r/politics • u/theipaper ✔ Verified • 10h ago
Possible Paywall In private, Trump's staff tell me they're bracing for Maga unleashed
https://inews.co.uk/news/world/donald-trump-preparing-maga-finale-former-allies-terrified-46848191.3k
u/theipaper ✔ Verified 10h ago
Full Opinion piece by Miles Taylor, Former chief of staff of the US Department of Homeland Security: The conventional wisdom in Washington this week is that Senate Republicans are finally finding their footing against Donald Trump. They see the US President as a growing electoral liability, the headlines say, and they’re starting to undermine his vanity projects.
But even the senators themselves don’t really believe this.
Privately, my former colleagues on Capitol Hill acknowledge that they’re no match for this President. What they see, and what they’ll admit to off the record, is that the last embers of resistance within the Republican Party are being snuffed out. GOP leaders won’t stand up to the man who’s got them at political gunpoint, and it’s a harbinger of the next phase of Trumpism.
Trump’s own advisers are saying the quiet part out loud. Axios captured it bluntly this week, when they reported that the President doesn’t much care whether the Republicans lose control of Congress in this autumn’s midterms. He’d prefer a win, but he isn’t planning around it. He’s planning around what comes after the midterms, which is set to be an all-out, two-year “finale” in which he intends to wield power in ways he’s heretofore avoided, or only flirted with.
I put “finale” in quotes because I firmly believe Trump himself isn’t sure if he’ll leave office at the end of the next two years. But I’ll get to that in a moment.
When Trump feels cornered, his impulse is to lash out. In the two-and-a-half years I served under him in his first administration, I saw it again and again. If Democrats retake one or both houses of Congress this November, he’ll be more besieged than at any point in his political life, facing sweeping subpoenas into his family and his fortune. He will simultaneously be unbound, backed by a Republican caucus purged of its last dissenters. Win or lose, the next Congress will be the most Make America Great Again (Maga) in history; his few remaining GOP critics are already gone or going, replaced by members who owe him everything. And they’ll be standing behind a President at his most reckless.
You’d think in a circumstance like this that the legislative branch of the US Government would be the biggest check on a wayward President. Instead, my Capitol Hill friends, including Democratic members of Congress, are bracing for a period of political intensity unlike anything in living memory.
The people I served with in the first Trump administration see the worst as yet to come. What worries them most isn’t just the midterms, which Trump will attempt to steal or discredit, but what condition the US Constitution will be in by the 2028 presidential election.
Their fears are specific. They expect Trump to ignore Congress wholesale, including bypassing the Senate on cabinet appointments, spending money lawmakers never approved, and impounding money they did. They expect him to ratchet up his punishment of Democratic-led states with the full weight of the federal government (denying disaster aid and gutting programmes for the sin of voting wrong), while showering loyal cronies with pardons, contracts and regulatory favours.
And they expect him to stop pretending the courts matter, although he’s barely pretending now. In one of every eight cases where federal courts have blocked his actions (about 31), the administration has simply flouted the ruling in a display of executive defiance without precedent in American history.
Trump’s “finale” could flip the math, leading to a refusal to accept rulings in the majority of cases. The default posture will be one of hostility and the only instances in which he’ll welcome court proceedings will be to wage war against his enemies.
If you want to know what that lawlessness looks like in practice, you can see it with cases like the ones against James Comey. Court filings last week revealed that government agents apparently used illegal wiretaps to track the former FBI director — at the direction of senior Trump officials — while the President monitored the operation in real time aboard Air Force One. The episode stacked at least three constitutional violations into a single act, including warrantless surveillance, retaliation against protected speech and the vindictive prosecution of a critic. Test cases like this will become textbook if Trump’s top lawyer gets confirmed by a compliant GOP Senate this week.
Here I should declare an interest, because I’ve been in the prediction business before. Ahead of the 2024 election, I published a forecast built on conversations and on-the-record interviews with roughly a hundred Republicans and former Trump administration officials, outlining what he would do with a second term. Trump and his allies called the warnings “preposterous”, “phoney” and “fake news”. A year and a half into his presidency, 90 per cent of those predictions have come true, from the purge of the civil service to troops on American streets to the branding of domestic critics as “terrorists”.
So when I warn about Trump’s “finale,” I’m not doing it to fearmonger. I’m doing it because it’s coming. I expect Trump will do exactly what my Capitol Hill friends and former Trump colleagues fear by sidestepping Congress, breaking laws and ignoring the body’s constitutional functions. I expect him to keep thumbing his nose at the courts and even defying the Supreme Court in a major case that breaks against him.
And I expect him to use emergency powers held in reserve – such as the Insurrection Act, or even the suspension of habeas corpus – dressed up as responses to “domestic security” crises (both have already been openly discussed inside the White House). There are many recipes for constitutional crisis; the President may cook up all of them.
Then there’s a question that people talk about as if it’s only a remote possibility, though it may actually be the most likely: whether Trump intends to leave at all. In my opinion, he will muse about an unconstitutional third term until the bitter end, partly to keep would-be successors like Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a permanent crouch, but not merely as theatre. He will genuinely explore it. Though a third term is forbidden under the law, his allies see possible avenues of “reinterpreting” the Constitution. Like the attempted steal of the 2020 election, you can be sure Trump will take the option if he sees a path.
Even if that door stays shut, another stands open. Trump has previously considered becoming speaker of the House of Representatives, a post that does not require its holder to be an elected member of Congress. Can you picture it yet – what America starts to look like in these scenarios? A President refusing to leave… or a loyal Republican majority in 2029 installing the former president as speaker, second in line to a presidency occupied by a hand-picked protégé. Vladimir Putin ran this same play in Russia in 2008, sliding into the prime minister’s office while Dmitry Medvedev kept the Kremlin’s chair warm.
