Toward completing Project 2025; 8 thousand civil service fedral employees just became political appointees

 It was not enough that Trump got away with appointing incompetent cabinet members, placing loyalty to him not only as one criterion but as the most important qualification.  However, I had been puzzled why the architect of Project 2025 had not done this earlier, abusing Schedule F, to make sure those just below cabinet level would also be loyal to DJT. For whatever reason, Russell Vought, not only the theorist but the executioner with the power, as Director of Management and Budget, did it just now, though he called it another name.

. This is mob boss and big city corrupt mayor behavior. 

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2026/06/trump-moves-about-8000-federal-positions-to-schedule-policy-career/

 Those 8 thousand below the cabinet level and down several layers are the ones who actually get stuff done and who have been protected from being fired because they disagreed with processes, policies, and orders that violated oaths and the rule of law and were science-fact believers.  What it means to those who have a grievance or a favor to ask of a federal bureaucrat, be sure to ben the knee to Trump now and pray your social media accounts have been scrubbed of anything blue..  This is mob boss and big city corrupt mayor behavior that has largely been stopped until now by the reform movement of years past, fueled by the incompetence and corruption of government staffed by political hacks.  

From my February 2, 2026, blog posting on the subject:Trump administration plans to reclassify 50,000 federal workers, making them easier to fire | CNN Politics

Russell Vought and Trump are pulling the Project 2025 schedule F trigger

 Trump tried it before and failed. He is trying it again. In the name of ending the deep state, Project 2025, the blueprint for the authoritarian takeover of the federal government, proposed once again to eliminate civil service protection from political pressure, and instead, to make civil service employees subject to loyalty tests to the President in the Oval Office by reclassifying their positions. Vought was one of the authors of Project 2025, and Trump appointed him to manage the federal government personnel office known as the Office of Management and Budget.

That is the most destabilizing, power-grabbing, corruption-spawning act one can imagine.  Since early in the last century, when the good government reform movement gained steam,  state and local governments have tried to reform corrupt practices of big bosses by removing government bureaucrats from judgment call pressures based on political control. It makes them subject to appointment and removal actions that do not consider job performance and qualifications for their positions.  Appointment to government positions has always been a power play tool for the mayor, the government, and now the presidency, to have as many political positions to fill as they can. It subverts 50 years' worth of good government reforms, and some see it at the Trumpist level, a threat to democracy itself. The Schedule F Threat to Democracy: A Project 2025 Explainer - Kettering Foundation

Russell Vought and Trump: pulling the Project 2025 schedule F trigger

Trump administration plans to reclassify 50,000 federal workers, making them easier to fire | CNN Politics

Russell Vought and Trump are pulling the Project 2025 schedule F trigger

 Trump tried it before and failed. He is trying it again. In the name of ending the deep state, Project 2025, the blueprint for the authoritarian takeover of the federal government, proposed once again to eliminate civil service protection from political pressure, and instead, to make civil service employees subject to loyalty tests to the President in the Oval Office by reclassifying their positions. Vought was one of the authors of Project 2025, and Trump appointed him to manage the federal government personnel office known as the Office of Management and Budget.

That is the most destabilizing, power-grabbing, corruption-spawning act one can imagine.  Since early in the last century, when the good government reform movement gained steam,  state and local governments have tried to reform corrupt practices of big bosses by removing government bureaucrats from judgment call pressures based on political control. It makes them subject to appointment and removal actions that do not consider job performance and qualifications for their positions.  Appointment to government positions has always been a power play tool for the mayor, the government, and now the presidency, to have as many political positions to fill as they can. It subverts 50 years' worth of good government reforms, and some see it at the Trumpist level, a threat to democracy itself.The Schedule F Threat to Democracy: A Project 2025 Explainer - Kettering Foundation

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Chainsaw 1 and Chainsaw 2 : Fulfilling Russell Vought's Project 2025 dreams

Chainsaw 1 and Chainsaw 2 : Fulfilling Russell Vought's Project 2025 dreams

 Russ Vought is the engineer behind Musk Chainsaw 1 and Trump Chainsaw 2. Trump's newest threat is to take advantage of the shutdown and to make the shutdown even worse by firing thousands of fed workers, not just furloughing them.. Who is Vought? He was appointed by Trump to run the fed personnel policies as director of the Office of Management and Budget.. He is also one of the engineers of Project 2025 to turn career service employees into political appointees, subject to the whims of hiring and firing by whoever is in the Oval Office (Trump). The purpose is to turn the "deep state" into Trump or ideological loyal to the Heritage Foundation, into Trump's deep state. Project 2025 had planned to institute a plan to end career service protections for the lower ranks of the fed workforce with Schedule F, but that was a slow process subject to court appeals. Chainsaw 1 solved the problem by just closing agencies en masse, and Chainsaw 2 would continue the 2025 goals of replacing non-political career service with their political loyalists

.https://kettering.org/the-schedule-f-threat-to-democracy.../

Reaction to Day One: Yes, hate won and that wasn't all.

