As the 2020 election gets closer, Donald Trump’s campaigning is heading in a scarily authoritarian direction.

Trump has been known to throw baseless accusations at his enemies and in recent weeks, he’s ramped up his unproven claim that the FBI spied on him and committed “treason”.

Last night, at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, Trump watched approvingly as his supporters chanted “lock them up!” to the FBI and Democrats.

He added, “Well, we have a great new attorney general who’s going to give it a very fair look… very fair.”

Trump accuses the FBI and Democrats of treason. He then has to pause as his fans chant, "lock them up!"

"We have a great new attorney general who will give it a very fair look," Trump says. 👀 pic.twitter.com/TNEoVny7pJ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 21, 2019

First of all, William Barr – the AG he’s referring to – is not the president’s attorney general, he’s the attorney general for all Americans.

And the image of Trump at a campaign rally suggesting that he’s going to use the attorney general to take down his enemies is incredibly disturbing.

This is not what normal democratic leaders do – this is the sort of behavior you’d expect from a dictator.

This is not normal
This is not normal
This is not normal
This is not normal
This is not normal
This is not normal
This is not normal
This is not normal
This is not normal
This is not normal
This is not normal
This is not normal https://t.co/Xt5U5suz3d

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) May 21, 2019

For anyone who needs a quick reminder – the FBI was tasked with investigating potential misconduct by the Trump campaign in 2016.

That’s very different from “spying” because it means surveillance warrants had to be authorised by judges and rules had to be followed to make sure the investigation was legal.

Trump has also repeatedly claimed that the FBI had it in for him and wanted to help the Democrats.

But that accusation is contradicted by the fact that the organisation did not publicly reveal their investigation into his campaign during the 2016 election.

Meanwhile, they were happy to reveal their investigation into Hillary Clinton, which was a revelation that some people believe contributed to her defeat.

Twitter had some thoughts:

Watch this video. See all the red hats. Hear the chants. Then name one country where this happened and it ended well and peacefully. https://t.co/I14gq6vDZx

— Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) May 21, 2019

This is despicable, frightening & yet another attack on the rule of law. We can’t laugh this off anymore @HouseDemocrats. And if AG Barr had any shred of decency, independence or pride in the DOJ he would denounce this. https://t.co/p5z8UxQ0So

— Mimi Rocah (@Mimirocah1) May 21, 2019

We become used to this, but listen to what he says – it should be terrifying. It is the language of 1930's Fascists: "treason", "loyal", "destiny", "dignity", "took back your country". He is encouraging his chief law-enforcement officer to go after his political opponents. https://t.co/y4fvaeXOhz

— Ryan D. Enos (@RyanDEnos) May 21, 2019

Trump tells his political rally that his Attorney General is carrying out his command to investigate his political opponents for committing treason.

Whatever he thinks he means by this, it is now seen as ordinary, routinized conduct by this president, and that can't be okay. https://t.co/AiyRXM646O

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) May 21, 2019

This is what demagogues and autocrats do. Make baseless charges and encourage hatred. Republicans, you are enabling this. Trump voters, you are being played. https://t.co/Tbr9KzkXya

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) May 21, 2019