What Will Happen to America if Trump Wins Again? Experts Helped Us Game It Out.

[Nevilledog]

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Jamil Smith جميل كريم
@JamilSmith
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If we think Trump was a seditionist president the first time around, just wait. I’ve rarely seen the actual scenario laid out as well as @dmontyjr does here, with horrific specificity. Even if you’re convinced of what would happen, you should read this.

washingtonpost.com
What Will Happen to America if Trump Wins Again? Experts Helped Us Game It Out.
The scenarios are ... grim.
1:45 PM · Oct 10, 2022 from Nashville, TN

https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/10/10/country-after-second-trump-term/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/53Ffe

*snip*

Phase 1: Trump seizes control of the government …

… And installs super loyalists.

“Among the first things he would do, in the initial hours of his presidency, would be to fire [FBI Director] Christopher Wray and purge the FBI,” says Larry Diamond, senior fellow in global democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. Diamond’s research has focused on the plight of democracy in other countries, but lately he’s been thinking and writing about its ailments in America. Trump “would then set about trying to politicize the FBI, the intelligence agencies and as much of the government as possible,” Diamond continues. “He has complete authority to appoint the senior ranks of the National Security Council. So you could see [retired Lt. Gen.] Michael Flynn” — who was pardoned by Trump after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI — “as the national security adviser again, or somebody else who would not represent any of the prudence and restraints and efforts to rein in Trump’s more authoritarian and impulsive instincts.”

FBI directors serve 10-year terms across presidential terms to depoliticize the job. Wray, who was appointed by Trump but lost his favor, ascended to the post in 2017 after Trump fired his predecessor, James Comey, partly to undermine the bureau’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Comey’s firing caused an uproar and helped lead to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to oversee the Russia probe. It’s doubtful firing Wray would cause much backlash from Trump’s allies in Congress and his base, given widespread Republican criticism of the search of Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida home, to retrieve classified documents. But even if his allies did balk, Trump might not care; he wouldn’t have to face voters again. Trump made his own view of federal law enforcement clear at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., in September: “The FBI and the Justice Department have become vicious monsters controlled by radical-left scoundrels, lawyers and the media who tell them what to do.”

“I think certainly in the power ministries — State, CIA, Defense, Justice — he will look to put true loyalists in,” a senior Pentagon official in the Trump administration, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told me by email. “When I say loyalist, I mean somebody who places their loyalty to him above their oath of office.”

In his first term, Trump burned through Cabinet members at a high rate because they kept failing the loyalty test: Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper objected to using the military to put down racial justice protests. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reportedly called Trump a “f---ing moron.”

*snip*

[Blue Owl]

1. All the more reason to lock that miserable fuck up

[msongs]

2. he can still run, win, and serve as president from jail nt

[brush]

3. Too many on-going investigations for something not to stick.

There's NY AG's investigation, the Georgia DA's stone cold case with taped evidence, there's the DOJ's stolen doc espionage case, and what the J6 Committee finally refers on for criminal prosecution.

That fat traitor may try to run again to run away from all that but it won't work. His indicted ass won't get the repub nomination.

[IcyPeas]

4. please no. is there nobody who will save us?

if he wins again I am going to start believing there is a new world order.

[keithbvadu2]

5. More corruption, self-serving legislation, betrayal of our country (Russia is our friend), legal sys

More corruption, self-serving legislation, betrayal of our country (Russia is our friend), legal systems rigged for his benefit (even more), loyalty oaths...

Millions of conservatives/republicans think they will be on the top of their autocracy.

Those millions are useful tools for those who will actually be in charge.

One poster called it a 'new social feudalism age'.

[Efilroft Sul]

6. I find the article overly optimistic.

A second Trump presidency won't be like the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its various phases. The fascism and violence are all going to hit hard and fast, even before the inauguration, because Trump and his minions are all about grievance and revenge. Various Republican secretaries of state will overturn Democratic victories because of "fraud," and don't kid yourselves that these jerry-rigging stooges won't. When Democrats protest against those rigged elections (which is what the Republicans want), they then become the insurrectionists. MAGA hardcore types flying black flags will declare the streets their personal shooting galleries, and federal and red-state authorities will round up and subject dissidents to much quicker and severe justice than their 1/6 counterparts.

So long as the MAGA movement exists, the survival of democracy is on the ballot in every election. A second Trump term will bring about its sudden death.