If Trump wins, the planet will plunge into a blind panic because his Presidency could well spell the end of Democracy in America, the extremes he is willing to go to are beyond anything America has ever seen before.
Axios lays out the danger of a Trump clean sweep:
If former President Trump wins the election, and Republicans keep the House and flip the Senate, the U.S. would witness a dramatic consolidation of new right-wing populist power at scale, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a “Behind the Curtain” column.
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- Why it matters: A Washington fully controlled by Trump and his allies would institutionalize the MAGA movement, with massive consequences for governance, civil rights and international relations.
This period, lasting at least two years, until the next congressional races, would allow Republicans to move ambitiously — with few brakes beyond the Senate filibuster.
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- The vast majority of congressional leaders are now Trumployalists. The days of empowered never-Trumpers are basically over, at least in Congress.
- Trump would pursue a dramatic expansion of presidential power — gutting the federal bureaucracy and installing thousands of executive branch loyalists to rip off the guardrails that restrained his first term.
The big picture: We got our hands on a fascinating private presentation by FGS Global, a worldwide communications and public affairs consultancy advising huge clients on how to prep for various election outcomes. The presentation is based on a CIA method of anticipating, understanding and navigating geopolitical outcomes.
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- FGS uses it to help corporations brace for big, potentially sweeping, changes to policies or regulations in the new government. We realized it would also help Axiosreaders brace for what’s next.
- This is the first of four columns exploring the most likely outcomes — and consequences — of the election. It combines our reporting with the FGS “Alternative Futures” analysis.
What to watch in FGS’ “MAGA momentum” scenario, with Republicans controlling both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue:
1. Immigration, border control
Trump‘s immigration policies would echo nationally — and quickly. The wall along the Southwest border would likely be expanded. Efforts to curb both legal and illegal immigration would accelerate.
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- New barriers would be placed on asylum-seekers. Deportation would intensify. And there could be pushes to cut refugee admissions significantly.
- Trump has promised to round up and expel millions of people here illegally, possibly using the U.S. military. His advisers privately predict a more tempered version of this draconian threat. Running mate JD Vance said in a New York Times interview: “I think it’s certainly reasonable to deport around a million people per year.”
- Expect legislation that codifies restrictive immigration measures, possibly including mandatory E-Verify for businesses and stronger penalties for sanctuary cities.
- This aggressive approach could drastically reduce the flow of immigrants into the U.S. — altering labor markets, especially in industries reliant on immigrant workers.
- It could also exacerbate tensions with Mexico and Central American countries.
2. Health care, social spending
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) would likely be weakened through legislative and administrative actions. Republicans might focus on restructuring key elements of the ACA: Medicaid could see new work requirements and eligibility restrictions, particularly in GOP-controlled states.
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- Reproductive rights would come under further attack at the state level, though Trumpsays he’d veto a national ban.
- Vulnerable populations — low-income families, women, the elderly and LGBTQ+ people — would face increasing barriers to access.
3. Trade, economic policy
Trump‘s return would likely see the resurrection of his combative trade policies, with an even more aggressive approach to tariffs as a blunt instrument to reshape the global economy.
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- Publicly, he’s calling for 10% to 20% blanket tariffs on all U.S. imports and 60% tariffs on China — a historic pivot toward protectionism that would test free-market Republicans in Congress and on Wall Street.
- Imposing new tariffs would rattle global supply chains and could lead to trade wars with allies like the EU, disrupting everything from consumer prices to international relations.
- Trump‘s administration would roll back free trade agreements, and instead negotiate bilateral deals focused on U.S. agricultural and manufacturing interests.
- Deregulation across sectors would allow industries — especially fossil fuels — to operate with fewer environmental or safety restrictions. Trump could repeal President Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act, clawing back massive investments in green technologies.
- Domestic manufacturing may see a temporary boost. But long-term effects on global markets could strain, or change, relationships with key allies.
4. Culture wars intensify
Social and cultural issues would become legislative priorities, as Trumpand the GOP lean heavily into the culture wars. Expect significant legislative attention on what the GOP calls “woke” policies in education and corporations.
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- Efforts to defund diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives would gain traction. New restrictions on gender-affirming care, particularly for minors, would become central to the agenda.
- Republican lawmakers would push anti-LGBTQ+ policies, and may seek to impose restrictions on teaching race and gender in schools.
- A Justice Department stacked with Trump loyalists could prosecute political enemies, including in the corporate world. Republican-led investigations into tech companies, accusing them of anti-conservative bias, would likely intensify.
