The Chris Cuomo Project - What happens if Donald Trump wins the 2024 election?

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

Chris Cuomo explores what might happen if Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election. Leaning on Trump’s recent actions and rhetoric, particularly towards the media and his political opponents, Chris explores possible contentious policies and broader consequences of his governance, emphasizing the need for voters to think critically about the outcome of ushering in a second Trump administration. Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday: https://linktr.ee/cuomoproject Join Chris Ad-Free On Substack: http://thechriscuomoproject.substack.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm sick of it. Burn it all down, man. The grievance has gotten its way. And Trump is my choice because I'm sick of the way things are. But what happens if Trump wins? It is time for us to discuss what we know from the man himself with the benefit

of the discount factor for how much he exaggerates, how drawn he is to hyperbole, and whether or not we should trust his own words. This crazy paradox exists where people are investing their franchise of their vote, the agency over your rights in the interest of your family to somebody that you very often tell me, look, I don't listen to what he says.

It's just about the policies. Then let's look at what the potential policies might be if Donald Trump wins in November against likely Joe Biden. Okay? Chris Cuomo here. Welcome to the Chris Cuomo Project. Thank you for subscribing and following. Let's get after it. What do we know about Donald Trump?

We know that he is very driven by self-interest. Okay? We know that he is not a deep appreciator of norms, standards, rules, guidelines, ethics, or morals. Okay? I'm not judging, but he asked to lead. And if you want to lead, then you get measured by those who will be led. All right? That's what we're signing up for. So the pushback of who are you to say he lies? Hey, that's what he asked for. He asked to be weighed and measured. And frankly, when it comes to the traditional metrics,

he was found lacking when it comes as a man and a leader. He just is. He lies more than I've ever seen in the business. He doesn't know things. He makes things up. He does not build good teams. And you say, but I like the policies. Okay, I think that that is worth a deep look.

But there's something that's being missed in the idea of the border was better. Was it? Depends on when you look, depends on what you look at, but yes, I'll give it to you, the economy felt better. Was it, depends who you are and where you are and what you're looking at.

But there are other policies that are gonna come along with Trump. Now, how do we know? Well, we know from what he said, and we'll do a little homework here, and Greg, our producer, will start putting up headlines and quotes of what Trump has said, okay? And you can wave it away and say, oh, but I don't believe any of that. Well, then you got to start being real with yourself,

right? Because if you're just going to pick and choose what you decide to believe from Trump directly about Trump and his intentions, well, then have you ever made a choice of this magnitude or any magnitude on the same basis? Where everything that you learn about the proposition that you're considering, you only pick the good aspects of it and ignore all the potential downsides in making a choice to do that thing or go to that place?

Think about it. Like, I'm gonna take this job. I'm pretty sure that that guy just stuck his hand down the back of my pants, but I'm gonna work there anyway. Why are you ignoring the bad parts just because you still wanna make a choice that may or may not be in your best interests?

That's something that you have to think about with Trump. What if Trump wins? First, could he? Absolutely. Is it more than a possibility? Absolutely. I am surprised that the polls stand the way they are as long as they have. I did not expect this.

Why? Because Trump has been weighed and measured and found lacking. He should have to own a lot of the initial upset from the pandemic. He should have to own a lot of the residue from what has gotten him indicted so many times. And yet, and yet, and yet. There is such an overriding cadence and consideration

in this country of grievance and being disgusted by the establishment and people in power. And heance and being disgusted by the establishment and people in power. And he is seen as such a disruptor, rightly or wrongly, that it overrides a lot of the traditional metrics. But what do you get when you get Trump? What has he told us?

Well, and you can start off by dismissing these, but by the end, are you really going to dismiss everything he's told you? And then among the things that he's told you, maybe you agree with some of them, but we should look at those things and what you're deciding to be about. First, is there reason to believe

that Donald Trump will go after the media? Yes, do I think that's a fair characterization? Maybe. Why? Well, because what he has said is, is looking at the legal framework that allows you to go back at media when you believe they've been unfair to you.

