{"id":1019,"date":"2024-10-30T16:42:18","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T16:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/weblog\/?p=1019"},"modified":"2026-03-18T17:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T17:30:11","slug":"no-guardrails-in-trumps-second-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2024\/10\/30\/no-guardrails-in-trumps-second-term\/","title":{"rendered":"No Guardrails in Trump\u2019s Second Term"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

A recent article in the New York Times<\/a> suggests that a lot of people back Trump because they don\u2019t believe he\u2019ll do the outrageous things he proposes \u2013 like use the military against domestic protesters, and the \u201cenemy within.\u201d They believe this is all just an act to impress his supporters.<\/p>\n

However, many of the people who know him best strongly believe that given his history, Trump will<\/em> follow through. For example, this isn\u2019t the first time Trump has suggested using the military against protesters.<\/p>\n

According to a June 2021 story in The Hill,<\/a> \u201caides to Trump \u2026 reportedly went so far as to draft an order that would have allowed him to invoke the Insurrection Act \u2026 but Barr, Esper and Milley later talked the president out of the plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

That meeting is highlighted in a book by Michael Bender. As recounted by The Hill<\/a>, Retired General Mark Milley and Trump got into an extended shouting match on the subject following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. Trump wanted to \u201cput Milley in charge\u201d of a nationwide campaign to crack down on protests. Trump planned to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act, and have Milley send active-duty Army troops to Washington DC to deal with protesters.<\/p>\n

Milley hotly responded, that he wasn\u2019t \u201cin charge,\u201d adding \u201cThere\u2019s a room full of lawyers here. Will someone inform him of my legal responsibilities?\u201d This pushback infuriated Trump.<\/p>\n

Attorney General William Barr, who was in the room, responded that \u201cthe general is right.\u201d Trump eventually calmed down and dropped his demands.<\/p>\n

General Milley is now on record in a new Bob Woodward book<\/a>, stating, \u201cNo one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, also present at the May 2020 meeting confirmed the account. As given by a recent story in The Hill<\/a>, Esper told CNN\u2019s Kaitlan Collins he fears that Trump would \u201ctry to utilize the National Guard, the military, against U.S. citizens,\u201d and that \u201cthe first year of the second Trump term will look more like the last year of the first Trump term.\u201d Further, he added, \u201cI think President Trump has learned, the key is getting people around you who will do your bidding, who will not push back, who will implement what you want to do. And I think he\u2019s talked about that, his acolytes have talked about that, and I think loyalty will be the first litmus test,\u201d<\/p>\n

And that will be the primary difference between the first and second terms. Throughout his first term, Trump continually faced roadblocks in implementing his policies. Bureaucrats frequently pushed back, arguing that what he was trying to accomplish was either illegal or unconstitutional. In term two, that won\u2019t be a problem.<\/p>\n

Trump learned his lesson. One of his most consistent promises throughout this latest campaign has been that he will \u201cdemolish the deep state.\u201d He\u2019ll get rid of the civil servants who place loyalty to the Constitution above loyalty to Trump. He plans to accomplish that by taking away the civil service protections for many of the higher-level federal bureaucrats and then replacing them and other agency personnel with loyal MAGA people.<\/p>\n

Thus, in term two, there won\u2019t be any people like Barr, Milley and Esper as well as countless lower-level civil servants to talk Trump out of acting on his illegal or unconstitutional impulses. There won\u2019t be any \u201cadults in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, with the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling on presidential immunity \u2013 where he can\u2019t be prosecuted for any illegal acts made in his capacity as president \u2013 Trump\u2019s last obstacle is removed. He can do whatever he wants and will not be held accountable.<\/p>\n

A Trump administration with no guardrails will allow him to fulfill his wildest, and most outrageous ambitions.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s much too dangerous to ever be president again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent article in the New York Times suggests that a lot of people back Trump because they don\u2019t believe he\u2019ll do the outrageous things he proposes \u2013 like use the military against domestic protesters, and the \u201cenemy within.\u201d They believe this is all just an act to impress his supporters. However, many of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[13,27,53,55],"class_list":["post-1019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-2024-election","tag-fascist","tag-trrump","tag-trump-dangerous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1019"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1199,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019\/revisions\/1199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}