From the beginning of Trump’s first run for president in 2015 and 2016, there were indicators that he was bound and determined to figure out how to become our first autocrat- an all powerful man who would crush opposition, dominate the stage, the country, the world if he could do it, and force everyone to at least pretend to believe in his reality TV version of the truth. His propaganda.
As many of you know, I analyze handwriting for personality traits. Graphoanalysis. Early on I predicted, based on his signature alone, Trump was going to be all in on power, vengeance, domination, control, micromanaging, and would demand adherence to his alternate reality. All of that is baked in the cake and evident in his handwriting. But you really don’t need to understand handwriting analysis to see that this is who Trump is. He is a natural at being a dictator.
TRUMP’S MANUFACTURED CHAOS AND ‘INSURRECTION’
This weekend is Trump’s birthday and he’s throwing himself an expensive military parade. It is estimated to cost all of us taxpayers 45 million dollars. His role models for this are other autocrats: Kim Jung Un and Putin. There will also be protests across the country. What Trump is up to this weekend is, I believe, an effort to consolidate his power. The LA protests were the reaction to ugly raids and arrests of Hispanics including a pregnant woman, a young girl, workers at Home Depot and others by ICE. They were intended to enrage people. Because you can’t get something that looks like an insurrection without getting people upset. Trump and his loyal lackeys are characterizing LA as an insurrection so that Trump can get around the Posse Comitatus Act https://www.thenation.com/article/society/what-the-hell-is-posse-comitatus/which forbids presidents from using the military against US citizens. For Trump to be able to use the US military against Americans, he thinks he might be able to goad people into being upset enough to claim a plausible insurrection.
Trump started with LA because he knows that tearing families apart in that target-rich immigrant-filled city will create the right combustible mix (including inflammatory images of Mexican flags and burning cars) to support his fake version of reality- that our cities are under assault from evil immigrants. Very Hitler of him. You need a plausible enemy to scale up the violence.
This weekend Trump will continue to inflame passions by holding his military parade which is intended to create fear in Americans- fear of speaking out or going to protests or crossing him in any way. At the same time, there will be anti-government No Kings protests across the country and protests about the federal government rounding up immigrants most of them who are NOT criminals, NOT bad people, have PAID their taxes, and have lived and worked peacefully in our country for decades doing jobs in construction, hospitality, elder care, childcare, picking fruit, helping in the fashion industry and so much more. Immigrants in America have been pawns in an immigration impasse used by both political parties as a way to gain votes. But the hypocrisy of the Republicans is truly disgusting. After crafting a bill that would have set up a bipartisan, workable immigration policy (remember that bill?) Trump told Republicans to kill that bill, which they dutifully did. Trump did that to be able to ride our immigration problem across the presidential finish line and now he is going to try to use it to consolidate his power as a strong man dictator.
What Trump wants this weekend are outbreaks of violence at these protests. Unlike a truly well-meaning president who wants to help Americans live their best lives, Trump WANTS that violence so he can get the military at his disposal. To get that he needs the courts to side with him about invoking the Insurrection Act.
The Insurrection Act would give him the power to use the military across the country as he is doing in LA, in an unchecked manner, usurping the governors. I wouldn’t put it past him (or his allies, more like it) to encourage his MAGA types to go to peaceful protests pretending to be protesters but harboring the opposite motive- to rile up the crowd and attack the police, burn cars etc. Those are the images Trump wants and needs to cement his authoritarian power.
He also needs these images to get his truly awful BBBill passed because some congressional Republicans are getting cold feet about a bill that transfers so much wealth to the already wealthy, would demolish Medicaid, SNAP, result in millions of Americans losing their insurance, would prevent federal courts from having the power of contempt by removing funding for that, as well as much more dismantling of the social safety net. Trump doesn’t want anyone closely reading this bill. Because what it installs Project 2025 as the new law of the land and mortally damages our democracy. Americans don’t want that. But Trump does because it will grant him the power he craves. Don’t take it from me, here is an excerpt from Heather Cox Richardson about what is in the BBB.
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON- THE BBB = PROJECT 2025, White Supremacy, and the End of Our Social Safety Net
At 10:19 last night, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posted on social media: “Stand with ICE. Pass the B[ig] B[eautiful] B[ill].”
And there it is. The Republicans’ “One Big, Beautiful Bill” is the MAGA regime’s attempt to replace the American government we’ve had since the 1930s with one that reflects the antidemocratic values of Project 2025. The measure is unpopular. According to a new CBS News/YouGov poll, 60% of Americans think the bill will help wealthy people, while 54% think it will hurt poor people. Forty-seven percent think it will hurt the middle class, while only 31% think it will help the middle class. As Simon Rosenberg of Hopium Chronicles noted, it’s “[s]tunning how badly Trump and the Rs have lost the debate on what their reconciliation bill will do.”
The measure changes the nature of the American government by extending tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations and adding significantly more money to immigration enforcement and defense spending. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the measure will add as much as $2.4 trillion to the deficit over ten years; with interest costs of that new debt, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget concluded the measure would increase the debt by nearly $3 trillion.
At the same time that it moves money upward and into the white nationalist project of expelling immigrants, the measure guts federal policies and agencies that serve the American people, apparently with the goal of pushing such policies and agencies to the states. The CBO estimates that as many as 13.7 million Americans will lose healthcare coverage if the measure passes, and cuts of nearly $300 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will mean cuts of about 30% to the programs on which millions of Americans depend.
