All he has are delusions (reiterate that) of grandeur brought on by his malignant narcissism. Yep, MAJOR dictator envy. But, it will be short lived.

Trump suffering from some serious dictator envy over in China

Today on The Daily Blast, @gregsargent.bsky.social talks to @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social about why the economic and political fallout from the war is just beginning, and why Trump’s megalomaniacal understanding of the situation has left him fundamentally cornered. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

And thanks for remembering this, @davidfaris.bsky.social!

"If you have to worry about whether a vengeful president will order 'his' DOJ to ruin your life as you know it...you don’t live in a democracy." Good @davidfaris.bsky.social piece tying together many different narratives of Trumpian corruption/authoritarianism: www.thenation.com/article/soci...

And listeners can read @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social's piece here: www.ms.now/opinion/trum...

This didn’t happen when we had DEI.

The man and his administration are incompetence personified. None of them are qualified for their positions. None of them seem to be able to understand that actions have fucking consequences.

“Trump seems to be approaching the war as if the goal is to get the U.S. media to speak positively of it—as if lying to the American people is his most important foreign policy goal. Whereas the realities of the war are going to continue whether or not he gets the U.S. media to say differently.“

"We are experiencing a widespread GOP attempt to undo the Reconstruction Amendments that, along w/later civil rights reforms, form the constitutional foundation for our multiracial democracy." Good @aselrod.bsky.social intervention (cites my reporting on VA): www.liberalcurrents.com/democrats-ne...

A violently incompetent man without any skill or specialty to recommend him for the job of authority that he demanded shitting the bed on a failure of his own making and then expecting a grandiose trophy that declares him the greatest to have ever been. MAGA male psyche in a nutshell.

Obviously it's time to build a triumphal arch.

Inept.

Hey guys, the obliterated Iranian military that doesn’t exist anymore, just took another big ship

With the Iran war, just about everything is going terribly for Trump. There's no deal in sight, as his bluster can't change the hard reality of Iran blocking Hormuz. The economic damage is mounting. And the domestic politics keep getting worse for him. I discussed with @gregsargent.bsky.social.

This is all so. Will it move anyone?

Trump's Iran fiasco worsening: *Officials leaking Trump hasn't destroyed Iran military *Allies running from admission he's not concerned with people's finances *GOP Senators breaking *Polls cratering On the pod @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social nails all these dynamics: newrepublic.com/article/2104...

My new one @slate.com: Why is John Roberts in a Rush All of a Sudden? slate.com/news-and-pol...

gestured towards this in my column today but republicans seem to have adopted this idea that the partisan lean of a state represents some mystical General Will such that the south isn't just a place with republican voters It Is Republican and no democrat has a right to serve within its borders

Explicit admission that the GOP is a neo-Confederate party who exist in part to enforce racial discrimination.

Trump and his allies are doing everything they possibly can to strengthen the forces in the center-left that are urging Dems to embrace procedural Total War. Trump and the GOP are doing this to our country. Every last shred of damage that results from escalation is their fault.

He is robbing us blind and Republicans are too chicken shit to stop him. It's past time for them to be more afraid of We the People than that pile of shit and his complicit administration.

Boy it sure seems like someone should ask JD Vance what he thinks of the White House ordering DOJ to settle a lawsuit with Trump that could result in the IRS handing him millions of dollars.

To phrase this another way: before a judge can rule on whether Trump and the DOJ are in fact on the same side, Trump has directed DOJ to explore settling his suit in his favor. Um, hello?

We all know it shouldn’t be legal, but clearly that’s not stopping Trump, the Roberts Court’s special boy, who will surely be appealing to them and pressuring them via Truth Social to “do the right thing” or whatever nonsense he is sure to spew from his rotten blowhole.

This reminds me of the old joke about the Habsburg monarchy: "The King of Hungary declared war on the King of Croatia, and the Emperor of Austria, who was both, remained benevolently neutral."

I want a bunch of outaide PACs to make ads highlighting this and then pointing at fuel costs

This is simply bonkers. The White House is in active discussions with DOJ about settling Trump's lawsuit against the IRS in his favor, *precisely because* a judge might soon throw it out. WH apparently wants DOJ to agree to "settle" the lawsuit *before* that happens. Utter insanity.

😳

This is nothing but looting the Treasury

Is it legal for Trump to order a government agency to hand him a huge pile of taxpayer money? Note that the White House is directly discussing this with DOJ!

Leopard: oh no a leopard is eating everyone’s face and everyone thinks I’m the leopard!

Big PPI jump is disaster for Trump. It supports what @simonwdc.bsky.social said on our pod: "Republicans are in a place of extraordinary denial and magical thinking about the hole he’s digging for them." Plus Trump admitting he doesn't think about people! newrepublic.com/article/2103...

Trump incredulous, furious that brutalized American people are getting mad rather than fawning before his lies and bullshit.

*Americans Voting-in a Fascist Government*: "Heck yeah! This is gonna be great! USA! USA!" *Americans Living under a Fascist Regime*: "WTF, this sucks! Whose idea was this, anyway?"

Feeling nervous about the midterms is understandable. Trump and the GOP won in 2024, and readily break laws. But almost every sign says they're much less popular in office. And midterms aren't a presidential election. @gregsargent.bsky.social and @simonwdc.bsky.social with a good reality check.

There's a lot of talk about a GOP rebound in the midterms, but let's step back and remind ourselves of the fundamentals here. Trump is historically unpopular, and Republicans have eagerly tied themselves to him and his most hated policies in every conceivable way:

These aren’t just Trump policies, these are REPUBLICAN policies. Republicans at the state and national level have ALL been 100% on board with everything Trump has done. The tariffs, the immigration brutality, the aggressive use of the military with zero oversight, even the ballroom.

‼️‼️👇

Remarkable: Vulnerable Republicans are tied to *all* of Trump's most hated policies. They've voted for: *health care cuts *tariffs *war *ICE raids *tax cut for rich Meanwhile, inflation and Iran have Trump raging. On the pod, @simonwdc.bsky.social talks midterms: newrepublic.com/article/2103...

"Dems have high hopes for flipping state legislative chambers...in a very good year there’s always the possibility states w/apparently foolproof majorities could become competitive." @jonathanbernstein.bsky.social on Dem midterm opportunities: goodpoliticsbadpolitics.substack.com/p/democratic...

“This isn’t just the emperor with no clothes. This is an emperor, absolutely rotten, his brain. It’s just terrible to imagine what’s going on in his brain. If this were a family member, he would really have to be..sidelined from public events..it just looks like a brain on fire and in trouble.”

Yes, Donnie, Americans have figured out that you don't care about their financial situation.

Good chat between Greg Sargent & Virginia Heffernan on our deteriorating-in-real-time president and his cult-like followers who run interference with him. Highly recommended. Amazing that Trump is so far gone, yet his decline has not triggered a national discussion on a path forward.

When it happens, it’s gonna be like Jonestown.

It’s so good because it’s sooooo accurate. Most folks can’t really wrap their heads around it, but trump thinks of himself as a world-conquering emperor, not a president. He thinks he’s the owner of the United States, instead of its servant. Hence the ballroom (trump temple), the arch, etc etc

This is perfection, soup to nuts.

So apt: Trump’s ballroom “is opposed by 56% of Americans, supported by only 28% percent. Independents opposed it by 61 to 18. Working-class Americans by 54 to 28. …[T]hey're trying to make us submit to the ballroom as almost a symbolic capitulation to his imperial and dictatorial presidency.“

Greg Sargent's superb podcast gets into this issue today.