During his recent presidential campaign, Donald Trump met with oil industry magnates and promised them that his administration would push aside all the troublesome regulations, like on the environment, should they, as a group, donate $1 billion to his campaign.

Now, post-election, Trump shows just how loudly money talks by promising that any corporation that donates $1 billion to the administration will be able to ignore regulations, permits and time delays for their investment projects.

Of course, that plan can only be accomplished by ignoring the laws passed by Congress, a concern that matters not in the least to this president. Autocratic leadership cannot be bothered by such mundane details.

Money also talks loudly in Trump’s new part-time president, Elon Musk, who gave away millions of dollars to voters who simply registered to vote for Mr. Trump, and dedicated his social media giant “X” in support of Mr. Trump’s 2024 campaign. Now Musk speaks with authority within the administration, warning Republicans not to oppose Trump’s ideas or appointments, otherwise, he, Musk, may financially support primary candidates who surrender to Trump.

Musk also is using his newfound power within the Trump universe to walk around doing more pontificating, things like doing away with the IRS. Not a bad idea for the world’s reputed richest man, to stop paying those annoying taxes altogether.

And money talks even to Trump’s past non-supporters, like Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, who made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago recently, and followed that visit with a million-dollar contribution to Trump’s campaign fund. Ah, the joys of supplication, of kissing the ring of the president who only values one thing over money: Loyalty to himself without exception.

And Trump’s confidence over his stunning electoral “mandate” (the smallest popular vote margin in recent history with a nearly even Congress) he says will allow him to end birthright citizenship in the United States, a right ensconced in the U.S. Constitution. In fact, nothing less that a two-thirds vote by the 50 states could change this right, but Trump suggests he may end that right on his first day in office.

There is a theme here, one that emasculates the Congress, ignores legislative law and defies our history of the limitations of power in a government divided by executive, legislative, and the courts. Trump’s confidence comes from the fear elected Republicans have of this president, and from a Supreme Court with one third of the justices appointed by Trump and seemingly loyal to him.

Will the Republican Senate cave to Trump’s clown show of executive nominees for fear of Trump’s retribution?

Will Democrats, in a closely-divided Congress wrest control from a Republican House that can only barely pass a federal budget?

Will Americans recall why, when Trump left office in 2020, many voters thought he might rank as the historically worst ever president?

The challenge here is great, and only Democrats can forestall what Trump and his allies seek to accomplish by turning the government into a cash machine for those who can afford access.

The good news is that there is another election in two years, and yet another in four years. Hope remains, dimmed for now, but holding on for the next election, as always.

Jim Crawford is a retired educator and political enthusiast living here in the Tri-State.