In the Eye of the Storm

It is important that we prepare for the eventuality of a post-Trump world. It is important but not sufficient. Our first order of business must be to survive the current Trump world that is emerging all around us. And that may not be so easy. Just this week we had anti-deportation riots in Los Angeles, political assassination in Minneapolis, Chinese aircraft carriers roaming around the Pacific, and Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities followed by Iranian retaliation on Israeli civilians.

All of this on top of ongoing war in Ukraine, erratic tariff policies and their impact on the economy, radical DOGE cutbacks that impair the functioning of critical government services such as public health, hurricane forecasting, flight control outages and even a coup de main at the Kennedy Center. All this turmoil with no end in sight has exhausted Mainstreet Americans.

While the public mostly approves of his policies to deport illegal aliens (especially criminals), Mr. Trump’s actual deportation policies are especially harsh and designed to generate the numbers of deportations that his MAGA base has been clamoring for even if it disrupts neighborhoods and damages the economy. His focus on mass deportations from sanctuaries cities makes it clear that these actions are primarily political. The reaction of the leaders of the Democratic Party such as J. B. Pritzker is to try and enflame their progressive left base by fighting and resisting every action by the President even if it brings the country to a standstill. Their “No Kings” demonstrations were massive but pointless. The impotency of the protesters just increases their rage.

Meanwhile, President Trump has surrounded himself with useful idiots. TV personalities (mostly from Fox) and trial lawyers and others with no expertise in the fields they have been chosen to lead. Mr. Trump, rightfully, complained about DEI in academia and the lack of thought diversity in elite universities. But then he has appointed sycophants and yes-men  (and yes-women) to his administration whose only function is to try and incorporate as closely as possible Trump-thought across all sectors of government. The slightest sign of disloyalty to the President and his agenda results in immediate dismissal. One might think it a dark and dangerous version of DEI, but DEI was dark and dangerous as well. Remember, the combination of matter and anti-matter is annihilation.

The MAGA base has even called for a boycott of Wal-Mart because one of the heiresses of the Wal-Mart fortune ran an anti-Trump ad in the New York Times, even though she has no role at the company. That’s the MAGA equivalent of keying Teslas that were bought by Democrats back when Elon Musk was favored by the left. And in the middle of all this sturm und drang one sees President Trump reviewing his troops on his birthday, smiling with his chin stuck out doing his best to imitate Mussolini. With all the chaos swirling around him he is calm and confident, in the eye of the hurricane.

Donald Trump is an agent of change. He intends to leave not just the United States but the entire world a very different place from what is was when he was elected. But the forces he is unleashing may exceed his ability to control them. The intended and unintended consequences of his actions will fall on us and our families. We must be prepared.