Blocks from the U.S. Capitol, a limo burst into flames moments after dropping guests off at Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Flares and bricks flew through its windows. The driver, Luis Villarroel, fled his torched car, which belonged to a Muslim immigrant small business owner.
Throughout D.C., store windows were smashed, car doors dented. Police stood shoulder to shoulder unloading pepper spray on protesters.
In the middle of the chaos, Trump put his hand on the Bible, took an oath and became the 45th president of the United States.
“In 2016, I just don’t think that the population was prepared for it, and that’s why we didn’t see wider-spread unrest, because nobody expected it to happen,” Richie McGinniss, a longtime video journalist who has covered social unrest for years, told the Caller. McGinnis was previously the video director for the Daily Caller.
“I hate to say it, but it’s going to be a lot worse [in 2024] than it was in 2016 if Trump wins.”
In 2016, Trump stunned the nation by defeating Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Instantly, Democrats were shocked and began to melt down. Images of Clinton supporters falling to their knees, crying and screaming, went viral.
Woman screams “NO” as Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th President of the United States 😂
pic.twitter.com/QDp5uKbWNv— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) January 28, 2024
Much of the corporate media was no less hysterical, decrying Jan. 20, 2017 as a dark day for America.
Eight years later, after being dragged from courthouse to courthouse, two assassination attempts and being labeled a “fascist” by his opponents daily, Trump has a real chance at another victory against long odds. The Daily Caller spoke to various experts across the political landscape about what to expect if that happens. From violence in the streets, to Democrats’ plans to contest a Trump win, to the media meltdown, to election lawfare from Democratic super-lawyer Marc Elias, they all predicted a much more dangerous and extreme response this time around if the “threat to democracy” is democratically elected.
McGinniss told the Caller he is preparing for unrest across the country that will be more intense than what was seen in 2016. He says nearly a decade of persistent anti-Trump messaging will be an accelerant for extremism.
“[We’ve been] told that, effectively, our country is going to be under a dictatorship if Trump wins,” McGinniss told the Caller.
He predicted that violent activists throughout the country would target the nearest avatar of the government they could find, whether that be federal courthouses or police precincts.
Julio Rosas, a national correspondent for The Blaze who has years of experience covering riots and social unrest, had a similar prediction, adding that migrants who have been let into the country under the Biden-Harris administration may join in big cities such as New York and Chicago. Above all, Rosas said protests can be expected because violent demonstrators have never learned their lesson.
Absolute chaos at Union Station after US Park Police moved in to prevent anti-Israel protesters from taking down a U.S. flag. Arrests have been made. Park Police withdrew after securing the US flag, the mob chased them. pic.twitter.com/ZE3Lp6PQHC
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) July 24, 2024
“Why it’s a guarantee the left riots is because they’ve gotten away with it for so long,” Rosas told the Caller. “There hasn’t been that huge government crackdown, like January 6.”
McGinniss said he has seen the warning signs of organized protests in the event of a Trump victory. Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, an influential figure among House Democrats, hasn’t committed to certifying a Trump victory, telling Axios that he would only move forward if the former president “won a free, fair and honest election.”
Such comments led McGinniss to warn that Democrats are already preparing to hit the streets, especially if the party apparatus attempts to cloud the legitimacy of Trump’s victory.
“In that case, you’d see not just pockets of rioting and stuff, but you’d see actual organized, ‘stop the steal’ style stuff,” McGinniss said.
“When that happens on the left, we all know, once the sun goes down, there’s a whole other group of people who [come out],” he added, noting that “more chaos” helps their chance at “keeping Trump out of office.”
Raskin’s comments also caught the attention of conservative election integrity advocates and Trump allies.
“It sounds like Jamie Raskin is trying to start a civil war,” Mike Davis, a Trump-aligned lawyer and founder of the Article III Project, told the Caller.
History indicates that the Raskins and rioters of the world will be egged on by corporate media.
“The Atlantic story is a great preview of what we can expect, which is pure hysteria over Trump being a fascist that’s going to use the military to force his will into existence against the American people,” The Spectator’s Washington editor Amber Duke told the Caller. Duke was previously a media reporter and then White House correspondent for the Caller.
The Atlantic story that Duke highlighted was published Tuesday by Editor-In-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who alleged that the former president praised Hitler while also disparaging a deceased veteran and her family. Instantly, the family, their lawyer and former Trump administration officials pushed back on the story, with figures close to Trump denying he had made the comments. Vice President Kamala Harris ran with it anyway, giving a rare unexpected address to push the fascism narrative. (RELATED: The Atlantic’s October Surprise On Trump Implodes After Denials Galore From Everyone Involved)
Duke believes this line of attack will intensify as critics paint the former president as a “dictator, a fascist who will never give up power.”
The Harris campaign also appears ready to engage in legal battles after the election. In August, the vice president hired back Marc Elias, one of the party’s top lawyers. In 2020, Elias played a leading role in hundreds of lawsuits seeking to make it easier to vote and undo Republican efforts to make elections more secure. He did the same in 2022, engaging in nearly 50 lawsuits in an effort to change election laws to Democrats’ liking.
