Planning for Life After Trump, However We Manage to Get There

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We could all feel it in the air at No Kings 3. Accounts from just about every gathering — from tiny to massive, from village green to Times Square — registered the same things: hope, joy, confidence, celebration. A great sea change from the angry, bitter, besieged, and bested feelings of so many at the protests of last year. What’s it all about?

Hard though it may seem to believe sometimes, every day presents us with more evidence that the end of Trumpism will come. Let’s face it: That happy ending once felt impossible. Donald Trump’s power just kept growing, guardrails splintering, individuals and institutions capitulating. 

Now Trump, having made a hash of everything at home and abroad, is tanking in polls on every issue, while opposition grows — including among his base — and Democrats score one electoral upset after another. All signs seem to point to the end of his reign of terror and the movement that’s propelled it. No wonder the streets were celebrating!

But we cannot wait until 2029 — or, for that matter, January 2027, when a new Congress is seated — to start thinking about and laying the groundwork for what will come next. (That’s assuming Trump doesn’t find a way to stamp out democracy completely by rigging the midterm elections.)

Unquestionably, Americans will face the metaphorical equivalent of a toxic Superfund cleanup site — a scene of massive, deliberate destruction of infrastructure and lives. 

Almost everything — from Trump’s triumphalist, gaudy architectural makeovers of our capital to the basics of how we think — needs repair.

We are in constant danger — physical danger — every day because those with expertise in medicine, science, justice, law enforcement, and national security have been banished and replaced by the spectacularly incompetent. And, as a result, we may be facing all kinds of horrors for years, from pandemic diseases to Iranian drones. 

The environment has been hugely degraded, and the battle to save life on Earth from climate shocks has been set far back. Some of the damage is irreversible.

Government on every level, from the Supreme Court to everyday interactions with citizens, has been contaminated.

And we aren’t even sure of the damage because of the constant lying from on high — from those doing the damage, the people who also control most of the news.

Whoever would have thought that America the Beautiful might one day need a Marshall Plan just to get back to where it was before Trump’s rampage?

Okay, I know what you’re probably thinking: “We have to confront the immediate threat before worrying about tomorrow.” And you’re right. The first task now is to eradicate the cancer — before it metastasizes even further.

However, if we wait to start thinking about the challenges that will surely come later, we won’t be prepared for the moment when fundamental decisions have to be made. It takes a lot of contemplation, imagination, and creative “thought experiments” to get ready for a systemic overhaul. 

And, as importantly, smart planning for how things should be in the future creates a road map to sell to the public — now — in the upcoming midterm elections. We can’t win a consensus for systemic change with the usual platitudes.

Americans are beginning to realize that they’re not going to get “for the people” policies from a “for the corporations” system. Something more radical than tweaking this economic blueprint or that agency mandate is required. What will a resurgent “people-first” government look like? Where’s the good guys’ Project 2029?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. And the sooner the better.

The Mad King of Bavaria

Trump increasingly reminds me of Ludwig, the so-called Mad King of Bavaria. Ludwig got his nickname for his bizarre behavior. Among other things, he was active late at night (fortunately there was no Truth Social then) and his wild spending on over-the-top fairy-tale castles bankrupted him. Finally, his ministers had him declared insane, and, in 1886, overthrew him. 

The reality of Trump’s madness is plain enough — and yet it is also hard to wrap our heads around. Our hesitancy to acknowledge such a garish reality gives rise to a kind of mental filter that treats every piece of evidence of his derangement with a reflexive skepticism, downgrading it from the stark and literal to the merely impressionistic. A defense mechanism, probably.

Consider how, earlier this month, at a meeting, Trump claimed to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that his father, Fred, was born in Germany; his actual birthplace was the Bronx. Every time Trump has made this claim, he also expresses great admiration for Germany. Perhaps it’s wishful thinking.

Another doozy that grabbed me was what he said during his visit to Elvis’s manse, Graceland. In my inexpert opinion, his firehose comments and pronouncements embody some combination of extreme narcissism, an accelerated withdrawal into a fantasy world where he is worshiped, and some misguided sense that he can continue to distract voters from the toxic hash he has made. 

I was especially struck by a strange sequence in which he first lamented that he hadn’t known Elvis — an atypically “modest” admission — but wished he had, and then confessed that, for a moment, he pondered fibbing about having known the King. He then speculated about whether he could beat Elvis in a fistfight, prompting an aide to coat that bizarre remark with a humorous overlay, by suggesting that Elvis would probably have let him win. Trump seemingly didn’t get the allusion to his pathological need to be crowned as victor, even when he’s losing.

With any previous president, an unhinged statement like the above would have brought things to a full halt as commentators examined the leader’s behavior, moral grounding, and, probably, sanity. With Trump, such lunacy barely warrants mention, except as a light diversion from the killing in Ukraine and the Middle East. 

Or take this past Thursday’s soliloquy to his Cabinet, which has to be listened to or read in its entirety to be believed. He can call it “the weave,” as if it were a brilliant, discursive, associative delivery such as you might find in a novel by William Faulkner or Marcel Proust. But why don’t we call it what it is: incoherent babble; a menacing, self-aggrandizing, delusional word salad?

I asked a friend and reader, a physician who maintains a strong interest in Trump’s psychology and mental health, what she made of the Graceland visit and “fib” comment. She wrote me:

Trump seems to be regressing to earlier periods in his life, while he checks off items on his imaginary bucket list.

Trump never met Elvis, and now it is too late. But he will use this visit to Graceland to check-off “meeting the King.” As of today, Trump will believe and profess that he met the King and knew him well.

