Oh, it’s certainly possible that Congress and SCOTUS will go along with whatever he wants. I think the difference between now and his first term is that he’ll just ignore them if they don’t.
But will they care or be motivated to do anything? We actually had this occur in the last Trump Administration and it resulted in a bunch of shrugging by Republicans and pointing at Democrats who didn’t actually control anything.
Stranger
Sigh. You’re right. Even that faint hope evaporates. I guess as long as the oligarchs aren’t bothered there’ll be no pushback.
Personally I’m working on my Summon Dimensional Shambler spell, but then I need to master Bind Dimensional Shambler because we don’t want a repeat of last time, do we? Do we? No, I don’t think so.
Stranger
He tried to do assorted variations of all these things in the late '10s. It didn’t happen then, either.
If there’s anything he’d TRY to do, it’s rescind the 22nd Amendment, the one that limits presidents to two elected terms.
Just taking the oath of office is a suspension of Fourteenth Amendment Section 3. And I’m sure he’ll take other unconstitutional actions. But he will not explicitly suspend the Constituion. And if I’m wrong, his press spokesperson will say it was a joke.
As for rounding up enemies, could be,
I agree with almost everything in the excellent OP.
Do remember that Trump is older than Biden was when he began his term. There’s a very decent chance that Trump is not going to be capable of serving a second term.
I don’t think there will be mass deportations, but I do think that enforcement and deportations will be stepped up. They don’t want these workers gone, they want them as a permanent underclass, cowed and intimidated so that they will work until they drop and then quietly die in the fields somewhere instead of trying to participate in society. The very worst things that are already happening will be emboldened and enlarged. It doesn’t take much to make that change: beef up Customs & Border Patrol, underfund the pathways to legal residence and citizenship. Make people afraid to speak Spanish in public.
How about accomplish nothing? Dies before inauguration.
That’s what I’ve been thinking. At some point during his term, he’s going to somehow fail, mentally or physically. He’s made some memorable verbal gaffes before (Revolutionary War airfields, for example). He doesn’t have a terribly healthy diet, and he exercises as little as possible—yes, he plays golf, but rides a cart everywhere. Even at that G7 (?) meeting back during his first term, he rode in a golf cart while other world leaders walked. Biden demonstrated that he can at least still ride a bicycle.
As for the OP’s question, I think that, like his first term, he’s going to find out that he cannot do everything he planned, much less promised. Oh, he can appoint flunkies and loyalists to head up various departments, but they’re not the ones who are tasked with implementing things where the rubber meets the road. That’s done at a lot more local level, where pushback from those affected can occur.
That doesn’t mean that Trump will be unsuccessful in implementing his vision in the end, but it seems that it does mean, at least to me, it won’t go as quickly or as easily as he thinks.
As I’ve been repeatedly saying we can’t just focus on Trump. The real problem is the Republican party and they’re making long term plans to stay in power. Trump’s just a useful idiot that’s diverting public attention while they do this.
And the Republicans don’t need to cancel elections and establish a dictatorship to hold power. It’ll suit them better to maintain a system of elections and allow the Democratic party to exist - while ensuring that the Democrats never gain a majority. They’ll be happy with a series of elections where the Republican presidential candidate gets 280-300 electoral college votes and the Democratic presidential candidate gets 240-260. Same thing in Congress; as long as they have the majority, they’ll be okay letting the Democrats have some seats. A Democratic party that’s still in existence gives the Republicans somebody to blame for all the things the Republicans fuck up.
And if you don’t think this is possible, look at the solid hold one party held on the South for generations. It was the Democrats not the Republicans but they made sure they controlled the political machine; the people who got elected to office appointed the right officials and those officials made sure the right people got elected to office.
Well, in many states, he cannot register to vote, legally.
He cannot own a firearm. Ever.
He cannot open a business in at least one state, period, nor have any any control of a business. DJT’s Upper West Side dog-walking company cannot exist.
He can never own property or any other assets without that such property will exist with a lien and active attempts to recoup its liquid value.
He can never be granted any kind of student loan backed by the federal government.
