How a second Trump administration would bring back McCarthyism

It’s impossible to view this Monday’s Supreme Court decision to grant immunity for all acts that Donald Trump performed in his official capacity—whether legal or not—through any lens but that of the 2024 election and the strong possibility of Trump regaining the Oval Office. As journalist Adam Serwer observes in The Atlantic, “With this ruling, the Trump Court is saying that Trump is entitled to immunity from prosecution for crimes he has already committed, and for the ones he intends to commit in the future.”

American citizens, however, don’t have to wait to understand the results of this court’s new edict. The people who would make up Trump’s second administration have provided the country a clear template, one drawn from a dark chapter of our history that Americans have all but forgotten.