Hillary Clinton Unleashes on 'Despicable' President Donald Trump and Declares 'Our Democracy Is in Crisis'

Hillary Clinton just summed up the frustration many Americans have with Donald Trump in a blistering essay declaring American democracy "in crisis" under the leadership of the 45th president of the United States.

"Trump and his cronies do so many despicable things that it can be hard to keep track. I think that may be the point -- to confound us, so it's harder to keep our eye on the ball. The ball, of course, is protecting American democracy. As citizens, that's our most important charge. And right now, our democracy is in crisis," she wrote in a new afterword for her book "What Happened," published online Sunday by The Atlantic.

"I don't use the word crisis lightly," the former secretary of state continued. "There are no tanks in the streets. The administration's malevolence may be constrained on some fronts -- for now -- by its incompetence. But our democratic institutions and traditions are under siege. We need to do everything we can to fight back. There's not a moment to lose."

She proceeded to break down "this assault on our democracy" into five tenets.

1.) "Donald Trump's assault on the rule of law."

2.) "The legitimacy of our elections is in doubt."

3.) "The president is waging war on truth and reason."

4.) "Trump's breathtaking corruption."

5.) "Trump undermines the national unity that makes democracy possible."

Take a look at some of her fiercest criticisms of the man who beat her in the 2016 presidential election:

"The Founders knew that a leader who refuses to be subject to the law or who politicizes or obstructs its enforcement is a tyrant, plain and simple. That sounds a lot like Donald Trump."

"He's profiting off the business of the presidency. Trump makes no pretense of prioritizing the public good above his own personal or political interests. He doesn't seem to understand that public servants are supposed to serve the public, not the other way around."

"Trump doesn't even try to pretend he's a president for all Americans. It's hard to ignore the racial subtext of virtually everything Trump says. Often, it's not even subtext. When he says that Haitian and African immigrants are from 'shithole countries,' that's impossible to misunderstand."

"None of this is a mark of authenticity or a refreshing break from political correctness. Hate speech isn't 'telling it like it is.' It's just hate."

Clinton's essay is the latest piece of bad press for the president, following that stunning New York Times op-ed written by an anonymous Trump administration member, who declared, "I am part of the resistance," and detailed efforts within the White House "thwarting Mr. Trump's more misguided impulses until he is out of office." And on book shelves nationwide, Americans are buying Pulitzer-winning reporter Bob Woodward's "Fear: Trump in the White House," which paints a chaotic picture of the administration.

The woman who beat Trump in the popular vote, however, doesn't put all of the blame on her political opponent. Like many before her, Clinton argues, "He is as much a symptom as a cause of what ails us."

She points her finger at "a small group of right-wing billionaires" who have "spent a lot of time and money building an alternative reality where science is denied, lies masquerade as truth, and paranoia flourishes."

Additionally, she calls out "unregulated, predatory capitalism" and "hyperpolarization" of politics as factors in the erosion of democracy.

She concludes with a paragraph that serves as both a warning and rallying cry: "How fragile our experiment in self-government is. And, when viewed against the sweep of human history, how fleeting. Democracy may be our birthright as Americans, but it's not something we can ever take for granted. Every generation has to fight for it, has to push us closer to that more perfect union. That time has come again."

Trump has not yet responded on his very busy Twitter feed.