Trump’s Fascist Intentions Are In Plain Sight For Anyone To See
Adolf Hitler made his evil intentions crystal clear when he wrote his notorious autobiography, Mein Kampf, so no one should have been shocked by his later monstrous acts.
Trump, another modern day fascist, also has clearly and regularly telegraphed his plans in tweets, interviews and other media commentary. And like Hitler, trump has a loyal coterie of committed, professional advisors who have helped him craft his plans to create an imperial presidency with trump at the top.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for trump’s 2024 campaign, said in a statement that the former president has “laid out a bold and transparent agenda for his second term, something no other candidate has done. Voters will know exactly how President Trump will supercharge the economy, bring down inflation, secure the border, protect communities and eradicate the deep state that works against Americans once and for all.”
Cheung is a member of the non-profit Cauliflower Alley Club, an organization that helps former professional wrestlers. He is one of a menagerie of trump advisors that includes one who was fired for failing a security clearance background check and then rehired, and an aide who said that Muslims “do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ his Son, and they stand condemned.”
The former president and contender for four more years of chaos, has said that he plans to limit the independence of federal agencies, including empowering the president to kill or initiate federal investigations; and to purge the government of political enemies by firing any federal worker who did not support trump. Trump’s plan would give him direct and complete control over various critical and presently independent agencies from the Federal Trade Commission to the Federal Communications Commission.
His plans would potentially clear the way for presidents to order purely political actions, like ordering interest rates lowered before elections and to order the attorney general to investigate political adversaries and to absolve the president of any prior charges.
Trump is getting many of his ideas to eviscerate the government from a far right wing, Washington-based, think tank, the “Center for Renewing America.” The main strategists for the center are two former trump officials, Jeffrey B. Clark and Russell T. Vought.
In arguing for greater presidential powers, Clark wrote in May that “the President is the sole head of the Executive Branch. All Executive Branch officials ultimately report to him and thus can and should be removable by him.”
“Biden and D.O.J. (Department of Justice) are baying for Trump’s blood so they can put fear into America,” Clark wrote. “The Constitution and our Article IV ‘Republican Form of Government’ cannot survive like this.”
Vought wrote that the Justice Department was “ground zero for the weaponization of the government against the American people” and that “Conservatives are waking up to the fact that federal law enforcement is weaponized against them and as a result are embracing paradigm-shifting policies to reverse that trend.”
Clark wrote that “no Attorney General should allow himself to be used as a tool to persecute the President’s political enemies. And no President should order his Attorney General to do so.” It was a sentiment that was violated when trump was president and is likely to continue if he is returned to the White House.
Clark wrote that “no President is above the law and should not interfere with legitimate investigations concerning his own wrongdoing” but that “Presidents can, however, decide that their political opponents are the genesis of an illegitimate investigation and order their Attorneys General to proceed accordingly.”
“The threats to our communities, our families, and our faith–the pillars that allow us to live out our freedom–are vast, real, and increasingly hostile,” the center notes on its website.
One of the leading threats, according to the center, is critical race theory, incorrectly defined by the center as “a radical philosophy, rooted in Marxism.” The theory is a cross-disciplinary examination of how laws, social and political movements, and media shape, and are shaped by, social conceptions of race and ethnicity. Critical race theory has come under increasing attack in Republican states where discussions about racism have been considered harmful to students.
The center says critical race theory “views all of society through a racialized prism of identity groups, with minorities being the oppressed and white people serving as the oppressor.” The goal of critical race theory “is to tear down and destroy institutions that (proponents) claim serve as ‘white dominant’ power structures that perpetuate societal ills,” according to the center.
“The Center for Renewing America knows that in order to revitalize the American spirit and restore our great nation, this far-left ideology must be defeated,” the center statement said. “We are committed to that mission and stand ready with millions of citizens to stop this radical cultural revolution.”
Another of the center’s concerns is the sanctity of the election system. The center claims that an unidentified “broad based study” after the 2020 elections showed that “nearly 4 in 10 registered voters of all political stripes believe that it was neither free nor fair.” Trump has claimed without proof that he lost the 2020 election because of widespread voter fraud.
“States must be empowered to pass common-sense voter ID and election integrity policies free from federal interference. Citizens must have the power to determine how they are represented,” the center said..
In other subjects, the center calls on the U.S. to end military, economic and humanitarian support for Ukraine and to oppose granting Ukraine NATO membership.
Vought was director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from July 2020 to January 2021. President Joe Biden’s transition team accused Vought of hindering the incoming administration’s transition by refusing to allow incoming officials to meet with OMB staff. Vought founded the Center for Renewing America in 2021.
Vought is a graduate of Wheaton College, located in Wheaton, Ill., calls itself an “explicitly Christian, academically rigorous, fully residential liberal arts college and graduate school.” In 2015, the college suspended a tenured professor who said that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. Wheaton College said the statement contradicted the school’s statement of faith.
Vought wrote a blog post in 2016 expressing support for Wheaton, quoting a theologian who said non-Christians have a “deficient” theology.
