With Donald Trump expected to meet with Office of Management and Budget chair Russell Vought late Thursday about eliminating more government offices during the government shutdown, former Republican National Committee head Michael Steele told voters it was time to wake up to the president’s long-range plans.
Steele, now the host of his own MSNBC show, was asked by MSNBC's Chris Jansing what will be at play during the meeting and if what is currently happening is what voters had in mind when Trump was reelected.
"Sorry, we have a civic responsibility as citizens to fully flesh out what a presidential candidate intends to do,” Steele began. “Donald Trump told us that he wanted to be a dictator. Donald Trump told us he wanted retribution. Donald Trump lied about not knowing anything about Project 2025. But as he tweets out today, he's fully aware of what it is because it is executing a strategy within his own administration.”
“The reality for the country right now is, okay, if this is the idea to create a unitary executive, which is the power center of all of this, to put all the power of the federal bureaucracy in one person, then what happens in the next election?” he asked.
“Does this power, if the voters decide that they want a Democrat, now transferred to the next Democratic president? Hell no! That's not what this is about. They're not setting up a unitary executive to shift this power to, at some point four years from now, to a Democrat. Are you kidding me? That's not what this is about. This is about locking down the power.”
He then delivered his wake-up call.
“Folks, this is the big setup for 2028. Don't be stupid. See what's in front of you because it's happening,” he exclaimed. “And they [Republicans] expect by the time we get there, you will be immune to any charges of this is fascism, that this is not the American way — this is unconstitutional.”