TRUMP IS SETTING UP HIS COLLAPSE
Trump is self-destructing.
Self-destruction rarely happens all at once. It happens slowly…slowly…and then, fast. Often, when the collapse happens it is shocking and sudden -a lot like the avalanche in Tibet– that seemed to come out of nowhere. In Tibet, climate change heated up the ice on the mountains which, over time, melted the supporting foundation of a massive glacier until the structure could not hold–suddenly the ice collapsed, sending a wall of mud, boulders, debris and water rushing down the mountainside.
The collapse of Trump is coming too.
For the past decade Trump has been relentlessly attacking, eroding and wearing down our country: undermining our faith in government, our faith in each other, our universities, our news media, our health care, our social safety net, our rule of law, our sense of safety and security, our hopes for the future, even our ability to bear to listen to the news. Trump ferreted out the weak places. He undermined the truth and tried to replace it with disinformation and propaganda. He is using the country as his own personal piggy bank, corruptly breaking the rules to amass enormous personal wealth. Because of his actions there has been a weakening of the pillars of our democracy.
Our once seemingly strong democracy has been destabilized by Trump, who has been dismantling our systems from inside the house, so to speak. Because he is incredibly powerful, the wreckage has been massive even if we don’t always know how extensive that damage is. Along with that wreckage has come a growing sense of animosity and discontent in Americans of all political ideologies about what Trump is doing to our country. A growing sense of divisiveness and general discontent. A building pressure in the country.
And there will come a breaking point when that pressure becomes unsustainable.
MIDTERM BREAKING POINT?
That breaking point might be just around the corner: The midterms elections. Trump seems to be planning to go all in on promoting himself as the savior of the MAGA party–campaigning all across the country as he urgently tries, from his perspective, to help Republicans win their elections and revitalize his support. The Democrats could not have wished for a better gift than that! Trump is his own worst enemy these days. Millions of Americans hate him and what he is doing to their lives and to the country. He is clueless about how much he is hated.
If Trump is active across the country on the campaign trail in the next months and if he spends millions on ad buys telling Americans how great he is while they can’t afford their lives, he will generate even more negative partisanship that will drive ever more frustrated Americans to the polls to support Democrats no matter what the risk might be to their personal safety. Trump could go ahead and put the military at the polls or encourage the J6rs to menace voters in an attempt to suppress the vote in Democratic districts. That will only create greater backlash and animosity towards him and the MAGA movement. By campaigning, Trump will also hurt Republican candidates’ chances to at least pretend to distance themselves from him.
When this period in our history is written about, historians will say that the ultimate irony was how Trump himself ushered in the backlash, the avalanche that took him down.
Of course, he will blame that avalanche on the Republicans who did not wed themselves to him closely enough. He will never have the insight to blame himself for being the reason for the collapse of the MAGA movement. There will also be a nasty fight to cheat to keep Democrats from being seated in the House … a sort of Custers’ Last Stand led by MAGA Mike. That is likely to fail in the end if the tsunami of voters is big enough. But that fight will be ugly before it fails. It will drag people through the mud just like the avalanche in Tibet.
DOES TRUMP SEE WHAT IS COMING?
I think Trump both can and cannot see his demise coming.
The man does not look well. He looks old. He is decrepit. He is lumbering these days. He often looks dejected. He gets things wrong- like names of people he should know or places he should know. He falls asleep in meetings. Melania is nowhere to be seen. Instead, there is Natalie Harp, a beautiful, hapless lap dog who runs after his golf cart, begs for his approval, and rewards his attentions by keeping him inside an information bubble where he is always winning. The two of them are co-dependent. Trump looks ever more pathetic because of that relationship. Not the strong man he was elected to be.
On some level he must know he is not doing well. But he is all about the Art of Faking It. He will portray himself as the great and wonderful Oz getting greater and more wonderful every minute of every day… until his collapse.
Don’t be fooled. We are at the beginning of the end of Trump.
We are seeing an erosion of Trump’s power happening in real time.
POLLING: TRUMP IS UNDER WATER IN EVERYTHING EVEN THOSE ISSUES THAT GOT HIM ELECTED
Strength In Numbers/Verasight released its monthly poll tracking Trump’s approval rating across 12 key issues, and even border security showed up in the red.
With a net approval rating of -23, Trump is generally unpopular, but when it comes to a host of key issues, he’s even more unpopular than that. On “prices/inflation,” his net approval rating comes in at -48. For “health care,” he’s -30. For “foreign policy,” “government funding and social programs,” and “jobs and the economy,” his rating comes in at -27. His handling of “trade with other countries” is also less popular than he is, at -25.
On the topics where Trump’s handling of the issue is more popular than himself, he still faces broad discontent. On “education” and “elections and democracy,” he’s at -20. On “immigration,” he’s -15. On “deportations,” he’s -14. And on “crime and public safety,” he’s -13. Now on the issue of border security, Trump is -5.
COUNTRIES ARE NOT COMPLYING
As the New York Times pointed out: President Trump’s usual playbook — make demands, threaten Armageddon, force capitulation — is not working.
