Every Awful Thing Trump Has Promised to Do in a Second Term
rollingstone.com
The former president has pushed a slew of terrifying proposals, both publicly and privately, that he plans to unleash on America should he take down Biden
Here’s what’s at stake:
- He will indict Biden and his other political enemies
- He will round up, intern, and deport undocumented immigrants
- He will send the military to the border
- He will invade Mexico
- He will round up the homeless and send the National Guard into cities to fight crime
- He will bring back the death penalty in a big way
- He will make stuff more expensive by taxing all imported goods
- He will reevaluate America’s participation in NATO
- He will roll back all of Biden’s climate progress and reinvest in fossils fuels
- He will construct “freedom cities” filled with flying cars
- He will try to overhaul the education system in the MAGA image
- He will torch the First Amendment by going after non-MAGA media
- He will legally delegitimize trans Americans
- He will pardon the Jan. 6 rioters
- He will gut the federal government and take unprecedented control of what’s left
Can we stop calling insurrectionists “rioters”?
How about "peaceful protestors" like the year long riots from the left?
Fuck off fascist.
The protests for racial justice had literally no chance of toppling the government. Whereas the coup attempt was the closest our democracy has come to destruction since the civil war (I’m sure you were cool with the slavers in that one, eh?).
The insurrectionists are an antidemocratic force that go against everything this country stands for whereas the George Floyd protests were demand our government live up to its ideals that “all men are created equal” and deserve full rights under the constitution.
They were kind of pretty lame as insurrectionists, I mean they were let in, they had inside tours and were given specific instructions.
God's gracious their two neurons didn't meet each other on that day.
Being an idiot doesn't make you any less of an insurrectionist. Also all released footage shows otherwise.
And I love how the fact that they weren't immediately mowed down with gunfire somehow implies they were permitted to be there. No they weren't, it wasn't a tour, it was an armed insurrection. Cops showing restraint doesn't make you any less culpable for the crime.
Yeah, it usually just means you're white.
And boy howdy..
Not exactly what happened in Occupy WS...
The tours I'm referring to were given to some of them weeks prior to the event.
You seem disappointed that they failed.
I'm rather grateful. Oddly thinking they resemble the baddies in 80s Saturday morning cartoons.
That said, this year I'm loosing sleep over the thought that someone competent might give it a try.
Is that a joke?
Hilariously, no.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/03/politics/donald-trump-freedom-cities-flying-cars/index.html
...I hesitate to say I hope these cities happen because Libertarian dreams often crash into reality catastrophically, but....also, I hope it happens because Libertarians dreams will definitely crash into reality catastrophically.
You know about the bears, right?
https://newrepublic.com/article/159662/libertarian-walks-into-bear-book-review-free-town-project
Was the airplane a libertarian dream? A whole bunch of them crashed into reality before air travel developed into what it is today. They still crash, but less often enough that people accept the risk. If it were invented today, I'm not sure the concept would have survived people's handwringing.
The idea of flying car cities as a government initiative is dumb though.
Sounds like Trump has been listening to somebody who idolizes Ayn Rand.
You mean the Ayn Rand that required socialist Medicare at the end of her useless life spent writing the absolute worst fantasy novels?
Which strikes me as odd since Trump didn't gain anything on his own merit.
Those are the exact sort of people who idolize Ayn Rand the most.
Libertarians love to gesture vaguely towards unregulated freedom and even anarchy, as if it's some panacea for society's problems.
Of course, that's usually about as far or deep as their plans go. They think grit and gumption are enough to get us there, somehow, and that we'll all sing kumbaya, if only we'd let capitalism run unfettered and let people use racial slurs and hate speech with impunity.
As an anarchist is hilarious watching right libertarians parrot a bunch of lefty shit they heard from a podcast all while not realizing them and their ideology is one of the first things that would have to go in order to realize their half baked fantasies
Except weight.
That's not especially shocking.
Flying cars that are available cost at 10 to 100 times as much as normal cars. Same for flying license. That's one rich city.
