A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.

Trump’s Mandate Would Be Horrific

As we veer toward Election Day in just three weeks, Donald Trump’s increasingly fascistic rhetoric is setting himself up to declare any ensuing victory to be a broad mandate for disregarding the rule of law, making unprecedented misuse of the power of the state to punish his political enemies, and targeting people of color and migrants.

Over the holiday weekend, Trump’s language became more sinister, unhinged, and unapologetic, baiting his legions of supporters with promises of violence, retribution, and purifying purges. He continued to evoke key tenets of the Great Replacement Theory: America under attack by migrant invaders soiling the purity of traditional towns and villages. He threatened to unleash police and to use the military to go after “radical left lunatics.” All of this came against the backdrop of Trump refusing to abide by the results of any election he loses.

The way that Trump has ramped up his darkest rhetoric in recent weeks suggests he is building toward an Election Day crescendo that is intended (i) to activate his supporters to vote for him; and (ii) to rally them for his post-election plans to dispute, disrupt, and delegitimize any results that don’t show him as the winner.

At the same time, Trump is giving himself the opportunity to point to any victory – whether by hook or by crook – as creating a mandate for exactly the kind of hard-core, extremist, racist fever dreams he is engaging in during the campaign’s final days.

Whatever you thought of Donald Trump in 2016 or 2020 or even in the aftermath of Jan. 6, 2021, Trump is promising in no uncertain terms a new more apocalyptic and unrepentant version of himself. After a decade of listening to his jeremiads, you may be inclined to tune out Trump by now. But the rhetoric he’s engaged in now – even if it’s mxed into a slop of droning, meandering, and incoherent phrasings – is the Trump that would be elected and the version he would claim has a mandate to follow through on the worst of his threats.

Trump’s Racism Is Unconcealed

It’s not new, but it’s important that Trump continues to center his campaign around racist attacks – mostly on immigrants of color, whether undocumented or not – and that those attacks are becoming more toxic and virulent as Election Day approaches:

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