Alyssa Farah, who previously served as White House communications director under President Donald Trump, told CNN’s Jake Tapper that if Trump wins reelection he would seek to impose some sort of autocracy.
“You think that he will try to impose some form of autocracy?” Tapper said.
“I think that he absolutely would,” Farah responded.
“There were things he, he wanted to do when he was in power the first time that were well-beyond the scope of what the U.S. president should be able to do,” she said. Farah further claimed that “oftentimes” Trump’s desire to secure reelection “kept him from doing things.”
“It’s very different in a second term. And I think that’s what, that’s what scares me the most,” she said.
When Tapper asked for an example, Farah suggested that Trump could seek to wield the Justice Department as a weapon against political foes: “You know whether it’s weaponizing the Justice Department against political opponents, whether it’s … going after the free press.”
She also claimed that Trump would be open to making use of the nation’s armed forces for political purposes.
Farah, who served as White House communications director during part of 2020, resigned from the post in December.
While many expect Trump to run again during the 2024 presidential contest, he has not made an official announcement about his plans.
“Friendly reminder that Democrats have a remarkably weak bench for 2024. Imagine if we Republicans run a candidate who can appeal to independents & run on issues that actually matter to American families?” Farah tweeted earlier this month. “Like, literally just run a qualified individual who didn’t encourage the storming of the Capitol.”