Donald Trump

Unless People Support Me, Trump Habitually Warns, 'We Won't Have a Country Anymore'

The president's predictions of the nation's imminent demise reflect his narcissistic authoritarianism.

Jacob Sullum | 3.31.2026 5:00 PM

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If Iran's leaders continue to resist U.S. demands, President Donald Trump warned on Sunday night, "they're not going to have a country." That remark was ominous in the context of a war that has included a huge military deployment, attacks on thousands of targets, threats to destroy civilian infrastructure, and the possibility of a ground invasion. But Trump frequently has deployed similar language much less credibly, warning Americans that they "won't have a country anymore" if certain things are allowed to happen.

Much like his notion of what constitutes a "national emergency," Trump's perception of existential threats to the republic is highly idiosyncratic. It includes concerns, such as crime and terrorism, that are plausible but fall far short of threatening to destroy the country. It includes illegal immigration, which Trump has long portrayed as inherently dangerous, regardless of whether unauthorized residents are committing crimes or making an honest, peaceful living. It includes Democratic electoral victories. It even includes constitutionally protected criticism of Trump.

If we don't "get tough and smart" on Islamic terrorism, Trump warned on Twitter in January 2016, "we won't have a country anymore!"

The threat to national security includes "anyone who has entered the United States illegally, who is subject to deportation," Trump emphasized at a rally in Phoenix that August. "That is what it means to have laws and to have a country. Otherwise we don't have........

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