COMMENTARY
Americans Have Forgotten How Bad the Trump Years Were – And ‘This Time They’re Coming in With a Plan’: New Republic
“It will come like a tidal wave.”
That’s the prediction made by senior defense analyst and former naval aviator Brynn Tannehill in her latest piece at The New Republic: “People Aren’t Facing Up to the Horrors a New Trump Term Would Bring.”
The tidal wave, Tannehill predicts, is the “full, unrelenting cascade of horror that will be a Trump second term for people who are unwelcome in a country reshaped by a religious right minority.”
“People forget just how awful the Trump presidency was: daily chaos, naked power grabs, corruption, pandering to religious extremists, weaponization of government for personal vendettas, degradation of our democracy, and the constant assault on the rights of women, persons of color, and LGBTQ people,” she begins. “In the past week both The New York Times and The Economist have helpfully reminded us that the next Trump administration will be even worse, because this time they’re coming in with a plan.”
Tannehill says Trump is “coming back with the entire conservative apparatus at his back, having spent four years in the wilderness methodically planning how to permanently alter the political and legal landscape of the country to favor an anti-democratic minority.”
“Central to this is the plan to reinstitute Schedule F for federal employees, which would allow the administration to fire any federal employee with policymaking authority. In practice this means that a Trump administration would replace vast swathes of the federal government bureaucracy with sycophants and ideological fellow travelers bent on implementing pro-corporate, pro-religious, and anti-minority agendas. This weaponizes the entire federal bureaucracy against women and LGBTQ people.”
Indeed, as NCRM reported last week, based on that New York Times deep dive, Donald Trump and his top allies are planning to massively reorganize the entire executive branch to hand him unprecedented power and decimate the constitutional basis of checks and balances, should he win re-election next year.
A key figure in the entire reorganization of the executive branch of the federal government is John McEntee. Last year Axios described him a “young take-no-prisoners loyalist with chutzpah” who Trump had enlisted after his first impeachment acquittal in early 2020 to “activate the plan for revenge.”
“Baby-faced assassin,” is how The Guardian in February of 2020 described McEntee, who was “at the heart of Trump’s ‘deep state’ purge.”
McEntee was Trump’s Director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, where he initiated loyalty test interviews in hope of ensuring executive branch employees across all agencies were entirely loyal to Trump.
Tannehill posits: “Imagine an FDA filled with far-right Catholic appointees looking for every imaginable way to end access to birth control, abortion, and gender-affirming care—and likely succeeding. Other agencies, like Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, and the Pentagon, would also be looking for ways to ban or severely limit access. Odds are that all three services will be effectively unavailable in the country before the end of Trump’s next term.”
In fact, under then-President Trump, Health and Human Services established the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division within the HHS Office of Civil Rights. OCR was headed by Christian right activist Roger Severino, who is now at the Heritage Foundation – which is one of the top organizations mapping out the pieces, including personnel, for Trump’s second term. At HHS Severino decimated Obama-era protections for LGBTQ people.
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Tannehill warns if Trump gets a second presidential term, he will pull the U.S. out of NATO, reverse the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” kick all transgender service members out of the U.S. Armed Forces – and possibly all LGBTQ people, and women, as well.
“With Trump in power and weaponizing the government against ‘enemies of the people,’ he will likely use the Federal Communications Commission, FBI, IRS, and DOJ to silence critics and end investigative journalism as we know it.”
Trump reportedly announced his run for re-election in an attempt to avoid being prosecuted for a myriad of alleged crimes. While that did not work, if he wins re-election next year, the federal lawsuits likely will disappear.
“It’s also worth pointing out,” Tannehill observes, “that Trump is not willingly going to leave office ever again.”
“He’s already under several felony indictments for stolen classified materials, and more appear to be coming for his role in attempting to steal the 2020 election and for the January 6 insurrection. Given the typical timelines of such trials, he’s unlikely to be in prison by the 2024 election. He’s smart enough to know that as long as he’s in the White House, he can’t be prosecuted for anything. The moment he leaves office, he’s going right back to trial and maybe to jail.”
Trump’s plan then would be, “Fire everyone who might prosecute him, and never leave office again.”
“The United States is probably about to have a ‘fuck around and find out’ moment that’s lethal to our form of government as we know it,” she warns. “The rapidity of the collapse is going to be terrifying. It will rival the end of the Weimar Republic in terms of its swiftness, and how far it swings away from democracy and human rights. It will come like a tidal wave. So much so fast that civil rights organizations won’t have the resources to fight more than a fraction of it, and the result will be like sandcastle walls trying to hold back a tsunami.”
