In my opinion, this video has more insightful observations than Carter has Little Liver Pills.
Watch it if you’re interested in understanding what is actually going on.
David French Channels Dante
And another useful source: yesterday, David French gave us a highly informative tour of the hellscape that is the MAGA mind. Along with that, he also offered thought-provoking historical precedents for our current state of affairs. David French (N.Y. Times): What MAGA Sees in the Minnesota Mirror.
And now some thoughts from me, your humble ink-stained scrivener.
The Supreme Court’s Role in 2026 as the Joker in the Deck and Potential Savior of Donald Trump—from the Perils Posed by Donald Trump
In the video above, Rick Wilson expounds on the consequences of Trump’s erratic and disastrous action regarding his key political issues, immigration and tariffs. But he doesn’t address how the Supreme Court, if it so chooses, could intervene in ways that would help to save Trump’s bacon by helping to save him from himself.
Likewise, the Court, if it so chooses, can rein in Trump’s due process violations in connection with its mass deportation project.
Apart from the fact that requiring due process will help to save the constitutional republic, it would also, once again, help to save Trump politically from himself. Essentially, for the reasons that Rick Wilson laid out in the video.
Trump’s mental problems are myriad: sociopathy, constant lying coupled with a total inability to keep his lies straight, an inability to plan, and, among others, a grievously limited political skill set.
In this witch’s brew of mental illnesses, we tend to discount the signal importance of delusional thinking. For example, Trump really thinks that he can bend the courts to his will in the same way that he has bent the Justice Department and the FBI to his will.
He should have learned his lesson in 2020, when the courts universally rejected his stolen election delusion.
But he did not learn his less, because he is delusional.
Now, once again, he is ordering his prosecutors to comply with his delusions by initiating a slew of utterly bogus criminal cases.
The consequences of the inevitable failure of that delusion will be yet another joker in the deck as we continue our hellish journey through 2026.
Of the many lessons to be drawn from the administration’s retreat in Minneapolis, the most important is that Donald Trump can be stopped.
He spent his first year acting as though the 2024 election were the last time he would ever have to give a thought to public opinion. Now the myth that Trump is invincible has been exploded.
After federal agents killed Alex Pretti, Trump-administration figures including Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller described the victim as a terrorist, indicating their desire to ignore or intimidate all opposition. But other Republican sources signaled their discomfort, and some called for an investigation—a routine step for a normal presidency, but a daring breach of partisan discipline in an administration that shields itself from accountability and tries to put itself above the law.
During yesterday’s White House briefing, when a reporter asked if Trump shared Miller’s belief that Pretti was a domestic terrorist, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt replied that she hadn’t heard him use that term. Trump also sent out conciliatory messages on social media indicating that he’d had productive talks with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. And he dispatched Tom Homan, the border czar and a more traditional immigration hawk, to replace Gregory Bovino, the commander at large in Minnesota. Bovino has justified his agents’ misconduct with transparent lies.
Trump’s retreat in Minneapolis is a stinging defeat for the national conservatives, the Republican Party’s most nakedly authoritarian faction. The NatCons believe American liberalism cannot be dealt with through normal political methods such as persuasion and compromise. Speakers at the National Conservatism Conference have described the American left as “the enemy within” (Senator Rick Scott of Florida) and “wokeism” as “a cancer that must be eradicated” (Rachel Bovard of the Conservative Partnership Institute). NatCons also maintain that immigration poses a mortal threat to the United States. These two strands of thought are intertwined; NatCons consider immigration a weapon employed consciously by the left to assume permanent power, via manipulating elections and creating government dependency, a conspiracy that can only be reversed through the kind of ferocious operation on display in Minneapolis.
The NatCons, whose ranks include powerful administration figures such as Vice President Vance and Miller as well as members of Congress (such as Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri) and activists (such as Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts), have wielded profound influence. They have rarely, if ever, lost important struggles to steer Trump’s strategy.
For the NatCons, the mass-deportation scheme overseen by Miller is an existential priority. Vance once claimed that immigration levels “would mean we never win, meaning Republicans would never win a national election in this country ever again.” Ten days ago, Miller explained on Fox News that Democrats were resisting ICE in Minneapolis because “this mass-migration scheme is the heart of the Democratic Party’s political power.” Miller sees his crusade not merely as a matter of relieving the burden on public services or raising wages, but as a final chance to stop permanent left-wing tyranny. Thus Miller’s immediate, fervent insistence that Pretti and the other Minnesotan recently killed by federal agents, Renee Good, both deserved their fates, a line the NatCons repeated vociferously through Monday.
The NatCons have attained their sway by positioning themselves as the vanguard of Trumpism in its purist form. Other conservative factions, such as social conservatives, libertarians, and foreign-policy hawks, supported Trump reluctantly in 2016, and backed away after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, hoping Florida Governor Ron DeSantis or some other rival could displace him. The NatCons never flinched in the face of Trump’s failed autogolpe, or any other actions that made other Republicans nervous. They won the loyalty contest—which, in the second Trump administration, is the only currency of influence.
