Trump has been in office 100 plus days and the world is getting a valuable lesson. Trump is an in-your-face reminder to nations everywhere how easy it is to wreck your economy and lose your democracy if you elect the wrong guy to be your leader. People are who they are. Hoping for something different is naive.
TRUMP’S PERSONALITY SETS HIM UP TO FAIL … AND GUESS WHAT! WE ARE IN HIS SINKING SHIP
Trump is a narcissist (self-centered) with high energy, rigid thinking, living in an alternate universe where his lies, missteps and over reactions are always right even when they are clearly wrong. He has a reverence for hard power, a paralyzing fear of being a loser, and a driving ambition to dominate not just the United States, but the entire world. Trump fits the profile of an aspiring strongman dictator. But he also has the traits of a failed businessman.
Successful business leaders have traits Trump lacks such as:
Humble Self-Awareness
The most successful people I know practice humble self-awareness. They recognize and are thankful for their strengths, talents, abilities and knowledge. They also know their areas for improvement and seek support from others who are strong in those areas. Role modeling how self-awareness can maximize the potential in oneself and others is key in demonstrating what success looks like. [Forbes]
Accountability
Successful people in any walk of life tend to own their decisions and hold themselves accountable for what they accomplish. They don’t fall into the trap (as often) of blaming others and coming up with excuses for failures. They reframe any setbacks as learning opportunities [Forbes]
KING OF CHAOS AND OFFENSIVENESS
Trump, with his deeply flawed personality, now has a free hand to bankrupt and ruin the country he dominates and micromanages without anyone brave enough and powerful enough to stop him when he is wrong.
Trump has a past track record of breaking and wrecking businesses he managed.
Trump’s unsuccessful business ventures have included numerous casinos and hotel bankruptcies, the folding of his New Jersey Generals football team, and the now-defunct Trump University. He and his businesses have been involved in more than 4,000 legal actions, including six business bankruptcies.
Trump’s approval ratings are worsening as he creates chaos and deconstructs our country in real time.
Many polls, including the latest CNN and Fox News polls, have shown that Trump is now less popular than he was at the same point during his first term.
CNN’s poll also showed that Trump has the lowest approval rating for any newly elected president at 100 days dating back to Dwight Eisenhower.
TRUMP IS SO FULL OF HIMSELF
Trump seems to be oblivious and unaware of how much he repulses not only Americans but others across the world watching the mayhem unfolding in our country. He is blind about how repellant he sounds when he asserts himself as king of everything.
In his recent interview with The Atlantic Trump said: “I run the country and the world.”
When the pope died Trump said: “I’d like to be pope,” “That’d be my No. 1 choice.” Trump generated an AI picture of himself as pope which created a stir on social media many condemning that image.
The image — which first appeared on Trump’s Truth Social account — comes as cardinals are set to begin conclave on May 7 to elect the next pope.
Trump even told Canadians to vote for him in their election. “Elect the man who has the strength and wisdom to cut your taxes in half, increase your military power, for free, to the highest level in the World, have your Car, Steel, Aluminum, Lumber, Energy, and all other businesses, QUADRUPLE in size, WITH ZERO TARIFFS OR TAXES, if Canada becomes the cherished 51st State of the United States of America.”
Was Trump trolling the Canadians? Maybe. But whatever his goal, Trump has singlehandedly united almost every Canadian against him. Trump is creating backlash to him and the MAGA movement even with former Trump voters. Blowing government up doesn’t look so good anymore.
OTHER COUNTRIES ARE WATCHING THE MESS IN AMERICA AND TAKING NOTE
Backlash against Trumpism created a big win for Mark Carney and the Liberal Party in Canada.
TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party has won the federal election, capping a stunning turnaround in fortunes fueled by U.S. President Donald Trump’s annexation threats and trade war. Carney’s rival, populist Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, was voted out of his seat in Parliament.
Poilievre had been riding Trump’s coattails and looked like he would win the election in Canada until Trump became president again and shocked the world by being so destructive and vindictive.
Backlash against Trump also affected the Australian elections in a similar way.
Labor has won re-election in Australia following a resurgence against conservative opposition with voters thanks to the “Trump factor,” says a key opposition figure.
Early in the campaign, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese Albanese’s center-left Labor Party was lagging behind the opposition in polls, reflecting frustration with a deepening cost-of-living crisis and ever-increasing housing prices.
Conservative Peter Dutton, who led the Liberal-National Coalition opposition, had blamed government waste for fueling inflation and pledged to ax more than one in five public service jobs. His opponents labeled him “DOGE-y Dutton” and accused his Liberal party of mimicking U.S. President Donald Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). [AP]
Dutton, like Poilievre, not only lost the election but also lost his seat in Parliament. An opposition spokesperson conceded the conservative campaign was negatively affected by the American president, adding: “I think it has been a factor here.”
Meanwhile, Trump is clearly drunk on his own Kool-Aid and continues to be all in on across-the-board tariffs that he claims will make America rich. Remember Jonestown? Ask the people in Jonestown how drinking that Kool-Aid turned out. Oh, never mind, they’re all dead.
SPEAKING OF DRINKING YOUR OWN KOOL-AID…
Trump is determined to return our country to the McKinley era. McKinley used tariffs as a way to protect American business. It was a disaster for the Republican Party even back then.
The Tariff Act of 1890, commonly called the McKinley Tariff, was an act of the United States Congress framed by then-Representative William McKinley, that became law on October 1, 1890.[1] The tariff raised the average duty on imports to almost 50%, an increase designed to protect domestic industries and workers from foreign competition, as promised in the Republican platform.[2] It represented protectionism, a policy supported by Republicans and denounced by Democrats. It was a major topic of fierce debate in the 1890 congressional elections, which gave a Democratic landslide.
