The Republican Party has abdicated its responsibility to the constitution and the American people. They lead the House and Senate. They can stop Trump.
He's pathologically confident. His NPD and ADD keep him from thinking in terms of consequences. That's part of his appeal to the MAGA base.
He still has Limbaugh-like powers to keep GOP Congressmen in line, fearing a primary challenge from someone more radical.
He still has a supermajority SCOTUS.
He just signed an EO to end mail-in voting.
He's talking about renaming the Strait of Hormuz—partly because he can't remember the word "Hormuz"—and charging ships $2M to pass.
His former lawyer Alan Dershowitz has added a book to Bannon's legal argument to ignore 22A in 2028.
He's being egged on by Graham, Kushner, Miller, and Netanyahu.
He's no longer constrained by Susie Wiles, while she's off dealing with her cancer treatment.
He's cowed the reporters.
The billionaires bow to him.
And he always has a deus ex machina to avoid prison, just flying off in his Qatar plane to a country with no extradition treaty with the U.S., to live off his $DJT and crypto for the remaining 10 years of his life.
Thank you, Mike, as always, insightful based on facts.
The GOPers who voted for the current head of state got what they voted for. The problem is that what they voted for now is destroying everything for all of us, as in U.S.
“Because of that, he shattered the MAGA coalition, fractured the Republican Party, and burned a huge amount of goodwill with the American public. He’s not building a legacy—he’s collapsing what little one he had.”
Maybe I’m just an old curmudgeon, but I do not share your optimism. Hard-core MAGAtry has not shifted but the tiniest bit since January 6, 2021. And even though some hard core MAGAts seemed to be distancing themselves from him, what they are not doing is fully breaking, demanding that he be removed from office, or any of it. They could play a great deal more and better political hardball, including removing Johnson from office, but they aren’t doing any of that. As far as I can tell from my observations, all that hyper conservative Republicans are doing is creating a bit of distance between Trump and themselves so that they can have some room to maneuver depending on which way the wind is blowing.
Last week, some Republican congressman said that if the people felt that they were going through a lot of hardship, they could just get a second job. I saw that quotation on my Best political website, and saw absolutely not one more word about it anywhere. The same thing happened when Bessent or Lutnick said that economic hardship was just something that we would have to go through for the greater good (of the billionaires and millionaires, but they didn’t say that quiet bit out loud). The only people that have really said anything are the far right nut cases like Alex Jones and EmptyGee. And all of the crazy people listen to them if and only if their crazy is confused with the far right crazy.
The forever war is right out in the open. The corruption is right out in the open. The incompetence is right out in the open. The undermining of the republic by the Supreme Court is right out in the open. The failure of Congress to do anything is right out in the open. The crazy is right out in the open. The privileging of conservative religion at the expense of everyone else is right out in the open.
Quoting A Very famous speech in 1855: “ The Angel of Death has been abroad throughout the land; you may almost hear the beating of his wings. There is no one as of old … to sprinkle with blood the lintel and the two side-posts of our doors, that he may spare and pass on.” John Bright (1811-1889)
You make some good points but while it seems like hard line MAGA isn't changing it's stance, it does seem like it is slowly losing some of its numbers. I don't understand why Republican representatives aren't doing more to try to court the more moderate and independent voters but I am very glad they are not.
Trump has become a religion to his hard-core followers. It's not surprising, because the worst of his followers seem to be hard-core evangelicals on the far right.
I still remember my disbelief when I saw pictures of those billboards basically proclaiming Trump to be the second coming of Jesus. There is a degree of blasphemy there that I find incredibly impressive, even though I am an atheist. But to me, as a sociologist of sorts, I see the same pattern repeating itself over and over and over. No matter how deranged he is, no matter what promises he breaks, they no more question they're all allegiance to Trump then they questioned their allegiance to the Jesus that exists only in their minds.
I hope you can interview Hasan Piker. The fact that so many 'moderate' Dems are so mad at him, when they should be lining up to talk to him, speaks volumes about the still-problematic strategies of mainstream Democrats, even when it should be easy at this point.
someone with malignant narcisistic personality disorder with obvious symptoms of frontal lobe dementia CAN'T course correct!! So in the mean time Our military is in an ILLEGAL war with a white Christian nationalist as their secretary of defense, along side Israel with Netanyahu who is a malignant narcisistic, zionist extremist & a criminal who has other agendas! Netanyahu continues to attack Gaxa while committing a GEONASIDE in Lebanon! How long will our country survive this nightmare?! How many more people will have to die?! Congressional republicans have the power of all 3 branches of government & could have stopped this nightmare several months ago but they still choose not to. The DOJ & DHS are corrupt! Project 2025 is here.