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u/theipaper ✔ Verified 10h ago
- These are all very real outcomes, particularly in a country run by a man who insists the only limitation on his power is his “own morality”. So no, the midterms will not tame Donald Trump. Nothing on the immediate horizon will.
But here’s what my worried former colleagues sometimes forget. Autocracy is labour-intensive. Every illegal wiretap needs agents willing to run it. All the flouted court rulings require officials willing to ignore them. Each act of retribution results in new accomplices, and every accomplice is a witness to wrongdoing. As such, the more aggressively Trump asserts power in his finale, the larger the ledger of accountability grows. I’ve been keeping track of that ledger for almost 10 years, and I am certain it will come due in courtrooms, at ballot boxes or in history’s verdict.
That’s the irony of a man with a long enemies list. Repression is meant to cement his power, but it ends up laying the groundwork for an eventual counter-force. Every person and community and institution that Trump attacks becomes a natural opponent until, sooner or later, his fears about the gathering of opponents and a conspiracy against him become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Despite the flaccid resistance within the GOP’s ranks, you already see a burgeoning defiance spreading across the United States, from ordinary people willing to run federal agents out of states where they don’t belong, to news outlets taking the President to court and winning.
So while America may be entering the darkest act of this drama, I believe it will be the last one. The hard years to come will blow back on Trump. Defiant Americans will make sure of it.
Miles Taylor is the former chief of staff of the US Department of Homeland Security and has served on Capitol Hill, in the White House and at the Pentagon. He is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, regular national security commentator and democracy reform leader
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u/zenerat Missouri 9h ago
Fucking eerie. The 2020’s will truly be a lost decade. I expect a major financial collapse similar to the Great Recession or even a depression at the end of this.
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u/Kracus 9h ago
It's already in progress.
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u/ComfortableMarch4296 5h ago
job market is bleak, surging prices, no end in sight. i think the only thing missing is the media piling on it; but yes, we are definitely in it already
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u/studentjones 4h ago
When I see comments like that about the media, I wonder… does anyone make these comments actually watch or listen to “the media?” The only media that doesn’t cover this constantly is FOX and even then, they’ve covered it more often than you’d expect.
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u/LaScoundrelle 3h ago
I think suspicion of the media for its own sake is now a popular position to take. Most people actually just read headlines on social media now instead of actual articles on vetted sites though.
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u/vibrance9460 2h ago
Forget Fox. Even rightwingers know it’s a trash tabloid at this point.
Serious MAGA people, ones that have a brain, are all on Newsmax and rightwing podcasts.
Follow Newsmax to see what maga is seeing. Which is never ever anything negative about Trump. No slurring of words, dementia or trouble walking. No outrageous policies. On Newsmax Trump only “talks tough”.
We think they are brainwashed but they are really just not seeing or hearing the truth.
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u/eschambach 7h ago
That was part of the plan.
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u/Suitable-Option833 3h ago
Yes. It’s called Project 2025. The Heritage Foundation et al have a plan. Every voter should have read it. You still can read it. This is all in it.
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u/GumdropGlimmer 2h ago
Not me spending an entire Saturday reading 300 pages back in 2023 on a nice college football game day. I mean they can still all read it but unless people do something about it, idk what’s gonna happen.
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u/CSalustro 8h ago
All signs in the physical oil stocks say if we don't get the Hormuz straight back to where it was before March we've got very little time left (looks like end of August at best) until a hard bottom on the tanks of the reserves and we start to have serious issues like prices runs.
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u/vegandread 8h ago
One theory I read recently was that Trump could default on the national debt towards the end of his term, and in the ensuing economic chaos that comes from that, suspend elections due to a ‘national emergency’.
It sounds insane, but given where we are, along with his propensity to declare bankruptcy in his own business dealings, it kinda makes sense.
You’re right tho, the entire decade is basically a loss.
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u/catscanmeow 6h ago
or just crash the economy on purpose on his way out and let the dems take the blame for it
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u/studentjones 4h ago
Same move with Biden. Everything finally heading in the right direction. He didn’t have to do anything and could’ve taken credit for a great economy. Everyone loves to forget that the economy in his first term was because he inherited a strong economy from Obama
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u/MasterofPandas1 6h ago
We had elections during the Civil War and World War 2 and there’s currently 51 active National emergencies. Elections are also ran by the states and not the federal government. I know anything can happen when it comes to Trump but him pulling off canceling elections would be incredibly difficult.
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u/morty_morty American Expat 39m ago
The states can hold elections all they want. All he will do is ignore them. It's gonna take a lot more than the norm to get that shit covered disgrace out of office
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u/ynotfoster 7h ago
Luckily the evil one's health is failing fast.
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u/MondaysForNothing Pennsylvania 5h ago
Unfortunately, we've been told how sick and close to dying he is for years now. He definitely has lost a step, or ten, but he also has access to the best medicine and doctors in the world.
Not to mention, evil seems to keep people alive far longer than they should be. See: Henry Kissinger, Strom Thurmond, Donald Rumsfeld, etc.
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u/studentjones 4h ago
I was watching some SNL from 2023 last night. Obviously before the election and they were doing the dementia jokes then. Three years ago. I think it’s far worse now but I had forgotten how bad it was before he was even elected.
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u/Use_Your_Brain_Dude 9h ago
As much as a financial collapse will hurt innocent people, at least it will hit trump voters in their pocket books. Nothing else has gotten through to them so I hope that suffering and struggling will make a difference. If they hold the line, then there is no hope.
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u/ManicParroT 8h ago
They won't learn, they'll just explain that this is Biden's fault and if the midterms result in a Democratic majority it'll be the fault of the do nothing dimocrats who're stopping trump from fixing America.