 Yes, hate won in November 2024 and on January 20, 2025. Those happiest with Trump's Day One executive edicts and executive orders( some clearly requiring a change in the Constitution or laws passed by Congress) should be the white nationalist racists who had hoped for the end of affirmative action (no more DEI that put nonwhites and women into the military and governmental.(Trump just placed on leave all DEI administrators), and end birthright citizenship. He cannot amend the Constitution or violate civil service rules with an executive order. ; instead, there will be an attempt to end their rights by amending the Constitution, and the lawsuits against wrongful termination will be flying. The homophobes should be clicking their heels. They won on their gender issues. No more trans to be respected or tolerated or required to be included in sports or even in and educational institutions.. The green light to make such hate politically correct has just been given. Civility, tolerance, and inclusiveness are no longer in vogue in government.

Of great importance to democracy is the rule of law, not the rule of a ruler, dictator, autocrat, or "strong man." Without adherence to the rule of law, we are no longer a democracy by and for the people because the constraints of law to a law-breaking leader are key to keeping our republic. Both Trump's day one executive orders and his prior announced intents make a mockery of the rule of law and seriously undermine the democracy we have known for 250 years. This topic has been moved to its own post. https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2025/01/welcome-to-brave-new-world-where-some.html

Left from the Day One list for now are details to be determined later: tariffs, ending aid to Ukraine, and Schedule F replacing civil servants with Trump loyalists with allegiance to him rather than to the intent of laws they administer and were sworn to uphold. All administrative rules are frozen, pending review...and probably reversed if they are too green or a burden to business bottom lines. Among those on the table are Trump's touting freedom of speech while having threatened in the past to delicense media who opposed him. The extent of his actual actions and practice of "mass deportations" is yet to be seen in practice. Also yet to be seen what social programs and health insurance will be affected by his edict on Day One to cut government expenses. Stay tuned for that. Oligarchs like Musk, who are in charge of proposing them, have no clue how a person on a budget lives. What they care about is keeping and increasing tax breaks for the very wealthy instead, cutting services to ordinary struggling Amercicans to get their tax breaks while not impacting the national debt.

https://apnews.com/article/dei-trump-executive-order-diversity-834a241a60ee92722ef2443b62572540

President Donald Trump executive orders: See full Day 1 list – NBC New York

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: New resistance opportunity arises: Rule by oligarchs and class warfare updated 1 14 and 16 2025

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Democracy has an oligarch problem updated 1/17/2025

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: With General Milley calling Trump "fascist to the core", what's a fascist?

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: The BS of "drill baby drill"; makes unnecessary useless

As Trump takes office, he will be inheriting a quiet border : NPR

Have we already lost our democracy?

 2/27/2025 The Associated Press has been barred from White House pressers; CBS was forced to settle a lawsuit over an interview with Kamala Harris; the owner of the Washington Post, billionaire Jeff Bezos, has taken over the Washington Post editorial page and will permit no dissent.  

 The free press is the last line of defense of democracy threatened by a president who now boasts he is a king. The free press is key to America becoming aware of the danger and the fallout that will also harm the very lives of American citizens.  Without a free press, voters will not even know that they have been hurt by whom, much less be able to mount a resistance.   Trump thinks he can lie, and he can get away with it because his loyal followers will believe any thing he says.   Grisham: Trump ‘knows he can basically say anything and his base will believe’   That is what it is like to live in a dictatorahip.  

: "Modern-day dictators have gained the power they seek because they have used modern technology to spin and mind-control their way to their position. .They spin the news to engineer their support" "The central goal remains the same: to monopolize political power. But today’s strongmen realize that in current conditions, violence is not always necessary or even helpful. Instead of terrorizing citizens, a skillful ruler can control them by reshaping their beliefs about the world. He can fool people into compliance and even enthusiastic approval. In place of harsh repression, the new dictators manipulate information. Like spin doctors in a democracy, they spin the news to  support. They are spin dictators." How Do Dictatorships Survive in the 21st Century? | Andrew Carnegie Fellows | Carnegie Corporation of New York   

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2025/01/whoever-controls-and-owns-media.html

 I picked up a disturbing line in last Monday's Rachel Maddow show: " We have already lost our democracy. ". My follow-up question is: Can we get it back, and how can we? My own thoughts are that on November 5, 2024, 49.9 of voters handed over governance in this country to an autocracy, fed and influenced by oligarchs, and enabled by his Supreme Court to give Trump immunity from prosecution for criminal acts while performing his official duties. Trump is freed from winning the next presidential election because he is a lame-duck. January 21, 2025, Trump will finalize the takeover by signing 100 executive orders, mostly concerning the implementation of Project 2025, including "Schedule F", an attempt to place all power in the hands of the executive branch and reduce the influence of the two other branches by appointees and threats, including violence. The business community is already falling all over themselves, bending their knees, ending DEI, and ending fact-checking, mostly out of fear of the abuse of Trump's power over the DOJ and regulatory agencies.

The 100 orders Trump plans to sign, says John Barrasso, will be "shock and awe" and enable him to bypass Congress.'There is going to be shock and awe with executive orders' - POLITICO  My observation:  Trump plans to emasculate the role of Congress to represent the public will in shaping laws in our democracy, as he has virtually done with the Supreme Court.