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After stalling on a decision in the escalating Middle East crisis and delaying action—some say potentially in defiance of federal law—on the congressionally mandated TikTok ban, President Donald Trump, facing sliding poll numbers, a widely criticized budget bill on the brink of collapse, a looming debt ceiling showdown, and apparent tensions with his Director of National Intelligence, is heading to his Bedminster golf resort for a MAGA dinner and an early weekend likely to include several rounds of golf.
The decision to leave the White House early on Friday comes after he left the G7 early this week, reportedly to make a decision on whether or how to help Israel attack Iran. His former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, jokingly said Trump exited the conference with top world leaders because he was “bored,” The Hill reported.
The President is slated to exit the White House at 2 PM Friday.
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“With the world on edge, the president’s early departure underscores a pattern critics say reflects misplaced priorities, favoring fundraising and familiar retreats over the day-to-day demands of governance,” MeidasTouch News reported.
The long weekend also comes just hours after President Trump denounced “too many days off” for federal and other workers, a remark he made on Juneteenth, a federal holiday signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021. Trump had campaigned on passing the legislation to honor and celebrate the day that symbolizes the end of slavery, but made no mention of it this year.
“Too many non-working holidays in America,” Trump decried Thursday evening.
“I know this is a federal holiday.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday. “I want to thank all of you for showing up to work. We are certainly here. We’re working 24/7 right now.”
This week, in addition to meeting with his national security team, and an “awkward” meeting with players of the Juventus soccer team, Trump presided over the installation of two 88-foot flag poles and the raising of massive American flags at the White House.
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Trump’s long weekend also comes just one week after millions protested his policies across all 50 states and internationally on Saturday, while he attended a military parade celebrating his and the U.S. Army’s birthdays, and after a tragic political assassination of a Democratic lawmaker and her spouse.
It also comes one week after Trump appeared to make a major about-face, saying farm, hotel, and restaurant workers are valuable and extremely difficult to replace. He suggested that ICE would pause targeting those workers, only to turn around just days later to announce “the largest mass deportation program in history.” The pause on deportations was canceled, leading one notable political commentator and legal analyst, Joyce Vance, to wonder if Trump is actually in charge.
“Who’s running the show?” she asked, suggesting someone may have “countermanded” him on the deportations. “Who’s in charge? Trump or someone else?”
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Image via Reuters
Military and political experts, veterans, and journalists are condemning President Donald Trump’s political rally at Fort Bragg on Tuesday, warning he crossed a critical line by delivering overtly political and authoritarian-themed remarks before U.S. Army troops. They also expressed alarm that uniformed soldiers appeared at ease booing his political opponents—another troubling breach of military norms. Some now say the time has come for generals to publicly speak out.
The commander in chief entered the event to “Hail to the Chief,” and as he took to the stage, his “MAGA anthem,” “Proud to Be an American,” played. For nearly one hour, in about 9,000 words, Trump delivered a political stump speech. He attacked his political opposition, Democrats, including President Joe Biden and his administration, California Governor Gavin Newsom (“Newscum”) and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. He attacked transgender Americans. He attacked the Democratic U.S. Senators who opposed the nomination of Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary, calling them “a very hostile group of people that I think really don’t want to see America be great again.”
He got the soldiers to boo “the fake news” media, and President Joe Biden. He told them the 2020 election was “rigged and stolen.”
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He attacked the people in Los Angeles protesting his deportation policies, describing it as “anarchy,” while telling the soldiers that defending their civil rights was not the reason Americans fought overseas:
“Generations of army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion and third world lawlessness here at home like is happening in California. As Commander in chief, I will not let that happen. It’s never going to happen. What you’re witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and on national sovereignty carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country.”
He thanked the generals, and mentioned some by name. He talked about “the real generals,” as opposed to the ones Americans see on television.
Critics are warning of grave consequences.
“This is the most unacceptable and egregious politicization of our troops we’ve ever seen,” wrote veterans’ activist Paul Rieckhoff, an Army combat veteran, responding to video of Trump getting the soldiers to boo the press, President Joe Biden, and the mayor of Los Angeles.
Trump goaded active duty troops at his Fort Bragg speech to boo:
The Media, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Mayor Karen Bass, and Joe Biden pic.twitter.com/1v9amsi7rv
— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) June 10, 2025
“And it’s not a one off. It’s a strategy,” added Rieckhoff, who is also the founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). “And one we’ll see in full and dangerous display this weekend at his military birthday parade for himself. Trump wants the world to think our great military is HIS military. And wants to coerce and manipulate troops into making them think it is too. And driving down their public trust and approval by the minute. Trump has created America’s greatest civil-military relations crisis since the Civil War. And it’s just getting started.”
Retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel Alexander Vindman, a former Director of European Affairs for the National Security Council (NSC), warned: “America’s Generals and Admirals are terrified. They are cowed. They seem unlikely to hold the line and live up to their oaths to serve the U.S. Constitution.”
Lamenting that “the Generals stay silent,” he added: “Our democracy is in great danger. This morning I wonder if we crossed a line and there’s no going back.”
Army combat veteran Fred Wellman, a graduate of West Point and the Harvard Kennedy School who is now the host of the podcast “On Democracy.” responded to Vindman by saying, “The silence is deafening.”
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Retired U.S Army lieutenant general Russel L. Honoré, who served as the commander of Joint Task Force Katrina, blasted Trump’s speech: “Damn @POTUS Speech At #FortBragg was inappropriate, criticizing previous administration, and Generals while speaking to troops , I never witnessed that S..t like this in 37 years in Uniform.”
Author and former Under Secretary of State Richard Stengel observed, “Unlike other militaries, American soldiers do not swear an oath to the state, or a person, or a monarch, but to the Constitution. Trump calls them ‘his’ military—but they are ours, and they swear to ‘support and defend the Constitution,’ not one man.”
Tom Nichols, a retired U.S. Naval War College professor and Russia expert, at The Atlantic targeted the generals for staying silent.
He wrote, “senior officers of the United States military have an obligation to speak up and be leaders. Where is the Army chief of staff, General Randy George? Will he speak truth to the commander in chief and put a stop to the assault on the integrity of his troops? Where is the commander of the airborne troops, Lieutenant General Gregory Anderson, or even Colonel Chad Mixon, the base commander?”
“Where is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Dan Caine? He was personally selected by Trump to be America’s most senior military officer. Will he tell the man who promoted him that what he did today was obscene?”
Retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey, often seen on cable news, called Trump’s speech “a disgraceful politicization of the active Armed Forces. He is the Commander in Chief. The only loyalty of the Armed Forces is to the Constitution. Their focus is on protecting America from foreign enemies. Grave danger.”
Watch the video above or at this link.
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Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump made a series of inaccurate claims in his remarks on Tuesday, conflating World War I and World War II, incorrectly suggesting he spoke with the governor of California on Monday when it was just after midnight Saturday morning, and asserting—contrary to the First Amendment—that protests, even peaceful ones, can be shut down with “heavy force.”
During remarks to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump was asked when he last spoke with California Governor Gavin Newsom. “A day ago,” he said Tuesday afternoon, which was three and a half days after the governor confirmed his phone call. Trump also confirmed the call by sending a screenshot to a Fox News reporter. The screenshot read June 7, 1:23 AM.
“Recently, other countries celebrated the victory of World War I, France was celebrating, really,” Trump told troops at Fort Bragg on Tuesday afternoon. “They were all celebrating. The only one that doesn’t celebrate is the USA and we’re the ones that won the war. Without us, you’d all be speaking German right now. Maybe a little Japanese thrown in. But we won the war.”
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The United States was part of a coalition during both WWI and WWII. Trump was speaking about WWI, but then claimed, “Without us, you’d all be speaking German right now. Maybe a little Japanese.”
That’s a reference to World War II—Japan was on the side of the Allies, with the U.S., in WWI.
Trump says we won World War I and without the US, we would all be speaking German and possibly Japanese
Trump: Recently other countries celebrated the victory of World War I, France was celebrating. Really. The only one that doesn’t celebrate is the U.S.A. And we’re the ones… pic.twitter.com/BbEK1BlCyJ
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 10, 2025
Also on Tuesday, Trump declared that anyone caught protesting his controversial military parade on Saturday will be met with “very heavy force,” despite the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution clearly protecting political protests.
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“We won the war, and we’re the only country that didn’t celebrate it, and we’re going to be celebrating big on Saturday,” Trump claimed. Veterans Day was initially created as Armistice Day to honor those who died in World War I.
“And if there’s any protestor that wants to come out, they will be met with very big force. By the way, for those people that want to protest, they’re gonna be met with very big force. And I haven’t even heard about a protest, but, you know, this is people that hate our country, but they will be met with very heavy force.”
The First Amendment protects both political speech and the right to “petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
Trump did not state “violent protestors,” or “rioters.” He said “any protestor.”
“For those people that want to protest … they will be met with very heavy force.”
Pres. Trump warned potential protesters ahead of the military parade on Saturday, which will honor the 250th birthday of the Army and coincides with Trump’s 79th birthday. https://t.co/jKHofFxVNK pic.twitter.com/wFpEhDydYg
— ABC News (@ABC) June 10, 2025
Watch the videos above or at this link.
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Image via Reuters
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