“Muslims do not simply have a deficient theology,” Vought wrote. “They do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ his Son, and they stand condemned. “
Clark, 46, was appointed in September 2020 as acting head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. In 2020 and 2021, Clark was the only senior official at the department who tried to help trump overturn the 2020 election. As a result of his actions, the District of Columbia Bar recommended in July 2022 that Clark be disciplined by the DC Court of Appeals, The Bar accused Clark of dishonesty and of attempting to interfere with the administration of justice, both sanctionable offenses for a practicing attorney. If the charges are upheld, Clark faces a range of punishment, from a reprimand to the loss of his law license.
Trump considered installing Clark as head of the Department of Justice when acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen refused to support trump’s false claims of voter fraud. Trump decided not to not name Clark to lead the Justice Department but only after high ranking Justice Department employees threatened mass resignations if Rosen was appointed.
While in office, trump hired 30-year-old John McEntee, who had no previous personnel or management experience, to be director of the Presidential Personnel Office. McEntee’s job was to ruthlessly identify and remove political appointees and career officials deemed insufficiently loyal to the administration. The policy has since been cancelled by President Biden.
McEntee began as a body man to trump. A body man is a personal assistant who accompanies the president virtually everywhere, arranging and providing lodging, transportation, interactions with media, public, and family, meals, personal briefings and briefing papers, logistical instructions, speech cards, snacks, cell phones, and any other necessary assistance.
McEntee was fired in March 2018 by White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly after he failed a security clearance background check and was under investigation by the Homeland Security Department for possible financial crimes relating to gambling. Trump rehired McEntee in February 2020 and named him Director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office. After leaving the White House, McEntee founded “The Right Stuff,” a dating app for conservatives but soon was brought back as a senior adviser for trump’s 2024 campaign.
Another member of trump’s inner circle of advisors is Steven Cheung, 41, the campaign spokesman for trump’s reelection. Cheung previously worked in trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaign and was the communications director for Ultimate Fighting Championship based in Las Vegas, Nev.
Cheung left the White House in June 2018 again after raising the ire of Chief of Staff Kelly, who hoped to stop leaks and infighting in the communications team.
Before coming to the trump orbit, Cheung worked on a series of losing political campaigns, including the John McCain presidential campaign and the campaigns of technology entrepreneur Steve Poizner for California governor; Sharron Angle, a former far right member of the Nevada Assembly who ran for U.S. Senate; and Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhust’s bid for U.S. Senate.
In 2013, Cheung began working as communications director for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He was inducted as a lifetime member of the Cauliflower Alley Club, a non-profit organization that helps former professional wrestlers.
In 2016, trump was nominated as the GOP presidential candidate and Cheung was hired as Director of Rapid Response responsible for “keeping the campaign up to date on breaking news and pushing back on false or unbalanced reporting,” according to a press release.
After trump defeated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Cheung was named as Special Assistant to the President and Assistant Communications Director at the White House on Jan. 19, 2017, one day prior to Trump’s inauguration.
Cheung stayed on as a member of trump’s 2020 re-election campaign. After Trump lost to Biden, Cheung was involved in the trump campaign’s efforts to overturn the election.
Cheung also was a senior advisor on the 2022 U.S. Senate campaign of former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens. Greitens was Missouri governor from Jan. 2017 until he resigned in June 2018 amid allegations of sexual assault and campaign finance impropriety. Cheung also was a senior advisor for the California gubernatorial campaign of reality star Caitlyn Jenner; and for former Rep. Jim Renacci’s 2022 campaign for Ohio governor.
Greitens, Jenner and Renacci all lost their campaigns, not to mention trump.
Two other trump campaign advisors are speechwriters Vince Haley and Ross Worthington who worked under senior trump advisor, Stephen Miller. Haley and Worthington were longtime associates of former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Haley, an unsuccessful candidate for the Virginia Senate, served as policy director and later campaign manager of Gingrich’s 2012 presidential campaign.
The select House committee investigating the Capitol said it believes Worthington helped draft the January 6 speech trump gave at the rally on the Ellipse in Washington before his supporters stormed the Capitol.
Miller has been a vocal opponent of what he claims is the government’s political prosecution of trump.
The Southern Poverty Law center said Miller is credited with shaping the “racist and draconian immigration policies of President Trump.” They include the zero-tolerance policy, also known as family separation, the Muslim ban and ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Miller has also “purged” government agencies of civil servants who are not entirely loyal to his extremist agenda.
“Through the conscious use of fearmongering and xenophobia, Miller implements policies which demonize immigrants, regardless of their immigration status, in an apparent effort to halt all forms of immigration to the United States,” the Southern Poverty Law Center reported.
After trump’s defeat in 2020, Miller launched a new legal group to challenge President Biden and Democrats’ agenda to the courts. The group, America First Legal Foundation, has trump’s support and a board of directors that includes former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, as well as others with deep ties to the conservative movement.
“As we know, the Radical Left has been relentless in waging their battles in court. Conservatives and America First supporters badly need to catch up and turn the tables, which is why I applaud Stephen and Mark Meadows for rushing to fill this critical void,” Mr. Trump said in a statement.