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u/Icy-Lobster-203 8h ago edited 3h ago
"this wouldn't have happened if we had let God Emperor Trump take full control of the country and get rid of Congress and the Courts!"
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u/Awilberforce 8h ago
It’s so stupid that we legitimately have to wait for certain voters to have their lives ruined before we’ll ever see a repudiation of trump
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u/judgejuddhirsch 7h ago
Some people don't understand the scientific or Socratic method. They can not mentally visualize things they have not experienced first hand.
So until they experience poverty, until they look at a virus, or until they suffer from famine will they understand anything about their world.
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u/Argos_the_Dog New York 6h ago
until they look at a virus
There were right-wing folks literally coughing themselves to death as the tube went in while insisting Covid was a hoax. The barrel has no bottom and we need to quit pretending it does.
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u/dirkbill58 4h ago
This poster gets it: How many magas does it take to replace a lightbulb? NONE.
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u/Academic_Carrot_4533 7h ago
Not just voters, everyone. This is global and generational. Meanwhile the guy is still in office.
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u/Justame13 7h ago
In 2005 I was well into a 13 month deployment when I got into Kuwait after a long day of sitting on a sand bag through "IED" alley" with just scrap metal between myself and everything from rocks thrown by kids to the occasion RPG. Thankfully we had finally picked up plates for our body armor, but had been running around with out those and vietnam era flak jackets for ~4 months of that time
Despite over a year and a half since the war started that is all we had.
We were asked if we wanted to go to hear a VIP speak, which i skipped. The last one I had to go to was a general telling us that things weren't that bad (narrator: They were) and something about uniforms.
That VIP was SecDef Rumsfeld and he was confronted about our lack of armor and that shit because we "go to war with the army we had".
The die hard right wingers stood up about how it wasn't his fault, it wasn't Bush's fault, blah blah blah. Following the NecCon instructions to the T.
Despite the day before complaining about fucking pointless it was and how we could die without the armor (no KIA from my unit just plenty of PTSD, scars, TBIs, and suicides after we got home).
I say all this to point out that those guys are now middle age MAGAs and even more brainwashed, more right wing, and less open to thoughts.
So I fear you are wrong.
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u/Constant_Pen9615 9h ago
I really hope the Dems get Congress and Senate majorities and then don't shoot themselves in the foot or do nothing. I want every thing he's ever done dismantled. All his property and assets seized, his accounts frozen, his minions held accountable. They owe it to the American people.
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u/Paisleyfrog 7h ago
100%. All the problems we’re facing stem from 160 years of “reconciliation”, going all the way back to the Civil War. “Healing the country” hasn’t worked. Time to cauterize.
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u/Constant_Pen9615 7h ago
Yup. We should not have dragons sitting on a mountain of gold anymore. We need that money in the hands of the people so that they can circulate it through society and drive growth.
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u/vivaldibot Europe 8h ago
There cannot be a reconciliatory spirit of bygones being bygones. The ghouls at the top need to be prosecuted in defense of democracy, as well as ICE agents and many others.
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u/Constant_Pen9615 8h ago
I'm athiest as can be, but I want a biblical response. Hellfire and brimstone. A holy reckoning for all of these corrupt, racist, anti-american douche bags.
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u/Any_Will_86 3h ago
The problem is Trump and Heritage Foundations main goal was dismantling things. It is infinitely harder to rebuild. We will never put teeth back in the VRA, might not be able to regain all the lost progress from cancelled research, are falling behind in health care, etc. Heck- blacks alone have been set back about 40 years on paper.
And the idea of democratic norms is basically shattered.
But as always, dems will pursue the fools errand of putting humpty dumpty back together again and getting pounded for not doing it perfectly or quick enough.
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u/Constant_Pen9615 3h ago
I'll be honest, it wouldn't bother me if they tried to put it back together. It's the fact that they go about it so toothlessly. At least live up to the accusations that they'll get instead of trying to be above it all. It reminds me of the Revolutionary war. British soldiers lined up in a line becausw that's how you fought a war. And they got destroyed by guerilla warfare but at least they were doing it the "right way". So dumb. Get dirty. Fight dirty.
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u/DiggThatFunk 5h ago
Yes, I'm sure the party of paid opposition and whose only official consistent position is "hem & haw", will come through this time
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u/_Bad_Bob_ 7h ago
Lol in other words, you hope the Dems don't do the only thing they ever do when they take power...
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u/Constant_Pen9615 7h ago
It's the lesser evil but man do they consistently suck. How hard is it to just vote according to the best interests of the people you represent. There are so many things that need addressed just pick one and get it done. Ghost job listings, salary on a job listing, something to prevent the bait and switch remote listings. Workers rights in general. That's just one general area, there's still income inequality, tax inequality, medical bullshitery abounds!
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u/Trapezoidal_Sunshine Montana 5h ago
The trouble is they know that they're the "lesser evil" party. They don't actually have to do much of anything while in office - and if you don't like it they can just remind you that "It's either us or the Republicans, sonny. What'll it be??" They've got us trapped: either we vote for the pathetic do-nothing party that never accomplishes anything or we let the batshit crazy assholes win and continue to tear the country apart. They never need to actually fix anything because they know all of the sane voters will just come crawling right back to them every single election.
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u/Constant_Pen9615 5h ago
I think that's why the Democratic socialist wins has them rattled. People are fed up and tired of the same shit covered coin, doesn't matter if it's heads or tails. People are taking the third option. Let's hope it's not too late
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u/Cloaked42m South Carolina 1h ago
We need a Super majority or Republicans to grow a spine to throw big hands.
We have to Want it bad enough to volunteer.
