Award winning journalist Kurt Eichenwald gave a lot of Twitter readers anxiety and insomnia when he posted a 17-part Twitter thread yesterday afternoon about why it wouldn’t be difficult for Trump to use executive power to effectively make himself dictator for life.

Remember, Trump once retweeted a post by the arch-reactionary evangelical preacher and prominent Trump confidant Jerry Falwell, Jr. calling for the president to extend his term from the constitutionally mandated four years to six.

Referring to the Democratic Party-led effort to label Trump a Russian collaborator, the tweet read: “Trump should have 2 yrs added to his 1st term as pay back for time stolen by this corrupt failed coup.”

By re-tweeting this proposal, Trump is, in effect, threatening to cancel the 2020 elections and declare himself above the law. Article II of the US Constitution states that the president “shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years.”

Eichenwald also fear this, and his Twitter thread about the subject is now going viral. Take a look:

1. For those who don’t understand the fragility of American democracy in the hands of an unscrupulous autocrat – a scenario never imagined possible by the Founders under our Constituion – the cancellation of elections is quite simple and arguably legal. Which is why…

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019

2…I fear for 2020. It all comes down to presidential emergency powers. They are poorly defined in the Constituion and under law. They are enormous and Trump clearly has been told that – remember how trump keeps saying he can do *anything* under the Constituion. Back when….

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019

3…there was Japanese internment, Justice Robert Jackson wrote of this power in his dissent that it “lies about like a loaded weapon, ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need.” We have already seen Trump do this without…

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019

4…consequence to override congress to pay for his wall. Nothing can stop him because he said “emergency” and there is nothing to stop him.

So, it’s October 25, 2020. Polls show that trump is going to lose in a landslide. He announces a national emergency – we have evidence…

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019

5…”that millions of illegal aliens are conspiring to vote and undermine our democracy. Therefore, I am declaring a national emergency, suspending elections until this corruption is weeded out.” And that’s it. People can sue, but his powers are broad enough and his corrupt…

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019

6…judiciary would have to knock it down. And even if it did, there is nothing in the Constituion that says he has to abide by the ruling. Just the courts own interpretations. He can argue that Marbury v Madison does not apply in emergencies, and who can stop him? Ok, now…

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019

7….suppose the people take up arms or Does anything but acquiesce. Trump can declare this an insurrection amd suspenx habeas corpus, meaning they can lock up anyone they want. Lincoln did this and while it stretches the Constituion – the section on habeas corpus appears under..

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019

8…article one, but never says who has the power to suspend and Trump can simply say, as Lincoln did, I have that power. He also has the authority to shut down the internet or all communications. While technically the electors are supposed to cast ballots, they can’t without…

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019

9…an election victor. And without an electoral vote, The president cannot be removed.

This is all legal. And does ANYONE believe, given he know this, that Trump won’t CONSIDER doing it? A man who publicly stated in 2016 that he might not accept the outcome of the election…

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019

10…who, with the approval of the GOP, declared his opponents as traitors, demanded the imprisonments of political adversaries, declared the press to be the enemy of the people, has spoken longingly of never leaving office, who is besties with every autocrat and hates every…

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019

11…democracy. Yes, as Justice Jackson said, the president – in this case trump – has a loaded gun and we have to simply trust that he won’t use it or that the republicans will join democrats to stop him. And I do not believe for one second that…

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019

12…they will say whatever rationale for the “emergency” that trump cooks up is bogus. Just like they talked about evil hordes who didn’t exist coming into the United States, they have been saying those same hordes are voting. And they’ll say it when Trump suspends elections…

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019

13…so FOR GODS SAKE stop the nonsense of raging over whether there is a public option or Medicare for all as a primary voting issue, or whether someone is a “corporate democrat” or a “socialist”. None of that matters this time. We are IN this position because idiots…

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019

14…did not recognize what was at stake in 2016, played silly games about “both sides are equally bad.” This is the same game that was played in the German federal elections in 1932, where people voting for the “can’t win” candidate gave enormous power to Hitler…

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019

15…just three years later, hitler declared a national emergency, dissolved the legislature and called for new elections. And soon after that, the “protest candidate and his supporters were locked up.

Can’t happen here? I never thought it could. Then again, I never thought…

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019

16…that any political party would ever support an imperial executive and usurpation of power by a president declaring he is above the law.

The GOP has shown that, if they can make an argument, no matter how irrational or false, they will justify anything….

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019

17…the bottom line: bad stuff could be coming. It is not outside the realm of possibility. It would not even be illegal or unconstitutional. And it will end the great American experiment in democracy. But rich people will do very very well.

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) November 1, 2019