There is something very, very wrong with our president.
Donald Trump is not in his right mind. He has gone mad before our eyes. Where he was once lucid and willing to listen to reason during his first term in office, in this second term he has surrounded himself with crackpots, bigots, Machiavellian manipulators, economic opportunists, cosplay tough guys, and angry and bitter women, all reveling in the power of their positions to hurt other people, with none daring or caring to question his actions.
Donald Trump wants to be remembered as the greatest president this country has ever had, but he will almost certainly be remembered as the president who would be king, the king of chaos and self-absorbed insanity.
Donald Trump is able to act like a king because he has achieved unconditional support from nearly every Republican senator and representative, and appears to have the tacit approval of a majority of Supreme Court justices. No one with the constitutional power to oppose him dares to do so. But there is nothing normal about what he says or what he does.
Donald Trump believes in his own greatness, and is constructing monuments and ballrooms as evidence of his greatness. He splashes his name and likeness everywhere he can, from the Lincoln Center to the White House walls, reminiscent of his private branding of the Trump name prior to his entering politics.
Donald Trump believes that the presidency is an opportunity to increase his personal wealth. His cryptocurrency and real estate dealings that are controlled by his Trump business empire are perfect avenues for him to receive tribute and lucrative business opportunities from undisclosed sources. So far his take since the beginning of his second term is estimated to be in excess of $3,000,000,000.
Donald Trump believes that no one should question him or prevent him from doing as he pleases, and he will stop at nothing to achieve revenge and retribution on those who dared to do so. He seeks vengeance from attorney generals to judges to prosecutors to senators to representatives to legions of civil servants for slights real or imagined.
Donald Trump believes in his own infallibility, and therefore believes that he is without need of counsel because he is always correct. He ignores the recommendations of experts in virtually every field, and seems to delight in creating policy that contradicts established practices that have worked well for decades, and thoughtlessly terminates new initiatives that are needed to prepare this country for a changing world.
Donald Trump believes that alliances and agreements are of limited value and represent obstacles to his ability to act as he sees fit. Instead of working within our alliances to achieve common goals that would benefit many countries, and instead of renegotiating agreements to achieve a more balanced outcome for all parties concerned, he has chosen to denigrate NATO, denigrate the UN, denigrate the EU, denigrate our most important trading partners, and denigrate virtually every international initiative that this country was once a part of.
Donald Trump believes that an important part of the greatness of his legacy will be to add territory to the United States. Just as the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 doubled the size of the country, and the Mexican Cession of 1848 and the Alaska Purchase of 1867 more than doubled its size once again, the annexation of Greenland, either by purchase or by force, would represent the largest land acquisition in the history of this country. It could be said that such an achievement would certainly be worthy of a truly great president.
Donald Trump believes that the most certain way to peace is through the expression of power, intimidation, and terror. Forcing countries to act in accordance with his demands has become the fundamental basis of his administration’s foreign policy. Venezuela is the most glaring and current example of this, but a takeover of Cuba is certainly not far behind, with more countries to come, His willingness to send ICE agents into the streets of American cities to terrorize, brutalize, kidnap, and murder people who are already living peacefully within our borders is simply an extension of his need to dominate, subjugate, and control.
This is going to end badly for our country, particularly if Donald Trump invokes the Insurrection Act in an attempt to prevent the mid-term elections from happening. This continues to be a very real possibility, something that apparently Donald Trump has openly ruminated about in private meetings. The only thing better than trying to overturn the results of an election is to prevent elections from happening at all.
That being said, the reign of Donald Trump will end in three year’s time, and this country will then have an opportunity to reverse the damage that his administration will have done to our country. To say that things will return to normal is not correct – but it is hoped that we will find a new normal that is based in fact and science, compassion and common sense.
Of much greater concern is the loss of trust and respect and admiration that the rest of the world once had for this country.
Donald Trump’s madness would upend the world’s monetary system. Once he is able to control the Federal Reserve and politicize monetary policy, he will have effectively ended the use of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. There will be serious ramifications to our financial stability once countries cash in their dollar holdings in favor of the Chinese yuan, the most likely alternative.
Donald Trump is slowly and methodically removing the U.S. from as many international agreements as possible, effectively isolating this country from world affairs. He has already eliminated support for over 50 international programs, many of which are part of the United Nations. He has essentially ended U.S. humanitarian foreign aid, which provided clean water, food, medical supplies, roads, schools, field hospitals, and other vital services to millions of people in impoverished, less developed countries. He has withdrawn from various climate change organizations, calling climate change a hoax, while the seas rise and extreme weather events become commonplace.
Disturbingly, he has threatened to withdraw from NATO, and is considering military action against our closest allies in order to annex Greenland.
This isolationism and aggression is both unnecessary and ill-advised, yet Donald Trump is obsessed and cannot be dissuaded from these strategically moronic actions.
These are all examples of the mad king syndrome. And, in his madness, Donald Trump will bring an end to the greatness that, up until now, has defined this country.
We have not had a great president for a long time. George W. Bush and Barack Obama provided solid leadership, but Donald Trump and Joe Biden were presidents that made extremely poor decisions.
Donald Trump did a terrible job of initially responding to the challenges of Covid, and then tried to overthrow an election and precipitated an assault on the United States Capital building to prevent the peaceful transition of power.
Joe Biden created a de facto open border policy that allowed millions of undocumented people into this country in an uncontrolled manner, and then refused to stand by his word that he would be a single-term president until it was too late for the Democratic Party to nominate a knowledgeable, qualified candidate.
Instead, in its wokeness, the Democratic Party gave us an inept, inarticulate Presidential candidate in Kamala Harris, a woman who could not lead or inspire, a woman who was too ignorant to realize that she needed to have a vision for a better country if she had any chance of defeating Donald Trump.
And, in its cravenness, the Republican Party anointed Donald Trump as its chosen one, proceeded to confirm the worst, least-qualified cabinet in the history of this country, and then fell all over itself trying to justify his cruelty, vindictiveness, personal greed, and now his madness.
This country has never had such a destructive president as Donald Trump in his second term. He has declared war on a large portion of the American people, and he has declared war on our friends and allies.
The Mad King of Mar-a-Lago will not reign forever, but once he is gone, what kind of country will we be? Will we be like the Phoenix, rising from the ashes of a purifying fire to reclaim our democratic spirit, or will we become a shithole country, an oligarchy of the rich and well-connected?