Donald Trump has taken several steps recently that give us new reasons to eject him from the White House, but he may self-destruct before we can get to him.
Begin with his latest actions that should make us want to eject him.
It hasn’t gained a lot of media attention, but Trump issued an executive order recently that, if declared legal, would create specially trained National Guard units that could take control of law enforcement anywhere in the United States if public safety demanded it. In other words, Trump is trying to give himself the power to control local law enforcement nationwide “in case public safety demands it,” and he alone would choose when that might be. Once that infrastructure is in place, little would prevent him from turning it against civilians.
Is Trump using Washington as a testing ground for that? It would appear so. He’s already threatened to send troops into Baltimore, Chicago, New York and perhaps other politically blue cities, even though red cities – such as Oklahoma City, Miami, Fresno, Omaha, Colorado Springs, Fort Worth — have much higher crime rates.
Isn’t it amazing that Trump croons about reducing crime just days after he freed more than 1,000 people who had been convicted of attacking our Capitol while Congress was in session? Attacking police officers with baseball bats? Causing deaths and millions of dollars in damage?
He talks about reducing crime, and yet he has been convicted of committing 34 felonies, stands credibly charged with committing 57 more, has been convicted of sexually abusing a woman (the judge said it was rape) and stands credibly accused by many more women of similar conduct — and yet he wants to protect us from criminals. Do you feel safer now that you know Donald Trump wants to protect you from criminals?
But getting back to that National Guard order. That’s just one of several new reasons – I emphasize new — why Trump must go.
Another is that Trump has started seriously pressuring other countries to relax their pledges to address climate change and instead burn more oil, gas and coal, even though it is damaging, expensive to extract and pollutes our environment. At the same time, Trump is doing everything he can to defund and discourage development of solar and wind power, which is free, clean, and falls plentifully and endlessly from the skies. And it’s all to put more money in the pockets of his billionaire oil buddies. Damn it!
Another: He embarrassed America by letting Putin rub his nose in it during their meeting in Alaska, and he keeps on letting him.
According to U.S. and Western officials, Russia has begun flying surveillance drones over U.S. weapons routes in eastern Germany, collecting intelligence that could be used to bolster the Kremlin’s sabotage campaign and assist its troops in Ukraine — and Trump is doing nothing to contest it.
Further, Russia’s attacks on Ukraine have increased dramatically since that Alaska meeting, and since Trump called for peace. Also, Trump apparently has backed off threats to sharply increase sanctions on Russia if Russia doesn’t reach a peace agreement with Ukraine, which it hasn’t and won’t. It makes one wonder if maybe Putin really does have something on Trump and is blackmailing him — Epstein files, perhaps?
There are other reasons we need to get rid of Trump – soon. He is increasingly showing signs advancing age and mental decline. He reads aloud well but let him speak on his own and he wanders all over hell and back, and often he makes no sense whatsoever. His keepers are doing all they can to limit public appearances where he may make a fool of himself.
It makes me dream of the Constitution’s 25th Amendment, Section 4, which allows the vice president, together with most of the Cabinet or another body designated by Congress, to submit a written declaration to Congress that the president is unable to perform his duties. Upon that declaration, the vice president immediately assumes authority as acting president, and even JD Vance would be an improvement.
So do not despair. There are bright signs that the tide is turning our way. The MeidasTouch Podcast recently listed a few: The CDC erupted in revolt after Trump ousted the director and installed an RFK Jr. stooge. California Gov. Gavin Newsom keeps dismantling Trump’s lies about crime while Trump threatens to take over our streets. During Congress’ just-ended summer recess, Republican politicians got booed out of their own town halls for parroting MAGA talking points. Foreign leaders continue to humiliate Trump on the global stage as his foreign policy blunders pile up. Democrats keep winning special elections all over America, even in areas that voted solidly for Trump last year.
As Rachel Maddow put it, “There is a huge movement building in America against the chaos of Donald Trump’s presidency. His poll numbers are sinking across the country. Millions are speaking out in nationwide protests. And now, his favorability is slipping even among his own supporters.”
All of which bodes for the good when it comes to the upcoming midterms. And remember: a midterm election is how we stopped Ronald Reagan’s ultraconservative nonsense.
There is a widespread feeling that Trump isn’t worried about the midterm election because he’s going to declare martial law and cancel all elections from now on, but as Andy Borowitz wrote in his Borowitz Report, “That’s a right-wing narrative designed to make you feel hopeless and prevent you from donating, volunteering, and voting. Don’t fall for it! Instead, let’s do some critical thinking: if there won’t be any midterms, why are Republicans scrambling to gerrymander in states like Texas? I’ll tell you why: they’re terrified of losing control of the House—and with your help, they will.”
There also are signs that Trump’s end is near even without our help. The weakening economy is a huge one. As prices continue to rise — prices for beef, pork, and chicken have gone up nearly 25% in the past six months — and job growth continues to slow, America could fall into the dread trap of stagflation, a combination of stagnation and inflation that’s especially hard to correct because all the tools that strengthen one starve the other. The many people who voted for Trump because he promised to bring prices down will turn on him – if they haven’t already turned on him for other reasons, such as his Big Ugly Bill that will end Medicaid and SNAP and cause so much more damage.
And then there’s his brazen corruption in openly plotting to gerrymander enough districts in his favor to win regardless of what the American people vote for. Oh, so much more corruption.
But even though all that is working against Trump’s longevity in office, none of it compares with the most damning possibility of them all: the Epstein papers, a topic that is about to command much of our attention.
Congress reconvenes today, Sept. 2, after its summer recess, and the Epstein files are certain to immediately become a major issue. Remember how House Speaker Mike Johnson adjourned the House and began the recess a day early so he wouldn’t have to deal with the angry, bipartisan demand that the files be released. As soon as the House convenes today, those folks who want the files will make themselves known, loudly and persistently. The focus will be on Trump: Why won’t he do what he promised to do??
When you consider all that’s going against Trump right now and realize that he no longer has any truth-tellers to advise him because he has purged them all, no one to tell him he’s about to crash, it appears he will inevitably crash.
So although times may appear bleak, those times are changing. Right now Trump is sitting on top of the wall on the top of the hill. But, for all of the aforementioned reasons, his end could come sooner than later. And it could happen suddenly, much like it did for that other famous king he resembles:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
And all the king’s horses
And all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.
- The Activist Handbook
- The Beautiful Trouble Toolbox
- Resistance School (Virtual)
- International Center for Nonviolent Conflict
- THE RESISTANCE HUB
I’ve said it before and I say again —well done Skip. You are a positive force in a dark world. You give me hope. Thanks, dear friend.
Wonderful, Skip. Reasoned and hopeful projection into our future. If only we could remake that hope, even probability, an absolute certainty. And we can, if the American people rise to defend our endangered, beleaguered democracy.