"Trump is panicking and blaming everyone around him—without even the bare minimum of pretending to take responsibility"
This has ALWAYS been his nature, his playbook. Trump has NEVER accepted responsibility for ANYTHING. Has NEVER admitted to a mistake. These are classic signs of insecurity, fear, weakness.
Of course it will get worse. Trump is running scared, he panics, he demands solutions from his toadies, and when they fail him, he fires them. Such as Bondi for not protecting him sufficiently from the Epstein files. Such as Noem for making him look bad, after doing exactly what she was told to do.
Trump will do what he has done in every other crisis: Make himself the center of attention, Blame others, Attack others, Threaten, Find more ways to make money, Create chaos, Distract, Lie, Evade, Hide, Brag, Create his own fantasy universe... His is a toddler throwing a tantrum, a bully who sees himself as the victim, a rich kid who never learned to take responsibility, who was able to 'cheat' his way through school, never learning to study, always able to hire other people to protect him from consequences, gather people near him (for his wealth, power, fame) to do his dirty work for him...
Trump will be analyzed by historians for centuries, as well as the people who voted for him.
Good news, things are getting worse. Things HAD to get worse before people would wake up and exert sufficient political will to fix the foundational problems in our system. Watch the polls, people are waking up. When his 'base' gets down to ~25%, few pragmatic politicians will stick around. There will always be 25% who are either so delusional, greedy, full of hate, or so determined not to think / change their mind, that to change them would require a LOT of intense therapy.
"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." Trump could fool a lot of the people some of the time, but his time is over.
Given that not only Trump is clearing the deck but also Pete Hegseth, and given that the latter ensures that military leaders reflect more and more the authoritarian regime we are oh so fast sliding into, is there anybody out there willing to remind the new military leaders that the war crimes they might be asked to commit could leave them vulnerable to prosecution down the road? I am reminded here of the Nuremberg trials! Someone ought to warn them!
Great article.
The Republican Party has abdicated its responsibility to the constitution and the American people. They lead the House and Senate. They can stop Trump.
And MAGA lone wolves can stop GOP in the House and Senate from doing anything remotely patriotic. It's why Margie quit mid-term.
https://okmagazine.com/p/mitt-romney-gop-didnt-vote-impeach-donald-trump-fear-family-safety/
We live in a tyranny of an extreme minority.
You had me at "Trump Is Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic". Great title. Great article.
More desperate and more dangerous
"The guy is panicked."
He's pathologically confident. His NPD and ADD keep him from thinking in terms of consequences. That's part of his appeal to the MAGA base.
He still has Limbaugh-like powers to keep GOP Congressmen in line, fearing a primary challenge from someone more radical.
He still has a supermajority SCOTUS.
He just signed an EO to end mail-in voting.
He's talking about renaming the Strait of Hormuz—partly because he can't remember the word "Hormuz"—and charging ships $2M to pass.
His former lawyer Alan Dershowitz has added a book to Bannon's legal argument to ignore 22A in 2028.
He's being egged on by Graham, Kushner, Miller, and Netanyahu.
He's no longer constrained by Susie Wiles, while she's off dealing with her cancer treatment.
He's cowed the reporters.
The billionaires bow to him.
And he always has a deus ex machina to avoid prison, just flying off in his Qatar plane to a country with no extradition treaty with the U.S., to live off his $DJT and crypto for the remaining 10 years of his life.
Thank you, Mike, as always, insightful based on facts.
The GOPers who voted for the current head of state got what they voted for. The problem is that what they voted for now is destroying everything for all of us, as in U.S.
“Because of that, he shattered the MAGA coalition, fractured the Republican Party, and burned a huge amount of goodwill with the American public. He’s not building a legacy—he’s collapsing what little one he had.”
Maybe I’m just an old curmudgeon, but I do not share your optimism. Hard-core MAGAtry has not shifted but the tiniest bit since January 6, 2021. And even though some hard core MAGAts seemed to be distancing themselves from him, what they are not doing is fully breaking, demanding that he be removed from office, or any of it. They could play a great deal more and better political hardball, including removing Johnson from office, but they aren’t doing any of that. As far as I can tell from my observations, all that hyper conservative Republicans are doing is creating a bit of distance between Trump and themselves so that they can have some room to maneuver depending on which way the wind is blowing.
Last week, some Republican congressman said that if the people felt that they were going through a lot of hardship, they could just get a second job. I saw that quotation on my Best political website, and saw absolutely not one more word about it anywhere. The same thing happened when Bessent or Lutnick said that economic hardship was just something that we would have to go through for the greater good (of the billionaires and millionaires, but they didn’t say that quiet bit out loud). The only people that have really said anything are the far right nut cases like Alex Jones and EmptyGee. And all of the crazy people listen to them if and only if their crazy is confused with the far right crazy.