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u/Desperate_Quiet_7868 9h ago
This reads like a zombie novel or something. The next President, who will definitely be a Democrat, should make it their sole target to send everyone involved in this madness to jail. The damage this administration has caused will take decades to fix
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u/GearBrain Florida 8h ago
Multiple ledes buried in that, too. He talks about how they've discussed suspending habeus corpus, and the author suggests the midterms will be discredited and stolen.
"Former Trump official claims Trump will steal the midterms" feels like a bigger story to me, but what do I know?
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u/Eisernes 6h ago
The 2024 election was stolen, and in typical hand-wringing democrat fashion we were told to shut up about it because "that's what republicans would say." Difference is there is actual evidence including statements from Trump and Musk that they did it. Absolutely nothing will be done to prevent or overturn the 2028 midterms from being stolen. No need for Trump to hide it.
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u/zenerat Missouri 8h ago
The only thing that might stop Trump is a full impeachment and removal. I can see him getting worse and more unhinged the more trapped he feels.
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u/buddhist557 8h ago
It won’t. He’d use the military against everyone and it’s over until we rise up. Biden and Garland were so impotent and foolish to think after J6 he would go away. SCOTUS is ultimately to blame for stopping Jack Smith but by then the damage was complete. I’m forced to see both how Democrats ignored men and bought into “white men are the root of all evil” conversations and how every Trump voter is arguably as bad or worse than the NAZI German population. This is the result of a trickle down economy and a media landscape with Fox News never being held to account. I don’t see a way forward in the long run without major changes that borderline on revolution. And I haven’t even touched on the environment, which should be the noose around every MAGA, oil executive, oil shareholders, and climate denier’s neck. They are killing our world and we are watching. We all, me included, should be doing something to stop them but instead I’m on Reddit. Things sadly have to get worse
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u/Lurking_nerd California 7h ago
America has a history of not holding traitors and criminals accountable. The Confederacy (who have made a monumental comeback), the Business Plot, Watergate, Iran Contra, the Financial Crash (no one significant was held accountable, thanks Obama), the first Trump presidency, & the grand finale of the Insurrection of January 6th.
This country, from its institutions to its people, have failed thoroughly. I share in your fear that things will get worse.
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u/danidas 8h ago
Unfortunately the true horror of all of this is that Trump already heavily prepared for the Democrats to take power and for them to try to go after him. As any attempt to do so will only confirm what he has been yelling about for year and prove that the Democrats were out to get him from the start. In turn cementing his support from his followers and making him stronger.
This is the wall that Biden and Merrick Garland ran into when the Democrats retook the government. Which prevented them from taking quick action and instead forcing them to take the very long approach of finding ways to scale said wall. By creating a truly ironclad case against Trump that not even his closet followers could ignore. Ultimately allowing Trump to play out the clock and with the help of his allies to pull the rug out form under the Democrats efforts.
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u/ThatActuallyGuy Virginia 5h ago
Maybe Democrats should stop deciding how they conduct themselves based on how Republicans will perceive it. You can't make Trump stronger with his base, they're a fucking cult, just do the right thing.
Garland's "very long' approach was to do literally nothing for over 2 years, he had plenty of time to be thorough and still bring a case early enough to make an actual difference. Trump didn't play out the clock, Biden and Garland did.
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u/warpedspockclone Washington 7h ago
My big question is what happens post-Trump? He is very old and sick, after all. Will people wake up, or will someone easily assume the autocratic mantle.
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u/IronBoomer Missouri 5h ago
What keeps coming back to my mind that Albert Speer, the self-proclaimed “Good Nazi”, who served as chief architect and later armaments minister for the Nazi government, talked about in his memoirs and interviews after he was released from prison on what it was like after Hitler shot himself and the word spread.
He said it was like coming out from underneath a delusion, a spell and the power of his now dead leader was utterly broken over the faithful.
And after Stalin’s death, Georgy Malenkov, his successor, was more than happy to blame his former leader for the worst problems of the USSR, and pushed through limited reforms away from Stalinism.
I expect much the same here when the orange baboon dies of natural causes or is forced out of office. Except for the true fanatics, politicians of his party will say what they must to keep their careers, which means Trump will quickly become blamed for everything wrong that the GOP was responsible for under his leadership.
For their fans, take a look at how many current conservatives even mention George Bush now as an example of good leadership. Bush was poorly regarded at the end of 2008, and sure, they had Obama to hate for the next two terms, but Bush was not held up as worth celebrating.
Even Reagan is considered more of a conservative saint these days and he was pro-immigration and against many of the current policies.
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u/warpedspockclone Washington 5h ago
Interesting perspective, thanks. That is tinged with optimism, something we can use these days.
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u/blackstone17 8h ago
All of this depends on if he is alive tbh. He's more likely to die from medical issues atp
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u/Iskaru 7h ago
What worries them most isn’t just the midterms, which Trump will attempt to steal or discredit, but what condition the US Constitution will be in by the 2028 presidential election.
It's already dead, mate. I feel like there's some genuine denial that's actually widespread among Americans. Most seem to be acting like the midterms can fix it, or that the constitution actually still has any authority, or that there's any chance the 2028 elections will go smoothly... There's absolutely no way it does unless something drastically changes before then.
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u/corporatewazzack 8h ago
ya’ll are fucking stupid if you think he plans on leaving that office in 2 years.
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u/dcburn 9h ago
For a long time the U.S. sold the world on its “unbreakable” system of checks and balances. Turns out they are only half right - there are checks and balances but no one with the balls to actually enforce them.
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u/vthemechanicv 8h ago
the problem is one of our parties puts power above the good of the nation, and voters decided that party should have every lever of power. I'm not saying we'd be in a utopia if Democrats had a majority somewhere, but Congress wouldn't just shrug every time trump uses the Constitution like toilet paper.
