“It’s screamingly obvious that America should not return to power a vulgar, lying, adjudicated rapist and convicted felon awaiting trial in three more-serious federal felony cases who, after nine years, has a secret ‘concept’ of a plan to improve health care, who publicly sides with Putin over the FBI, who won’t release his tax returns or medical records, who killed the immigration bill that would have fixed the border problem, and who sat watching TV for 187 minutes brushing off all pleas for help as his nation’s Capital was under attack.”
Andrew Tobias
Trump - 2nd Term
Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 national election for a new four-year presidential term in the White House was sweeping. Ahead of the Nov. 5 election, national polling showed Vice President Kamala Harris with a slight edge over Trump, maybe a percentage point or two, depending on the survey. Trump, however, captured all seven states, leading to his lopsided edge in the state-by-state vote count in the Electoral College, 312 to 226, which determines the outcome of U.S. presidential elections. The number needed to clinch the presidency is 270. He won the seven battleground states by a range of just under 1% in Wisconsin to more than 6% in Arizona.
Trump also won the popular vote, the first Republican candidate to do so since former President George W. Bush in 2004. While the last ballots are still being counted, Trump already is the clear winner, capturing nearly 75 million votes so far to just under 71 million for Harris, a 50.5% to 47.9% edge for Trump. Trump’s 2024 vote tally was about the same as the 74 million he received in losing the 2020 election to Democratic President Joe Biden, but the vote for Harris was about 10 million fewer than Biden received. Exit polls showed that women voters favored Harris and men Trump. More educated voters went for Harris, while those without college degrees voted for Trump, but nearly two-thirds of Americans do not have a college degree.
Trump will have control not only of the White House, but also the Senate and most likely the House as well. Thanks to Trump, the supreme court has a six-to-three rightwing majority, and it has already issued the blank check he craved. In a July 2024 ruling, the court granted the president sweeping immunity for his official acts.
Kash Patel, a possible next Director of Central Intelligence under Trump: “We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We’re going to come after you.”
Trump told Fox News 05 December 2023 he would be a dictator “on day one”. Hannity asked Trump if he “in any way” had “any plans whatsoever, if reelected president, to abuse power, to break the law to use the government to go after people.” Trump replied "You mean like they’re using right now?” Officials at the Pentagon are having informal discussions about what to do if Donald Trump were to give an illegal order, such as deploying the military domestically, CNN reported 08 November 2024.
A story was going around about Trump voters in Pennsylvania. The owner of a large company called a meeting for all his employees. He informed them that they won't be getting their Christmas bonuses this year. He explained that the company has to buy a year's worth of product before the Trump's tariffs hit in January. They said they thought the tariffs were paid by the foreign companies. He then explained to his employees that the tariffs are paid by the American companies who import these foreign goods.
Trump told the crowd at Madison Square Garden on 27 October 2024 what he would do with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., if the 45th president were to become the 47th. “I’m going to let him go wild on health. I’m going to let him go wild on the food. I’m going to let him go wild on the medicines”. On 31 October 2024 Trump said: “Robert F Kennedy Jr, we have, and he’s going to work on health and women’s health and all of the different reasons, because we’re not really a wealthy or a healthy country,” he said. “That’s why I told Bobby, Bobby, I want you to take care of health.” Donald Trump said on 01 November 2024 that he wanted the vaccine skeptic Robert F Kennedy Jr “to take care of health”, including “women’s health” if the former president wins back the White House.
Billionaire tech magnate Tesla CEO Elon Musk cemented himself as one of Trump’s most prominent backers. On 16 July 2024 Musk said he planned to donate approximately $45m each month to a new super political-action committee (Super PAC) supporting Donald Trump‘s election bid. Though individual campaign donations in the US are capped at $3,300 per person, loopholes in the US campaign finance system allow political mega-donors to contribute to funds known as political action committees. Musk, the wealthiest man in the world with an estimated net worth of $250bn, has grown increasingly friendly with Trump over the course of the 2024 US election.
