Juan whistled and shook his head. "Sofia could have been down there," he said softly.
“What’s going on?” Maria asked.
Juan pointed at the TV, "Look on the news."
"Something's happening behind me, Fabian!" The reporter scrambled with his cameraman to get a better shot. "It appears that a large number of military-looking vehicles is arriving on the scene. They are following what looks to be a bulldozer heading for the bridge."
Maria gasped.
"I thank God she's not down there," Juan said. "Or she'd be in real trouble."
Juan stared at the long row of protestors on the screen. He could see a medium-sized bulldozer moving slowly along the road toward the Tempe Art Center, pushing barriers and parked vehicles out of its way. "That's a D-8," he said.
Maria tried to suppress a gasp, “What’d she say?”
Juan blew out a long breath. “She’s saying protests like this are happening in cities all across the country: New York, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, a bunch of them.”
The camera cut back to the news anchor. A big maps of the United States appeared with inset images of people rioting. They were all dressed in similar fashion, with drag queens walking next to masked men wearing Arab headgear and lots of people dressed in all black. Banners and signs of all kinds were displayed everywhere.
"What are they protesting?" Maria asked.
"I think they're mad Donald Trump pardoned himself," Juan offered. "Y'know all those trials he was in? They're all gonna be dismissed."
Maria washed her hands with a kitchen towel and returned to her cooking. "I think that's good. That poor man had so much trouble. It's not right the way they went after him like that."
"Well, they sure don't like it," Juan kicked his recliner back and pointed towards the screen. "They're saying he will do the same thing to his political opponents now. Put 'em all in jail. Biden, Clinton, even Obama."
Maria shook her head. "No, he shouldn't do that. We've had too much trouble already."
"I think they should do it!" Juan cried. "They should get the FBI to raid all their houses too! The way they did to Trump. Those pinche cabróns should have the same thing done to them as they did for Trump."
Maria shook her head, "I don't like all the trouble. Everybody hates each other now."
"They're scared Trump's gonna do what they did to him," Juan was on a roll. "Hey look, President Trump is speaking."
"...And I tell you, these violent protests are disgusting. We're going to put a stop to it. And we're going to do it very quickly," Trump announced from the tarmac of some big airport. A huge jet plane loomed behind him, while in front, a crowd of reporters surrounded him, shouting questions.
"It doesn't matter what they're protesting about, Linda," the President addressed one of the reporters by name. "It's lawlessness, pure and simple. And this isn't going to be like 2020, where I waited for these liberal Governors to ask me to send in support. Now that I'm President again (President-Elect right now, but you will have your favorite President back again in just a few days), I will act quickly to restore law and order. Any Governor who does not immediately comply with my calls for order and sanity will be met with the full retaliation of the US Federal Government. We're not going to take it anymore, I tell you. We're all sick of it, and it's going to change. And change quickly."
"Mr. President, Mr. President!" a reporter fought for his attention. "What do you have to say to those who say you are planning revenge on your political rivals?"
Trump smiled broadly, "I said last year that I wanted a Revenge Tour." The reporters went wild with questions, but Trump ignored them and continued his train of thought. "Last April, I told the Supreme Court that every President deserved total immunity for what they did while President."
An aide approached Trump and tried to indicate it was time to board the aircraft. Trump ignored the aide as well. "But they didn't grant me total immunity, which was fine. All I really wanted was for them to return the decision to the lower court to buy time until after the election. I gave myself total immunity when I pardoned myself."
"What about your state charges?" Another reporter called desperately. "You can't pardon yourself from them!"
"Well, the New York case fell apart because it was a bad case," Trump pivoted, answering this new question without missing a stride. "You can see I'm standing here. Your favorite President is no longer in jail. That case fell apart because it was a terrible case. It was a disgrace. It never should have happened."
"What now, Mr. President? Are you going to pardon the January 6 protestors?"
Trump pursed his lips, "We'll take a hard look at those cases. We're going to look at them on a case-by-case basis. Some of those, a few, perhaps a very small number, did commit some crimes and deserve to be punished. The rest? Well, the rest are political prisoners who will be released immediately. In addition to that, we're going to take a look at prosecuting the prosecutors. Everyone involved in that disgrace of a prosecution better start lawyering up right now, I can tell you."
Trump turned to go when another reporter called out, "But what about immunity? You said that Presidents need immunity?"
Trump wheeled about, standing menacingly with his feet wide apart, "Immunity? They didn't give me total immunity. They should have. What they said was 'Conditional Immunity.' That means if someone used their office for personal gain, they were still vulnerable to prosecution. We're going to take a look at that. Who stood to gain from Russia, Russia, Russia? Who stood to gain from two impeachment hoaxes? Who stood to gain from the raid on Mar-A-Largo? We're going to explore all that, I can tell you. We'll see who has immunity."