Reid: During an appearance on (of all days) Veterans Day, current Republican frontrunner Donald Trump referred to his detractors as “vermin.”

Vermin.

Sure, it’s just a word. Trump’s used worse ones, as we well know. But this particular semantic choice, in this particular context, speaks to something even more sinister than Trump’s usual blustery rhetoric.

So, why? Why is this particular statement so important to note, when nearly everything Trump says is cause for some degree of alarm?

Because Trump, in using this word, is pulling directly from the playbooks of dictators like Hitler and Mussolini, who use depersonalizing language, like this, to both instill fear in their followers and to make their detractors appear less than human and thus expendable.

During the same speech, Trump referred to the leaders of Russia, China and North Korea as “capable,” “competent,” “smart,” and “tough.” The greatest threat to our country, he said, comes from enemies within, from those vermin who must be rooted out.

Let me remind you that he is the leading candidate in the Republican Party and has a solid chance of becoming president again, at which point, he would be able to act on those promises that he has so clearly and so consistently made to exact revenge on those who he perceives to have wronged him, to eradicate those who oppose him, to purge the government of any and all but his most fervent supporters.

Trump has reportedly named specific individuals whom he wishes to investigate or prosecute should he return to the office of the presidency. He’s putting loyalists in place all around him, Trump Firsters for every position. He is telling us directly what he wants to do, and if reelected, he will have the machinery with which to do it. This isn’t hyperbole. These are words straight from the mouth of the man himself.

Even this—this, here, me, right—in a world where there is a second Trump presidency, I don’t know, I’m not entirely certain I would be able to publish these words without being silenced or without retribution. I would say them anyway, of course, but I don’t know what the outcome would be, what vengeance he would enact on any media who refuse to parrot his talking points. I know what he wants to do: Silence all of his critics. But as of yet, he hasn’t had the means, and soon, he just might.

If we take this man at his word, which I believe we should, that should scare us all, regardless of party affiliation.