What Could Trump’s Second Term Look Like?

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With the 2024 presidential election a week away and former President Donald Trump beginning to extend his polling lead over Vice President Kamala Harris, it’s worth considering what a second Trump term would look like at a macro rather than micro level.

 
Screenshot: The Last Refuge // by permission

The media and the left are becoming increasingly unhinged, contemplating a Trump 47 administration. But he must first win and be declared and accepted as the winner. That is easier said than done, given Democrats’ history of election interference.

From stopping ballot counting on election night to sudden last-minute spikes in Democrat votes, as shown below. From perfectly filled-in ovals and unfolded mailed-in ballots to any challenges to election integrity censored as “misinformation” or thrown out of court without any adjudication due to “standing.”

 
Screenshot: Election Integrity Partnership
 

If the Democrats, with media and big tech assistance, can cheat, they will. And if that doesn’t work, a Trump victory on Nov. 6 will be challenged, to paraphrase Sen. Chuck Schumer would say, “six ways to Sunday.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin hints at not certifying a Trump electoral victory.

As an “election denier,” he may refuse to vote to certify a Trump win in a warped effort to “save democracy.” Will Congress vote to label Trump an “insurrectionist” ineligible to take office on Jan. 20?

Lawfare and rogue judges may imprison president-elect Trump. And there is always the specter of assassination, as has been attempted against Trump on at least two recent occasions. Don’t forget war, pandemic, or cyber-attacks as other means of disrupting the election, transition or inauguration.

There is always the “Trump is a Nazi” canard pushed by left-wing media outlets like The Atlantic, based on the dubious assertions of “someone close to Trump.” Just like when “Trump tried to grab the steering wheel” of the presidential limousine or that Hunter Biden’s laptop was disinformation. Desperate times for the Democrats call for desperate lies from Democrats.

Corporate media is predicting one calamity after another for a Trump second term. As Politico views it, Trump will be a “dictator on day one.” Mass deportation of immigrants (notably, no distinction is made between legal and illegal immigrants). His Justice Department will punish his enemies (that’s rich after Jan. 6, Russia-gate, lawfare against Trump and his associates, the Mar-a-Lago raid, and so on).

Politico goes on. He will abandon NATO allies, ban abortions, and embrace “Christian nationalism,” whatever that is.

Politico and other Trump doom-sayers neglect to explain why, if Trump was going to do all these deplorable things, he didn’t do them during his first term when he had the opportunity. Somehow, the left is devoid of logic and reason.

So, what might he really do? Let’s go back eight years to a little-known speech he gave in mid-October 2016 at a rally in West Palm Beach, Florida. He spelled it out then and has continued to push this agenda despite being thwarted by many in his own party and administration, who are desperate to preserve and protect their status quo power and money.

Here are some excerpts from the full speech:

Our movement is about replacing a failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American People. There is nothing the political establishment will not do, and no lie they will not tell, to hold on to their prestige and power at your expense.

The Washington establishment, and the financial and media corporations that fund it, exists for only one reason: to protect and enrich itself.

That’s the gist of the MAGA America First movement, from “draining the swamp” to taking back the government from the ruling class, returning it to “we the people.” The ruling class seeks only to protect and enrich itself. They govern accordingly with rare exceptions.

Too many Americans have been sabotaged by the ruling class, those who hold most Americans in disdain. How else can one explain reckless government spending, driving inflation, and making what was once a comfortable middle-class life now unaffordable?

Jobs are going to migrants, many of them here illegally, while Americans struggle to find work, often working two or more jobs to make ends meet. Hurricane victims are left to fend for themselves, while government relief funds are directed to illegal aliens rather than hard-working, taxpaying Americans.

This group of Americans was called “deplorables” by a recent presidential candidate.

Trump continued in his 2016 speech:

For those who control the levers of power in Washington, and for the global special interests they partner with, our campaign represents an existential threat.

This is not simply another 4-year election. This is a crossroads in the history of our civilization that will determine whether or not We The People reclaim control over our government.

This is existential. Empires rarely last more than 250 years. In two short years, America will be celebrating her 250th birthday. Will America be Ronald Reagan’s “shining city upon a hill”? Or will it be a Hunger Games dystopia, with a ruling class obsessed with gender and identity trivialities while the rest of America descends into serfdom, the ideals of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” only distant and likely censored memories?

Trump concluded his speech with this:

We will vote to put this corrupt government cartel out of business. We will remove from our politics the special interests who have betrayed our workers, our borders, our freedoms, and our sovereign rights as a nation. We will end the politics of profit, we will end the rule of special interests, we will put a stop to the raiding of our country – and the disenfranchisement of our people.

Our Independence Day is at hand, and it arrives, finally, on November 8th. Join me in taking back our country, and creating a bright and glorious new dawn for our people.
 

This is what Trump’s second term will look like. The details are unimportant, as they can easily be picked at; instead, only the overall plan matters. If you don’t know where you are going, how exactly you get there becomes irrelevant.

Politicians have detailed plans to tax one group and reward another group with redistributed wealth. None want to shrink the government, as Trump, with the assistance of Elon Musk, plans to do.

Will they succeed? Musk slashed 80 percent of Twitter’s workforce, and his X platform thrives today. Imagine a similar haircut for the myriad government agencies costing taxpayers endless dollars and producing bupkis as an end product.

For those put off by Trump’s demeanor, name-calling, swagger, and big mouth, remember what is at stake. This isn’t a dating game. No one must be Trump’s dinner date, golf partner, or houseguest. The stakes are America remaining a beacon of freedom and liberty rather than an Orwellian dystopia.

If I were in a contentious divorce proceeding or other litigation, I would want the toughest pit-bull SOB attorney representing me, my finances, or my freedom, not some genteel, reach-across-the-aisle, panty-waist attorney handing me a trial and financial loss.

The president is not negotiating a garage sale purchase but is fighting foreign and domestic forces that want to destroy America. We need a fighter and a winner, not a pleasant concession speech deliverer. Democrats view the election as a cage fight. Republicans (until Trump) have thought it was a Sunday afternoon game of croquet.

World War III is breaking out in Ukraine and the Middle East. We have no national border; instead, we are importing the Third World into America. When we bring there here, here becomes there.

Men can compete in women’s sports; the only difference between boys and girls is their whim of the moment.

Is that the legacy we want our children and grandchildren to inherit?

As Newt Gingrich wrote:

Throughout the 1970s, Ronald Reagan argued that the choice faced by Americans was not between left and right but between up and down–down toward “the totalitarianism of the ant heap” or up toward “that shining city on a hill.”
 

These are the stakes. Donald Trump is America’s best chance to be that shining city on the hill. It won’t be easy, as the administrative state will not go gently into that good night but will instead kick and scream as its fiefdom is dismantled.

But that’s what a Trump second term would look like.

Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a physician and writer. Follow me on Twitter @retinaldoctor, Substack Dr. Brian’s Substack, Truth Social @BrianJoondeph, LinkedIn @Brian Joondeph, and email brianjoondeph@gmail.com.