First, there are the actions he can take as president that will make life for Biden as president more difficult and tumultuous. Expect a slew of executive orders and executive actions. We have already seen this in the weeks leading up to the election. One is designed to blow up the career civil service; it gives the president the authority to put protected employees into a new category that allows them to be fired at will with no appeals. Another opens up the full Tongass National Forest in Alaska to logging, mining and development. We are likely to get a lot more for drilling, fracking and other actions on public lands and more relaxation of clear air and water rules, just to start…

Second, expect a slew of pardons — for Trump himself, for his family and staff, for his Cabinet and other officials facing possible charges of corruption and malfeasance. This alone will empower them to act in a reckless fashion, with no possibility of legal backlash, through Jan.19. This group could include the people at several federal agencies carrying out Trump’s harsh immigration policies. It could also cover people who violate two laws intended to preserve records, the Federal Records Act and the Presidential Records Act. The desire to cover their tracks by deep-sixing incriminating or embarrassing documents will be strong, from the White House to the State Department to Homeland Security, Commerce and Education.

Third, under his likely illegal executive order on the civil service, Trump can fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Deborah Birx and many career scientists at the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and other agencies that he sees as being disloyal because they followed facts and science. Trump could also fire intelligence professionals who were loyal first to the United States and not him personally.