Key to the implementation of Project 2025 is Schedule F, which would replace civil service employees with Trump loyalists and Project 2025 devotees...lists of replacements having been prepared and interviews made over the past 6 months by Project 2025. This executive order will be in the stack Trump said he plans to sign on day one.https://apnews.com/article/trump-day-one-border-executive-actions-30f78c3c983ae74555f281446fe22710

Replacing civil servants pledged to support the Constitution with political appointees pledging allegiance to the Project 2025 agenda will have severe consequences, impacting judgment calls on regulatory and administrative actions with what the boss wants instead of what the intent of the law requires. The fallout: 1. The intent of the laws can be subverted and twisted to suit the ideology and support the boss. 2.It is the most corrupt system of government ever devised as bribery and fear of retaliation will keep the political appointees in line. Their jobs depend on keeping the boss happy, not the voters nor the courts.. 3. It is a restoration of the spoils system, overturning years of good government reforms that had been enacted to counter 1 and 2.

So can we get it back? It is going to be hard, especially if Trump controls media through the FCC, and there will be no fact-checking by independent experts on social media. It will be even harder if the DOJ is weaponized to subvert the election process and suppress those who they deem enemies of Trump, minorities and young people.

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2025/01/if-we-have-already-lost-our-democracy.html can we get it back?

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/how-project-2025-could-turn-us-into.html

Yes, my friend, if Trump loses in November, so does Project 2025

 A friend of mine for many years had become alarmed by the provisions of Project 2025 and asked me a question that made me realize not everyone had gotten the memo. She asked if the way to stop Project 2025 was to not elect Trump. Yes, I replied. Trump is the key to it. They need him to sign the executive orders and appointments needed to implement it. If he isn't elected, Project 2025 will not be implemented. It makes no difference if he read Project 2025 or claims he disagrees with some of it, unspecified or not. Here, my friend, is the memo you may have missed. Yes, my friend, if Trump loses in November, so does 2025. In short, a vote for Trump is a vote for Project 2025.

If Trump is elected, which parts of Project 2025 do you think he will not enact? If he gives any answer, would you believe him? He has had at least 5 positions on women's health and choice alone since Spring. His most recent about-face was at first refusing to say how he would vote on the 6-week abortion ban on the ballot in Florida; he got such a blowback from staff and others, he backed the 6-week ban. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-damage-control-abortion-backlash-conservatives-rcna168922 He who pays the fiddler calls the tune, regardless of what Trump believes.

While Trump is constantly boasting he appointed the three justices that provided the Supreme Court majority to overturn Roe v Wade., take your pick of which of his positions or none he proclaims. It appears that he takes positions that depend on the roar of his groupie rallies, FOX viewers, and current polls. Per the Associated Press fact checker 8/24, he told Fox and Friends on Thursday he would never enact a federal abortion ban, but in an April video in Truth Social, he would leave it up to the states (and we know what that means), and a few days later, he said he would not. However, a month earlier, he had said he would consider banning abortions at 15 weeks. In another "update", he tried to get out of his party's position on IVF. https://www.npr.org/2024/08/29/g-s1-20187/trump-ivf-funding-abortion-reproductive-rights-election-2024

However, if he removed current staff at Health and Human Services on day one and replaced them with appointees approved by the Heritage Foundation, that would have the same effect as banning women's choice by a law. The Heritage Foundation, the mothership of Project 2025, and the implementing action plan has

its lists of appointees screened and ready to be appointed and drafts of executive orders ready for Trump to sign. Abuse of Schedule F is key to placing personnel friendly to Christian nationalism in place of thousands of civil servants. Trump began the process shortly by reclassifying many positions once filled by career employees and replacing them, thousands of them, with his political appointees, including lists already compiled by the Heritage Foundation of political appointees screened for their ideological litmus tests, including the "culture of life". Biden stopped this reclassification process sith an executive order, easily overturned by another administration. Trump/Project 2025 would finish it for tens of thousands of positions.. To stop allowing mail-order medical abortion pills and certain kinds of birth control methods, Trump's appointees only need to begin enforcing the 1873 Comstock Act, which forbids mailing such methods used by women to control their reproductive health.

These appointees loyal to Project 2025 in all of its other public policy plans are also pledging loyalty to the "culture of life ', the code word for life begins at conception, defacto controlling access to women's health services, and collecting women's private information about whether they had an abortion, when, and why that would become information in a national register. You get the picture and all that follows that extreme view, including banning certain kinds of birth control and abortions without even having Congress pass legislation. The punchline, opposing all abortions with a federal ban, did not appear in Project 2025. They know that would be a poisonous soundbite and opposed by 60 to 70 percent of voters. They instead described how they would accomplish it in other ways with Trump's appointees. Yes, my friend, if Trump loses, so does Project 2025.

If you still think Trump's policy positions are no lie, here is a study that shows where his current positions overlap with Project 2025 and the personnel connections that are the smoking gun: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/project-2025-proposals-trump-policies/

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/01/us/politics/project2025-heritage-foundation-administration-application-questionnaire.html

What does the Heritage Foundation have to do with Trump's campaign? My answer, updated.

