Trump's last Dance

[angrychair]

He will be serving his 2nd term. A factor that has not been given the attention it deserves.
Conspiracy theories aside and unless he can change the Constitution in less than 4 years, he is done.
All this talk of gutting federal agencies and shuttering them and putting generals up for court martial and so on and so on, all sounds horrible. It will likely create chaos and confusion and some people may lose their jobs but the law is still the law and the Constitution is still the Constitution.

No, the Department of Education is not going away.
No, the CDC is not closing it's doors.
No, FSIS is not going to stop.

A lot of these organizations have already faced legal challenges like this before. They will do so again.
Again, trump cannot be president again. Those in the House and the Senate ultimately don't give a shit about trump. They want to get reelected. They are not going to burn the place down for a lame duck president just because Trump says so.
At the end of the day they have constituents they have to answer too and Trump does not.
Not saying trump won't have his allies but not nearly as many as some would think.
We still have to have a functioning government and that government still has legal responsibilities to its citizens.
The federal government cannot just shift it off to states as they are neither equipped nor have the finances to take on these missions. It's the whole reason the federal government is doing it in the first place.
Yes I'm worried like everyone else. Yes, I think they could still do serious harm.
But no, I do not see the hundreds of megalomaniacs and narcissists in Congress, that have spent 10+ years in government, cutting their own throats for a lame duck president to get his revenge on people.
I'll add here that when Trump goes at the end of his term, he will be 83, his cult of personality goes with him. There is no one that could hold that together on the right. Absolutely not Vance. Not DeSantis. Not anyone. It was a unique phenomenon that researchers will study for decades to come. This is it. Their last dance.

[jimfields33]

1. I think he'll move a few departments out of DC.

He did move at least one in his first term out west. Nobody really had issues with it so it stayed out west for president Biden’s term.

If nobody minds moving departments out of DC, maybe that may be the best way to save money.

[drmeow]

18. Exactly

He will basically do everything he can to make the lives of the people who work for those agencies miserable.

Something on the order of 80% of the people who worked for that agency that moved left the agency and found other federal jobs.

However, there are a few things I think he's not counting on.

1) Big bureaucracies move slowly. They can't just throw out all the rules and they can't just fire everyone. Even Adolf Musk needs to go through HR.
2) More people already have negotiated the option of working from home these days than in his first term. Moving an agency's central headquarters isn't going to impact those people.
3) The heads that he assigns to those agencies may not want to move to the middle of nowhere.
4) Heading up those agencies is not generally considered a cushy 9 - 5 job. Some of them are on call 24/7 or frequently need to be available after hours. Do you really see Hegseth busting his ass 60 hours a week to get all the $hit done that needs to get done - being willing and able to sit in the situation room dealing with a crisis at any time of the day or night. He (and many of the people Tangerine Mussolini is naming) are entitled a$$holes who are used to being paid big bucks to do do very little. (Side note, not sure if these types of positions are subject to the Federal salary caps or if the President can bypass those salary caps - will be interesting to see.) I think they are likely to get into those jobs and hate them.

[RandomNumbers]

2. Rec, not because I necessarily agree 100%,

but because your points are quite valid and may well turn out correct.

I think we really don't know what he CAN accomplish, and we don't necessarily know what he will TRY to accomplish. Everything the man says and does is a LIE. So whatever happens will depend on how the winds are blowing a particular day.

[CanonRay]

3. The problem is after Republicans we need 20 years

to un-fuck everything they fucked up. We usually only get 4, maybe 8. Then they come back and we need another 20. We are continually falling behind.

[Irish_Dem]

6. Eventually clean up is impossible. It's all gone.

[WarGamer]

4. I actually DO believe the Dept of Education will be gone... replaced by block grants and State control.

It's their "precious"

[angrychair]

7. I respectfully disagree

People lose perspective of what the DoEd actually does. It does a lot more than hand out money.
There are a a lot of laws tied up in that department. From Title IX to special education.
I doubt the first court challenge would make it to court before his 4 years are up. This is it. There is no other cult of personality after this. The game is over.
They can only sustain this insanity for so long.

[WarGamer]

8. you might be right... we're in uncharted territory here.

Unlike many... I think the guard rails will hold.

They might be stretched to Constitutional limits but they will hold.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. Only Congress can eliminate agencies.

MAGA Mike isn't going to get the votes to abolish the Department of Education with a two vote majority. Reagan couldn't do it and he was more popular, plus the agency was only two years old when he tried. TSF sucks. The loss hurts. But the doom porn is over the top.

[No Vested Interest]

5. Vance is a danger. Extremely ambitious and ready and willing to do whatever is necessary to get and retain power.

He's far more intelligent than Trump and has monied interests behind him.
He will be deeply entrenched in 4 years, Trump is a lame duck.

[oasis]

10. That's it, Vance is who we have to worry about.

[angrychair]

12. You give him yo much credit

He is deeply unlikeable. Incredibly stupid. Plus you underestimate the value of a VP. Trump is first and foremost a narcissist. Unless something happens you will barely see Vance again. We are barely knew Pence existed until he was mentioned with vote count.
I think the billionaire class has also overplayed their hand in that front as well.
They have barely started and Musk has already worn out his welcome. Even Republicans are over him. They are already complaining about him.

[madinmaryland]

16. After the Republican convention, Vance was appearing on his own in front of dozens of people.

Hardly ever saw him, unless he was with rump.

[JI7]

17. Vance is not likable. In the debate that he supposedly"won" people had a better opinion of Tim Walz

Vance is awkward and boring

[rurallib]

9. you make an assumption he and his people will follow the law

very good chance they won't.
Secondly I fully expect him to resign and put JD the puppet in charge. JD could get a 10 year stretch, but I doubt they will follow the constitution or law.

Applying today's rules to this group of criminals is an exercise only in possibilities.

[angrychair]

15. All due respect

This is not rooted in law. I realize it's easy to become jaded and cynical with these results.
I'm not saying it will all be perfect or that we will avoid any harm but it is not the doom and gloom that some would weave here and on social media.
The law works for us no different than it works for them and Democrats have very good lawyers.

[TheKentuckian]

13. I can believe anything not restricted by the laws of physics

and accept we are unlikely to fully understand even those constraints.

Assume the worst, strive for the best and see what happens but I'm not in position to assume any positive outcomes.

[Blue_Tires]

14. I'm old enough to remember when

Nothing was going to happen to abortion because it was "the settled law of the land"...

As we've already seen, Donnie's true damage will come from his judicial appointments. We're already stuck with his Supreme Court for the rest of our natural lives.

Nevermind the fact that even when Trump leaves (one way or the other), the mental disease of Trumpism continues to spread like cancer.

[angrychair]

19. Abortion wasn't law

That is the difference. It's a significant point that matters. These other things, like DoEd, are laws, lots of them. Not saying things won't be bad but this is not the end times either.
It is easy to become jaded and cynical.

None of it will be easy. But it won't be easy for them either.