We'll all be so rich we'll be begging him to make us less rich.
Only the part about affordable housing.
He wants to indict Biden, whilst simultaneously creating / wanting freedom to never be charged with anything when you're president. Which has to happen before he's able to become president again.
Which would mean that Biden could simply direct SEAL Team 6 to execute Trump with impunity, solving the problem.
But the ruling won't happen till AFTER T gets re-elected (or cheats his way in), when Biden wouldnt be pres anymore. Delay, delay, delay is the game.
Isn't there something in the rule book that the president can avert dangers against the U.S. by force...?
Biden should file Amicus brief with SCOTUS presidential immunity case saying if they are so ok with what Trump's lawyers are saying, he has Seal Team 6 standing by awaiting their ruling.
That's a hell of a trolly problem.
I would question trolley probably at depth, as national stability and prosperity are a presidents job and they have multiple organizations and forces at their disposal to accomplish this.
We as individual citizens do not have that authority and power.
Rules for thee, not for me!
A few months later, farmers are surprised there are no cheap workers anymore to help in the fields. Farmers get in (more) financial problems, prices start to rise in the supermarket as supply shrinks. Trump blames Democrats for his actions. Rural voters get more angry.
This sort of played out in Australia where everyone also hates the scary immigrants, except it was when backpackers stopped coming during the height of covid. Once the farms ran out of people to exploit and realised there weren't many Australians willing to go live in a shed in the middle of nowhere and get paid a criminally low wage they all started freaking out. They even started 'importing' labour lol. And of course the response is 'nobody wants to work anymore.'
UK had the same with Brexit. Kick out all the scary foreigners, found out there were a lot less people willing to harvest, wait tables or drive trucks for the wages being offered. Last I heard, there are still no people to do those jobs, just less business.
Food is simply too cheap, no one can raise prices because it's a controlled system. Besides, people will buy less stuff it prices go up.
And paying an honest wage for the work? Cuts into profit margins..
This is already happening, you can find articles about it all over red America.
Have you seen the amounts of chaos farmers are able to cause?
Examples in France, the Netherlands and recently Germany?
You do not want that shit in the USA, because your farmers are not only equipped with heavy machinery but firearms as well. If they start blockading critical interstate or transit roads just to make a point, I think it is likely to end in deaths.
We've had one situation where a moment of panic resulted in a police officer opening fire on a kid driving a tractor. No one got hurt but because of how our law works, every time a firearm is used by regular law enforcement, a criminal investigation is opened. And the officer was charged with attempted manslaughter.
Would this have happened in the states, I'd have expected a different outcome.
Cue him trying to funnel their anger towards his (next) political opponents
That's how fascists go about their business. By the time it becomes evident that their actions against the current entry on the "then they came for" list aren't going to solve solve the problems they claimed they would, they have already started ramping up their hatred for the next entry on the list.
Trump pulls pages out of other people’s handbooks. His MAGA bullshit was Reagan’s. Now in 2024 he’s walking in Hitler’s footsteps. I’m not saying ”Hitler” as a buzz word. I’m saying it, because he’s literally doing it. His whole schtick is Hitler’s and his* base are lapping it up like mindless fools. Open your eyes and reject authoritarian assholes like Trump. It’s all fun and games until the things you believe in are eventually taken from you. I might not agree with everything others do, but I sure as fuck believe in people’s rights to determine what’s right for themselves. Trump and all his cronies believe they know what’s right for others — they don’t. They know what’s right for themselves. If you want to vote for Trump, vote for him. But don’t think that something you hold dear won’t eventually be attacked by him or people like him.
Edit: a word*
The only thing I'm sure he will do is ensure that he keeps the power for the rest of his life. USA will have his first dictator!!
I was gonna say, isn't that like 5 more years? But I remembered that evil never dies (and Regan lived to 93).
Well he has children so you can expect the Trumps to control the country for decades if gets elected. I firmly believe his election would mean the end of us democracy and the begining of autoritarian era all over the world.
