After the Election: Recasting the Constitutional Order as a Right-Wing Authoritarian State

Trump’s victory in the presidential election has far wider implications than are immediately apparent. A compliant Congress and Supreme Court will grant him far more power than his predecessors. American democracy is about to undergo an existential test.

The worst part about going to the dentist is not the drilling but the moment the anesthetic wears off. The U.S. presidential election felt like the same thing. The morning after Election Day, liberal America was in a state of shock. Now, it is slowly coming to its senses. As more votes are counted, the full picture is emerging, and it looks even worse than we feared.

It is not just that Donald Trump pulled off a landslide victory with a clean sweep in the swing states and that he is the first Republican in decades to win an absolute majority of the popular vote. With the change of administrations on Jan. 20, the United States faces a seismic shift that threatens to permanently upset the traditional system of checks and balances, the separation of powers.

From Reality TV Star to Retribution

That Trump, a convicted felon, notorious liar and instigator of a coup, is returning to the presidency is worrying enough. Some observers draw comfort from the fact that the world survived the right-wing populist’s first term. Yet, 2024 is fundamentally different from 2016. Not only did Trump previously arrive at the White House a politically inexperienced, former reality-TV star, he now returns as a vengeful party leader armed with a clear agenda. Most importantly, Trump is now assured of having far greater power than any of his predecessors.

Congress and the judicial branch traditionally check the president’s executive authority. But the Republicans have also managed to regain control of the Senate by winning at least 53 of the body’s 100 seats, thereby neutralizing their two occasional internal party critics — Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). Even though it may take days for the final votes to be counted, everything currently indicates that the Democrats will have a minority in the House of Representatives*. Thus, while Trump’s most extreme proposals may have failed to pass in Congress during his first term, this time around he will be able to appoint loyal judges, introduce tariffs, or replace the civil servants in entire federal departments at his own discretion.

A Permanently Right-Wing Supreme Court

Trump doesn’t have to worry about following the law. After all, the highest court in the land granted him broad immunity from prosecution for official acts. There is already a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, where the justices are appointed for life. It’s conceivable that two Republican justices now in their 70s could retire during Trump’s second term, in which case the president could appoint significantly younger successors, and thereby cement the court’s conservative majority for decades.

Trump’s narcissism and desire for approval are his guardrails rather than any norms or institutions. He has himself openly vowed to be a dictator on day one, and branded his critics the “enemies within,” threatening to deploy the military on American streets. Unlike his first term, there will be no one on the 78-year-old president’s staff capable of protecting him from his worst impulses. No secretary of state like Rex Tillerson, whom German politicians mistakenly relied on, no secretary of defense like Jim Mattis, who has since warned that Trump is “the most dangerous person ever,” nor even a Mike Pence, who admittedly showed some backbone in the end. This time, Trump will tolerate only loyalist advisers and propagandists. His first cabinet appointment already indicates this approach. Last time, he filled the chief of staff position, one responsible for coordinating government business, with retired U.S. Marine Gen. John Kelly, who has since called him a “fascist.” This time Trump has promoted campaign manager Susan Wiles to this senior White House position.

It does not take much imagination to picture Trump’s first day in office. He has publicly declared he intends to launch mass deportations of immigrants without documentation, purge the Justice Department and the FBI, and bring criminal prosecutions against leading Democrats. At the same time, it goes without saying that he will quash the legal cases pending against him. He has also said he intends to abolish mandatory vaccinations, slash environmental protection standards and put oligarchs in charge of breaking up government bureaucracy. The dystopian to-do list is endless.

Just one faint glimmer of hope remains: The majority in the House could change again in the midterm elections two years from now. That could feasibly put a brake on Trump’s plans, but only if he has not already managed to radically recast the U.S. liberal constitutional order as a right-wing authoritarian state.

*Editor’s Note: The Republicans attained the majority in the House of Representatives on Nov. 13, 2024.