Episode 09: Trump's Second-Term Strategy – A Madman in Charge

Donald Trump’s second term is not about governance—it’s about absolute power. In this episode, we dissect his authoritarian playbook, exposing how his deep psychological need for dominance is reshaping the government to serve him personally.  We’ll cover:

• Trump’s power grabs – from stacking the courts to turning federal agencies into loyalty tests.
• Weaponizing law enforcement – using the military and police as his personal enforcers.
• Destroying democracy’s guardrails – dismantling checks and balances.
• Controlling public opinion – state-run media, social media manipulation, and punishing journalists.
• Foreign policy disaster – cozying up to dictators and destabilizing NATO.
• Gaza as a Trump Resort? – Panelists weigh in on one of his most deranged ideas yet.

Trump isn’t just eroding democracy—he’s replacing it with a personal dictatorship.

Trump suggested "taking over Gaza" and turning it into a luxury resort. Our Blue Choir panelists weigh in on this delusional, dangerous proposal.

Sandy: "Trump thinks he’s the answer? I think they’ll run him out of town."
Deborah: "His motives are power and profit—not peace."
Meg: "A year from now, Gaza will still be in ruins. Trump’s world domination fantasies will fail."

The Real Threat: Trump’s Second Term Strategy Is the End of Democracy

This isn’t politics—it’s dictatorship in the making. Trump is actively working to make sure he can never be removed from power. If unchecked, the U.S. will slide into authoritarian rule.

Next Episode 

Episode 10 – The Trauma of Trump’s America

• Personal and institutional trauma caused by Trump’s leadership.
• How fear, division, and misinformation are damaging American society.

Transcript

Bella Goode  00:00

Hello everyone, and welcome to Surviving Trump. I'm Bella Goode, and today we continue our six part series on Donald Trump. Let me briefly recap where we are. Several weeks ago, we did a deep dive into his psychiatric profile. It was mind blowing stuff. After that, we learn why MAGAs worship him. This week's episode looks at his strategy for leading the country in his second term that is with a madman in charge. 

Next week, we'll focus on trauma, the trauma that comes from living in Trump's America, personal trauma and institutional trauma, and recently, there's been more in the press about this term called Unitary Executive Theory. So Episode 11 explains what this is and why we should be concerned. I then wrap up the series with episode 12. We'll dive in a bit more into Russell Vought, the real monster behind the orange monster, one of the key architects of Project 2025 the guy who won't stop until democracy has been dismantled. 

Finally, we look at the paths forward, how to resist authoritarian rule. I can't even believe that we're actually talking about this, just like last week. There's tons to share with you. So let's get started. So Donald Trump's second term strategy is not about making political changes. It's about taking control and shaping the government to serve him personally. What makes this different from regular political shifts is the mindset behind it. Trump's extreme need for attention, his deep paranoia, his lack of empathy, should I keep going? His declining mental sharpness make him especially dangerous. These personality traits don't just influence his leadership style. They completely define how he operates. 

As we enter his second term, we can expect him to seek revenge, he's already shown that, demand loyalty above all else, spread misinformation and go after anyone who challenges him. And for all those points, we're already seeing his actions. Experts who study history and psychology have warned about leaders like Donald, like the Donald like Trump. Dr John Gartner, a well known clinical psychologist, has said Trump's extreme narcissism makes him completely unable to function in a democracy. He can only survive in a system where he has total control. Similarly, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, who studies authoritarian leaders, has pointed out Trump's strategy mirrors those of past strong men like Mussolini and Tito during World War Two, where loyalty is the key to power and the government becomes a tool for personal gain. 

So let's first understand how Trump's personality plays a role in his leadership style and strategy. As we heard in Episode Seven, Trump's extreme personality disorder is a dangerous mix of arrogance, recklessness, paranoia and cruelty. This isn't about politics, as I said earlier, it's about his deep psychological need to be the most powerful person in the world. His second term plans reflect these personality traits to a T. Let's look at many of the ways, or maybe not many, maybe just some of the ways that he shows his deep psychological need to be the most powerful person in the room. 

So example number one, he's determined to take over government agencies. Trump doesn't see government institutions as part of the system that keeps things fair. He sees them as obstacles standing in his way, as we are now well aware, he has already started with his plan to fire 1000s of career government workers and replace them with people who will do exactly what he says, no questions asked. He's obsessed about loyalty. Trump has shown time and time again that he values personal loyalty over skill or experience. He believes that anyone who isn't completely devoted to him is working against him. That's why he wants to remove independent officials and replace them with people who won't challenge him. This certainly makes me nervous about flying. What hiring loyalty over experience? He's making a power grab at the Justice Department. He's already tried to turn the Department of Justice into his personal legal team, pressuring officials to investigate his enemies while protecting his allies. 

