Sweet revenge...what a second term would look like
Newsweek did an article about President Trump - by interviewing snakes from the Lincoln Project and good people from the America First Institute. I took out the snark to make it readable!
NEWSWEEK: The events of recent months have quashed any remaining notion that Donald Trump might abandon his quest for [the White House.] He is still holding his trademark rallies and holding on to center stage to [present] his own accomplishments and grievances.
The former president has had plenty of help in staying in the public eye. The House's January 6 Committee recently voted to subpoena him to testify. The FBI raided Mar-a-Lago, his home in Palm Beach, Florida and multiple other legal woes have ensured that some news of each day features Trump.
A Trump bid for the White House in 2024 is looking increasingly likely. Despite his legal troubles, he remains a strong favorite among Republicans, of whom only a quarter prefer that he sit the next one out. A criminal charge against Trump would barely shake the devotion of his MAGA political base, the same poll says; judging by the reaction to the Mar-a-Lago raid, it might even fire up his supporters all the more.
If Trump does run and his opponent is Joe Biden, he'd win. As the possibility of a potential Trump second term presents itself, more Americans will wonder what the 45th President of the United States might do as the 47th president.
TRUMP: "There is no higher priority than cleaning up our streets, controlling our borders, stopping the drugs from pouring in and quickly restoring law and order in America. Despite great outside dangers, our biggest threat in this country remains the sick, sinister and evil people from within."
The specifics of Trump 47's policies are a matter of speculation. [But here’s some speculation.]
He has already stated he would pardon the January 6 insurrectionists.
While pardoning himself would make most of his criminal problems evaporate, the Supreme Court is likely to ensure that state charges, as well as any civil complaints pending against him, would be put on hold during his second term.
"As long as he's president, he's got pretty complete protection from legal problems.”
Once the immediate threat of legal action is gone, Trump would be free to focus on filling the executive branch, from the 15 cabinet heads on down.
Some of the likely contenders for key roles are already identifiable. "The people in Trump's orbit at the end of his first term will come back with a better understanding of how to get things done." These Trump loyalists would be given key posts at the State Department, the Department of Justice, the CIA, the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies.
There's no shortage of people and organizations that are reportedly developing lists of Trump loyalists suitable as second-term political appointees. They include the America First Policy Institute and the Heritage Foundation, both dedicated to empowering Trump, and Ginni Thomas, spouse of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, among others.
"I spent basically the final year of his first term mapping out a second-term agenda," says Brooke Rollins, director of the Domestic Policy Council during the Trump administration. She is now president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, which has close ties to Trump. "I'm hoping that on day one of his second term we'll be ready with an even more productive and compelling way to serve the American people."
She offers former oil lobbyist David Bernhardt, who served as Trump's Interior Secretary, as an example of the sort of people who are likely to be reinstalled and who now better know their way around government. Bernhardt opened more public land to oil and gas drilling, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, and relaxed energy-industry regulation.
Among those likely candidates for top White House and cabinet positions: Stephen Miller, who served in Trump's White House as a speechwriter and policy advisor; former general and Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn; Jeffrey Clark, a former assistant attorney general for the DOJ whom Trump tried to name attorney general and Kash Patel, former Trump acting United States secretary of defense.
As acting officials, Trump's appointees will be able to carry out a deep purge of [the “Deep State.”] His acting cabinet officials would install loyalists in the top level of the civil service who would in turn appoint other loyalists under them, comprising as many as 4,000 political appointees across the federal government.
Trump has already tipped his hand about how he plans to dismantle the "Deep State.” In late October 2020, during the closing days of the term, the Trump administration issued a new job classification for civil service employees: the Schedule F appointment, which allows the reclassifying of tens of thousands of civil-service jobs as positions that can help shape federal policy. Although it almost sounds like a promotion, it's anything but. Being reclassified under Schedule F would remove all civil-service protections against being fired.
Upon gaining the presidency, Biden immediately got rid of Schedule F, but Trump could simply bring it back. One result would be to disempower the federal government in some areas and shrink it.
"Toward the end of the first term, we figured out how to root out decades of federal agency growth that happened under both parties and how to deconstruct it in a productive way. The bureaucracy morphed into having a goal of protecting the bureaucracy, instead of serving the American people. Schedule F is a small part of giving the CEO of the federal government a way to ensure that his team of 2-million-plus people is aligned with his mission."
"Civil service bureaucrats lose their minds over many things. If you take their parking space they act like their pet's head fell off."
Once surrounded by loyalists, Trump would likely embark on a spree of executive orders intended to undo as many of the Biden administration's accomplishments as possible. "When you get a second bite at the apple, you have to move fast before the other side has a chance to build up resistance.”
Trump's orders in a second term will be challenged in a stream of lawsuits. But given that Trump himself appointed about one quarter of the federal judges currently serving, including half of the Supreme Court's six-justice conservative majority, those orders might fare reasonably well.
Next up in Trump's efforts would probably be to exert more control over the military. He would start by trying to fire and replace as many [woke] military leaders as possible and Trump would probably throw a lot of money at the Pentagon's budget.
"I suspect defense spending would be a high priority.”
Trump would also quickly clean house at the DOJ, including purging the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies. In a second term, he might well follow through on his threats to pull out of NATO.
"He wants to end overseas entanglements, like the idea that we need to jump in on the Ukraine conflict and shovel money at them."
Trump 47 would take an even tougher line on China than Trump 45 and might even strengthen commitments to protect Taiwan.
Among the likely agenda items:
▸ The Economy: The America First Policy Institute's Rollins describes the core of Trump's planned second-term economic policy in one phrase: "More tax cuts. But it won't be complete austerity. He'll be looking at infrastructure investments, and ways to restore the flow of capital into America's forgotten communities." She says Black and Hispanic communities would benefit from these programs, which would encourage investment in local businesses.
▸ Immigration: Trump might finally get to build his wall. "It's 100 percent he'll build it. It would be a big increase in scale and speed compared to his first term.”
▸ Environment: Trump's policy here would be simple enough. "He'll cancel all U.S obligations on slowing climate change and open natural gas and oil exploration, along with clean coal."
▸ Religion: "We'll see prayer in schools, and the Supreme Court will say it's OK.” Religious groups would also receive support from the Trump administration in their efforts to ban birth control and sex surgery for children. Trump will push to support charter schools, many of which are religious.
▸ Healthcare: Trump will take another run at Obamacare. "We're building out a healthcare plan that, unlike Medicare-for-all or socialized medicine, will begin to focus on cost and putting the patient and doctor back in charge of the system."
▸ Election rights: There's little doubt that a second Trump administration would push hard to eliminate all forms of voting other than filling out a paper ballot at a polling place on election day.
Trump will also fight any effort to restrict gun rights.
Trump may attempt to establish himself as someone who can restore balance to a deeply polarized America. He was a registered Democrat for eight years from 2001 to 2009. A Trump 47 who dropped his flamethrower to pick up a fire extinguisher might be a possibility. He showed hints of being a bridge-builder early in his first term.
"In the Trump universe, you can't rule anything out."
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