TRUMPINATOR - The Second Term

When Ex-President Donald Trump lost the last Presidential elections in 2020 .....

THE TRUMPINATOR

.... he didn't take defeat well (and we all know about the more than dubious attempts he made to overturn the democratic vote), and he smouldered on the edge of the political scene for the last four years.

But, rather than take his defeat gracefully on the chin, he pledged to be back for a third attempt ....

TRUMPINATOR 3

So here we are in 2025, we are seeing the possibility of a vengeful and vindictive President Trump, laying waste to both the US Democratic process, and the judicial system in the name of 'reforming them'. Although he has said that he would only be a dictator on ‘day one’ if he's re-elected president. 

At an event in Iowa in December 2023, when asked by the host Sean Hannity if "You are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?"

Trump replied "Except for Day One!"  ... repeating "Except for Day One!"

When asked for clarification, he said "I want to close the border [Mexico we assume] and I want to drill, drill, drill [oil]. After that I'm not a dictator " Mr Trump doesn't believe in climate control measures and intends to overturn the USA's measure to cut the use of oil products ..... this despite the fact that we have just seen in the LA fires, how the worlds climate is changing dramatically.

Trump had earlier refused to answer a question about whether he had any plans to "abuse power, to break the law, to use the government to go after people" ...... Personally I think he will be exactly the same as he was in his first term .... so very unpredictable, and somewhat dictatorial.

So the US will fall out with, or strain relationships with its old allies, NATO may be fractured or even abandoned (if some of his supporters get their way). Around the world, states currently covered by the support of the USA, such as Taiwan, South Korea and to some extent Japan, may well find themselves unsure of the military support promises that has supported them for the last 5 decades.

Trump has pardoned political friends (such an anti-abortion activists and rioters) or allies, and prosecute enemies (Hunter Biden for one would have been in his sights until his presidential pardon for all existing and uncharged offences). Foreign policy will be both scatter gun and erratic (last time he abandoned the Kurds to the Turks, negotiated the US Troop withdrawal deal that ended with Afghanistan falling to the Taliban, negotiated with and got nothing from North Korea, and played footsie with Russian President Putin - who is still in power, but now invading the Ukraine). 

He has now said he would end the war in Ukraine in one day (a statement which Putin has approved .... which in itself should be a warning), and a promise that suggests that Trump’s simplistic plan would be the U.S. attempting to force the Ukrainians to cede Ukrainian lands to Russia, with no guarantees of future security  .... all while claiming that “there was nobody tougher than me on Russia.” .... similarly there has been a scramble to get a ceasefire in Gaza, as no-one knows what Trump may have planned to 'end the war' there as well.

Robert Kagan, a neo-conservative scholar, penned an essay in the Washington Post in 2023 warning that "the odds of the United States falling into dictatorship have grown considerably". And another vocal critic of Mr Trump, former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, told CBS that the US was "sleepwalking into dictatorship".  

So you can make of all this what you will ..... but there will be many around the world who will be upset by the results of this election .... thankfully, after his re-election, and if we all survive the next four years, the US will finally move to new and much younger generation of leadership ... something that frankly they need.