His second term could mean an all out purge of anyone who stands in his way. He's also destroying oversight. Trump has already ignored Congressional investigations and fired Watch Dogs who investigate corruption. He will likely strip away even more oversight powers, making it nearly impossible to hold him accountable. He's also using agencies as weapons. Trump has a history of using government agencies to attack his critics. Whether it's pressuring the IRS to investigate his opponents or pushing the intelligence agencies to back up his false claims. His second term will see even more aggressive use of these tools against anyone who challenges him. So that's just one example. 

Here's another example. He wants to control the media and public opinion. Trump understands that controlling information is the key to staying in power. He has spent several years attacking the press, calling anything he doesn't like fake news, and flooding social media with lies. Now he's doubling down on these tactics. For example, state controlled media. Trump has already talked about creating a government run news outlet to spread his message and drowned out critical voices. This is something that dictators do to control what people hear and believe. He also has a knack of or threatens to punish journalists. He has repeatedly threatened them, encouraging violence against the media, and suggesting that critical outlets be shut down. He could push for laws or policies that punish journalists who expose his corruption. He also wants to manipulate social media. 

Trump and his allies have used online propaganda to spread lies and conspiracy theories. He will continue to push for policies that allow him to control social media platforms and to silence his critics, not to mention spreading misinformation. His ability to repeat lies until they become accepted as truth is one of his strongest political weapons. He has pushed false claims about elections, science, his opponents, and now they seem to be growing even more extreme. So we've given you two examples. Let me give you the third example here destroying the checks and balances system. Remember, we're talking about a deep psychological need to be the most important person in the room. Trump hates to be told no, and in his first term, he's already tried to weaken the systems that keep a president's power in check. Now he's not taking any chances. He's working even harder than ever to get rid of the rules that prevent him from doing what he wants, like he wants to ignore Congress. 

Trump has already defied subpoenas and blocked investigations into his actions. In a second term, he is testing the waters, which could mean outright refusal to cooperate with Congress on anything. He's also stacking the courts. Of course, he has and he will continue to appoint judges who are loyal to him, and he has openly suggested that the courts should protect him from consequences. He will push even harder to fill the judiciary with people who will do this his bidding, more, probably more than anything else. He wants to expand his executive power. Trump has flirted the idea of using emergency powers to rule by executive order, bypassing Congress entirel. He could declare national emergencies to justify massive power grabs, making it even harder to stop him. He also has suggested that his political rivals should be prosecuted or jailed. 

This year, could see him take further actions to weaken opposition voices by using government power to go after critics. Example number four, he's using the military and police for his own agenda. Trump has shown that he's willing to use the military and the police as his personal enforcers. In his second term, he will likely go even further, using them to crack down on protests, to intimidate opponents, and to carry out mass deportations. He's open to deploying troops against protesters during the Black Lives Matter protests. Trump sent federal agents to cities without permission, using force against peaceful demonstrators. He will use this tactic to suppress any opposition. He also rewards brutality. He has often praised police officers who use excessive force, and even suggested that officers shouldn't be too nice to suspects. He'll push policies that give law enforcement more freedom to act aggressively against protesters and political opponents. We just mentioned mass deportations. Trump has already started what he's calling the largest deportation effort in the US history. 

He has promised to use large scale military involvement in rounding up immigrants and further turning law enforcement into a tool for his personal agenda. He's also looking to militarize domestic policy. Trump has ultimately suggested using the National Guard and federal law enforcement to maintain order, "order" in quotes. We could see an increased use of the military to police political opposition, something commonly seen in authoritarian regimes. And here's example five gutting the federal workforce and economic fearmongering. The larger picture emerging from Trump's second term is one of widespread chaos fueled by incompetence and ideological extremism. Trump's administration embodies this phenomenon as it recklessly dismantles long standing institutions, without considering the fallout. The layoffs orchestrated by musk and his team. Dog, doggy. That's what I call it. I don't call it Doge, it is the Department of Government Efficiency. 

Anyway, Musk and his team have disproportionately harmed veterans, who make up a significant portion of federal employees. Democrat Senator Tammy Duckworth called it a middle finger to our heroes. Moreover, critical agencies like the USDA and CDC have lost employees working on pressing public health crises, including the current bird flu outbreak. The other thing Trump is looking to do is to weaponize- well he's certainly trying to attack Social Security. Trump's latest attack on Social Security is a textbook example of how he distorts facts to serve his political goals. His claim that millions of dead people are receiving Social Security benefits is complete bunk. It's not only false, but it's part of a broader strategy to justify gutting essential programs and consolidating his control over economic policy. This fits into his pattern of using misinformation to create crises that he can then solve, usually in ways that hurt working class Americans while benefiting the ultra wealthy. 

