by Miles Taylor 2023
Book Review by Ray Herrmann
In his first administration, Trump was inexperienced so he was easily thwarted by the "Adults". But Trump has learned from this and he is now surrounded by smarter MAGA minions who have also learned from their mistakes. If he gets a second term, Trump will put in place people who know how to better manipulate him and our country.
Many experiences with Donald Trump revealed him to have the attention span of a child and prone to cruel fixations. Practically everybody in his administration saw him as childish, cruel, unstable and vindictive. BUT many thought (wrongly) that they could control him. This lead to a formation of the "Axis of Adults" that worked almost daily to prevent Trump from doing damage.
Others saw an opportunity to direct Trump to do damage for them. They appealed to his instincts and clung to him in the hopes of empowering themselves. (One example is Stephen Miller, one of Trump's advisors, who had wanted to use our Predator Drones to obliterate immigrant's boats.) Trump had expressed the desire to use our military to shoot immigrants, but the "Axis of Adults" talked him out of it, claiming it was illegal.
Trump would seem to then drop his request, but would often bring up the same request later …a characteristic that seemed to wear down the Adults patience. In fact that was the reason that General John Kelly finally quit his job as Chief of Staff.
The Heritage Foundation is most active in placing Trump people in the 2025 Presidential Transition Project. And MAGA's "White House in Waiting" using the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) and the America Leadership Initiative is dedicated to filling the next GOP White House with the most MAGA-friendly people.
MAGA supporters often made threats against Congressmen, Judges and many others, which coerced them to either comply or drop out (This is why many Republicans publicly make supporting statements, while privately loathing Trump). Some in our Legislature are changing their votes to be safe (9625 threats in 2021).
Social Media gives more power to political extremists. Remedy: We should work to increase the supply of dissent so we have more ideas (options) to consider, against the notion of "self-censoring".
Republicans greatest fear is tribalism (being kicked out of the Republican Party).
Only Voters can stop the "Next Trump" or MAGA infiltrators, but they might not be entirely aware of what's happening.
The author advocates Rank Choice Voting (RCV) as a way to fight extremism because it forces candidates to appeal to a broader base. Now, we have the most ideological l0% of voters select the candidates for the rest of us.