Miller’s post underscores the administration’s need to change the conversation around the measure, whose 1,000-plus pages lay out the MAGA vision for the United States. “Don’t kid yourself,” Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) posted. “[T]hey know they are absolutely getting cooked politically with their terrible bill and rising prices, and they want to create a violent spectacle to feed their content machine. It’s time for the mainstream media to describe this authoritarian madness accurately.”
THIS WEEKEND
This weekend Trump is trying to rush his dictatorship project forward. Trump wants to get evidence that he is entitled to call out the military against American citizens and move closer to consolidating his power. I hope I am wrong. But I think I am right. Cue Star Wars:
https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/MSDREOF_EC080.jpg?w=681&h=383&crop=1
US IS FAILING ECONOMICALLY IF YOU LOOK AT THE LONGTERM TRAJECTORIES
Underlying all of this is something we probably should be talking about more. We need to face a very uncomfortable economic reality, namely that our country is on the decline when compared to the BRIC countries- Brazil, Russia, India, China and other Asian countries. Some economists are predicting the end of the American empire. Going up is fun. Going down really sucks.
Here is what these economists point to: Even if we have growth at 2.7 % as is currently predicted, China and the BRIC countries are growing much faster- at 5% or 7%. And we are drowning in debt. If the BBB passes, we will be paying huge amounts just to service our debt. Our huge debt is held mostly by China. China is our banker, in other words. China and the BRIC countries are gaining economic dominance and power while our country is slowly but surely sliding down the economic hill, so-to-speak. This could be one of the big reasons that when Trump makes demands of other countries he gets no respect. He’s kinda like the political version of Rodney Dangerfield.
Here is an excerpt from an article by German Lopez NYT June 9, 2025.
President Trump returned to the White House with big promises on foreign policy. He would get a peace deal in Ukraine within 24 hours. An agreement between Israel and Hamas would follow. China would stop taking advantage of the United States on trade. For that matter, Europe, Japan and the rest of the world would stop, too.
Things have not worked out as promised. Trump has not ended any wars. His only trade deal to this point is a limited, and temporary, one with Britain. His administration has claimed progress in nuclear talks with Iran, but so far they have produced no agreement. It’s still early in his term, but he has failed to meet the extremely high expectations he set for himself. Why? The United States may not have as much leverage as Trump believed.
Trump grew up when America’s world dominance was unquestioned. His aggressive “America First” approach seems ripped from the Cold War, in which the United States could push around other nations and bend the global order to its terms.
But the world has moved on. Countries don’t treat the United States as a superpower to appease but simply as another factor among their many other problems and interests. They will go along with America only if they feel they truly have something to gain.
To put this in Trump’s terms: America no longer has all of the cards, and other nations have learned they can call its bluff.
I think the reason these countries are able to largely ignore Trump is because the economic future reality is becoming more clear- our country is on the decline and Trump is hurrying that process along.
THE AMERICAN WORKER IS GETTING SQUEEZED
When a country is on the decline, it’s the workers who get hit upside the head with the cost of that decline unless a government takes conscious steps to reverse the damage. Trump has, instead, taken steps to compound the damage.
American workers were and are feeling the pain before the last election. Trump got elected because Americans were feeling the pinch and were and still are upset that neither political party was addressing their pain. The rich were getting richer and the middle class and poor were and still are getting squeezed. Trump told voters he was different and, look, he IS different! Americans wanted a president who would break the glass and grab the fire extinguisher to save them. Now that Trump has been in charge for the past few months it is clear that he (and the MAGA Republicans) intend to protect the interests of the rich while pretending to protect the workers.
The Big Beautiful Bill does throw some glitter and candy in the direction of working America- no taxes on tips, $1000 for newborns… but the BBB is in reality designed to be a massive movement of money, power and influence away from working Americans to the already insanely rich billionaire class to protect the rich from the fallout that is coming.
We are not only in economic decline, we are also in denial about the fact that we are in decline. We are essentially living in a land of make believe and Trump was the #1 fan favorite of the ultra wealthy, the perfect liar-in-chief to perpetuate the fallacy that we are doing great and will be doing greater and greater if we just get rid of immigrants and criminals and pass the BBB. It’s all a fairytale.
Working Americans may be starting to realize what is going on. Trump cult members will probably never leave him. They will always protect and believe in him. But moderate Americans, independent voters, the NPAs- no affiliation voters, they hold the key to regaining our democracy. The rebirth of the union movement shows some signs of that realization.
THE WAY OUT OF THIS MESS?
How could we get out of this mess we’re in? The short answer is to elect a strong, honest president who is more of a Bernie Sanders and AOC (we are all in this together, common good, social safety net), messages like Pete Buttigieg, who will tell Americans the truth and bring a sense of sanity, reality and hope, stand firm against what will be very heavy pressure from the rich to maintain their massive wealth, and reverse the flow of money, power and influence to protect working Americans. A tall order. But we have leaders who could do this. Gavin Newsome is doing a lot right.
I do not know if there is a realistic way to turn long term economic decline around. That is beyond my pay grade. But barring innovative foreign students from schools like Harvard and others universities, and wrecking the system that has generated decades of scientific advances is the exact opposite of what the government can and should be doing to help to reverse the decline of a once powerful American empire.
WORD TO THE WISE
So what about the protests this weekend? Just be aware that Trump wants to prove there is an insurrection. So don’t give him what he wants. Be peaceful in your protests and have fun. It is hard to believe people who are dancing, blowing bubbles, and singing are vicious insurrectionists. Encourage others to be peaceful no matter how mad they feel. Also be ready to make a hasty retreat if and when something violent does happen nearby wherever you are. Stay vigilant. Stay committed. This will be a long, hot summer.