By Ehichioya Ezomon
It’s barely six months – which’s more than a lifetime in politics – to the November 2024 election in the United States. Going by public polling, former President Donald Trump is in a slim but better position to defeat President Joe Biden. That’s if the election were held today!
Trump’s first term (2016-2020) was turbulently tumultuous, resulting in denial of his re-election loss in November 2020, and his supporters’ attacking the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to disrupt, and entirely stop Conrgress from certifying Biden’s win of the election.
Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) slogan has evolved into a fanatical movement solely dedicated to his cause; and his obsession with, admiration for and adoration of autocratic rulers seems to appetise him to becoming a dictator on day one if he wins in November.
In the midst of the campaigns, Trump’s 91 counts and four criminal charges against him, which should ordinarily weigh him down. But not Trump! He’s fundraising off of one of the trials that’s commenced in New York, and squeezing out time for campaigns anytime he’s not sitting mandatorily in court for the hearings.
With these and more, coupled with his unpredictability, TIME Magazine lately had two interviews with Trump, and discussions with many in his inner circle, and what comes out is both a probable and possible dreadful and vengeful Trump second term.
Below is a summary of the must-read interviews and dialogues with a double header, “How Far Trump Would Go,” and “If He Wins,” conducted by ERIC CORTELLESSA, and published in the current edition of TIME on April 30:
“What emerged in two interviews with Trump, and conversations with more than a dozen of his closest advisers and confidants, were the outlines of an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world.
“To carry out a deportation operation designed to remove more than 11 million people from the country, Trump told me, he would be willing to build migrant detention camps and deploy the U.S. military, both at the border and inland.
“He would let red (Republican) states monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute those who violate abortion bans.
“He would, at his personal discretion, withhold funds appropriated by Congress, according to top advisers.
“He would be willing to fire a U.S. Attorney who doesn’t carry out his order to prosecute someone, breaking with a tradition of independent law enforcement that dates from America’s founding.
“He is weighing pardons for every one of his supporters accused of attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, more than 800 of whom have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury.
“He might not come to the aid of an attacked ally in Europe or Asia if he felt that country wasn’t paying enough for its own defense.
“He would gut the U.S. civil service, deploy the National Guard to American cities as he sees fit, close the White House pandemic-preparedness office, and staff his Administration with acolytes who back his false assertion that the 2020 election was stolen.”
According to Mr Cortellessa, Trump remains the same guy, with the same goals and grievances. But in person, if anything, he appears more assertive and confident.
“When I first got to Washington, I knew very few people,” Trump says. “I had to rely on people.” Now he is in charge. The arranged marriage with the timorous Republican Party stalwarts is over; the old guard is vanquished, and the people who remain are his people.
“Trump would enter a second term backed by a slew of policy shops staffed by loyalists who have drawn up detailed plans in service of his agenda, which would concentrate the powers of the state in the hands of a man whose appetite for power appears all but insatiable.
“I don’t think it’s a big mystery what his agenda would be,” says his close adviser Kellyanne Conway. “But I think people will be surprised at the alacrity with which he will take action.”
Surely, most Americans – perhaps except members of the MAGA movement – maybe in for what they didn’t bargain for if Trump they voted Trump in November!
