One Term
I knew when Donald Trump won the Presidential election in November, that things would get bad. It just made sense: Trump would be a one-term President, with no real concern about running for a second term. (Yes, I know there’s a worry he might try to stay on for a third term. If he is able to do that, we don’t really have much of a democracy, or Constitutional Republic, anymore). The poll numbers that so controlled him in his first term, no longer matter. People love him, people hate him: he’s the President of the United States until January 20th, 2029.
And any threat that Trump could legally be held responsible for his actions as President went out the window with a US Supreme Court decision, granting him absolute immunity from prosecution for any of his “official” acts. So, as long as he can claim “officiality”, then he’s home free. And what’s more official than an “executive order”, signed with Trump’s signature Sharpie marker. He’s issued 176 orders so far (Federal Register), including telling college athletes how they can earn money, “ending” crime and disorder, and preventing “Woke”; those in just the last two weeks. It’s an “order”; that’s an official act. Thanks, Supreme Court majority toadies!!
Guardrails
And, while Trump tried the “old school Republican” hiring plan in the first administration, with folks like Reince Priebus, Jim Mattis and Jeff Sessions; they turned out to be too frustrating for him. So this time we get those tried and true MAGA followers; Bondi and Hegseth and WWE’s Linda McMahon. They don’t know much about running their departments, but they sure as Hell know how to follow orders. And Trump has his “boys”, Stephen Miller and Project 2025’s Russell Vought, issue those orders firmly from the West Wing.
“Guardrails? We don’t need stinkin’ guardrails!”
There’s nothing to keep the Trump Presidency from doing whatever comes into their little heads. Worried about “Great Replacement Theory” (people of color taking over “good old” white America)? Then let Miller, Tom Hohman, and Kristi Noem (the height of Fascist Fashion) terrorize “brown people”, round them up and make them disappear, either in the US or overseas. Don’t like the environmental restrictions? Let MAGA Lee Zeldin, the new EPA Administrator, withdraw the 2009 finding that greenhouse gases impact climate change.
And who knows what’s going to happen in the next election. Most of the federal protections for voting are being dismantled, by both the Executive and the Judicial branches.
Billionaire
To be honest, my great hope was that the Trump Presidency would be mostly about aggrandizing Donald Trump, and he wouldn’t worry so much about the rest. So it wasn’t a surprise that the whole “cryptocurrency” thing became a huge Trump family investment. Whether he was a billionaire or not before the election, he’s definitely one now. It was a simple plan: buy Trump Bitcoin, and “invest” in the Presidency. There are a few of us skeptics who might call that taking a bribe, buying influence without even the courtesy of hiding the transaction. But it’s all legal now.
So when the Emirate of Qatar offered a $400 million jet for Trump’s “new” Air Force One, of course he took it. And, it’s now part of the deal, that he gets to keep it after his Presidency. A House Committee just confirmed it. Let’s think that through for just a second. If a Senator took a luxury car, say, a Mercedes, from a foreign nation, and kept it, we might think that was “crooked”. At least, we thought that was true when former Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey did it. It’s part of the eleven year Federal sentence he’s serving now. But for Trump, it’s all good. I’m sure Menendez is being considered for a pardon: it’s too close to home for the President.
The Worst
And what about Epstein? Sure, Trump’s likely to be embarrassed by “the truth”, if “the truth” ever comes out. But don’t expect more than that. Even if we find out that Donald Trump (oh my) liked and abused young girls, don’t think the Congress will line up to impeach him. Really, courage has never been a part of MAGA culture. Those Republican Senators will simply claim “fake news”, or they just failed to hear about it.
Trump has wiped out the Rose Garden, and built a gold-gilded ballroom in the East Wing of the White House. It’s all about the money, the “life of the rich and famous”, White House style. And, of course, the Federal government, with our tax money, is paying for it, along with the weekly flights to golf courses, and the costs of his protection paying for hotel space in his hotels.
He’s the “thief in chief”. If that’s the worst of him, then the United States as we know it will survive.
It’s the rest we need to worry about.
