The Second Trump Presidency

With the American political system frantically bashing the self-destruct button, it appears increasingly a probability that Mussolini-cosplayer Donald J. Trump will begin his second term as POTUS almost exactly a year from now.

What are your expectations of this eventuality, should it come to pass?

Civil fucking War.

Very simply, pretty much what happened last time. Donald Trump is stupid, incompetent, and does not want to do the work that an actual tyrant leader would have to do. All of these things lead to the reality he is not going to do what is necessary to become the hitler everyone is afraid of. His cult is not full of doers either. This is because real evil recognizes you can only use a dumbass like him so far before he breaks the shit you have established because he sees your threat, or he is just stupid and cannot stick to the plan.

4 more years of really bad deals for america will be made, and he will pollute the judiciary with decades of idiot judges. Congress will block any real laws from being passed. The military is loyal to the country and not Trump himself. If he lives through another four years of the stress, and that is a very big if, then he will have committed some crimes and stole secrets again and will try to cover his ass on the way out by selling US secrets and fucking things up so he can avoid jail.

There is just too much riding on the present system for people to allow it to be changed over to donald trump's system. You can put him in as president, but the president does not wield that sort of power and loyalty when he is donald trump. His people are not establishing an organized functioning government of their own capable of taking over. They are fucking around and cosplaying. You cannot beat the people actually causing things like electricity and the supply chain to exist by pretending you are in charge while not doing anything a person in charge needs to do. His people are just like a toddler running around pretending they are making dinner while the parents are actually doing it. The toddler can pretend all they want that they can run the house, but they cannot do it because they are not capable and do not understand anything.

Donald Trump did not learn a thing about running this country. He played golf. He decorated air force one. He does not know what to do. If people like that actually did something, which is entirely antithetical to their existence, they simply cannot accomplish it. It is like anarchy. As soon as it happens it is destroyed because something has to be established. The best he can hope to do is break a few things, but we will put them back together in some way. We might have to stop the toddlers from breaking things. Toddlers can do damage, but toddlers cannot wage war and make a government.

Biden is up by 6 in the latest polls. And he's just started running. Been busy with the whole governing thing to this point.

Trump the Deranged, King of America anointed by God, is anything but a forgone conclusion.

In his first term, Trump a) didn't really know what he was doing b) had to act with some restraint because he wanted a second term c) didn't have his back against the wall d) had at least some resistance and guidance from within his party as well as from the Democrats.

In s hypothetical second Trump presidency, Trump still probably doesn't personally know much about actual governing and he seemingly has lost steps. But he would probably not be able to attract anyone smart and principled to work for him.

But Trump would have far fewer guardrails. There would be virtually no Republicans with principles in the House or the Senate to oppose what he wanted. He would pick people for his administration to make Mike Pence and the other sycophants he had in the first administration look like a rebels. He will work to purge the various federal bureaucracies of people who won't bend to his will. He will appoint more judges who are unqualified, ideological hacks or both.

He will make good on some of his threats to retaliate against his perceived enemies. He will likely plunge the country in worse debt by pushing for tax cuts without the spending cuts to offset them. I'd like to think that he will not use the Justice Department to go after Biden or whoever, but then probably the only reason he did not go after Hillary was because there was plenty of integrity in the Justice Department. There would be far less in a second term.

He would undo any progress made in diplomacy since he's been gone. He would probably encourage various forms of BS on the state and local level, including election deniers. And when it got close to the end of his second term, it seems like he would probably try to run for a third time.

The fundamentals aren’t good for Trump. I expect Biden to win re-election. Now if we want to talk about Trump’s 2028 prospects we can resurrect this thread.

Anyone who thinks the present low in polls for Biden is not just people trying to give him the hint to retire and things will be much different when the real campaign begins are really just gullible idiots who do not understand how you create fear so people donate money. I may not like Biden, but you are a fucking idiot if you think this shit will be the same come november. Americans have short memories and months from now all those polls will be showing Biden winning.

The polls are all a show for the money.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025

I'm fairly confident Trump will lose based on currently available information but to take the hypothetical...


Not right away but eventual balkanization, if not formally then in all practical effect. Abbott and his fellow Republican governors are sowing the wind on this ("The Supreme Court ain't the boss of me!") and if Trump gets in there and lets the Zealots go full force with Project 2025, I expect "blue" states to take a decision to roll back approval of mifepristone (for example) and say "Yeah...we're not doing that" and you'll end up with a stalemate in which Blue States follow laws the Red states say they can't and vice versa.

