Trump's agenda for seizing power could be worse in part due to even wider buy-in from the remains of the GOP establishment, ZeeshanAleem writes.
Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s taste for autocracy is well known. But a new report suggests that if he returned to the White House, his agenda to consolidate power would be far more aggressive and well organized than the last time around — thanks in part to even wider buy-in from the remains of the GOP establishment.
This level of planning suggests that a second Trump term could do a lot more damage than the first in degrading democracy. There are several proposals that Trump, his campaign and allied think tanks have pushed to realize this vision. He intends to purge officials from the State Department, Defense Department and intelligence agencies that he thinks represent the “deep state” cabal. He’s spoken openly about ending the norm of an independent Justice Department, and instead using it to investigate political opponents.
Many of these measures would be met by fierce legal challenges. But the unmistakable goal is, as the Times put it, “to alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House.”
There are two particularly noteworthy takeaways from this report. One is that this level of planning suggests that a second Trump term could do a lot more damage than the first in degrading democracy. While Trump did in his first term reject norms constraining executive power, he underestimated how difficult it would be to reshape the government at his whim and was constantly confronted by a bureaucratic apparatus that pushed back against some of his boldest attempts to upend norms.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Facts Matter: White House holiday event was not stagedIn this week's Facts Matter column, Bob Oswald explores claims that an appearance by President Biden was faked, body doubles are being used for public figures, Madonna is dying and more.
Read more »
Tucker Carlson trolls Biden administration over White House cocaine coverageTucker Carlson was in Florida Saturday for the Turning Point USA conference when he was asked to comment on the cocaine found at the White House.
Read more »
Teamsters president asks White House not to intervene if UPS workers go on strikeNegotiations between the delivery company and the union representing 340,000 of its workers have been at a standstill for more than a week with a July 31...
Read more »
White House alters Kamala Harris's transcript speech over 'reduce population' commentThe White House has made an adjustment to the transcript of a speech Vice President Kamala Harris made on Friday after Harris made a statement seemingly promoting population reduction.
Read more »