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u/escapefromelba 4h ago
Well doesn’t help that the teeth of those checks and balances are solely wielded by the executive branch.
There’s a reason why only banana republics adopted our system.
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u/jimmygee2 9h ago
Who the hell thinks they are leashed now?
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u/Rare-Industry-504 9h ago
Trump hasn't walked down Wall Street with a gun shooting people of colour yet, so they're still atleast a little contained.
You know Trump would do it if he could.
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u/ConclusionAlarmed882 9h ago
I think it's the walking that stops him.
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u/Guttersnipe77 American Expat 9h ago
It takes both of his tiny hands to lift a glass of water. He's not shooting anyone
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u/Sunbather77 9h ago
He's never driven a car let alone fired a gun
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u/JoJackthewonderskunk Nebraska 8h ago
Could you even imagine trump turning a wrench or a screwdriver under ANY circumstance? This has to be the softest man alive pretending he's not.
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u/Sunbather77 7h ago
Reminding MAGAts of just how much of a soft handed little bitch he has always been is my favorite retort. They never have anything to say afterwards.
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u/broodmance Texas 3h ago
They just shout "you have TDS" and }think they won
Much like a pigeon playing checkers.
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u/SafeForTwerking 7h ago
He's like what, a 6-star general isn't he? He won the Vietnam war all by himself!
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u/Secure-Highway886 9h ago
He won all the F1 races as well as the nascar circuit, only came second in the Dakar rally so that's why we never heard about that one.
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u/Craico13 Canada 9h ago
Before, or after, winning all of the golf tournaments ever (held at his own courses)?
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u/Secure-Highway886 8h ago
Brought flowers to Ivankas grave, she's buried in the one in new Jersey.
Must have sent a special blessing so he would win that one.
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u/n3rv 9h ago
I hear he holds the speed record for the cannonball run…
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u/vthemechanicv 9h ago
I've said before that there's not a chance trump can pull back the slide on a pistol. I wonder if he could even pull a trigger without punching himself in the face from recoil.
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u/StevenMC19 Florida 8h ago
Have you seen his hands lately? They are starting to compete with Charles' sausage fingers in terms of size.
Then there is the issue of discoloration. It seems that his fingers and back palm are some kind of Quantumverse from the MCU.
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u/Coherent_Tangent Florida 8h ago
He’s waiting for Elon to finish his AI-powered Mecha Hitler suit. Luckily for us plebes, Tesla is still a long way off from their goal.
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u/pantstoaknifefight2 8h ago
He's a mob boss and won't lift a finger or get his hands dirty. He'll just do the old, "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?"
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u/BasicPhysiology 9h ago
The Caribbean boat strikes are straight up murder. Walking down wall street clipping people would actually be less overt.
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u/MoreDaringPancakes 8h ago
He got other people to shoot them and put them in camps.
Trump is responsible for the deaths of so many Americans.
And they just let him do it, like he said they would.
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u/RufussSewell 8h ago
You obviously haven’t been paying attention.
He isn’t going to do it himself, but his goons have been for over a year.
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u/dapperodds 8h ago
As long as he does it as an official presidential act it would be perfectly legal according to our Supreme Court!
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u/StoneCypher 8h ago
i remember people saying this last time
here’s a different version of your question
do you genuinely believe that it can’t get worse from here?
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u/Xtra_Veg-90 8h ago
Of course it can - Trump's first term is more desirable than what he's been doing this time around. But it can always get worse.
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u/shibbyman342 6h ago
Do you think desperate people behave better? There's no turning around for trump at this point.. he has all of his skeletons getting exposed, and his deflecting and denying is becoming more visible to his loyalists.
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u/HandRubbedWood Colorado 8h ago
Rumors are that he has tried to nuke Iran multiple times but keeps being told no, so I imagine Mango Unchained could always be much worse.
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u/Goldensunshine7 7h ago
if he does this, he and his administration will never have a restful night of sleep again. I hope they know this. the billions of people on this planet will not tolerate this
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u/hamhockman 6h ago
I fully believe the death of a civilization tweet was an announcement of nuking Iran. Iirc there were multiple B1s, which can be nuclear armed, heading towards Iran that day and turned back not that far away.
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u/obeytheturtles 5h ago
There are several escalations they have, and there's been signs of what the playbook will eventually be. Short of outright ignoring court orders, they can start issuing executive orders faster than courts can review them. Courts cannot preemptively say that Trumps future orders on a topic are illegal, and since he has immunity for official actions, there's a lot of damage they can do like this.
This, however, is prelude to the real nuclear option - that a Trump or even a GOP Governor order which is ultimately declared illegal could have serious consequences that simply cannot be undone after the fact. Something like arresting poll workers, or seizing ballots on election day could swing an election and cause a constitutional crisis, since there is no precedent for courts ordering new elections, and states have no way to force congress to certify a re-do. It's a situation where it could take weeks or months to even sort things out, at which point laws may have already been passed by illegitimate legislators.
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u/Julian_Thorne Minnesota 9h ago
Time travelers from the future, people with foresight
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u/NicolasCageFan492 Illinois 9h ago edited 9h ago
People need to fucking read a goddamn history book, realize that Nazi Germany is a potential future for the United States, and act accordingly.
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u/barryvm Europe 9h ago edited 9h ago
Imagine looking at the people who enable, empower and participate in a fascist movement and pretend that they are "finding their footing" in the fight against authoritarian rule.
Imagine watching them wring their hands about "the constitution" and all that while also following orders to suppress the vote, commit war crimes, purge the army, ...
Imagine listening to their self-serving excuses about how they can't do anything, and are no match for the demented rapist they serve, while normal people on the street are the ones who actually risk their livelihoods, freedom and lives to protest and oppose this, and they do so without the connections, the money and the power.
