Apparently, if you give the narcissistic leader of an insurrection four years to remake his image, and a lot of extremist helpers, he can do wonders with the construction of policies to thoroughly undermine our democracy and our separation of powers institutional history.

 When, in 2017, Trump’s extremist and good buddy Steve Bannon asserted that “We (the new Trump administration) will destroy the Administrative State,” Bannon was reflecting Trump’s true intent then and now. 

That intent, in simple terms, is to eviscerate decades of rules and regulations and the agencies that enforce them under the laws passed by Congress. 

By eliminating them, all interference in Trump’s personal goals would be unimpeded by government employees who fear for their jobs for crossing the administration.

The update to advance that goal then evolved into, according to a Time magazine article this week, the Heritage Foundation’s 900-page Project 2025 report for Trump’s re-election policy agenda, a plan Trump denied knowing while campaigning, but now embraces in practice.

Here is how it unfolds in real time:

The goal is straightforward: for Donald Trump, the individual, to grasp and control all government spending by eliminating the role of Congress and its enumerated function of controlling the purse strings of all federal spending.

The strategies are as follows:

• Placing multiple loyal, but incompetent cabinet members and executives throughout the administration (see Tulsi Gabbert, RFK Jr., Pete Hegseth, Pam Bondi, and Kash Patel) with a cowed Republican Senate unwilling to reject unqualified individuals.

• Removing Civil Service protections from expert government SES individuals and replacing those experts with political hacks and loyalists.

• Firing inspectors general who are considered likely to object to Trump’s policies and actions, replacing with loyalists who will ignore ethical breaches and illegal policies in government agencies.

• Offering a federal buyout for two million federal employees with an average of 11.8 years experience in government service. 

If utilized by employees who fear being fired, this will create unintended consequences at an unimaginable level by terminating the most experienced managers of the federal system.

However, for Trump, this offers only good news, where knowledge and experience, just as truth, have no real value in his perception of how government should function as a reflection of his will.

• Defunding the State Department (still partly underway by executive action) and making the State Department the Trump Department under his direct leadership. 

In his first administration, he effectively left multiple State positions unfilled, ignored the expertise of the department and made policy based upon nothing more than his feelings at each moment. This is not a new concept for the president, who needs no government under him.

• Freezing federal spending by executive fiat (frozen by a federal judge and now rescinded by the Trump administration) by ignoring federal law and congressional action. 

Here, Trump attempted to simply stop multiple federal programs, about 30 percent of the federal budget, on a whim that would have starved families, instantly damaged public health and ignored congressional authority.

• Undermining law and order by freeing federal criminals convicted by judges and juries and calling these individuals heroes after they attacked the U.S. Congress and injured 140 Capitol Police. 

Then, the DOJ and the FBI are moving into power under the chief executive, ending 150 years of independence for those agencies.

Overall, Trump has acted with disdain for the Constitution and the separation of powers it guarantees. 

This requires a forceful response by the judicial system, the Congress in protecting its very reason for existing, by individuals within government at all levels and, most importantly, by the American people. 

One by one, we must stand up for this criminal power grab by Donald Trump and protect the democracy he so glibly eviscerates with ignorance and aplomb.

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