The Trump Debacle

In a summer of serial legal defeats, successive scandals, and sagging poll numbers, Donald Trump’s president hit new lows at the end of the last week. As with the big, ugly bill earlier in the summer, Trump’s attempts to boost his image and enhance his authoritarian reach backfired (several of them to a spectacular extent).

First, one didn’t need diplomatic experience to have predicted that Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin would be a semi-fiasco. No “deal” was remotely possible, given Ukraine’s absence and Putin’s established unwillingness to cease his dream of obliterating Ukraine. But it need not have been this embarrassing.

Recall, rather than sanctioning Russia, Trump invited the known dictator to Alaska, a plum PR get for Putin. By the time he was back at the White House, Trump had dropped the demand for a ceasefire and was parroting Putin’s call for Ukraine to give up land. The best that could be said is that Trump didn’t hand over Alaska.

Trump was mocked widely for rolling out the red carpet for the brutal dictator presumed responsible for enumerable war crimes. He was bashed for allowing Putin to dominate the press availability (droning on in Russian) while Trump rambled incoherently and looked old, weak, and out-muscled. (Don’t take my word for it. His former national security advisor John Bolton remarked, “I thought Trump looked very tired up there. I mean, very tired. Not disappointed. Tired. And we’ll have to reflect on what that means.") When even Fox News pans his performance, you know it’s a bellyflop.

CNN summed up the Trump debacle:

Trump’s lavish stage production of Putin’s arrival Friday, with near-simultaneous exits from presidential jets and red-carpet strolls, provided some image rehabilitation for a leader who is a pariah in the rest of the West and who is accused of war crimes in Ukraine.

And by the end of their meeting, Trump had offered a massive concession to his visitor by adopting the Russian position that peace moves should concentrate on a final peace deal — which will likely take months or years to negotiate — rather than a ceasefire to halt the Russian offensive now…. [But] that just gives Putin more time to grind down Ukraine.

And to add a touch of farce: someone left sensitive State Departments behind on a public printer at an Alaska hotel. (Apparently, Defense Secretary and Signalgate miscreant Pete Hegseth is not the only member of this regime that cannot uphold basic security protocols).

The Alaska charade was far from the Trump regime’s only blunder last week. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s overreaching letter claiming the regime’s intent to “take over” the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department prompted a lawsuit on Friday, which led to a swift federal retreat. 

After a feckless appearance in district court, the Justice Department dropped the takeover bid, although it continues to challenge D.C.’s law prohibiting police from assisting with ICE’s raids. (Unfortunately, in its timid litigation approach, D.C. did not formally challenge the “emergency” declaration based on the lie that crime had surged.)

Meanwhile, Trump’s National Guard deployment (of unarmed, unmasked troops sticking close to federal monuments) was just another empty, performative gesture. (With the addition of troops, perhaps armed, from other states, it is far from clear what all these volunteers will do—let alone how governors, some from states that have worse crime rates, will explain sending their troops to D.C. to serve as the president’s props.) Far more concerning is the mass deployment of feds to conduct violent raids reminiscent of Los Angeles’s illegal sweeps as well as legally suspect random traffic stops.

Trump’s power grab has now emboldened D.C. residents, Democratic politicians, and anti-Trump forces around the country to rise in protest. His militaristic bullying has been met with righteous outrage.

Another Trump blunder played out in Texas and California. Trump’s decision to strong-arm Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to re-redistrict and thereby grab five more GOP seats has not gone as planned. The move provoked a “Day of Action” with thousands in Texas and beyond protesting at hundreds of events in 34 states. The Guardian reported: “In Austin alone, more than 5,000 protestors gathered at the city’s capitol in a show of defiance. Videos and photos on social media showed protestors holding various signs that read: ‘Abbott is a vote thief,’ referring to the state’s Republican governor and ‘Fight the Trump takeover.’”

Moreover, at the urging of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Democrats on Friday released new maps aiming to match the Texas gambit with five new Democratic seats. The maps and a constitutional amendment superseding the independent redistricting commission plan will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot, the Los Angeles Times reported. 

The maps aim to knock out five vulnerable Republicans, but would go into effect only if Texas pushes through its re-redistricting plan. “We anticipate these maps will completely neuter and neutralize what is happening in Texas,” Newsom said. (He has been doing the same to Trump.) In truth, in the re-redistricting arms race, any new MAGA seats could well be washed away in a blue tsunami.

Finally, new evidence appeared last week that the economy under Trump is continuing to sour. Wholesale prices rose much higher than expected, reviving inflation fears. CNBC reported, “The producer price index, which measures final demand goods and services prices, jumped 0.9% on the month, compared with the Dow Jones estimate for a 0.2% gain. 

It was the biggest monthly increase since June 2022.” The core Producer Price Index (PPI), excluding volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.9%, three times the forecast. Bottom line: “On an annual basis, headline PPI increased 3.3%, the biggest 12-month move since February and well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation target.” So much for Trump’s promise to lower prices. This news also may compel the Federal Reserve to hold off on interest rate cuts.

In sum, Trump’s “big wins” have turned out to be big negatives. His “summit” looked more like Robert E. Lee’s appearance at Appomattox. His D.C. and Texas bullying galvanized Democrats. And his economic agenda is gutting everyday Americans. 

It is therefore not a surprise that his approval rating sank to 38% while his disapproval rating soared to 60%, Pew Research reported on Friday. Also revealed was that if Trump is relying on Hispanic voters to pull off his Texas re-redistricting, he might re-evaluate, given that 70% of them nationally disapprove of his performance; only 27% approve. On virtually every issue, Americans are not happy with what they are seeing.

Nevertheless—and perhaps all the more—Trump’s dictatorial spasms may increase as he becomes more desperate to disguise blunders and seek revenge on a country that rejects him. Will Trump or our democracy disintegrate first?

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-The Contrarian