In little more than an hour, Donald J. Trump invited the United States to default on its debt for the first time in history, cast doubt on the country’s commitment to defending Ukraine from a Russian invasion, secured pardons for most of the Capitol rioters convicted of crimes. , and declined to say that he would abide by the results of the next presidential election.

The vision for a second term, which Trump outlined at a CNN City Hall event on Wednesday, represents a stark departure from the core American values ​​that have been the foundation of the nation for decades: its credibility, its credibility among international allies. and his commitment to the rule of law at home.

Trump’s provocations are hardly shocking. His tenure has often been defined by his “rules don’t apply to me” approach to governance and lack of interest in maintaining national security order since World War II, and at 76, he doesn’t have much to change.

But his performance nonetheless signaled an escalation in his drive to bend the government to his will as he runs for the White House again, only this time with more control of the GOP’s pressure points and plan. destroy the federal bureaucracy.

The TV event made it clear that a version of Mr. Trump who could return to power in 2025 with the promise of being a vehicle of “retribution” is likely to reign as he did in 2020. In the final year of his presidency, Mr. Trump removed people deemed disloyal and promoted those who fully indulged his instincts — something he did not always do during the first three years of his administration, when his establishment advisers often discouraged him from radical policy changes.

“From my point of view, Donald Trump has evolved over four years, and I think 2020 has been the most dramatic example of his present,” said Mark T. Esper, who served as Trump’s defense secretary. “And I suspect that would be his starting point if he won his post in 2024.”

In a statement, Jason Miller, Trump’s senior adviser, dismissed criticism of the former president, who said he spoke directly to Americans suffering from Biden’s decline and President Trump’s commitment to security and economic prosperity on day one. He added: “It is clear that this vision is not shared by the failed warmongers, political misfits and professional bureaucrats – many of whom he fired or defeated – who created all of America’s problems.”

At the town hall event, Mr. Trump almost unceremoniously floated ideas that would change the country’s position in the world, pledging to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours and refusing to support the country, an American ally that relied on billions of dollars. dollars in aid to hold back the onslaught of the Russians.

“Do you want Ukraine to win this war?” CNN’s Caitlan Collins insisted.

Mr Trump has been evacuated.

“I don’t think about winning and losing,” he replied, adding that he was focused on curtailing the conflict. “I think in terms of the settlement that we stop killing all these people.” He did not mention that the assassination was initiated by Russia.

Delaware Sen. Chris Koons, a Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee and close to President Biden, said the international community fears Trump’s return.

“His speech last night only reinforced what many of our allies and partners have told me about their fears over the past two years — that Trump’s return to the White House will be a return to chaos,” he said.

Some elected Republican officials who are skeptical of US aid to Ukraine have praised Mr. Trump’s actions. Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio called his Ukraine response “real statesmanship.”

Mr. Miller argued that Mr. Trump had “an entire term without new wars and is ready to do it again.”

In New Hampshire, Republican audiences reveled in Mr. Trump’s wisecracks and many insults—at Ms. Collins (“an unpleasant person,” he chuckled, echoing his old attacks on Hillary Clinton), at former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, E. Jean Carroll, the woman who was convicted by a jury this week of Mr. Trump of sexual assault and defamation. And the crowd did not dissent when he again tried to rewrite history on January 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to undo his electoral defeat.

“It was a beautiful day,” Trump said.

If he becomes president again, he said, he will “most likely” pardon “most” of his supporters who were convicted for their actions on January 6. “They were there with love in their hearts,” he said of the crowd he radiated was “the biggest” of his career.

“You see what you get: a presidency not tied to truth and constitutional order,” said Utah Senator Mitt Romney, Trump’s most prominent GOP critic remaining on Capitol Hill. “The idea that all people convicted of crimes will be pardoned, or for the most part pardoned, is a departure from the principles of the Constitution and our party.”

Mr. Trump has also embraced the possibility of a default in the showdown between President Biden and Congressional Republicans over a debt ceiling that economists say could spell disaster for the global economy.

“You can do it now because you will do it later because we have to save this country,” Trump said. “Our country is dying.”

Former Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, a Republican who is running a long-term presidential campaign in 2024, said Mr Trump’s potential return to the White House poses a “huge” risk to the nation.

“He has shown such disrespect for our public institutions, which are critical to our democracy,” Mr. Hutchinson said, adding that he was particularly unnerved by talk of default. “He spoke as if the United States could default on debt. And it’s like using his past business practices of using bankruptcy as a tool and applying them to the government.“.

Despite such warnings from old-guard Republicans, the cheering from the conservative crowd in New Hampshire during the CNN event was an audible reminder that Mr Trump significant advantage in Republican primary polls.

Karl Rove, author of George W. Bush’s two presidential victories, said in an interview that “for true believers and ardent supporters, it was Mr. Trump’s performance as a clown.” But he said other Republicans would now be forced to answer for “the big pile of poisonous stuff on the doorstep.”

“Do other Republicans think that the rioters who attacked the police, broke into the Capitol on January 6 and in some cases tried to overthrow the government should be pardoned?” Mr. Rove asked. “Do other Republicans agree that it doesn’t matter if the United States government doesn’t do its duty? Do other Republicans care who wins in Ukraine?”

One of the most controversial policies of Mr. Trump’s presidency was the forced separation of migrant parents from their children at the southern border, which Mr. Trump abandoned in June 2018 after a huge backlash.

But during the town hall on Wednesday, Mr. Trump offered to revive it. “Well, when you have such a policy, people don’t come,” he said. “If the family finds out that they are going to be separated, they love their family, they won’t come.”

Casual observers may be tempted, as some did in 2016, to accept Mr. Trump’s most extreme statements, such as his casual desire to allow the country to default, seriously but not literally.

But beneath Mr. Trump’s vague chatter lie detailed plans to destroy the federal civil service. These proposals have been brewing for more than two years in a network of well-funded Trump-linked outside groups.

In the last chaotic weeks of the 2020 election, Mr. Trump’s lawyers, after creating a new legal theory in strict secrecy, issued an executive order known as Graph F it was intended to destroy much of the employment protection against layoffs for tens of thousands of federal employees.

Mr. Trump did not have enough time to implement this plan. But a constellation of conservative groups is preparing to renew efforts if he becomes president again in 2025.

Under pressure from Ms Collins, Mr Trump did not say he was ready to accept the 2024 results.

Former Rep. Liz Cheney, who lost the Republican primary bid for re-election after helping lead the Jan. 6 House investigation, said of Trump’s mayor’s office, “Virtually everything Donald Trump says strengthens the case against him.”

“Donald Trump has made it clear once again that he fully intended to corruptly obstruct Congress’s official electoral vote counting process in order to cancel the 2020 election,” said Ms. Cheney, who has made opposing Trump’s return to power her top political priority ever since. since. her defeat last year. “He says what happened on January 6 was justified and he glorifies those who attacked our Capitol.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Trump also denounced his former Vice President Mike Pence for supporting the 2020 election results and brushed off suggestion that Mr. Pence was in danger on Jan. 6 even though the Secret Service tried to evacuate him from the Capitol. .

“I don’t think he was in any danger,” Trump said.

Mark Short, who was with Mr. Pence that day as his chief of staff, cited Mr. Trump’s double standards in defending violence by his supporters, while saying he was generally in favor of law and order.

“Many of us have called for the prosecution of the BLM rioters as they disrupted private business,” Short said, referring to Black Lives Matter supporters. “It’s hard to see how there’s another threshold where rioters violate law enforcement, threaten government officials, and loot the Capitol.”