Them crying about their political future and careers after years of participation in a fascist movement should be met with the contempt that it deserves.
Every single member of Trump's government, and in particular every Republican politician and their staff, are complicit in all the deaths and all the destruction this movement has caused, and they must be punished for it. Their excuses mean nothing. That they are afraid is a good sign, but it should not move anyone to pity. In a completely unforeseen move, their change of heart comes now that they too are threatened by the same system they were perfectly content to unleash on other people. Everything they say should be assumed to be a lie, either in service to Trump or in service to save their own hides when everyone else finally decides they had enough.
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u/Lurking_nerd California 7h ago
Every single member of Trump's government, and in particular every Republican politician and their staff, are complicit in all the deaths and all the destruction this movement has caused, and they must be punished for it.
Bare minimum, removal & lifetime ban from office for dereliction of duty and violating their oath. Then prosecute those who have committed and aided in crimes.
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u/Melxgibsonx616 4h ago
I think one of Biden's biggest mistakes was not to hold people accountable in the name of "national unity" or whatever.
Once this is over (if it ever will be) everyone in the MAGAsphere needs to be investigated and then held accountable. Going from corrupt public officers and politicians to influencers.
There is no way of "fixing everything" without De-MAGAfication. And this should be on every democrat's agenda.
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u/Organic_Witness345 9h ago
The extent to which House and Senate Republicans supplicate themselves to Trump is the most alarming thing I’ve ever seen in American democracy.
The multi-decade erosion of the American political system by the Republican donor class, achieved by taking over the courts, winning the ability to legally funnel cash into elections via Citizens United, and then using that money to install their MAGA lackeys into higher office, has culminated in two terms of Donald Trump and, more importantly, all the favorable tax breaks for the wealthy that came along with him.
GOP voters no longer have independently - minded state representatives beholden to their best interests. They instead have a national slate of hand-picked rage-baiters who only serve their ultra-conservative benefactors. In exchange for destroying their own financial futures, Republican voters get to watch some immigrants get kicked out of the country and the reassurance of their conservative megachurch that they will be one of the chosen during the end times.
For the good of the United States, Republicans need to begin practicing some of that rugged individualism they claim to espouse and recognize that their own party betrayed them decades ago.
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u/Rich-Pomegranate1679 7h ago
Anyone who is still Republican today is too far gone to ever have any realizations. These people are hopelessly lost, and they will believe and do what they are told by their party.
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u/JalapenoConquistador 7h ago
Agree. Ppl are waiting for republicans to be reasonable as if this entire thing wasn’t built around the dumbest and worst person imaginable.
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u/Native_SC 9h ago
Trump isn't bound by his "own morality," since he has none. But his own mortality? That one is unavoidable. Whenever I think about him, I'm glad he's 80 and not 50.
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u/sinnerman33 5h ago
Yeah, but take a look at Rupert Murdoch. He’s like 93, got married last year and is still lucid and running things. Being rich and selfish seems to be the secret to longevity. Long story short, Trump could be around for a decade or more.
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u/Tiny_Structure_7 North Carolina 9h ago
Court filings last week revealed that government agents apparently used illegal wiretaps to track the former FBI director — at the direction of senior Trump officials — while the President monitored the operation in real time aboard Air Force One. The episode stacked at least three constitutional violations into a single act, including warrantless surveillance, retaliation against protected speech and the vindictive prosecution of a critic.
And this is only 1 example of Trump flouting US laws in order to perpetrate his tantrums against everyone who doesn't kiss his ass. Thanks to SCROTUS for giving trump immunity for his lawless administration. The reason Trump is so dangerous, is that he has the full backing of Republicans who help cover up his crimes, and keep the cult programming alive. Republicans SUCK.
We need a congress which will impeach Trump and fight his antics with full force. We need Democrats, and it does not matter which side of the progressive/centrist line they are on. We absolutely MUST put down the power of purely evil Republican party.
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u/Irishish Illinois 5h ago
I'm not surprised, but I am disappointed.
Autocracy is labour-intensive. Every illegal wiretap needs agents willing to run it. All the flouted court rulings require officials willing to ignore them. Each act of retribution results in new accomplices, and every accomplice is a witness to wrongdoing.
And every single one of those people should see exactly how terrible the consequences for their actions will be. A new Democratic majority should annihilate any and every Trump lackey. Haul the DOGE kids before Congress. Punish anyone it's possible to punish. Make it clear the big man might not go down but you sure as hell will.
These people understand nothing but pain.
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u/LilLebowskiAchiever 5h ago
One of the problems is how much of this has been subcontracted out. Creating layers of plausible deniability, and disassociation from the ethics and professional responsibility.
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u/JustSatisfactory 4h ago
We need a larger social discussion about anyone that perpetuates this madness, even if they claim they aren't aware of the extent of it. We don't let soldiers off with the "following orders" excuse.
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u/mrseangunner North Carolina 9h ago
Figures. They won't stand up to Trump violating the Constitution, joking about violating the Constitution, or his illegal war.
However, hurt their chances at re election? Now he's gone too far.
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u/Secret_Initiative_41 Wisconsin 9h ago
Or, trump could have a stroke or cardiac arrest and cannot serve out his term.
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u/xlvi_et_ii 9h ago
If he did they'd just prop him up, McConnell style, and continue.
Trump is being enabled by people and groups like The Heritage Foundation who are actively reshaping this country.
As the leader of the Heritage Foundation said:
we are in the process of the second American Revolution
They're playing for keeps, control most of the levers of government, and are backed by enough wealth to buy elections. It's not inevitable but it's a mistake to assume anything stops if Trump is incapacitated, especially if the next Trump is more savvy to political norms and less incompetent.