 On a private Facebook site, a rare one where the entire spectrum of political thinkers can meet, one posting asked what the Heritage Foundation has to do with Donald Trump's campaign.  This is my response. The backup documentation and details have been frequently posted on this blog. Search Heritage Foundation and Project 2025.   Update: 8/12/24    ProPublica just released training videos of Project 2025 if you had any doubts about connections to JD Vance, the Trump campaign, and the "How to" training of how the Christian right plans to take over the executive branch, destroy references to global warming and climate change, and civil and affirmative rights beginning Day One. Inside Project 2025’s Secret Training Videos — ProPublica

There is also an action plan for the first 180 days of the 2nd Trump administration, courtesy of Project 2025.. Both this and the training of course are dependent on Trump being elected in November 2024. From Google:  "The time is short, and conservatives need a plan. The project will create a playbook of actions to be taken in the first 180 days of the new Administration to bring quick relief to Americans suffering from the Left's devastating policies.

180-Day Playbook - Project 2025"

Project 2025

https://www.project2025.org › playbook

  

 The key is getting Trump elected in 2024 because he is the tool to execute the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025. Trump attempted to do it with Schedule F changes but failed when he was President. It is a takeover of the administrative state, which MAGA calls the deep state, by ideological loyalists.. The Heritage Foundation's Project Project 2025, 150 right-wing and Christian nationalist and former Trump staffers plan funded by $150 million to get rid of potentially two million civil service employees and to replace them with those pledging to and passing their ideological litmus test in the federal executive branch. Personnel applications and screening are already ready in the process.. The purpose is in all branches of government to have all employees and presidential appointees apply administrative decisions that are ideologically based and uniformly practiced and no longer pledged to the Constitution and the rule of law, as they are now, but to carry out their extreme religious convictions. It is a way to sabotage the intent of the legislation and laws. The impact would last for years, long past any Trump occupation of the Oval Office.

Project 2025 head steps down, but their crusade continues with Trump their tool

The ideological shaping of the Project 2025 text may be stopped with a change in leadership of its authors, as Trump denies any connection. As a project of the Heritage Foundation, the recruiting and screening of applicants to replace civil servants with right-wing Christian ideologues continue, and Project 2025 remains the blueprint for any future president to use is still available. Trump looks like their tool to enact this subversion of the executive branch. Remember, he tried to replace career service employees with loyalists to him by abusing Schedule F when he was president, but his staff had convinced him it was against the law. In a Trump second term, with immunity from criminal prosecution Trump and a compliant Supreme Court could take a different take.

The Democrats need to take a stronger line of attack to keep Trump from distancing himself. Trump so far denies he knows anything about it, but his former staff wrote it. Trump should not get away with such vague or deceptive denials and be needs to be pinned on how he has supported specific parts of Project 2025, including replacing civil service, by using evidence and video clips documenting it.

 https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/30/politics/project-2025-paul-dans/index.html

On becoming a theocracy: https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/06/project-2025-and-christian-nationalism.html

Simple minds for simple solutions explains US anti democracy MAGA

One of the most appalling crowd reactions I have seen recently was of a MAGA rally that responded with cheers to Trump when he proclaimed that he would be a dictator for one day.  I have come to the conclusion that the problem is that those with simplicity-loving minds want direct lines to the simple solutions they seek. They do not welcome clutter like facts, data,  logic, and warnings of unintended consequences. Simple minds for simple solutions explain the USA's anti-democracy MAGA. If the enemy of Trump is the kind of today's democracy, simply replace it with an autocracy/dictatorship pledged to Trump. Simple, right?. That control of the"deep state"  and replacing all branches with loyalists would get Trump's agenda  (whatever that is) done. It is a very simple concept.

Why do I think that?

Many MAGAs I encounter on social media or see and hear/see interviews of "persons on the street', or attendees at Trump rallies on TV and think they must like it simple. For them often slogans, insults,  and memes,  parroting back Trump and MAGA's phrase of the day,  suffice to advocate for their candidate. Repeat it enough and flood the zone with them. We'll eventually get it and agree, they think. Arguments and evidence to the contrary are dismissed as  "ramblings" and are irrelevant or fake or just too complex, attention-diverting,  and confusing.  

Some simplistic thinking is because Americans do not know even the basics of the "blessings of liberty" our democracy brings.s National Survey Finds Just 1 in 3 Americans Would Pass Citizenship Test - Institute for Citizens & Scholars (citizensandscholars.org)  

In Trump's occupancy of the White House ending January 2021, he frequently tried to increase his power but those around him told him he could not because of laws and the Constitution, and he had to back off. (Use of active military to put down street demonstrations, firing and replacing the Justice Department and the FBI with loyalists,  and firing 50K civil servants, replacing them with loyalists using schedule F, for example).  The current practice of democracy gets in his way, so he promises to finish what he started in a second term.  Immediately, he would replace those loyal to the Constitution with "yes people"(Project 2025), including regulatory agencies (delicensing opposition media), and continue his campaign to control Congress with threats of primaries, revenge, and retribution. The Justice Department would threaten and be weaponized against his political opponents  He already thinks he has control of the  Supreme Court dominated by loyalists he appointed .. Once in control of all three branches comes the next step. He has said he wanted to tear up, alter, or gut enforcement of, the Constitution itself.

That control of the"deep state"  and replacing all branches with loyalists would get Trump's agenda  (whatever that is) done. It is a very simple concept. It is also the end of democracy as we have known it. Therefore, simplistic slogans and memes, parroting back Trump and MAGA's lines of the day, suffice to advocate their simple solutions and are the only proof and evidence they need. Arguments and evidence to the contrary are "ramblings" and are irrelevant or fake or just too complex to comprehend..

