I think it will happen, but not under Trump. We've normalized certain aspects of authoritarianism now: the unitary executive, the enforcement of political ideology and removal of political dissidents, and once the US gets rid of birthright citizenship Constitutional rights become entirely arbitrary, and anyone can be sent to the camps. We've normalized political violence after Jan. 20th. Palantir will have an extensive database created from all of DOGE's data. A third of the country wants it, and they live where the votes matter most. All of the pieces will be in place.
It just requires a competent leader and a movement based on ideology, not grift. Once Trump is out of the way the true believers will take over. Thanks to the weakening of the Federal government it will happen at the grassroots level with state governments in partnership with tech companies consolidating a power base, then "retaking" Washington. If there happens to be a Democratic administration to pin some anti-leftist moral panic or two on, so much the better.
It just requires a competent leader and a movement based on ideology, not grift. Once Trump is out of the way the true believers will take over. Thanks to the weakening of the Federal government it will happen at the grassroots level with state governments in partnership with tech companies consolidating a power base, then "retaking" Washington. If there happens to be a Democratic administration to pin some anti-leftist moral panic or two on, so much the better.