The problem is that this sounds like a very sexy shopping list to people on the other side. Some of these are enticing even to a lot of democrats, especially the ones about crime in cities. We know it’s a bullshit promise that would fail spectacularly, but the idea of it is scintillating to some. I fear for their votes.
"Cracking down on crime in cities" is code for cracking down on minorities.
Cities are huge, so there's a lot of crime in aggregate, but if you calculate an average crime rate per x number of people, you find that small towns are often way worse.
Yes, but it's easier for Republican mouth breathers to understand "Chicago had 12,000 murder last year" than "The per capita murder rate in Chicago is 5.2 compared to 15.7 in East Cousin-sister-fucking-menage-a-troi, Arkansas."
Also, doesn't really roll off the tongue, does it? /j
If we put a cost on crime, I'm pretty sure the national guard should go instead to Wall Street. Hell, even some police stations might be costing more in comparison.
The biggest form of property crime in the US -- by far -- is wage theft.
I hope he dies of syphilis.
What a shit hole and waste of flesh this man is composed of.
But muh gEnOcidE Joe!
Really sucks that Trump is this bad and the dems decided to run Biden of all people.
Maybe people will realize that being politically active requires a lot more than complaining online during election years.
This could have been avoided a long time ago. But the far left is notorious for not showing up when it’s necessary, only to complain afterwards and pretend they had no part in it.
people are entitled to whine online as often as they like.
Gotta love the mindset that got Trump in 2016 and was somehow still surprised.
people voting for Trump got trump elected. do you think sarcastic Democrats had any effect on how many of them there were?
Libs plugging both ears and running guns-blazing into the maga cult was never on my 2024 bingo card, but enjoy your time there while it lasts.
The MIC needs you to fight me, so please keep it going friendo.
Why won't they think of the 1%er boots we could lick :(?
I'm not a liberal. baby, I'm an anarchist.
and I'm not gonna be voting for trump either.
I'll be voting for a candidate who opposes the mic. will you?
If you're agreeing with me, you really should have used the context that this thread is under my comment against Biden before interjecting.
I didn't even respond to you. you're the one making wild accusations about my politics.
All I said you sensitive dork
...
my bad.
friends?
Nobody is stopping them, but they're also achieving absolutely nothing.
just like Hilary
If you're going to make me pick between Biden and Trump I will pick neither.
DNC has the full power to pick an actual candidate. Really trying to make this a "me" problem when it isn't.
You're being made to pick whether to keep a democracy or succumbing to fascism. And you're picking fascism because you think it's not your problem.
I don't want to see you complain after this election.
"Keep a democracy" as if the illusion of choice has ever been anything more than an illusion 🤣
"Don't come crying to me" is some boomer shit, I swear to god.
If you're even a little itsy-bitsy-uncomfy reading this as a lib, you best buckle up.
Already with the tankie talking points? Figures you'd be the one to criticize, cry, blame everyone else, and dip.
As long as you can hand-waive away your own responsibility for the collapse, the libs will continue to throw around "tankie" instead of engaging in meaningful discussion.
If you're arguing in good faith, you must (at least at some point) understand that you're arguing against your best interests (which is exactly the same thing you accuse MAGA of)
Quite frankly, nobody needs you to defend the boots of the man stepping on Palestinian children.
But you will likely continue despite that..
Is that what you're doing by throwing around the word "lib" to see where it sticks and choosing to flee because things got too hard and you didn't get your precious, ideal way instead of playing the cards that we have now by dealing with the most imminent problem first?
I mean, are you?
So you'd rather do nothing, let this keep going, and make it worse by letting another man step on Mexican children next. Got it.
And you've chosen to do nothing but jump ship. It's arguably worse.
You missed the point entirely.
Such is to be expected out of the American education system I suppose.
Did I? Or did you fail to argue your point effectively and gave up? Because it sounds like you did.