Especially if it's intentionally so. He is a very active litigator, as we know, often without basis. He loses or withdraws many, many, many, as we know, often without basis. He loses or withdraws many, many, many, many, many of his lawsuits. Or certainly, if you look at the metric of those he threatens, he threatened to sue me many years ago when I was at ABC News for investigating his net worth, which we were very generous in assessing for him.

And it was still nowhere near what he said it was. But he didn't like the story and I received a letter which was from an attorney but was clearly written by or for Donald Trump. It sounded just like him speaking. It really wasn't even written with any kind of sense of the traditional notion of a legal letter. But it said, in short, I didn't like the story, so I'm suing Disney, ABC, your show, you and your parents and said damning you back to the womb. Funny?

Yeah, but also a reflection of just how furious he can be. Now you project that onto a guy who has real power. Is he going to just look at libel laws and legal standards? Or is he gonna come after journalists? He has said he would like to. Oh, but I don't think he means it like that. He just means the law side. Okay.

He has said the same about his opponents. He believes the Bidens should be investigated by the DOJ. Why do you not believe that if he gets in, he would make exactly that happen? And maybe after Hillary too and others. Well, he didn't do that the last time. He's not the same guy. He hasn't been put through the same things.

Well, if he does that, I like that because that's just about the pursuit of justice, really. So you don't believe that any in the investigations of him or the people around him, done regardless of whether it's federal or state and which state it is, those are all wrong, right? Those are all unfair to him, right? But you believe that whatever he does

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and your good times. for sponsoring this episode and your good times. If that's what you want is for him to investigate all of his political opponents, where does it end? Where does it end? And if he has an attorney general that takes his suggestions as instructions, which they could, sure there's installations and barriers

for them to do that, but they could. All right, well then what's next? This is a man who has said, we should shoot the people coming across the border illegally. Okay, what if he tries to make that a rule? What if he makes it an executive action? And what if while it's being litigated, what if he wins? What if he tries to make that a rule? What if he makes it an executive action? And what if while it's being litigated, what if he wins?

What if he wins temporarily so that's allowed to be doing it? Are you okay with that as a civic instruction? Okay, what if he extends what he suggested strongly during BLM and those protests and riots that these people should be shot and that they should be beat up and that people at some of his rallies should be treated that way.

Would you be okay with that instruction? Now, if you keep telling yourself, look, these are just things he says, how do you know that? On what basis? Now, I got ahead of myself. What happens if Trump wins? What happens if Trump wins? What happens if Trump wins and he rigged it?

How could you suggest that? That's so cynical. He tried to change the outcome of the election the last time, allegedly. And I put the word last because by now, we know he did. Those phone calls, you can look, give him the benefit of the doubt on everything you want. There's too much doubt involved. He did what he did and he did it for the reasons he said he did it.

He wanted to change the outcome of the election because he lost. Why would you believe that he and the people around him are not capable of trying to do that again and doing it better this time so that they make sure he wins? So where are we if he wins? Do the Democrats have a good faith pushback

against things that happened during the election? Oh, well, you said when the Republicans said it, you said it was all bogus based on the lack of proof. The Democrats would have to show proof also, obviously. Obviously. But I do think it is a what if Trump wins, we're going to have to look at the nature and quality of the win.

Oh, that's hypocritical. Boy, you didn't like it when it happened the last time because he made it up. Truth the vote came before the bench under penalty of officers of the court, sometimes known as lawyers, being sanctioned, being held in contempt, having their licenses on the line. And all of a sudden, truth the vote, which everybody pointed to. Oh, the affidavits. You got to see the affidavits. You got to see. Oh, the affidavits, you gotta see the affidavits. You gotta see the video and the affidavits, the video of them hiding the ballots. It's not what the video was.

The officials wound up going through the Georgia video and saying, it's not what it was. This was a plan of how they move things in and out. This was done by routine, by Republicans and Democrats. Okay? So no, you didn't see with your own eyes ballot stuffing. It's just not true. You can choose to believe it, but it's not true.