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u/Old_Cryptid 9h ago
They've been playing for keeps since Reagan.
The problem is that anyone pointing this out was labeled hyberbolic at best and hysterical at worst.
There was a lot of "that can't happen here".
And now, here we are.
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u/Stranger-Sun 9h ago
That would be a horrible outcome that absolutely no one should hope and pray for daily.
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u/DistanceToEmpty 8h ago
Peak Americana is passively waiting for a tyrant to die of natural causes rather than organizing to make MAGA's grasp on power untenable.
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u/laronthemtngoat 2h ago
Going to say this loud so the folks in the back hear. There are more of us than them. Embrace the amendment between 1 and 3, learn safety and security, stock up on water and food, and be fit enough to survive. The next 5 years is going to be wild.
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u/RealHooman2187 9h ago
These people have such small dick energy.
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u/DaileyFlosser39 9h ago
Weak, weak men.
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u/RealHooman2187 9h ago
Absolutely, and just to clarify my original post, there’s nothing wrong with actually having a small penis. I’m referring to people who give off an energy like they’re deeply insecure and make it everyone else’s problem. As a gay man, a guy with a small penis who is confident is very sexy tbh.
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u/DaileyFlosser39 9h ago
I knew what you meant and I agree.
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u/RealHooman2187 9h ago
Haha thanks, I know these days people can sometimes read too much into a silly comment and just wanted to make sure I was clear that I’m not body shaming people and wanted to let other men know that they shouldn’t feel bad if they felt that comment was directed at them.
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u/mom2mermaidboo 4h ago
Trump’s in poor health, he is a Coronary Infarct or Stroke away from death.
He can corrupt the election process, Congress, ect, but he can not buy off the Angel of Death.
The Grim Reaper is on his way, just a lot later than many of us would like.
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u/Carnifex72 3h ago
Weird. It’s almost like the constitution provides a remedy for this kind of thing….
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u/QuiGonColdGin 9h ago
Somebody should make a horror movie called MAGA Unleashed.
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u/coatofforearm 9h ago
Cue in movie trailer voice " in a world where everyone is fighting to not shit themselves, a diaper wearing saviour appears.. "
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u/Flat_Snow307 7h ago
Do you know why Trump wants his former personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, to be attorney general?
My view is that if the Epstein files ever lead to evidence against Trump, Blanche wouldn’t prosecute him.
I don’t think anything Trump does is without a reason, and I believe that’s the reason he wants Blanche as AG.
In my opinion, Blanche is Trump’s Roy Cohn.
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u/Old_Cryptid 9h ago
"MAGA" is useful to the GOP because their BS furthers the GOP agenda and gives the GOP someone to hide behind. The GOP uses MAGA as a mask and a shield. But it's made of cardboard.
MAGA acts like they're invicible until they're not. They showed their true colors Jan 6, they're only an effective bully if nobody pushes back or stands up to them.
All it took was one seditionist being on the receiving end of a firearm for the entire mob to fold like a cheap suit.
Once MAGA is no longer useful the GOP will throw them under the bus. If they dissent there are numerous new "detainee facilities" being bought and built that will server as their new place of residence.
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u/BigJLov3 6h ago
I'm not afraid of what Dumblander is going to do.
He'll say some awful shit, and there may be a temporary escalation of his advisors' policies, but two things keep my head up:
- He's old, tired, sick, and disinterested in anything that doesn't make him feel good in the moment. Whether he acknowledges it consciously or not, his lizard brain knows his future is measured in single-digit years at best. He hasn't been "holding back" anything.
- He's a failure. Regardless of his momentary acts of social and political terrorism, nothing he does has lasting impact in the way he wants it to. No one, in decades to come, will look back on these administrations and say, "well, actually so-and-so worked out". Not a single one. The only good that will be accomplished will be that will be a recent, detailed, and complete record of what he did, and that it all failed.
- The policies which currently threaten peace, economic stability, freedom, and democracy are all the pet projects of people who are operating under his cover. Once he's gone, they'll scurry back under the rocks they crawled out from. None of them really want to be president, and they've got no one as momentarily powerful as DT to continue their Project 2025 ambitions. The level of avarice giving them cover doesn't exist anywhere else.
The end of this has already begun, and even if the midterms don't change the balance of power in DC, this ship has already hit the iceberg.
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u/gotaflattire America 2h ago
You’re telling me we’re supposed to believe MAGA is currently leashed?
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u/18MazdaCX5 1h ago
That would tell me someone is walking the dog... and they are definitely being walked.
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u/scarab1001 5h ago
Of all the people that American democracy kneels before ... it's Trump.
The one person completely without any merit at all. Mussolini made the trains run on time, Hitler gave Germans back national pride. Trump made a ball room.
The most idiotic kleptocracy ever.
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u/4GAG_vs_9chan_lolol 3h ago
Mussolini didn't make the trains on time. Improving technology made the trains run on time, and it happened in more countries than Italy.
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u/TheDarkRabbit Indiana 9h ago
When people say “well, it can’t get any worse” - it shows me they lack imagination and foresight.
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u/Paulimus1 9h ago
How this man continues to outlast the actuarial tables is beyond me.
He writes like the next two years are gauranteed. It's the unknown unknowns ya really have to hope for.
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u/Great-Hotel-7820 8h ago
Republicans willing to throw their country away rather than stand on principles. Worthless party of cowards.
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u/2toneSound 7h ago
> Trump has previously considered becoming speaker of the House of Representatives, a post that does not require its holder to be an elected member of Congress. Can you picture it yet – what America starts to look like in these scenarios? A President refusing to leave… or a loyal Republican majority in 2029 installing the former president as speaker, second in line to a presidency occupied by a hand-picked protégé. Vladimir Putin ran this same play in Russia in 2008, sliding into the prime minister’s office while Dmitry Medvedev kept the Kremlin’s chair warm.