 Most recent polls peg those and fellow travelers of MAGA at somewhere between 30 and 43 percent of the GOP, depending on the degree of agreement or vested self-interest in business and political job positions. The goal is then for MAGA to rule over everyone else who, they hope, has other things to worry about in their lives than some abstract theory of democracy.  

MAGA is indeed simple, and MAGA is indeed foolish and dangerous. The" tear down democracy" crowd is besotted with it or dismisses it as a joke, Trump being Trump, and he is a martyr dumped on with so many court filings.. If Trump were to get into the Oval Office again, on day one, he could spend all day signing decrees, orders, and appointments to advance his control and power, which would have forever repercussions. It depends on how quickly and effectively he is in the four years we foolishly gave him to consolidate his control over all three branches of government with his promoting the tools of fear and favor.

The only barriers to Trump after day one would be the wide variety of state and federal judges who have sworn to uphold the rule of law, not the rule of a person. MAGA takeover of the GOP House is complete, as those who oppose him simply resign or bow to the threat of primaries in their gerrymandered safe districts. The same fate without the gerrymander opportunity would contaminate the Senate if they got the majority. again. The executive branch is the easiest to dominate using Schedule F and the" ready to go day one Project 2025'. Trump has made it clear he will appoint only loyalists to him to the military brass and advisors who always say "Yes boss", as they take over the voting machines and shut down opposition media via delicensing and put the fear of loss of jobs in the 50 thousand federal civil servants.

This is not a fantasy or an apocalyptic prediction because the same story has been repeated time and again without exception, from Putin to Tito (my hands-on, personal experience) to Orban to Moduro., They got there initially through the consent of the mobs or were viewed as heroes bringing help to the working poor and the end of lawless chaos.. In the long term, as every instance in modern post-World War II history has shown, once that autocrat's power is consolidated, it rarely is reversed. peacefully or by violence.. Control is gained and kept by fear and favor. The autocrat and his minions and their subjects had adjusted, and as time went on, they became even more dedicated to keeping the favor of power and feared the loss of it and their jobs if they did not pledge their allegiance to the "boss", the system of corruption favoring them, controlling the voting process, and what information the populace gets ( no dissension, please), always waiting in the wings. the iron fist of the active military to put down the "street." 

Trump has not ceased touting that the 2020 election was stolen from him.  That is his core rationale to the crowd for taking over the deep state, wanting to call on the active military to seize voting machines, inciting the January 6 militia and rioters,  and becoming a dictator. Those who continue to think simply, who still believe that Trump won the 2020 election, can only be intentionally blind and willfully and conveniently ignorant to keep swallowing that Trump claim.In the past three years, no forensic audits or research funded by the Trump campaign or allies found enough fraud to overturn the 2020 elections, nor did over 60 court cases.  The real fraud is Trump's "Stop the Steal" rhetoric or as his opponents call it "the big lie".Trump has not ceased touting that the 2020 election was stolen from him.  That is his core rationale to the crowd for taking over the deep state, wanting to call on the active military to seize voting machines, inciting the January 6 militia and rioters,  and becoming a dictator.

 Those who continue to think simply, who still believe that Trump won the 2020 election, can only be intentionally blind and willfully and conveniently ignorant to keep swallowing that Trump claim.In the past three years, no forensic audits or research funded by the Trump campaign or allies found enough fraud to overturn the 2020 elections, nor did over 60 court cases.  The real fraud is Trump's "Stop the Steal" rhetoric or as his opponents call it "the big lie".. Trump acknowledges he was told 2020 election lies were false in wide-ranging interview | CNN Politics

Voter data expert hired by Trump campaign says 2020 election was not stolen (yahoo.com)   He debunks the theory that dead people voted and fraud was committed in the mail in ballot system. 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/court-filing-tears-apart-maga-s-favorite-jan-6-conspiracy-theory  This debunks a false flag operation surrounding January6 that it was an inside job by law enforcement.  This was revealed in a suit against FOX and Tucker Carlson

Trump whines and claims he is the victim of all of the criminal charges and lawsuits. For those who think Trump is a victim of the legal process, no one in history has ever been treated like this, as he and his loyal advocates and followers turn a blind eye to any evidence or data revealed to them by people under oath. No sitting president has ever tried to stay in office when they lost an election, either. 

The Supreme Court ruled that Trump was not immune from civil suits for his behavior while president. Some of those court cases he whines against re Stormy Daniels, rape, Colorado ballot eligibility,  and his company's fraud are civil. It does not result if found liable in jail (if perjury in trial not committed), but either loss of money or stopping an activity.  The main criminal case ot watch could result in jail time if Trump loses is Jack Smith's federal DOJ case against his part in January 6.  If Trump is elected in Nov. 2024, he could pardon himself if he is found guilty.  However, the Georgia case is a state criminal case, and he could not pardon himself if found guilty. 

