Back in April of this year, the Boston Globe ran a satirical front page piece from a future United States where Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump wins in November. Then it was more amusing than terrifying, as most sane voters in America at that time seemed inclined to laugh off the prospects of a Trump presidency.
Fast forward to today, and sane people aren’t laughing anymore.
The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos spent several months collecting data and conducting interviews with a wide variety of pundits and experts, with the intention of exploring what an actual Trump presidency might look like. What he discovered is terrifying.
In his excellent piece, Mr. Osnos presents the reader with the following splash of ice cold water to the face, right out of the gate:
“The full spectacle of Trump’s campaign—the compulsive feuds and slurs, the detachment from established facts—has demanded so much attention that it is easy to overlook a process with more enduring consequences: his bureaucratic march toward actually assuming power. On August 1st, members of his transition team moved into 1717 Pennsylvania Avenue, a thirteen-story office building a block from the White House.”
Yes folks, a team of Trump lackeys is already planning the great orange buffoon’s first days in the White House, and it gets worse:
“The team is led by Governor Chris Christie, of New Jersey, and includes several of his political confidants, such as his former law partner William Palatucci. As of August, under a new federal program designed to accelerate Presidential transitions, Trump’s staff was eligible to apply for security clearances, so that they could receive classified briefings immediately after Election Day. They began the process of selecting Cabinet officials, charting policy moves, and meeting with current White House officials to plan the handover of the Departments of Defense, State, Homeland Security, and other agencies.”
Some of these people are already getting security clearances! The prospect of so many people who refuse to understand facts gaining access to information where lives might be in the balance is beyond frightening.
The rest of the piece is a wonderfully written exploration of a Donald Trump presidency, using Trump’s words and deeds on certain issues as a means to predict what he can and can’t do once he has some real power. For example, Mr. Osnos says that:
“Some of Trump’s promises would be impossible to fulfill without the consent of Congress or the courts; namely, repealing Obamacare, cutting taxes, and opening up ‘our libel laws’ that protect reporters, so that ‘we can sue them and win lots of money.’ (In reality, there are no federal libel laws.) Even if Republicans retain control of Congress, they are unlikely to have the sixty votes in the Senate required to overcome a Democratic filibuster.”
While there are silver linings (such as the above Senate filibusters), the overarching theme is that Trump, through executive orders and through his Supreme Court nominees and Federal workforce appointments, could navigate the United States into a regressive about-face. It’s perhaps the scariest thing you’ll ever read.
Here is an accurately titled video of Donald Trump’s most racist, sexist, idiotic, and funniest moments:
Featured image via YouTube Screengrab.
