It is in this spirit that we are voicing our collective concern about Donald Trump. Throughout the course of the U.S. presidential campaign, Trump has repeatedly questioned and attacked the core institutions and norms that make democracy work. Such attacks by a major presidential candidate are unprecedented in American history but they are entirely familiar to those of us who study other parts of the world. Specifically, we are deeply concerned about the prospect of a Trump presidency for the following reasons:

1. He has cast doubt on the validity of the election process, without any supporting evidence.

2. He has stated that he may reject the outcome of a free election if he does not win.

3. He has encouraged supporters to engage in voter suppression and intimidation.

4. He has threatened to jail the leader of the opposition party.

5. He has questioned the independence of the judiciary and the impartiality of judges based on their race, ethnicity, religion, and parentage.

6. He has impugned the loyalty of citizens and other persons in the United States on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, and country of birth.

7. He has endangered freedom of the press by intimidating individual journalists, banning major news organizations from his rallies, and promising to change libel laws.

8. He has called for the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

9. He has threatened to destroy the strategic basis of NATO, the most important security alliance of the last seventy years, by questioning the commitment of the United States to regard an attack on any member state as an attack on all.

For all these reasons and despite our own indifference on matters of politics and partisanship, we stand united in the conviction that a Trump presidency would pose a grave threat to American democracy and to other democratic governments around the world.