 Donald Trump Rally Goers Want Him to Be 'Day One Dictator' (newsweek.com)

Pew Research Poll: 43% of Republican Basically Want Trump as a Dictator - YouTube"

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: What Trump plans for his second term and how he will do it

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-voter-fraud-investigator-proved-there-was-no-fraud-1234939275/

Results of Lawsuits Regarding the 2020 Elections | Campaign Legal Centerl

National Survey Finds Just 1 in 3 Americans Would Pass Citizenship Test - Institute for Citizens & Scholars (citizensandscholars.org)

What's the difference between Biden and dictators? Both throw opponents in jail

 What's the difference between Biden and dictators? Both throw opponents in jail? That is what I got back from some Trump devotees on a private Facebook site when I accused Trump of planning to be a dictator in his second term.  The answer lies in the degree of support, respect, and abiding by the process rules and laws that put anyone in jail or deprive them of jobs and civil rights. It is the rule of law, not the rule of a person who says which laws apply and how they are interpreted. Why do I think that?

.  The criminal process (the only process that"throws Trump in jail" )filed by the Biden Justice Department has not gone to trial yet. Other criminal cases are either state, not federally controlled like Georgia's, and probably will not be concluded until after the November 2024 elections.  Those on January 6 already in jail had all of the due process protections a  democracy affords the accused.  Whether Trump is subject to the 14th Amendment keeping him off ballots as an insurrectionist will be decided by a Trump appointee-dominated US Supreme Court well before the November 2024 elections. The Colorado case that is key was brought by members of the GOP or independents, not Democrats or Biden.

The following has been moved and posted as a separate post on January 1, 2024

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Short and simple: Is Biden or Trump a dictator?

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: If you think Trump was kidding about being a dictator, the joke is on you.

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2023/12/what-is-dictator-and-does-trump-fit-it.html

If you think Trump was kidding about being a dictator, the joke is on you.

If you think Trump was kidding about being a dictator, the joke is on you. While some want Trump to be a dictator, there are others who just think he is kidding or that some checks and balances will keep him from doing what he is threatening to do. Oh, they say in the interviews of rally attendees below 1) they want a strong leader, and being a dictator is just fine. 2) there are checks and balances to keep him from doing all he tells you will do in his second term, 3)He is joking. For those who think the checks and balances will keep him from doing what he promises in his second term,. the joke is on you. You are fools being fooled. Trump knows now how to get done what he tried to do during his first term and plans to do if he gets back to the White House again. He already promised to replace every position he can with yes men and then use fear of retribution and the FBI to put fear in their future if they tell him no or have a background of being more loyal to the rule of law and the Constitution instead of what he wants doing. He tried it in his first term and failed. He is ready to do it in a second term.. (The fight to stop Schedule F, a cornerstone of Trump's 'retribution' agenda, is underway (nbcnews.com) He is ready to do it on day one of 2025; the plans are already funded and ready to go... on day one. Trump plan to gut civil service triggers pushback | Reuters

Biden can make the contrast that he is about hope and Trump is about with some simple words like Hope v Hate and Help vs. Harm,.Healthy democracy v Havoc and fear. Hope is a word that has worked well for candidates like Obama and Carter (the man from Hope). Chaos, revenge, and oppression are not positive promises for any one trying to cope with the daily demands of life. The challenge question put to those considering still voting for Trump is what good is he going to do for you and your lives? Trump touts word cloud showing ‘revenge,’ ‘dictatorship’ as what voters think his victory would bring (aol.com). Now he is even marketing revenge, a dictatorship of what he offers to daily lives in this word salad posting.

.Biden's word salad he should market is by contrast with Trump offers something positive. Biden succeeded in policies that helped the middle class. His problem: until now the middle class does not feel it. That is beginning to change as consumer confidence is improving, as gas at the pump prices decline. MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Why Biden feels frustrated that Biden'economics are not felt at the polls

Biden still has to make the case he will deal with unfinished business that helps ordinary people with their future, not only addressing student loans, border chaos, and leading the free world but also protecting their freedoms that Trump et al, would take away from them. Those include women's choice over their healthcare, the sanctity and ability to vote and have their votes counted, their ability to gather to address grievances, and laws that apply to everyone, not just a few Trump favors.. (That is called "democracy", but we forget what that means to be able to have a voice in our governance. ) He should also say he cannot do it alone. He needs a willing Congress, not one dominated by MAGA. It is not just drawing a contrast of past actions with what Trump promises for the future, but that Biden's past and future plans give hope and promise for the future instead of hate, conflict, and an aristocracy/dictatorship that would destroy hope for a better future or a future that represents MAGA's oppressive and hate-motivated attempt to take away the freedoms and rights you have taken for granted.. until now. "Now" means these freedoms are not forever and would be lost if Trump had his way., using the power he would give himself.

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: What Trump plans for his second term and how he will do it

Trump had failed in his first term to do all that he wanted to give himself more power to get his way, but he was stopped by staff and others who looked to obeying the law and the intent of the Constitution and now knows how to fix it: get rid of those who tell him "no" and make it a virtue to be a "strong man" and get around and tear up the Constitution and make the case he is not bound by law. If Trump had not tried and failed to tear down checks and balances before and failed, and you forgot that, you need to get a shot or realism., He was stopped from using the insurrection act to put down civil demonstrations by Gen. Milley and the military brass who said that violated the constitution. He was stopped from changing civil service status so he could replace thousands of them with loyalists instead of those who tried to follow the law. He was stopped by banning Muslims because the still independent judiciary would have ruled he had violated civil rights. He was criticized openly in the press by calling neo-Nazis in Charlottesville fine people: He engineered the appointment of anti-abortion ideologues to the Supreme Court, which overturned Roe v Wade. His loyal attorney general parted ways when he lied through his teeth that he won the 2020 election due to widespread fraud when even his staff told him he lost. When he disagreed with his Department of Justice policies, he failed to get a loyalist to replace his departed attorney general because he backed down when the acting attorneys in the DOJ staff all threatened to resign.