Oh, you do not want to go there. Not only did I study in a multicultural and bilingual environment, I also had a fairly mixed education in both the arts and sciences and graduated top of my class between two countries. In short, you don't know me. lol
Stupid is a stupid says.
don't tell me what to do.
Who tf are you
someone not voting for biden
You misspelled busybody. Nobody cares what you're doing, kid.
I remember you. I've seen you around and I'm blocking your stupid ass.
block me harder
Oh it’s absolutely a you problem. YOU don’t understand what’s at stake. YOU are stubborn. YOU refuse to listen to anyone that has tried to explain to YOU the consequences of YOUR decision to stay home.
What YOU are doing affects EVERYONE. But YOU don’t care.
This is my new anthem to the DNC 😂
Such eDgE! Social justice has never seen such a warrior like you!
It's genuinely crazy how much time libs will waste arguing online about how they are the ones actually doing things to help the world and that the leftists are the keyboard warriors.
You can dismiss us if you'd like, but please remember, this comment will always be here for me to tell you I told you so Pratai :)
If you say so keyboard warrior. Make sure you find a fun video game to play on Election Day while the rest of us are busy trying to save YOUR freedoms.
Oh, an I absolutely CAN dismiss you. We’re done here. Go sit down.
And you’ll get Trump.
No sir, you will get Trump.
Rest of us are fully ready to fulfill the true American Dream (and fuck off to somewhere we can start a family)
The DNC has decided to make its bed w/ Biden and I didn't personally do shit to cause that one way or another.
End the MIC
Newsflash, fascism is on the rise everywhere and letting the US get overrun will only make it worse everywhere else.
If you so think that you can shove the problem over to the next country, I so hope you stop complaining about it and fully commit to stoically accepting that life as it is.
Hahaha... Wait are you serious?
I mean you obviously know the answer to your own question. Want to elaborate on which point you didn't like?
How you gonna fufill the true American Dream and fuck off somewhere when leaving takes money and the GOP is bleeding us dry?
See, I think that's your misunderstanding.
The GOP isn't bleeding the country, it's the 1%.
The GOP isn't bombing brown kids, it's the MIC (the 1%)
You pointing the blame at other poor people is exactly what the MIC needs you to do.
I"m not blaming poor people, I'm blaming the source of poverty
The sad part of this discussion is that you are very close to seeing the problem but are still conflating the "both sides" argument as reason to always fall in line..
When vindicated, the leftists aren't going to rub it in that the dems dropped the ball, again.
Me though? I might definitely rub it in!
I try really hard to believe that assassination is not a solution
You know, it makes the guy a martyr, and riles up his followers.
But they seem pretty riled up already.
And they and he are really, really wanting to make America a totalitarian state
And if they did, America would break up.
It would be a generally bad result, maybe good for California.
Actually I hear a lot about liberals with guns, I guess the left lacks armed idiots
If SCOTUS says the Seal Team Six theory is perfectly legal...
Then Biden should execute Trump as an official act. With plans for Harris to covertly off him. Appoint someone new as VP. Harris resigns. Everybody is happy. Right? Right??
this list is actually comedically villainous, who tf agrees with this guy anymore?
Idiots who think Trump will hurt whoever they perceive their enemies to be.
He will be more aggressive than the first term for sure.
Freedom Cities? With Flying Cars?
I feel like he's drinking out of Musk's juice box
Yeah I'm still hung up on that even though I shouldn't be. That is so far fetched while the other ideas are much more realistic but much scarier. It feels like a distraction.
No the others I get, he's a dictator and we're all going to die... but that's....
Imagine you've got a sadistic psycho who has tied you to a chair, and he's getting out a scalpel, a cat of nine tails, vicegrips, and a bottle of Vitamin C tablets
....Your focus is gonna be on the Bottle because the other stuff makes contextual sense and your brain is trying to piece together the part it doesn't get.
Sounds very Chinese
What? How? How do you fuck up something that is already that damn broken?! That’s like pouring gasoline on a piece of shit and lighting it on fire.
A curriculum designed by PragerU, like is already happening in Florida.
