Late in the 2016 presidential campaign, conservative journalist Salena Zito coined a pithy summary of different reactions to Donald Trump’s brand of dishonesty and demagoguery. “The press takes him literally, but not seriously,” she wrote, while “his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.” Reporters spilled tankers of ink correcting Trump’s blizzard of lies, yet couldn’t fathom that he might actually become president. On the other hand, his supporters were in on the joke; they didn’t care if what he said was accurate or if his promises were plausible — they were fired up to vote for him.
Today, Trump’s impulses are even darker, his rhetoric uglier, and his corruption more profound. Just as important, his plans for the presidency are far clearer. Those he has gathered around him are openly planning what is nothing less than an authoritarian takeover of the United States government. We have no choice but to take Trump both literally and seriously.
Rhetoric that classifies certain people not as humans but as insects or vermin has preceded nearly every genocide in history.
Let’s begin with his words. As ever, Trump lies about nearly everything and fantasizes about violence committed by himself, his government or his supporters, directed against the people he and those supporters despise. But he has taken an even more sinister turn. At a Veterans Day rally, the former president proclaimed that “we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.” The vile sentiment echoed a similar statement in a September interview — that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” But while that was an off-the-cuff remark, the "vermin" statement was part of his written speech, and he reiterated it afterward on social media.
Rhetoric that classifies certain people not as humans but as insects or vermin has preceded nearly every genocide in history. In Germany, the Nazis characterized Jews as “rats” infecting the pure Aryan society with their pestilence. In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge described their enemies as “worms” and “leeches.” In Rwanda, Hutu leaders called Tutsi “cockroaches” before massacring them.
When asked to respond to those who pointed out the fascist echoes in Trump’s words, his spokesman called the comparisons “ridiculous.” Then, in the same sentence, he said those critics’ “entire existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House.”
Trump’s lust for vengeance has become a common theme when he describes his plans if he wins election next year. “For those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution,” he has told his supporters. For the most part his focus isn’t “retribution” for those supporters, but for himself, as he promises revenge for the unfairness he believes he has endured, especially the multiple criminal indictments he faces. “This is third-world-country stuff, ‘arrest your opponent,’” he said last month. “And that means I can do that, too.”
In Trump’s first term, again and again his petty and vindictive impulses were constrained by those around him; he would give a deranged order, and officials would either patiently explain why it was impossible or simply ignore him, knowing he would probably forget all about it before long. While they were hardly heroes, a number of top officials in the Trump administration had a basic commitment to the rule of law and the essentials of the American system of government. At key moments there were people in place who declined to carry out his schemes.
The entire plan is being fashioned in full view, with Trump and his allies proudly announcing their intentions.
Those safeguards, as flimsy as they were, will be entirely absent in a second term. Republicans have begun what they call “Project 2025,” laying the groundwork for a complete transformation of the federal government. The Heritage Foundation produced a 920-page blueprint that states that “Nothing is more important than deconstructing the centralized administrative state.” To that end, Trump’s associates plan to purge tens of thousands of civil servants who today enjoy protection from political interference, replacing them with cronies vetted for loyalty to Trump. “What we’re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them,” said Russell Vought, a former Trump official spearheading the effort.
The Department of Justice is of particular importance in this plan, because Trump wants it to act both offensively against his enemies — including launching investigations of people who have displeased him — and defensively to justify remaking the government and consolidating power in the White House. Trump’s allies are assembling lists of right-wing lawyers with whom he can stock the DOJ, those who believe the department should obey the former president’s whims and who, according to The New York Times, “are willing to use theories that more establishment lawyers would reject to advance his cause.” His allies are also advising him, starting on Inauguration Day, to invoke the Insurrection Act to have the military put down demonstrations against him.
It doesn’t stop there. Also according to the Times, Trump plans to ban entry to the U.S. by people from Muslim nations, shut down asylum by declaring that immigrants carry infectious diseases, deport millions of undocumented immigrants — including constructing giant detention camps in the desert to hold them — and attempt to end the Constitution’s guarantee of birthright citizenship.
This is not something Trump and his people are keeping quiet. The entire plan is being fashioned in full view, with Trump and his allies proudly announcing their intentions. As his ghoulish adviser Stephen Miller told the Times, “Trump will unleash the vast arsenal of federal powers to implement the most spectacular migration crackdown.”
Sadly, much of the public seems only too excited at the prospect of authoritarianism. But the danger of another Trump presidency is absolutely serious, and if we don’t treat it as such, we’re all going to find out just how literal it is.