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Paul Krugman

By Paul Krugman

Opinion Columnist

I’m not going to speculate about the effect of Saturday’s attempted assassination of Donald Trump on the 2024 presidential race. I will, however, make one observation: Some on the political right are using the attack to imply that the criticism of Trump’s past efforts to overturn the results of the last election, and any suggestion that he poses a threat to democracy, is now out of bounds.

But two things are true at the same time: Political violence is unacceptable, full stop. And the efforts by Trump and his most hard-core supporters to undermine American democracy continue to be unacceptable. As Republicans head into their convention this week, it’s important to understand the potential ramifications of both their official platform, about which I wrote last week, and their unofficial aspirations, embodied by Project 2025.

For anyone new to this: Project 2025 is a blueprint by and for some of Trump’s close allies, put together by the Heritage Foundation, to ensure that if Trump wins in November, MAGA will hit the ground running. It seeks to provide “both a governing agenda and the right people in place, ready to carry this agenda out on day one of the next conservative administration.” The particulars are laid out in a roughly 900-page document, “Mandate for Leadership,” with specific action plans for many parts of the federal government.

How radical is the Project 2025 agenda? Earlier this month, Kevin Roberts, Heritage’s president, said that the country........

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