THE RISE & FALL OF THE SECOND TRUMP REICH: TICK TOCK…  
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Thom Hartmann
January 11, 2024
The Hartmann Report
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_ A dystopian tale that conforms to Trump's many campaign
promises..[Every incident mentioned is based on an actual statement or
action by Donald Trump, people closely surrounding him, or something
Trump has praised about his role model Victor Orbàn.] _

Image credit: The Hartmann Report,

 

It was a hell of a year, 2025: the first year of the First Reich (as
those formerly called Democrats referred to it) or The New America as
the GOP now refers to our nation. One people, one nation, one leader:
America, President-for-life Trump
[[link removed]] tells
us, is now “truly great.”

It started with the election of November 2024, when the No Labels
candidacy
[[link removed]] of
Larry Hogan and Joe Manchin pulled enough electoral votes away from
Biden — who was more than 10 million popular votes ahead of Trump
— that none
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the three tickets hit the necessary 270 Electoral College votes to win
the White House.

It was a scenario similar to 1824 when John Quincy Adams lost the
popular vote to Andrew Jackson but, because William Crawford and Henry
Clay were also running for president, neither Adams or Jackson hit the
threshold with the Electoral College and the vote went to the House of
Representatives, which made Adams president in a series of backroom
deals known to historians as the “Corrupt Bargain
[[link removed]].”

In a similar way, the election of 2024 was thrown into the House of
Representatives, per the 12th Amendment, with each state having one
single vote. Since 26 states had Republican-controlled congressional
delegations and only 23 had Democratic-controlled delegations
(Pennsylvania is evenly split), the House voted 26-24 for Donald Trump
to become the next president. He didn’t even need to threaten his
vice president or invoke a mob.

At his swearing-in, Trump announced that he was going to fulfill his
“dictator for a day” promise
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pardoned himself, all Republicans who were in Congress
[[link removed]] in January 2021 and
helped organize or support the attack on the Capitol, and all the
January 6th seditionists.

He then announced
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the 24 Democrats leading their congressional delegations who’d voted
against him in the House were “guilty of sedition against the United
States.”  As he spoke, each was arrested and taken into custody.

The arrests, particularly of Democratic members of the House and a
handful of Democratic Senators from Red states, gave the GOP a
majority in both houses, even though Democrats had won both in the
2024 election. Jim Jordan was named the new Speaker of the House, and
Rick Scott took Mitch McConnell’s job in the Senate.

The next day, January 21st, Trump signed a new version of
his _Schedule F [[link removed]]_ change
to the Civil Service law [[link removed]],
firing _en masse_ roughly 50,000 federal employees in the top and
upper management positions across the federal government, including
the Department of Defense.

A group of billionaire-friendly candidates had been preselected by a
billionaire-funded think tank and all were installed within hours.
Those that required the “advice and consent of the Senate”
were placed
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“acting” positions, as Trump had done in 2020.

Within a week, another series of political arrests
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Hunter Biden, Liz Cheney, Merrick Garland, Jack Smith, Brad
Raffensperger, Letitia James, and multiple other federal and state
judges and prosecutors were arrested for conspiracy and alleged RICO
violations.

“America will never again tolerate lawlessness by its elected and
appointed officials,” Trump announced in a prime-time message to the
country. Republican politicians and the media rushed to his defense,
pointing out previous presidents (Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln)
who, they said
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did “even worse.”

The Supreme Court handed down a 6-3 ruling declaring hate crimes
unconstitutional, calling them “thought crimes,” with Justice Sam
Alito asserting
[[link removed]]:

“We will never allow America to become the dystopian nanny state
characterized in the writings of Orwell or Lewis and craved by
Democrats. Americans are free to have any thoughts or intentions they
want: we only punish actual behavior, and that punishment is the same
for all.”

Within hours of their announcement, over 200 people — most queer or
Black — lay dead across the United States. Trump went on TV to calm
the nation, again asserting
[[link removed]] “There
are very fine people on both sides.”

That weekend, hundreds of thousands of Americans poured into the
streets to protest. Trump called another press conference and declared
a state of emergency, provoked by what he calls “a nationwide
insurrection against law and order and our great nation.”

Tens of thousands of Army troops met the crowds in the streets, and in
11 cities and a half-dozen rural areas used live ammunition to kill
several dozen protestors.

Joy Reid began her Monday MSNBC show with the song _Four Dead In
Ohio_ and was arrested on-air for “inciting further
insurrection.” Trump then referred the network, its executives, and
several of its hosts to his FCC for investigation, as he promised in
2023
[[link removed]].

CNN threw in with Trump, joining Fox and the Big Three national
networks in helping explain to America how Trump’s “changes” are
actually far less draconian than things previous presidents
(particularly Lincoln, “who even suspended
[[link removed].] _habeas
corpus!”_) have done.

