100 DAYS: How Donald Trump Will Destroy America

DAY THIRTEEN

"Our current executive branch was conceived of by liberals for the purpose of promulgating liberal policies. There is no way to make the existing structure function in a conservative manner. It's not enough to get the personnel right. What's necessary is a complete system overhaul."

JOHN MCENTEE, FORMER DIRECTOR OF TRUMP'S PRESIDENTIAL PERSONAL OFFICE, JULY 2023

Sunday, February 2nd 2025

Trump and his aides engage in more denial after another weekend of huge demonstrations against him and his administration. First, they deny the numbers. Second, they claim once again that the protests are being instigated by "foreign criminals intent on destabilising the United States"– a tactic used around the world by authoritarian regimes. For example, Vladimir Putin introduced the Foreign Agent Law to both constrain the work of independent Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and enable him to blame them for protests after he rigged the 2012 election. He then dismissed the instigators of those protests as these NGOs. Third, they claim the protests are the first action in a coup to remove Trump from office. To reinforce this message, Trump does a whole Truth-Social storm where message after message claims "dark forces" want to remove him and introduce a "Communist dictator who will take away your freedom." He posts several newspaper front pages from the past week criticising him, saying the press aren't telling the American people the truth and "are attacking me, the most popular president EVER. So UNFAIR. The lamestream media are the ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE!" He finishes by saying that his response to all of this, which he says he's in the process of finalising, will be "like nothing people have ever seen before" and "massive and overwhelming."

Later in the day, he turns his attention to the Secret Service. Since the United States Capitol attack on January 6th 2021, Trump has had an issue with the service. They were the ones who warned Capitol Police their officers could face violence at the hands of Trump supporters. Also on the day, Secret Service agents provided security in and around the United States Capitol, including evacuating Vice President Mike Pence during the riot. There is still the whiff of corruption around the service after some agents were dismissed in 2022 after accepting lavish gifts, rent free apartments and bribes while guarding first lady Jill Biden. Fox News also reported on an anonymous petition sent to Congress by disgruntled Secret Service agents demanding a congressional investigation into failings in the service since Director Kim Cheatle took over. Whether justifiable or not, Trump also blames the Secret Service for the attempt on his life by Thomas Matthew Crooks on July 13th 2024, which led to the resignation of Cheatle and widespread accusations from right-wing figures and news networks that many agents hired in the past few years – and to whom failures can be attributed – were down to diversity, equity and inclusion targets introduced by the Biden administration.

The president, as he often does, begins by praising "the great work by the dedicated men and women of the Secret Service to keep me safe" but quickly pivots to say that some "are just DEI hires and aren't worthy to wear the budge (sic)." His conclusion, vague enough to not commit him to anything but suggestive that action will be taken at some point, is that the Secret Service recruitment and staffing is "something we need to look at. After all, they're protecting your favourite President, Donald J. Trump. And you wouldn't want anything to happen to him would you?"