Calls for Trump to stand firmly behind Miller had a desperate yet vague tone. “Leftist protestors who shut down streets, destroy property, refuse lawful orders, and physically assault federal officers cannot be rewarded with veto power over public policy,” beseeched the Manhattan Institute activist Chris Rufo, employing the passive voice. In response to a liberal observing yesterday afternoon on X that Trump was backing down, Will Chamberlain, a national conservative affiliated with numerous right-wing organizations, replied, “This isn’t happening, and it’s very important that it does not happen.”
Nevertheless, it was happening.
The reason it happened is that, although Trump listens to the NatCons, he has no deep grounding in their theories or, for that matter, any theories. The president’s despotism is not ideological but instinctive. He cannot tolerate criticism and he deems any process that embarrasses him, including a critical news story or an election, illegitimate, even criminal.
And while he has embraced a restrictionist immigration agenda, he has vacillated between endorsing mass deportation and allowing exceptions for categories of laborers he considers necessary. As Trump told The Wall Street Journaleditorial page before the 2024 election, “I mean, there’s some human questions that get in the way of being perfect, and we have to have the heart, too.” If that has ever occurred to Miller, he has hidden it well.
Whether or not Trump’s intermittent expressions of human feeling for the immigrants his administration has abused is heartfelt, his desire to maintain his political standing most certainly is. Trump appreciates the power of imagery. It does not take a political genius to understand that, if Americans were repulsed by the sight of a Vietnamese man being executed in 1968, an American being shot in the back, facedown on a midwestern street, would not go over much better.
Trump’s capitulation would never have occurred if not for the heroic, disciplined resistance in Minneapolis. Faced with something like an occupying army that was systematicallyflouting the law, the people of Minneapolis thrust its abuse into the public eye, raising the political cost of Miller’s war until enough Republicans decided that they couldn’t bear to pay it.
Political theorists have long debated whether Trump and his movement should be described as fascist. On an intellectual level, the answer depends largely on which definition of fascismyou choose (there are several). I have generally resisted the term because the definition I prefer, and the one most Americans probably think of when they hear the term, is not mere political oppression but a form of it so extreme that opposition becomes impossible.
That may be more or less Trump’s aspiration, and possibly our destiny. But this is not a fascist country, at least not yet.
I applaud her analysis and agree with much of it, though I think the optimism is premature. Let’s see what happens today. Let’s see what happens in the coming days on the streets of Minneapolis. Let’s see what happens in Congress with funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
A Signal Achievement
As Rachel emphasizes, Democratic pushback will be responsible for whatever good comes out of this disaster. That said, be it remembered that the Stephen Miller/Kristi Noem/Kash Patel/Greg Bongino team’s clusterfuck represents a signal achievement on their part—and a big reason why things are looking up today.
The progressives are riled up.
Lots of ordinary people are riled up.
Not only that: big business is riled up.
With big business riled up, the Republican empty suit politicians are beginning to speak up.
Even the Second Amendment wingnuts are fit to be tied, because of the suggestion that folks lawfully carrying a firearm deserve to be mowed down with impunity.
One of the early morning talking heads pointed out that, with Homan in Minneapolis allegedly reporting directly to Trump—thus, allegedly, bypassing and cutting the Miller/Noem gang—“Trump will personally own whatever happens next in Minneapolis.”
That sounds right. And I would add this: to get out of this mess with some dignity, Trump would need to be a Washington or a Lincoln or a Roosevelt.
Trump is not a Washington or a Lincoln or a Roosevelt. Instead, Trump is best compared to Jubilation T. Cornpone.
In the last post, I speculated that today’s Greenland nonsense is a harebrained attempt by Trump to “demonstrate” to the Supreme Court that tariffs are wonderful things, and that he should continue to be able to play with his playthings.
Two more pieces of evidence point in that direction.
(1) In his speech, he “took military force off the table.” As if to “prove” that whatever success he achieves with his antics will be the result of tariff threats, not the threat of force.
(2) Around 3PM this afternoon, he let it be known that tariffs are no longer necessary because he has the “framework” of a deal on Greenland—a deal reached with someone who has no power to give Greenland away.
So, an artificial tariff-related crisis results on a non-deal deal that he can vaingloriously proclaim to be a famous victory.
So, THERE, Supreme Court! See how well those tariff threats work!
One more question, you ask: What about the fact that he thinks Greenland and Iceland are the same place? What does that have to do with anything?
IMHO, George Will and Ross Douthat have some pretty good things to say this morning. Will sees a crisis caused by “a president’s fragile ego, as usual.” Douthat has two alternative explanations: “malignant narcissism flavored with insane Nobel Peace Prize-related self-pity” or “how Trump always negotiates.” There’s much truth in both op-eds, and you would probably do well to read them.
You would also do well to take a look at the online front page of the Wall Street Journal—a good source for the business/financial elites’ view of the world. Part of it is reproduced above.
The elites are worried. The thing they value most—maybe the only thing they value at all—is their money. Trump’s behavior is increasingly threatening their core values.
I’m posting right now because I have my own take on the Mad King’s current thought processes. It’s set forth in the next paragraph, which is all speculation—but reasonable speculation based on known facts, analyzed logically.