Trump _again_ invoked the PATRIOT Act
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continue to hold the hundreds of elected and appointed Democratic
officials, “thugs,” and “sedition ringleaders” in secret
detention centers without access to lawyers or other due process.

The media pointed out that this is nothing unusual: Bush and Cheney
did the same thing hundreds of times, and some of their victims are
even still in Gitmo without ever having had a legitimate day in court.
Nobody, they said, of any “real stature” objected.

Given the large number of people coming under detention as protests
spread across the country, Trump signed an executive order
transferring billions out of the military budget for Halliburton and
two private prison contractors to build 
[[link removed]]“detention
centers” where “bad people” can be “concentrated in one
place.” The media refuses to call them concentration camps because
of the “prejudicial” connotations associated with the phrase.

Trump then ordered the Pentagon to withdraw all forms of assistance
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Ukraine, including military and diplomatic support. “Putin is merely
liberating Ukraine from the Nazis that took it over when they stole
the election from Yanukovych,” Trump said, echoing Putin. “They
never should have turned their back on their Slavic partner, the
nation that birthed them.” He ended the speech with his famous 2024
election slogan [[link removed]],
“Blood and soil!”

In an executive order titled “No More Shithole Countries,”
he outlawed [[link removed]] all
immigration, and banned
[[link removed]] all tourist visas,
from Muslim and majority-Black countries except for those from a
handful of oil-rich Middle Eastern nations that started building
[[link removed]] a
$5 billion Trump Tower in Oman in July, 2023.

Republicans in the House and Senate passed emergency legislation
ending all US gun restrictions with a single exception
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anybody who’s been arrested or “credibly accused of
sedition” _and not pardoned_ can no longer own a weapon of any
sort.

Attorney General Jeffrey Clark then declared
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anybody who’s ever joined the Democratic Party or voted for a
Democrat in any election in the previous decade is now considered
“credibly accused of sedition.”

Congress followed that up with billions to hire at least a million new
local and state police, as Trump announced he’s integrating
[[link removed]] the
Proud Boys into the federal military, calling them the
“Stormfront,” a shoutout to Qanon.

February 2025

In the first week of the month, the Supreme Court handed down its 6-3
decision in _Loper Bright,
[[link removed]]_ gutting 
[[link removed]]every federal
protective regulatory agency. Trump immediately fired most of the
employees of the EPA and Department of the Interior, promising to sell
of all federally owned public lands.

“Our public lands are rich in minerals and fossil fuel, and our
parks should be run by smart entrepreneurs,” Trump declared, echoing
sentiments attributed to Reagan’s Interior Secretary James Watt.

Disney and Comcast then both submitted bids to buy and manage
Yellowstone.

Congress then declared “the Medicare experiment is over” because
“more than half of seniors have voted with their feet” and ended
the program, mandating all people over 65 must buy an “Advantage”
plan from one of a handful of approved insurance giants. Following on
that, Congress rolled out “Social Security Advantage,” a program
that will, over the next decade, privatize all Social Security 
[[link removed]]accounts
via JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America.

Proclaiming “America will no longer use her tax dollars to support
Blue state communists,” and keeping a 2023 campaign promise
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Trump ordered
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military bases closed in any state with a seditionist (Democratic)
governor or seditionist-controlled legislature. He gave states 60 days
to change the composition of their governments to qualify to keep
their military bases; all who didn’t comply are now seeing their
facilities (and jobs) moved to Red states.

Congress then passed legislation closely resembling Putin’s laws in
Russia and Orbán’s in Hungary declaring homosexuality and
transsexuality “deviant behaviors” subject to federal penalties,
fulfilling his 2022 promise
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pass “Two Genders legislation.”

The “fake news media” is a major crisis, Trump told the nation
from a press scrum near his helicopter: the solution, he said, would
be straightforward. Congress voted later that day to rewrite the
nation’s libe
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laws, as Orbán did in Hungary and Putin did in Russia, so any
journalist or commentator who “sullies the reputation” of any
elected official can be subject to both civil and criminal penalties.

Within three weeks of the legislation being signed into law at the end
of February, hundreds of writers and TV commentators had been
either arrested or bankrupted 
[[link removed]](depending
on the severity of their criticism of Trump) as newsrooms across the
nation purged themselves of “anti-American” (anti-Trump) voices.

Now licensed by six Republicans on the Supreme Court and their
integration into the military, Proud Boy groups began organized
attacks
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Black neighborhoods, gay bars, and libraries. Dozens of people died,
touching off riots in several cities — particularly Portland and
Seattle — that were covered breathlessly by Fox “News.”

Trump pointed to the unrest and announced a second round of
billion-dollar contracts for Halliburton to build camps where “bad
people,” including those guilty of libel, violating gender
conformity laws, or “poisoning the blood
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biracial marriages or giving shelter to illegal immigrants, could be
“concentrated.”

