What will a Trump Presidency Look Like?

[Colonel Sanders]

I mean this seriously. I can throw out sarcastic jokes about Trump and his baffling legion of ignoramuses all day, but we're at the point where this needs to be seriously considered. There are several things that seriously concern me with respect to domestic affairs (yes, foreign affairs are equally if not even more terrifying, but this is going to be too long already).

Primarily it's about reprisals against First Amendment freedoms. If we lose that, the rest fall like dominoes. Trump has attempted to ban certain journalists and media sources from his campaign for being "unfair" to him. God, it's so hard not to get snarky right now ... count to ten ... okay. So what could Trump do as President to silence the media?

I don't think it would take the form of us waking up one morning to find that Fox News is the only station on TV anymore; nothing that sudden and dramatic. But intimidation into silence through FBI investigations into certain key individuals could begin the process. For example, what does Rachel Maddow do with her money? Where does she put it and how much does she have? If you know that, and if you can seize it, even temporarily, along with exaggerated charges, you can effectively silence anyone. And the President can, right now, do just that. The FBI is under the control of the DOJ, which is under the control of the executive branch. And the President has the right to fire and make appointments within the DOJ. I won't get into a whole thing about noble agents disobeying unlawful orders because someone who will obey can always be found.

Trump has also expressed discontent over the fact that protesters don't suffer consequences anymore. Whatever that might mean, it is safe to say that he wasn't making any reference to anything having to do with rewarding protesters for exercising their right to peaceably assemble and express themselves. With a press that's been intimidated into compliance--and they already are to a certain degree--through what medium will mass outrage and dissent be expressed if protests are violently crushed by Executive order? The answer sure as hell isn't the internet. If China can largely censor what its citizens can see on the internet, the U.S. government can do the same.

Yes, I'm aware of how paranoid I sound. But as I read other forums, and read what Trump supporters say, there is a significant portion of that crowd that would gleefully support exactly what I'm talking about. I have a family member, a cousin, who, when I hear him speak, sounds like a slimy informant type of person. And there are tens of thousands out there just like him. If not more.

Or maybe I'm just letting my imagination run away with me. But these people are fucking scary.

 

[CJW]

Legislatively, I think it just might look exactly like a Paul Ryan presidency - If Trump gets elected chances are the Republicans will retain the house & senate - they'll be free to pass their entire legislative agenda without any worries of a Trump veto. I think he'll just be a rubber stamp for anything that comes out of Congress.

On issues that he has direct control over? who knows. I expect him to be an absentee landlord.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

 

[Treedbear]

Paul Manafort says he's working as Trump's top campaign advisor for free. I wonder if he's been promised a cabinet position. Also, how insulated is the NSA from the Presidency, and is that even relevant if the Senate and House are Republican?

 

[fromderinside]

Harnessing Trump's major attribute will be the the look of his presidency. Therefore I see the look of the Trump presidency will look like a hot air converter.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

I think that it will have the US stumbling from one crisis to another while all the old ones are lingering on due to nobody ever bothering to deal with them. Trump will spend a lot of time raging at Congress for not doing what he wants (because what he wants is stupid) and he'll use executive orders to do what he can until those things get hard and he forgets about them and moves onto something else. He'll try and screw over the US's allies and trading partners whenever he can and get into a whole bunch of trade wars when they don't immediately roll over.

He'll also start a war with somebody. Probably us up here in Canada just because we're right next door and in the same time zone, so he wouldn't need to stay up late in order to talk to his generals. The good news is that Canada would win that war due to Trump's ignoring those generals' advice and trying to stage a sneak tank invasion by loading tanks up onto those cool hoverboards one of his kids just showed him and doing an amphibious invasion over the Great Lakes.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Simply put, Trump is in way over his head, much worse than W was. Pence isn't exactly a Cheney type. So that means we have no clue who is calling the shots.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Simply put, Trump is in way over his head, much worse than W was. Pence isn't exactly a Cheney type. So that means we have no clue who is calling the shots.

I think who calls the shots will change from week to week, depending on Trump's mood and who pisses him off the least that day. Trump will want to leave most things to Pence - until Pence does something that Trump doesn't like and then he'll be cut off from power in a very public way. Trump will become more and more isolated and surround himself with more and more yes men who are only interested in enriching themselves as things get worse and worse and he'll ramp up the rhetoric about how everything that's wrong is the fault of the muslims, darkies and immigrants.

At least with Cheney, there was a stable group of people with a definitive plan of action. It was a stupid plan, of course, but at least they had one.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

That's obviously another concern: no plans.

When Bush/Cheney launched the Iraq war, they didn't bother to begin planning for the aftermath until 90 days before the war started. In a nation about the same size as Missouri, Kansas, and a little bit of Oklahoma combined, we're still dealing with the chaos of not having a strong, detailed plan in place. Instead, they pretty much winged it.

That was just Iraq. Extrapolate that to the entire United States + foreign affairs and this nation will likely never recover.

"It can't happen here" has always been a kind of backhanded warning that It can. And it looks like it's going to.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

That's obviously another concern: no plans.

When Bush/Cheney launched the Iraq war, they didn't bother to begin planning for the aftermath until 90 days before the war started. In a nation about the same size as Missouri, Kansas, and a little bit of Oklahoma combined, we're still dealing with the chaos of not having a strong, detailed plan in place. Instead, they pretty much winged it.

That was just Iraq. Extrapolate that to the entire United States + foreign affairs and this nation will likely never recover.

"It can't happen here" has always been a kind of backhanded warning that It can. And it looks like it's going to.

I'm a little less worried about policy as I am with the fuckwit Trump supporters that will mistake this election as some sort of vindication that the nation thinks their insane and anti-anything not white male attitudes are accepted by most of America.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Simply put, Trump is in way over his head, much worse than W was. Pence isn't exactly a Cheney type. So that means we have no clue who is calling the shots.

I think who calls the shots will change from week to week, depending on Trump's mood and who pisses him off the least that day. Trump will want to leave most things to Pence - until Pence does something that Trump doesn't like and then he'll be cut off from power in a very public way. Trump will become more and more isolated and surround himself with more and more yes men who are only interested in enriching themselves as things get worse and worse and he'll ramp up the rhetoric about how everything that's wrong is the fault of the muslims, darkies and immigrants.

At least with Cheney, there was a stable group of people with a definitive plan of action. It was a stupid plan, of course, but at least they had one.

I'm fairly sure that Trump just wants to sit in the oval office, make crazy demands and not actually do anything important.

 

[Keith&Co.]

I'm fairly sure that Trump just wants to sit in the oval office, make crazy demands and not actually do anything important.

I think while he's in there, he'll come up with something to make it easier for him to sue people, while harder for people to sue him.
A time limit on contracts. If you can't get a casino owner to pay what he agreed to pay you inside of 90 days, then it's too late and you can't sue him for it anymore, something like that.

 

[Shadowy Man]

I think who calls the shots will change from week to week, depending on Trump's mood and who pisses him off the least that day. Trump will want to leave most things to Pence - until Pence does something that Trump doesn't like and then he'll be cut off from power in a very public way. Trump will become more and more isolated and surround himself with more and more yes men who are only interested in enriching themselves as things get worse and worse and he'll ramp up the rhetoric about how everything that's wrong is the fault of the muslims, darkies and immigrants.

At least with Cheney, there was a stable group of people with a definitive plan of action. It was a stupid plan, of course, but at least they had one.

I'm fairly sure that Trump just wants to sit in the oval office, make crazy demands and not actually do anything important.

