I said this elsewhere, But the world wide virus covid seems tame compared to what's happening now

Well, the silver lining is that He wont do half the things he said either because of pushback or because he only said it for the likes. The bad thing is that it seems the world has indeed changed. We'll see.

You do realize that the American President can't just hand wave a law into existence, right? I'm sure everything will be fine.

Trust me, I would be a lot more gloom and doom if I didn’t know how the American government functioned - that’s why my main worry is tariffs (which does ultimately rest with Congress but the president has been delegated a lot of authority for ‘national security’ reasons) and the war in Ukraine/Gaza (since he does have a lot of power in foreign affairs and can veto aid bills put forward). Even if Trump doesn’t actively do anything, a dysfunctional American government is great news for Russia.

The big problem is that Trump and the team forming behind are arguing for sweeping expansions to presidential power. They are arguing that the president can essentially command all federal agencies however he or she pleases, and are also arguing that although congress sets the 'ceiling' on funding, the president has authority to set the 'floor' - in other words, they are arguing the president can just refuse to provide federal funds to whatever they want.

There's also the matter that Republicans may yet still win control of the house and thus have the power to push through any law they want, and current Republicans have shown they have zero appetite to defy Trump over anything since the 'old guard' are now gone. We won't know who will end up with a house majority for days though, so this is still up in the air.

Even if Trump can't decree laws, there is still enormous damage he can do. He can defund and fire the FBI, EPA and FTC into oblivion, he is expected to wrest control of the federal reserve and justice departments, and he is expected to push the boundaries of what he can do via executive order to the very limit of what is constitutionally allowed.

There's also the matter of what conservatives are planning to do. With Republicans once again in control of confirming judges, they are expected to put up yet another slate of judges with strong conservative leanings that will be sympathetic to more extreme legal arguments i.e. that fertilized embryos are entitled to 14th amendment rights (which if upheld would make abortion deemed constitutionally illegal - this seems to be the current intention by the anti-abortion crowd to push a national ban).

Yes, most people will be fine. But I can guarantee that trans rights (especially for minors) are going to be eroded and that immigrants are going to be terrorized by ICE in the coming years. I also really worry about entitlement programs and what the fallout of tariffs will bring to the working class.

100% agreed that we should be aware of the existential threat that Trump and his cronies pose to minorities, migrants, and pretty much the entire American population to some degree. My (naive) optimism is that the Republican party, despite largely being composed of MAGA sycophants, is still fractured enough to oppose a lot of his more ambitious objectives. I do think, however, that even if I am right about that, we should act as though I'm completely wrong and that Project 2025 will be done to the letter. So much is going to go horribly wrong no matter which way you slice it, but the most we can do is be prepared and remain politically active. I don't agree with everything the Democratic party stands for, but American global hegemony was so much more preferable to mass chaos. ; _ ;

Agreed, lot of these journals in the feed feel really hammy to a cartoony degree like fusion of Shau Tucker from FMA and Gannondorf made his way to the office.
Beyond Parody

Fascism only works if you let it happen and be complacent. Be proactive and nip it in the bud!