Trump has been told—probably by the Solicitor General, the unfortunately named Mr. Sauer—that he is going to lose the tariff case in the Supreme Court. Bigly. Faced with that grave forthcoming affront to his fee-fees, Orange Mussolini has devised an insane Hail Mary pass: use tariffs to force Europe to give him Greenland, thereby “demonstrating” to the Supreme Court the great “value” of his favorite play-pretty, his usurped power to bully other countries with tariffs and threats of tariffs.
Historical sensibility tells us it is the barbarians who storm the gates. In today’s America, it is the other way round. Inside the citadel, the hordes are incinerating America’s traditions of law, civility and restraint. The civic-minded cry in the wilderness. Measured by the old era’s conventions, US President Donald Trump’s bonfire is only a quarter of the way through. Like so much else — the US Institute of Peace, the Kennedy Center, the Versailles-style White House ballroom, other people’s Nobel Prizes — Trump is rebranding the US as his own. As America prepares to commemorate its 250th anniversary, the republic is flirting with its own funeral.
Exaggeration? Since Trump descended that escalator in 2015, loyalists have diagnosed critics as suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome”. In line with the president’s core trait, they project their own condition on to others. With Trump, accusation is confession. He calls his opponents corrupt, unpatriotic, dishonest and much cruder things besides. Trump’s apologists — a more numerous crowd than true believers — work round the clock to sane-wash his policies into something coherent. Alas, Trump’s caprice makes it impossible for his explainers to keep pace.
One day Trump is a restrainer paring back America’s role in the world. The next, he is a true nationalist asserting his country’s domain over all he surveys. Tomorrow, he could revert to libertarianism. Today he is a pragmatic statist taking bites out of the shiniest bits of the private sector. Some make heroic attempts to depict Trump as a 21st-century reincarnation of Ronald Reagan. They get an A for effort. Like the fable of the naked emperor, he is imagined in all sorts of finery. More’s the pity that he is not playing along.
Fate will decide what becomes of Trump. He could get to the point where he loses his grip over the 2028 succession. He could just as equally bury America’s constitutional order and claim a third term into his mid-eighties. Those who discount the latter should recall that Trump serially exceeds the worst forecasts of what he will do. The move-along-nothing-to-see-here crowd have never had it so bad. The only thing that stopped Trump from staging an auto-coup in 2020 was a display of rectitude from his formerly quiescent vice-president, Mike Pence. JD Vance, the current vice-president, was picked to prevent such insubordination from recurring.
The other improbable hero of 2020 was Bill Barr, the attorney-general who was an ultra-loyalist up to the point that Trump asked him to seize voting machines and investigate voter fraud. Barr resigned. Pam Bondi, Barr’s successor, can be relied on to carry out any such instruction. Sceptics of Bondi’s limits should consult the Jeffrey Epstein files. Congress passed a law last month mandating Bondi to release them, which she has largely ignored. The law apparently is dispensable when it clashes with the wishes of America’s greatest leader. Whatever fate decrees for Trump, his Greek chorus are lashed to his mast. There is no easy path back from unquestioning obedience to the whims of one man.
How should rational planners — American and foreign alike — respond to whatever Trump throws at them? They have little chance of success unless they see him for what he is. No ideological code can fully capture his actions. Calling him a fascist may offer emotional release but his autocratic impulses stem more from vanity and insecurity than a coherent belief system. Trumpism is whatever he chooses it to be even as he contradicts himself. The key thus lies in Trump’s psychology, which has never been a mystery. His character is hidden in plain sight.
For those belatedly ready to see today’s abyss for what it is, here once again is Trump’s worldview. Life is a battle in which one person wins and the other loses. Everyone else, including his henchmen and America’s allies, is the other person. A zero-sum world permits no room for sentiment or friends. Opponents earn respect. Loyalty is for fools. Rivals might win or lose, depending on their hand. China has been the biggest winner of Trump’s second term so far — and has earned his respect. Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro is an obvious loser. Greenland, and quite possibly Nato, could be next.
The lesson for America’s friends is clear. Flattering Trump will earn his contempt. The world should study the fate of Canada’s Mark Carney. Alone among allies so far, the Canadian prime minister is responding to the reality of America’s deranged turn. Standing up to Trump offers no guarantee of success. Submission, on the other hand, is certain to fail.
I thought the heavy hitters on Morning Joe today were hitting pretty heavily about Trump’s bully boy tactics to try to steal Greenland.
A military invasion might conceivably generate some adverse congressional response. Alternatively, Orange Mussolini can try emasculating NATO by withholding essential military parts, intelligence cooperation, etc. But, first, he will apparently try economic aggression and threats of aggression.
As a Daily Kos article (relying heavily on Le Monde) informs us, there are a host of way in which European countries, individually and collectively, can stick it to the United States.
A glance at the Wall Street Journal this afternoon shows that Big Finance is pissed, bigly. As of the 3PM hour, World Time, the Dow is down 800 points.
Isn’t it inspiring to see Daily Kos and the Wall Street Journal singing from the same hymnal?