This mainly because actual balkanization would involve untangling so many super-complex entanglements would not be practical, nor would an actual shooting war between the red rurals and the blue urbans.

Good news for you then, the betting odds currently have Biden behind Trump, so if you're that sure you can drop thousands on it and make easy money.

I expect he will win, and there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth, but the vast majority of the population will remain too lazy to do much else so long as their cell phones work, their bellies are full and there's still some shit ass reality TV to watch .

What are the possible scenarios? He orders one part of the military apparatus to do something illegal, and is opposed by another?

I live in New Zealand and anyone I've spoken to about the US election / overheard discussing it assumes Trump will win. I tend to think so as well.

The idea of either of them serving a second term boggles the mind. Is there no-one under the age of 70 interested in the role?

Not going to lose any sleep over it.

You’re probably correct. And, cool that you won’t lose any sleep. You won’t be affected. I will. If I live much longer. Everyone, including his supporters will be affected. Worst of all, it won’t be as bad for us as it will be for our progeny.

I’m not optimistic, but because I do believe you’re correct.

Ah, yes, the all important Kiwi vote.

I, too, will not be losing any sleep over this.

And putting Trump back in charge of the US nuclear arsenal would be a very bad idea. The nice man who wanted to nuke hurricanes is even more nuts now.

He doesn’t know, he just knows that the Lincoln Project told him there’s going to be a civil war so he believes it.

Not even close. Large numbers of the government will quit or be fired, if they’re replaced at all, it’ll be with incompetent people. Not only will this lead to huge problems, but when an actual crisis occurs (say a natural disaster) the ineffective government response will lead to unrest. You’ll also have legions of his fans decide that with Trump in power, they can start killing the brown people they don’t like.

Which one happens first is anybody’s guess but when it does, that’s the start of the war.

That's worryingly...specific.

The Lincoln Project? This?

The website doesn’t even state what it’s about. My guess is, it’s the same shit Fox News puts out - bullshit and nonsense.

No, we’ve all known about the coming civil war since the NRA began offering “news” in 2004.

More than enough Trumpers certainly want civil war, but which Democrats and independents have enough spine to actually fight back when the Trump Administration starts provoking them?

You would be wrong. The Lincoln Project is made up of high profile Republicans who have had enough of Trump.

What's the Lincoln Project doing beyond trolling him online?

Everyone that opposes Trump has had over three years since he left office, over three years to neutralize him before the 2024 election, and what have they accomplished? Republicans couldn't find another candidate to successfully challenge him for the nomination. Democrats haven't been able to get a criminal conviction against him or bar him from running again. What makes you think the people that oppose Trump will suddenly start performing more effectively once Trump gets his presidential powers and apparatus back?

Pretty much what T said.

What's sad is the sorry state of politics here.

Can he stack the supreme court any more?

I think he just wants his ego stroked and to fly around in AF One.

The ones who have been through this before and know what’s coming. And those who have nothing left to lose but their lives.

If you have not taken control from the feckless and complicit Dems by this point, you are just bitchin. This is like the people who bitch at every con or event about how things are handled. No one is stopping them from doing something. They could be out there organizing and establishing a new government and movement. Instead they are cosplaying and looking to Donald Trump to do all the work for them.

That is why Jan 6th was doomed to fail. What the fuck were they going to do next? The most they could have done is maybe gotten Trump another 4 years likke they did with Bush and Gore. During the Obama years a bunch of them tried to revolt. TRhey seized government land and the government even let them wander around with their weapons in the small town they revolted in. Nothing else happened. People mailed them gummy dicks. They did not start the process of making a small little country. They got bored, tried to drive away, and one of them got suicided by cop while the rest went to prison for their troubles.

They did not make a real strand and get support for their war machine, and only a few people came to support them. This is because the Trumpanzees are just like Trump. They want everyone else to do the job while they complain about how it is being done. This is why they don't riot in the streets, because they are domesticated. They are the little yapping dogs of the american system who yap all the time, but they die if they get left to their own devices because they are domestic animals.

They do not want to do anything, and they can't.

Use the confusion to get the Supreme Court to weigh in and declare Trump president again, then invoke the Insurrection Act to send the military after anyone that doesn't play along. Word is he already plans to invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day back in office in 2025.

I suspect the Lincoln Project's main purpose is to rehabilitate the Republican party's reputation.

Maybe they've switched goals since 2020, but back then they were very open about their goal to make Trump angry so he'd make more mistakes and hopefully shoot himself in the foot before the election.

That's some project.

That’s how civil wars often start…