Tornado Alley (PROG)

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3. Failures of Imagination

I understand that this sounds hysterical. It’s only been a week. No Trump critics have been poisoned, or shot, or fallen out of windows.

But humor me for a moment. Imagine it’s October 2024 and you’re having coffee with Hugh Hewitt.

Hugh is trying to cure you of your Trump Derangement Syndrome and convince you that a second Trump term will be fine. Because you’re a gentle soul, you try to meet him where he is. You outline three scenarios for him: low-, medium-, and high-risk to describe the first week of a second Trump administration.

Low risk: Trump appoints responsible people to his cabinet and takes office with a minimum of disruption. He reassures our European allies. He plans to pass legislation to construct his border wall and begins his deportation regime by focusing on undocumented immigrants who are currently in prison. He does not seek to apply Schedule F to the executive bureaucracy.

Medium risk: Some of Trump’s cabinet appointees are either radical or unqualified and he talks a lot about tariffs. But he extends an olive branch to NATO and appears to be ready to work with the Mexican government on border security and deportation. He pardons some of the people convicted for crimes on January 6th, but leaves the worst, most violent offenders in jail.

High risk: Even before taking office, Trump files a series of defamation/libel lawsuits against media entities, including a pollster. Three days before inauguration he launches a crypto token that allows the untraceable funneling of money to his pockets. He puts unqualified toadies in charge of the power ministries and frees every single January 6th insurrectionist. He demands the removal of the Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee. He blames Ukraine for Russia’s invasion, saying that Ukraine should not have resisted Putin’s aggression. He institutes Schedule F and then illegally fires 17 inspectors general. He removes security protection for officials from his first term whom he views as disloyal, remarking that “there’s risks to everything.”

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