Evan McMullin said the president-elect has relied regularly on authoritarian tactics to further empower himself. | Getty Evan McMullin: Trump using authoritarian playbook

The presidency of Donald Trump will present a dangerous, “authoritarian” challenge to the U.S. Constitution, former presidential candidate Evan McMullin wrote in a New York Times op-ed published on Monday.

McMullin, a former CIA agent and House Republican leadership staffer, mounted a longshot bid for the presidency as an independent candidate, offering conservatives an alternative to Trump. His candidacy never gained traction nationally but did threaten to put Utah, McMullin’s reliably Republican home state, in play.


In his op-ed, McMullin said the president-elect, both before winning on Election Day and since, has relied regularly on authoritarian tactics to further empower himself at the expense of the American system of government.

“He had questioned judicial independence, threatened the freedom of the press, called for violating Muslims’ equal protection under the law, promised the use of torture and attacked Americans based on their gender, race and religion,” McMullin wrote in evaluating Trump’s candidacy. “He had also undermined critical democratic norms including peaceful debate and transitions of power, commitment to truth, freedom from foreign interference and abstention from the use of executive power for political retribution.”

Trump has done little to demonstrate shifts in his tactics since winning the presidency, McMullin continued. He said Trump’s recommendation that flag burning be punishable by a prison term or a revoking of citizenship “was consistent with the authoritarian playbook he uses,” as was his suggestion that he “won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”

“As a C.I.A. officer, I saw firsthand authoritarians’ use of these tactics around the world,” the former presidential candidate wrote. “Their profound appetite for absolute power drives their intolerance for any restraint — whether by people, organizations, the law, cultural norms, principles or even the expectation of consistency. For a despot, all of these checks on power must be ignored, undermined or destroyed so that he is all that matters.”

As an antidote, McMullin called for “a new era of civic engagement that will reawaken us to the cause of liberty and equality.” He said Americans must rededicate themselves to the Constitution and expect leaders of all political parties to uphold it. They must be willing to suffer possible retribution, McMullin said, and at the same time must reach out to those who hold opposing political views and to those who could become targets.

“We cannot allow Mr. Trump to normalize the idea that he is the ultimate arbiter of our rights,” he wrote. “Those who understand the cause are called to the work, which I hope will unify and bless our nation in time.”