In a major law and order speech, Trump declared homelessness a federal
crime and work camps were set up
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the new concentration camps for homeless people to learn skills so
“work can make them free.” Volunteer Proud Boys units were
dispatched to help police departments round up those who insisted on
living on the streets.

Based on the Comstock Act — which is still law
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hasn’t been enforced since the 1950s — the Republicans on the
Supreme Court outlawed mifepristone and all hormonal birth control,
along with IUDs and condoms. Republicans passed legislation declaring
that “life begins at conception,” and US attorneys have started
charging women who got abortions in Blue states over the past year
with murder. The Attorney General announced that all miscarriages
[[link removed]] must
be reported to local police for investigation.

In the last week of February, Russia launched a “final assault” on
Ukraine, with the aid of their new “Freedom Block” allies: China,
Iran, and North Korea. Ukraine fell, and Trump hailed “a new era of
world peace.”

March 2025

Keeping his campaign promise
[[link removed]],
Trump dissolved the Department of Education and killed all federal aid
to education, higher and primary. The next day, the Supreme Court
struck down FDR’s child labor laws; within a week every Red state in
the country followed suit with their own state laws allowing anybody
older than 12 to work (including in the brothels Trump
decriminalized).

Republicans passed the “Free the Job Creators Act,” which ended
all taxation
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capital gains. Billionaires will never again pay any income taxes at
all.

Internationally, the world order was changing rapidly. In a
coordinated move, Iran attacked Israel with nuclear weapons; China
encircled and cut off all shipping and fuel to Taiwan; Russia,
Belarus, and Hungary collectively invaded Poland; and NATO dithered as
Trump threatened to intervene on Russia’s side.

Trump refused to help Israel, and the Iranians who now control the
country brought Netanyahu, who had helped fund Hamas for so many
years, out of prison and back into office as a puppet Prime Minister.
Trump called a press conference and said this is what is prophesied
[[link removed]] in
the Bible and Jews better begin converting to Christianity if they
want to survive.

Hours later, Trump issued an executive order declaring America
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Christian country; states began to shut down synagogues, mosques, and
Buddhist and Hindu temples within the week.

April 2025

Like in Russia and Hungary
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Republicans passed laws asserting that voting is a privilege, not a
right, and, backstopped by SCOTUS, Red States purged over 30 million
people from the voter rolls in the first week. Speaker Jordan
proclaimed, “There will never again be a ‘so-called purple’
state.”

The new law requires that a person must be employed to vote; being
married to an employed person is not enough. Women
[[link removed]], unemployed men, and
students protested and hundreds were shot in the streets or sent to
the work camps.

With a dramatic flourish and to redirect attention away from domestic
protests, Trump declared war on Mexico
[[link removed].] for
“refusing to do anything about their drugs and gangs, which have
already declared war on the United States.”

He seized several northern Mexican states after a few short battles
and strategic bombing of the presidential palace and Capitol building
in Mexico City.  Control of those formerly northern Mexican states
was given to Greg Abbott, who Trump named “Administrator” of
“American Mexico” just like L. Paul Bremmer was in Iraq.

May 2025

An insurgency against American occupation arose in Mexico, drawing us
into a hot war with that country. Trump ordered all Americans of more
than 3/5ths Mexican ancestry arrested and moved into detention camps
[[link removed]] or
deported. Protests broke out across the country, but were quickly put
down by the military.

The wars in Europe and Asia are winding down now, as Trump declared a
“New Alliance
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between the US, China, Russia, North Korea, Hungary, and Iran.
Argentina applied for membership, as did dozens of other rightwing
governments from Central and South America to Africa and Asia.
Australia has made peace with China, naming a Murdoch heir as the new
leader of that English-speaking country.

The Democratic Party is now officially banned as “insurrectionist”
and the Supreme Court extended Article 3 of the 14th Amendment (which
prevents insurrectionists from holding public office) to
include _all_ governmental positions in the country: only
Republicans, Libertarians, and No Labels politicians need apply.

People have started to fight back in random places, so Congress
codified the earlier ruling by Attorney General Clark that any former
member of, or voter for, Democrats may not own a gun or other
“weapon of war”: regional “insurrections” continue to break
out but the military and their Proud Boy units quickly put them down.

The largest uprising was in Los Angeles: Trump had about 40 square
blocks seized, locked down, and surrounded with razor wire. He then
put that state, Oregon, and Washington under federal control, citing
laws and acts taken by President Lincoln.

And that’s just the first five months. From there, things began to
get really bad for Americans…

_[THOM HARTMANN, NY Times bestselling author 34 books in 17 languages
& nation's #1 progressive radio host. Psychotherapist, international
relief worker. Politics, history, spirituality, psychology, science,
anthropology, pre-history, culture, and the natural world.]_

_The Hartmann Report [[link removed]] - A Daily Newsletter
of Renaissance Thinking about Progressive Politics, Economics,
Science, and the Issues of Our Day_

* Donald Trump
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