"2025": Anticipating What's Coming

...In Order to Stop the Worst of It

Here’s an alarmingAssociated Press headline from yesterday: “CDC Calls for More Testing for Bird Flu After Blood Tests Reveal More Farmworker Infections”

Here’s the opening sentence of another story: “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is poised to have tremendous influence over the way the United States regulates and distributes its vaccines.”

You see, apparently anti-vaxxer RFK Jr. is going to play a leading role in health decisions in the new administration—just as more public health crises rear their ugly head..

All of this may seem outrageous. Unthinkable.

But four months ago, I wrote a story imagining what would happen if Trump were to win. I studied all his speeches and commitments, his past behavior, alongside what those behind Project 2025 have been promising to do. And I decided to capture their clear plan to wage war on experts and science in my third chapter. (You can read it HERE. Or you can listen to our podcast episode of it, read by two incredibly talented actors/actresses, HERE. )

But here’s a quick summary of the Chapter/Episode for those who didn't read it: on the verge of a bird flu outbreak amid dairy workers, an anti-vaxx political hack replaces a key bird flue expert at the CDC—amid a broader sea change in who occupies all these critical offices meant to protect American health.

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My only mistake was that my fictional chapter takes place in March 2025, when what’s playing out in real life could happen even sooner.

But the point is, what is coming next is all largely predictable based on past behavior, clear commitments made, and realistically assuming that they will in fact do the worst things they have promised (which they typically do when they have the chance).

And especially in the new year, these scenarios will play out quickly and furiously: mass deportation camps (private prison stock is already spiking), the politicization of the FBI and DOJ (some of the worst people are being discussed as Attorney General), the use of the military to crack down on domestic protests, and so on. Remember, there are far fewer guardrails now than last time.

In recent months, I and a hard-working team of talented people worked hard to warn people what these scenarios would all look like. My guess is Americans (whoever they voted for) largely dismissed these worst case scenarios—and will still want to dismiss them now. Just like they would’ve my chapter where anti-vaxxers take the reins of health agencies amid a bird flu outbreak. “Could never happen,” we assure ourselves.

I get it, there’s comfort in doing so.

But while more comfortable, minimizing all these risks turns out to be the reckless and dangerous approach. Both amid an election, as well as now that it’s taken place.

Any look at national and world history teaches us that anticipating the worst case scenarios is actually the responsible approach. Because it is only in anticipating the worst do we position ourselves to even have a chance at stopping it. And it’s only in capturing how things will really play out—when an overwhelmed and inconsistent media will too often fail to do so—that we give ourselves a chance to wake people up to what could unfold very quickly if we let it.

So, let me re-up for you the chapters I wrote over recent months spelling out potential scenarios that will occur now that Trump is in power:

Introduction and Chapter 1: Protester Deportations

Chapter 2: Banning Abortion and IVF

Chapter 3: Gutting Civil Service (Schedule F)

Chapter 4: No Vaccines in Schools

Chapter 5: “Revenge” and a Weaponized DOJ

Chapter 6: Mass Deportation

Chapter 7: Brutal Attacks on Workers and Unions

Chapter 8: The Attack on Public Education

Chapter 9: The Insurrection Act

Chapter 10: The War on "Woke"

Chapter 11: Hurricane Trump

Chapter 12: Truth — Billionaires and the Media

Beyond chapters in Substack, I also compiled these stories into a book—which at a Book Salon I spoke at last night, people were suddenly eager to get their hands on.

You can purchase the book HERE if you prefer reading it that way.

And if you are an Audiobook person, or podcast person, you can listen to all of these chapters wherever you get your podcasts, or at our podcast website HERE.

Caution: these are not easy chapters or stories to read. Given how we’re all feeling this week, you may not be ready to digest them yet.

BUT…as democracy champions from around the country think through ways to stand up to what’s coming, I think building a common understanding of how the right’s worst and darkest promises will potentially play out is a critical step in gearing up.

We must know exactly what can and will happen. With that knowledge, we must act.

So…I hope you’ll take the time—when you’re ready—to dive into some of these materials.

And then we can all think through and act upon the best ways to keep the worst case scenarios from happening (remember, from my post yesterday—most of what they hope to do is or will prove to be deeply unpopular).