[Courtesy of Twitter]

Trump’s plans will not adequately address the issues facing America today.

The American election season is beginning in earnest, and so is the media circus. Both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have launched their respective campaigns. Each move they make is examined to death. Every week, horse race polls comparing the two come out, and then analysis of those polls dictates political discussion until the next poll comes out. The polls and the conversations they inspire are dominated by concerns about Biden’s age and the higher economic costs Americans face. These factors have contributed to a sense of malaise many people have about the state of the nation. As a result, polls indicate a large portion of the country is willing to give Trump a second chance. Right now, this is how most people I know discuss the election. These concerns are important, but I am worried that this conversation is overshadowing another one that goes much deeper than horse-race analysis. It is the conversation about Trump’s vision for his second term.

Vision in politics can be both powerful and dangerous for the same reason. You know what you want and how to get it. The early Trump term was defined by an unorganized nature. There was constant infighting, and each week brought a new scandal. His election seemed like a fluke, and he had no plan for what to do once he achieved power. However, as he neared the end of his term, he fired people who were not loyal to him, and his allies learned how to achieve what they wanted more effectively. In other terms, the MAGA movement had matured. Let’s now go back to the theme of conversation. Trump has been having a conversation with his supporters in which he has not minced any words. During his first rally, he told supporters, “I am your retribution.” What would Trump’s vision of retribution look like? 

The vision Trump has articulated is radical in both its ambition and destruction of norms. He has stated that he plans to use the Justice Department to investigate his political enemies and charge them with crimes. He wants to fundamentally reshape the immigration process by deporting millions, shutting down legal asylum claims and ending birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants. He is advocating for military authorization to deploy military troops into Mexico. A plan has been developed to fire tens of thousands of federal career civil servants and replace them with Trump loyalists as a way to increase the power of the president. Don’t forget about a conservative Supreme Court that will have a final say on any challenges to Trump’s proposals. When I read about his plans, what scares me the most is the amount of detail his advisors have put in to justify each action, no matter how extreme. Trump’s vision is clear and organized. He knows what he wants, and now he knows how to get it.

Trump using independent government agencies to achieve “retribution” would weaken American democratic norms. Yet, I worry that eroding democratic norms may be too abstract for many Americans to care about. It is hard for people to feel the effects of an abstract danger compared to everyday issues. The price of a weakened democracy is not displayed in neon lights like gasoline at a gas station. But, eventually, Americans would notice the price of those norms evaporating. The Justice Department prosecuting political opponents would make participating in politics riskier. Getting rid of birthright citizenship for babies born of undocumented immigrants would weaken the 14th Amendment, which would diminish our constitutional rights. Trump firing career civil servants would mean many people would lose jobs, and the federal government would lose experienced experts. Our nation’s democracy would grow frail, and we may end up like Hungary, which has become a democracy in name only. 

There are issues in America right now that need to be addressed, but I doubt Trump’s vision of “retribution” will be the one to do it. His vision’s ambition is not fueled by a want to improve the nation but rather an empty need for power. Yet, the current conversation in the media is not reporting the actual details of Trump’s autocratic plans enough. His vision is an existential threat to America, and I believe he will try to do everything that he has stated he wants to do. The Trump campaign is betting on ill-informed voters unaware of his plans to vote for him. However, Trump is generally still unpopular, which is a weakness that can be exploited. The best way to combat his vision is by having conversations about it with others to remind them of his unpopular ideas. Instead of only making the 2024 election about issues like Biden’s age, we must spread awareness of Trump’s destructive vision. That may be the only way to defeat it. 

Evan McManus, FCRH ’25, is a political science major from Dover, Mass.