Former Obama White House ethics lawyer Norm Eisen on Monday warned that Donald Trump`s power grabs could ultimately backfire on the president.

Appearing on MSNBC`s "The Weeknight," Eisen (who also served as U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic) said the lesson he`s taken from people who`ve experienced "democratic backsliding" in their own countries, only for them to recover, is that "the besetting sin, the greatest danger of self-destruction that dictators have, is overreach."

"In a sense, the phrase is, ‘The worse, the better,`" Eisen explained. "So, the American people will not let him get away with that. The courts alone won`t save us, but the people are the ultimate guardrail and the ultimate safeguard."

Eisen said he sees signs of voters pushing back against Trump.

"They don`t like it," he said. "So, I`m hopeful that we will be strong enough to stand up to his shenanigans."

But he grimly cautioned: "It will get worse."

Anchor Symone Sanders-Townsend had earlier talked about how Trump`s administration truly believes "that when the president does something, it is legal, regardless" of what it is.

Trump`s team wants "us to be in a place where, when not just the Insurrection Act but I think even martial law is invoked, nobody bats an eye," she added.

Trump, though, is "in a race against time," she argued, noting that "what happens in tomorrow`s elections could accelerate, frankly, his authoritarian tendencies."