Team Trump’s Teflon Is Wearing Thin

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Donald Trump is bombing in the polls. Largely because of that, by the time you read this, he may also be bombing in Iran. 

Simulcast, perhaps, with the inaugural meeting of his Board of Peace.

Attacking Iran — especially given the unknowns and the dangers — makes little sense on almost any level. Except as yet another macho diversion for domestic political purposes, with Trump egged on by the addled frat bros at Fox News. 

Trump is simply running out of running room. His tricks no longer work. 

And the lunacy of his team and everything they do is more and more obvious. Take this, as reported the other day by The Washington Post: White House sources admit the Trump administration can’t figure out how to spend all the additional money allocated for the military budget. 

I mean, how many people remember that the comically unqualified Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wanted and got a 50 PERCENT INCREASE, which has significantly worsened the deficit that Trump tried to blame on Joe Biden? 

A bunch of federal cases against ICE protesters have been dismissed, with even the administration withdrawing some, as agents’ claims prove unsupported or outright false. 

Meanwhile, the man Trump put in charge of the nation’s health doesn’t like flu vaccines because he thinks they damaged his voice. That’s not, though, his explanation for why he did cocaine off toilet seats, as he recently told an interviewer. Now, however, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Hegseth are literally flexing their muscles in a bid to connect, somehow, with some segment of their low-information base and keep them loyal.

Meanwhile, Kennedy’s department has proposed spending $2 billion a year to re-create the systems the US had itself previously built, at a fraction of the cost, and accessed through the World Health Organization — before pulling out of that 194-member-state body. 

And Trump’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, told Tucker Carlson it would be “fine” if Israel were to seize the entire Middle East. 

Lacking authentic leadership ability of any kind, facing shock and pushback at his actions and those of the chaotic and incompetent subordinates he foisted on the country, Trump is escalating his principal go-to game: stoking fear and anger, lashing out, and instigating violence of all kinds, against foreigners and against Americans. 

He’s being aided and abetted by his allies, including his off-again on-again buddy, the increasingly discredited but — make no mistake — still enormously influential Elon Musk. Notwithstanding their sometimes rocky relationship, Musk knows his wagon is now firmly hitched to Trump’s and he’s increasingly desperate to safeguard their threatened political enterprise. It’s all or nothing. 

He has reason to believe he will never have it so good when and if Trump is gone. 

Since the new year, Trump and his MAGA abetters have pivoted toward white grievance — possibly one of the last “urgencies” they believe may still appeal to and turn out their base. 

If you haven’t been on X lately, you may be unaware of how aggressive Musk, a privileged child of South African apartheid, has become in promoting the fabricated and laughable notion that whites in America are under attack — and that this is the most important issue of our time. 

Here’s an example of a post from Musk, coupled with an apt response from a member of a public tiring of him and his trash megaphone — which, despite some setbacks, is still a tremendously powerful factor in shaping perceptions:

I had noticed this refrain from Musk building to a crescendo over time, and as The Guardian reported, he posted on the “plight-of-the-white” nonissue nearly every day in January. 

And now he has stepped it up further, going to this topic every few hours some days, when he isn’t promoting his “amazing” companies and products. Musk’s rhetoric is so extreme that if you didn’t see his name affixed to it, you’d think it was from an explicit white supremacist.

This race card — combined with an increasingly bold, increasingly centralized, effort to limit who can vote — feels very “late stage,” very last-ditch. If that fascist stratagem doesn’t work, they got… nuthin. 

Extreme Trumpery Is Failing Everywhere 

Judges throughout the United States are now routinely saying “no” to the illegal and unconstitutional actions of the Trump Regime. Terms like “illegitimate” in rulings say it all. 

I may be wrong, but it feels like the gathering judicial wave puts the far-right cabal on the Supreme Court in an increasingly untenable position. They bet on the wrong horse and sold the country out to drape themselves in the robes of authority. 

Some of them seem already resigned to shifting away from MAGA sycophancy toward increasing independence — in order to avoid long-term reproach and being bracketed with some of the greatest villains of American history. 

Even the worst and most compulsively reactionary justices may soon see the graffiti on the courtroom walls.

Note: Literally as I was polishing this point on Friday, a news flash came across my phone: The Supreme Court had ruled that Trump’s global tariffs are illegal — with a remarkable concurrence by Justice Neil Gorsuch, of all people, setting forth a ringing restoration of the Constitution’s carefully constructed separation of powers. Ha! And what about the president calling even GOP-appointed justices “slimeballs”? Not wise. 

Neither they — nor any of Trump’s courtiers — can watch the arrest of the former Prince Andrew and other officials abroad without shuddering. They know all but a shrinking cult are sick of self-anointed “kings” and of their toadies and enablers. 

Seize the Moment

We’re entering a rare moment, one overflowing with opportunity to move the needle. Maybe move the mountain.

And yet, as is so common, I don’t see the forces of democracy moving vigorously to seize the moment. 

For example, a strong focus on the hypocrisy I’ve detailed above and in prior columns would, in capable hands, be a powerful tool in an election year. 

