By Paul Waldman
Columnist
July 25, 2022 at 2:36 p.m. EDT
When we speak of the ongoing threat Donald Trump poses to American democracy, we’re usually thinking of upcoming elections. If a bunch of his acolytes are elected to such offices as secretary of state and governor, can we have a fair election in 2024? What if he runs and loses again, but is better positioned to launch a successful version of the coup that failed in 2020?
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But it’s now becoming clear that Trump and his allies are thinking beyond the election and contemplating what they will do if he actually takes office. What they’re imagining is not just more disturbing than what he did before, but beyond what any president has imagined. And the plan they’re preparing could — and probably will — be used by any Republican who becomes president.
Call it Turnkey Authoritarianism.
Parties regularly plan for a return to power, setting out policy goals and assembling lists of potential hires. Trump’s failure to do so marked his transition in 2017: He neither knew nor cared how the government operated, many Republicans wouldn’t work for him, and the transition was haphazard and disorganized.
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But now Trump allies are devising something qualitatively different. Jonathan Swan of Axios has published two installments of an investigative series on preparations underway by Trump allies to completely reimagine the staffing of the federal government. They have essentially planned a mass purge of tens of thousands of civil servants, to replace them with loyalists who could be counted on to do whatever Trump wants.
Under the plan, Trump would reclassify as many as 50,000 civil servants, enabling him to fire them and replace them with whatever lackeys and lickspittles have proved willing to put his interests ahead of the country’s.
Work on this idea began late in 2020, providing a template that could be implemented with greater planning and efficiency in a second Trump term. Key believers were installed to oversee personnel, replacing the disloyal with zealous Trumpists. As Swan reports, one official rejected interviewees expressing interest in mundane conservative goals such as deregulation; instead, he “wanted people harboring angst — who felt they had been personally wronged by ‘the system.’ The bigger the chip on their shoulder, the better.”
And now, “well-funded groups are already developing lists of candidates selected often for their animus against the system.”
According to Swan’s reporting, Trump would restock a second administration with people who have been revealed as the most dangerous, the least concerned with the law and the most eager to dispense with democratic practices. Former advisers such as Mark Meadows and Stephen Miller would return. So would such figures as Peter Navarro and Jeffrey Clark, both of whom were allegedly involved in Trump’s coup attempt, and who would be given even more influential jobs.
Clark, Swan reports, could be named attorney general. And if Republicans control the Senate, they’d probably confirm him.
But this goes beyond any high-profile individuals. What matters more is the philosophy behind the effort. It says that the next time around, it isn’t enough to simply pursue a set of conservative policies on taxes, immigration, the environment or anything else. What really matters is transforming government itself so that, rather than serving the interests of the public, it will be under the direct control of Trump.
Or some other Republican. And this is where the Turnkey comes in. If Trump doesn’t run, or is beaten in a GOP primary by someone like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, this effort can become the blueprint to bring the same approach to the next GOP administration.
DeSantis is only one of an entire generation of Republicans who have enthusiastically embraced the idea that the “limited government” Republicans used to advocate is for suckers. Instead, they want to use state power aggressively, to punish their enemies and fight the culture war. As Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance said, if Trump is elected again he should fire “every civil servant in the administrative state” and “replace them with our people.”
If your job is tracking soybean yields at the Agriculture Department or distributing highway funds at the Transportation Department, you might find yourself wondering whether you should make some sort of display of loyalty to Trump.
What might motivate Trump most in this effort is his frustration when it turned out that people in the government — even many of those he appointed — had lines they would not cross, betrayals of the public interest and the system of democracy that they would refuse to participate in. This plan suggests that Trump is determined not to allow that to happen again.
So next time around, he and the people who aided and abetted his attack on the American system will be ready. Their ambitions are grander, the chips on their shoulders are larger, and by now much of the party shares their goals.
Whoever the next GOP presidential nominee is, the Trumpists will say to them, “Just leave the government to us.” When that day comes, we’ll realize that the crisis we face goes beyond our elections.
