Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, many people still have superstitions, especially sports fans & players - wearing the same socks or underwear until your team loses, for example.
While we don’t aim to temp the wrath from the thing on high - and forgive us whatever higher powers there may be for typing this - we recommend never saying about politics in the U.S., “Well, it couldn’t get worse, right?” (And now we have to go outside, turn around three times, spit, & curse). Still, even after the U.S. seems to have been cursed by a second Trump regime in combination with the weakest and most feckless Congress ever, people still continue to ask the universe the above question - and then of course, things get even worse in U.S. politics. (So really - STOP asking that question.)
Even in the midst of the insanity that is the current Trump regime, there are a couple of explanations that may help frame their authoritarian arrogance, incompetence, and failure in such a way that normal people can kind of understand where this regime is coming from - and then work to stop them.
First, it helps to understand how Trump & his lackeys see the world around them. Trump, Stephen Miller, Marco Rubio, Pete “Kegbreath” Hegseth, and Russ Vought - the vampire of OMB who keeps trying to destroy the federal government by unilaterally cutting funding to government agencies he doesn’t like - all have a similar belief system. All of these egomaniacal monsters think that the meritocratic ideas & rules-based order the U.S. has championed since at least the end of World War II should be thrown out. Trump’s merry band of idiots instead believes in an imperialist way of thinking called “neo-royalism,’ where they believe supposedly special groups of people and families should rule geographic spheres of influence in the world, and conquer other nations, using the resources of the conquered nations as the winners see fit, much as nations did before the 20th century.
The fact that this kind of imperialist thinking led to the two largest wars in human history last century, killing potentially more than 100 million people, and destroying trillions in economic wealth, seems to have escaped these “geniuses.,” That they also all-too-conveniently believe they are the rightful rulers of the world, and everyone else should just bow & kiss their asses isn’t a surprise either. The fact that they’re only in power because they won the last presidential election by less than one percent, and likely with the help of enemies of democracy like Russia, China, and Iran doesn’t matter to the monsters running the second Trump regime. As they think about it, they’re the rightful rulers of the world, so whatever helps them gain and keep power must be okay.
Yes, that’s insane thinking. But it’s not uncommon considering where they’ve had their heads for most of the past 10-12 years. That’s the other key to understanding the insanity of the second Trump regime.
Unlike the majority of mostly normal people who aren’t perpetually online, those who are running the second Trump administration are, as the kids are phrasing it these days, a “podcaster-occupied government.”
So much of what those in the second Trump regime do is aimed at getting the approval of an extremely small number of extremely far-right influencers that are perpetually on social media platforms. The fact that their ultra far-right racist, misogynist, bigoted, classist ideas don’t even represent the majority of registered voters in the Republican Party, let alone the majority of voters in the U.S., or even people who live in the U.S., means nothing to them. As technology journalist Charlie Warzel notes, even in the midst of the military invasion of Venezuela, the Secretary of Defense was monitoring Twitter/X for reactions about their military misadventure. Or as they might say it, they kidnapped Maduro for the LOL’s.
Unsurprisingly, given these two frames of reference, Trump’s band of insane idiots are now threatening to use military force to take over Greenland, a NATO ally. Of course, if they undertake such an insane action, that will trigger NATO’s Article 5, which would effectively end NATO, and put all of Europe at war with the United States. That action would likely also trigger a worldwide economic and political shunning, both by the United States’ then-former allies, and it’s enemies like China, Russia, and Iran. In short, trying to take over Greenland would be the biggest gift to America’s enemies in history. And if you think groceries are expensive now, imagine how expensive they’ll be if the majority of the world turns its back on the United States.
Even so, in the minds of Trump and his cabal of right-wing podcasters, they think the rest of the world should just back down, since they’re the rightful rulers. They’d even likely be laughing at the terror & turmoil they’d cause in such a potential worldwide collapse – at least, until the damage hit them personally.
Yes, these are terrifying thoughts and terrifying times. Yes, the way these monsters think is insane. No, you’re not crazy thinking that their actions are counter-productive, and certainly don’t put America first. Their actions are those of rich, sheltered people who never learned the lessons of history, and whose hubris is right now putting literally everyone on earth in danger. This is why governing should only be managed by serious people in a rules-based order, lessons that most of the world learned last century, at the cost of millions of lives and trillions of dollars.
Still, understanding where the monsters are coming from may help the rest of the world understand how to manage - and hopefully defeat - this current Trump regime.
We just ask that when you’re talking about politics, please - don’t ask that question again.