The next seven months will see an increase in presidential campaigns by the incumbent president, Joe Biden, and the Republican nominee, Donald Trump. Donald Trump, former president during the 2016-2020 term, made many changes to the political landscape. Now, Trump’s Agenda 47 and Project 2025 seek to alter further the democracy America was established on to seat him as dictator.
Agenda 47 includes all the proposals Trump states would be implemented if he is re-elected as the 47th President of the United States. Most of these heavily emphasize an increase in the president’s power, which violates the checks and balances system of presidential power.
While talking about his proposals, Trump threatened to “imprison and harm” his “enemies,” including President Biden, which has been explicitly stated through interviews and social media posts, according to Salon. His statements heavily reflect practices seen in “banana republics” because of his threats to imprison, torture and execute political rivals. A “banana republic” is not a clothing brand but rather a term describing a nation with an unstable economy entirely dependent on its exports of natural resources. Dictators could control a “banana republic” and then maintain their leadership through these means. Miles Taylor, a former senior member of Trump’s administration, stated Trump previously entertained the idea of using Guantanamo Bay to detain political prisoners. Trump essentially admires dictators’ solutions to political dissenters practiced by Vladimir Putin and Kim Jung Un, two leaders who were definitely elected through democratic means.
Having your political agenda compared to policies seen in a “banana republic” means the policies are interested in creating state revenue through any means. “Banana republics” are also managed by a plutocracy, or a government based on one’s wealth, with the working class being extremely impoverished and ignored by the government’s policies. Many of Trump’s future policies include undoing policies enacted by the Obama and Biden administrations. A majority of these relate to the accessibility of healthcare. In a nation where generating capital by any means is not necessary, the US President should not have policies ignoring the middle and working class.
Project 2025 is where Trump’s policies get truly absurd. It is characterized as a direct assault on the federal government’s structure, with plans to fire up to 50,000 federal employees potentially. This initiative seems like an authoritarian move to consolidate power by embedding Trump supporters within key agencies, including the Department of Justice and the FBI, thereby ignoring the checks and balances essential to a democracy. Trump’s influence in the judiciary branch and police force parallel secret policies seen by many fascist leaders.
Matt Dallek, a professor at George Washington’s Graduate School of Political Management, said, “The irony of course is that in the name of ‘draining the swamp’, it creates opportunities to make the federal government actually quite corrupt and turn the country into a more authoritarian kind of government.” Dallek firmly believes Trump’s policies will cause an inevitable push to a more authoritarian governance model. Trump’s intentions fuel the rise of neo-fascism, which Trump’s supporters are blind to understand.
Trump’s Agenda 47 and Project 2025 have an authoritarian focus and ignore his political dissenters. Calling Leftists “woke” in a derogatory way, threatening to imprison political opponents, hoping to influence the police force, etc. are all signs of a rising dictatorship people are unaware of. Trump should not be re-elected because the world does not need to see the rise of neo-fascism once more.
