Conservative gadfly Steve Bannon’s suggestion that Donald Trump will not be departing the Oval Office at the end of his second term should not be taken as as “trolling” but as a statement of fact.

That is the opinion of former Republican Party campaign advisor Rick Wilson, who wrote on Friday that Bannon's comments to The Economist are aimed at paving the way to normalize the idea that the president and his people don’t feel constrained by the Constitution and no one should believe that they will and should accept it.

Writing on his Substack platform, the acerbic Wilson explained, “... they’re workshopping pathways to normalize the unthinkable and daring the rest of us to stop them.”

“This is how authoritarians advance: by saying the quiet part out loud until it isn’t quiet anymore. They float the balloon, smirk while you sputter, then call your protest hysteria. The goal isn’t persuasion; it’s habituation. Bannon’s prediction isn’t a legal argument; it’s a loyalty oath: accept that Trump is destiny, that elections are a formality, and that rules are for the weak,” he elaborated before adding, “And please spare me the eye-rolling ‘he’s trolling’ defense. That’s the laziest cope of the era. Bannon isn’t trolling. He’s telegraphing.”

According to Wilson, it’s well past time Democrats and the media start preparing for the inevitable attempt by Trump to remain in power using any means possible.

Telling reporters, “... stop laundering ‘there’s a plan’ as colorful color; demand the specifics and map the network that’s gaming the rules,” he advised, “Believe him. The way you stop an authoritarian ‘plan’ is not with another horrified op-ed in 2028.”

With the threat of yet another Trump attempt to steal an election, he claimed it will lead to a massive uprising.

“With God as my witness, this will lead America into a violent moment unlike any since the Civil War,” he wrote before suggesting, That is, perhaps, Bannon’s desired final goal, but he should know that no one who starts the next civil war is safe from an America that has had the grim results of two terms of Trump rammed down their throats.”

“Take that as you will,” he warned.