If He Is Elected

 

Given that we’re in the midst of a vote that will determine the fate and future of democracy in America, let’s review what Donald Trump has already said he will do if he gets back into the White House. In theory many of these things would also require a compliant House and Senate, but with the recent Supreme Court rulings about presidential power he may be able to do many or even most of them by executive order or simply by fiat.

If lower courts rule his actions as criminal, the Roberts Court has already given him immunity from prosecution, so nothing short of a military coup against him or, like four years ago, the refusal of his subordinates to act, could stop him. And he’s going to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

Everything mentioned here is based on statements Trump, Vance, or people close to them have already made. And it’s important to realize that most of these things will not directly impact the lives of average working-class people so, like when these same things happened in Russia, Hungary, Turkey, etc., so the pushback will most likely not be strong or immediate.

His first step would be to gut the press, because the more widespread his actions are publicized the more they’re likely to stir up opposition. He’s already told us how he’ll do this: change the nation’s libel laws so he, his administration’s officials, and his billionaire friends can sue reporters and media outlets for “defaming” and “libeling” them with negative reporting or opinion pieces.

This is a well-trod path; both Putin and Orbán did the same. Much like the way JD Vance’s billionaire mentor went after Gawker when it outed him, the lawsuits will both put out of business the publications and bankrupt the individual reporters and writers. Just like in Russia and Hungary, once the nation’s media outlets are crippled, the billionaires close to Trump will buy them for a song and turn them all into the equivalents of Fox “News.” Now, like Putin and Orbán, he can work in darkness, or at least have friendly media “explain the necessity” of the unpopular steps he takes.

He begins by firing the entire senior staffs of the DOJ, FBI, and across all branches of the US military and the Department of Defense. They’re all replaced with Trump sycophants who will prevent junior officers or enlisted people from speaking out or taking action to preserve our democracy.

He then orders the indictment and arrest of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Alvin Bragg, Fani Willis, Leticia James, Jack Smith, and the entire senior staffs in the various prosecutors’ offices that worked with them to “go after” him. As Trump told a TV interviewer: “Doing what they did — using the DOJ & FBI to go after their political opponent, that means that I can do it too. In other words, the Pandora’s box is open, and that means that I can do it too.”

And his plans are already well-formed. As Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)  reported: “In one post about Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, he warned there will be ‘repercussions far greater than anything that Biden or his Thugs could understand’ and that if the investigations continue, it would open a ‘Pandora’s Box’ of retribution. In another post, Trump wrote that his federal indictments are ‘setting a BAD precedent for yourself, Joe. The same can happen to you.’ In July Trump reposted rally coverage quoting him that ‘Now the gloves are off.’ ‘When will Joe Biden be Indicted for his many crimes against our Nation?’”

Next, as promised, Trump invokes the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which was used during the war of 1812 and to inter American citizens of Japanese ancestry during WWII. This weekend he said he would immediately launch “Operation Aurora” to begin rounding up “illegals” and “the enemy within”: “Can you imagine? Those were the old days when they had tough politicians, have to go back that long. Think of that, 1798. Oh, it’s a powerful act. You couldn’t pass something like that today.”

Private prison contractors begin building massive concentration camps capable of holding over ten million people as Trump’s ICE officers — their ranks swelled into the hundreds of thousands — along with state and local police departments begin going house-to-house looking for people who appear Hispanic and can’t immediately produce their citizenship papers.

He’ll also go after Haitians and other legal immigrants from “shithole countries”; the only immigrants and naturalized citizens who’ll be safe will be those of European origin with white skin. Or, as Trump said: “We should have more people from Norway.”

Large sections of the detention camps are reserved for “the enemy within,” including people like “Adam Schiff” and other “Marxists and communists and fascists.” As he told Fox “News”: “We have the outside enemy, and then we have the enemy from within, and the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia and all these countries.”

The FBI begins examining the records of social media companies, which then begin restricting posts. The feds subpoena the social media habits of “suspicious” Americans and begin making arrests of those who have spoken out against Trump; it plays out just like in Hungary and Russia where people who have posted negatively about Orbán or Putin get arrested.

The new leaders of Trump’s military order the former soldiers he considers disloyal — like General Mark Milley and former Defense Secretary Mark Esper — back to active duty so they can be court martialed. Hundreds are rounded up to “cleanse” the ranks of our current and former members of the armed forces as the firing squads Trump has said he wants back begin to operate daily.

