After the US election: With Donald Trump's horror list

Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger After the US election: With Donald Trump's horror list Karl Doemens • 14 hours • 3 minutes reading time With a compliant Congress and Supreme Court, Donald Trump has much more power than his predecessors. The worst thing about going to the dentist is not the drilling, but the moment the anesthesia wears off. It's similar with the American presidential election. The morning after, liberal America was in a state of shock. Now consciousness is returning. More votes have been counted, the overall picture is becoming visible - and it is even worse than feared. Donald Trump has not only won a landslide victory, conquered all the "swing states" and, for the first time in decades as a Republican, won the absolute majority of all votes. With the upcoming change of government in Washington on January 20, the USA is facing a huge tectonic shift that threatens to permanently upset the traditional system of "checks and balances", the separation of powers. Trump wins all swing states in his landslide victory The fact that Trump, a convicted criminal, notorious liar and coup instigator, is returning to the presidency is worrying enough. Some observers console themselves with the fact that the world also survived the right-wing populist's first four years in office. But 2024 is fundamentally different from 2016. Not only did an inexperienced ex-reality TV star move into the White House back then, but now a vengeful party leader with a clear agenda is returning. Above all, Trump has a wealth of power like none of his predecessors. Normally, the president is balanced by Congress and the judiciary. But in the election, the Republicans were also able to win the majority in the Senate - with at least 53 of the 100 seats, so that the two occasional dissidents within the party, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, are neutralized. The final count of the House of Representatives votes may take days. But at the moment everything indicates that the Democrats are also in the minority here. While Trump failed with his most extreme proposals in Congress the first time, this time he can appoint loyal judges, introduce tariffs or replace the employees of entire agencies as he pleases. Trump has a level of power that no other of his predecessors has had He does not even have to adhere to the limits of the legal code. After all, the country's highest court has granted him general immunity for official business. The Supreme Court itself already has a right-wing majority of 6:3. The judges are appointed for life. It is conceivable that two Republicans over the age of 70 will retire during Trump's term in office. Then the president could appoint much younger successors and cement the right-wing majority on the Constitutional Court for decades. Trump's guardrails are his narcissism and his need for recognition, not any norms or institutions. He himself has openly announced that he wants to be a "dictator for a day", called his critics "enemies within" and threatened to deploy the military on American streets. Unlike in his first term in office, there will be no one around to protect the 78-year-old from his worst impulses. Trump's guardrails are his narcissism and his need for recognition No Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who German politicians wrongly relied on at the time, no Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, who has since warned of Trump's "danger", and not even Mike Pence, who at least showed backbone in the end. This time Trump will only tolerate loyal advisers and propagandists. His first personnel decision already indicates this. Last time he filled the post of Chief of Staff, who coordinates government work, with ex-General John Kelly, who now calls him a "fascist". This time he is promoting Susan Wiles, the head of his election campaign, to the White House. You don't need a lot of imagination to imagine Trump's first days in office. He himself has publicly announced mass deportations of irregular migrants, purges in the Justice Department and the FBI, and the prosecution of leading Democrats. He will, of course, dismantle the proceedings against him. He wants to abolish mandatory vaccinations, reduce environmental protection regulations, and commission oligarchs to dismantle the administration. The list of horrors could go on almost endlessly. There is only one small glimmer of hope: in the midterms in two years, the majority in the House of Representatives could change again. That could possibly slow Trump down - but only if he has not already deformed the US constitutional state into an authoritarian constitutional state by then.