Potentate
President Trump “knows” the American people are behind him. He feels that omnipotent power of a political potentate (if only there was another “p word”!!). Look at his “work”. He wanted Indiana to re-district. Seven Republican State Senators stood against this aberration in Hoosier tradition, and stopped “the plot” to wipe out the last two Democrats in the state. Trump “ordered” them “primaried”. Trump campaign money went to their even more “Republican” (read MAGA) opponents, as did the infamous Trump endorsement.
And voilá: five of the seven were defeated in their own party election.
He wanted that “meddlesome Congressman” from Kentucky, Tom Massie, removed. After all, Massie not only questioned Trump’s spending on ballrooms and monuments (to his omnipotent self). He also questioned the Iran War, AND, he is a prime mover in the Epstein Investigation. Massie led the House to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act (along with California Democrat Ro Khanna – working with a Democrat, a cardinal sin in MAGA world!!). So the Trump campaign war chest was turned against the man from Garrison, Kentucky, and MAGA world turned against Massie.
A Texas Trump
And finally, Trump made a choice between establishment Republican Senator John Cornyn and flawed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Cornyn, a Senate pillar from Texas for twenty-four years, did everything he could to please the “Mighty Trump”. But the President was (oddly?) drawn to Paxton. The Attorney General was indicted for security fraud (the charge was “settled”). He was impeached by the Republican Texas House of Representatives for bribery, abuse of power and obstruction (the Senate acquitted him). And even his wife sued for divorce, claiming a “Biblical” violation of the covenant of marriage.
I guess Trump saw a reflection of his “own self” in the Texas Attorney General. His support threw the Texas Republican primary to Paxton, ignored the wishes of the Republican Senate leadership, and gave Democrats an easier target in the November election.
In the Pond
There’s and old saying: “you can be a big fish in a little pond, or a little fish in a big pond”. And while no one is denying the whale-like status of Trump in our big pond of America, his omnipotence is really in a very small pond, the MAGA dominated pond of Republican primaries. As John Cornyn said in his trembling concession statement, decisions are made by those who vote. Only eight percent of the Texas voters turned out for the June election which ended his career.
Eight percent determined which Republican would run for Senate in Texas. And those eight percent are MAGA, through and through. The same story runs through Indiana and Northern Kentucky (OK, maybe all of Kentucky). Trump’s power isn’t in his ability to sway a “majority”. He’s never won a majority, not in his wins in 2016 and 2024, and not in his loss in 2020. Trump is President by, at best, a plurality of the popular vote, leading to a majority of the electoral vote.
Thin Margins
But the President pretends that he has an overwhelming majority of support. It reminds me of Richard Nixon’s “silent majority”. Nixon claimed their support in his decisions about continuing the Vietnam War, for six years beyond the election where he promised to end it. And, of course, since the whole definition of a “silent majority” is that you can’t “hear” them, it was difficult to disprove Nixon’s theorem.
Trump claims that same overwhelming majority, and points to his electoral power within the MAGA dominated Republican primaries. And while he’s not wrong about his undue influence over his supporters, that is only a small slice of the American electorate.
The problem for Trump is that heady influence doesn’t expand to the whole American people. As the Presidential elections of the last decade show, we are a Nation on a knife-edge of political power. Just a few hundred thousand votes, and Donald Trump is the ultimate loser in three elections, never in office. Just a few hundred thousand votes, and Donald Trump serves two consecutive terms as President. In the largest elections ever held in the United States, we are divided by the smallest of margins.
The same is true in our legislatures. The House of Representatives is down to less than a five vote difference. Speaker Johnson often has to “dismiss” the House, adjourn and close the doors, rather than allow votes that would go against his Republican will. And the Senate, while more firmly in Republican control with a four seat margin, still has difficulty, especially with the sixty vote “filibuster” margin required for most legislation.
Un-American
The President is fighting an unpopular war of his own choosing; a war he cannot find a way to finish. He is spending money in a way that would even make my Democratic friends blush. The aura of corruption emanates from every part of his administration. And, most of all, Americans hate a dictator, or a President who somehow thinks he can act like one.
Trump may be able to fool himself with his demonstrable control over the Republican Party. But there won’t be much fooling in November when the entire country gets to voice its opinions.
No wonder a MAGA priority is to keep people from the polls. Stopping the vote is their key to retaining power. Nothing sounds more Un-American.
