WASHINGTON—Jim Moseley is buying extra ammunition and stocking up on canned goods.

He is a Donald Trump supporter in South Carolina, and he is preparing for “war.” The civil war he thinks will start if Hillary Clinton is elected president.

“Once the trucks stop rolling, the grocery shelves will go empty and gasoline rationing will go into effect,” Moseley, who calls himself a “Christian soldier,” wrote in a Facebook message early this week.

“Liberals will have targets on their backs, as their behaviors are pretty much evident ... race wars will begin as well, as your skin color will be your uniform!”

The Star first met Moseley, a 59-year-old retired salesman, outside a Christian bookstore during the South Carolina primary in February. He was shopping for an anniversary card featuring Bible verses. He was friendly and polite.

It is the existence of people like him that has contributed to the widespread alarm over Trump’s unprecedented remarks Wednesday about the legitimacy of the election.

At best, politicians and academic experts said Thursday, Trump’s comments will reduce public faith in America’s democratic institutions. At worst, they could contribute to some form of unrest or violence on election day, or soon after, inciting aggrieved supporters into action.

“I think it’s frightening beyond my ability to describe,” Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who is on Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court picks, told the student newspaper at Brigham Young University. “It’s almost an anticipated repudiation of the outcome of the election ... It delegitimizes the entire process in a way that is really dangerous.”

Trump’s remarks were perhaps the most astonishing of his entire campaign, stunning even from a Republican candidate who has made a political brand of bigotry, sexism and conspiracy theories. Rejecting a foundational element of democratic governance, Trump refused at the final presidential debate to say he would accept the outcome of the vote if he loses.

“I will look at it at the time. I’m not looking at anything now. I’ll look at it at the time,” he said. When pressed by moderator Chris Wallace, he added, “I’ll keep you in suspense, OK?”

Trump has always been untethered to the norms that underpin the country’s politics. As his chances of winning have plummeted, he has lengthened his own thin leash.

For much of October, which has seen him fall to a daunting six-point deficit in the polls, Trump has been insisting with no evidence that the election will be “rigged,” corrupted by the “voter fraud” that is actually exceedingly rare. Cries of protest from Democrats and from scholars of elections, who warned that he sounded like a foreign authoritarian, produced only a muted response from most Republicans.

The dam burst on Thursday. Trump’s latest remarks were a bridge too far even for right-wing radio personality Laura Ingraham, who spoke at his convention, and Maine Gov. Paul LePage, a Trump endorser known for his own ill-considered outbursts.

“Not accepting the results, I think, is just a stupid comment,” LePage told a Maine radio station. “I mean, c’mon. Get over yourself.”

Some Republican allies, like party chair Reince Priebus, insisted Trump was simply saying he was not willing to abandon his right to request a recount in a tight race.

But Arizona Sen. John McCain, the Republican who lost to Barack Obama in 2008, said a concession is a “duty” and “an act of respect for the will of the American people, a respect that is every American leader’s first responsibility.” And experts said Trump had sunken to previously unseen depths.

“His decision to keep us ‘in suspense’ about whether he would recognize a victory by Clinton really takes us to a new low in this presidential campaign. It’s effectively calling into question the sanctity and legitimacy of the United States electoral process,” said Mark P. Jones, a fellow at the Baker Institute at Texas’s Rice University who is involved in the White House Transition Project.

“Even if Trump ends up recognizing her, some segment of his supporters will remember his initial reticence, and continue to foster the belief, in their minds at least, that the electoral process is rigged. And that’s just as pernicious for the entire democratic system, because the voting process is the bedrock of our democracy.”

The controversy over what Trump will do if he loses makes it more likely he will lose. Even if it does not turn off many voters, it is eating scarce time. There are only 18 days until Nov. 8, and no candidate has come back from a deficit this big with this little time remaining.

Pippa Norris, a Harvard University lecturer and director of the Electoral Integrity Project, warned earlier in the week that Trump’s remarks about the “rigged” election could lead to protests or violence. She said his “anti-democratic” debate remarks could add more fuel to the fire.

“Nobody in established democracies says that they don’t accept the rules of the game such that if they don’t win that they’re not going to respect the result,” Norris said. “I saw that he’s just now said that of course if he wins, he will accept. That’s not the point.”

Trump’s walk-back Thursday was typically defiant, but it did at least open the door to a concession.

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First, Trump said, at a rally in Ohio, “I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election — if I win.” He added, though, “Of course I would accept a clear election result. But I would also reserve my right to contest or file a legal challenge in the case of a questionable result.”

Trump’s past suggests he would have difficulty accepting a loss. As Clinton noted at the debate, he reacted with accusatory dismay when his reality television show, The Apprentice, did not win an Emmy. The night Obama was re-elected, he called the election a “total sham and a travesty” and called on people to “fight like hell” and “march on Washington.”

The potential bad news for America’s democratic health: Trump now has more influence over more people. The semi-good news: absent violence or disruptive protests, the short-term significance of a refusal to concede could well be nil. As a non-incumbent, Trump would have almost no ability to impede a Clinton transition.

“There’ll be no consequence for Hillary Clinton,” said Jones, “other than a lower level of legitimacy among some voters. Who, especially if Trump refuses to recognize the result, will for the next four years refer to Hillary Clinton as the candidate who stole the election.”

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