To congressional Democrats, Trump’s decision to promote aide Stephen Miller to serve as his chief of staff meant two things: an elevation of the aide’s extremist views and a refusal to heed the will of voters who delivered the left a historic victory.
“Stephen Miller is the architect of Project 2025, which included the push for ‘unitary executive power’ that Trump used to enrich himself and his billionaire buddies, enable the failed efforts of Elon Musk and DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency], the stripping of healthcare from millions of people, and the mass deportation agenda that led to ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and CBP [Customs and Border Protection] killing people in the streets, separating families, locking up kids and gutting the legal immigration system,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, said in a statement.
The brainrot has been there for longer than his current term. What’s changed is that for the first time he’s scared of failure.
In Trump’s first term he generally acted as a helmsman to the vast ship of the party and the country, trying to steer things in his new direction. This had a limiting effect on his actions, but also an insulating effect; he was never the cause of the failure (at least in his mind).
It was generally predicted that second term Trump would no longer have any interest in working with others, listening to others, or restraining his worst instincts, and that’s exactly what we’ve seen. But with a lack of restraint comes an increase in culpability. Everything Trump touches turns to shit, and with him quite defiantly leading the charge this time round there’s no longer anyone else to blame. The tariffs, the Iran war, ICE, they’re all him.
So he’s retreating. He’s pulling back to the things that he feels confident about. In his mind, he’s a builder, a real estate guy. This is something he feels like he knows. Pools and decorations and ball rooms are his bread and butter. In his mind, at least those he can’t fuck up (he will).
This is some revisionist history. He had no idea what he was doing other than trying to play the media and being combative. He selected mostly standard Republicans for his cabinet which tried to steer the ship. Trump was too busy drawing sharpies on hurricane maps to steer shit.
I never said otherwise. I’m describing behavior, you’re describing intentions. They’re just different parts of the same elephant.
He almost sounds like a competent pm when talking about the restoration. Shame he didn’t stick to that and found peace restoring historical structures at end of his life. Really would have made everyone’s life better.