He does have a head start with his plans to be a strong leader/autocrat/dictator on day one if he gets a second chance at the Oval Office. His Supreme Court is already in his hands. His GOP House members say yes, boss, for fear they would be primaried while behind his backs, they complain about him. There would be no general to say no to using active military to put down civil unrested. All he has to do is to invoke the insurrection act to threaten or use the active military to put down civil demonstrations to which he objects. (Bring in the water canons and the tanks...that is what they did in Russia and Hong Kong, and it worked)). His DOJ could take over the voting machines everywhere to make sure midterms would go his way. No one federal law would be used to stop him. There would be no attorney general to tell him he is lying about the 2020 election. He already has the Heritage Foundation plan 2025, ready to replace every appointee and civil servants with screened loyalists.

Here are all of the Republican elected officials backing Trump's 2024 campaign (msn.com)

The plan, 2025, is funded and getting ready for day one. Once he replaces his appointees with yes people, he can begin to execute his autocracy. (From a prior posting:  The groundwork is already being laid by the misnamed Heritage Foundation, and money is being raised. Donations have surged to groups linked to conservative Project 2025 (nbcnews.com)  The related groups have issue agendas that would roll back any legislation that hurt their special interest groups or ideology.  Project 2025's issues agenda: Analysis Exposes Trumpian Project 2025 as 'Far-Right Playbook for American Authoritarianism' (commondreams.org)  in which it finds their agenda is to elevate Christian nationalism, gut civil service, reverse progress on racial, eviscerate LGBTQ+ rights, restrict reproductive freedom, roll back climate action, end "woke" military, overhaul public education, and curb human rights?  These are the money backers that would come into power as Trump, on his part, replaces those who are disloyal with his appointments, including replacing 50 thousand civil servants who do not pass the loyalty to Trump and MAGA and get purged and using the FBI and DOJ to go indict opponents, and continue to use fear of retribution to any in the federal government who would oppose him, while using the military to put down public demonstrations who object.)  . He will govern by fear, and he has a history of condoning political violence. He used it on January 6. He has already promised he would use the FBI and the DOJ to threaten to indict and cook up unfounded charges to keep dissidents fearing to speak out. His appointees would delicense media, not loyal to the boss too. Those who don't take him seriously are fools being fooled.

This segment moved to 12/28/23 posting: For those who want their president to be a "strong man," I have a few words. I have had firsthand experience. Know you live in fear in a dictatorship that someone will hear a disloyal comment from you and report it, and there will be some repercussions. The least might be you lose a job or a promotion or get primaried, and the worst may be like Navalny, who disappeared in some gulag after revolting against Putin's corruption in amassing his personal fortune.  It is a fearful life, and your tongue is always on guard because that is how "strong men" stay in power, with fear and force,  and you are powerless to change it.  The only votes counted are the 80% constant approval of the Boss, and the rest are to give the impression the autocracy is still a "democracy."  

 We throw around the word "freedom" a lot, but the freedom to express yourself to others, privately, or in media, or in voting, or in lifestyle,  or in protesting, but in a dictatorship, this is not protected by the fine words of any amendment to the Constitution.  All laws are interpreted to support the rule and power of the strong man and all potential institutions of checks and balances are under the control or are comprised of loyalists.  That is what living under an autocracy, a dictatorship, means. You lose those freedoms.  Both communist dictatorships and fascist ones are like that, though the ideology to which all are to conform may come from Marx or Mein Kampf or the fantasies of one mind, the mind of the "boss". 

From my facebook posting  We have never had a president or a candidate for that office like Trump with such extremely disturbed personality traits of narcissism and self-aggrandizement.. His platform is not to make life better for ordinary people, but it is one of retribution and stamping out the vermin, his opponents, all for one purpose, to amass more wealth and power for his own benefit. . He will say what will get others to join in his mission using lies, insulting those who tell him "no" or holding him accountable, with oratory and exhortation of violence and lawlessness. He gives voice to his core followers. He knows his base of support and what they want to hear. His loyal base shares his sentiments of anger, grievance, resentment, and of perceived loss of power, full of hate, revenge, and a singular loyalty to those who look like them.

USATODAY.COM

Donald Trump said he'd be a dictator for one day. His supporters say they're not worried.

"He's like a guy with a laser pointer and the left is a cat," said one vo

2024 is about Putting Trump First, not about putting America First,

Update: 11/13/23   Charlie Sykes made a good observation.  Look at the plans Trump has for becoming an autocrat/fascist/dictator: Do not focus on his gaffes. https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/its-not-the-gaffes-its-the-plans?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=imm3e    Update 11/19/23 https://www.nytimes.com/article/trump-2025-second-

Donations have surged to groups linked to conservative Project 2025 (nbcnews.com)

What is obvious from  this:  Trump and his party want to end democracy as we have known it. 

