After the US election: Trump, the Almighty?

It’s going for Donald Trump. After his victory in the US presidential election, his Republicans secured control of the Senate as well as the majority in the House of Representatives. This means that the president-elect will have an easy time in Congress in the future. But that’s not the only place where he’s going into his second term strengthened. Trump is moving into the White House far more powerful at all levels than he was in 2017. And he already demonstrated back then that he has a tendency to push the limits of his powers to the maximum – or go beyond them. This foreshadows evil.

No counterweight in parliament

The Republicans’ control of both chambers of Congress gives Trump a lot of room for maneuver politically. This means he can get legislation through Parliament more easily – without major resistance from the Democrats, who previously had a wafer-thin majority in the Senate. The usual parliamentary hurdles remain, such as the fact that a larger majority is required in the Senate in order to even put many legislative proposals to a vote. But Trump is spared a general blockade in Parliament. He can also speed up the confirmation of government officials and judges in the Senate, making it much easier to implement his agenda.

Many presidents before Trump have had this pleasure – including himself when he took office in 2017. But the Republican has since become more extreme and more unabashed. Despite his Republican majority in the Senate, he is blatantly putting pressure on his party to circumvent the laborious confirmation process for Cabinet members in the chamber through an exception. This shows what Trump thinks about separation of powers.

Immune from prosecution in the presidential office?

At the beginning of July, the US Supreme Court decided with its right-wing conservative majority that the president enjoys immunity for certain official acts. The historic decision came as a result of an indictment against him for election fraud. This doesn’t give the future president a complete blank check for any wrongdoing, but it does give him dangerous leeway.

And Trump made it clear in his first term that he was someone who would take advantage of every possible leeway. At that time, two impeachment proceedings were initiated against him. This had never happened before in US history. One time he was accused of abuse of power, the other time of “incitement to insurrection.” With the Supreme Court’s decision behind him, he can now approach his second term in office with significantly less concern about criminal prosecution.

Conservative judges in key posts

During his first term in office, Trump ensured that the US Supreme Court moved far to the right by appointing several judges to the Supreme Court. He implemented the final personnel changes shortly before he left office. Since then, long after Trump’s departure from the White House, the court overturned, among other things, the general right to abortion, which was very useful politically. During his new term in office, Trump can only really reap what he has sown on the Supreme Court.

At that time, Trump also installed many new judges in lower courts, which helped him with his personal legal problems. A federal judge he appointed in Florida, for example, dropped criminal proceedings against him because of his handling of top-secret government documents. The influence of sympathetic judges could pay off in the future, especially in cases in which political opponents challenge Trump’s plans through legal means. This fate befalls every president.

A politically extremely strong mandate

Polls had predicted an extremely close race between Trump and his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris – and a long jitter in the counting. Instead, Trump was the clear winner on election night. He won in all seven “swing states,” which were particularly politically contested. And he is expected to be the first Republican election winner since 2004 to secure not only the majority of the electorate but also the majority of votes cast nationwide – this is not a given in the US electoral system. Trump failed to achieve this in his first election victory in 2016.

This results in a strong political mandate. “America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,” Trump said triumphantly on election night. The majority of the population has made it abundantly clear that they want the Republican – a convicted felon, a scandal-ridden man and arguably the most controversial living politician in the world – in the highest office of state. Such an expression of support – despite all the scandal, despite the attack on the US Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021 and despite several indictments in criminal proceedings – also gives him more political power than eight years ago.

Trump dominates the Republicans like never before. He systematically eliminated opponents – both in Congress and in the party apparatus. Internal critics no longer sit in the House of Representatives. The Republican faction in the chamber has moved even further to the right since Trump’s first term in office and the entire leadership team is loyal to him as the Republican frontman. In the Senate, a Trump supporter is now at the head of the faction, even if he was unable to get his preferred candidate through. The Republican party apparatus is also designed entirely for Trump. The ex-president installed his daughter-in-law Lara Trump there as one of two party leaders. In his second term in office, he is unlikely to encounter any significant resistance within his own ranks.

More experience and surrounded by staunch loyalists

If nothing else, Trump has learned something new. When he first became president in early 2017, he was a political newcomer. “I didn’t know anyone. I wasn’t a Washington guy,” he said in an interview on Fox News. He didn’t know how political business worked in the US capital. But today he knows everyone. And above all, Trump now knows the government apparatus, how it works and how he can use it better for his purposes. His first term in office was marked by personnel changes and dismissals. At that time, Trump still had a few more moderate politicians around him who urged him to be moderate – he quickly separated himself from many of them. This time he only gathers party colleagues around him who are loyal to him and are allowed to follow his orders.