Donald Trump and his allies have begun mapping out specific plans for using the federal government to punish critics and opponents should he win a second term, with the former president naming individuals he wants to investigate or prosecute and his associates drafting plans to potentially invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations.
Washington Post
An elected leader using the power of the government to punish his critics? Deploying the military against civil demonstrations? This sounds like Russia or China, but certainly not like the United States. Yet, these things could very well happen in less than 15 months.
Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump has already made a list of people he wants the Justice Department to investigate should he become president again. He has said in public that he would appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” President Biden and his family.
The right-wing is unifying and making plans
The Heritage Foundation has organized a creepy partnership of 75 right-wing groups known as “Project 2025” which is actively making plans for a second Trump term. The plans include drafting executive orders that would invoke the 1871 Insurrection Act on the first day of another Trump presidency in order to deploy the miliary in the streets of America to quell any civil demonstrations that may occur.
If re-elected, Trump is determined to use the powers of the presidency to take revenge on anyone who has ever criticized him. He claims that the current criminal charges he is facing are politically motivated and that, therefore, he can politicize the Justice Department if he gets a chance. This, of course, ignores the reality that Jack Smith’s prosecution decisions against Trump were not only independent of the White House, but were made independently within the Justice Department.
The takeover will be quick and forceful
Alumni involved in the current planning generally fault a slow start, bureaucratic resistance and litigation for hindering the president’s agenda in his first term, and they are determined to avoid those hurdles, if given a second chance, by concentrating more power in the West Wing and selecting appointees who will carry out Trump’s demands.
Washington Post
In a second term, Trump allies plan to move quickly and forcefully. Political appointees will be chosen, not for their expertise, but for their loyalty to Trump. Lists of the names of extremists to be appointed to top government jobs are already being compiled.
The plan calls for a forceful takeover of key government agencies by mindless loyalists, eliminating civil service job protections, and quickly purging any resisters. Then the newly-politicized Justice Department, military, FBI, and even local police, will begin the persecution of any who speak out against the new regime. Legal niceties such as the need for evidence, fair representation, and other Constitutional rights will be ignored.
What are YOU doing about this?
This warning may sound like fiction. You may think I am exaggerating. Surely, you might think, such things could never happen in America. I am telling you that these plans are already in progress. They are on paper, and people are being lined up to implement them. These strongly-backed plans to destroy American democracy will be pushed on ANY Republican president. If the next president is Donald Trump, they will definitely occur.
Back in high school, when you learned about the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, you may have asked yourself what you would have done if you had lived during those difficult times. There is no longer any need to wonder.
YOU ARE DOING IT RIGHT NOW.
(Author’s Note: If the post above hasn’t convinced you that the American Constitution is in imminent danger, please read a few of the following sources.)
Sources:
David Smith, “‘A revenge term’: what would another four years of Trump look like?” The Guardian, November 11, 2023.
Jack Shafer, “Trump’s Recipe for a Shockingly Raw Power Grab,” Politico, November 7, 2023.
Margaret Sullivan, “The public doesn’t understand the risks of a Trump victory. That’s the media’s fault,” The Guardian, November 6, 2023.
Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Dawsey, and Devlin Barrett, “Trump and allies plot revenge, Justice Department control in a second term,” The Washington Post, November 6, 2023.
Clarence Lusane, “The coming crisis of 2025: What a second Trumpocracy would mean,” Salon, October 27, 2023.
Editorial Board, “Dictator’s dark secret: They’re learning from each other,” The Washington Post, June 22, 2023.
I’ve never really wanted to be motivated by fear but when it comes to Trump, he’s either said it or lied about it so I’m fearful.
The Book of Mormon was written for our day…if you have read and studied it, you know these things are on the horizon. Too many LDS are asleep at the switch and arguing about abortion and LBGTQ rights, etc., instead of looking at the whole picture and you cannot convince them otherwise. Why did President Nelson tell us that in the coming days we will not be able to strive spiritually without the Holy Ghost…because I believe we are going to see this country as we know flipped upside down.
I appreciate the voice of warning. Nibley seems particularly prophetic in his “Kingmen and Freemen” essay, and with “Victoriosa Loquacitas: The Rise of Rhetoric and the Decline of Everything Else.” It’s so odd to have grown up in the wake of my father’s fighting fascists from 1942-1945 to finding the country sliding into fascism with the ambitions to replace democracy with a full blown Tantrumocracy. Still, there are those fighting back.