By now, you’ve probably heard the usual chorus from the American left: Trump is a threat to democracy. It’s the go-to refrain - part panic, part performance art. But here’s the thing: if Trump is the threat, democracy seems to be handling it like a champ. Impeached twice, indicted four times, dragged through more courts than an NBA free agen, and still, he won the popular vote and the electoral college. That’s not a threat to democracy. That’s democracy dunking on its critics in slow motion, from the free-throw line.
Compare that to what’s going on across the pond in the so-called enlightened bastion of liberal democracy: Europe. Over there, if the populists start winning, the courts jump in to make sure they don’t.
Let’s take a quick tour, shall we?
France just disqualified Marine Le Pen, one of the top contenders for the presidency in 2027, over charges of “embezzling EU funds” from checks notes fake job contracts. Now, I’m not saying she’s innocent, but let’s be real: it’s France. The entire bureaucracy runs on fake jobs. This wasn’t about corruption. It was about stopping her from winning. The establishment couldn’t beat her at the ballot box, so they went with Plan B: ban her from running.
Romania did one better. Their leading populist, Călin Georgescu, actually won the first round of the presidential election. So what did the Constitutional Court do? Annulled the whole election. Claimed “foreign interference.” How convenient. Apparently democracy is only valid if the right people win.
Germany’s AfD (Alternative for Deutschland) had to muzzle their lead candidate, Maximilian Krah, after he said something controversial about the SS (which, yes, is a stupid thing to do in Germany). But the real story here is the way the establishment pounced, using internal party rules and public outrage to silence dissenting views before the voters ever got a chance.
And over in Bosnia, Milorad Dodik, President of Republika Srpska, had an arrest warrant slapped on him by Bosnia’s top court for “undermining the constitutional order.” That’s Balkan for “we don’t like what you stand for.” Interpol even said “nah, we’re good” and refused to issue a warrant. When Interpol tells you to cool it with the legal theatrics, maybe it’s time to reevaluate.
Now, contrast all that with the United States. The left pulled out every procedural stop imaginable to take Trump off the board: impeachments, indictments, lawsuits, you name it. They tried to bar him from the ballot in Colorado. They tried to lock him up before Super Tuesday. And yet… he won. Again.
That’s not authoritarianism. That’s resilience. That’s the will of the people surviving a legal obstacle course that would make Kafka weep.
The irony is thick: The same folks who cheer when Le Pen gets disqualified in France or when AfD candidates get muzzled in Germany are the ones screaming that Trump winning fair and square is a “threat to democracy.” What they really mean is: Democracy is great, unless you vote for the wrong guy.
The truth is, the American left doesn’t hate Trump because he’s undemocratic. They hate him because he is democratic and he keeps winning. He says what he’ll do, does it when elected, and then wins again because people like it. That’s called a mandate. But the problem for the progressive elite is, if every man really does get a vote, their side keeps losing. So they use legal gimmicks to tip the scales.
They don’t fear fascism. They fear the franchise.
So the next time someone starts wringing their hands about Trump being a threat to democracy, remind them: If democracy can survive him, it can survive anything. But if you keep trying to disqualify your opponents instead of beating them at the ballot box, maybe you’re the threat we should be worried about.
Just ask Europe.
