On 9/11 our country was attacked by foreign terrorists who boarded four American airplanes and turned them into missiles: two flew into the World Trade Center, one hit the Pentagon and the 4th ended up wrecked in a field because the passengers on that plane sacrificed their lives when they realized what was going on and attacked the terrorists resulting in the deaths of everyone on board.
On November 2nd, 2024, Donald Trump was elected for a second term, the Republicans took control of the House and Senate and gave up their power to Trump. It was a GOP trifecta. Trump was elected to be a strong man who would lead America to the promised land: There would be lower egg prices, no inflation, economic power and glory, the Ukraine war would be over in one day, Israel would be safe from Palestinians who want to kill them, rich people would get richer and white men would be proud alpha males once more. Trump would banish immigrants and trans people and THAT would make America great again.
Once in power, Trump gave his white supremacist, fascist ally, Elon Musk, the power to deconstruct our government. Musk and his DOGE bros have abruptly fired thousands of government workers claiming they were saving money and ending government waste.
No one is against ending government waste. But because Musk is not even attempting a thoughtful assessment of where the cuts should be, he and his team are ripping out critically important people who keep government working and responsive to us, canceling our democracy, our rule of law, and which will imperil our physical safety and mental health, not to mention the mental health of the federal government workers. Instead of making government more responsive, these guys are crippling it. Just wait until you need to contact someone about your tax return, or the social security check that never arrived or you need Medicaid- good luck with that.
TRUMP AND JD VANCE’S OVAL OFFICE HIT JOB ON ZELENSKYY
On Friday, February 28th, President Donald Trump ambushed Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky in an attack that seemed designed to give the White House an excuse for siding with Russia in its war on Ukraine. Vice President J.D. Vance joined Trump and Zelensky in the Oval Office—his attendance at such an event was unusual—in front of reporters. Those reporters included one from Russian state media, but no one from the Associated Press or Reuters, who were not granted access.
In front of the cameras, Trump and Vance engaged in what Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo called a “mob hit,” spouting Russian propaganda and trying to bully Zelensky into accepting a ceasefire and signing over rights to Ukrainian rare-earth minerals without guarantees of security. Vance, especially, seemed determined to provoke a fight in front of the cameras, accusing Zelensky, who has been lavish in his thanks to the U.S. and lawmakers including Trump, of being ungrateful. When that didn’t land, Vance said it was “disrespectful” of Zelensky to “try to litigate this in front of the American media,” when it was the White House that set up the event in front of reporters.
Zelensky maintained his composure and did not rise to the bait, but he did not accept their pro-Russian version of the war. He insisted that it was in fact Russia that invaded Ukraine and is still bombing and killing on a daily basis. His refusal to sit silent and submit meekly to their attack seemed to infuriate them.
Trump appeared to become unhinged when Zelensky suggested that the U.S. would in the future feel problems, apparently alluding to the new U.S. relationship with Russia. “You don’t know that. You don’t know that,” Trump erupted. “Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. We’re trying to solve a problem. Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel.”
Zelensky answered that he was just answering the questions Vance was showering on him. “You are in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel,” Trump said. “We’re going to feel very good.”
Zelensky answered: “You will feel influenced.”
Trump disagreed. “We are going to feel very good and very strong.”
“I am telling you,” Zelensky said. “You will feel influenced.”
Trump appeared to lose control at that point, ranting at Zelensky that Ukraine was losing and that he must accept a ceasefire, but also complaining about former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama and echoing Putin’s talking points. When he could get a word in, Zelensky reiterated that he would not accept a ceasefire without guarantees of security and pointed out that Putin had broken a ceasefire agreement in the past. [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters From an American March 1, 2025]
Trump’s harsh words for Ukraine in the Oval Office, his recent comments that Kyiv “started the war” and that Zelenskyy is a “dictator,” suggested he is more inclined to Russia’s point of view. [NBC News]
The Oval Office hit job was, in my view, a pre-planned attack on Zelensky by Trump to set up an excuse for siding with Putin and throwing our democratic allies under the bus. Vance was assigned the role of the “hit man” to attack Zelenskyy to get a rise out of him. When Zelensky pushed back, Trump joined Vance in the back alley hit on Zelensky.
