Donald Trump has been airing his authoritarian fantasies during the course of his campaign to restore him to the presidency, as he tries to avoid criminal prosecution for various felonies. At first, his signature line was, “I am your retribution.”
At the Conservative Political Action Conference March 4, Trump told the room packed with his cultists that they, not him, were the real targets of his supposed oppressors.
Trump defined MAGA’s enemies with a special emphasis on prosecutors.
“From the beginning, we have been attacked by a sick and sinister opposition, the radical left communists, the bureaucrats, the fake news media, the big money special interests, the corrupt Democrat prosecutors,” he said. “Oh, they’re after me for so many things. Oh, those prosecutors. Some are racists. Some hate our country. They all hate me. They’ll get me for anything, anything.”
“In 2016, I declared I am your voice,” he said. “Today, I add I am your warrior, I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution. I am your retribution.”
Since then, Trump and his allies have begun mapping out plans for using the federal government to punish critics and opponents in a second term. The former president has named individuals he wants to go after, and his associates are drafting plans to potentially invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office to allow him to deploy the military against protests that might develop.
In private, Trump has told advisers and friends in recent months that he wants the Justice Department to investigate onetime officials and allies who have become critical of his time in office, including his former chief of staff, John F. Kelly, and former attorney general William P. Barr, as well as his ex-attorney Ty Cobb and former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Mark A. Milley, according to people who have talked to him, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations, the Washington Post reported. Trump has also talked of prosecuting officials at the FBI and Justice Department.
In public, Trump has vowed to appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” President Biden and his family. The disgraced former president has frequently made corruption accusations against the Bidens that are not supported by available evidence.
Trump’s associates have been drafting plans to dispense with 50 years of policy and practice intended to shield criminal prosecutions from political considerations, the Post reported. Critics have called such ideas dangerous and unconstitutional.
Much of the planning for a second term has been unofficially outsourced to a partnership of right-wing think tanks in Washington, led by the Heritage Foundation. Dubbed “Project 2025,” the group is developing a plan, to include draft executive orders, that would deploy the military domestically under the Insurrection Act, the Post reported. The law, last updated in 1871, authorizes the president to deploy the military for domestic law enforcement.
The plan also reportedly includes Trump proceeding with plans to greatly expand the number of government employees exempted from protection under the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, which was signed into law in 1883 to reduce the number of government jobs awarded as political patronage.
In October 2020 Trump signed an executive order to create a new “Schedule F” classification making “policy-making positions” at-will employees who could be thrown out of work by administrators. President Joe Biden rescinded the order shortly after taking office.
Not only would high-profile employees who publicly disagree with the president be targeted for removal, but also lower level employees tasked with collecting the data and evidence underlying much of what the federal government does — whom MAGA Republicans consider part of the “Deep State” — could be removed.
Trump has frequently argued that punitive steps against his perceived enemies would be justified by the current prosecutions against him. Trump has claimed the criminal charges he is facing — a total of 91 felonies across four state and federal jurisdictions — were made up to damage him politically, though the cases look solid.
“This is third-world-country stuff, ‘arrest your opponent,’” Trump said at a campaign stop in New Hampshire in October. “And that means I can do that, too.”
During an interview on Dec. 5, Fox News’ Sean Hannity tried to help Trump tone down the authoritarian rhetoric. Hannity asked Trump whether he would abuse power if he was returned to office and noted that Trump has been using the line, “I am your retribution” in his campaign. Trump responded by praising Al Capone, who he called “one of the greatest of all time, if you like criminals,” but Trump failed to promise that he wouldn’t abuse power.
Hannity tried again, asking Trump to promise the public that he wouldn’t abuse power as retribution against anybody. “Except for Day 1,” he replied. Trump followed this by saying, “I want to close the border and drill, drill, drill.” Trump then acknowledged that Hannity wanted him to say he’s not going to be a dictator, before repeating that he will be a dictator “on Day 1.”
Some Republicans said the former president was joking when he told Hannity he wouldn’t be a dictator “other than Day 1.”
Trump’s authoritarian rhetoric has not cracked his dominance of the Republican Party, but it has raised concerns among critics in both parties. “I think people who like Donald Trump like Donald Trump regardless of what he says and he entertains them with bombast, which they find humorous and compelling,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who voted twice to convict Trump following his Senate impeachment trials. “His base loves the authoritarian streak. I think they love the idea that he may use the military in domestic matters and that he will seek revenge and retribution. That’s why he’s saying it and has the lock, nearly, on the Republican nomination.”
And why would Trump give up on his dream of being a dictator? His heroes are dictators, such as Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Mohammed bin Salman and Kim Jong Un. In Trump’s view, they know how to run their countries, and he wants to follow their examples.
Many on the center-left are concerned about Joe Biden’s age and his inability to get the price of groceries down to pre-pandemic levels, despite Biden’s success in leading the economic recovery that has kept the unemployment rate 4% or below since December 2021. But remember, Trump is a 77-year-old aspiring fascist who faces 91 felonies in four jurisdictions, including efforts to overturn the election — and he wants to deport Muslims and put his critics in jail, while he uses the presidency as his “Stay Out of Jail” card.
We remain hopeful American voters will make the correct choice, and Trump’s only “Day 1” is when he reports to jail. – JMC
From The Progressive Populist, January 1-15, 2024
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