Approximately half the nation’s voters are fearful of the future administration of President-elect Donald Trump. Speculation about what Americans might face during a Trump presidency comes as no surprise. Author and Vice President of Governance Studies for The Brookings Institute, Darrell M. West presents four perspectives through which to envision a future Trump presidency, joining those who speculated before Trump’s election.
West’s four perspectives are that Trump might be hedged in and molded by the Republican Party; that he might become a rogue president fueled by his unconventional electorate base; that he might be a failed president advised by corporate lobbyists; or that he might become an authoritarian president trampling freedoms and extending sanctioned breaches of privacy. West draws more detailed pictures of the four possible perspectives, highlighting what he envisions as salient possibilities.
During his campaign, Trump challenged Republican GOP thinking at the same time that he upheld conventional GOP positions. West speculates that as a traditional Republican president, Trump’s commitment to America’s “Rust Belt” workers could play out in terms of orthodox tax cuts, deregulation and the beginning miles of the Mexico wall, with Chief of Staff Reince Priebus acting as the “de facto prime minister of the government.” But as a rogue president, Trump might attack immigration yet “protect Social Security and Medicare” despite the GOP, perhaps eventually building a coalition government. It is a rogue Trump who might make the most of Twitter tweets to keep his base on-message.
Trump the failed president might find himself embroiled in scandals around money, sex and conflicts of interest (such as the Clintons once faced). The country might enter an uncomfortable liaison with the “Russian President Vladimir Putin” and might find that tax cuts aiding the rich induce a recession and create mass joblessness. But Trump the authoritarian leader might increase the power of militarized police and of the FBI. He might deem it advisable to curtail the rights of dissent and of freedom of speech, while believing he can commit criminal acts with impunity. Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon set such a precedent, West says, adding that in the end, “courageous citizens will have to step forward to defend the Constitution and reclaim the United States of America.”