In this case, book bans and anti-woke laws that prevent teaching history in any way that MAGAs don't like
Please no. Seems there's never a good political option.
Just put of curiosity, when did he say that he would invade mexico?
Starting to think this Trump fella is up to no good! 🍹 🐖
That is such a funny list, lol. Invade Mexico for example - so random. 🤣
The flying cars one ...what can one even say about that?! I mean at this point why not.
He wanted to shoot missiles into Mexico in his 1st term and was told by his Generals it was a very bad idea. I think in his delusional state he thinks if he bombs them then drugs (that people obviously want or people wouldn't risk it) and immigrants would stop coming into the US. Instead he would just kill civilians and possibly start an all out unprovoked war.
And the flying cars makes me want to believe he watched Back to the Future recently. But I know it's because in his failing mental state flying cars has always been the "future".
Really sucks that Trump is this bad and the dems decided to run Biden of all people.
So I want to try to look at all of these from the eyes of a sane person.
He will indict Biden and his other political enemies.
This is one of those things that, if it would have been said by literally any other person, would have signalled the end of their political careers, full stop. But this is Trump. This should scare everyone outside of the extreme MAGA community, but there is a scary enough number of people who are willing to accept this, even if begrudgingly.
He will round up, intern, and deport undocumented immigrants
This wouldnt necessarily be a bad thing if done properly. Prioritize getting those who have committed serious crimes out of the country first, work your way down from there. A proper plan to identify and increase the rate of deportations would probably appeal to a lot of people, but we all know Trump's version is to just round all the brown people up and ship them to wherever.
He will send the military to the border
I'm actually going to say I don't really see a problem here. I will admit to being right-leaning on immigration, and states like Texas that have to bear a disproportionate amount of the burden that comes with illegal immigration do have a point. There's 2000 miles of border to guard. I certainly don't want our military just blindly shooting at every person that comes across the border, but having the national guard to help out with border patrol duties isn't a bad idea.
Of course, the problem is that Trump will just devolve it to "Just shoot the brown people."
He will invade Mexico
There's an argument to be made that a joint US/Mexico exercise could easily take out the cartels, who openly admit that they'd be no match for US forces. And I believe such an exercise would be of great benefit to both countries. But Mexico doesn't seem to have an appetite for it, and the US should not be once again unilaterally deciding that Mexico suddenly needs to have freedom sent over to them via ballistic missile.
Once again, there's something that could be appealing if done properly, but we all know Trump will just go back to "Just shoot the brown people."
He will round up the homeless and send the National Guard into cities to fight crime
So let me get this right. It's going to be the National Guard vs. the Homeless. And what are all those gun-toting, 2A doomsday preppers going to do when they welcome Trump's national guard in with open arms, only to find out that since they're the ones carrying all the guns, the national guard looks at them as the threat?
He will bring back the death penalty in a big way
It never went anywhere. The death penalty is already an option at the federal level.
He will make stuff more expensive by taxing all imported goods
You know what? If done properly, I'm actually OK with this at the retail level at least. Not for imported goods that we need for essential services or anything. But if it'll help cut down on all the low quality Chinese garbage at Amazon and in places like Walmart in favor of US goods, I'm all for it. But we all know how this would go: Critical goods will be heavily taxed, but Trump will make exceptions for whatever countries or companies line his personal pockets.
He will reevaluate America’s participation in NATO
There's an argument for saying that the US is going to scale back funding for NATO until other countries who have been slacking off start to pay their share. I could see that. But let's be realistic: The US withdrawing from NATO would effectively signal the end of NATO. And that should be looked upon by anyone with more than 2 active brain cells as batshit insane.
He will roll back all of Biden’s climate progress and reinvest in fossils fuels
I'm not saying I necessarily like the idea or anything, but an argument can be made that some of the goals and deadlines that have been established to combat climate change may have been too ambitious. Re-evaluating those goals and setting more realistic deadlines is a good idea; keeping idealistic but unrealistic deadlines will only lead to more missed deadlines which just leads to diminished enthusiasm and apathy with regard to climate change. Better to have goals that are realistic and achievable vs. pie-in-the-sky ambitions that were never realistic to begin with that will only cause disappointment.
