I keep hearing things like, “He can’t run again.” “We no longer need to [find a way to] beat him.” “Eventually there will be a post-Trump.” Yes. When he dies. If he dies. I’m starting to believe as he probably does: that he’s immortal. That’s probably what keeps him going. Pure will and rage. But until then—his death—he will remain our opponent to beat, the biggest threat to America, to democracy, and to the world order.
I laugh at the thought of him making way for Vice President JD Vance, whom he clearly despises—and often humiliates—let alone a Democrat. No, he won’t make way for anyone. “Over my dead body,” as they say, or if at some point in the near future he’s so demented—he’s not far off—he can no longer pretend to be sane, and can be wheeled out of the White House, a senile Hannibal Lecter, scowl gone, blank stare on his face.
Even if some or all of Trump’s maneuvers are deemed—or indeed are—unconstitutional, will that stop him?
It’ll go a little something like this, and yes, feel free to scoff. I’m but a writer, doing as a writer does: stressing, speculating, imagining worlds and situations that might prove nothing more than pure fiction. I hope so, although so often writers—especially fiction writers—get it right. At the very least, I hope to widen my reader’s eyes, force them to think. Better yet, to act...
So much of what I’ve feared has already come to pass, and at this point I simply beg that the worst be considered and prepared for. Without a sense of urgency—of terror—the status quo of apathy and acceptance will remain. As William Butler Yeats writes, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
In three years time or sooner, when the majority of Americans, including many of Trump’s own voters, are fed up with him; the chaos he has sowed at home and abroad; the broken promises, namely the increased prices of everything, his tariffs and tax cuts a disaster for everyone except the very wealthy; the loss of healthcare; the loss of labor or a loved one or a business or a job or an education to deportation or violence or budget cuts, he will wage a war.
Alongside Israel and similarly-immortal, criminal-in-arms Benjamin Netanyahu, he will wage a war against Iran, hoping Vladimir Putin and Russia will be too caught up in Ukraine, still, to care; see Putin’s failure to help Bashar Al-Assad in Syria.
Perhaps a deal by then will have been made: America will no longer support Ukraine. America, perhaps, will withdraw from NATO, as France did in 1966. Trump hates NATO, as we know. He hates all such international agreements and organizations, already withdrawing—for the second time—from The Paris agreement, as well as from the World Health Organization... A new deal with Iran, meanwhile, would be “nice” Trump said. Why arm your future enemy?
The votes necessary for this, both the withdrawal and for war, will come through a dictator’s favorite forms of power: fear, force, coercion, intimidation. It won’t matter if the midterms bring more Democrats into the mix. I worry they won’t, that billionaires and the disinformation they sow, and exhaustion, and yet more fear, force... will keep a blue resurgence in check. It might even get worse, Republicans adding to their numbers.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), one of the few Democrats who has been speaking up these past few weeks, has been very clear that his Democratic colleagues are scared: “When your family is threatened with harm, of course it may at the very least subconsciously depress your interest in fighting as hard as you can.”
He adds that the social media storms greeted by those who stand up against people like Elon Musk come with an implicit threat of violence. (Pod Save America, January 31, 2025). The same can be said about Trump.
And such threats will only worsen. Trump has his militia after all. At the core of it are the Proud Boys and the J6 Prison Choir, all of whom are deeply indebted to him, still standing by, and will have grown as a force by then.
It’ll be easy work; besides Murphy, Democrats have yet to show any sort of real fight in them, a willingness—the courage—to do anything other than give in. Slink away. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Merrick Garland… How pathetic, the lot of them. After all the threats they spoke of…
Besides, if a war with Iraq was possible, justified by faulty intelligence and false allegations in the pre-social media age, an age of generally agreed-upon facts, corruption, racism, and hubris all playing their part, with 110 Democrats voting in favor of it, including, unsurprisingly, the soon to be forgotten, aforementioned lame-duck president and similarly spiritless, failed candidate Hillary Clinton—that alone should’ve have disqualified both of them—war with Iran, under these circumstances, most definitely is.
Trump will make a similar deal with Xi Jinping and China: feel free to take Taiwan. Marco Rubio will happily comply, breaking his back once again to change his hawkish approach on China. Maybe he’ll just undulate; at this point, does he even have a back? Spineless, all of Trump’s appointees, appointed for that very purpose: They will do exactly as he says. Pete Hegseth can’t wait.
Trump will become a wartime president. He and Republican governors will simultaneously declare states of emergencies or martial law where they can, citing attacks on home soil, assassinations or suicide bombings by Iranians and Islamic extremists, possibly false-flag operations, the Proud Boys and J6 Prison Choir again called upon; citing massive protests against him, the war, and said governors, violent clashes between all parties, the National Guard called in and ordered to shoot; perhaps he’ll declare martial law in the vein of Abraham Lincoln, who he weirdly admires, a broad one targeting “all rebels and insurgents, their aiders and abettors,” and he will use these various reasons—“peril to life and extensive damage to infrastructure”—to break from precedent, as he and Republicans have a penchant for doing—who cares if this one is 175-years old? Abortion bans put forth by his colleagues are just as old—and suspend or simply delay elections indefinitely.
This isn’t impossible. “While the Executive Branch does not currently have this power… Congress may be able to delegate [it] to the Executive Branch by enacting a statute.”
Additionally, “Foreign interference could, in and of itself, disrupt future elections; could exacerbate other disruptions (e.g., power failures) by spurring doubt about the legitimacy or accuracy of political or voting processes; or both.”
Perhaps another—more successful—elector scheme will surface.
In any case—or in all of them—Congress will again prove compliant; where the mob fails, investigations by Kash Patel and the weaponized justice department will succeed. And even if some or all of Trump’s maneuvers are deemed—or indeed are—unconstitutional, will that stop him? We’ve seen how fragile democracy is. How corrupt the Supreme Court is. They too—the majority—answer to Trump, who knows he can’t be criminally prosecuted even for blatantly illegal acts. And so he presses on, emboldened…
The Constitution is under constant attack. The funding freeze and executive action ending birthright citizenship are more recent examples. But let’s not forget Trump’s total disdain for the separation of powers, consolidating it more every day; let’s not forget the Muslim Ban and various emolument rackets and pay-to-play schemes…
For now the courts are holding relatively strong. The worst of his agenda is being delayed. Will they continue to? I’m starting to seriously doubt it, as others are, and I can’t help but wonder: How much longer will Trump accept the decisions of the courts when they don’t go his way? A coup has always been on his mind. How much longer will the Constitution as it stands, amendments already being proposed to grant Trump a third term—will democracy—last?
