In some methods, residing via the second Trump presidential transition is very similar to the primary.
Everyone seems to be attempting to determine which of his unhinged marketing campaign guarantees will come to fruition first and which Trump true believers will likely be given parts of the federal government to wreck.
However there’s one large distinction this time round: Donald Trump is a convicted felon who spurred his followers right into a violent riot primarily based on lies. The very textual content of the 14th Modification bars him from holding workplace, however the US Supreme Court docket determined it will be a bridge too far to really implement the Structure in the case of Trump.
Regrettably, nearly all of American voters additionally determined the entire convicted felon factor wasn’t a deal-breaker both.
There’s no precedent for this, no roadmap for the way American democracy would possibly survive it. So now we’re watching authorities establishments attempt to strengthen themselves in opposition to the onslaught of private and political illegality that Trump represents.
Nowhere is that this extra evident than within the army, which has to grapple with Trump’s vow to deport hundreds of thousands of immigrants. Trump has floated declaring a nationwide emergency on the border, which his advisers imagine would imply immigrants might be housed at army bases and army planes might be used for deportations.
He additionally totally expects to make use of the army and Nationwide Guard, basically deploying federal troops as a home police power to do his bidding. And Stephen Miller, arguably essentially the most ghoulishly racist of Trump’s advisers—who’s returning to the White Home as Trump’s deputy chief of workers of coverage—has already mentioned that if states refuse to deploy their Nationwide Guard troops to assist with mass deportations, Republican governors can simply ship their Nationwide Guard troops throughout the border into these unwilling states.
None of that is theoretical. It’s what Trump already tried to make occur in 2020 when he wished to make use of active-duty troops in opposition to folks protesting after the demise of George Floyd.
Trump’s protection secretary on the time, Mark Esper, publicly broke with Trump over it. Esper went on to hitch former White Home chief of workers John Kelly and former head of the Joint Chiefs of Employees Gen. Mark Milley—like Esper, each Trump appointees—in sounding the alarm that Trump is a fascist.
However this time round, there gained’t be an Esper or a Kelly or a Milley to inform Trump no. Trump desires “Hitler’s generals”—army personnel who will do no matter Trump desires, whether or not it’s lawful or not. And putting in compliant personnel gained’t cease on the prime. Trump plans to once more implement Schedule F, eradicating civil service protections from many federal workers, that means they might be fired and changed with Trump loyalists.
That’s why present Pentagon officers are scrambling to determine what to do if Trump points an illegal order to active-duty troops, akin to demanding they deploy domestically to place down protests. Whereas Trump is planning to take away as many guardrails as potential, the army consists of over 2 million service members, all of whom are required to uphold the Structure and disobey illegal orders.
Final week, Secretary of Protection Lloyd Austin made a pointed assertion that the troops have been to obey “all lawful orders from its civilian chain of command.”
It’s distressing that Austin has to specify that solely lawful orders ought to be obeyed, nevertheless it’s simply a part of the brand new regular. There isn’t actually something left to cease Trump from issuing illegal or unconstitutional orders, provided that the conservatives on the Supreme Court docket granted him broad immunity for something that may be mentioned to be an official obligation, and issuing orders to the army actually falls below that.
That immunity doesn’t lengthen to anybody besides the president, nonetheless, which signifies that whereas Trump can’t get in hassle for issuing an illegal order, the army personnel who perform that order take pleasure in no such protections.
It isn’t simply the Pentagon attempting to determine the right way to shield itself from the lawlessness of a second Trump time period. Federal public well being officers try to get funds out the door and full initiatives earlier than Trump permits somebody like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to totally dismantle well being protections and reduce off funding. It’s crucial to get as a lot cash to state and native public well being departments earlier than that occurs.
Governors in blue states are additionally attempting to Trump-proof issues as greatest they will. A few of these actions are about defending entry to issues like abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, each of which have been focused by Trump.
These forms of actions aren’t new or stunning. Blue states have been making a concerted effort to guard abortion entry for the reason that fall of Roe v. Wade and to create protected havens for trans folks.
However that’s extra about blue states countering crimson state efforts, not having to withstand the need of the federal authorities or the president. With Trump returning to the White Home, although, blue states face the opportunity of being reduce off from routine federal funding just because Trump hates them.
That’s why California is contemplating whether or not to create state funding mechanisms for catastrophe reduction from issues like wildfires and earthquakes. Throughout his first time period, Trump refused or severely restricted catastrophe support to California, Washington, and Puerto Rico as a result of these locations lean Democratic.
Distinction this with President Joe Biden’s evenhanded strategy to making sure that even the reddest of states obtained instant FEMA funding after Hurricane Helene, an strategy the administration maintained whilst Trump repeatedly lied about catastrophe cash being diverted to migrants.
Or recall that Trump wished to situation COVID funds to blue states on these states agreeing to his totally unrelated coverage positions on issues like eliminating the capital good points tax.
None of that is regular. Authorities establishments mustn’t must take motion to guard in opposition to an incoming president. Trump ought to by no means have been allowed to run once more and may have confronted penalties for his myriad types of prison conduct.
However as soon as the Supreme Court docket insulated Trump from any fallout, it freed him to run and it freed him to win. Now, everybody else will get to endure the results as a substitute.
