E.J. Dionne Jr.

I still have real worries that this administration will be willing to override so many of the rules that we have taken for granted.

And so, you know, I hope you're right.

I believe in disharmony.

I think disharmony is part of freedom.

But I don't think the administration believes disharmony is part of freedom.

You put a bunch of things on the table here, and I'll begin where you ended, which is I think it's a mistake to look at Trump's election as a failure because of this complicated breakdown of any morality.

I think there is still a strong moral sense among Americans, and you're seeing it in the backlash against the killings.

of Rene Good and Alex Preti.

You're seeing it in a lot of backlash out there where his approval rating has taken a real pounding.

There is a solid base of support of about 30, 35% of Americans who believe that Trump is against their enemies and they're going to be because he opposes those whom they oppose.

They will be with him.

But Trump wasn't elected because

All these Americans lost their moral sense.

He was elected partly because of partisanship, that a lot of people who thought of themselves as Republican still preferred the Republican Donald Trump over someone like Kamala Harris, and partly because they couldn't believe that he would behave like this.

And then a bunch of other Americans voted for him because they were mad about prices and disorder and

at the southern border and just thought from the first term, well, he'll have some folks around him who will restrain him.

He wasn't quite this wild.

And they are regretting that now is what it looks like.

But in terms of Trump himself, I think it does go back to something David said, which is that if you believe in yourself as an absolute power, if you claim absolute power,

That you stop surrounding yourself with people who will question you and only surround yourself with people who will say whatever you do is right.