Ben EveridgeDecember 02, 2025Comment

An Indy President Is Coming?

Ben EveridgeDecember 02, 2025Comment

Opinion by Ben Everidge for Thomas

Photo Credit: Adobe Stock by Tujuh

What Happens If America’s Next President Does Not Belong to a Party, But to the American People?

“Authoritarianism doesn’t end when the strongman leaves.

It ends when the people remember they’re stronger.”

Gone would be the garishness, vitriol, and harmful bravado that does not reflect who we are as Americans.

It goes without saying that Donald Trump’s second presidency has compressed decades of institutional corrosion into a single year, thus far. Power has been centralized beyond what the United States Constitution envisions. So too have agencies been politicized and fear normalized. The language of democracy remains, but the habits of democracy are fading into the chaos of governing Washington and our state capitals.

Imagine, then, that in January 2029 an independent president – unaffiliated with either party – takes the oath of office, elected by citizens exhausted by the ruling duopoly’s division and demand for political obedience. What would that leader inherit? And how could the new administration rebuild a nation that has learned to distrust itself?

Step One: Reclaiming the Constitution’s Machinery

First, on Day One, the independent president would issue an executive order re-establishing the post-Watergate firewall between the White House and the Department of Justice. The attorney general would serve a fixed, staggered term and could be removed only for cause. Weaponizing the Justice Department for political retribution would be strictly prohibited.

Second, civil oversight of law enforcement would be reinstated. All Trump-era directives allowing ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, or the FBI to investigate political groups would be rescinded. A “Nonpartisan Enforcement Charter” would require written judicial authorization for any political or press-related inquiry.

Third, the IRS and regulators would be depoliticized. Audit-selection algorithms would be made public; competent, independent inspectors general would be reinstated; and agency heads would be confirmed under a new oath: to serve the law, not the leader.

Fourth, emergency powers would be rebalanced. Every standing “national emergency” declared by President Trump would sunset within 90 days unless renewed by Congress, whose constitutional role would be respected and upheld.

Step Two: The Moral Reconstruction of Government

First, a cabinet of competence would be nominated by the new president and confirmed by Congress. A bipartisan, merit-based Cabinet of engineers, educators, economists, and civic leaders who would model service over political, personal loyalty to the president.

Second, an Ethics and Transparency Act would be proposed that would mandate public financial disclosure for all senior officials, impose lifetime lobbying bans on cabinet members, and enforce penalties for conflicts of interest.

Third, truth as policy, where daily press briefings would be informative and validated as truthful when tested by the media, public, and lawmakers. Federal data sets on climate, crime, and health, for example, would be restored to public view. Science and statistics would again speak without permission.

Step Three: Healing the Institutions 47 Broke

These would include, but not be limited to:

Reforming the Supreme Court: By introducing 18-year staggered terms and a binding ethics code. Three members would expand the number of justices, all nominated by the Indy president and truly independent of the major party duopoly.
Protect the Press: By codifying First Amendment safeguards so no president can legitimately label media “enemies” without legal repercussion.
Restore Watchdogs: With independent funding for inspectors general and whistle-blower protections to prevent retaliation.
Rebuild Foreign Trust: Re-entering international alliances undermined by irresponsible unilateralism and reaffirming treaty obligations through transparent Senate ratification as stipulated by the U.S. Constitution. Visits scheduled with our allies in the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, and Australia.

Step Four: Healing the People

The most significant fracture is not institutional but emotional. Millions now feel unseen. The independent presidency would launch a National Reunion Tour, visiting every state in 100 days to host open civic dialogues broadcast nationally.

It would be the champion of:

Universal National Service for citizens 18-30, linking civic education with voluntary participant-paid community work.
Bipartisan Infrastructure Initiative focused on rural broadband and urban housing.
Civic Literacy Renewal in schools teaching not partisan ideology, but how democracy functions.

The First 100 Days: A Blueprint for Renewal

Day 1-7:

Issue the Declaration of Public Trust, a binding executive commitment that no administration shall target political opponents or the free press and that the American Rule of Law reigns supreme again.
Announce a Democracy Audit, an annual report card grading that will begin detailing the government’s adherence to constitutional norms.
Repeal all executive orders that politicized and weaponized federal agencies and their workforces and eliminate the anti-vaccines mentality of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Restore the Department of Justice and FBI independence memo and publish it publicly.
Return the Department of War name to the appropriate Department of Defense philosophy.
Create an informal brain trust of former living Presidents, Vice Presidents, Speakers of the House, and Senate Majority leaders to advise on key national issues.
Invite congressional leadership of both parties to a televised summit on democratic norms.
Restore the White House infrastructure to more appropriately reflect our government as belonging to the people rather than the Gilded Age of excess.
Undermine and reverse the Trump tariffs program and culture wars focus.
Remove the federally imposed National Guard presence from our nation’s streets unless requested by state governors.

Day 8 – 30:

Establish the Presidential Commission on Democratic Integrity to audit the prior administration’s constitutional violations and propose viable corrections.
Submit the Ethics and Transparency Act to Congress that will prevent future elected public servants from profiting from the federal government through sweetheart stock deals and investment schemes.
Reopen the White House daily briefing, including top administration officials, in an effort to significantly improve accuracy and transparency; pledge weekly Q&A sessions with the press that will be truthful and forthcoming.

Day 31 – 60:

Submit a legislative agenda that includes:

o An innovative proposal to replace our antiquated and loophole-riddled tax code with a fair, flat tax that treats all citizens and corporations equally

o A proposal for balancing the federal budget in five fiscal years and generating a modest surplus by the end of that time

o Authorizing the creation of the Medical Innovation Zone Act, the National Transportation Mobility Act, the Prosperity Republic Implementation Act, and the American Transformational Innovation Trust

o Introduction of a Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act that will provide legal immigration and a rational, predictable path to citizenship for those who honorably navigate our defined process

Sign the Civic Service and Education Initiative, creating 250,000 new public service positions.
Rejoin the international climate and anti-corruption accords.
Reaffirm NATO and regional alliances through diplomatic visits.

Day 61 – 90:

Host the National Reunion Forum, a televised town-hall marathon across five regions of the United States.
Deliver the Restoration Address from Independence Hall, not the U.S. Capitol, symbolizing power returned to the people.

Day 91 – 100:

Conclude with a national moment of reflection on the first 100 days: “The Day of Renewal” and reveal an outline for the second 100 days of the Indy Administration.

Have We Crossed the Line?

Yes, but the line is not yet erased. The republic can still walk itself back across the abyss. The 100-day agenda for an independent president would not simply reverse authoritarianism; it would re-teach the country how to govern itself with far less drama and absence of the mindless chaos that has come from our two major political parties in America.

The Thomas Take

Donald Trump’s second term has proven that the Constitution can bend dangerously, like a tree in a category five hurricane, without breaking entirely. Whether it straightens again and regains its bloom depends on leadership that owes allegiance not to a base, but to balance.

An independent president’s task is nothing less than to make democracy functional again, to remind Americans that independence is not isolation, but integrity.

“The measure of a republic is not how long it stands, but how quickly it rises after it falls.”

If the next president stands outside the parties but inside the Constitution, America’s first 100 days under the 48th president of the United States’ tenure at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue could begin the nation’s saner next 100 years.

Here’s to your America, America!