The forever war is right out in the open. The corruption is right out in the open. The incompetence is right out in the open. The undermining of the republic by the Supreme Court is right out in the open. The failure of Congress to do anything is right out in the open. The crazy is right out in the open. The privileging of conservative religion at the expense of everyone else is right out in the open.
Quoting A Very famous speech in 1855: “ The Angel of Death has been abroad throughout the land; you may almost hear the beating of his wings. There is no one as of old … to sprinkle with blood the lintel and the two side-posts of our doors, that he may spare and pass on.” John Bright (1811-1889)
Agreed, the MAGAts are incredibly gullible and dense.
You make some good points but while it seems like hard line MAGA isn't changing it's stance, it does seem like it is slowly losing some of its numbers. I don't understand why Republican representatives aren't doing more to try to court the more moderate and independent voters but I am very glad they are not.
Thanks for the kind words.
Trump has become a religion to his hard-core followers. It's not surprising, because the worst of his followers seem to be hard-core evangelicals on the far right.
I still remember my disbelief when I saw pictures of those billboards basically proclaiming Trump to be the second coming of Jesus. There is a degree of blasphemy there that I find incredibly impressive, even though I am an atheist. But to me, as a sociologist of sorts, I see the same pattern repeating itself over and over and over. No matter how deranged he is, no matter what promises he breaks, they no more question they're all allegiance to Trump then they questioned their allegiance to the Jesus that exists only in their minds.
The need MAGAts seem to have for affiliation with other right wing authoritarian haters is mind boggling!
Not if you understand that they like the authoritarian part, as long as they get to be the authorities.
Trump's biggest crime is giving them license for all their worst tendencies.
Thanks for sharing this thoughtful message on someone I despise 🙂
Thanks.
I hope you can interview Hasan Piker. The fact that so many 'moderate' Dems are so mad at him, when they should be lining up to talk to him, speaks volumes about the still-problematic strategies of mainstream Democrats, even when it should be easy at this point.
someone with malignant narcisistic personality disorder with obvious symptoms of frontal lobe dementia CAN'T course correct!! So in the mean time Our military is in an ILLEGAL war with a white Christian nationalist as their secretary of defense, along side Israel with Netanyahu who is a malignant narcisistic, zionist extremist & a criminal who has other agendas! Netanyahu continues to attack Gaxa while committing a GEONASIDE in Lebanon! How long will our country survive this nightmare?! How many more people will have to die?! Congressional republicans have the power of all 3 branches of government & could have stopped this nightmare several months ago but they still choose not to. The DOJ & DHS are corrupt! Project 2025 is here.
"Trump is panicking and blaming everyone around him—without even the bare minimum of pretending to take responsibility"
This has ALWAYS been his nature, his playbook. Trump has NEVER accepted responsibility for ANYTHING. Has NEVER admitted to a mistake. These are classic signs of insecurity, fear, weakness.
Of course it will get worse. Trump is running scared, he panics, he demands solutions from his toadies, and when they fail him, he fires them. Such as Bondi for not protecting him sufficiently from the Epstein files. Such as Noem for making him look bad, after doing exactly what she was told to do.
Trump will do what he has done in every other crisis: Make himself the center of attention, Blame others, Attack others, Threaten, Find more ways to make money, Create chaos, Distract, Lie, Evade, Hide, Brag, Create his own fantasy universe... His is a toddler throwing a tantrum, a bully who sees himself as the victim, a rich kid who never learned to take responsibility, who was able to 'cheat' his way through school, never learning to study, always able to hire other people to protect him from consequences, gather people near him (for his wealth, power, fame) to do his dirty work for him...
Trump will be analyzed by historians for centuries, as well as the people who voted for him.
Good news, things are getting worse. Things HAD to get worse before people would wake up and exert sufficient political will to fix the foundational problems in our system. Watch the polls, people are waking up. When his 'base' gets down to ~25%, few pragmatic politicians will stick around. There will always be 25% who are either so delusional, greedy, full of hate, or so determined not to think / change their mind, that to change them would require a LOT of intense therapy.
"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." Trump could fool a lot of the people some of the time, but his time is over.
Mike, great article. I especially like the title. Right on!!
Well said my friend,
100% correct Mike.
Given that not only Trump is clearing the deck but also Pete Hegseth, and given that the latter ensures that military leaders reflect more and more the authoritarian regime we are oh so fast sliding into, is there anybody out there willing to remind the new military leaders that the war crimes they might be asked to commit could leave them vulnerable to prosecution down the road? I am reminded here of the Nuremberg trials! Someone ought to warn them!
Can we send the orange stain on the next moon flight with the promise that he can build unlimited golf courses there?