Reposted from Dark Skies on the Horizon
Did you know that Trump is an old Softee? Well, it’s true. Listen to what he said about all his former employees who he let resign when they realized he was a miserable dictatorial autocrat.
When one nudges me to wrap up the interview, I bring up the many former Cabinet officials who refuse to endorse Trump this time. Some have publicly warned that he poses a danger to the Republic. Why should voters trust you, I ask, when some of the people who observed you most closely do not?
As always, Trump punches back, denigrating his former top advisers. But beneath the typical torrent of invective, there is a larger lesson he has taken away. “I let them quit because I have a heart. I don’t want to embarrass anybody,” Trump says. “I don’t think I’ll do that again. From now on, I’ll fire.”
Ain’t that sweet? Aww.
And there’s more.
What emerged in two interviews with Trump, and conversations with more than a dozen of his closest advisers and confidants, were the outlines of an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world. To carry out a deportation operation designed to remove more than 11 million people from the country, Trump told me, he would be willing to build migrant detention camps and deploy the U.S. military, both at the border and inland. He would let red states monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute those who violate abortion bans. He would, at his personal discretion, withhold funds appropriated by Congress, according to top advisers. He would be willing to fire a U.S. Attorney who doesn’t carry out his order to prosecute someone, breaking with a tradition of independent law enforcement that dates from America’s founding. He is weighing pardons for every one of his supporters accused of attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, more than 800 of whom have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury. He might not come to the aid of an attacked ally in Europe or Asia if he felt that country wasn’t paying enough for its own defense. He would gut the U.S. civil service, deploy the National Guard to American cities as he sees fit, close the White House pandemic-preparedness office, and staff his Administration with acolytes who back his false assertion that the 2020 election was stolen.
So, nothing to really worry about then, right?
When Trump was in office the first time, he didn’t really know anything and he didn’t know any of the people. He just hired who the Republican party suggested. He didn’t know any of these people personally, and they didn’t really know his agenda. They were winging it. Not any more.
The arranged marriage with the timorous Republican Party stalwarts is over; the old guard is vanquished, and the people who remain are his people. Trump would enter a second term backed by a slew of policy shops staffed by loyalists who have drawn up detailed plans in service of his agenda, which would concentrate the powers of the state in the hands of a man whose appetite for power appears all but insatiable. “I don’t think it’s a big mystery what his agenda would be,” says his close adviser Kellyanne Conway. “But I think people will be surprised at the alacrity with which he will take action.”
Now the plan is already written under the Heritage Foundations Project 2025.
It is not enough for conservatives to win elections. If we are going to rescue the country from the grip of the radical Left, we need both a governing agenda and the right people in place, ready to carry this agenda out on day one of the next conservative administration.
This is the goal of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project. The project will build on four pillars that will, collectively, pave the way for an effective conservative administration: a policy agenda, personnel, training, and a 180-day playbook.
The project is the effort of a broad coalition of conservative organizations that have come together to ensure a successful administration begins in January 2025. With the right conservative policy recommendations and properly vetted and trained personnel to implement them, we will take back our government.
The 2025 Presidential Transition Project is being organized by The Heritage Foundation and builds off Heritage’s longstanding “Mandate for Leadership,” which has been highly influential for presidential administrations since the Reagan era. Most recently, the Trump administration relied heavily on Heritage’s “Mandate” for policy guidance, embracing nearly two-thirds of Heritage’s proposals within just one year in office.
Their book “Mandates for Leadership” has chapters focusing on each branch of government and outlines a plan on implementation for each which will consolidate absolute power within the executive by removing career civil service employees and replacing them with sycophantic loyalists who will quickly and decisive implement Trump every whim no matter how illegal or unconstitutional it may be.
During his first term when Trump would suggest that the Military “Crack Skulls” and “Shoot” demonstrators and protestors — his staff would resist, they would push back. They would convince him to back down off that idea. Not anymore.
My goal was to try to paint a picture of Trump 2.0 and his second term and not just in my voice But to go talk to dozens and dozens of cabinet secretaries and senior officials all the way down to the staff officials that sat outside the Oval Office during the Trump administration to ask them one simple question; What would happen in a second go-round and convey that to the American people?
[…]
If I could boil it down into a sentence, I would say that the general response from ex-Trump officials was a second term will not be as bad as you think, it will be so much worse. And that ended up being the prompt that led to a lot of really shocking conversations to me. I’ll confess Michelle to sort of arrogantly thinking I new how bad another term could be because I had witnessed the policies that were thwarted in the first term. Some of the really ugly things, illegal things that were stopped, so based on that I thought I knew pretty clearly what they would want to do in a second term but close to probably a 100 conversations with ex-Trump officials it was a much more grim portrait than I had expected because I quite frankly didn’t realize in how many other departments and agencies there had been the Corpus of very ugly rejected policies that we would expect to made a return if Trump make a return.
