One of the more compelling critiques of Donald Trump is that he lacks restraint when he talks.

It’s an effective critique because it is so true. Hyperbole is his métier. He can’t help himself, and it is one of the things that is actually endearing about him. He uses his skill in exaggeration to great effect, and it is rarely the case that there is any ambiguity about his being “serious, not literal.”

Those of us who have been overeducated–and I include myself in this class–cringe when we hear Trump go off on one of his hyperbolic rants. “Why can’t he just state things clearly and without exaggeration?”

The answer, of course, is that this is the Mitt Romney strategy, and it doesn’t work. You can’t break through the MSM fog, so Trump markets his ideas like a used car salesman, and it works.

We never saw any evidence that Trump governed quite like he spoke during Trump’s presidency. His words may be hyperbolic, but his policies were, while unpopular with the Left, pretty much standard center-right with a “Make America Great Again” bent—nothing extreme about them at all.

The irony of the Trump era is that it is Trump’s opponents who are the more extreme when it comes to their rhetoric, and their claims are not only hyperbolic, but they believe their bulls**t and act in extreme ways because they do.

While this is certainly amusing remember these people are manufacturing a justification for wide-scale state violence against their political opponents https://t.co/uuSZ13FSAE

— Auron MacIntyre (@AuronMacintyre) December 15, 2023

Trump’s hyperbole has proven to be entirely benign, because he refrained from weaponizing government against his opponents. He obeyed court orders, didn’t work obsessively to obstruct or disobey Congress, and, despite all the accusations, didn’t use the government to enrich himself. It’s pretty remarkable, given recent history.

When you watch the supercut linked above it is striking how scary his opponents actually are. They don’t seem to be knowingly using hyperbole–they seem to be building a case for a coup or worse. They claim that Trump is such a danger to Democracy that he would round people up in camps, execute them on the White House lawn, and start World War III.

He must be stopped.

It would be one thing if these were fringe figures. There are always fringe figures who believe insane things and occasionally act on their delusions.

But these people aren’t fringe. They are at the heart of the elite. They are the media, academia, government, and, as you recall, with General Milley, at the top of our military. The obvious question is, given how powerful Trump’s opponents are and how bizarre their conspiracy theories are, what exactly are they suggesting they will do should Trump win again? They are clearly making the case for extreme measures–after all, Trump is an existential threat to the country–so what are they going to do about it?

It’s scary to contemplate. Their claims are so extreme–Trump will somehow convince the entire US government apparatus to dispense with the Constitution and throw his opponents in jail or execute them en masse–that it sounds like they want to do something besides talk about it.

What will that be?