‘Trump lost it’: Ex-insider flags evidence president prepping to ‘stay in power forever’

Don­ald Trump has always been a larg­er-than-life polit­i­cal fig­ure, and con­tro­ver­sy seems to fol­low him wher­ev­er he goes. Now, accord­ing to a for­mer insid­er, Trump isn’t just plan­ning for a polit­i­cal come­back — he may be lay­ing the ground­work for some­thing much big­ger and far more trou­bling.

Lev Par­nas, a Sovi­et-born busi­ness­man who once worked close­ly with Rudy Giu­liani dur­ing Trump’s first admin­is­tra­tion, is sound­ing the alarm about what he describes as Trump’s author­i­tar­i­an play­book. Par­nas is no stranger to the for­mer president’s orbit: he was sent to Ukraine in an effort to dig up dam­ag­ing infor­ma­tion on Hunter Biden dur­ing the 2020 cam­paign, a move that sparked Trump’s first impeach­ment. Lat­er, Par­nas him­self was con­vict­ed on cam­paign finance vio­la­tions.

Today, speak­ing from out­side the admin­is­tra­tion, he’s shar­ing stark warn­ings about where Trump’s ambi­tions may be head­ed.

A Campaign Built on Propaganda

Par­nas has accused Trump of push­ing “pro­pa­gan­da” on social media, includ­ing alarm­ing imagery that appears to show threats against major U.S. cities. In one instance, Trump cir­cu­lat­ed an image imply­ing Chica­go could be fac­ing “war.”

Accord­ing to Par­nas, these kinds of mes­sages aren’t ran­dom. Instead, he sees them as part of a coor­di­nat­ed effort to sow fear and divi­sion while jus­ti­fy­ing increas­ing­ly extreme actions.

“Don­ald Trump has com­plete­ly lost it,” Par­nas wrote, warn­ing that the for­mer pres­i­dent is not only eye­ing for­eign con­flicts, like with Venezuela, but also domes­tic crack­downs using the Nation­al Guard in cities such as Chica­go and Port­land.

Project 2025 and the Push to Stay in Power

At the heart of Par­nas’ con­cern is what he describes as Trump’s intent to use chaos to imple­ment Project 2025, a con­ser­v­a­tive blue­print that crit­ics argue could reshape the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment in ways that con­sol­i­date exec­u­tive pow­er.

Par­nas alleges that mil­i­tary inter­ven­tions abroad and a heavy-hand­ed use of force at home could pro­vide Trump with the pre­text to hold onto pow­er indef­i­nite­ly.

“This is not about safe­ty or secu­ri­ty,” Par­nas wrote. “It’s about an orches­trat­ed cam­paign of chaos designed for one pur­pose only: to cement him­self in pow­er for good.”

Signs of an Authoritarian Playbook

Accord­ing to Par­nas, the sig­nals are already vis­i­ble. He points to report­ed dis­cus­sions of mil­i­tary action in Venezuela, the pos­si­bil­i­ty of deploy­ing troops in U.S. cities, and even the White House grounds being used as a lucra­tive polit­i­cal event space.

Each of these, Par­nas argues, adds up to the same con­clu­sion: Trump is not plan­ning to step aside peace­ful­ly if giv­en the chance at pow­er again.

A Warning to the Public

Par­nas stress­es that his inten­tion isn’t to scare Amer­i­cans, but to urge vig­i­lance. “What’s tran­spir­ing right now… all points to one thing: Don­ald Trump is not prepar­ing to leave pow­er,” he wrote. “And if we don’t stand togeth­er now, if we don’t raise our voic­es now, there will come a day when we wake up and regret that we didn’t do every­thing we could while we still had the chance.”

Final Thoughts

Whether or not you agree with Par­nas, his words add to a grow­ing cho­rus of voic­es rais­ing con­cern about Trump’s ambi­tions and meth­ods. His per­spec­tive is espe­cial­ly notable giv­en his insid­er his­to­ry with Giu­liani and Trump’s Ukraine deal­ings — a scan­dal that already left a deep mark on Amer­i­can pol­i­tics.

As 2024 draws clos­er and Trump con­tin­ues to dom­i­nate head­lines, ques­tions about how far he’s will­ing to go — and what his allies are pre­pared to sup­port — remain more press­ing than ever.