If there was ever a point of agreement between supporters of President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 election cycle, it was on this item: The contest’s stakes were impossibly high. 

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An Echelon Insights survey conducted on the eve of Election Day found that 78% of soon-to-be Trump voters and 82% of soon-to-be Harris voters believed that they faced “an existential decision for the country,” and that it would be “irreparably harmed if the wrong candidate wins.” Of course, the refrain that this is the most important election of our lifetimes is a familiar one to Americans. It’s been insisted upon every four years since time immemorial. 

But what if, this time, both sides were right to be so fearful of the other?

Consider only the events of the last few months. The final days of 2025 saw renewed attention on a massive scandal perfectly calibrated to bolster the Republican and tarnish the Democratic brand. In Minnesota, culprits mostly of Somali descent had defrauded taxpayers out of billions by setting up fake daycare, meal distribution, autism therapy centers, and numerous other fronts. 

A blue state whose governor appeared on the Democratic presidential ticket had negligently allowed its welfare system to be ripped off by an immigrant group that has had some difficulty assimilating. It was the stuff of right-wing fantasy and Republican political operatives’ dreams.

Uncontent with the bird in hand, Trump and his top lieutenants sought to stretch a double into a complete trip around the base path. On Dec. 4, his administration introduced “Operation Metro Surge,” a full-court press on immigration enforcement by publishing the names of various criminal aliens that ICE agents apprehended in the Minneapolis area. The group included child sex offenders, domestic abusers, and violent gang members. Perhaps they had succeeded in turning the Gopher State’s blunders into a triple.

In early January, though, the Department of Homeland Security stumbled on the way toward home plate when it announced an expansion of Metro Surge that would see somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 federal agents deployed to Minnesota as part of “the largest DHS operation ever.” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, characteristically clad in a tactical vest, showed up to christen the shock-and-awe campaign herself.

Just a few days later, Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot and killed after she drove her SUV toward and made contact with an ICE agent while fleeing the scene of where she had been blocking the street with the vehicle. A few weeks after that, Alex Pretti died........

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