Here's another example Republican disarray over Trump's policies. Even Republican lawmakers were panicking over the fallout of Trump's reckless cuts. While many of them supported his second term agenda, they now find themselves scrambling as their own constituents, many of whom rely on government programs or being directly harmed by the administration's decisions. Trump's Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, recently suggested that the government would cut a trillion dollars of waste, fraud and abuse, including major reductions to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, despite Republican voters disproportionately relying on these programs. It's just unbelievable. Here's another example. Example number six. It has to do with foreign policy, making friends with dictators. Again, we're talking about examples of his deep psychological need to be the most powerful person in the room. 

One of the scariest parts of Trump's second term plans is how much he prefers dealing with dictators instead of working with Democratic allies. Throughout his first term, he admired strongmen like Vladimir, Putin, Kim Jong Un and Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who, by the way, is the Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. He ignored us intelligence reports and instead took their word as truth, putting America's national security at risk. Now he appears to be strengthening his relationships with these authoritarian rulers, creating chaos on the global stage. He does have this love for dictators. Trump sees strong controlling leaders as role models. He has praised Putin, saying he respects how he runs things, instead of seeing him as a threat to democracy, he admires his ability to crush the opposition, one of Trump's most reckless ideas is his ongoing threat to pull the US out of NATO. If he does this, it could destabilize Europe, leaving countries vulnerable to Russian aggression. 

He has already called NATO Allies weak and ungrateful, which lines up perfectly with Putin's goals. We'll see if he acts on these threats and puts global security at risk. Trump is capable of pushing for American policies that mirror authoritarian regimes. This could mean more governments spying on citizens, punishing protesters and rewarding loyalists while going after anyone who opposes him, and that's a scary scene, scary situation. Trump's foreign policy isn't based on strategy, it's based on his personal relationships and his obsession with power. Historian Anne Applebaum has warned Trump's bond with authoritarian regimes isn't a mistake. It's a reflection of his desire to run America the same way they run their countries. The more unchecked power he sees overseas, the more he wants it for himself. 

One of the biggest concerns is his relationship with Vladimir Putin. US intelligence agencies have confirmed that Russia interfered in past elections to help Trump, but he refuses to accept it. Instead, he echoes Russian propaganda and undermines America's own security agencies. Quite possibly, he could remove sanctions on Russia, weaken NATO's defenses and even allow Russia to expand beyond the Ukraine. Trump's support for Saudi Arabia authoritarian rulers is another example of its preference for strongmen. So when journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi officials, Trump refused to hold the kingdom accountable. Instead, he protected their leadership. These alliances will deepen, ignoring human rights abuses in favor of personal loyalty and of course, Trump's dealings with China. Oh, they've been all over the place. One moment he's threatening them with tariffs, and the next he's praising Xi Jinping strong leadership. 

We could see escalating economic conflicts with Trump making decisions based on personal grudges rather than actual policy. And then there's North Korea and the new nuclear risk. Trump's relationship with Kim Jong Un has been unpredictable. First he threatened war, then he claimed they were "in love" during diplomatic talks. The overriding concern is that he might make reckless deals with North Korea, putting nuclear security at risk just to claim a personal victory. Well, let's talk a little bit about why this matters for our democracy, for the future of democracy. Trump's second term strategy, it isn't about leading the country. It's about gaining absolute control. If history has shown us anything, it's that leaders like Trump don't stop when they get more power. They use it to destroy opposition, they silence critics, and they make sure that they are never going to be removed. 

Now that he's in office, he's going to do everything in his power to make sure that no one can challenge him again. We will see whether America remains a democracy or slides into authoritarian rule. You might recall from Episode Seven that we talked about Trump's psychological profile. There was mention of his delusions of grandeur and divine authority becoming more extreme. When a leader starts to believe that they have divine authority, they no longer feel bound by laws, morality or democratic principles. So anyway, that prompted me to consider one of his most lunatic and immoral ideas to date. And with that, I'm just going to say that. I'm going to switch gears for a second and turn to another topic. One of his most lunatic and immoral ideas to date, that be his suggestion to take over Gaza and turn it into a giant resort. Do you remember I turned to my panel of commentators, otherwise known as The Blue Choir, and posed this question to them. It was a hypothetical situation. I just asked them to speculate what Gaza is going to be like a year from now. So I asked them again. I'll repeat it. I asked them to speculate what Gaza is going to be like in the year 2026? How is Trump going to handle this? How's he going to make it happen? 