Trump’s tariffs are something he has believed in for decades as the way to re-shore industry to this country. But blanket tariffs are not an effective approach. It’s like doing surgery with a hatchet when you need a scalpel if you hope to preserve the life of the patient. Trump should read up about what happened after McKinley got the Tariff Act of 1890 passed.
The tariff was not well received by Americans who suffered a steep increase in prices. In the 1890 election, Republicans lost their majority in the House with the number of seats they won reduced by nearly half, from 171 to 88.
Trump is making the same mistake.
President Trump’s global trade war is only a few weeks old. But even if it stopped today, the impact on supply chains could eventually be measured in months and years.
- The U.S. economy is at risk of repeating pandemic-era scenes — empty shelves and shortages of popular goods, Axios managing editor Ben Berkowitz reports.
“We are in a period of unprecedented disruption that’s not going to stop,” [Axios]
The reason we are in a period of disruption that won’t stop is because Trump is the president. That’s the only reason. He is the king of chaos. No other president would do what he is doing or have a Congress or aides and advisors who would let him do it. If the Republicans in Congress grew a spine they could stop Trump tomorrow by reasserting their constitutional power over tariffs simply by countering Trump’s declaration of emergency.
Trump’s tariffs are already causing economic carnage.
Since Mr. Trump’s inauguration the combined market value of the five big platforms—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft—plus Nvidia, America’s semiconductor superstar, has fallen by $2.3trn, or 16% [The Economist]
But Trump is saying the tariffs will “be just fine.” Sure they will…if you live in his alternate universe or you have so much money the tariffs don’t affect you.
Some in Trump’s Republican Party are still okay with the idea of tariffs at least so far– a little pain and fewer dolls at Christmas. But most American consumers are not living in Trump’s alternate universe. They elected Trump to have a better economy, but now they are anticipating pandemic level shortages and higher prices. Americans anticipate that goods from China and other former trade partners will be severely constricted at the end of Trump’s 90 days of delay. Currently there is a flurry of activity with Americans rushing to purchase goods they need before Trump’s tariffs set in and our ports sit empty. Even now there are far fewer boats arriving in American ports. Trade is significantly down– both exports and imports.
Trump promised 90 deals in 90 days. That is unlikely even if there are preliminary deals because most countries require congressional approval for trade deals which can take years to codify. There may be one trade deal with Japan in the works and possibly one with Great Britain developing. But that is not 90 deals. In addition, Trump’s thuggish, mob boss approach to tariffs has damaged our relationships with formerly reliable trade partners. Many countries are offended by Trump and are looking for other allies to replace the United States. China is already buying soy beans from other countries, for example. That will be a direct hit on American farmers.
TRUMP’S OVERREACH WILL DRAG HIM DOWN MORE
Yesterday’s report of a shrinking U.S. economy shows Trump’s tariffs are starting to take a toll — and that a recession could be closing in. [Washington Post]
Trump was forgiven by many voters for his corruption, his felony convictions, his many lies and his violations of our constitutional democracy, our laws and our norms. But now that he is interfering with wealth creation and American consumerism I predict his support will fall even lower. Voters will not forgive him for this damage to their lives. He is even losing support from some of his most loyal voters, many of them are veterans, who voted for him in 2016, 2020 and 2024 but have been directly hurt by DOGE and Trump’s chaos. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/veterans-say-they-feel-betrayed-after-firing-from-federal-jobs-including-some-who-voted-for-trump
Maybe that’s why Trump is suddenly not so keen on pushing the constitutional limits and running for a third (impermissible) term. He changed his tune in an interview with Kristen Welker over the weekend in which he looked and sounded defensive and tired.
When it comes to wealth creation, Americans wants to believe that they will be able to build a business and be the next Elon Musk or Steve Jobs. Americans generally think they should be able to work hard and strike it rich if only government would get out of their way.
Trump has taken the idea of paring down government to the extreme and gone hog wild. By deregulating and blowing up government Trump is wrecking both the good and the bad of government. Truly good government has thoughtful regulations and investment in research, the arts, education and federal support after a natural disaster. Americans love our national parks which give us a sense of pride. DOGE has been destructive, not thoughtful, about government cut backs and the result will be that government no longer keeps Americans safe and government agencies will be even less responsive to the needs of Americans.
Americans are about to learn not only how much government matters in their lives but how much the KIND of government matters to their freedoms and sense of security. Americans are about to learn all of this the hard way.
In this past election Trump got younger Black and Hispanic men to vote for him. They believed he offered them the ability to build a better life. In 2016 Trump got only 16% of the Hispanic vote. In 2024 he got 42% of the Hispanic vote which helped get him over the top. That group of voters thought he would open the door to economic success.
That bromance is over.
According to a new CNN poll, the proportion of Hispanic Americans who approve of the Republican has dropped by 13 percent since February, while a second poll has also suggested growing discontent among that group of the electorate.
TRUMP’S LESSON TO THE WORLD
Trump can try to blame Biden for the economy he is damaging, but he is not fooling anyone. 72% of Americans think we are going into a recession because of what Trump did to the economy.
The expectation of inflation is the highest it has been since 1981 with the cost of living expected to rise 6.5%. Consumer confidence has hit pandemic level lows. Liberation Day (when Trump announced his draconian tariffs) liberated Americans from 6 trillion dollars of wealth with more damage yet to come.
The powerful lesson Trump is forcing the world to learn or re-learn is that even the United States, once considered an enlightened democracy with an economy that, at the end of Joe Biden’s term, was the envy of the world, even that country can be wrecked in 100 days. All you have to do is elect a corrupt and narcissistic strongman who buys into the right wing “break it all down” ideology and unless you have a fully functioning check and balance democracy with a congress that can limit the disaster, you too could have a country that f—ks itself.