He will construct “freedom cities” filled with flying cars
So he's trying to secure the "8 year old boy" vote? Someone may want to tell him kids can't vote.
He will try to overhaul the education system in the MAGA image
They're already doing that now.
He will torch the First Amendment by going after non-MAGA media
To be fair, we really are relying on a document that is almost 300 years old and was written by people who couldn't even begin to conceive of how life would be in modern society. In an ideal world, I could see the argument that the Constitution needs to be severely updated not only for clarity but also to reflect the realities of modern life. This would actually include increasing media protections, for example, in an era where doxxing of sources is a very real option, and toning down the 2nd amendment to allow for the self-defense that our founders envisioned while keeping weapons that those founders could never have dreamed of out of the hands of ordinary people.
But there is NO possible way I would want a Constitutional Convention to happen in this political climate or anything like it. We'd end up living in the Handmaid's Tale.
He will legally delegitimize trans Americans
There is some debate over what kind of care that trans children should receive. Should they be allowed to go through life-altering procedures such as puberty blockers? Are they capable of making those kind of life-changing decisions at all? How do you handle trans children who are competing in sports where some biological differences between the sexes (Bone density, lung capacity, etc) come into play and give trans children a significant advantage? What bathrooms should they be able to use?
Both sides have legitimate points on issues like this, and we as a country need to come up with a solution that all can agree on. That much I can understand. But again, that's not what would happen. We all know that it would just be "Round up every boy wearing a dress, throw his parents in jail for abuse, strip the doctor of his license for treating them, and don't forget to fire the 3rd grade teacher that referred to the child as 'her' that one time."
He will pardon the Jan. 6 rioters
The entire presidential pardon system has been abused by every single president in modern history. Trump is hardly the first one to pardon cronies, family members, people of influence, etc. He's just threatening to do it en masse and right away, instead of just waiting until his last day in office and just writing up a blanket pardon 5 minutes before the next guy's inauguration like past presidents did.
He will gut the federal government and take unprecedented control of what’s left
This is the scariest part. Because there's no reason to believe that the Supreme Court wouldn't back him up. And especially if he manages to control Congress like he did the first half of his first term. If that happens, it's all over. There will not be another election. Our system was divided up into 3 branches in such a way so the other two branches will be able to constrain the third if one goes rogue. The problem is that Trump is proving that the system is in no way equipped to do anything about it if two branches, or even all 3, collaborate to take over. The SC has already signalled its willingness to be on board, and most of the GOP congressmen are campaigning on essentially jumping on the train as well. There is a non-zero chance he may get his wish.
Vote. I don't care if it's for POTUS or your neighborhood dog catcher. Vote. Because the GOP have spent decades building the party from the ground up by establishing themselves at the bottom and working their way up from there. If we're going to combat that, we're going to have to start doing the same thing.
I'm done reading that wall of txt
I don't agree with your responses but I don't think that's a good enough reason to downvote you. Your responses are well thought out, more than most, and don't resort to attacking people or other points of view.
Upvotes and downvotes are meaningless numbers which are little more than "I agree/ I disagree". I put zero value on them. It does show a prime example of how polarized discussion on almost any sensitive subject has become: Everything has an "us vs. them" mentality now, and even discussing the possibility that the other side may have a point on something is akin to treachery. People in general do not want to discuss things on social media; they just want to find an echo chamber of people telling them what they want to hear. Rather than have a discussion, people would rather just downvote you, insult you, and move on. You know how many messages I've gotten from people labelling me a "MAGA apologist" or something, from people who clearly didn't take a look at my posting history? Their downvotes mean nothing to me because they were never looking for legitimate discussion in the first place; they were looking for their echo chamber.
Apologists are always amusing. Glad you reply put the work in on this one. Was a funny read.