Columnist
July 25, 2022 at 2:36 p.m. EDT
When we speak of the ongoing threat Donald Trump poses to American democracy, we’re usually thinking of upcoming elections. If a bunch of his acolytes are elected to such offices as secretary of state and governor, can we have a fair election in 2024? What if he runs and loses again, but is better positioned to launch a successful version of the coup that failed in 2020?
Sign up for a weekly roundup of thought-provoking ideas and debates
But it’s now becoming clear that Trump and his allies are thinking beyond the election and contemplating what they will do if he actually takes office. What they’re imagining is not just more disturbing than what he did before, but beyond what any president has imagined. And the plan they’re preparing could — and probably will — be used by any Republican who becomes president.
Call it Turnkey Authoritarianism.
Parties regularly plan for a return to power, setting out policy goals and assembling lists of potential hires. Trump’s failure to do so marked his transition in 2017: He neither knew nor cared how the government operated, many Republicans wouldn’t work for him, and the transition was haphazard and disorganized.
ADVERTISING
But now Trump allies are devising something qualitatively different. Jonathan Swan of Axios has published two installments of an investigative series on preparations underway by Trump allies to completely reimagine the staffing of the federal government. They have essentially planned a mass purge of tens of thousands of civil servants, to replace them with loyalists who could be counted on to do whatever Trump wants.
Under the plan, Trump would reclassify as many as 50,000 civil servants, enabling him to fire them and replace them with whatever lackeys and lickspittles have proved willing to put his interests ahead of the country’s.
Work on this idea began late in 2020, providing a template that could be implemented with greater planning and efficiency in a second Trump term. Key believers were installed to oversee personnel, replacing the disloyal with zealous Trumpists. As Swan reports, one official rejected interviewees expressing interest in mundane conservative goals such as deregulation; instead, he “wanted people harboring angst — who felt they had been personally wronged by ‘the system.’ The bigger the chip on their shoulder, the better.”
And now, “well-funded groups are already developing lists of candidates selected often for their animus against the system.”
According to Swan’s reporting, Trump would restock a second administration with people who have been revealed as the most dangerous, the least concerned with the law and the most eager to dispense with democratic practices. Former advisers such as Mark Meadows and Stephen Miller would return. So would such figures as Peter Navarro and Jeffrey Clark, both of whom were allegedly involved in Trump’s coup attempt, and who would be given even more influential jobs.
Clark, Swan reports, could be named attorney general. And if Republicans control the Senate, they’d probably confirm him.
But this goes beyond any high-profile individuals. What matters more is the philosophy behind the effort. It says that the next time around, it isn’t enough to simply pursue a set of conservative policies on taxes, immigration, the environment or anything else. What really matters is transforming government itself so that, rather than serving the interests of the public, it will be under the direct control of Trump.
Or some other Republican. And this is where the Turnkey comes in. If Trump doesn’t run, or is beaten in a GOP primary by someone like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, this effort can become the blueprint to bring the same approach to the next GOP administration.
DeSantis is only one of an entire generation of Republicans who have enthusiastically embraced the idea that the “limited government” Republicans used to advocate is for suckers. Instead, they want to use state power aggressively, to punish their enemies and fight the culture war. As Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance said, if Trump is elected again he should fire “every civil servant in the administrative state” and “replace them with our people.”
If your job is tracking soybean yields at the Agriculture Department or distributing highway funds at the Transportation Department, you might find yourself wondering whether you should make some sort of display of loyalty to Trump.
What might motivate Trump most in this effort is his frustration when it turned out that people in the government — even many of those he appointed — had lines they would not cross, betrayals of the public interest and the system of democracy that they would refuse to participate in. This plan suggests that Trump is determined not to allow that to happen again.
So next time around, he and the people who aided and abetted his attack on the American system will be ready. Their ambitions are grander, the chips on their shoulders are larger, and by now much of the party shares their goals.
Whoever the next GOP presidential nominee is, the Trumpists will say to them, “Just leave the government to us.” When that day comes, we’ll realize that the crisis we face goes beyond our elections.