I'm fairly sure he won't want to stay up until 2am every night reading briefings.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

All signs point to Trump's economic plans burying us in further vast deficits. I wonder if the Tea Party types would battle him tooth, and nail to prevent him from enacting anything. Obstructionism loudly claimed to be based on principal. I could see things breaking down into bitter name calling, bitterness and spite. This could be fun. Democrats vs Trump vs. GOP ultra-conservatives. A real three ring circus. Nixonian enemy lists, ratfuckery, dirty tricks, skull duggery, poison pill legislation from all sides, binksmanship. Could we see a frustrated Trump quit? Would the Democrats announce from day one they will oppose anything Trump tries to enact?

 

[Will Wiley]

All signs point to Trump's economic plans burying us in further vast deficits.

What signs are these? Just curious. thanks

 

[Mumbles]

Simply put, Trump is a fool, and a dangerous one at that. There's simply no telling, due to the theoretical limits of his powers.

At best, I'd expect a president surrounded by self-serving but intelligent "aids" and "advisors", heavily hampered by a congress and Supreme Court who view him as an idiot to be tossed out quickly.

At worst, expect something similar to, but worse than, the combined worsts of GWB and Obama. More outright violence inside and outside of US borders, corruption of departments like the DOJm, and so forth.

Do I expect an outright cataclysm? No. But I do expect he'd be regarded as among the worst presidents in US history, among the likes of Buchanan and Harrison.

 

[Angry Floof]

Now that bigots of all stripes have a champion, if he were to win the election, expect violence and harrassment of minorities and Muslims to skyrocket. Trump is serving as their permission to take all the hate Fox News has stirred up in them and spew it and act on it freely.

 

[Will Wiley]

At worst, expect something similar to, but worse than, the combined worsts of GWB and Obama. More outright violence inside and outside of US borders,

#

Why would a Trump presidency lead to more violence outside the US than GWB and Obama? Both of these presidents have had incredibly violent reigns.
Yet Trump has on all occasions indicated he would be more isolationist, and as an example try to have better relations with Russia.

The only thing I have seen is that he would attack ISIS and their families. But this seems consistent with Obama who has killed many innocent civilians in his fight against terrorism.
ISIS has threatened the USA but both Bush and Obama have unleashed violent slaughter in places that posed no threat to the USA

 

[jonatha]

All signs point to Trump's economic plans burying us in further vast deficits.

What signs are these? Just curious. thanks

"The revenue losses understate the total effect on the national debt because they do not include the additional interest that would accrue as a result. Including interest costs, the proposal would add $11.2 trillion to the national debt by 2026 and $34.1 trillion by 2036." (top of page 9)

 

[Colonel Sanders]

Now that bigots of all stripes have a champion, if he were to win the election, expect violence and harrassment of minorities and Muslims to skyrocket. Trump is serving as their permission to take all the hate Fox News has stirred up in them and spew it and act on it freely.

This^.

And it goes with the cop worship that's seemed to develop over the last couple of years. I sincerely believe that most cops are decent people who really do a good job. And I think they'd remain good cops. But the borderline ones would go bad while the bad ones would get even worse.

I will say this though, white blue collar America is fucking angry. And when this is all over, particularly if Hillary wins, something needs to be done to assuage their legitimate gripes. I'm talking about the loss of jobs with no help provided for re-education or training in a new field. The U.S. could still be the leader in green energy and technology if the goddamn Republicans would allow it. So the Dems need to take that case to the people; as in, "We want to build a new energy infrastructure and train you to do it but we can't because the GOP is blocking it."

We want to give you free healthcare but we can't because... Etc.

As to the fear of a non-white nation, well, there's nothing that can be done about deeply rooted racism. But what the left does need to do is drop a lot of this "white privilege" bullshit. When you're struggling to keep the lights on and you hear some asshole on TV delegitimizing that struggle, and making light of the fact that you can't sleep at night, because some super rich motherfucker he doesn't know and never will know also has European ancestry from a hundred years ago, he's not going to suddenly become more socially enlightened. He's going to exercise the only option he has: yell and vote for a guy like Trump because that's the only power he has.

And if that conversation doesn't happen, things are only going to get worse. The left needs to step back and take serious stock of itself when this is all over with.