IT’S OFFICIAL: TRUMP AND ALLIES WANT AUTHORITARIAN GOVERNMENT
Donald Trump and his allies want to abandon democracy and create an authoritarian government in the U.S. This is now the official and explicit plan of the right-wing of the Republican Party. Their “Project 2025 “ is the culmination of efforts by right-wing, wealthy elitists to control the government’s administrative capacity and its regulation of the private sector. Its plan would give wealthy individuals and corporations unfettered control of the American economy, government, and society. To achieve these goals, they are willing to give the President dictatorial powers.
(Note: If you find my posts too long to read on occasion, please just skim the bolded portions. Thank you for reading my blog!)
Donald Trump and his allies want to create an authoritarian government in the U.S. Although Trump has rhetorically and through some actions given indications of this in the past, what is new and shocking is that it is now the official and explicit plan of the right-wing of the Republican Party. This has the support (at least tacitly) of the Republican establishment. What has happened is that “businessmen who hated regulation joined with racists who hated federal protection of civil rights and traditionalists who opposed women’s rights” to advocate for upending our democratic government and returning the country to the pre-Franklin Roosevelt, pre-New Deal days of the 1920s. [1]
Their plan would abandon democracy, eliminate the checks and balances of the three branches of government, and create a presidency with dictatorial powers. It would increase presidential authority over every part of the executive branch of government, particularly over employees or agencies that currently have some measure of independence from political control from the White House.
Created by Project 2025, this presidential transition plan is identifying policies and personnel for a transition to a Trump (or other Republican) presidency in 2025. The scale and revolutionary nature of the plan are unprecedented. Project 2025 is being run by a Heritage Foundation-led coalition of over 65 right-wing organizations with a $22 million budget. The Heritage Foundation, founded in 1973, a formerly conservative and now revolutionary think tank, has played a leading role in shaping Republican policies and funneling personnel to Republican administrations since the Reagan Administration. It is part of the well-funded network of right-wing, radical, revolutionary groups that have transformed the Republican Party and the Supreme Court. [2] They now want to transform the presidency and all our democratic practices and institutions.
Project 2025’s plan is echoed by information on the Trump campaign website that was primarily written by Trump advisors Vince Haley and Ross Worthington, [3] with input from others, including Trump’s virulent, anti-immigrant advisor, Stephen Miller. The plan has been publicly promoted by Russell Vought, Trump’s head of the Office of Management and Budget, and by John McEntee, head of Trump’s Presidential Personnel Office. McEntee, as part of President Trump’s effort to control the government bureaucracy, was working to install Trump loyalists throughout the Executive Branch, even over the objections of Trump’s Cabinet Secretaries. The culmination of these efforts was clear in the leadup to the January 6, 2021, insurrection when Trump tried to get these loyalists to assert control at the DOJ, DOD, and other government agencies. [4]
Project 2025’s plan would:
· Bring independent agencies under direct presidential control such as the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Internal Revenue Services (IRS), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission (which is the business regulation and antitrust agency), the Postal Regulatory Commission, and probably the Federal Reserve;
· Allow the President to refuse to spend (“impound”) funds appropriated by Congress that were for programs or policies he didn’t like and, in general, to emasculate the legislative branch of government and any checks and balances it might exercise over the President;
· Strip Civil Service protections from tens of thousands of career federal government employees, including at the intelligence agencies, the State Department, and the Department of Defense (DOD), so that they would be political appointees serving at the pleasure of the President and acting at his behest regardless of national security or the best interests of the country; and
· Eliminate administrative procedures requiring public hearings and public comment periods for changes in regulations, as well as requirements for information sharing such as open meeting laws.
Project 2025 is the culmination of efforts by right-wing, wealthy elitists to have unfettered control of the American economy, government, and society via a President and Republican Party that they control with their money. To achieve these goals, they are willing to abandon democracy and create an authoritarian presidency with dictatorial powers. [5]
Many of the elements of the plan would be challenged in court if they are implemented. Many of these cases would eventually get to the Supreme Court. Although historically (in 1935 and 1988) the Court has upheld the independence of executive branch agencies and personnel from presidential political meddling, the current Court has already begun to erode those precedents. The Supreme Court’s recent track record would certainly seem to indicate that it would allow much of the concentration of power in the presidency that is being proposed by Project 2025’s plan.
If implemented, Project 2025 would likely end equality before the law, protection of civil rights, investments in programs that allow working people to prosper, and policies that build an economy that reduces economic inequalities. It would allow the President, for example, to:
· Have the IRS target political opponents for tax audits and enforcement, while ignoring tax fraud or evasion by political supporters;
· Have the DOJ prosecute political opponents, including on trumped up charges (no pun intended), while ignoring crimes by political supporters;
· Target business regulations and antitrust actions at companies of political opponents, while letting those of political supporters operate uninhibitedly;
· Order the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates before an election;
· Target federal spending to states and municipalities led by political supporters while penalizing those of political opponents; and
· Harm national security by directing loyalists in intelligence, diplomacy, and defense activities to act on his whims (e.g., friendships with Putin and Kim Jong Un) rather than on expertise and the country’s best interests.
[1] Richardson, H. C., 7/17/23, “Letters from an American blog,” (https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-17-2023)
[2] Swan, J., Savage, C., & Haberman, M., 7/17/23, “Trump and allies forged plans to increase presidential power in 2025,” The New York Times
[3] Vince Haley and Ross Worthington were Trump Advisors for Policy, Strategy and Speechwriting and developed Trump’s policies for undermining ethics standards among other things. Both had previously worked for former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich for many years.
[4] Cooper, R., 7/18/23, “Donald Trump is plotting to make himself dictator,” The American Prospect (https://prospect.org/politics/2023-07-18-donald-trump-plotting-make-himself-dictator/)
[5] Cooper, R., 7/18/23, see above