His criminal record would likely exclude him from any and all minimum wage jobs. Fairly sure he’d not be considered for the job of Walmart Door Greeter, now and ever.
We citizens have rights and opportunities DJT will never be able to have, ever again, in most states and in every parcel of US state, territory, and dependency (depending on which rights upon which one chooses to focus).
In short, every single non-felon in the country is better in every single way than this nominative electee.
And how much of all that does he actually give a shit about? Most of that is the equivalent of telling him he will never be allowed to sleep on the streets again.
DJT will be allowed to sleep on the street in many states and munipalities.
A distnguished right from which he has not yet alienated himself, At least he’s wearing the right clothes to be a hobo drifter, Shabby suit that doesn’t fit, likely came from a charity clothing house.
Thanks for the eye-opening reminder in your thoughtful post.
Other thing that DJT will not do in his next term: wear clothing that fits. There are such people called tailors who are more than happy to fix whatever OTR enormity that fool chooses to wear.
There are also skilled tailors who are happy to make bespoke clothing at will.
The areas I see him being most immediately successful are gutting the federal bureaucracy and passing blanket pardons.
I am a career federal employee 3 years from intended retirement - but I could leave tomorrow should I wish to. Last time it was clear how little respect he had for hard working government employees - or the services they provided. I will find it interesting to see how he shrinks and remakes various sectors of the bureaucracy. I predict that even the purest libertarian will be impressed at the amount of services and information that currently take for granted - which will disappear. It happened under his last term - I predict greater impact this time around. The brain drain of retirements will be large. And, in terms of tearing things down with LONG impact, it only takes hours/days to cut down 1000-year old trees or despoil wilderness…
Widespread get out of jail free cards for his supporters will further reduce the respect for the rule of law, and encourage extreme action in his name.
Those areas are wholly within his control - especially with control of Congress. And as a lawyer and lifelong fed, they are enough to occupy my mind. But, my intention is to care less, and simply view it as a minimally interested observer. The majority is getting what it wants (if it actually cared to know what it was voting for. Oh yeah - I’m supposed to initiate a conversation to learn of their noble motivations… 
)
I’m in a similar boat. Wife and I have plenty in retirement savings to be OK for the long haul, but I won’t get full retirement benefits if I get axed before Trump’s term ends, and it may affect how we choose to live during retirement.
I think he and his supporters are going get sticker shock when they see what the price tag is. I’ve seen several analyses suggesting the effort would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $100B.
There’s an old line; that America is full of people who would willingly live under a bridge eating rats on a stick, as long as it meant that the people they hated didn’t have a rat. They’ll blame the Democrats for any costs and put up with the hardship as long as “THOSE people” are suffering worse.
I’m nearly 64 with nearly 38 years in. Just chose my 67th birthday as a target for retiring, but could leave tomorrow if it became more unpleasant than it is now. Just putting in another couple of years to sock away some more $. Doubt he’d fire folk in my position - tho recent SCt decisions took direct aim at my position. Not sure how he’d make my job more unpleasant or unrewarding than it currently is!
Not sure for myself. I suspect they’ll primarily be going after people who set policy; I don’t even supervise anyone, let alone make any sort of policy decisions. Although I suppose if policy makers get replaced with Trump loyalists, we might expect RIFs that could ensnare an arbitary number of front-line federal employees.
Yeah, it is very likely that myriad policies will change. But that isn’t new. Over decades I’ve seen policy in my area trend both conservative and liberal. All I do is apply whatever is the law at the moment. It doesn’t have to make sense to me. I don’t bother myself about what social goals I am supposedly advancing - as I cannot discern any other than consistently applying a complex bureaucratic framework.
If departments have their budgets cut (which I anticipate), yeah, I’d expect RIFs. As well as other steps to encourage longtimers to quit, such as relocating offices to the hinterlands. (It would probably take just about as long to fire me as I intend to keep working. And I’d be comfortable if I retired today. So I’m not worried personally. Will likely such for a lot of people not as fortunate as I.)
I find it amusing that a good share of the people I encounter demanding government funds are stout supporters of Trump. Apparently they disapprove of governmental funds/policies that assist OTHER people! 