“It takes prosecution and conviction to deflate their personality cults,” Ben-Ghiat said. Political violence is more likely than an actual civil war a Republican takeover in November would be catastrophic but she remains heartened by the ability of American voters to “interrupt an autocratic personality who’s in the middle of his project ” and ballot box victories alone don’t stop autocrats but the law can. Throughout our interview she leavened her direst predictions with a pragmatic if not sunny optimism.

She insists her urgent warnings should not be construed as fatalism. Ron DeSantis are executing policies and enacting laws that mimic Trump but with a smoother, less bombastic style. She sees dangerous signs of autocracy seeping into state houses and governors’ mansions where leaders such as Florida Gov. With the midterms and some key governors races approaching, Ben-Ghiat is looking around the corner again. “So not only do you go after external enemies, but you go after internal enemies. “He’s changed the party to an authoritarian party culture,” she told me. And she professes even more concern that Trump’s sway over the GOP has permanently transformed the party’s political culture. Nearly two years later - after a riot, an impeachment, and a monomaniacal campaign to punish the Republicans who tried to hold him accountable - Ben-Ghiat has ample proof of her thesis. They don’t have good endings and they don’t leave properly.” “He’s an authoritarian, and they can’t leave office. “I just predicted that he wouldn’t leave in a quiet manner,” Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University told me recently.

Trumps cult animosity shows letting up