Peter W. Stevenson /Washington Post via Getty Images

Editor's note: With the US election just days away, Today, Explained is devoting this week to looking at the highly consequential stakes of the presidential election for the world, for immigrants, and more. To support this work, become a Vox Member.  Independent journalism is under attack, but it's needed more than ever. Your support makes a difference.

Today,  senior correspondent Zack Beauchamp explores Trump's stealth plans to gut the Justice Department and turn it into a tool for his political will. 

In 2016, Christy Lopez was an attorney at the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, where, among other things, she led the team that investigated the Ferguson Police Department after the 2014 killing of Michael Brown.

But when Donald Trump won the 2016 election, Lopez quit. Trump, she thought, would block her team from doing any kind of worthwhile investigation into police use of force. Lopez was right. In Trump’s first year in office, Attorney General Jeff Sessions sharply restricted the use of consent decrees — the legal tool Lopez and her colleagues used to force change in Ferguson.

“If Trump is elected [again], I would like to look back five years from now and say, ‘Oh, we were really alarmist,’” Lopez, now a law professor at Georgetown, told me.

“But I do worry that it’s actually going to be far worse.”

Lopez is alarmed, among other things, by Trump’s plans to turn the government into a tool of his own personal will. If implemented, they would have extraordinary consequences for Americans’ everyday lives, disrupting or potentially even devastating core functions of government that we’ve long taken for granted.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is a case in point.

Founded by the 1957 Civil Rights Act, the Division is tasked with enforcing federal law regarding anti-discrimination and civil equality. Its attorneys launch hate crimes prosecutions, investigate discrimination in employment and housing, and sue states when their voting rules run afoul of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Were Trump to return to power, the department could easily be turned from a tool for protecting civil rights into a means of undoing them. Trump and his allies have laid out fairly specific plans for doing just that — plans that, if enacted, would mean a far more radical and methodical transformation of the federal civil rights apparatus than what we saw in Trump’s shambolic first term.

The department’s Voting Section — which played a critical role in defending the integrity of the 2020 election — would be twisted, its attorneys replaced with cronies working to validate Trump’s lies and shield Republican-controlled states from federal scrutiny. Its anti-discrimination litigators would be tasked with investigating “anti-white” discrimination, effectively turning the Civil Rights Act on the minority citizens it was written to defend. And Lopez’s former colleagues working on policing would not only let abusive cops skate, but potentially even investigate local law enforcement Trump believed weren’t aggressive enough toward alleged criminals.

A second Trump administration would likely mean the inversion of the traditional purpose of federal civil rights law. Its guardrails against authoritarianism, discrimination, and abuse of power would be twisted toward advancing them.

And it’s just one of many ways in which Trump’s pursuit of power at any cost would have tangible and direct consequences for ordinary Americans’ lives.

Trump has vowed to use a second term to enact “retribution” against his enemies. The Justice Department, and specifically the current Civil Rights Division staff, are at the very top of the list.

At the end of Trump’s first term, he issued an executive order creating a new classification for civil service jobs — called Schedule F — that would have allowed him to fire as many as 50,000 civil servants and replace them with handpicked allies.

While Trump left office before his team could implement Schedule F, Trump has promised to re-issue the order “immediately” upon returning to office. In anticipation, his allies have compiled long lists of civil servants they’d like to fire and loyalists they’d like to put in their place — preparations that have led one expert on federal administration to conclude that 50,000 firings is now “probably a floor rather than a ceiling.”

Trump’s allies have focused on the Civil Rights Division as one of their chief targets for Schedule F and other power grabs. Project 2025 — widely seen as the chief planning document for a Trump second term despite the campaign’s disavowals — has an explicit, detailed plan for taking it over.

The document calls on the next Republican president to “reorganize and refocus” the division, aiming to make it into “the vanguard” of the administration’s crusade against “an unholy alliance of special interests, radicals in government, and the far Left.” It is one of three DOJ divisions singled out in the document’s call for “a vast expansion of the number of [political] appointees” overseeing and directing its conduct.

This is all part of a broader plan for eroding the Justice Department’s traditional independence. While the attorney general is appointed by the president, the department’s staff is given wide leeway to follow the law rather than the president’s dictates. Political personnel are strictly prohibited from interfering with specific investigations and cases. That’s why the current Justice Department could pursue a case against Hunter Biden with no fear of retaliation from his father.

Trump and top deputies have declared their intent to change this.