Okay? Yeah, but what about the affidavits, the people who saw things? Well, first of all, people who just say they see things don't necessarily, that doesn't mean that they're telling the truth. And the bulk of those supporting affidavits that were supposed to make this case

came from truth to Vote. And they eventually said what? We don't have the affidavits. We don't even have the proof. But then you just moved on to the next. Ah, see, that leads us to the problem in the analysis. This is also about what you're okay with. I get that you're pissed off.

I'm not saying that you're wrong to be pissed off. I get that you want things to change. And I get that it seems that everybody in there in the establishment won't change it, but Trump will. First of all, you're ignoring that he was in there for four years and didn't change things. That's why he lost and had a record margin vote against him. Well, they didn't let him.

Hmm. They didn't let him drain the swamp. Really. We don't have a lot of people who are actively businessmen getting into office to deal with the conflict. We don't have it happen that often, but boy, he made a lot of money for a guy

who said that he was going to leave it all behind when he entered office. Boy, he had a lot of alligators in his administration that got kicked out for some of the most pathetic behaviors I've ever seen from a federal administration. Weird way to drain the swamp, huh? He put in his patsy Jeff Sessions at the DOJ who did his bidding.

He then put in Bill Barr, one of saving him from an aspect of the Mueller probe's release. Is that draining the swamp? Really? Really? Well, they that draining the swamp? Really? Really? Well, they didn't let him. Really? What happens if he wins? Do you think he reforms the deep state? No. I think he winds up, maybe, maybe, because I don't know that I give him enough credit, as many do, for having the vision or the sense of strategy or of tactics or of really ambition beyond his own personal

satisfaction to do the kinds of things that a despot would need to do to do these kinds of things. But if the people around him have such a signature ambition, I think they might replace a bunch of bureaucrats with bureaucrats they believe are deferential to them. But does that make anything better? Well, yeah, because I mean, like what they do. Well, do you like fairness or do you not like fairness? Because you don't wanna just swap

one perceived bias for another, right? You would want actual change. All right, so what else happens if he gets in? Well, what happens in the Middle East? Well, he doesn't like foreign entanglements, but he loves currying favor with Israel. And I'm not saying that's a good thing or a bad thing, right? That's a policy choice.

But you don't think that there's a chance that the president that has done the most for the relationship with Israel might do more that might involve expanding violence in the region. Now I don't believe this, but a lot of people are suggesting why. I think Trump is more concerned about activities abroad that don't do anything for him than about anything that's driven by principle.

But if he wins, this will be on the table. Oh yeah, but things were more peaceful when he was in there. Well, do we know that that's because of him or despite him being there? You don't think that Russia felt that the timing was right, not because Trump was gone, but because of how much they had softened us up and made us hate each other over the course of the last election and his administration and all the stuff that they've been messing with us about that we keep on learning more and more about. You don't think that other people are pitching in

on social media especially to keep the hate parade going? What else happens if Donald Trump wins? Well, the economy will be great again. Well, your only argument with that is inflation, okay? And unfortunately, politics is about the simple and inflation is a complicated analysis. It comes from a lot of different places, it accrues over time and it was always headed toward us.

Okay? Did the tax cut give an illusion? Yeah, yeah, it did. They always do, but tax cuts are not good or bad. It's always about how and for whom. Now, my beef with Trump's tax cut was that it was called the middle class tax cut and it gave like 15 or 20 cents of every dollar to the middle class and 80% to the top. Now, what was their justification? Well, the top pays the majority. Yeah, but then don't call it a middle class tax cut. Just call it a tax cut.

All right, what's the difference? The difference is that you made people think it was going to be geared for them and it wasn't. Sure, they got something, but you gave more to others. Oh yeah, but the others deserve more. Ah, Donald Trump should say that part out loud. I think the people who may make the more money deserve more help. He should just say that. money deserve more help. You should just say that. He won't, but he should. Why? Because then he'd be doing what he says he's going to do, which is to make America great again by being candid and open with you. FanDuel Casino's exclusive live dealer studio has your chance at the number one feeling, winning, which beats even the 27th best feeling, saying I do.

