The 60th presidential election is less than a year away and if polling is correct a second Donald Trump presidency is likely. If you don’t believe the polls, the January 6 Prison Choir’s ‘Justice for All’ single, casting Donald Trump, has hit No. 1 on iTunes, might be a hint. Politicians and voters in thrill or fear can all agree that his second coming may be permanent.
The Atlantic Journal has released a series of opinion articles asking the question, ‘What if Trump wins?’ If you are interested, I advise you not to read the 25 articles in one sitting. Unless you enjoy watching bleak dystopian films – think, The Road meets The Handmaid’s Tale – on loop, then you’re in for a treat. They are speculative articles of fiction arguably written for a moderate left progressive audience. But they shouldn’t be discarded in the echo chamber trash. Albeit in dwindling numbers, some non ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) Republicans – yes that’s how the party differentiate themselves these days — hold similar grim predictions of a future under a second Trump presidency. The Atlantic journalists take the baton of well grounded and established policy ideas and personality facets of Trump realism and run with it.
Alarmingly they don’t need to run far and unlike most dystopian narratives they would prefer you temper a willingness to suspend disbelief. Under a second Trump presidency this 244-year-old American constitutional democracy experiment may reach the finishing line. We are watching it limp towards it in real time. It makes me wonder ‘what if trump wins’ from an Australian perspective and as an extension of that, what happens when your closet ally is no longer a democracy.
An element of passivity to Trump’s dictatorial sights could be gleened from Albanese’s speech to the Lowy Institute recently when he said, Australia will “not hold back a changing world or isolate ourselves from it”.
Donald Trump talks a lot about nothing, rambling nonsensical bullshit, to be blunt. Just when you are about to fall asleep from the banality or giggle at the ridiculous irony of it all, he gets back to script. Delighting in his profanity and violent rhetoric, Trump has a way of pushing the boundaries of civility and humanity and claiming it as profound and perfect. Capitulating his deplorable behaviours as acts of virtuosity. It is a soothing tactic used to plug the holes that litter his wounded orange body and the body politic of America.
Trump has been called many things a grifter, fascist baby, charlatan, agent orange, mango Mussolini, small hands, and a dictator. He really hates small hands. He prefers dictator and has committed to being one on his first day in office. His self-love and the love for strong man authoritarians, have him fixated on attaining constant adoration and absolute control not only from Americans. The radical faith Americans have in his talents and likability is perplexing. Arguably, not even a critique of neoliberalism, political elites and institutional distrust – which I will not attempt to articulate – adequately accounts for the whole heap of crazy town going on over there.
Central to Trump’s political identity are themes of ‘deep state’, ‘victimhood’ and ‘retribution.’ A belief system that’s capturing a MAGA fan base and transforming it into a marketable movement. This collective heaves and profits from his injections of conspiracy theories, grandiose delusions, lies, Trumpy trinket merchandise and vengeance. He wins, governs, loses and fights again with these themes. It is an exhaustingly repetitive cycle of addiction and abuse of and for an omnipresent Trump.
The extremities of the drug Trump has breached the far-right corners and into the main-blood-stream streets of America. He has drugged Rudy Giuliani the once America’s Mayor, and many in the once ‘Law and Order’ republican party, merging with their white supremacist foot soldiers, the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. It’s Trump’s dream team of thugs and groomers ready to take down not just enemy targets. They want to take down potential MAGA ally targets too, and wait for a Stockholm syndrome to kick in.
Trump’s narcissism and authoritarian style is no secret. If only he was content with being a wealthy fraudulent property developer and lousy reality television host nobody would care that much about him. The blast radius of an angry narcissistic ‘B’ grade celebrity, dodgy real-estate agent and president of a superpower are vastly different. Putting the nuclear code issue aside, the loss of the 2020 election sent him into a rage on multiple fronts. Trump bullied and threatened officials, rallied his supporters “to fight like hell” at the capitol building, which they went on to do – calling for the death of Nancy Pelosi, democratic speaker of the house, and the hanging of Trump’s vice president Mike Pence, guns and guillotine on the ready. This collective tolerance for political violence and narcissistic leadership has redefined the personality American voters want from their president.
Trump is now facing 91 felonies across 4 indictments, for his outlandish and violent attempts to stay president. His other crimes include property fraud, sexual abuse, connection with hush money payments to a pornstar and hoarding classified information in the bathroom of his Mar-a-Lago mansion. The FBI are still trying to locate a file about Russian interference with elections and Trump’s connection with Putin. Perhaps they need to look in the cistern. Trump’s legal woes have the potential to put him jail and send him broke but they don’t stop him from becoming president again. Not even the beloved constitution cares about criminals and wannabe authoritarians tearing it up. The great American dream, is a belief that anyone can attain their own version of success, is no longer a myth.
Trump has more skin in a white house 2025 homecoming. Once in power he will have mechanisms at hand to disappear his legal troubles. He could offer himself a presidential pardon or sack the prosecutors overseeing his cases. He could further manipulate the constitution, declare a state of emergency, and remain in the white house, until he is carried out in a gaudy gold coffin. Busying himself in the meantime making prison cell reservations for those who attempt to hold him to account. For now, his legal team are testing the limits of ‘presidential immunity’ before the Supreme Court. Stacked with conservative judges – one whose wife actively played a role in attempts to disqualify American votes and overturn the 2020 election and unanimously overturned women’s right to abortion – could martyr their own judicial institution for Trump.
Surely the hot mess of his first presidential term plagued by infighting, impeachments, incoherence, and insurrection burnt enough Americans? His failures are being rewritten by him, cable news and MAGA republicans. A surreal alternative universe has wedged its way into the American history books and its all apple pie. What lessons have been learnt are not for the reasons you may think. A second Trump presidency will be more polished and calculated.
Project 2025, a doctrine crafted by the Heritage Foundation, an activist right wing think tank, of ideologically hardened conservative Republicans will piggyback Donald Trump into the white house. The heritage foundation has been influencing political policy since the ’70’s. The ashes of a failed Trump presidency have spawned a sharper shift towards ideas that reflect populism, isolationism and religious nationalism. In a methodical yet opportunistic grab for sustained power, a plan to further exploit people’s grievances and fears rather than solving them is already under way.
Recruiting an army of 54000 trump loyalists to dominate the executive and flood government institutions has begun. The foundation is clear eyed about what a successful MAGA republican applicant looks like. As a priority they will have aligned ideological beliefs. The irony being that with more shovels on board, MAGA republicans will dig an even deeper deep state for many more victims to fall into. If you don’t believe me then look at their how to back slide democracy manual Project 25. When Donald Trump declares he is the chosen one there is a sliver of truth. The Heritage Foundation thinks he is their’s.
If Donald Trump is the 60th president of the United States of America, he may only need one day to be a dictator. The Heritage Foundation will swiftly implement the machinery required to back slide and dismantle American democracy. After that Trump will be free to be himself and whatever he wants that to look like from day to day. A supreme leader, an authoritarian, second only to God, a political warrior, very intelligent, way more handsome than President Biden and all the rest.
The ‘what if Donald Trump wins?’ from an Australian perspective would redefine the ‘only in America’ cliche. He will ‘drill, drill, drill’ baby, undermining global efforts to slow warming and transition to renewables, titillating Gina and Clive. Demand Don Junior get Kerry Stokes to manage his Australian speaking tour and then poison Anthony Pratt at after drinks at the Crown. Have a regular gig with Sky after dark. Talk Fred Nile into running for prime minister. Bring Joh Bjelke Petterson back from the dead. Instruct Alan Jones counsel. Give Pauline some beauty tips. Tell Tony Abbott he’s not as fit as him. Threaten to lock up and extradite Marxist leftie Albo because he’s also a social housing, single mother loser.
He will definitely wait until the cheques have reached his tiny little hands and then refuse to deliver the submarines. He may spare us the angst of debate and critique of the alliance and pull out of it altogether. Or if he stays threaten, bully and tantrum until he gets his way. Our sacrosanct relationship may get a lot more sycophantic…and that is just for starters.
Kellie Merritt is a social worker who who has been a committee member with Australians for War Power Reform. Her husband FLT Paul Pardoel served with the RAAF for 15years. He transferred to the RAF Special Forces and worked on operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Paul was killed while in Iraq when his RAF Hercules was shot down.