Not a day goes by when there isn’t more proof of why the public should not trust the regime in power. Much of it involves a double standard for the rich and ordinary people. For example, killing crew members of small ships allegedly carrying drugs — but pardoning former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was serving a 45-year sentence in the United States for conspiring to import over 400 tons of cocaine into this country. The disparity was so outrageous that even Marjorie Taylor Greene commented on it. 

Like Trump, Musk has demonized Muslims and other immigrants but was only too glad to sell a big chunk of his US government-contract-financed SpaceX to wealthy Saudis. 

And Trump’s own family is of course way ahead in the race to raise cash from Middle Eastern potentates (at the same time they’re shuttling around trying to “make peace”).

Admittedly, talking about such double-dealing to voters isn’t as simple as declaring you lowered the cost of gas or groceries, but it’s hardly the heaviest lift to remind people of the egregious double standard. 

These examples are so colorful, so spectacular, they make it easy to illustrate — without any ambiguity — the self-serving hypocrisy of the current regime.

Certain Democratic Party sages insist that taking back Congress necessitates keeping to the simplest messaging, like the affordability of gas and groceries and proclaiming your unwavering commitment to “our heroes in uniform” and “your family.”  

The problem is that the Republicans appeal to voters with basically similar rhetoric — even when the facts are not on their side.  

Democrats need to laser-focus on the contrast between what Republicans say about affordability issues and the depressing truth about the actual economy. And to point out the extreme contrast between their endlessly trumpeted “commitment” to “our heroes in uniform” — and how members and former members of the armed forces are actually treated. (Ask any veteran struggling to get the benefits they’d been promised.)

Meanwhile, the Dow is at 50,000, a nice, round, monumental-sounding number! And very good for anyone with a 401K, which is half the country.  

So of course Trump and his backup singers are shouting “50,000” like the chorus of some pop song. How nice for those with lots of money they can risk. But most Americans are struggling as a result of Trump’s policies: Utility prices, grocery prices, household debt, credit card debt, car repossessions, small business closures, etc., are all moving in the wrong direction.

These numbers tell a grim story, but it’s not the whole story. Something deeper is amiss at the root of our Second Gilded Age. For anyone who doesn’t get that, the metastasizing Epstein scandal should make it clear. 

The core messages of the so-called “left” are beginning to resonate. People are tired of both parties being in thrall of Mammon. And the obvious antidote to Trump is to find decent candidates with comparable charisma and fearlessness. 

Bring a Proper Weapon to the Gunfight 

Once enough of the Good Guys turn fearless, they need to be lifted up by comparably bold messaging. And it needs to be out there NOW, not via individual campaigns spending endless sums, but in a COLLECTIVE DISPLAY OF FRANKNESS. 

As I’ve indicated, the possible themes that might resonate are myriad. But it’s likely that the brutality of the administration and its effort to actually steal an election offer the best chance of connecting with the heads and hearts of enough Americans. 

Here’s just a sample of the kinds of things worth advertising: With Trump twisting senatorial arms out of sockets to nuke the filibuster and pass the diabolical SAVE America Act, if he succeeds, around 70 million American women who took their spouse’s surname will have all kinds of problems proving their identity at the polls to cast a vote. That’s because their birth certificates are under different names. 

Presumably, this will resonate with a critical voting group, who — regardless of their party preference — will be none too happy to learn that their citizenship is in doubt thanks to a maliciously misnamed piece of legislation. 

WHY aren’t Dems running a huge ad campaign on this? With footage of Trump crowing that if the SAVE Act passes, Republicans won’t lose an election for 50 years!

I want to reiterate a point I made earlier: A reliably solid issue to win on is the MAGA right’s hypocrisy. Or if that’s too big a word, maybe “These Guys Lied To You.” And then present all the examples where the Trump Gang just made it up or did the opposite of what they promised. 

These literally appear every single day. Every day. My favorite is that Trump describes his foes as thieves and liars and lacking integrity, yet he sells the country out at every chance.

Here’s one random example that just came across my radar. 

Remember that incomprehensible Trump rant against a new bridge opening between Detroit and Canada? 

It turns out the proprietor of an existing, competing toll bridge had just donated $1 million to a Trump super PAC and complained to Howard Lutnick, the former Jeffrey Epstein neighbor and friend — and the current Trump commerce secretary. 

Lutnick dutifully went to Trump with the donor’s concern, and hours later Trump went on his tirade against the new bridge. 

If we tote up such examples, even the least-informed person can see that something is really wrong, or as Trump would say, “bad.” Very bad. 

Each of us will have things that outrage us more. For me, one very small thing, perhaps because I am a brass player, was learning about another big Trump donor, John Paulson, owner of Conn Selmer, a maker of brass and orchestral instruments. Paulson has made a big deal about being the largest manufacturer of these products — in the US — and touted his and Trump’s commitment to keeping jobs in the US. But now, we find out he’s shipping most of his own jobs… to China. 

The hypocrisy is sickening. 

If the opposition to Trump cannot figure out how to make hay with all this — or at least, pardon the pun, toot their own horns on how they can be trusted to protect American jobs and American interests — then the real problem lies in our outdated constitutional system, which for decades has failed to raise up candidates equal to the challenges we face.