“It’s simple: Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy and fundamental freedoms,” presidential candidate Kamala Harris tweeted on July 3.
This was not the first time — and certainly not the last — politicians across party lines have called a second Trump presidency a threat to democracy. In fact, popular news outlet Vox called this an “extinction level threat to democracy.”
Already, we have seen questionable actions by Trump regarding his upcoming administration. On Nov 14, Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy, a prominent vaccine skeptic, former 2024 presidential candidate and disseminator of misleading information, to be his Department of Health and Human Services Secretary. Additionally, Trump aims to appoint National Gaurd veteran and Fox News host Pete Hegseth as his Secretary of Defense, despite accusations of sexual assault, severe alcoholism and statements that women should “straight-up” not join the millitary.
While Trump’s morals are extremely corrupted, I believe a single presidency will not lead to democracy’s end.
With the election calling the 2024 race for Trump and a Republican majority in the House and Senate, these results leave Trump and his partners the ability to carry out Project 2025 — an extremely conservative, extreme, political agenda that had laid out plans for a Republican president to push out any new, 2025 legislation that they see fit. Some highlights of this 900-page document include dismantling federal employee protections, abolishing the Department of Education and the Department of Environmental Protections, promoting fossil fuels and more.
Amid the similarly tense political climate following the 2016 election, we have seen the system and the American people object to Trump’s immoral policies and the threats that he poses.
Most notably, we saw how Trump’s vice president Mike Pence — although he was a staunch Republican — still ratified the 2020 election results in favor of current president Joe Biden against the wishes of Trump. In fact, many political representatives have said that this is the sole reason you didn’t see Pence on November’s ballot.
When we look further into the past, there is an increasing number of examples of how public servants have stood up to unconstitutional measures during Trump’s first term. Just after Trump was elected in 2016, he enacted a so-called “Muslim ban” where he banned transportation from five predominantly Muslim countries and started deporting permanent residents before the DHS stepped in and clarified the law. Just five days after this executive order was signed however, a U.S. District Appellate Court issued a temporary restraining order which effectively stopped this executive order from taking effect.
Another example of public servants taking action was when Trump vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act. In response to this we saw rare bipartisan support to override this veto and pass this act. Additionally when Trump attempted to use the emergency fund to construct the border wall we saw pushback from congress to stop a potential overreach of executive power.
I predict that America will be in a great stage of turbulence for the next four years, full of controversial legislation and executive orders. He will undoubtedly push for new policies that counter the fundamental principles of our country such as ending birthright citizenship, drastically amend the Affordable care act and put heavy strain on the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement.
However, I strongly believe that any unconstitutional actions from Trump’s term will be swiftly terminated by the judges of the Supreme Court or the elected officials in the House and Senate — even if they are mostly Republican. Additionally, Trump’s margins in Congress are relatively small and if there are abuses of power, people will step beyond party lines to prevent them from taking effect. In fact, we witnessed this throughout the first Trump presidency. So many public servants fought to uphold the fundamental pillars of democracy that have been set in place since 1776. They continue to inspire me and give me trust that in the coming months and years our elected representatives will continue to uphold these principles.