LETTER: Trump has how-to guide to create authoritarian nation

To Ozaukee Press:

Donald Trump has boasted that he’ll be a dictator if he wins a second term, and he already has a how-to guide and a political operation to transform the United States into the world’s newest and most powerful authoritarian nation.

     Project 2025 is a detailed Christian Nationalist manifesto that would severely limit individual freedoms and the well-being of most Americans as it rolls back decades of progress in civil and human rights, environmental protection and the goal of shared prosperity. It continues the conservative assault on ballot access and would require that all pregnancies be carried to term, makes heterosexuality the only form of sexual identity and regards transgender people as nonexistent.

     Trump has vowed to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy active military to crush dissent, seal the southern border and carry out the largest deportation of undocumented immigrants in history. He’ll employ the Justice Department as his personal law firm and use it to pursue his political enemies and those involved in prosecuting him.

     Project 2025 would give Trump unfettered control over the entire executive branch, without any congressional oversight, since his actions are deemed to be the will of the people. He plans to issue an executive order that could end civil service protections for nearly 50,000 federal workers who currently have at least some policy influence and replace them with Trump loyalists. Terminating this many knowledgeable and trained public servants will imperil our food, medicines, air and water quality and virtually all consumer products.

     The recent Supreme Court ruling that gave presidents broad immunity from future prosecution for all official acts appears to indicate their support for establishing an imperial presidency and could motivate Trump to fully implement Project 2025, certain that he can continue to enrich himself and avoid criminal prosecution as long as he maintains the support of his Christian Nationalist constituency.

Greg Melcher      

Port Washington