The New, Malign and Vastly Deeper State

The New, Malign and Vastly Deeper State

A Rogue Supreme Court, a Master of Delay, Cult-like Believers and Alternative Facts

“This is a historic moment for the conservative movement. From the time we launched this project, we knew it was critical for conservatives to put aside differences and come together if we are to succeed in restoring our federal government to one ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people.’ And reaching 100 members on our advisory board is monumental. Americans are tired of their government being used against them. The administrative state is, at best, completely out of touch with the American people and, at worst, is weaponized against them. We will soon embark on a historic reform of the federal government to get it once again to work for the American people. With our 100-member strong coalition we have the momentum as we begin this critical year.” 

Paul Dans, director of the Heritage Foundation, 2025 Presidential Transition Project, Feb. 20th

Think about what $50 million (plus future spends) buys in terms of legal fees!!! You can waste some of that on the young and incompetent, but if you use better lawyers to accomplish “Trump Strategy Number One: Delay,” it’s a very good value. And if you can get others to foot the bill – perhaps under questionable uses of campaign contributions, some simply by stiffing some of your attorneys, or just plain selling “merch,” the sky’s the limit!

Trump is a proven: fraudster, a flimflam man, sexual abuser, a grifter, a man who faithfully follows Hitler’s Mein Kampf advice to “lie big” consistently, whose company has already been criminally convicted who might (might not?), faces 91 criminal indictments, who has sponsored legislation to give his rich cronies a tax break, who is hell-bent on killing all the regulatory agencies that protect consumers, repeal as much healthcare support as he can and expand white Christian nationalism (very much a Nazi goal in WII) with evangelical fundamentalism through new federal laws and continued appointment of federal judges incapable of being neutral. With a delay, because once Trump is president again, MAGA supporters believe, all the indictments and cases against him will vaporize.

And should Trump succeed in that endeavor, the major source of recommendations for ultra-MAGA rightwing federal appointments – the Heritage Foundation – is making sure that there is no “first 100 days” lead time for Trump to blow away bureaucrats and Democratic appointments in his program of retribution to dismantle most of the federal regulatory agencies and bureaucracies. As the above quote from Paul Dans suggests, the Heritage foundation has prepared detailed lists of who get eliminated and who gets appointed on day one of a Trump presidency.

You can thank Heritage for Trump’s appointment of Supreme Court Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Coney Barrett, appointments which enabled the repeal of Roe vs Wade, the further loosening restrictions on gun ownership, killing DEI initiatives, supporting voting restrictions effectively disenfranchising minority voters and rulings that disemboweled experienced and trained agency experts in favor of untrained and highly biased judges and legislators. You can also thank the Heritage Foundation not only for phase one of Trump’s vastly deeper state – highlighted by his appointment of MAGA-biased judges, many of whom vote the party line over the Constitution – but , if reelected, for phase two of totally saturated MAGA appointments at every level of federal government, defunding the DOJ and dismissing prosecutors helming those cases against him.

We already know that easily provable facts don’t move the needle with the cult worshipping MAGA crowd. They believe whatever falsehoods emanate from Trump’s mouth. After more than 60 judicial rulings (many from Trump-appointed judges) holding that the 2020 election was not “stolen,” MAGAns maintain that it was. And despite claims to the contrary, “U.S. energy production, from wind and solar to oil and gas, has boomed under President Biden.

“The nation is closer than ever to a goal that presidents have pursued for decades: true energy independence.” NYTimes, February 29th. The economy is booming, unemployment is negligible, and our southern border continues to have problems just as Trump told the MAGA controlled House of representatives not to approve a bi-partisan immigration reform act, because it might make Biden look good.

Just as Biden is watching Vietnam-war-like protests against his policy of US support for Israel’s massive overkill in Gaza, if Trump is elected, Netanyahu joyfully will continue a blank check from the man featured on Netanyahu posters in his Israeli election campaign. Biden is getting the blame. Trump is not. And while no president can control interest rates (that role belongs exclusively to the independent Federal Reserve), Trump’s promised tariffs of retribution will cause explosive inflation as consumer products soar in cost.

On February 28th, with the Supreme Court producing the required 5 conservative justices to grant certiorari to hear Trump’s inane claim of immunity from prosecution, Trump has triumphed like never before. The value of the resulting delay alone might allow “President Trump” to dismantle the cases against if he wins in November, and those GOP voters, who pledged not to vote for him if he were convicted in the major indictments against him, won’t have any such convictions by November 5th. “[The Supreme Court] scheduled oral arguments for the week of April 22. A decision is likely before July…

“With Wednesday’s announcement [2/28], the Supreme Court will be considering Trump’s immunity claims while he will likely be in the middle of a criminal trial in New York, on allegations he falsified business records to cover up a hush-money payment to a porn star. [Considered a minor case.] A state judge has scheduled that trial to begin March 25.

“If the justices reject Trump’s immunity arguments, a federal trial on the election-interference charges likely wouldn’t take place until late summer, at the earliest. The Republican National Convention, where Trump will seek his third presidential nomination, begins July 15 in Milwaukee…

“The court took nearly two weeks to set its course on the Trump case, suggesting that the justices struggled to find a consensus. Wednesday’s order included no explanation, as is typical in emergency matters, and no noted dissents.

“Even if Trump ultimately loses before the Supreme Court, the delays in his trial could afford him a de facto victory should he return to the White House next year. As president, Trump could fire an attorney general who refuses to drop the prosecution, or attempt to pardon himself for past crimes.” Jess Bravin, WSJ, February 28th. Hey, Trump is one giant step away from transitioning the United States from democracy to autocracy. And trust me, Trump and his followers want him to be a dictator for more than “just one day.”

I’m Peter Dekom, and American voters – looking at the legacy of dictators who began as democratically elected (Putin, Erdogan, Orban, Maduro, Pinochet, Duvalier, etc.) – should know that dislodging them and their anointed successors can take decades… if ever.