Trump's Project 2025 and the American people
A second Trump term could end American democracy. Do people know?
If you’re wondering what a second Trump term would look like, you can stop looking, because Trump and his people have already told us. Beyond the fact Trump is saying he will “crush” his opponents if reelected or the fact he refers to them as “vermin,” there’s currently an orchestrated effort to prepare for a possible second Trump term. It’s called Project 2025.
Organized by the Heritage Foundation and backed by over $20 million in funding, this project aims to replace over 50,000 civil servants in the federal government with Trump loyalists so he can centralize power and accomplish goals he was not able to accomplish in his first term. Trump was often not able to abuse his power in the ways he wanted during his first term due to career bureaucrats who got in his way, but he wouldn’t have that problem this time around.
What are some of Trump’s plans once he’s got all of his lackeys in place? To start, he wants to invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office so he can use the military to crush protests. He wants to use the Justice Department to prosecute his political opponents. He wants to round up undocumented immigrants and put them in large camps in Texas. That’s just the start.
Of course, Donald Trump is also an enemy of democracy itself, and it doesn’t seem likely he’d go quietly at the end of this second term. He didn’t go quietly last time, but this time he’d be more prepared to overcome the obstacles he faced when he tried to stay in power at the end of his first term.
A second Trump term would be far worse than the first, because the first was essentially practice. As we saw with Viktor Orbán of Hungary, sometimes authoritarians fail to centralize power and dismantle democracy the first time they attempt it, but then they come back having learned from their mistakes. Orbán has installed loyalists in all of Hungary’s institutions and has been able to vastly increase his power and reshape the country in his image.
So I would argue all of this is a bit concerning. What I find even more concerning is that it doesn’t appear the American people understand what’s happening here—at least yet. I know it’s foolish to dwell on the polls a year out from a presidential election, but they’re showing Biden and Trump are neck and neck nationally and in important swing states.
I think there are many reasons for this, but it should worry us and provide motivation for us to do the best job possible of educating the public about these dangers going forward. People aren’t paying that much attention to the election yet. How someone responds to a poll might not reflect how they’ll actually vote when the time comes. Biden is the president, and people are going to blame him for anything they’re currently not happy about, and that’ll show up in the polls. There are lots of explanations for why the polls might look the way they’re currently looking, but we shouldn’t ignore them entirely.
Unfortunately, the media is ill-equipped for this moment. We’re seeing the media make the same mistakes it’s made with Trump in the past. They’ll “both sides” issues. They’ll treat him like he’s just some normal candidate. They’ll cave when conservatives lash out at them and fail to ask the tough questions they should be asking. For the sake of American democracy, the media needs to do a much better job covering Trump, and it needs to do it now.
Perhaps we’ll start to see things changing once the election ramps up and people start to remember the chaos and cruelty that Trump represents. They haven’t seen that much of him lately. His trials have been getting a lot of coverage, but trials are boring, and I would bet most people don’t fully understand what he’s been indicted for. Maybe once he’s in their faces again next year and people again see how extreme and dangerous he is, they’ll be more motivated to keep him from returning to the White House.
As I said, the election is still far out, but the media and the politicians who oppose Trump need to be prepared to make the case that reelecting him would be a disaster for our country and democracy. Not just a disaster but a lethal blow. That message doesn’t seem to have gotten through yet. You can’t just assume people get it because they’ve seen him act as president before. We’ve got very short memories.
And now… some therapy…
I don’t want to leave you bummed out, so I’m adding a section at the bottom where I’ll just share some random, non-depressing thoughts. One thing I’d like to do with this section, of the many ideas I have, is to share recommendations.
I recently watched HBO’s “Albert Brooks: Defending My Life.” It’s a terrific documentary about a legendary comedian and actor who often doesn’t get the credit he deserves. You know his face, but you might not know his work very well. I decided to remedy that after realizing I hadn’t seen many of his movies.
I watched quite a few, and I highly recommend the film “Defending Your Life” (not the same as the documentary) and “Broadcast News.” They were both great. “Lost in America” was also good. The documentary and a couple of those films are on HBO.
“Defending Your Life,” which was my favorite, features Brooks and Meryl Streep living in “Judgment City” after their deaths, which is a kind of purgatory where they have to defend the decisions they made in their lives to some judges in order to reach some higher plane. Otherwise, they get sent back to Earth to try again. Of the films I’ve seen in this genre, it may be the best.
Anyway, until next time. I’m not sure if I’ll post something on Thanksgiving, but if I don’t, I’ll post something the week after.
Ne me quitte pas…