I realize this is getting pretty far down the road into the future dystopia, but when the GOP controlled the Congress, one fear of mine was that Trump would try to create his own special domestic police forces. I suppose the CBP and ICE would qualify, but they’re limited in scope.
Trump’s best bet would be to start by cleaning out the FBI and replacing agents and battering ram guys with loyalists. It might take another year or two, but in time, he could reshape the agency into his image. DHS also has a large domestic police force.
To follow up on something posted earlier, it’s naive to believe that Trump (or the wrong kind of president) couldn’t transform the military’s culture.
Would the military suffer? Would combat readiness and conflict preparedness and overall competence suffer? Absolutely, but the culture could change nevertheless.
The only way the military, the DoJ, or members of the president’s executive agencies could possibly fight back and stop him is mass resignation and mass protest - that is the only way. Otherwise, it’s just one-by-one attrition, next man up.
The fact that the president is incompetent at his job won’t necessarily prevent him from being re-elected and keeping his job. The people in this country need to get slapped in the face and they need buckets of ice water over their heads to wake up and figure out that something’s not right. Until then, Trump will just continued to be Trump.
I don’t think Trump can look for any allies in the military (I think all discussion of Trump building some sort of SS private army is far-fetched, but let’s roll with it). His relationship with the military is extremely fraught:
He ordered their embarrassing retreat from Syria.
He caused Iranian missiles to rain down on them, and then dismissed their casualties as “headaches”.
He whines constantly about how much we have to spend on defense alliances, and wants to turn the military into a mercenary force.
He insults their leadership, calling them “losers” and saying he wouldn’t go to war with them.
He raids their budget to build his wall.
He disrupts their system of justice and chain of command, pardoning criminals to gain brownie points with his base.
These aren’t the actions of someone trying to curry favor at the Pentagon.
That doesn’t bother me nearly as much as the fact that there are dozens, perhaps hundreds of organizations and corporations that also have modern arms and defenses. Trump could fire everyone not loyal to him and have a new batch of hungry and grateful troops and new commanding officers within a few days. How many of them would walk away from the chance for legitimacy AND a good, steady paycheck?
If you think Blackwater was the only mercenary/security company in the US, you’re sadly mistaken; it’s at least a $100B/year business. And more and more, they are already acting like cops.
Here: watch this 6:14 video about Detroit’s Threat Management Services and tell me those folks wouldn’t love to be told they were now actual cops. The piece notes, btw, that many people think TMC does a better job than the Detroit PD. Then, the piece talks a bit about how much things cost.
Why not all three? That guy in 1930s-40s Germany had several (spiffily-uniformed) military forces to command; why shouldn’t Donald?
I think you’re quite right about this. And as Trump’s ‘ride on Obama’s economic legacy’ luck runs out, and the economy starts to sputter, jobs with the Trump-Shirts are going to be looking even better.
Not sure which thread is appropriate, but in light of this current discussion: apparently “boogaloo” is the code-word for right-wing militias and yabbos to start a-shootin’:
He has the biggliest, best, amazingiest soul ever known. Nobody has as grate a soul – how else could he hope to Make America Grate Again? (The soul is the thing that demands hamberders, right?)
I wasn’t familiar with this guy, so I took a gander at his Wikipedia page. Appears to be another example of Trump picking the “best people”, i.e. an unqualified sycophant.
He doesn’t have the brains or the stones. Mussolini is more his speed. True, their uniforms weren’t as spiffy as the Hugo Boss ones, but you can’t have everything.
