Trump Weakens

Donald Trump, in his first 100 days, has sown the seeds of his destruction. So say Josh Marshall and Jamelle Bouie, and I agree with them.

With his executive orders and Elon Musk’s chainsaw, he has pissed off pretty much everyone. As resistance has been offered, he has often folded, hiring back people Musk has fired. It’s not just that people couldn’t reach phone help at the Social Security Administration, it’s the constitutional aspects of whatever the status is of Musk’s boys, still present in government. Destruction of research into diseases and consumer protection, of programs to stabilize the rest of the world by providing help. Something for everyone.

We haven’t felt the full effect of the tariffs yet. Container ships are not arriving in the ports, presaging empty shelves in stores in another few weeks, along with laid-off dockworkers, truckers, and retail workers.

Marshall and Bouie don’t mention one aspect that I think is significant in indicating Trump’s weakness: More people are pushing back. We see it in the lawsuits, of course, now 222 cases being tracked by Just Security. Law firms and universities are forming organizations to push back. Cable hosts are pushing back against the propaganda of administration toadies. Terry Moran’s interview of Trump gives a number of examples. And Trump didn’t like the pushback.

On Musk’s chainsaw:

TERRY MORAN: Well, the original promise was $2 trillion, went to $1 trillion. Now, it’s $150 billion —

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I don’t know —

TERRY MORAN: — and heading south.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You don’t know what it’s gonna be because we have things that are very — at a very high level that are being looked at right now. We also found tremendous waste, fraud, and abuse, as you know.

We found a lot of fraud. There was a lot of fraud. Fraudulent things were taking place, and we ended that, and those people are gonna be suffering —

TERRY MORAN: Just —

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: — because of it.

TERRY MORAN: — a legal note. Fraud is a crime. There have been no referrals to the Justice Department on any of this —

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, you don’t know that, do you? How do you know that?

TERRY MORAN: Have there been referrals —

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: How do you know that —

TERRY MORAN: — to the — are there criminal referrals —

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Why — how would you know that, that there were no referrals? I think there–

On Russia’s war on Ukraine:

TERRY MORAN: You think Vladimir Putin wants peace?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I think he does, yes. I think he does–

TERRY MORAN: Still?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I think because of me —

TERRY MORAN: Even with the raining missiles on —

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I think he really — his — his — his dream was to take over the whole country. I think because of me, he’s not gonna do that.

TERRY MORAN: Do you trust him?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I think —

TERRY MORAN: Do you trust him?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don’t trust you. I don’t trust — I don’t trust a lot of people. I don’t trust you. Look at you. You come in all shootin’ for bear. You’re so happy to do the interview.

TERRY MORAN: I am happy —

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And then you start hitting me with fake questions. You start tellin’ me that a guy — whose hand is covered with a tattoo —

The last refers to their interaction over the photo released by the White House of Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s hand, which you’ve probably seen.

We have to keep up the pressure, on all fronts. Later today there will be a vote to take back Congress’s control of tariffs.

Every action makes it easier for people to take more action. Trump is beatable, but we can’t sit back and wait for a collapse. He signed an executive order this week for the Justice Department to work up a plan over the next 90 days to take more control over local law enforcement. We need to further weaken the administration before then. The empty shelves in the stores will help.