OUR COVER this week is about the alarming plans being drawn up for Donald Trump’s second term.
In contrast to the slapdash insurgency that captured the White House in 2016, the veterans of Mr Trump’s first administration are working hard to ensure that Trump Two would be disciplined and focused on getting things done. Even at this early stage, the details are something to behold.
Thousand-page policy documents set out ideas that were once outlandish in Republican circles but have now become orthodox: finishing the border wall, raising tariffs on allies and competitors, making unfunded tax cuts permanent and ending automatic citizenship for anyone born in the United States.
Our first cover thoughts related to the think-tanks that have taken on this job, including the America First Policy Institute in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC. They believe that to get their plans enacted they need to “deconstruct” the administrative state—the 300 or more federal offices that issue and interpret regulations.
The philosophical version of this idea is that as the role of the federal government has grown from fighting wars and running the postal service into the Leviathan it is today, unelected bureaucrats have assumed powers that should belong to Congress. The Twitter version is that the deep-state liberals who thwarted Mr Trump when he was in office and have persecuted him since he left must be vanquished.
Purging the bureaucracy would be a bloody business. It was not a big leap from “think-tank” to “shark tank”, so that was the theme that our designers toyed with initially.
But we wanted to get across the idea that this second-term vanguard is in thrall to the former president. Because Mr Trump is the focus of their efforts, he needs to be the focus of our cover.
We hoped to strike the balance between the man and his minions. Mr Trump has never been excited by the details of public policy. That creates an opening for the professional wonks in the America First movement. One design showed a group of minions walking under a large MAGA hat.
Other sketches put even more emphasis on Mr Trump’s status. Do not for a moment imagine that the think-tankers are attempting to manipulate their man. One image we created of a giant Mr Trump walking along a red carpet showed them literally laying the ground for his return.
You could see them as true believers, almost cult-like in their devotion. To fill the thousands of political appointments at the top of the American civil service, they are creating a “conservative LinkedIn” of candidates whose personal commitment to Mr Trump is beyond question. Merely expressing qualms about the storming of the Capitol on January 6th 2021 is grounds for disqualification.
These plans would create an overmighty presidency with direct control of the Department of Justice. By giving the White House the power to sack all purported dissenters, they would obliterate the norm of legal independence. Trump Two could quash investigations into Mr Trump and his allies and authorise them against his long list of real and perceived political enemies.
That thought contains a whiff of conspiracy, which was conjured up by a design showing a message exposed by a cutout. And yet this was misleading. The think-tanks are not working away in secret: their plans are right out in the open.
Some people will try to take comfort from the idea that Mr Trump will not win the primary, or that he will lose the general election. Perhaps his nominees will not be confirmed, or the king of chaos will sabotage his own supporters’ designs.
That is complacent. Mr Trump is favourite to win the nomination in a country where general elections are determined by a few tens of thousands of votes. In victory, a team of practised demolition experts would prime their explosive ideas. The deconstruction of the administrative state could begin and the vain and tyrannical whims of an emperor-president would emerge from the rubble.
With that in mind, we produced an image of a “second coming” of Mr Trump, surrounded by light and clouds. Yet he was being held up by a system of pulleys and winches—so this was not really a second coming at all. And it was hard to say who would be more appalled by our portrayal of Mr Trump as a pantomime Jesus: his supporters or his enemies.
In the end we opted for the idea of the red carpet. As a cover, it is grainy and menacing. A grim-faced Mr Trump towers above his people. Victory is not joy, it is strife.
Leaders: How MAGA Republicans plan to make Donald Trump’s second term count
Briefing: A second Trump administration would get its way far more than the first