So here's some of the few interesting comments. Just a few of the interesting comments that I got. My friend Sandy adds "My initial reaction is nothing will happen based on what happened to communities where fire raged and were destroyed, like Lahaina, Hawaii, Paradise, California and Louisville, Colorado, it takes a long time to rebuild. Lahaina looks like it did 18 months ago. Just cleared. Then add in the politics and the religion of centuries and poof Don thinks he has the answer. I think they're going to run him out of town, at least. I hope so." 

And from Deborah, "it seems that when outsiders intervene, there's no lasting resolution. His motives seem to be power and profit, not peace. Israel needs to feel safe from another attack, and Palestine needs a massive amount of help from a coalition of sympathetic parties to help restore homes, businesses, hospitals, schools and much more. What is happening to them has been horrific. They need peace and they need restoration. There needs to be an extensive humanitarian aid going to Gaza. Israel should help fund the rebuilding of what they destroyed, and without conditions." 

Well, that says no resort, at least to my eyes. From Linda, "nothing in government happens quickly except eliminating jobs. So next year, Trump will still be talking about Gaza. The poor people will have come back made homes out of the rubble." And from Chris "Las Vegas in the Middle East, maybe it's working well for Dubai. These people of Gaza have been fighting for their land since the beginning of time. They don't want to be deported from their own country, so Trump can just build golf courses, hotels and nightclubs there. And they certainly won't be invited back in again, once it's new and beautiful, it will be a breeding ground for terrorists." It's a good, good comment. "What I would love to see-", I think this is from my friend Henry. No, I take that back from my friend June, "What I would love to see is a centrist Arab woman take control of Gaza, voted into office by a nation ready to embrace- embrace change, ready to move past hatred and retribution and ready to view women as equal partners in the workplace, in the government and at home." That's a good idea. 

From Meg "A year from now, Gaza will not be settled. Palestinians will understandably refuse to leave their homeland no matter what its state of destruction, and neither will Qatar nor Jordan accept more than a minimal number of refugees from Gaza. There will be ongoing and strong worldwide resistance, not only to Trump's plan for the US to own Gaza, but countries around the world will also continue to react negatively to his capricious efforts towards worldwide domination by the US. For example, Greenland, Panama, canal, Canada, renaming world sites, etc. And America's standing around the world will have slipped even lower." From Henry "As Yogi Bear said, it's hard to predict, especially the future, but here it goes. Jordan, Egypt will not agree to take 1 million Palestinian refugees each because it would destabilize their own societies. Trump will continue to threaten aid cut offs to both countries, but I don't think they will agree. The people of Gaza will have nowhere else to go. Israel will not agree to its two state solution. Israel will need to figure out how to reconstruct the destroyed territory. Saudi Arabia and the other Arab states say that they will not finance it without sovereignty for the Palestinians. I don't think that Europe will finance reconstruction. Israel will be in a bind with responsibility for 2 million refugees in their occupied and devastated territory. The people of Gaza will continue to suffer, should by any wild chance, Trump's proposal miraculously be accepted. American interests in Gaza will be a continuing target for terrorists. The reconstruction bill will be excessively expensive. Tourists may not take the risk to vacation in the new Miami Beach." 

And finally, from Pat "I can only hope and pray that there is peace, and the people affected by this situation are moving forward, and most importantly, that Orange Face is underneath all the rubble." Okay, that's it for this episode. Join me next week when we focus on the trauma of living in Trump's America, and I'm talking about both personal trauma and institutional trauma. Until then, I always have two requests for you. One is leave a comment. The transcript for today's episode is available along with references and links. Start a discussion, ask questions, challenge ideas. This is a community for both you and me. Leave a review. If this podcast resonates with you. Let me know. If it doesn't, tell me that too. I want to get this right. Should I keep going? Should I tweak the approach? Your honesty is invaluable, and follow me on Blue Sky. 

I always like to end on a light note. So here's some humor from Borowitz Dateline Washington. Calling it a little math error. The Department of Government Efficiency, otherwise known as "Dog-e", revealed on Friday that it had overestimated the number of Elon Musk's children at 13 billion instead of 13. "Okay, so we're off by a few billion kids." Said Treeson Parlow, the 16 year old Pimply Deputy Head of Dog-e. He went on to say "you're going to make a few mistakes when you're up all night tripping on ketamine." 

Until next time, stay engaged,stay informed, and most importantly, stay in the fight. This is Bella Goode, signing off.