Trump’s 'terrible' proposal is 'a preview of the corruption to come'

President-elect Donald Trump’s signature economic plan of raising tariffs on imported goods could cause more harm to the economy than good, and offer a pathway toward a corrupt second administration, a columnist wrote Wednesday.

Trump has long considered increased tariffs on certain foreign countries a “brilliant” strategy, but the reality is they could lead to disastrous effects and showcase how his first administration “could pale in comparison to his second” in terms of corruption, Paul Waldman wrote for MSNBC.

“Trump believes that tariffs can do almost anything — force other countries to their knees, bring prosperity to the nation, even restore your sense of manly virility,” Waldman wrote. “Best of all, they can provide an avenue for him to reward those who please him, hurt those who fail to bend the knee, and maybe even use his office to make a few more bucks.”

The columnist built his case in his Friday opinion piece by offering readers as an example the “uneven rollout of tariffs” in Trump’s first term when the administration became “besieged by lobbyists, who filed thousands of requests for special exemptions and carve-outs to allow their clients to import goods and parts without paying the tariffs.”

Waldman said Trump’s new proposal on tariffs, which promises to be more comprehensive than what he’s seen through in the past, “is a preview of the corruption to come.”

“In a second term, Trump won’t just be doling out favors; he’ll also deliver punishments,” Waldman wrote.

He concluded by reminding readers that the public is familiar with how personal Trump's views are toward companies and their CEOs, with the “determining factor” being “whether they treat him like the king he imagines himself to be.”

“Firms looking at this history might reasonably decide that making good products isn’t enough to succeed; they also must win the goodwill of a petty and mercurial president, just as companies do in dictatorships around the world,” he wrote.

We are already in a power structure in which money has displaced citizenry. We now have people in power who no longer pretend to care about votes and elections. The sitting president tried to overthrow the previous presidential election. His co-ruler, Elon Musk, spent more on the last campaign than all of the small donors put together. He and other oligarchs chose the vice-president.

Not just Trump but Musk believe they can simply threaten Americans with persecution and violence. Both use language that is redolent of fascism to define Americans as enemies deserving of punishment.

Man.. the way Trump and his lackeys manipulate the media is insanely effective. They’ve basically found a “cheat code” that allows them to steer mass media coverage in anyway they please. If there’s anything the mass media owners believe in and honor — it’s the rich & powerful’s “right to defend themselves.” Any bad press or public pushback on Trump’s policy is met with the media endlessly repeating Trump & Co.’s carefully crafted talking points. And the profit motive ensures that the mass media toes the line because they all crave “access”. Not toeing the line can result in “punishment” from Trump’s regime (i.e., denying access). We saw this play out recently with MSNBC’s Morning Joe, WaPo, et al. So the upcoming 4 (or more) years is going to lay bare for the nation to see exactly what the mass media is.

NEW YORK —
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has become the first person in history to reach a net worth over $400 billion, as reported by Bloomberg. Following a recent sale of insider SpaceX shares, Musk's personal net worth skyrocketed to $429.2 billion as of Dec. 12, 2024.

It's an amount of wealth that can be hard to conceptualize. For a person working at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, it would take more than 6.75 million years working non-stop to earn that much money.

“The briefing document, dated Jan. 14 and signed by Ambassador Andreas Michaelis, describes Donald Trump’s agenda for his second White House term as one of “maximum disruption” that will bring about “a redefinition of the constitutional order - maximum concentration of power with the president at the expense of Congress and the federal states.”

“Basic democratic principles and checks and balances will be largely undermined, the legislature, law enforcement and media will be robbed of their independence and misused as a political arm, Big Tech will be given co-governing power,” it says.

The document cites the judiciary, and especially the U.S. Supreme Court, as central to Trump’s attempts to further his agenda, but says that despite the court’s recent decision to expand presidential powers, “even the biggest critics assume that it will prevent the worst from happening.”

Michaelis sees control of the Justice Department and FBI as key to Trump reaching his political and personal goals, including mass deportations, retribution against perceived enemies and legal impunity. He says Trump has broad legal options to force his agenda on the states, saying “even military deployment within the country for police activities would be possible in the event of declared ‘insurrection’ and ‘invasion’.”

Democrats and Republicans have both embraced super PACs and embraced the megadonors that fund them. But Trump is taking this to another level. As you said, over 44% of the money raised to support Trump came from just 10 donors, and Musk being one of the top few. And, you know, that’s not something we’ve seen before. We’ve not seen that level of disproportionate spending from just a handful of wealthy billionaires.

The 1976 National Emergencies Act gives the president broad discretion to declare a national emergency. That declaration serves as a trigger to unlock powers contained in 150 different provisions of law, including some that carry alarming potential for abuse. For instance, there are provisions allowing the president to take over or shut down communications facilities and to freeze Americans’ assets without judicial process. It is not hard to see how a president could wield these powers to erode both individual liberties and democracy itself.

Donald Trump was named Time magazine's 2024 person of the year and got a glowing endorsement from Time owner Marc Benioff, who has owned the publication since 2018. Benioff is also the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Salesforce.

9. Control of mass media and undermining “truth”.