[…]
First I want to start on immigration, I know I’ve never been an immigration policy expert and most of my time in the administration was working on counter-terrorism and intelligence but I was of course exposed to Trump’s immigration fixation because it was all he ever wanted to talk to the department about. There was a lot of talk of Trump wanting to use the nation’s counter-terrorism apparatus against unarmed innocent migrants, and that’s really concerning to me. Trump had learned that post-911 we got really really good at counter-terrorism.
What do I mean by that? Watchlisting bad guys, going after them with lethal force and tracking them. And he wanted to use those tools against migrants. So I had people telling me that Trump in a second term would designate migrant groups as foreign terrorist organizations, he would deploy the military and give them authorization to use lethal force.
Really shocking things that again, I have to be clear, are not legal for a President of the United States to do.
But even beyond the border, a number of officials who were there until the end of the administration long after I had left said Trump had an interest in deploying DHS counter-terrorism forces into US cities, especially Democratic cites [meaning Black] to exert control. We saw a sample of that in Portland, during the riots in Portland. But I had one official tell me in a second term Donald Trump would deploy DHS to the polls during elections to try to intimidate voters, to scare Democratic voters away from the polls. And we’ve seen a sample of that with so-called “Poll watchers” in places like Arizona showing up with weapons.
According to Taylor, he would militarize the border, and the tracking down and apprehension of migrants as if they were members of Al Qaeda - then shove them into his own temporary Gitmos. He would deploy Military and Counter-Intelligence to majority black cities to violently crack down against Democrats and implement a militarization of the polls.
Now there are probably some people, in Red States, who would love all that. They would say it’s about time that someone finally did something about all the “illegals”m “democrat crime” and “Voter Fraud.”
Nevermind the fact that all of that - particularly using the Military against the American people — is totally illegal.
To confirm this Trump told Time this:
Trump’s radical designs for presidential power would be felt throughout the country. A main focus is the southern border. Trump says he plans to sign orders to reinstall many of the same policies from his first term, such as the Remain in Mexico program, which requires that non-Mexican asylum seekers be sent south of the border until their court dates, and Title 42, which allows border officials to expel migrants without letting them apply for asylum. Advisers say he plans to cite record border crossings and fentanyl- and child-trafficking as justification for reimposing the emergency measures. He would direct federal funding to resume construction of the border wall, likely by allocating money from the military budget without congressional approval. The capstone of this program, advisers say, would be a massive deportation operation that would target millions of people. Trump made similar pledges in his first term, but says he plans to be more aggressive in a second. “People need to be deported,” says Tom Homan, a top Trump adviser and former acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “No one should be off the table.”
For an operation of that scale, Trump says he would rely mostly on the National Guard to round up and remove undocumented migrants throughout the country. “If they weren’t able to, then I’d use [other parts of] the military,” he says. When I ask if that means he would override the Posse Comitatus Act—an 1878 law that prohibits the use of military force on civilians—Trump seems unmoved by the weight of the statute. “Well, these aren’t civilians,” he says. “These are people that aren’t legally in our country.” [They would still count as “Civilians” with Human Rights and Due process.} He would also seek help from local police and says he would deny funding for jurisdictions that decline to adopt his policies. “There’s a possibility that some won’t want to participate,” Trump says, “and they won’t partake in the riches.”
Then there’s tax and tariff policy.
Presidents typically have a narrow window to pass major legislation. Trump’s team is eyeing two bills to kick off a second term: a border-security and immigration package, and an extension of his 2017 tax cuts. Many of the latter’s provisions expire early in 2025: the tax cuts on individual income brackets, 100% business expensing, the doubling of the estate-tax deduction. Trump is planning to intensify his protectionist agenda, telling me he’s considering a tariff of more than 10% on all imports, and perhaps even a 100% tariff on some Chinese goods. Trump says the tariffs will liberate the U.S. economy from being at the mercy of foreign manufacturing and spur an industrial renaissance in the U.S. When I point out that independent analysts estimate Trump’s first term tariffs on thousands of products, including steel and aluminum, solar panels, and washing machines, may have cost the U.S. $316 billion and more than 300,000 jobs, by one account, he dismisses these experts out of hand. His advisers argue that the average yearly inflation rate in his first term—under 2%—is evidence that his tariffs won’t raise prices.
Yes, Trump’s tariffs lost American jobs and would worsen inflation.
Former President Donald Trump, who labeled himself “Tariff Man” in 2018, has made clear he wants to pursue a more aggressive trade strategy if he’s elected in November. Trump has floated a 10% across-the-board tariff on imports, a 60% tariff on imports from China and a 100% tariff on foreign cars – including from Mexico.
Trump’s proposals, if enacted, could easily set off a new trade war with China and potentially other nations, too.
