At a rally in Indiana Thursday night, Donald Trump mused about getting an “extension” on his presidency.
Recounting how he was told that the new U.S. embassy in London wouldn’t open for five to ten years, Trump said:
So unless they give me an extension for the presidency — which I do not think the Fake News media would be too happy about. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Actually, they would be happy, because when I am not here their ratings are going to sink. So they would probably be very happy.
The crowd roared with delight.
Like the online alt-right, Trump likes to preserve some deniability by floating these kinds of anti-democratic ideas as if they’re jokes. But there’s clearly a deadly serious goal: to slowly introduce ideas once considered beyond the pale into the mainstream conversation, or at least closer to it.