Mr. Smith, please come in, have a seat. Our records show you’ve been with the State Department for 17 years, the past five in the Bureau of National Security and Nonproliferation. Now it has come to our attention through an anonymous tip to the America First Compliance Program that you made a derogatory comment about the president. A subsequent internal investigation discovered your wife donated $125 to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Through further inquiry—with the assistance of the TrumpX social media team—we located a deleted post from your daughter’s timeline that included a photograph of her and your wife knocking on doors in west Philadelphia for Kamala Harris. Under the new Loyal Americans in Government executive order, we are terminating your employment as of this moment. As you might know, your position has been reclassified and no longer enjoys the civil service protections of the past. There is no right of appeal. My secretary will provide you the separation paperwork. You may leave now.
Donald Trump has many plans for his return engagement at the White House. Several will require police-state tactics.
During his 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly and enthusiastically declared he would order the mass deportation of 11 million or so undocumented immigrants. At his rallies, diehard fans excitedly waved signs proclaiming the slogan they chanted: “MASS DEPORTATION NOW!” Such a program would require deploying a paramilitary force—or even the National Guard or the military—to locate migrants, apprehend them, and guard them in a network of prisons and detention camps. (Executives at private prison, security, and surveillance software companies are already salivating.) This system would depend on Trump ramping up monitoring of workplaces and neighborhoods, and on anonymous tip lines susceptible to abuse and false leads. (Have a problem with a neighbor? Report ’em.) Perhaps the forces rounding up migrants will be afforded special powers to evade civil liberties protections. As in East Germany during the Cold War, an atmosphere of terror and intimidation will pervade.
Expect something similar within the federal workforce. Months before he left office at the end of his first term, Trump issued an executive order that would have removed employment protections from civil servants deemed disloyal to the president and that could have required expressions of allegiance before being hired—in other words, loyalty oaths for Trump. The order created a new employment category called Schedule F, to be applied to perhaps tens of thousands of federal workers (maybe more), permitting them to be fired without cause. President Joe Biden rescinded the order upon entering the White House and, in October, his administration issued final rules aimed at preventing a future president from reinstating it. But Trump has vowed to bring the plan back on “day one” and turn a large section of the federal workforce into a Trump corps—a stated goal of Steve Bannon and other MAGA schemers.
Reviving Schedule F, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) has warned, would be a “direct threat to our national security and our government’s ability to function.” Under such a regime, a broad range of federal employees—say, lawyers at the EPA who work on climate change, scientists at the CDC who prepare for pandemics, or analysts at the CIA who watch the Kremlin—could be dumped at will if they raise questions about a Trump position or don’t pay him obeisance. And the threat of a pink slip would not only silence dissent; it could be used to press government employees to take inappropriate actions—maybe jigger statistics to make Trump’s economic policies look good, or slow-walk disaster aid destined for blue states.
Independent, fact-based, and expertise-driven work across the executive branch would be threatened. Picture a world in which ratting on colleagues is encouraged and snitches roam the hallways of federal agencies looking for signs of disloyalty to Trump. The federal bureaucracy will become a frightening place for many public servants, likely triggering an immense brain drain.
There could be pressure to award government contracts, impose or lift regulations, or conduct investigations based on Trump’s lists of friends and foes. With this power, Trump would be able to threaten corporations, organizations, and people who piss him off. He could sic the IRS on them. He could order the imposition of tariffs to hinder specific firms and sectors. Most notably, Trump could instruct FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors to investigate his rivals, even when there is no legitimate case. In the past, he has called for initiating criminal probes against Joe Biden, Alvin Bragg, Liz Cheney, Hillary Clinton, James Comey, Kamala Harris, Letitia James, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and many others. Were he to demand such investigations, it would turn the Justice Department into an agency of retribution, serving Trump’s revenge fantasies and shifting resources from legitimate endeavors. That would be good news for real criminals.
And what of the agencies that Congress has long intended to be insulated from presidential interference? The infamous Project 2025 policy blueprint—expected to be the basis of many Trump actions—calls for ending the independence of these powerful and important regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission. The Supreme Court would probably need to okay such a bold expansion of presidential power, but conservative groups recently took one challenge designed to provoke such a decision all the way to the high court. While the justices this past October declined—for now—to hear the case, Trump and his allies have mused about seizing control of these bodies, and Trump has openly discussed using the FCC to punish troublesome newscasters by pulling broadcasting licenses.
There are protections against spying on Americans. But with the Supreme Court ruling a president has wide-ranging immunity, what’s to stop him?
The military, too, might not be immune. In mid-November, the news leaked that Trump advisers were weighing an executive order that would create a “warrior board” of former senior military personnel to vet three- and four-star officers and recommend removals of any deemed unfit for leadership. Such a board would permit Trump to purge the military of leaders tied to DEI programs—whom he previously assailed as “woke generals”—or those he deems to be insufficiently devoted to him, creating a chilling effect throughout the Pentagon.
And there’s another way the military could be politicized. Trump allies have urged the revival of the Insurrection Act, which permits a president to use the military “to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.” Trump loyalists have claimed he could declare undocumented migrants an invading army and set the military upon them. And in an interview late in the campaign, Trump proposed using the armed forces to go after “radical left lunatics.” He might want to do the same to others opposing his actions—what he calls “the enemy within”—and the Insurrection Act’s vague standards are ripe for abuse: Under the supposed goal of suppressing domestic violence, the military could be ordered to spy on Americans who might be planning protests.
Once he’s back in the White House, Trump will again have access to the extensive surveillance power of the intelligence community. He could compel agencies to spy on American citizens with whom he has a beef. They could be coerced to supply him with information he could use to pressure, embarrass, or harm a detractor. Doing so might be illegal; there are civil liberty protections against spying on Americans. But now that the Supreme Court has ruled a president has wide-ranging immunity against criminal prosecution, what’s to stop him? (During oral arguments, his lawyer suggested that, as president, Trump could order a Navy seal team to assassinate a political rival and be clear of prosecution.)
The same goes for other laws that prohibit abusing government power. It’s not just Trump who is free of guardrails. If other government officials break the law doing his bidding, he will have the power to pardon them. His minions will be well protected.
There are more than 430 federal departments and agencies. Trump could turn each into a ministry of fear, full of devotees who serve him, not the public interest, which he can use to target anyone who draws his ire. Meanwhile, the mass deportation program, should it come into being, will terrorize millions and create an infrastructure fueled by suspicion. If Trump succeeds in these authoritarian endeavors, it will radically reshape not only the US government but the very nature of America.