John Oliver on Sunday's episode of "Last Week Tonight" delved into how former President Donald Trump's second term could hypothetically play out given that polls give him an edge over President Joe Biden.
“You can go on his website and see it all laid out, and it’s pretty alarming,” Oliver said, before playing a clip of Trump articulating his plans to dismantle trans rights.
"I will ask Congress to pass a bill establishing that the only genders recognized by the United States government are male and female, and they are assigned at birth," Trump said in the clip. "No serious country should be telling its children that they were born with the wrong with the wrong gender," he added, claiming that it is a concept "never heard of in all of human history" until it was recently invented by "the radical left."
"That is really the Trump experience in a nutshell right there," Oliver said. "Hateful ideology, a promise to make life harder for minorities, all wrapped up in a non sequitur so stupid it is inconveniently funny. The radical left invented trans people a few years ago? I’m sorry. What?!? Did they put it on 'Shark Tank' and I somehow missed it?”
The host then brought up a number of Trump's other plans if he assumes the presidency again, including mass deportation, requiring local law enforcement agencies to implement controversial policing tactics such as stop-and-frisk, slashing funding for schools that implement a mask or vaccine mandate, and impose a universal tariff of at least 10% on all imports.
"He's promising to get revenge on his enemies," Oliver said. "At rallies he’s told supporters that ‘I am your retribution,’ which sounds like something you’d hear out of the mouth of Megatron rather than a major presidential candidate."
"He's been specific about who will be on the receiving end of that retribution," Oliver added, before showing footage of Trump claiming that he will "root out communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections and will do anything possible — they'll do anything — whether legally or illegally to destroy America and destroy the American dream."
"Was he falling asleep at the end there?" Oliver jokingly asked. "Second, it's not usually a great sign when a politician starts referring to groups as vermin, unless of course they're running for mayor of Zootopia and they're gunning for the little Rodentia votes."
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Regarding the ex-president's 2016 policy goals that never became reality, Oliver said that "Trump as president was sort of like a hamster in an attack helicopter."
"Sure, he wants to bathe the whole world in blood and terror — he wants it with his whole rotten hamster heart — but luckily he doesn’t know what buttons to press and his brain’s the size of a peanut so that’s put some hard limits on the damage he’s actually able to do," the host quipped.
However, Oliver acknowledged that Trump is likely to have much more help this time around if he is elected, given that "a group of conservatives have given him a plan to hit the ground running."
"That is why while Trump’s first term was bad, his second could be much, much worse,” Oliver argued.
Oliver then explained the blueprint for Trump's potential second term: Project 2025, a "step-by-step gameplan" organized and backed by more than 100 conservative organizations like the National Rifle Association, Liberty University, and The Heritage Foundation.
Project 2025's 900-page handbook, for example, includes plans for dismantling the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration because it is "one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry." Oliver observed other initiatives included in the handbook, such as installing a pro-life task force to replace Biden's reproductive healthcare task force, disassembling the FBI, defunding the Department of Justice, outlawing pornography, and more.
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Speaking about the two figures spearheading Project 2025, Trump associates Russ Vought and John McEntee, Oliver said, “Their goal here is clear: To assemble an army of vetted, trained staff who can begin dismantling the administrative state from day one."
"Which is a little weird if you think about it," he added. "They’re assembling an army of future government bureaucrats who hate the government."
The Project 2025 takeover would be largely implemented through the reinstatement of Schedule F, Oliver explained, an executive order Trump signed weeks ahead of the 2020 election which would have stripped civil service protections for thousands of employees and granted Trump the power to oust civil service of any senior or mid-level officials he determined to be misaligned with him. Biden swiftly undid the measure once he assumed office.
“For all of Trump’s talk about wanting to get rid of the Deep State, Schedule F isn’t eliminating it, it is creating a Deep State that is loyal to him and driving good people out of government,” Oliver said. “And I do get that ‘Trump Unraveling Civil Service Protections’ isn’t the sexiest headline, but it’s also the action that could unlock his ability to do all of the incredibly damaging things that he and those involved in Project 2025 have been planning.”
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver airs on Sundays at 11 p.m. ET on Max.
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