“The notion of an independent agency — whether that’s a flat-out independent agency like the FCC or an agency that has parts of it that view itself as independent, like the Department of Justice — we’re planting a flag and saying we reject that notion completely,” Russ Vought, a key second-term Trump planner, said in a 2023 interview.

When you put these three proposals together — seeding the Civil Rights Division with Trump political appointees, using Schedule F to replace career prosecutors with ideological allies, and ending department independence — the full picture becomes clear. If Trump has his way, a second term means a Civil Rights Division operating not as a (relatively) neutral division dedicated to enforcing civil rights law, but as a tool of the Trump agenda in all the areas it covers.

This is threatening for government employees and obviously offensive to the notion of a neutral civil service. But what would this mean for most Americans in practice? What does it matter, really, if one bureaucrat is swapped out for another?

Read my newest piece for more about how Trump's plans to gut the Justice Department could throw elections into tumult, turn the department into a tool to prosecute and punish political enemies, and more. 

When you read it, I want you to keep in mind how this illustrates the fundamental fragility of democracy.

Currently, the United States has a deeply flawed democracy, but a democracy nonetheless: a government by the people and for the people. Trump’s plan is to make it for him and his alone, and he has a decent chance of succeeding if elected. We often take our relatively novel form of government for granted; if we lose it, we’ll miss it when it’s gone.

Follow Vox's 2024 election coverage

Catch up on the big moments you need to know as Vox's writers provide incisive analysis of the news and explain the issues driving voters now.

Getty Images

Fear’s fun factor: Happy Halloween! Perhaps you’re planning to visit a haunted house tonight, watch a scary movie, or partake in other spooky activities. Scientists at the Recreational Fear Lab in Denmark have been investigating why we seek out fear, and what our penchant for the horrible might teach us about ourselves.

What happens if another pandemic strikes — and Trump is president? Evidence suggests that Trump’s leadership contributed to unnecessary deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic. As bird flu continues to infect an increasing number of humans, former president Donald Trump has said he would install anti-public health establishment officials in the White House.

Policies boosting gender equality are popular. The “feminist” label is not: Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has kept reproductive freedom central to her campaign, is the first person in the White House to have ever visited an abortion provider, and has advocated for child care policies as a core part of her messaging. Yet, she has avoided talking about her status as the first potential woman president.

Some election deniers are now election officials. Should you worry? To this day, Donald Trump refuses to admit he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden, a stance that some of his followers have gotten in line behind. Election law experts say that there are ample protections in place to bar election deniers in positions of power from messing with the vote count or its eventual certification. Here’s a guide to the safeguards in place this Election Day.

The winners, losers, heroes, and villains of Love Is Blind: Did you watch the Love Is Blind season 7 reunion last night? The dysfunction of the reality show’s Washington, DC, season has come to a close — and while not many couples found love, Netflix and viewers surely benefited from all the drama.

Flooding in Spain: 62 people died after torrential downpours in southeastern Spain, with the heavy rains damaging homes and even sweeping away cars. [Washington Post]

Who stole their cheese? Nearly 1,000 wheels of artisanal cheddar were stolen by a con artist in London. The cheese is worth nearly $400,000, and international authorities are looking for suspects. [NBC News]

Remko de Waal / ANP / AFP via Getty Images

—Culture reporter Kyndall Cunningham on the many hats Sean “Diddy” Combs wore in his career. The now-disgraced music mogul has been accused of domestic violence, sexual abuse, and trafficking. As the world awaits Diddy’s high-profile trial, a question remains: How did he manage to gain the trust of so many? Read more about the rise and fall of Diddy here.

Nitro/Getty Images

Are you enjoying the Today, Explained newsletter? Forward it to a friend; they can sign up for it right here. 

And as always, we want to know what you think. Specifically: If there is a topic you want us to explain or a story you’re curious to learn more about, let us know by filling out this form or just replying to this email. 

Today’s edition was produced and edited by senior editor Lavanya Ramanathan, with contributions from staff editor Melinda Fakuade. We'll see you tomorrow!

Help us reach our goal of 5,000 new Vox Members by Election Day. Support journalism that empowers, informs, and drives the conversation.

This email was sent to you. Manage your email preferences or unsubscribe. If you value Vox’s unique explanatory journalism, support our work with a one-time or recurring contribution.

View our Privacy Notice and our Terms of Service.

Vox Media, 1701 Rhode Island. NW, Washington, DC 20036.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved.