Can all of you compile a list ITT of all the things you think/expect Donald Trump to do over the next four years that will be detrimental to the greater good of the country and the world?
List all of your concerns here. Air your grievances and we will periodically check back in from time to time to see where we stand.
Should be a fun exercise.
1) he will appoint 1-2 more supreme court justices, establishing a long term conservative majority which has already resulted in a redefining of Presidential immunity and the end of abortion rights for millions of women. This court will very possibly also reverse gay marriage.
2) he has said he will not support a national abortion ban, and I’m not 100% certain one could pass through congress even if both chambers are red, but this is a “I’ll believe it when I see it” thing for me. I believe it is very possible he will sign such a law and will also support legislation that curbs access to contraception.
3) He will reschedule non-political federal employees, which will allow him to directly hire and fire people up and down the federal bureaucracy at will, giving the Presidency a significant lift in unilateral authority.
4) He will support a massive deportation effort, potentially enlisting the military to assist in this effort, and it will almost certainly result in people legally within the country and even American Citizens being mistakenly swept up and potentially deported by their own military.
5) He will pressure the fed to prematurely lower interest rates in order to artificially boost the market, and at the same time implement tariffs that are too aggressive. This combo will create more inflation, which he will promptly blame on democrats.
6) He may pass a tax reduction on overtime/tips, and this will almost certainly result in the wealthiest Americans figuring out how to reclassify their income to avoid taxes. This, of course, will also contribute to inflation.
7) Even if he supports tax breaks on overtime/tips, he will absolutely support any legislation and will make appointments that will fight against any workers rights measure. They will almost certainly work to roll back workers rights measures put in place by the Biden admin, which ironically includes an expansion on who is eligible for overtime pay.
8) Continued deregulation of measures that are actually pretty important. You might recall he eliminated the office that prepared for pandemics, which wasn’t a very helpful move when one hit, and he also rolled back regulations that led to toxic waste being spilled from a train in Ohio.
9) he will attempt to bring back the Presidents ability to impound money, which was made illegal during the Nixon administration. Trump aims to exercise more direct control over the money congress allocates and, as mentioned earlier, believes the fed should also be under tighter presidential control.
10) He seeks to nationalize measures some states have put in place regarding education, resulting in the banning of many books through vague language. This would seek to, again, expand federal control over public schools and allow the President to have more unilateral authority over what is taught in class rooms. He says he wants to do the same to colleges and universities, revoking accreditation for schools that don’t teach what this government dictates they teach.
11) He will likely again attempt to roll back the ACA, likely without any plan for a replacement. He has said he plans to put RFK jr in some sort of key healthcare role, which is a fantastic example of the kind of incredibly stupid things that giving the President more control over federal employees could result in - an antivaxx conspiracy theorist in a position of influence over the nation’s healthcare policy.
12) He will roll back any and all environmental protection measures, and will probably attempt to undo most of the legislation that rewards businesses for investing in clean energy, including incentives for companies to invest in electric vehicles. I’m sure somehow Tesla will be exempt from this.
I’m sure you’ll see the very common theme here is that Trump will do anything he can to gather more power as President and give himself as much unilateral authority as possible. And notice this list doesn’t include other crazy shit he’s said - like using the military against “the enemies within” or holding military tribunals for former congresspeople or revoking media credentials.
There are additional concerns that don’t necessarily directly involve Trump, but certainly his election will embolden states to continue curbing abortion rights, LGBT rights, and pushing for outdated ideas like abolishing no fault divorce.
Lastly, Trump will empower others who certainly do have visions of proclaiming America is a “Christian nationalist” country and want nothing more than to abolish the separation between church and state. There’s no question these people will gain more influence and power under Trump, and they will rush to implement as many changes as they can.
