Having grown up poor in a blue-collar Irish-Catholic neighborhood in the heart of Boston, I have long been a fan of Chris Matthews.  

While working at the Reagan White House as a writer in the late 1980s, I read two books multiple times. The first was Donald Trump’s book “The Art of the Deal.” The second  was Matthews’s book, “Hardball.” I kept rereading Trump’s book because it was like getting an advanced degree on how business is conducted in the real world. The same goes for Matthew’s book regarding the world of politics. It was brilliant, and it has held up well.

Real-world experience matters, and Matthews has walked the walk across the political landscape in many substantial ways over his career. Because of this, his voice still commands attention. His words still matter. And because they do, I felt the need to call him out for something he said earlier this week.  

“Donald Trump is destroying our democracy,” Matthews said to co-host Mika Brzezinski on “Morning Joe” Tuesday morning. “It’s unbelievable. And you know why? Because he wants to screw around with the ’26 elections.”  

This speculation, in my opinion, is inflammatory and dangerous, coming from someone who surely knows better. Trump is not “destroying democracy.” Does he want his party to win the midterms? Of course. Does he want his vice president, JD Vance, to succeed him after 2028? Yes. This is what every president wants.

No Democrat I know — and I do speak with a great many — is the least bit worried that Trump wants to “tear apart the Constitution” and stay beyond 2028 as president, or cancel or fix the election, or any such thing. No one believes that. Such talk is nonsense. And yet, it is out there, on multiple sites, seeping into susceptible minds.  

I recently took a taxi ride to Washington, D.C., for a meeting, and the driver said something quite troubling. He stated that “Trump was going to declare martial law just before the presidential election in 2028 so he can remain a dictator for life.” More than that, he added that it was “his greatest fear and the people should rise up against it.” 

Whose careless talk planted such thoughts in his mind? 

Unless he flat-out tells me I am wrong, I strongly believe that Matthews knows that Trump has no intention of trying to remain in the White House after his term ends. When the time comes, Trump will — as he did in January 2021 — turn over the Oval Office to the new president and return to private life.

Words matter. Matthews, as the consummate political insider, knows that better than most. What triggered the two assassination attempts against Trump? What triggered the assassination of Charlie Kirk? Anyone who does not answer “overheated rhetoric and demonizing and dehumanizing smears” is not being honest.  

As we have seen in the “Age of Trump” and after the death of George Floyd, emotions, anger, threats and actual violence have been dialed up to a very dangerous degree. Is it not in the best interests of all who have a platform to try and dial down such inflammatory rhetoric so as not to trigger already damaged minds? 

Matthews has long been a wise and needed political voice. He knows Trump likes to play “Hardball.” But he is not trying to “destroy our democracy.” Matthews has every right to oppose Trump and his policies, but at the same time, he should do all in his power to dial down the inflammatory words and inject some sanity back into the political process.  

We are a nation on the razor’s edge. Let’s open the steam valves and speak to each other again.

Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official.