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“This guy, he said, ‘You’re not going to be a boss, are you?'” Trump said, referring to Hannity. “I said, ‘No, no, no – other than Day 1.’ We have closed the border. And we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I am not a leader.”
Some fellow Republicans said Trump was joking about his plans to be president one day, along with Sen. Kevin Cramer (RN.D.) describes the statement as “part of its appeal … is absolute truth.”
But for experts on autocracy and constitutional law experts, Trump’s comments showed concern that he is thinking carefully about how to strengthen the power of power when he returns to office. how he got away with his first four years in the White House.
The comments – which he repeated at a dinner in New York City on Saturday night – are part of a pattern for Trump, who has made comments that he could use additional powers to legitimize his agenda. At the end of last year, Trump, He is the leading campaigner for the Republican nomination, called in his social network Truth Social for the end of “all laws, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” in a post on his website Truth Social.
But the scholars say that even without violating the letter of the law, Trump can access the general powers given to him as the chief executive officer. He does not need to be a dictator to destroy democracy, they say: He can use the tools of democracy to do it.
“With Trump, the line between provocation and harassment is often blurred,” said David Pozan, professor of law at Columbia Law School. “I think we should take seriously that statement by the ‘authority’ as a window into its mind, and accept its ruling plans, even if the meaning of policy is not clear – even to yes.”
Trump and his aides have begun planning for the prize if he wins in 2024. He has told advisers and friends in recent months that he wants the Justice Department to regularly investigate officials and friends who have criticized his time in office. In public, Trump has vowed to appoint a special counsel to “replace” President Biden and his family. Outside groups, such as the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, have begun to lay out a plan for the implementation of an aggressive plan in a second Trump administration.
“It’s very clear that if elected, Trump will use all of his political power to pursue his agenda,” said Daniel Treisman, professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles. and author of the book, “The New Autocracy.”
“On a lot of issues, including the border and oil, he can do a lot of things through regulation,” Treisman said. “And we know that his habit is to move quickly and break things before the court finds them.”
There are no precedents for leaders who become rulers for a day, according to Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of the book “Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present.” Once leaders get a taste for absolute power, they often reject it.
“I know of no dictator who was more democratic,” said Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University. “That’s not how autocrats behave.”
Leaders rarely cede authority through a democratic process, he said. He cited Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who tortured and killed Chileans for nearly 17 years before being voted out of office, as one exception.
Leaders often develop over time, he added. Russian president Vladimir Putin was first elected in 2000 and since then he has taken steps to expand his power, punish his opponents and extend his rule.
Trump often expresses gratitude for Putin and other special leaders or rulers. The US constitutional system has constitutional protections and checks on power that other countries do not have, making it difficult for a US leader to follow playbooks from other governments for strengthening governments.
But scholars say America also has vulnerabilities that can be exploited by a leader willing to subvert democracy, push the boundaries of what is legal and nurture destructive sentiments.
Below is a small sample of the types of actions that scholars say Trump may try to take. even not revealing himself as the ruler for a day.
- Arm the Internal Revenue Service to go after political enemies. There is a precedent for this. President Richard M. Nixon, angered by the audits during the first administration of John F. Kennedy, instructed his aides in May 1971 that he wanted his IRS commissioner to “go to our enemies and do not follow our friends,” according to a text. published years later in the Washington Post. The IRS commissioner refused to implement Nixon’s plan. Trump, by contrast, said he would appoint loyalists willing to carry out his wishes in a second administration. “He is preparing to hire in his second administration people who have vowed to do their best to make sure he has the best power,” said Wilfred Codrington, a professor at Brooklyn Law School. .
- Fired a large number of federal employees on the first day. Trump has already taken the first step before leaving office, planning to change the working conditions of thousands of public employees so that he can get rid of those he deems dishonest. Civil servants are often hired rather than appointed or elected, and their tenure often revolves around changes in political leadership. Trump has attacked the civil servants of the “deep state” that prevented him from taking action during his first term. “If you reclassify those public workers, suddenly, the so-called deep state becomes your toy,” said Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the University of Princeton. The reclassification is very important according to the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” which states, through agencies, should be reclassified, added Scheppele.
- Invoke the Revolution Act. Trump can use the Insurrection Act to order the military to put down by force any opposition that may arise against his government. The Post recently reported that his aides have drawn up plans to make the move on his first day in office. But as he revealed in June 2020, this is not the case must go that far. Trump called on Republican governors and their National Guard commanders to move troops to the nation’s capital to help control crowds outside the White House after the police killings. of George Floyd, thus eliminating any need for the Insurrection Act to raise a large army to fight against the American people. “People should be very worried that he will try to exceed his base power, but with a friendly Republican Party, Trump has successfully used elements of the government that do not need to exceed the base,” the said UCLA’s Treisman.
- Punish media enemies. Trump can choose the media and create a “conspiracy,” according to Péter Krekó, senior lecturer at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. Modernists, says Krekó, “usually start with controlling the media and focus on the use of information.” Trump has long been critical of the media and attacked the truth that he believed to be overly critical of him. In his first term he set up a loyalist on the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) who dismissed the staff in large numbers, calling them spies. Trump’s allies say the second administration will target Trump’s opponents in the media through the Justice Department. In September, Trump appeared to threaten to revoke the FCC licenses of networks he did not like.
- Go to war: Trump has often criticized America’s involvement in unpopular foreign conflicts. But military action abroad to distract from abuses at home has long been a favorite tool of autocrats, and the US president has broad authority over issues of war and peace. “As soon as Trump becomes the president he can start a war, kill foreign leaders and other things,” said Scheppele, who is writing a book titled “Democracy by in Law,” should be released next year. In 2017, Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Florida club Mar-a-Lago and interrupted the dessert to tell the foreign leader that the US had attacked a Syrian air base. Former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross described the airstrikes in Syria as “after-dinner entertainment” for guests dining at the club.