WIRED TURNS THE POST-PRIMARIES SCAREMONGERING UP TO 11: The ‘Emergency Powers’ Risk of a Second Trump Presidency.

DONALD TRUMP APPEARS to dream of being an American authoritarian should he return to office. The former US president, who on Tuesday secured enough delegates to win the 2024 Republican nomination, plans to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and house scores of them in large camps. He wants to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy the military in cities across the nation to quell civil unrest. He wants to prosecute his political opponents. There’s an organized and well-funded effort to replace career civil servants in the federal government with Trump loyalists who will do his bidding and help him consolidate power.

What’s also concerning to legal experts, though, are the special powers that would be available to him that have been available to all recent presidents but have not typically been used. Should Trump decide to go full authoritarian, he could utilize what are called “emergency powers” to shut down the internet in certain areas, censor the internet, freeze people’s bank accounts, restrict transportation, and more.

These powers that all presidents have are extra scary when Trump holds them… even though he did nothing with them the first time around.

But the FUD won’t ramp itself up between now and November, so we’re going to see all all-news/all-education/all-entertainment all-hands-on-deck effort that will make 2016 and 2020 seem tame.