The new, all-pro-Trump media assures us, like they do on every channel daily in Hungary and Russia, that it’s all a “difficult” and “unfortunate” but a “necessary effort” to “stabilize America” and “preserve the Constitution.” Nothing to worry about here.

In a repeat of his attack on Portland, Oregon in 2020, Trump sends tens of thousands of federal officers without any uniforms or identification in unmarked vans into “liberal” cities where they begin kidnapping and beating civilians. As he told a Fox “News” town hall, comparing American cities with large Black populations to the poorest parts of big cities in Honduras and Guatemala:

“We have cities that are worse—in some cases, far worse. Take a look at Detroit. Take a look at what’s happening in Oakland. Take a look at what’s happening in Baltimore. And everyone gets upset when I say it. They say, ‘Oh, is that a racist statement?’ It’s not. Frankly, Black people come up to me and say, ‘Thank you. Thank you, sir, for saying it.’ They want help. These cities, it’s like living in hell.”

Abortion ends: Trump’s Vice President, JD Vance, personally oversees the enforcement of the Comstock Act with the approval of six Republicans on the Supreme Court. The law is already on the books, bans all abortions (and pornography) nationwide, and Vance has already written a 2023 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding it be enforced immediately.

Physicians and companies running health apps are required to report fertile women and girls’ menstrual periods to a national database; those who resist are arrested or their companies or apps are taken over and handed to Vance allies to run.

Trump then pulls the US out of NATO and announces America is forming a strategic alliance with Russia, China, and North Korea. India, Turkey, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, and Hungary quickly join. Ukraine is overwhelmed and falls to Putin, who then invades Latvia and Lithuania to re-establish his old Baltic Soviet ports. Europe’s NATO countries, lacking the support of the US and hindered by objections from Hungary and Turkey, dither and pray he won’t take Poland, Estonia, and Finland next.

Jared Kushner begins developing “beachfront properties” on the land previously known as Gaza.

All US efforts to mitigate climate change and shift away from a carbon-based economy are ended as a gift to Trump’s fossil fuel donors; high internal and foreign import tariffs are put on electric vehicles, solar panels, and wind power systems. All tax breaks for green energy are ended, while those for oil and gas are expanded.

Claiming that America’s unionized public school teachers are a threat to our country, and Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers, is “the most dangerous person in the world,” the Trump administration outlaws teachers’ unions (much like Scott Walker did in Wisconsin) and puts into place a national clearinghouse for school vouchers, paving the way for virtually all elementary and secondary education to be provided by churches and for-profit operations. Trump University reboots itself in collaboration with a nationwide Christian chain.

Citing nationwide college student protests against his policies, Trump — repeating his promise that “I will not subsidize the creation of terrorist sympathizers” in our colleges — orders a one-year moratorium on university education in all institutions that he deems “still hire or employ subversive professors.” Conservative or Christian/Catholic institutions of higher education become the only option for young people who can afford them and want a degree.

Pointing to the Bill of Rights, Trump fulfills his promise to “roll back every Biden attack on the Second Amendment.” Armed militias of Trump followers sporting their trademark red hats and AR15s — led by January 6th “patriots” pardoned by Trump — begin “the great purge” of America, rousting and sometimes burning down the homes (as was done in Hungary against Roma people) of their “liberal” or “subversive” neighbors, often with the assistance of local police.

Trump decrees that American law will only recognize two genders and, with the assistance of six Republicans on the Supreme Court, reverses all legal protections for the queer community, including voiding all gay marriages and adoptions by gay parents (as Putin recently did). The question of criminalizing birth control is, per Clarence Thomas, returned to the states just like abortion was, and within two weeks several former Confederate states end access to contraception.

Criminal law and restraints on police are altered to allow “shoot to kill” orders against anybody caught committing a property crime in any American city. As Trump told a crowd in Anaheim, California recently: “Very simply: If you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store. The word that they shoot you will get out within minutes, and our nation, in one day, will be an entirely different place. There must be retribution for theft and destruction and the ruination of our country.” 

Citing comments by John Roberts that there is no longer racism in America and Clarence Thomas’ opposition to affirmative action programs, Trump issues an executive order declaring all laws against racial and religious discrimination null and void. He reverses the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.

Churches, stores, restaurants, and hotels begin putting back up the “Whites Only” signs they were forced to take down in the 1960s and 1970s.

Widespread arrests begin and Louise and I, along with thousands of others in politics and the media, flee the country or go into hiding.

And then things begin to get really bad.

-Thom Hartmann