Former President Donald Trump has been very clear in his intentions. He has vowed to go after his political opponents, and to use the Justice Department to do so. He told Univision, "If I happen to be president and I see somebody who's doing well and beating me very badly, I say go down and indict them. ... They would be out of business. They'd be out. They'd be out of the election." He echoed that same sentiment to Lou Dobbs, claiming that he's been the target of political weaponization, and musing, "I can do it too."
Trump's promised to continue his assault on the freedom of religion and separation of church and state, not just pledging to expand the Muslim ban (or "travel ban") he imposed during his first administration, but vowing to go after atheists as well, who he declared to be part of the forces of "evil."
"Together, we're warriors in a righteous crusade to stop the arsonists, the atheists, globalists and the Marxists," Trump told Faith & Freedom Coalition last year, employing his usual apocalyptic language, "And we will restore our Republic as one nation under God with liberty and justice for all." Think he's not serious? To further this goal, he wants all immigrant to have "ideological screening." How much will the MAGA ideology play into this?
Trump's promised to also gut federal agencies so that he can put in MAGA loyalists. "We will clean out all of the corrupt actors in our National Security and Intelligence apparatus," he said. "So that faceless bureaucrats will never again be able to target and persecute conservatives, Christians, or the left's political enemies."
He's attacked free speech, calling the press the "enemy of the people" and repeatedly threatening to sue reporters who speak out against him. He's also promised to go after media that criticizes him, like MSNBC, declaring that the government "should come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity." In Trump's previous term, recall, he even considered shooting protesters.
Trump's shown kleptocratic tendencies, using his political support to enrich himself and his family. That includes duping his supporters into buying stock in his new company, potentially enriching himself by billions; benefiting from foreign entities while president in clear violation of the Emoluments Clause; helping his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, secure billions of dollars of Saudi money while Trump was president; selling his supporters everything from trading cards to sneakers; and making his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, co-chair of the RNC so that she can raid its coffers to pay for his defense fund.
Trump has repeatedly encouraged mob violence, telling the neo-fascist Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by" in 2016, saying that he'd like to see protesters at his rallies brought out on stretchers, and, of course, telling his supporters to "fight like hell" before sending them to the Capitol to wreak havoc and possibly kill former Vice President Mike Pence in order to stop him from certifying the election. Since that time, Trump's continually called the Jan. 6 attackers "patriots" and "hostages," and has promised to pardon them.
It should come as no surprise that Trump would pardon insurrectionists, since he has never respected the democratic process. In 2016, he said the election was "rigged" against him and refused to say if he'd respect its results. In 2020, he not only refused to accept the results, but had a fake electors scheme to try to remain in office and did everything he could to subvert the peaceful transition of power. What makes any reasonable person think he'll respect the results of the 2024 election if he loses? And if Trump's president, why should we expect that he'll respect midterm elections or any election in which his chosen candidate loses? Who will he choose to oversee the electoral process? You can bet it will be MAGA people.
As we saw with the recent takeover of the RNC and the subsequent purging of the old guard, Trump only wants loyalists in top positions. Anyone who doesn't prove loyal enough will be gone, you can be sure. It means, too, that the GOP will act like a rubber stamp party, making Congress incapable of reining Trump in.
As for the courts—we've just seen how a Trump loyalist like Judge Aileen Cannon can sabotage a perfectly legitimate case. We've also seen the Supreme Court take forever to address matters relating to Trump, give him plenty of deference, and dismiss the Emoluments cases against him. And you can be sure that in a second term Trump would look to put in place only judges loyal to him and true to the MAGA cause—a cause intent on racism, bigotry, and fearmongering.
So would Trump act as a dictator? Well, he literally said he wants to be a dictator for a day, an idea many of his supporters welcomed. Do you think he would stop acting like a dictator on day two?
Ross Rosenfeld is a political writer and educator based on Long Island. Follow Ross on Substack.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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