SCOOP:
Marc Elias’s latest dark money deception.
A super PAC is running ads to boost the Libertarian candidate as a “true conservative” who will “abolish income taxes.”
We tracked down the main funder, and it’s directly linked to Elias.https://t.co/hV1cH9dFtf
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) October 25, 2024
In March, Republicans and their lawyers were concerned about the security of November’s election. Compared to Democrats, the Republican National Committee has been decades behind on the issue because of a 1982 consent decree that forbade them from engaging on many election integrity initiatives. But once that consent decree was lifted in 2018, the party began to rebuild, and by 2024 a fully-funded and staffed election integrity department was created. This cycle, the party has filed more than 100 election integrity lawsuits on issues ranging from removing non-citizens from voter rolls to implementing stricter checks on ballot validity.
A Trump campaign official previously told the Caller that what happened on the election integrity front in 2020 will not happen again in 2024.
Davis agreed.
“President Trump learned his lesson from 2020 … He has hired a very good legal team led by David Warrington on his campaign, along with a very good legal team led by RNC Chairman Michael Whatley,” Davis told the Caller.
Davis said the legal teams were being far more proactive in getting injunctions against Democratic initiatives this time around: “That was the mistake in 2020: they didn’t get injunctions … They’re doing it this time,” he added.
But Republicans agree that regardless of what work they do before Nov. 5, Democrats will turn to lawfare in the days and weeks thereafter if Trump prevails in the election.
“Democrats have used the claim of voter suppression to oppose every good election reform. Every reform proposed, whether it’s voter ID … cleaning up voter rolls, they always claim that’s voter suppression,” Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow focusing on election integrity at the Heritage Foundation, said, adding that data shows when voter ID is required, turnout goes up.
“But what I expect is that in any state where they lose, if it’s a close loss, they’re going to make general claims of voter suppression,” Hans explained.
He predicted that wherever an ID requirement was used or people were turned away from the polls, “the voter suppression claim” will be a fixture of Democrats’ post-election narrative.
To defeat Democrats in the legal arena, Davis said the key is for Trump supporters to turn out early.
The early voting blog is updated!
Rs have added 2K to lead, which is now 31,000, or 5%. GOP surge slowed a bit Saturday, but Republicans still gained.
Dems need to decisively win indies to make this a late Election Night.
Down-ballot update, too!https://t.co/Pl43XBMcPA
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) October 27, 2024
“Early voting is crucial because it guarantees that your voters can actually vote and don’t get disenfranchised on Election Day,” Davis explained, adding that early voting allows the Trump campaign to spend more resources on voters who haven’t turned out yet.
Duke predicted that early voting will be the crutch Democrats use to cope with a Trump victory. She explained she recently heard the argument that because journalists are reporting turnout numbers ahead of time, they are “suppressing turnout” before the election even arrives.
“I guess the Democrats are going to be against early voting because it didn’t go in their favor this time around,” Duke remarked.
Violence in the streets, a media meltdown and lawsuits would be predictable results of a second Trump victory. Security concerns may not be top of mind, but former Secret Service members said they should be.
Three months ago the former president took a shot to the head. Since then, reports have shown the Secret Service is not in a position to adequately protect him. The former agents warned that Trump could be in more danger as the 47th president than ever.
“This is uncharted territory for the Secret Service. I’ve never seen a threat landscape like we see now directed against President Trump,” former secret service agent Tim Miller told the Caller.
Miller explained that right now everyone is worried about “the guy on the roof with a rifle,” but he raised concerns about a car bomb, a plane, a biohazard attack — all things Trump could be susceptible to if the Secret Service isn’t prepared. And as of right now, he told the Caller, it seems as if they are not ready to handle the magnitude of the situation. (RELATED: Despite Skyrocketing Budget, Secret Service Can’t Seem To Find The Money To Protect The President)
“The Secret Service ought to be the most technology-savvy organization in all of government, and yet they’re 10 years behind the Department of Defense in terms of drone technology,” Miller told the Caller.
Miller compared agents’ lack of experience with drone technology at Trump’s Butler, Pennsylvania rally to a pro football team showing up to a game without a ball.
Miller made it clear that he didn’t fault the officers themselves for being ill-prepared, rather he saw the leadership to blame.
Rich Staropoli, a former Secret Service agent, told the Caller that Trump’s high-profile family and global threats will bring additional security concerns not considered under the Biden administration. The biggest issue, however, is the agency’s lack of ability to retain officers.
“When I was there, we never had a problem going to other federal agencies and saying, ‘hey, we need a dozen guys. We need 50 guys,’” Staropoli told the Caller, adding that help was provided and legalities were sorted out later.
“Where’s the hesitancy in doing that? But it’s obvious it isn’t being done. That’s a problem,” Staropoli continued.
There is one other person to consider in the aftermath of the Nov. 5 election: Kamala Harris.
Democrats have rallied behind Harris in 2024 after a tumultuous term as vice president. Her future in Democratic politics could rest in the balance of Nov. 5’s results.
“They would not be happy to lose, but either outcome would be fine to them,” Duke told the Caller. “On one hand, they win, and on the other they get rid of Kamala.”