Some economists are warning Trump’s trade agenda and the ensuing retaliation from trading partners would hurt the US economy by worsening inflation, killing jobs, depressing growth and spooking investors.
In a worst-case scenario, economists fear these policies could set the stage for a recession.
“The policy is very bad. Tariffs make consumers poorer. They shrink the economy,” Alex Durante, an economist at the Tax Foundation, a right-leaning think tank, told CNN in a phone interview. “This would probably be the most damaging part of a Trump 2.0 economic agenda.”
Also, his tax cuts added $2 Trillion to the deficit.
Washington, D.C.—According to a report released today by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), extending the Trump tax cuts would add $3.5 trillion to the deficit through 2033.
Written at the urging of Senator Whitehouse (D-RI), Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, and Senator Wyden (D-OR), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, the new report finds the Republicans’ policy priority is a half a trilliondollars more costly than previously estimated. House Republicans’ legislation to make permanent the Trump tax cuts—and blow up the federal deficit—comes at the same time they are holding the federal debt limit hostage to extract disastrous spending cuts to programs and services like veterans’ support, opioid treatment, law enforcement, and affordable energy.
The new report comes the day before a Senate Budget Committee hearing on how the Bush and Trump tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations have driven recent and projected federal deficits. They have been the largest driver of deficits over the past two decades and account for 57% of the increase in the debt-to-GDP ratio since 2001.
So once these cuts go in, that gives Trump and his cohorts to demand that “Entitlements” be cut in order to reduce spending. Literally stealing from the old and the poor to give to the rich.
And there’s more that Trump would do with the DOJ.
In our Mar-a-Lago interview, Trump says he might fire U.S. Attorneys who refuse his orders to prosecute someone: “It would depend on the situation.” He’s told supporters he would seek retribution against his enemies in a second term. Would that include Fani Willis, the Atlanta-area district attorney who charged him with election interference, or Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan DA in the Stormy Daniels case, who Trump has previously said should be prosecuted? Trump demurs but offers no promises. “No, I don’t want to do that,” he says, before adding, “We’re gonna look at a lot of things. What they’ve done is a terrible thing.”
Trump has also vowed to appoint a “real special prosecutor” to go after Biden. “I wouldn’t want to hurt Biden,” he tells me. “I have too much respect for the office.” Seconds later, though, he suggests Biden’s fate may be tied to an upcoming Supreme Court ruling on whether Presidents can face criminal prosecution for acts committed in office. “If they said that a President doesn’t get immunity,” says Trump, “then Biden, I am sure, will be prosecuted for all of his crimes.” (Biden has not been charged with any, and a House Republican effort to impeach him has failed to unearth evidence of any crimes or misdemeanors, high or low.)
Let’s recall that Trump already tried to have Biden prosecuted by Zelensky and BIll Barr and they both refused, largely because all the allegations of corruption against him come from a Russian Spy, Andriy Derkach. And the allegations of bribery also come from a Russian operative, Alexander Smirnov.
He already had a US Attorney and Special counsel, David Weiss, investigating Hunter Biden and all he’s come up with are tax issues and a gun charge. None of which would normally have been charged. No financial crimes, no influence pending, no corruption.
Speaking of Russia:
That’s one reason America’s traditional allies were horrified when Trump recently said at a campaign rally that Russia could “do whatever the hell they want” to a NATO country he believes doesn’t spend enough on collective defense. That wasn’t idle bluster, Trump tells me. “If you’re not going to pay, then you’re on your own,” he says. Trump has long said the alliance is ripping the U.S. off. Former NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg credited Trump’s first-term threat to pull out of the alliance with spurring other members to add more than $100 billion to their defense budgets.
Trump would abandon our NATO allies over their own defense spending. The 2% GDP spending requirement for NATO countries was a goal they adopted in 2014 with a plan to reach that goal by 2024. Most NATO countries have reached it, but it’s only a goal for their own spending on their own defense. The US isn’t required to fill the gap if they fall short, and the US isn’t owed anything either. There is not real reason for Trump to make this a stipulation - because it’s not part of the NATO charter - especially if he’s threatening to violate the mutual protection pact of Article 5 over it.
All this does is benefit Russia as they continue their invasion of Ukraine and then begin to threaten NATO countries.
Trump would betray our allies, cozy up to Russia, North Korea, and China. He would deploy the US Military against the American people and unarmed innocent migrants, then round them up into Detention Camps before throwing them out of the nation by the Millions. He would establish theocratic rules against Abortion and LGBTQ citizens. Shoot and summarily execute “Pedophiles” and “Drug Traffickers.”
He would waste $Millions on a border wall that falls down in a stiff breeze and can be cut through with a Walmart Angle grinder.
All the bad ideas that failed from his first term he would bring back and double-down.
This is without hyperbole. Without exaggeration. These are his own words.
Maybe it’s time people started believing him.
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