- Schools, workplaces and local governments would become battlegrounds on issues of race, gender and free speech. Washington Republicans would side with local Republicans.
- Corporate America, under pressure from both sides, would struggle to balance these demands, with risk to consumer relations.
5. Judicial appointments, courts
With control over both chambers of Congress, Trump would have a clear path to nominate a new wave of conservative judges at every level of the federal judiciary.
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- Expect multiple appointments to appellate courts and, potentially, another Supreme Court nomination.
- The federal bench would shift further right — making conservative rulings on abortion, voting rights and executive power more likely for decades to come.
- These judicial appointments would solidify conservative dominance in the courts, ensuring that many Republican-backed laws withstood legal challenges.
- Federal courts could reshape the landscape of civil rights, environmental regulation and immigration law for a generation.
6. Foreign policy, global relations
An unrestrained Trump surrounded by “America First” loyalists — rather than the generals and establishment hawks who held key posts in the first term — would take U.S. foreign policy in unpredictable directions.
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- He’d likely withdraw further from international institutions, opting for bilateral deals focused on U.S. advantage. U.S. relations with some key allies would become strained as Trump focused on a more transactional, quid pro quo foreign policy.
- A strong anti-China stance would dominate, with tariffs and sanctions becoming central. Tensions with Beijing could escalate as GOP hawks push a “decoupling” agenda, roiling global markets and trade.
- Trump would likely move to cut off U.S. funding for Ukraine, forcing Kyiv into a peace settlement that favors Russia. He’d pressure NATO countries to ramp up their military spending, while broadly disengaging from the alliance’s strategic priorities.
- Trump would seek to reinstate his “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign against Iran and empower Israel to “finish the job” of eliminating Hamas in Gaza and crippling Hezbollah in Lebanon.
- An emerging axis of right-wing populists would give Trump new friends on the world stage, empowered to reshape the liberal international order, strengthen borders and challenge “globalist” priorities like fighting climate change.
Post-election risks: This path could lead to significant instability. A close or contested election could mean protests or violence.
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- Claims of voter fraud, particularly in key battleground states, could undermine confidence in the electoral system and inflame tensions.
- Protests — think the 2017 Women’s March — are likely.
If Trump loses, watch how MAGA fascists make December 11th their riot date…
MAGA Militants to Riot on December 11
Put it in your calendar: MAGA militants will riot on December 11.
This time, you won’t have to wait for January 6.
Why is December 11 the new January 6?
January 6 is the date the Constitution sets for the Vice President to read out each state’s submission of their Electoral College “electors.”
In 2020, President Donald Trump, after the voters said, “YOU’RE FIRED!” cooked up a scheme to hold onto the office he’d lost.
Trump’s whack-job plan was to order/cajole/bully/threaten his Vice President, ordering him to ignore the Constitution and reject Electoral votes from states Trump had lost.
Trump’s plot was cooked up by law professor John Eastman who told Agent Orange that VP Mike Pence could simply chuck Electoral College submissions in the garbage and accept fraudulent Electors scrounged up by Rudi Giuliani.
Now The Donald, The Rudi and The John may be sharing a prison cell—as all three face felony charges for their goof-ball would-be coup d’état.
But there is, frighteningly, a way to overturn the election, but January 6 is too late. The day that should give any lover of democracy the shivers is December 11. That’s the date designated by the Constitution as the Certificate of Ascertainment deadline.
If you have never heard of the “Certificate of Ascertainment” date, you’d better bone up. That’s the day by which every Governor must send the National Archives the final list of Electors to the Electoral College after that state “certifies” those votes. If the Certificate never arrives, the state gives away its Electoral votes.
Think about that. If Vice President Kamala Harris wins the popular vote, say, in Georgia, the Governor could withhold the certificate certifying Harris’ Electoral College representatives. (The Constitution gives that power to each Governor.)
If, as a result, neither Harris nor Trump gets that magical 270 Electoral votes, then the election gets tossed into the 12th Amendment process. Then, look out!
…Greg Palast is an old school journalist who has been investigating electoral fraud used by the Republicans to kill off democratic engagement.
His analysis of where MAGA will go if they lose should be taken seriously.
We are inching closer to the American Midnight.
