The Party’s Over

The Foot Soldier is a statue that appeared on 9 November and shows Trump celebrating his bone spurs which got him out of serving in the military during the Vietnam War. It is one of several statues that appear on the National Mall from time to time celebrating Trump’s “accomplishments.” The statues are attributed to a group of anonymous artists that go by the name The Secret Handshake. The plaque on the monument reads “We honor the service and sacrifice of our Commander in Chief, Donald J. Trump. He’s a soldier in spirit, who marched to the front lines of dodging the draft, armed with a perfect diagnosis of bone spurs. We salute a leader who knows you can’t spell sacrifice without ‘I,’ and a warrior who reminds us that sometimes when you’re called to stand up, it’s best to just sit down and rest your feet.” (Photo: Pete Kiehart/For The Washington Post)

As the votes continue to be counted, it appears that the Democrats achieved a victory in last week’s election that few, if any, people saw coming. It was a great tribute to the country that so many people got out and voted during a mid-term election where traditionally fewer people vote. It is also an indicator of how upset people are with the direction the Trump administration is taking us. The people have spoken. Unfortunately, the MAGAs in government and out do not care. Not only are they ignoring the message Americans clearly sent, they are actually doubling and tripling down on their MAGA tendencies.

An old saying about government is that “personnel is policy.” The people entrusted with carrying out laws, regulations, and policies are the ones that influence, if not directly impact, the actual implementation of what happens, regardless of the intent of the drafters. In Trump’s case, ideological alignment to his vision and personal loyalty to the man himself is clearly more important than experience or expertise in a given area of responsibility. Indeed, in this administration expertise may be a detriment to keeping one’s job.

The clearest evidence that Trump will continue with his un-American policies is the firing of his Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and replacing her with Stephen Miller. Stephen Miller may be the individual most ideologically aligned with the Project 2025 playbook where laws, allies, friends, and the Constitution all take a back seat to the Unitary Executive theory of government where power is all that matters and the president is the most powerful man in the world. (Coincidentally, Miller started his new job on 9 November, the anniversary of Kristallnacht in 1938 Germany.) Miller clearly articulated his world view in a 2025 interview on CNN:

“We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else. But we live in a world, in the real world … that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.”

There are few people left in the White House to mitigate Trump’s worst impulses. Miller and Russell Vought, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, are both true believers in the tenets of Project 2025 and have great influence on Trump. The new Congress will undoubtedly try to rein in the worst Trump policies, but the White House Counsel Will Scharf today sent a letter to the incoming Democrats that if they investigate Trump then they would “cross the line into blatant criminality.”

Some thought that the surviving members of the once proud Republican party would also take the less than subtle hint given by the voters that they do not like the current state of affairs in the country. Well, if you are one of those people, I have bad news. As indicated by yesterday’s activities in the U.S. House of Representatives, they are also doubling down. Republican Congressman Thomas Massie brought articles of impeachment against the worst Secretary of Defense (or War) in our history to the floor for a vote. It was a procedural vote, but important for the process to move forward. Every Republican voted against it except for Massie. The articles were shuffled off to a committee where they will die. Most of those in Congress agree that Pete Hegseth is unqualified for the job and is a danger to the country and to the future of our military. But Trump said to oppose it so they did.

As if adding insult to injury, the former Republican party voted in the House to name Jim (aka “Gym”) Jordan of Ohio as the next Minority Leader for the new Congress. Jordan is a grand standing screamer that thinks the best way to lead is by yelling, accusing, stonewalling, and generally causing trouble rather than working to pass actual legislation. Apparently, he also cannot afford a suit coat or sports coat to wear to work.

So much for Trump’s pronouncement that he would work with the incoming Democrats to actually accomplish something to help everyday Americans.

To me, there are three ways this can go.

Scenario One: Trump took such a licking in the election that he wonders what will happen to him over the next two years. He is tired, not having much fun, and actually being president is boring. He will instead focus all of his time and energy on building more monuments to himself and redesigning Washington D.C. to turn it into one giant Mar-a-Lago. Congress will stumble along consumed with fighting over investigations into the Trump family and their cronies while Democrat members maneuver to run for president.

Scenario Two: Things continue along pretty much as they are now. Trump seems increasingly ill but creates numerous distractions to disguise what is actually going on such as he did by pushing for Dana White of the UFC to be his press secretary. Meanwhile he will continue on his path of corruption and personal greed. Occasionally he will focus on foreign affairs as he continues to claim that we won the war against Iran and that he solved the Ukraine-Russia war. Congress will stumble along but pass the odd piece of legislation such as ending the debilitating tariffs against Canada.

Scenario Three: Trump knows that his time is limited, both in office and in his life. He will double and triple down on his worst instincts. Miller, Hegseth, Attorney General Todd Blanche and the rest of this MAGA cabinet will play to his worst tendencies and work overtime to achieve Trump’s goals while using the chaos as the opportunity to promote their own MAGA goals and policies. Deportations will increase. Purges of “disloyal” military officers will increase. Prosecutions of Trump’s enemies including members of the House and Senate will increase. Trump will work with Russia and China to divide the world into spheres of influence and abandon Ukraine. The sales of critical technology essential to our national security will increase with “deals” involving Russia and China. Our allies will abandon us. Congress will stumble along trying to counter the chaos and corruption but will be limited by MAGA shenanigans from the Minority Leader and his party.

I have no ideas what will happen in the future. I pray that I am wrong about everything. I do know that the coming months and years will be historic in determining the survival of our country as we know and love it. The recent election was stupendous and it gave me hope that this is the beginning of the end of the MAGA presidency. But now the celebrations are over. It is time to get to work. We need to keep our eyes and ears open and increase our situational awareness to keep our elected leaders honest.

God bless America!