Former President Trump is back on the campaign trail, and most of the attention he’s getting is bare-knuckle attacks on him

chief

opponents, President Biden (whom he mocks as Crooked Joe) and the governor of Florida. Ron DeSantis (DeSanctimonious), as well as the prosecutors who charged him (fascist thugs).

Amid the insults, Trump has laid out a menu of actions he plans to take if he becomes president again. Anyone who doesn’t truly believe in Trump’s authoritarian vision should be terrified.

In speeches, interviews and campaign videos, Trump has promised:

Use the military to participate in the largest deportation of undocumented immigrants in American history; Send the National Guard to cities with high crime rates whether local officials want it or not; Prosecuting Californians who protect minors who come to the state for gender-affirming care; Impose a 10% tariff on almost all foreign goods, raising prices for consumers; Appoint a special prosecutor to go after his political opponents, starting with Biden; Purge the federal civil service of anyone who questions its views.

Some of those commitments may prove illegal or impractical, but they are more than blunders.

Must

theirs

reflect the positions Trump has held for decades; he will try to act on it, even if laws and judges stand in his way.

Some promises, such as mass deportations, are only this time a repeat of his first term agenda. He and his aides know how to deliver on this under a broad view of federal authority.

Here’s a preview of the second Trump administration, based largely on the candidates’ own words:

immigration

As in 2016, Trump has pledged to launch the largest domestic deportation operation in US history against an estimated 11 million immigrants without legal status, using both military and civilian units.

As in 2016, he uses racially coded language.

They are criminals, people from psychiatric institutions, terrorists, he said at a meeting in Iowa last week.

“It’s not just the countries that border us,” he told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. They come from all over Africa. They come from parts of the world that no one can believe. …and they are destroying our country.”

Trump has

So

said he wants to revive the family separation policy he imposed during his first term until public outcry forced him to reverse it.

And he has pledged to sign an executive order on day one to end birthright rights for immigrant children

without legal status

.

Everything

of these theses

actions would almost certainly bring legal challenges, but a determined president

could be

probably some will stick around.

national guard

Trump also revived a proposal he made during the summer of unrest in 2020: In cities where public safety has completely collapsed, I will send federal resources, including the National Guard, until law and order is restored.

The federal Insurrection Act gives the president the authority to use troops to quell civil disorder

,

whether local officials want them to come or not. President Dwight D. Eisenhower used

the that

provision to bring the National Guard to Little Rock, Ark. to protect school desegregation efforts in 1957.

Transgender care

Trump has said he will ask Congress to approve a federal ban on gender reassignment surgery

please leave out the term “gender-affirming care” because he probably means all treatments for trans youth, but he is misleadingly referring to “surgery.”

for minors, a priority he probably mentioned

No. 1″ number one

on

are my

list.

Until then, he says, he will use executive action to curb the practice.

He says he will ban federal funding for gender transitions at any age and exclude hospitals and doctors

that who

provide relocation surgery to minors enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid.

At a meeting with religious conservatives this month, he denounced California’s 2022 law that bars health care providers from releasing information about gender-related medical care for minors to authorities in another state.

We will prosecute those involved in this sick California scheme for violating federal laws against kidnapping and sex trafficking [and] child abuse, Trump said.

As president, Trump could likely order the FBI to investigate health care providers who refuse to respond to inquiries from other states. Prosecuting them for sex trafficking or child abuse sounds like a tall order, even for Trump.

Rates and taxes

Trump has always called himself a tariff man, convinced that taxes on imports will strengthen the economy. That hasn’t changed.

H

e says he wants to impose a 10% tariff on all foreign goods, yet another repeat of his 2016 campaign. Federal law gives the president broad authority to impose tariffs.

Most economists, including conservatives, say it’s a terrible idea, in part because it would fuel inflation by raising prices. The nonpartisan Tax Foundation estimated that a 10% rate would be equivalent to $300

–

billion in taxes on consumers, because the cost of tariffs is absorbed by buyers and not sellers.

Trump also wants to cut corporate taxes again, but that would require legislation from Congress. He has not proposed any new tax cuts for individuals.

Persecutions

Trump could certainly appoint a pliant attorney general and federal prosecutors who would investigate his political opponents.

I will appoint a real Special Prosecutor to go after the most corrupt President in US history, Joe Biden, the entire Biden crime family and everyone else involved in the destruction of our elections, borders and the country itself!

Hey Trump

wrote in a social media post after he was indicted on charges that he illegally kept classified documents in his Mar

–

a

–

Lakeside estate.

If he carries out that threat, it would mark a politicization of the Justice Department unparalleled since the Watergate scandal half a century ago.

Many of Trump’s promises sound familiar

,

because they resemble actions he tried to take in his first term. But there would be two important differences this time.

During his first term, Trump initially surrounded himself with aides who tried to temper his impulses: White House Chief of Staff John

F

Kelly, Secretary of Defense James

N

Mattis

even occasionally Atty

.

General Jeff Sessions.

T

the slang-moderating influences have disappeared.

When I went there, I didn’t know many people; I had to rely on RINOs in some cases, Trump said earlier this year, referring to Republicans in Name Only. Now I know the right one

;,

I know the bad ones, he said.

In 2017, Trump arrived at the White House unprepared, with no clear idea

by

how to force the federal bureaucracy to translate its whims into action. If he wins this time, there will be a team of loyal aides who have been plotting to return to power for months

WHO

We want to start purging bureaucrats who stood in their way.

Trump 2.0 would be the Delta version of democracy, David Axelrod the first

campaign

strategist for president

Barracks

Obama said last week. It would be a thousand times more virulent and harder to control.

After four chaotic years in office, followed by four years of dormant exile, we should know better than to think that Trump will now change his behavior.

Don’t say he never warned you.