Donald Trump is legitimately a genius when it comes to campaigning for office. More than 15 years ago, he alone among the political class demonstrated that he understood the anger, rage, anxiety and fear that gave rise to the Tea Party and the Birther Movement and jumped onto that wave of discontent, riding it all the way to the presidency in 2016.
Neither George W. Bush nor Barack Obama, two-term presidents both, never did grasp what was going on in the country. They bailed out the financial institutions that perpetrated the “Great Recession” while ignoring the plight of millions of Americans who saw their lives, hopes and dreams shattered. “Too big to fail” was a myth designed by the culprits and sold to these two gullible presidents. There was and is an orderly way to close down failing institutions of any size. It’s called bankruptcy. Instead, the U.S. government shoveled hundreds of billions of dollars into the pockets of the very people they should have prosecuted and jailed for their unrestrained greed and illegality.
Countless Americans lost their homes and livelihoods thanks to financial shenanigans, only to be told by their government that they were on their own. Meanwhile, Wall Street fat cats whose irresponsibility and reckless behavior caused this ruination got off scot-free. Recognizing and then exploiting the intensity of the fury was Trump’s great brilliance.
Trump is also a brilliant campaigner because he blurts out whatever thought enters his fevered brain in the moment, no matter how outrageous. Thus, he dominates and “wins” the news cycle every day. Conventional politicians simply cannot compete with winging it à la Trump.
The big problem for Trump, however, is that genius in one arena does not necessarily carry over to other milieus. When it comes to governing, he is an utter fool, incapable of rational conduct. Governing does not lend itself to winging it. You need a strategic plan. This has never been Trump’s strong suit.
If his first term marked by mayhem, inconsistency and insurrection did not convince you, consider the assessment of more than 100 presidential historians who rank Trump as the worst president ever, even below James Buchanan who did as much as anyone to provoke the Civil War, and Warren Harding who presided over the most corrupt federal government in history…until Trump came on the scene.
Voters last year were willing to overlook the guaranteed chaos and craziness they were certain to get and voted for him once again. He said he would bring down prices on day one and that was enough for voters to risk the rest of his baggage. Guess what? It isn’t working. Prices are rising because Trump still does not understand how the economy works…and apparently never will.
And now, the chaos and corruption of Trump 2.0 has already far exceeded that of his first go-round:
The good thing is that Trump is meticulously laying the foundation for his administration’s collapse. The bill is coming due. The seeds of Trump’s demise are being planted. His second term is crumbling quickly on the ruins of his first one. His approval numbers are already underwater.
The bad news is that we have to endure four years of this pandemonium before we can breathe again.
Dick Hermann
March 14, 2025
Neither George W. Bush nor Barack Obama, two-term presidents both, never did grasp what was going on in the country. They bailed out the financial institutions that perpetrated the “Great Recession” while ignoring the plight of millions of Americans who saw their lives, hopes and dreams shattered. “Too big to fail” was a myth designed by the culprits and sold to these two gullible presidents. There was and is an orderly way to close down failing institutions of any size. It’s called bankruptcy. Instead, the U.S. government shoveled hundreds of billions of dollars into the pockets of the very people they should have prosecuted and jailed for their unrestrained greed and illegality.
Countless Americans lost their homes and livelihoods thanks to financial shenanigans, only to be told by their government that they were on their own. Meanwhile, Wall Street fat cats whose irresponsibility and reckless behavior caused this ruination got off scot-free. Recognizing and then exploiting the intensity of the fury was Trump’s great brilliance.
Trump is also a brilliant campaigner because he blurts out whatever thought enters his fevered brain in the moment, no matter how outrageous. Thus, he dominates and “wins” the news cycle every day. Conventional politicians simply cannot compete with winging it à la Trump.
The big problem for Trump, however, is that genius in one arena does not necessarily carry over to other milieus. When it comes to governing, he is an utter fool, incapable of rational conduct. Governing does not lend itself to winging it. You need a strategic plan. This has never been Trump’s strong suit.
If his first term marked by mayhem, inconsistency and insurrection did not convince you, consider the assessment of more than 100 presidential historians who rank Trump as the worst president ever, even below James Buchanan who did as much as anyone to provoke the Civil War, and Warren Harding who presided over the most corrupt federal government in history…until Trump came on the scene.
Voters last year were willing to overlook the guaranteed chaos and craziness they were certain to get and voted for him once again. He said he would bring down prices on day one and that was enough for voters to risk the rest of his baggage. Guess what? It isn’t working. Prices are rising because Trump still does not understand how the economy works…and apparently never will.
And now, the chaos and corruption of Trump 2.0 has already far exceeded that of his first go-round:
- Pardoning violent criminals and traitors.
- Firing Inspectors Generals and JAGs, the very people tasked with holding government accountable.
- Giving virtually unlimited power to an unelected neo-Nazi sympathizer in return for hundreds of millions of dollars of campaign contributions and the promise of millions more with which to primary Republicans who might finally find enough spine to criticize Trump (don’t hold your breath).
- Mass firings of federal workers from essential jobs such as nuclear weapons security and veterans’ suicide hotlines.
- Terminating contracts of companies and nonprofits that feed the hungry and distribute medicines to the desperately ill, giving China the opening it has dreamed about for years.
- Shutting down agencies that saved millions of lives and returned tens of billions of dollars to taxpayers cheated out of their money.
- Sweeping up and deporting grandmothers who don’t exactly fit the definition of hardened criminals.
- Ignoring skyrocketing prices for staples such as eggs, which Trump’s pitiful Agriculture Secretary told us could be alleviated if only we raised chickens in our backyards.
- Tariff whiplash from one day to the next, sending markets into a tailspin.
- Bailing on our long-term friends in favor of siding with our sworn enemies.
- Appointing unqualified cranks to cabinet positions where they very quickly demonstrate just how much in over their heads they are.
- Threatening to ignore court orders that don’t square with their perverse views of how cases should play out.
- Bobby Kennedy advocating Vitamin A as the antidote to a burgeoning measles epidemic among the unvaccinated, and blaming the outbreak on diet.
- Going into next flu season without a proper vaccine.
- Taking down websites containing “taboo” words, such as “Enola Gay,” the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
- Trump’s latest grift: a “crypto reserve,” which no one understands, least of all the Grifter-in-Chief. You can, however, be certain that he will make money off this while America gets fleeced.
The good thing is that Trump is meticulously laying the foundation for his administration’s collapse. The bill is coming due. The seeds of Trump’s demise are being planted. His second term is crumbling quickly on the ruins of his first one. His approval numbers are already underwater.
The bad news is that we have to endure four years of this pandemonium before we can breathe again.
Dick Hermann
March 14, 2025
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