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Of the swing states, only two, Georgia and Nevada have Republican governors who could be pressured into not sending in the Certificates of Ascertainment in the event that Harris wins those states. In a close race those 22 votes might be enough to give Trump a win. I assume the 270 vote number is just used to represent a majority, in normal circumstances, as there are a total of 538 electoral college votes. I also assume that if there are not 538 votes presented to the College then a simple majority would still win the election. Of course the Democrat governors of the other 5 swing states could withhold all or any of the 61 electoral votes Trump might win in their states. If it wasn’t so serious this could be enjoyed as the greatest of soap operas.
Largely correct, although off the mark on legal immigration (he supports that), weaponising of the federal state ( which is what the Democrats have been doing for the last 4 years) and abortion which is now a settled matter.
If I was American I would be cheering on nearly all of those policies because they’re good for America. Which is basically what Trump is all about.
Yeah, I know you want to bring back segregation, and impose Biblical law, deporting all Palestinians in the process.
none of this will happen.
Trump will win and govern in a way that is good for the USA.
Then Set up JD Vance to run for 2028.
So bringing back segreation, lynching and allowing cops to gun down blacks, as well as banning abortion, birth control and sex outside of marriage is good?
Millsy, have you noticed that of late it has been the Democrats who are the race obsessed ones in the USA?
They’re the ones wanting black dorms, segregated classrooms and claiming only Black Lives Matter.
This is consistent with their history because the Democrat party was from the Deep South. The party of slavery and the KKK.
Blacks voted republican until the 1930-60’s when thanks to the New Deal, and Great Society reforms, and the Civil Rights era, they voted for Democrats while Nixon courted the white working class with his Southern Strategy, to the point the the GOP now seeks to reverse the civil rights era. This reaglinnment has been well documented.
Trump, MAGA and and its New Zealand equivalent are the direct result of 40 years of neo liberal economics in action. The nearest acceptable alternative are populist right wing movements led by bloviating leaders.
Trump, MAGA and and its New Zealand equivalent are the direct result of 40 years of neo liberal economics in action. The nearest acceptable alternative are populist right wing movements led by bloviating leaders.
Not that MSM will ever examine the association.
Trump is going to lose.
But as sure as the sun rises he will then foment a political violence and mayhem we’ve never before seen in a western democracy.
Thanks Merrick Garland.
Well we saw a little of that political violence brought upon America last time, so yes, you are correct, it will be worse given the appalling rhetoric Trump uses.
Humanity is determined to destroy its self .We have a head start but the USA will pass us in the first week .
If you support Trump, you support the rolling back of civil rights, recriminalization of homosexuality and transgenderism, banning abortion and birth control, and repression of Palestinians. Fact.
I don’t get the cognitive dissonance amongst so many on the left and found in abundance here.
If you can take Trump out of the mix (go on try…) and just evaluate the policies, it’s fundamentally a set of old school, left wing 1970’s policies.
Deporting Illegal immigrants – NZ does it, Australia does it. The scale of illegal immigration into the US under Biden means that the numbers are crazy but the underlying problem does need to be addressed. The illegals are collapsing wages and keeping citizens in poverty.
Protectionism – the EU has tariffs, Australia has tarrifs, etc. They’re shit and NZ as a small trading nation should and really has to fight against them but the US is perhaps the only nation / market that can sustain itself with tarrifs. Yes it’s people will have to pay more for their goods but then at least in theory, they’ll have jobs to provide the money. It’ll fuck the rest of the world, especially China but hey ho, this is an America first policy
Global Affairs – why should the US be responsible for providing their young to fight and die for the rest of the world? If they stop starting wars and let other nations deal with their own problems it will make the world a more dangerous place but then perhaps we should all start paying more of our GDP to the military rather than riding on the coattails of America.
Ukraine – it’s bad and Putin is evil but European countries have no one to blame but themselves. if Germany and France got their shit together they could defeat Russia easily. Why does the US need to bankroll it other than to perhaps hide Hunter’s misdeeds?
I don’t like Trump, I don’t like his policies and I think when he is elected the world is going to have an interesting time but I don’t think it’ll end.
Western liberal democracies are broken. Trump is a symptom of this as is Meloni, Farrage, Le Pen, etc. The existing model of driving consumption to lift growth by flooding countries with migrants is coming to an end. The UK has had enough and it’s the same in the US (and much of Europe).
Neoliberalism replaced the protectionist and socialist system of the 60’s and 70’s. is MAGA the beginnings of what will replace neoliberalism or a return to the 70’s? Who knows but with JD Vance potentially winning another two terms after Orange 45 departs we may well find out.
Trump supports scabs, and wants to ban trade unions
Win or lose Trump is damaged goods and his toxic stain will take a long time to fade away.
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