What I see Trump doing very consciously is realigning America’s alliances. By the time he is done being president, unless some powerful forces stand up to him, our allies will have become the axis of evil nations (autocrats and dictators) instead of European democracies. Trump is anti-democratic to his core.
Here is the question I have for anyone reading this post- how, as an American, can you accept Trump as your representative on the world stage? How can you think of Trump as your president when he invariably rewrites the truth to suit his purposes? Anyone with a brain knows that Russia was the aggressor country that invaded Ukraine. Russia has been bombing Ukrainian cities and kidnapping Ukrainian children. Russia as the aggressor should not be rewarded for its invasion of a fledgling democracy, a sovereign nation on Russia’s border.
Trump is pushing lies about who is to blame for the war in Ukraine because it helps him realign our country with Russia and other dictatorships in the world. Trump is also trashing our democracy while claiming to save America.
HURTING HIS OWN VOTERS
Americans are only starting to understand what their votes for Trump will do to ruin their own lives and the future lives of their children and grandkids. As I have been warning in these posts, Trump is a dictator. He is anti-democratic. We are in the process of losing our democracy, our freedoms, and our rights unless there is a counter force that rises up to stop him. Maybe Trump voters will understand more as time goes on and they lose their social safety net.
People often get real about what’s happening when it gets personal. Many Trump supporters didn’t think THEY would be hurt by Trump but some of them just lost their jobs because they were government workers. There are currently a lot of posts online and articles in the news about people who voted for Trump three times who were summarily kicked out of their government jobs by DOGE. They protested that they were hard working and doing important jobs. It didn’t matter. Trump is letting Musk make cuts without any regard about the fall out from those cuts.
KING TRUMP MAKES HIMSELF THE RULE OF LAW
Trump has undermined the bedrock democratic ideal that a president is not a king. He kinda actually declared himself to be a king, saying on social media: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law”. He posted an image of himself with a crown on his head on the cover of Time Magazine. Of course Trump got help from the right-wing justices on the Supreme Court with their anti-democratic immunity decision. A president who valued democracy and the rule of law would not break the laws the way Trump does or engage in rampant corruption the way is doing. Trump is selling meme coins and crypto currencies and getting people to buy his Trump branded watches for $100,000.00 and his Trump branded bibles and stay in his Trump hotels.
We got here because Trump got help from a lot of rich tech bros and other wealthy guys who believe that government regulations get in the way of their ability to make more money. They want a “unitary executive” where the president has kinglike powers to get rid of these regulations that hold them back from becoming trillionaires.
King Trump appointed people who are kooks and incompetents to head his cabinet because they will not challenge him or show him up and they will be loyal to him when he does illegal things- which he is already doing. To date his illegal actions have resulted in over 90 lawsuit challenges. Loyalty to Trump, not competence, is the one trait you must have if you want to work in this administration. The expulsion of current civil service workers is being done en masse not for the sake of making government more efficient but so that they can be replaced with loyalists. Americans need to wake up. This is not about saving money for Americans. It is about making and keeping Trump in power and turning our country into an oligarchy like Russia. He is already talking about a third term.
This level of incompetence and corruption is very dangerous for all of us. The billionaires don’t care about your safety, or your social safety net. They are greedy and want your taxpayer dollars so they can get richer. You have to wonder how many yachts these guys need to feel like they finally made it?
WORSE FOR AMERICA THAN 9/11
9/11 was child’s play compared to the massive damage Trump and Musk are currently doing to our country. The Republicans are on track to take our country that, with Biden as president, had an economy that was the envy of the world, and turn it into a third rate nation that is the laughing stock of the world. We did it to ourselves. We elected the king of chaos for a second term. This time he is older, more thin-skinned and more paranoid. Our enemies are celebrating how dumb we were.
