A second Trump presidency would paralyse the US government and embolden its global adversaries, says former presidential speechwriter David Frum.
Speaking to 1News, he said the Republican candidate would immediately try to shut down the various legal investigations against him if re-elected, triggering widespread resistance.
"Presidents don't have the power to do that, so the only way he'll be able to even try is by smashing up the legal system as we've known it," said Frum, who served as a speechwriter for president George W Bush.
"There'll be uproar in Congress, there'll be protests in the streets, there'll be cases in the courts. The government will seize up and paralyse.
"Meanwhile, the predators who always roam around the edge of the democratic world - they will see their opportunity."
The political commentator expressed concerns about America's democratic traditions, suggesting the country now had a shorter history of peaceful power transitions than Moldova or the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
"We had a violent transition in 2020 that no other democracy would tolerate for a minute. Imagine somebody in New Zealand saying, 'if I lose, my followers and I are going to take guns and try to stop the winner from taking power'.
"Not just offensive, but unthinkable, impossible, couldn't happen. Who would follow you? But people followed [in 2021] - Trump-led and people followed," Frum said.
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air
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