We know Donald Trump will profit personally at any chance he can get. But, under what circumstances will Donald Trump sacrifice personally? He has said that he sacrificed a lot being in politics. I doubt it. In fact, I think he had to ascend to some role in the senior levels of our government to outrun his bad debts and earn good will back from people around the world that he burned. He loves attention, and being on camera all the time satisfies that for him. His desire to mask his financial dealings in a shroud of media madness also lends itself well to being the loose cannon President.
Many people are losing their minds with the pace of things and I think Trump is one of those people. He does not seem to be able to keep up with his own administration right now. Disorganization and dysfunction are seeping out of everything and everyone close to Donald Trump. His flimsy attempts to discredit corruption laws have provided cover for a lot of his associates. Steve Witkoff for example, is doing Trump’s bidding across the world. Witkoff is woring directly with leaders like Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu, and others on questionable (at best) deals.
Trump’s First 100 Days
Stock market plummeting. Bond market panicking. Dollar dropping. Small businesses closing and losing in nearly every industry sector we have. The economy is wrecked. It was not wonderful before under Biden. But it is absolutely in shambles today. The tariffs policy has alienated us. Donald Trump is specifically to blame for it in the eyes of the entire world. Our trade relationships and global militaristic cooperation will be unstable until Trump is gone. Prices have not gone down either, as he promised.
He is losing in a lot of courts.
The administration fired over 100,000 federal employees, shuttered departments, and used Elon Musk as an unlawful agent to carry out these actions. It declared Social Security recipients legally dead, causing people who were lawfully entitled to benefits to not receive them. The administration human trafficked people to El Salvador without due process, among other “immigration” issues.
The border crossing data has dropped, but the actual deportation numbers are not on pace with any mass movement to expel illegal aliens.
The entire premise of Trump’s outsized power is based on a variety of loosely declared emergency orders. Those are being challenged and knocked down in courts across the country and up to the Supreme Court.
(2) different individuals in the House have referred to impeachment articles.
Though Trump’s team joked about him running again in 2028 already, he admits this is not for real. His self-dealing is out of control.
But he is showing cracks in his armor.
A New White House Ballroom and Other Odd Gestures
Trump’s recent announcement that he intends to personally fund a ballroom at the White House, modeled after his private estate in Florida, raised eyebrows. On the surface, this is more garishness and self-centered behavior from Trump. Trying to overtake the legacy of the White House and put his own imprint on American history.
Moreover, though, this is the rare moment where Trump is offering something – his own money – to the federal government. By extension, it is kind of a repayment to the people. Now, we (350,000,000 people) see 0 benefit from the White House getting a face lift, metaphorically speaking. We don’t need nor do we want that. It is also a ploy to allow Trump to stay in the White House, as if he’s an interior designer now, more than he is the President. Isn’t redecorating supposed to be the work of the First Lady?
If Trump Is Paying Us Back, How About His Overpriced Inauguration?
Will he repay the $90 million American taxpayers funded for his lavish inauguration ceremony? Both major political parties signed off on this funding without any substantial public scrutiny, making it a valid concern.
More broadly, what is Trump’s true commitment to the American people? He is also talking about funding a military parade, potentially on his birthday, presumably to keep up with authoritarian leadership around the world. More wasted money. Congress should stop it.
Trump’s Financial Empire Strikes Back
Trump has increasingly entangled his personal wealth with a sprawling network of businesses, many of which are publicly traded or involved in controversial sectors.
Beyond his real estate portfolio, Trump now controls a publicly traded company, $DJT, as well as a crypto firm called World Liberty Financial. He’s also selling “Gold Card” citizenship memberships and I’m very curious how he uses his father’s trust fund. To this day, that is the most opaque and murky area of his financial life. One particularly eyebrow-raising business relationship involves his dealings with El Salvador and its president, Nayib Bukele. I have defined it as a modern day slave trading pipeline masquerading under the auspices of terrorist confinement (in El Salvador) and deportation/immigration in America.
Given Trump’s increasingly obscure connections, one must ask: What other illicit industries is he involved with? Is his financial empire beyond the reach of conventional oversight? How far does this network extend, and who stands to benefit from it?
Rationing Dolls & Pencils?
As Trump continues to preach about the economic difficulties Americans face, his rhetoric is becoming increasingly disconnected from the reality of ordinary life. During a recent interview with Kristen Welker on Meet the Press, Trump bizarrely claimed that American families would soon have to ration children’s toys – cutting the number of dolls from 30 to a few. He then followed that up by discussing how Americans would need to ration pencils, limiting them to only five.
He scoffed at the notion of people who need, and people who make or sell strollers. In fact he pivoted to the mortgage rates as a win, which clearly are out of reach of the average American today. His rhetoric was sort of fuzzy critique of consumer society.
Say what you want about the consumerism of the American public, but Donald Trump is an extravagant detached nepo baby who has never had to visit a grocery store in his privileged entitled life. That guy is secretly paying the people back by making a ballroom in his own name at the White House, while we already gave him $90M for a parade in January. He wants another parade while he’s wrecking our foundation? No.
Trump Will Not Serve Another (4) Years
Trump has always been careful with his rhetoric, but recently, his statements regarding the future have become more telling. Initially, he acted as though he would serve as president for life. Then, he joked about running for a third term in 2028, implying he might stay in power until 2032. But now, he says he will leave in 2028, without any clear plans for a successor. This lack of clarity regarding succession raises questions about internal power struggles within the Republican Party.
Why hasn’t Trump pushed more decisively for a successor, especially if he believes he’ll leave office in just a few years? JD Vance and Marco Rubio’s increasing presence in the administration seem to hint at a growing competition for Trump’s seat, but none of them are directly positioning themselves for a presidential run.
This could indicate more division and infighting within the party, which is unusual for Trump, who normally revels in controlling the narrative.
Everything Trump Said (Wasn’t) Right, But Is Trump 100% Wrong?
Trump has blamed Joe Biden for the ongoing economic struggles in the U.S. Yet, in a rare moment of clarity, Trump also admitted that he himself is “ultimately responsible” for the state of the economy. This is particularly striking given how often he has pointed fingers at others, even when it’s clear that his own policies played a significant role in exacerbating these issues. In an ABC interview in the last week, Trump also said that people who claim anything 100% are liars. So, he admits that he is a liar.
Trump’s inconsistent and self-contradictory statements on the economy only reinforce the sense that he’s trying to have it both ways: distancing himself from the chaos of his past administration while also setting the stage for a potential return to power. But at the same time, he’s still trying to cultivate a narrative that fits his self-image as a hero to the American people – while simultaneously benefiting from the very economic policies he claims to be critiquing.
Give (More Than) A Little Bit
I’m not going to get bought off with a ballroom at the White House when Trump and his crew are pillaging us left & right.
It’s not about his negotiations with the rest of the world, it’s about his negotiations with the American people.
Apparently the American people elected him to be President of the United States.
But, has he even said “thank you?”