Canada is imposing tariffs as high as 50 percent on hundreds of American products, after the United States imposed its own tariffs on Canadian goods. The prime minister walked away from trade talks last week, and The Times chronicled how Canadians had his back. “We’re standing our ground not to be bullied on the world stage and pushed around,” a shop owner in Manitoba told our reporter.
European leaders have refused to join his war with Iran. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has rejected Trump’s Gaza plan. Gulf Arab states have forced Trump to drop his plan to charge a shipping toll in the Strait of Hormuz.
CONGRESS IS EDGING AWAY (Although NOT FAST ENOUGH)
In Washington, congressional Republicans who have usually deferred to Trump blasted him for raising imports of ground beef. It may bring the price of a burger down before the midterm elections. But legislators warn it would be at the expense of American ranchers, and that’s intolerable. “Americans want U.S. beef on the table — not foreign imports,” [Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming]
UNIVERSITIES, MEDIA, AND MARKETS ARE REBELLING
Universities and law firms are rejecting his imperial orders and refusing to comply. Bond markets are rebelling against his fiscal policies. Even the ABC network, whose $16 million payment to settle a Trump lawsuit was seen as an early example of yielding to the president, has discovered that it did not buy peace and is now suing his administration for threatening its broadcast licenses.
Everyone has taken note that the only way to deal with a bully is to stand up to him, not to give him your lunch money. And people are learning it is best to band together when you stand up to the bully. There is power in collaboration when you confront the mob boss.
TRUMP MERCH ISN’T SELLING ANYMORE
Trump branded merchandise is not selling. A Trump superstore in Tennessee and another in Illinois are closing for lack of business. “I can’t remember the last time I saw someone wearing a MAGA hat or Trump shirt,” wrote former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), previously one of Trump’s most loyal followers before their split last year amid disputes over Jeffrey Epstein.
HIS MAGA BASE IS FADING
A new Washington Post-Ipsos poll shows that Trump’s MAGA base is shrinking in real time.
The Post-Ipsos poll: 15% of Americans said they strongly approved of Trump.
For context, past Post and Post-ABC polls indicated that after his inauguration and in February 2025, 27% of Americans strongly approved of Trump. And in the days after the divisive January 6, 2021, Capitol attack, that number was also 27%.
More from the new poll:
- For the first time in the pollster’s data, significantly more of his supporters approved of him only “somewhat” (22%) rather than “strongly” (15%).
- Just 41% of Republicans and 43% of 2024 Trump voters approved of him strongly.
- And just 6% of independents approved of him strongly — compared to 51% who disapproved strongly.
- Even among what is supposed to be Trump’s most important demographic — White voters who didn’t graduate from college — just 24% strongly approved of him.
Trump’s cult followers are still there but losing their intensity. They finally get it that he doesn’t care about them. He only cares about himself and his rich buddies.
THERE ARE A LOT OF REASONS THE MAGA FAITHFUL ARE OVER TRUMP
Here is a good article to read about the many reasons MAGAs are leaving Trump. From the grifting to the loss of faith in what he said he would do, to Trump’s unwanted war in Iran, to his failure to release the Epstein Files– many of the MAGA faithful are over him. Former MAGA Supporters Reveal What Finally Made Them Dump Trump | HuffPost Life
There is even a support group that helps people leave the MAGA cult:
“It was difficult to leave MAGA because you’re leaving behind a community and second family. Though it’s painful to realize that so much of what I had believed— and that I politically advocated for — was incorrect. What I’d tell others is, we voted for Trump for what we thought were the right reasons, but it is never too late to change one’s mind; doing so is not a weakness – it’s a show of evolution, growth and maturation.” ― Rich Logis, a 48-year-old from South Florida, and the creator of the website Leaving MAGA
WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN TRUMP AND THE MAGAS COLLAPSE?
The collapse of MAGA will, I think, open up our country to what could be a new progressive counter movement that could reinvent and re-imagine our democracy.
- What do we want to see happen in this country?
- What do we want to codify so that no future dictator can abuse our democracy and corruptly take advantage of it ever again?
- How do we tame the tech bros and the fossil fuel robber barons of today?
- How do we limit a rogue Supreme Court and force compliance with ethics rules?
- How do we get rid of Citizens United?
- Who do we have faith in to lead this movement?
- What does accountability look like and how much should the Democrats balance appeasing the anger that Americans are experiencing against creating a backlash that could re-energize the MAGAs?
- How do we shift from a culture that is all about self-centered greed to one that embraces the common good?
We could get a very creative and hopeful era after the demise of MAGA. We could have a new New Deal. This could be a very interesting and even inspirational era for our country.
Our country could create the roadmap for a revitalized democracy.
BUT FIRST…WE NEED A BLUE TSUNAMI
Nothing reparative will happen unless we get a blue wave and retake Congress in 2026.
We need a blue tsunami that explodes down the mountainside and wipes out Trump and MAGA.