Coriginal post:

 Ron DeSantis had an entire segment on Morning Joe this AM to make his case on a wide variety of issues, and Joe Scarborough asked him hard questions and let him answer. One phrase he coined caught my attention: While DeSantis indicated support of America First, with Trump, it is "Putting Trump First. ". That is putting a finger on the "democracy is on the ballot" in 2024 in very simple terms. If you think Trump's use of fear and threats of violence or threatening revenge on critics are just bloviating, , just look how he has completely taken over the GOP. It is by threats of revenge, violent or by other means, against those who are not loyal to him. That is how he wants to govern the whole country if he gets his hands on the White House again. He is very open about his plans, and he has every reason to believe it will work to put him first because it is working so far. DeSantis knows that as he watches his support fade away, but he deserves to be credited with coining the "Putting Trump First" phrase in context of instead of putting America First.

Putting Trump First is a simple, understandable way of pointing out Trump's designs to be a dictator, a fascist one in the most classic definition, but those words come with baggage. Instead, we should describe what these terms mean when put in practice. The Biden pitch has been to " look at all of the things I have done to make your lives better or national security more protected" and leave it at that. It is not working.https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-trails-trump-states-likely-decide-2024-us-election-polls-show-2023-11-05/ He needs to make the contrast with what a Trump second term would do after every promotion of an administration accomplishment. Relying on "America's good sense" to figure that out on their own is not working now, either. The campaign season has already begun. Taking a page from Trump," fear is still the most influential political driver," and fear of how Trump would harm those good programs and democracy itself because he already did it as president and now wants to double down on it by seizing more power in the future. The key is to realize that freedom is only for his loyalists, not anyone else, and both loyalists and Trump want to take your rights to protect yourself from an autocrat or a political governing group away from you.. However, while Trump is the mouthpiece, he reflects and plays to a movement that does not stop with Trump because even without him, the body of MAGA will still be about what Trump has advocated. It is fear and hate-driven, subverting any separation of powers, checks, and balances, abusing the reins of government to give themselves more power and to take revenge on their enemies, and restricting our civil rights to express ourselves and shape public policy, whether we are a majority or a minority. Then, ask ourselves, is that how we want to be governed?

How Trump engineered this takeover of the GOP is by using fear of revenge, exhorting political violence, and promoting himself and his power with fraud and lies. His plan to accomplish this on a national scale, lording over everyone else is no secret. It is to replace thousands of civil servants (Schedule F) and House members and the judiciary with loyalists and to surround himself with yes people. This will not be limited to the executive branch but to the legislative and judicial branches as well. Trump intends to legitimize the very same criminal actions for which he is now being charged in various trials by forcing federal employees to work and make decisions on behalf of his wishes and to use the Justice Department to become his enforcers. He will govern with fear and revenge against those not loyal to him. He has been very public with how he will do it. He will appoint prosecutors loyal to him to administer "justice" with targeted prosecutions of those who do not pledge allegiance to Trump. By replacing appointees with proven loyalists, he intends to subvert the intentions of the rule of law and the people who have tried to abide by its provisions. Still, he can use the same techniques to control any checks to his power grab in Congress and in the courts.

If you question whether he could do that, recent events should be instructive. Making Trump First using fear and retribution was happening before our very eyes in the recent three weeks of chaos in the mess to choose a Speaker. Fear and retribution threats work. It is not just fear of loss of a political seat, but it is threats of political violence. When GOP members had their vote for the Trump-favored candidate put on the public record, they voted their loyalty to Trump, but in a secret ballot in the GOP caucus, they voted the other way. Fear of political violence against the families of judges and House members (described graphically in a biography of Romney), the unleashing of the unhinged, mentally unbalanced to do his dirty, violent work is in plain sight from January 6 to his tirades against judges and their staffs in defending himself in criminal and civil trials taking place now. , Threats of being primaried as a RINO is the mildest weapon. This is how he wants to govern us all, non-MAGA and MAGA. For those of us who are not MAGA, be afraid. Be very afraid and take action before Trump First gets a chance to seize the power centers of government.

One large group is mired in nihilism and wishes for another candidate. It is Generation Z and X. For the cynical youth vote paralyzed with " a plague on all your houses," they need to ask themselves if they want to support science deniers, crippling student debt, restrict the choice of health care and control their reproductive lives, rampant misogyny, racism, and homophobia. Take this advice from grandma who has been there, done that. Electing MAGA candidates would just make all of this awfulness worse and make it powerless to do much about it. At least Biden and those who support him oppose those policies and have delivered some tangible results.

Whether or not Trump is still on the ballot by November 2024, sitting on your hands and longing for someone younger to run is the same as supporting those MAGA candidates who personify those policies harming younger voters and their values. In 2024, the vote count still matters since we still have our democracy, and non-votes do not get counted. Duh. What you do still matters..It is not just a matter of casting your vote, but it also is voicing this to peers on social media or in everyday conversations.

Update: 11/13/2023 Trump's plans if he returns to the White House include deportation raids, tariffs and mass firings (msn.com)

GOVEXEC.COM

Trump Has Endorsed a Plan to Purge the Civil Service of ‘Rogue Bureaucrats’

Former Trump staffers have said they have identified 50,000 federal employees who would be ousted under a new iteration of Schedule F during the next Republican administration.