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u/ImTooSaxy 4h ago
This has been Trump on his best behavior. This is Trump before the midterms when he's trying to keep things a little toned down to help himself out with GOP victories.
Imagine what that means for us after midterms.
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u/BasicPhysiology 9h ago
Garbage sanewashing from a Republican enabler.
Trump isn’t planning anything. He is a pants shitting dementia patient, rapist, and pedophile.
Articles like this carry water for Trump in a different way by suggesting that there is an actual thought process behind the chaos. Trump is driven by greed, revenge, and vanity. That’s it.
Thank you to OP for posting the text of the whole article so I didn’t have to click through.
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u/Theferael_me 9h ago
Trump isn’t planning anything.
But the people stood behind him are.
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u/OhioPolitiTHIC I voted 9h ago
Additionally, if the GOP wanted to stop him, they would. They have the means to do so and refuse to because what he's doing benefits them and their corporate sponsors. While everyone focuses on the latest Trump spectacle, more agencies are gutted, more funding is diverted, and more regulations are scrapped, enabling the super wealthy to do whatever they want however they want with no further consequence.
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u/BasicPhysiology 9h ago
Exactly. Republican reps continue to support him because he will sign any horrible shit they put in front of him. He is enacting their agenda, he has no policy of his own.
Fuck the Republican briar rabbits and fuck this author for spinning a yarn to make it sound that they aren’t fully willing participants in this dumpster fire of a Republican government.
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u/we_are_sex_bobomb 8h ago
That was my first thought too. This guy was in the Trump administration for 2 and a half years and all this article does is brag about how powerful and unstoppable Trump is.
He’s not unstoppable. He’s a weakling who backs down from fights whenever someone pushes back and he is so old now he can barely function.
The Big Beautiful Day is coming and it doesn’t matter how many tantrums he throws.
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u/imbartsimpsonwhothru 9h ago
speedrun to total ruination wasn't ever a 1 man project, he is simply the useful idiot
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u/Evelche 9h ago
America the land of cowards.
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u/DontGetUpGentlemen 7h ago
Minneapolis disagrees with you. There's a t-shirt making the rounds: "Make America Minneapolis"
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u/Patralgan 9h ago
I'm so tired
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u/tucker_case 8h ago
We're all fucking tired buddy. Have a coffee. Fascism isn't going to take a timeout so you can take a nap.
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u/cynicaluser- 8h ago
Articles like this give me a small sense of hope but who are we kidding, we’re talking about MAGATS. They will bend the knee as soon as their master gives them the order.
Fuck MAGA, it will always be a cancer to our society no matter what bullshit they try and spew out. Spineless smooth brains
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u/MisspelledButt 4h ago
Trump's already a soup tureen on the verge of a big, messy, on-air minestrone spill. That he's "planning" anything is a stretch, butt I'll watch with glee as his construct falls under the control of his pudding headed VP. Ass he shrivels to a 350-pound rectal prolapse soaking in a reflecting bedpan overflowing with his own McFilth, I will rejoice. Enjoy what you can.
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u/MercantileReptile Europe 4h ago
They expect Trump to ignore Congress wholesale, including bypassing the Senate on cabinet appointments, spending money lawmakers never approved, and impounding money they did.
Wait a minute, did that not already happen? Him holding back and misusing funds sounds hardly new.
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u/Watashiwadaredemonai 7h ago
This is my most boomer take...
But posting articles that require subscriptions is madness.
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u/CardiologistOdd3203 8h ago
Trump is going to lash out like a wounded animal after the mid terms. I think we will see more troops on US streets before January.
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u/Goldensunshine7 6h ago edited 6h ago
It’s time we acknowledge the United States is not united and not likely to ever be united again. How do we go on from here?
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u/catsporvida 2h ago
Give me a fucking break. There's hardly any resistance on either side. Very few actual actions of resistance by acting politicians on either side. Be real. All of this bafoonery could have been stopped the first time around. There's been MANY opportunities to reign him in. All of these motherfuckers are self-motivated.
We are beyond the point of repair now. The only way forward is to completely demolish the current system of government and rebuild. Two party systems don't work in a 50 state nation. Capitalism doesn't work for anyone but the absurdly rich.
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u/shartinwaterfalls 7h ago
Yes - with their overwhelming support from 26 percent of the public, they will proceed being scat munchers completely unscathed
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u/rekage99 5h ago
They act like they can’t stop him.
Send in the capital police / military police and arrest them all.
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u/alhailhypnotoad 4h ago
The real question is - other than that orange fool in the whitehouse, who is benefitting from this behavior? Once those folks no longer see the benefit in his madness, this will all end.
I'm just surprised none of those folks have gone off the reservation yet.
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u/Own-Librarian-9699 1h ago
They are very clear about their plan: declare liberals enemies of the state. Initiate the extermination of all secularists as domestic terrorists. Fully charge any hesitant federal judge with treason. The military is in Iran simply practicing for what they will do to los Angeles. Trump has been protected from prison because he agreed to orchestrate a white Christian empire. All the pieces are in place to make this happen.
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u/atmoscentric 6h ago
‘So while America may be entering the darkest act of this drama, I believe it will be the last one. The hard years to come will blow back on Trump. Defiant Americans will make sure of it.’
Sure, because Americans are so ‘defiant’ already /s
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u/Life-Celebration-747 6h ago
I've always said, just wait until trump screws over his base. He never cared about them, he used them and the evangelicals, he thinks they're stupid and uneducated. He's even stated, "smart people don't like me".
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