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he doesn't use the DOJ to do that? Do you really believe that he doesn't try to enforce a domestic agenda that is based on his grievance campaign, punishing states that he believes were disloyal. And if he wins, who does he put around him? He had a pretty shitty administration last time. You think he's gonna get better people this time when so many people have been burned? Have you seen how Jenna Ellis

tweets about what's going on? Did you see when Trump acolyte Mark Levin said, why aren't all the billionaires giving Trump money for his legal bills? This is such a preposterous situation. Well, first of all, is Brother Levin putting up any money? He ain't working at Fox for free. Oh, I know, but I don't have billions, but it's a matter of principle, right? Why wouldn't you put your money where your mouth is? Ah, that's something for you to analyze. Jenna Ellis responds, Trump counsel, X.

Well, maybe it's because they know they're not gonna get paid back, like everybody else who works for Trump. Ooh. So if Trump wins, who does he get around him? Does he get the best of the best like he promised you last time? Or is it the worst of the worst?

And does it matter? Oh yeah, he's more dependent on the people around him than anyone else. He had his son-in-law who's a stooge, who doesn't even run the family's businesses. It's his brother who's the business genius. That was the guy running a lot of his policy decisions for the United States of America,

Ivanka, you know, who goes to China for us. Really, you want that again? You want his kids who have done nothing great ever except be attached to his name to the extent that it has value? That's who you want, guiding your interests. People with the only experience they've had is bad experience. His sons, I don't even know if they're allowed to serve with the kind of civil judgment they have against them. So what happens if he wins? What

kind of course does it put us on? Is it not naive to believe that, well, everything will be better? He has said time and again, even his bloodbath comments, look, do I believe that they were taken out of context? Yeah, he was talking about the auto industry, but that's all you needed to say, was he was talking about the auto industry and, and then extended it.

Now, do I think it matters? No, because I think that he is hapless and untalented when it comes to leading, untalented when it comes to strategy, and unambitious when it comes to any great vision or idea. And I'm not saying that all autocrats are great people. Most likely it's much closer to the opposite being true. But to be an autocrat, you gotta have a vision.

You gotta have a strategy. You gotta have a plan. He doesn't have any of those things. He's a gut player and he's good at it. And he's good at playing the media and he's good at playing you. And it's worked because so many of you have legitimate reasons to be pissed off about the norms in society.

I just wish you had picked a better change agent. But if that is gonna be your choice and you're gonna choose Trump, you better think what comes along with it. That this is a man who looks at the people who were involved on January 6th and says they were patriots. People who broke into the Capitol forcibly

to stop a certification that was constitutionally mandated. Those are not heroes, and you know they're not heroes, and you don't want them to be your heroes. But what does it mean if he gets back in when those are the kinds of people he salutes? What does it mean when he says it's a bloodbath? Someone who sees things in such violent terms, such aggressive terms, do you really believe he acts on none of it? Now, maybe you're somebody who would like

for him to act on some of it, to make us a more violent and aggressively violent nation. But you better think about it, because if Donald Trump wins, there will be ramifications and repercussions. And the idea that it's going to all be great is based on one. So much of his agenda is payback.

Will that pay dividends for you? I don't tell you who to vote for. And I've even said, you gotta be open to your choices. If it's Trump and Biden, then that's what they are. How could you tell people to vote for Trump? I'm not telling you to vote for Trump. I'm saying, I don't tell you who to vote for. You gotta do what you think is best for you.

But you better think about what happens if Trump wins. Because it's not gonna come along with just everything being the ideal of what you would want. This man has said a lot of things and threatened a lot of things. How are you going to vote for somebody who at the same time you don't believe means anything that they say? What if Trump wins? Thank you very much for subscribing and following. You can hit us at the Substack, thechrisquamoproject.substack.com.

You get this little ditty ad free there and you get my long COVID journey and the whole discussion we're having around the wrongs, the rights, the remedies. And there are a lot of good discussions going on there. Also at News Nation, 8P, 11P, every weekday night. Thank you for being there and if you want to wear your independence, show that you're a free agent, get some of the gear. You got to think about what comes along with your choices and decisions. I don't tell you what choices to make, but I'll give you food for thought and then you can decide. Let's get after it.