Trump’s Imperial Presidency

There was a very good article on Axios yesterday entitled “Behind the Curtain: Trump’s imperial presidency in waiting”. I’ll put a link to the article in the description below in case you’d like to read it.

Here are a few quotes from the article, however I should let everyone know ahead of time that reading these will NOT make you feel better. Rather, this is a stark warning of what will most likely happen in just a few months.

“Former President Trump, if re-elected, plans to immediately test the boundaries of presidential and governing power, knowing the restraints of Congress and the courts are dramatically looser than during his first term, his advisers tell us.”

“It’s not just the Supreme Court ruling on Monday that presidents enjoy substantial legal immunity for actions in office. Trump would come to office with a Cabinet and staff pre-vetted for loyalty, and a fully compliant Republican coalition in Congress — devoid of critics in positions of real power.”

“Trump promises an unabashedly imperial presidency — one that would turn the Justice Department against critics, deport millions of people in the U.S. illegally, slap 10% tariffs on thousands of products, and fire perhaps tens of thousands of government staff deemed insufficiently loyal.”

“He’d stretch the powers of the presidency in ways not seen in our lifetime. He says this consistently and clearly — so it’s not conjecture … Thanks to Monday’s Supreme Court ruling, Trump could pursue his plans without fear of punishment or restraint.”

“… Trump would quickly set up vast camps and deport millions of people in the U.S. illegally. He could invoke the Insurrection Act and use troops to lock down the southern border … In Washington,Trump would move to fire potentially tens of thousands of civil servants using a controversial interpretation of law and procedure. He’d replace many of them with pre-vetted loyalists.”

“He’d centralize power over the Justice Department, historically an independent check on presidential power. He plans to nominate a trusted loyalist for attorney general, and has threatened to target and even imprison critics. He could demand the federal cases against him cease immediately … Many of the Jan. 6 convicts could be pardoned — a promise Trump has made at campaign rallies, where he hails them as patriots, not criminals. Investigations of the Bidens would begin”

“The bottom line: Think of Trump 2025 as a better prepared, much better organized, much more powerful version of Trump 2017 — minus Republican brakes and any mystery about immunity.”

In his first term, Donald Trump made it perfectly clear what type of man he is: he is a man with an ego so extreme, that he was willing to say or do anything in order to elevate himself above others. He was pining to be a dictator from Day One.

Nothing has changed. Trump and his people are now telling us exactly what he will do in his second term. As the saying goes, when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. ♦