Day one: The beginning of tyranny in America?

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Donald Trump (PHOTO: TIMOTHY A. CLARY)

One of the very frequent promises that President-elect Donald Trump made on the campaign trail concerned a number of deliverables he was committed to on assuming office.

“Day one” was the oft-repeated refrain and this has continued unabated since he won the election. This refrain marks the start of the day of decision-making contingent on a mandate he believes that he has received from the American people. Emboldened and ready to go, he has set about putting together a team that will essentially remain loyal to him in carrying out his intentions.

Let us examine this much ballyhooed idea of the Trump mandate. To begin with, to date he has inched under 50 per cent of the popular vote, a margin lower than any president elected in recent times. His popular vote margin, having shrunk, cannot be described as a resounding mandate to do as he pleases. A clear mandate would be akin to the landslide victory that former US President Ronald Reagan scored against Jimmy Carter or that Franklin D Roosevelt won in his time.

Of course, Trump and his supporters will see a win as a win. However small a mandate, though, the win might be seen as an endorsement of the candidate’s platform and the issues on which he ran, but it is hardly a resounding or runaway endorsement of the electorate’s intentions.

Already there are many who are expressing buyer’s remorse. They have seen the contours of the kind of leadership, especially in the Cabinet, that Trump wants to surround himself with. It has begun to settle in for many that they may become victims of Trump’s deportation strategies if carried out to the extent that he has been trumpeting. Other plans for health care are scaring a lot of people.

Here are some of the things that Trump has promised to do on day one. He will be a dictator, as he stated at a town hall in Iowa; there will be mass deportations of illegal or undocumented immigrants, and judges and prosecutors who had oversight over his multiple criminal and civil cases will be prosecuted. This will be the beginning of the politics of retribution and revenge that he promised against the “weaponised” justice department under President Joe Biden.

On day one he has also committed to free some of the January 6 rioters who he has described as patriots and who, in his judgment, were wrongfully imprisoned. Biden’s pardon of his son will greatly encourage this action.

He will also end the Green New Deal initiatives of the Biden Administration and unravel the climate change policy in the Inflation Reduction Act. The emphasis will be placed on drilling fossil fuel. As he frames it, it will be, “Drill, baby, drill!

These are just a few of the things that he will attempt to do. I have indicated in this space before that the first 100 days of the Trump Administration will be the most consequential for America in modern history, if not the history of the republic. I have predicted that he will be the first president to sign the most executive orders in his first 100 days in office. This will begin the transformation of America for the worse, in my view. These actions will bring “shock and awe” to the body politic and intensify the fear that is already building in the country.

So his pronouncement about what he will do on day one when he is inaugurated as the 47th US president, in my view, is more than hyperbole. It will be a prescription for the beginnings of the chaos and unpredictable governance that his Administration is likely to inflict on the nation. Will it be the beginnings of his desire for autocratic and tyrannical rule in America? We will see. Of course, he cannot accomplish everything he wants to do on day one, but he will sign a few executive orders and begin to set the tone for that which he intends to accomplish.

One can see this intention in the calibre of people he is planning to appoint to important posts in Government, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), director of national intelligence, and the secretaries of defence and health and human services. Many of his picks are an insult to the intelligence of the people, even those who wittingly or unwittingly voted in good faith for him.

It is clear that Trump values loyalty and those who will be willing to do his bidding over good governance and the welfare of the country. The glorification of mediocrity and the lauding of immoral behaviour seem to be taking centre stage. The country will be stiffed by an ideology of hate and revenge that will do incalculable harm to its body politic. Do not get me started on the issue of mass deportations and the use of the military in this exercise.

As he guts the federal government, which his people under Project 2025 have already lined up, many who worked under the Biden Administration will be fearful. Even if President Biden succeeds in pardoning people pre-emptively, there are many throughout his four-year Administration who will be caught up in expensive litigation to defend themselves against trumped up charges.

One should have no doubt that he is solidly committed to what he said on the campaign stumps and other venues. He is now literally a king of all he surveys. There is no other president in the history of the republic who will have the power that Trump has, with the substantial backing of the Supreme Court to boot. It is obvious that there is nothing of which his conscience will be afraid. When that great and terrible day of judgment comes no one can say that he did not lay bare his intentions before he was elected to office.

In their zeal to change things and break up the foundations of the institutions that have served the country well over these almost 250 years, Trump’s operatives will make grave and horrible mistakes which will do great harm to people. They will overstep the boundaries of the law, especially the chief law, the constitution. They will from time to time stub their toes against it as things are not as clear-cut as they would want it to be. But remember, criminal behaviour can be pardoned and Trump will have this power, which I have prophesied he will use to his best advantage and those of his people.

As Congresswoman Liz Cheney once warned while she was sitting on the January 6 committee, Trump will not be here forever, so people must be careful how they hitch their fortunes to his wagon. In fact, at 78, Trump, for the best intents and purposes, can be considered terminal. Even if he makes 95 years, as the good book says in Psalm 90:10, “Their boast is only labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off and we fly away.”

Trump, I’m sure, would have wished that he was a young man once more, given the inordinate power and adoration he now enjoys. But, alas, the voices of his mortality are screaming loudly at him. Whether he hears or not is inconsequential. Time like an ever-rolling stream bears all of us away, some sooner than later.

I am only concerned about the damage he can do to the country and people’s lives while he is at the wicket. He has the choice to use the great power at his disposal for good or ill. I fear he will more gravitate to the latter. He has demonstrated a penchant to bend to his more base instincts and transactional impulses. He has no advocate, but largely soothsayers who tell him what he needs to hear to pump his ego. An advocate would help him to see that he has in his hands the wherewithal to cement his place in history by doing high and noble things with the power he has.

But am I holding my breath? If he bends in the direction of his base instincts, I believe the country and the world will really wake up to the reality of the statement that elections do have consequences. Take heed as the day draweth nigh.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest, social commentator, and author of the books Finding Peace in the Midst of Life’s Storms; Your Self-esteem Guide to a Better Life; and Beyond Petulance: Republican Politics and the Future of America. He hosts a podcast – Mango Tree Dialogues- on his YouTube channel. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or stead6655@aol.com.

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