The New Republic's podcast, cited those comments as an example of how troubling Trump's rhetoric will be between now and the election in November.

Ben-Ghiat told host Greg Sargent, "Trump is really making very clear his intentions, in my view, of telling people that they need to get him into office — and then, there will be no more need for elections. And the way he phrases it is as though it's a bother, it's a burden to have to vote. And this is obviously disturbing from so many points of view."

The historian/author continued, "But the authoritarian, from Mussolini onward, has always presented himself as not just the savior of the nation, but the person who will take care of things and lighten the burden of the people."

Sargent noted that Trump is presenting himself as the "one true savior" for a "minority faction": evangelical Christian fundamentalists.

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Ben-Ghiat told Sargent, "Authoritarians traffic in nostalgia — making America great again…. But just as important, they traffic in eutopia. The idea of a state of perfection. For Hitler, of course, that was an engineered racial utopia…. You can enjoy the state of perfection that I will provide for you."

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Greg Sargent's full interview with Ruth Ben-Ghiat for The New Republic is available at this link or here.