Here's 241 scary words about what another Trump presidency would be like

I've read lots of TIME magazine cover stories. None has scared me as much as the May 27, 2024 issue, which featured "If He Wins" by Eric Cortellessa. The "he" is Donald Trump.

Though the cover story is lengthy, at the beginning of it Cortellessa summed up the main things he learned Trump plans to do if he was elected to a second term as president this November.

Here's those scary 241 words. How any patriotic American could vote for Trump after reading them baffles me. Everything that Trump wants to do is either illegal, morally wrong, or ethically dubious. 

What emerged in two interviews with Trump, and conversations with more than a dozen of his closest advisers and confidants, were the outlines of an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world.

To carry out a deportation operation designed to remove more than 11 million people from the country, Trump told me, he would be willing to build migrant detention camps and deploy the U.S. military, both at the border and inland.

He would let red states monitor women's pregnancies and prosecute those who violate abortion bans.

He would, at his personal discretion, withhold funds appropriated by Congress, according to top advisers.

He would be willing to fire a U.S. attorney who doesn't carry out his order to prosecute someone, breaking with a tradition of independent law enforcement that dates from America's founding.

He is weighing pardons for every one of his supporters accused of attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, more than 800 of whom have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury.

He might not come to the aid of an attacked ally in Europe or Asia if he felt that country wasn't paying enough for its own defense.

He would gut the U.S. civil service, deploy the National Guard to American cities as he sees fit, close the White House pandemic preparedness office, and staff his Administration with acolytes who back his false assertion that the 2020 election was stolen.

Comments

[Aileen Kaye]

On Day 1, I think he will shut down Facebook. MSNBC, and CNN.

[Seeker1]

Hi ,
Atleast the world was at peace when Trump was president. Biden administration started and is fuelling 2 wars. One in europe (the worst war since world war) and another in Middle east. Not to forget the mess created in Afghanistan.

[Brian Hines]

Seeker1, you should follow the news more closely. (I don't mean Fox News, because there's very little factual news there.) Russia started the war in Ukraine, not Biden. Hamas started the war with Israel, not Biden. And Trump was the president who set a withdrawal date for all American forces from Afghanistan, not Biden.

[Seeker1]

Hi Brian
By news do you mean western media. Then I rather learn from history. Ukraine is fighting a proxy war.Palestinians are fighting for their land taken away from them in 1948. Palestinians are being starved as the world watches. My heart goes out to Israeli families who lost loved ones due to reckless acts of Hamas.Trump set the date. But it is biden who executed it.
Thank you
Seeker1

[Stephanie]

Trump was already President. Did he prosecute Hillary for the fake dossier, spying on him, Russia collusion lies etc. No. Everything the Dems say about Trump they have done or are doing. 8 years of investigations with nothing so they create them by taking an expired document case (a misdemeanor) and turn it into 34 felonies, come on. It will be overturned because it's so wrong and political power is all the Dems want and to destroy our country with on their regulations and mandates, taking away our democracy by removing their rival that we have a right to vote for. If I win we will never have Fair election again, any rival comes up against them and they'll soon and put them in jail just like they're doing to Trump. Anybody that listens to what they say and watches what they do and don't do has to see it. Trump wasn't a dictator the first four years and he won't be the second 4 years all the dems have is fear because they can't go against Trump on their policies cuz they have all failed. Everybody in Hollywood loved Trump until he ran for president, beat Hillary and showed Americans who the Democrats really are. And now the Democrats want power so bad they're not afraid to show their true colors, they hate America and Americans and will do whatever they can to keep their power including destroying America. And I'm sure glad more Americans are starting to see it not just me.

Thank you
Stephanie