His visit to Graceland is also an absurdity in a time of war. His staff are happy to have the distraction, and he is too cognitively compromised to understand that a visit to Graceland confers no political advantage upon him. So, yes, Graceland is a distraction from his failed war, but who is actually orchestrating the distraction? I do not know.

Donald has lost his political genius, so I wonder who in his inner circle is orchestrating these distractions. Sadly, I suspect his entire inner circle knows full well that he is demented.  

I believe they exploit his dementia as means of manipulating him in pursuit of their selfish goals.  

I believe everyone around Trump uses him for their selfish gain. Sadly, I believe Trump is unaware and has no insight into how he is being manipulated. Everyone in his orbit uses him.  

This is the true essence of Trump: the core dishonesty about virtually everything. It explains his ability to shift rationales for the war continuously. It explains his being able to wage a super successful war while claiming the Iranians are eager to negotiate and give him everything he wants — when the facts stubbornly contradict this rosy scenario.

A similar illogic governs his bull-in-a-china-shop actions on the domestic front.

Like the revelation that the president’s judicial attack on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was based on zero evidence. Trump just made up the claim of illegal actions to harass Powell over what were normal cost overruns incurred during the long-term project to renovate the historic, very old, Federal Reserve building.  

That many Republicans perceive Trump’s derangement — and say nothing — should forever mark them as unfit for governing. Their own lies and their lapdog complicity should always be front and center if they again run for high office. 

Democrats, too, have had their ignominies, most prominently their charade over Joe Biden’s mental fitness for another term. But that pales by comparison, in almost every respect, with the GOP’s acquiescence to Trump’s psychotic mauling of this country and the world at large.  

TL;DR: Why MAGA Wins and Dems Lose

The fight to regain our democracy requires a basic change in how Democrats do business. As noted in this long New Yorker article (these are my takeaways, not the author’s):

– Far-right, heavily-funded Republican activists have for years built a network of local activists who have been given broad leeway to initiate and innovate, while Democrats have centralized their operations, discouraged grassroots innovation, and focused on things like demonstrations that feel good but usually do not move the needle.

– Some Democratic Party operatives tend to be too judgmental, even intolerant, of others with somewhat different views, making would-be allies feel unwelcome rather than ushering them into a proverbial big tent. The same party bigwigs spend much of their money and energy on showy national efforts like rallies with celebrities while local MAGA operatives appeal to people on the neighborhood level and focus on things they can all agree on. 

– One reason Trump won his second term — though the GOP spent much less money than the Harris campaign did — was that his side worked tirelessly to pull together people who liked Trump (for whatever reason) and who shared a sense of community and even fun.

– Now the Democrats have a real opportunity to bring people together who share a sense of buyer’s remorse at having voted for Trump last time, while finding common ground over a few important positive issues and a sense of camaraderie over “getting it right” this time.  

It’s doable, but it will require a thorough revamping of the outdated tactics that party operatives have marshaled in the recent past.

You Haven’t Got Mail! Or Voting Rights! 

The US Postal Service says it might have to shut down altogether by October because it’s running out of money. Anyone paying attention? Of course, Congress may come to its rescue as it has in the past, but that’s hardly a sure bet anymore.

Trump probably loves this: no mail, of course, would mean no voting by mail — a voter- disenfranchisement scheme that the president keeps promoting.

And, as you probably know already, Trump, while trying to destroy voting by mail and waiting for his compliant Supreme Court to fall into line on that, recently VOTED BY MAIL himself in a Florida special election. 

How come the blatant hypocrisy isn’t on billboards? Why, oh why, cannot the country’s Democratic leadership find a way to message the public on these easy-to-understand idiocies and hypocrisies? 

When Qualifications Became a Bad Thing 

One of the signature characteristics of Donald Trump’s reign is how he delights in appointing the conspicuously incompetent, often dishonest, lazy, or inexperienced, while removing from the federal government the skilled and the dedicated. 

A recent example is his choice to head the Kennedy Center, the capital’s preeminent performing arts center. The young man named to this august position was previously… wait for it… in charge of the center’s HVAC and toilets. 

Speaking of toilets, we now learn that independent prosecutor Jack Smith discovered what Trump was doing with those classified documents he purloined after his first term ended. He was stashing some of them near his toilet at Mar-a-Lago, but especially the stuff “pertinent to his business interests.” (He was also showing people on his private plane a classified map, but it’s not clear if he stored it near the in-flight toilet.) 

Ultimately, when history levels its judgment on the Trump presidency, corruption will be a major highlight. Yet why should we wait for history? Presumably, most Americans would not cotton to any of this flagrant misuse of their tax dollars, were it laid out for them clearly and persistently — the way MAGAs have presented issues to their targeted voters for years, at small, essentially neighborhood gatherings around the country.

They’re Mad, Too, and Not Just ‘Angry’ Mad

It’s so important to remember that Trump is hardly the only sicko on the loose in high places. As media columnist Oliver Darcy points out, the muscular bros in Trump’s revenge firmament cannot wait to steal the election — especially with the help of ICE:

Steve Bannon on the deployment of ICE agents at airports: Wants to use it “as a test case to really perfect ICE’s involvement in the 2026 midterm elections.” 

Turning Point USA’s Benny Johnson: “Can we deploy ICE to every voting booth in America? Would that fix the fraud? Of course, it would.” 

Fox News’s Jesse Watters: “What’s the problem? [Even] If illegals aren’t voting, why can’t ICE agents [still] be at a polling station?” 

The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro: “It seems to me that actually making sure illegal immigrants do not show up at polling sites is not a horrible use of ICE, actually.” 

(I should add: Voter fraud, as study after study has proven, is vanishingly rare and has never been a factor in US electoral outcomes at any level.)

A Royal Flush on No Kings Day 

Your faithful correspondent was out Saturday covering the No Kings event in Manhattan.