Trump an 'aspiring authoriarian', says US historian Allan Lichtman

Well, just days before the midterm elections in the United States, President Donald Trump is stoking the fire of distrust in an echo of his ongoing conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. He promised, with unclear legal authority, to pay $1 million to anyone who exposes election fraud that leads to a criminal conviction. It's a series of tactics that experts say is less about law enforcement than about messaging, pre-spinning likely Republican losses and driving up public doubts about the results. Should America be prepared for an avalanche of lawsuits attacking Democratic victories, as Trump has promised? Earlier, I put this question to Alan Lichtman, historian and one of the country's best-known political analysts from American University in Washington. Here's what he said. Americans should be very much prepared for Trump if, as expected, his party loses this midterm election to try to overturn the results by any means at his disposal including lawsuits and avalanche but remember he lost every significant lawsuit more than 60 of them last time after the 2020 election including some before judges appointed by Trump himself so Trump um Trump's approval ratings have hit record lows and Democratic enthusiasm levels are off the charts do you expect a really big night for Democrats well it's always perilous to predict midterm elections i have a system for presidential elections not midterms but you're right when an approval rating for a president is this low historically they lose about 40 house seats and six senate seats that's an average not a prediction how much of the current Democratic polling lead is due to the unpopularity of Trump, and how much to Democratic policies? I think it's mostly due to the unpopularity of Trump, the Democratic lead in polling. Midterm elections are the one chance voters have to register approval or disapproval of a sitting president and his administration. And the truth is, for candidates of the president's party, no matter how hard you try, you can't run away from the president. And Democrats, you know, I've been criticizing them for years. They really have not developed, and they could and should, a compelling message for their policies and ideas. And what will be Trump's political agenda for his remaining two years in office following the midterms? Well, you know, Trump never really has had a legislative agenda. He governs, you know, as an aspiring authoritarian. He governs by executive order, essentially bypassing the legislature. He only had one big legislative victory, his tax and spending bill. So I expect he will govern once again by executive order, perhaps even more aggressively if, in fact, the House and the Senate or either one of them turns Democratic so when i talk to the pundits the strategists the observers they tell me that Trump over the last two years of his term will be occupied by you know um subpoenas and lawsuits etc and the Iran war do you share that no question Democrats will investigate investigate investigate the Iran war, the corruption, the grifting, the revenge tours. But none of that is going to stop Trump because he doesn't care. You can't shame Donald Trump. You can try impeaching him. That hasn't worked before in the Senate. He's been acquitted. It won't work again.