“Most importantly, we have to reduce spending to look within our means, and you know that that necessarily involves some temporary hardship, but it will ensure long-term prosperity,” Musk said. Trump pledged in September 2024 to establish a government efficiency commission headed up by Musk to conduct a “complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government” and make “recommendations for drastic reforms.” Trump also repeatedly lauded Musk as a “cost-cutter” and said there are “a lot of roles he could take” during an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity.
“How much do you think we can rip out of this wasted, $6.5 trillion Harris-Biden budget?” Howard Lutnick, a Wall Street CEO and Trump’s transition team co-chair, asked Musk at the 27 October 2024 at Madison Square Garden rally. Without offering specifics, Musk said in response that he thinks “at least $2 trillion” in a brief moment that has since gained widespread attention. The federal government spent about $6.7 trillion over the fiscal year 2024 that ended in September, running a deficit of more than $1.8 trillion during that time.
President-Elect Trump said 10 November 2024 that anyone wanting to become Senate Majority Leader must agree to recess appointments for his nominations. "Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner. Sometimes the votes can take two years, or more. This is what they did four years ago, and we cannot let it happen again. We need positions filled IMMEDIATELY! Additionally, no Judges should be approved during this period of time because the Democrats are looking to ram through their Judges as the Republicans fight over Leadership."
The three candidates for the role, Rick Scott, John Cornyn, and John Thune, quickly agreed to his terms. He also adds that they should not allow President Biden to get his judicial appointments confirmed. The Recess Appointment Clause in Article II, Section 2, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution states that "The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session." Simply put, the clause allows the president to fill vacancies when the Senate is in recess and unavailable to approve. That realistically means he can put everyone in place before the Senate can spend an eternity approving them.
This isn't a new thing. Every President has been allowed to make recess appointments except President Trump because the Senate never wanted to go into recess. They used a process called pro forma sessions, which are a workaround that makes it seem like the Senate is in business, but in reality, they're doing absolutely NOTHING: no votes, no debates, and no legislative business.
Trump suggested 13 November 2024 that he could be open to a constitution-breaking third term in office, in remarks made to House Republicans ahead of the start of his second term. "I suspect I won't be running again unless you say, 'He's good, we got to figure something else,'" Trump provocatively told his audience in a downtown Washington hotel, drawing some laughter from supporters. Trump's suggestion of a third term stands in stark contrast to the US Constitution, which explicitly limited presidents to two terms in office. This restriction was established by the 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951 following Franklin D. Roosevelt’s unprecedented four-term presidency.
"This is the united effort of the conservative movement to ensure that the next conservative administration begins ruling the country at noon on January 20, 2025. Welcome to the mission!" The text of the document "Project 2025. Mandate for leadership" begins with these words . It has more than 900 pages and details the vision of the future of the United States under the new Republican president. It is, in particular, about the country's movement towards conservative Christian values and the concentration of power in the hands of the president. During the 2024 election, Democrats began to position "Project 2025" as an apocalyptic prediction of the future if Trump wins again.
Donald Trump himself said that he knew nothing about "Project 2025", but a number of American publications gave counterarguments to this. For example, The New York Times reported that 18 of the 40 main co-authors of the document are former employees of the first Trump administration, and one of the authors worked on his transition team. Of the 267 additional project participants, at least 144 worked for the Trump administration or his campaign. This includes the head of "Project 2025" — Paul Dance, who headed the personnel management apparatus when Trump was president for the first time. The Center for American Progress, an organization that defends the ideas of liberal democracy, calls "Project 2025" "a textbook for a dictator." "You have a handbook that, on the one hand, gives extraordinary power to one person in the position of president, and on the other, undermines the institutional stability of democratic institutions," said Robert Benson, a senior analyst at the center. He adds: it is not only about the danger associated with the expansion of the president's powers, but also about the fact that Trump himself will be able to take advantage of this. "He doesn't like to be thwarted. The way the American system of government is set up is that you have checks and balances, and Project 2025 ignores that," Benson explains.
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