A Year of Trump's Campaign in 59 Crazy Policies

This article first appeared on the Foundation for Economic Education site.

One year ago, Donald Trump thrust his bizarre, erratic and incomprehensible campaign on the world.

Much has been said about Trump's "rhetoric" during his campaign—the racism, sexism, incivility and much else besides—but rhetoric is not what makes a Trump administration a unique threat to the country. It is his policy proposals that should receive our closest attention and concern.

Below is a list of nearly 60 "policies," if you can dignify them with such a title, that Trump has proposed during his campaign. The list drives home how truly frightening a Trump presidency would be for the country and the world.

Skimming the surface of Trump's stream of consciousness brings out some particularly disturbing aspects of his agenda: notably, the way he singles out specific businesses and individuals for targeting by the government, as well as his obsessions with China, Mexico, Muslims and immigrants.

Perhaps worst of all, Trump's proposals expose how broad he thinks the powers of the presidency are: virtually infinite. There is never a glimmer of understanding that the government is bound by the Constitution, that the federal government has limited scope and authority, or that the presidency is just one of three equal branches of the federal government.

Instead, it is Trump, and Trump alone, who will transform American laws, government and society from the top down.

Trump will bomb and invade countries. Trump will steal their oil. Trump will kill deserters, torture suspects, bypass courts, ban Muslims, break treaties and have the military do things like mass executions with bullets dipped in pigs' blood—all while getting Americans to say "merry Christmas" again.

Well, all I can say is merry Christmas, America. Here's what the primaries brought us this year.

June 2015

1. Make Ford scrap expansion plan in Mexico

August 2015

1. Deport 11 million immigrants
2. Triple number of deportation agents
3. Force cities and states to help deport immigrants
4. Force Mexico to pay for wall on U.S. border
5. Strip U.S. citizenship from babies born to immigrants

September 2015

1. Use FCC to fine his critic Rich Lowry
2. Place 35 percent tariff on Ford cars made in Mexico
3. "We will break" North American Free Trade Agreement
4. "Government will pay" for health care for "everyone"

October 2015

1. Deport Syrian refugees legally in the U.S.
2. Soldiers who desert should be shot
3. Spend tens of billions on border wall
4. Keep troops in Afghanistan

November 2015

1. Kill TPP free trade agreement
2. Get Americans to say "merry Christmas"
3. Create special deportation force to remove immigrants
4. "Bomb the shit" out of Syria
5. Close mosques in the United States
6. Create database for Muslims
7. Bypass courts in mass deportation plan

December 2015

1. Restart warrantless surveillance, metadata collection
2. Kill family members of terrorists
3. Washington Post is a "tax shelter" for Amazon, Jeff Bezos
4. Ban all Muslim travel to U.S.
5. Shut down "parts" of the internet
6. Issue executive order mandating the death penalty for killing police

January 2016

1. Impose 45 percent tariff on Chinese products
2. Throw Bowe Bergdahl out of a plane in Afghanistan

February 2016

1. Tells supporters to knock out protesters
2. Use eminent domain for economic development
3. Tax Carrier-brand air conditioners made in Mexico
4. Force Apple, Tim Cook to break into iPhone for FBI
5. Keep Obamacare's individual mandate for health insurance
6. Praises mass executions of captured soldiers with bullets dipped in pigs' blood
7. Threatens donor for giving to opponent's campaign
8. Prosecute Hillary Clinton
9. Proposes "trade war" with China
10. "Open up libel laws" to sue critical press

March 2016

1. Force Apple to make iPhones in U.S., not China
2. Force military to follow illegal orders
3. Prosecute Ed Snowden for "spying" for Russia
4. "Torture" terrorism suspects
5. Increase military spending
6. Steal Iraqis' oil
7. "Pause" legal immigration
8. Send 20,000 or 30,000 troops to Middle East
9. Trump could envision a nuclear first strike
10. Appoint Supreme Court justice to investigate Clinton's email

April 2016

1. Raise taxes on the wealthy

May 2016

1. Threatens Pfizer, Carrier, Ford and Nabisco with 35 percent tariff
2. Increase minimum wage
3. "Go after" Amazon for antitrust and taxes
4. Bomb Libya
5. Threatens "Mexican" federal judge trying his case

June 2016

1. "Keep business out of Mexico"
2. Ban all people from countries with "history of terrorism"
3. Surveillance of U.S. mosques
4. Ban guns for people on secret "watch lists"

David Bier is a policy expert in Washington, D.C.