DCUM Weblog

If I were to tell you that cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump is attempting to take over Greenland because he failed to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, you would think that I am a loony conspiracy theorist. To be clear, not only have I not said such a thing, but I’ve never even thought it. But someone else has said it. That person is Trump himself. Trump made this claim in a letter to Jonas Gahr Støre, the Prime Minister of Norway. What more evidence is needed that Trump has become nothing more than a mad king and is completely unfit for office?

Here is the full text of Trump's letter:

Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a "right of ownership" anyway? There are no written documents, it's only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT

Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a freeze on federal child care and family assistance funds for California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York. Notably, these are all Democratic states. HHS justified the cutoff of money due to "widespread fraud and misuse of taxpayer dollars". Making the announcement, Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said that, "This action reflects our commitment to program integrity, fiscal responsibility, and compliance with federal requirements." However, as reported earlier this week by the HuffPost, O’Neill's concerns do not appear to apply to red states. To the contrary, HHS and the administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump have turned a blind eye towards similar fraud in Republican-led Mississippi.

Cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump is losing. According to a recent The Economist/YouGov poll, 61% of respondents believe that the country is on the wrong track. 54% disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job as President. Trump is underwater on every major issue. On national security, Trump has 47% disapproval versus 45% approval. On how Trump is handling Venezuela, it is 50% to 37% against Trump. Trump has 56% disapproval and 37% approval on tariffs, his signature issue. On foreign policy as a whole, Trump is behind 50% to 39%. On immigration, an issue on which Trump is normally considered to be strong, he has 51% disapproval to 44% approval. Trump is simply unpopular, and there is widespread dissatisfaction with how he is doing his job. Today, I am going to look at the issue of Trump's mass deportations and how that is being received by the public.

The administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump is lawless both domestically and internationally. During Trump's second term, the rule of law within the United States has almost completely been destroyed. When it comes to international law, the United States, regardless of the administration, has never paid much heed. For instance, the United States is one of only seven countries to vote against the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court. Trump has gone so far as to impose sanctions on the ICC and individual ICC judges. Given this attitude, it is no surprise that the United States, at Trump's behest, now routinely flouts international law, including the law of war. As the public has learned more about the September 2 U.S. attack on a boat in the Caribbean that is alleged to have been smuggling drugs, the more it is apparent that this attack violated multiple international laws as well as several domestic laws. It was already known that two occupants of the boat survived the initial attack, but were then killed in a follow-up strike. Now we have learned that the aircraft that conducted the attack was painted in a manner so as to resemble a civilian airplane. These both represent violations of the law of war and suggest that there may have been more involved in this attack than the Trump administration has so far admitted.

Nearly a year ago, I changed the focus of this blog to be about documenting the emerging trend toward authoritarianism that was initiated with the second term of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump. Since I started writing, Trump has emasculated Congress and, for the most part, had his way with the U.S. Supreme Court. Checks and balances have become a relic of the past. Trump routinely announces new laws through "truths" on his Truth Social social media network. For instance, he recently suggested that he will freeze credit card interest rates and institute new tariffs. Legally, these missives have the authority of graffiti on a bathroom wall. But most of the country seems to accept them as valid and, as such, they may as well be. But in addition to destroying our political system, Trump has been undertaking a massive effort to remake the demographics of America. Through his deportation and immigration policies, Trump is engaged in an obvious attempt to — for a lack of a better way to put it — make America White again. I am dubbing this effort "The Great Re-replacement Theory."

Yesterday, the New York Times published a story revealing that the U.S. Attorney's office for the District of Columbia — led by former Fox News television judge Jeanine Pirro — has opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Powell is being investigated due to allegations that he lied to Congress during testimony regarding renovations to the central bank's Washington, D.C. headquarters. Powell has long been the target of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump's anger due to Powell's determination to fulfill the Bank's mandate to act independently rather than acquiescing to Trump's demands to lower interest rates. Using Powell's testimony as a pretext to put legal pressure on the Chairman is another indication of the lengths that Trump is willing to go to establish his absolute control over all organs of the U.S. government. Moreover, this move puts the U.S. economy in significant danger.

Last October I wrote about the Enhanced Health Insurance Premium Tax Credits that were due to expire at the end of December. At that time, the government had shut down due to the Republican inability to overcome a Democratic filibuster in the Senate. In exchange for their votes, Democrats demanded an extension of the tax credits. Republicans adamantly refused to negotiate with the Democrats, instead relying on cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump to increase pressure on Democrats by withholding funds for Democratic priorities, particularly food stamps, while finding alternative methods to fund Republican priorities. Eventually, Democrats caved to Republican pressure in exchange for a promise of a meaningless vote on extending subsidies. Despite the failure of Democrats to make progress at that time, yesterday the House passed a bill that would extend the enhanced tax credits.

The Administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump has completely rewritten the rulebook of how government officials should act. We now have a government of trolls who prefer social media insults written on the level of 4chan posts over policy. Childish behavior has become standard, and grifting has been raised to an art form. But most importantly, the truth has absolutely no value to this group. Starting right at the top with the liar-in-chief himself, this administration has absolutely no regard for the truth. Trump and his appointees lie like they breathe. In the cult-like environment of the Trump administration, knowingly supporting obvious lies has become simply one more requirement of government service. To be a Trump official means being willing to debase yourself regularly by mouthing what you obviously know to be false. We now have a government filled with officials who are incapable of feeling shame.

Yesterday I wrote about a political science framework proposed by Stacie E. Goddard and Abraham Newman that explains the behavior of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump. A few hours after I published that post, Trump provided an excellent example of the theory in action. As such, today I am going to apply Goddard and Newman's theory to Trump's announcement that "the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America."

First, some background. The idea advanced by Goddard and Newman is that the importance of national governments has been replaced in many countries, including the United States, by ruling "cliques," which are networks of elites seeking to establish material and status hierarchies based on the extraction of tributes from those lower in the hierarchy. Goddard and Newman labeled this neo-royalism. Trump's clique is easily identifiable, involving family members and devoted loyalists. For instance, Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has no official role in government, has been routinely involved in international negotiations on behalf of the United States. In neo-royalist regimes, laws and legal structures have little meaning. Instead, what is important is what will benefit the ruling clique.

As some readers may know, I have a political science degree from the University of Illinois (I also have a master’s degree from Georgetown University, but that is less relevant to this post). Over the past few days, I have spent quite a bit of time thinking about which political theory, if any, explains the behavior of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump. Every theory that I considered fell short. While Trump has portrayed himself as "America First," it is quite evident in his second term that he is actually "Trump First." Trump is not a patriotic nationalist, but rather a self-serving narcissist whose loyalties extend beyond national boundaries. Explaining Trump and his actions requires a new political theory.

One clear aspect of Trumpism is that it does not recognize national borders. This may seem a strange thing to say about someone who has made border security and deportations a central part of his rule, but simply viewing this as an issue of borders is a mistake. Enforcing border security and implementing a policy of mass deportations has provided Trump with a justification for creating a national law enforcement force that is loyal to him. Trump has, in effect, created his own Republican Guard. He is now using that force to terrorise cities and to enhance his own power. In this way, combatting undocumented immigrants has been more of a means to an end rather than the end itself.