Longtime political scientist Norman Ornstein on Wednesday explained why he believes the 2024 election is likely to go down as “the most significant and most destructive” in America’s history.

The United States has previously chosen “bad” and “incompetent” presidents, Ornstein acknowledged to Zeteo’s Mehdi Hasan.

But, reflecting on Donald Trump’s victory, Ornstein pointed out that “we have not elected a president who has made clear during the campaign that he will be a dictator on day one and will destroy or shred the Constitution to whatever degree he feels it is necessary.”

“Even worse,” continued the emeritus scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank, are Trump’s “enablers around him from the Supreme Court through the other institutions.”

“My fear is not just Donald Trump, it is that the guardrails we have built up over two and a half centuries are not going to hold,” he added.

Later, Ornstein expressed his concerns that normal restraints on Trump just don’t exist. “Maybe the worst won’t happen, but it’s going to be damn close,” he warned.

Watch the full interview here: