And good morning to you. It's Saturday, December the 9th. I'm Ali Valshi. We begin this hour

with an alarming new threat to democracy from Donald Trump and the active measures that he

and his acolytes are taking to follow through on them. As Donald Trump campaigns for a second

term in the White House while facing dozens of criminal charges that imperil his freedom,

he's made it explicitly clear that he intends to bend the American government to his will if he's returned to power.

A whole political apparatus already exists that's ready to go.

Its members are even talking about these plans right out in the open.

And Donald Trump himself is so emboldened as to be throwing around the D word.

You are promising America tonight.

You would never abuse power as retribution against anybody.

Except for day one.

We love this guy.

He says, you're not going to be a dictator, are you? I said, no, no, no, other than day one.

We're closing the border and we're drilling, drilling, drilling.

After that, I'm not a dictator.

Dictator for a day isn't a thing, a game plan ready to go and they can do a lot of damage right from the beginning.

Take, for example, Trump's renewed promise to close the border on day one, which calls to mind the first week of his first term in the White House.

Just seven days into the job, Trump signed an executive order, reducing the number of refugees, allowed

in from seven predominantly Muslim countries. It was hastily done and caused chaos in the immigration

system and prompted protesters to hold demonstrations and march in the streets. Lawyers camped out

at airports and offered their services to help those who were affected, and the order itself

got tangled up in a legal battle.

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