12 newyork| february17–march1, 2020
four more years
and the attempted intimidation of a judge
on behalf of Roger Stone, will just have
been a warm-up act if Election Day em-
powers his mob enterprise even further.
Rudy Giuliani continues to travel to
Ukraine in search of smears, in lieu of actual
dirt, that can soil the Bidens. But surely that
isnothisentirebrief. What “evidence” is
now being manufactured by Giuliani and
passed to William Barr to wreak vengeance
on former U.S. ambassador Marie Yovano-
vitch and other diplomats who testified
before the House? Meanwhile, Steve
Mnuchin’s Treasury Department, having
followed up Trump’s acquittal by handing
over Hunter Biden’s financial documents to
a tarring-and-feathering committee of the
Republican Senate, can be counted on to
find pretexts to burrow into the finances of
the Clintons, Mike Bloomberg, and their
respective foundations, as well asthe tax
returns of Nancy Pelosi’s wealthy husband.
Perhaps highest on the WhiteHouse
enemies list is Mitt Romney, whohas
already been warned by a key Trumpflunky,
Matt Schlapp, chairman of the Conservative
Political Action Conference, that hemight
face physical violence were he to showupat
CPAC’s annual conclave. If thatlineof
re venge fails, one can imagine Trumpfind-
ing a way to go after tax breaks andother
federal benefits bestowed on Romney’s
beloved Mormon church, which thepresi-
dent mocked as his nemesis’s “crutch”after
his lonely vote to convict. Mormons,how-
ever conservative and Republican,havenot
signed on fully to Trump, and he hasbeen
less popular in Utah than in any othersolid-
red state. Trump does not need them,and
one of his most powerful Christian support-
ers, the Dallas Baptist pastor RobertJeff-
ress, has labeled Mormonism “a heresyfrom
the pit of hell” besides. The president’s
se rvile Evangelical base will delightinwhat-
ever pain he inflicts on Romneyandhis
co-religionists.
When Trump claimed “AmericaFirst”as
a mantra, he called it “a brand-new,mod-
ern term,” oblivious of its historicalprove-
nance as a movement that attractedNazis
and Nazi sympathizers in Americainthe
years before World War II. It’s a raretime
when he probably was telling thetruth.
Such is his illiteracy that he probablyhasn’t
heard of the Night of the LongKnives
either. But the evidence suggeststhat, if
nothing else, he has mastered thefunda-
mentals of Godfather 2. FRANKRICH
domestic and international to his agenda. The Iran nuclear deal has primarily
kept its head above water because Europe is still respecting the deal rather
than joining in Trump’s saber-rattling. When Trump gutted the Obama
administration’s fuel-mileage standards, auto companies steered clear, no
doubt because it wouldn’t pay for them to invest in gas-guzzlers if a Democrat
wasto come in and force them to change again.
Only in the past few months has Trump’s reelection started to appear as likely
asnot.If hewins,a basiccalculationabouthowtodealwithhimwilltipfora whole
range of players. Trump has leaned on social-media companies and the owners of
such important organs as CNN and the Washington Post to suppress criticism and
scrutiny of his administration and to dial up the praise. He has openly promised
pardons to anybody who violates the law in the effort to deport migrants or com-
plete his border fence, and as of yet, nobody has taken him up on the offer.
The natural assumption among those rooting for his failure is that four more
years will be as unbearable as the first four. But they could in fact be significantly
worse than that if a chunk of the resistance to Trump’s power suddenly givesway,
revealing something enduring, even permanent, about America. Who else—in the
bureaucracy, in business, in governments overseas—is holding off full collabora-
tion with Trump on the premise that he’s just a passing fever? Here are 19 visions
of this possible near future. JONATHAN CHAIT
intelligencer
PHOTOGRAPHS: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/GETTY IMAGES (BACKGROUND AND TRUMP BODY); ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES (TRUMP HEAD)
Im peachment
Re dux
I
f hewinsagain,he’ll beimpeached
again;I guaranteethat with 100 per-
centcertainty. Pelosicannotstopthat
freighttrain,andit’llbeDemocrats’only
outlet,sincewe’llkeeptheSenate.Andif
it’ s forthe same nothingburger they
impeachedhimonthistime,it’ ll endthe
sameway. I just don’t thinkPelosicancon-
trolhercaucus.
We’llseeTrumpunleashed.Frankly,
someofthestuff intheweeksincehe’s
beenacquitted—evenHopeHickscom-
ingbackandJohnny McEntee,hisformer
bodyguy,becomingheadoftheOfficeof
PresidentialPersonnel—showthat the
guardrailsthat keephimintheboat have
comecompletelyoff. So if anyonetellsyou
what that means, policywise, they’re
guessing.Nobodyknows.Thereare sig-
nalsfromtheconservativesintheadmin-
istrationthat thesecondtermis whendefi-
citreductionstarts,butthat’scomplete and
utterb.s.I don’t thinkthepresidenthas
evercampaignedondeficitsorcaredabout
deficits.Lookat hisbudgets:Conservatives
attheOfficeofManagementandBudget
havecutprogramsonlyforthepresidentto
trytowalkbacktheirdecisiondayslater.
There may beanotherrunat healthcare—
not Obama care repeal, but another run at
some sort of health-care overhaul. Like the
USMCA trade deal, a mushed-up version
of reforms that nobody’s excited about.
It will be interesting to see politically, if
he’s not on the ballot, if he still has the
hold on the party that he does now. Half
of the GOP senators are queasy every
morning over tweets. Do they start to dis-
tance themselves or is it still maga town,
where you have to stick with him or you
will get your ass beat in the primary? Per-
sonally, I think the president makes life
harder on himself and Republicans at
times, but you cannot call yourself a
Republican and not be happy about the
last four years. All in for four more.
ANONYMOUS GOP HILL STAFFER
A Politics of Pure
Revenge
T
he signal victory of Trump’s
first term, ratified by his impeach-
ment acquittal, was his triumph
over the rule of law. In a second term, he
will help himself to all the spoils he can.
Trump doesn’t believe in the old axiom
“Don’t Get Mad, Get Even”—he gets mad
and even. The purge of the Vindmans and
Gordon Sondland, closely followed by an
induced exodus at the Justice Department