Here is just some of the carnage that the Republican led congress, Musk and Trump are leaning into:
- Huge tax cuts that benefit the super wealthy that will add trillions to our already massive debt.
- Going after immigrants without a criminal record –which will cripple our farming, construction, restaurant and home health care industries. “There are farmworkers not showing up, there are construction workers who are not showing up, and there are food processing workers who are not showing up because of the fear that is being caused” [Hakeem Jeffries]
- Don’t kid yourself. They are planning to cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security which will directly impact Trump voters’ lives including, for some, their ability to continue to stay alive.
- Big tariffs Trump is imposing on Canada, Mexico and China will force Americans to pay more for goods and make it even harder for young Americans to renovate houses or ever buy a home.
- Thousands of suddenly unemployed government workers are going to have trouble being absorbed into the workplace because of a dearth of jobs that match their skillsets. White collar workers are already in a depressed market for hiring. This glut of unemployed workers will drag our economy down further. “With 3 million federal employees potentially worrying about their jobs and 6 million federal contractors worrying about their jobs, the risks are rising that households may begin to hold back purchases of cars, computers, washers, dryers, vacation travel plans” [NYT Andrew Sorkin]
- Corruption will be rampant in this administration. Here is just one recent example: Elon Musk-owned Starlink is in line to get government contracts with the Federal Aviation Associations (FAA). The AP reported that Starlink is preparing to take over a $2 billion contract currently held by telecom provider Verizon. If Musk succeeds here, it is clear self-dealing. Trump is fine with self-dealing and corruption as long as the corrupt person is loyal to him, just like the oligarchs in Russia are loyal to Putin.
- Inflation is heating up again, Bloomberg reports. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-27/what-to-know-about-rising-us-inflation-and-your-consumer-prices?
Trump and Musk are destabilizing our government and undermining the rule of law. That injects chaos and uncertainty into financial markets and economic markets threatening our country’s financial stability and the faith other countries have in America as a good business investment. Part of the reason our country was seen as a world leader for such a long time was that people used to be able to count on the rule of law when it came to their businesses. Our country was reliable. Our country was rules based and fair. That’s not the case anymore now that Trump has made himself king.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz recently told The Guardian that “the uncertainty created by Trump’s on-off tariff plans and the president’s apparent contempt for the rule of law would deter investment.”
The damage these guys are doing will leave all of us weaker, poorer, less educated, more mean spirited, less unified, and either the laughing stock or the pity of other advanced nations in the world.
Trump and Musk and this Republican congress are on track to damage our country far beyond the hopes and dreams of Osama Bin Laden.
ARE THERE ANY POSSIBLE GUARDRAILS?
There are 3 guardrails I currently see that might slow the carnage.
- The stock market.
- The bond market.
Bond markets are betting that inflation will stay elevated in the years ahead, and some evidence from business surveys and forecasters points in the same direction. Why it matters: This belief suggests the Trump administration and the Federal Reserve face a headwind in securing a return to low inflation — concerns that have escalated just in the last few weeks, as the president has threatened tariffs on a variety of U.S. trading partners. [Axios]
Because of these indicators, Trump might be persuaded to pull back his imposition of high tariffs and the Republicans in Congress might not give the billionaires such a big tax cut. Stay tuned.
- The courts.
As reported by Marc Elias of Democracy Docket, Trump is losing most of the lawsuits challenging his illegal actions. Plaintiffs, their lawyers and federal judges are not backing down. Instead, they are upholding the rule of law. It’s not a perfect system, but the news from the courts is more good than bad.
- Voter backlash– especially from Republican voters.
If voters, especially Trump voters, keep showing up at townhalls in growing numbers and demand their Representatives stand up to Trump, maybe that will help some of them grow a pair. They need to be more afraid of their voters than they are of being primaried.
Most immediately, Democrats need to win special elections for state supreme court races, secretaries of state, and state houses as much as possible to get the message across that Americans want a check on Trump and his demolition team. Democrats have to regain control of the House in 2026 to limit the damage.