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American history offers sobering reminders of what happens when warnings are ignored. Abraham Lincoln’s concerns about his safety were dismissed as paranoia. James Garfield’s assassin was known to authorities but not taken seriously. John F. Kennedy’s motorcade route remained dangerously exposed due to political and aesthetic considerations. Each failure was followed by regret and institutional reform, always too late for the individual involved. Bongino’s warning is notable precisely because it comes before tragedy, not after. It arrives at a moment when a former president faces unprecedented legal pressure, an environment that intensifies emotions and reframes political conflict as existential. Legal warfare, regardless of one’s views on its justification, raises stakes and increases the risk that unstable individuals may see violence as acceptable or necessary. The issue ultimately extends beyond Donald Trump. The safety of former presidents is a national interest, not a partisan favor. If protection can be weakened by political hostility, then every future president is vulnerable to the same logic. This moment is a test of whether the United States can keep its protective institutions above the political battlefield. History is unforgiving when that test is failed.
