Issue #920 The Choice, Thursday, September 4, 2025
Image is generated by AI. Story is 100% human.
Trump may or may not be dying, but does it really matter? JD Vance is in the wings, measuring the drapes and preparing the nation for what he not so subtlely views as his ascendance to the throne, Pete Hegseth is still head of the Department of Defense, Bobby Kennedy Jr. is still Secretary of Health and Human Services, and we still have to contend with the legacy of Elon Musk and DOGE. And then of course there’s U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.
The list of dangerous and purposeful incompetence goes on and on, and it doesn’t get any better.
Then there is the legacy of destruction, which already has a downhill wrecking ball momentum of its own that won’t just stop on a dime and erase its tracks once Trump exits the stage. For example, 1.2 million immigrants have been disappeared since January of this year. The impact that will have on the economy and the country as a whole is already being felt, but is likely to get much worse in the months – and possibly years – ahead. Not to mention the effect that such a traumatic disruption will have - and is already having - on the families of those immigrants. The children, the parents, uncles, aunts, husbands, and wives. All likely wondering how their American Dream wound up being nearly as bad as the nightmares many of them were trying to escape.
And then add Trump’s deployment of military troops to patrol the streets of American cities such as Los Angeles and Washington D.C. (run by Democrats) based on fictional claims of high crime rates. And he’s threatening to do the same to Chicago. Because, as Machiavelli said in The Prince,“It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot have both.” Not that Trump has any clue who Machiavelli is, but if the shoe fits…
So before you start getting hopeful, or even elated, that maybe-just maybe-Trump might be teetering on that cliff edge about to make his final exit, keep in mind that nobody on Trump’s list of incompetents automatically gets removed or improved just because Trump suddenly becomes incapable of being president anymore. There will be no sudden and enlightened reversal of Trump’s persistent effort to purge this country of all dark-skinned immigrants – and non-immigrants as well, if at all possible. Bobby Kennedy will not suddenly stop being a quack. The destruction caused by DOGE will not suddenly evaporate, leaving no trace as if it never happened.
Because Trump was never in charge. Trump is merely the mask for the cult of personality that swarms around him. He is the useful idiot, the rallying cry. But the beast behind the mask has every intention of remaining in control, mask or no mask.
The question is how well that control will hold without the protection and charisma of that Trump mask, because every cult needs that charismatic persona of its cult leader. It is precisely that charisma that empowers those followers to gleefully embrace all the lies while disregarding every shred of truth in plain view. Will the MAGA forces be able to continue their march to destroy democracy with JD Vance at the helm, someone who is decidedly unpopular as hell on all fronts and has no chance of inheriting Trump’s cult leader status? Or will it all crumble into chaos?
Trump is a phenomenon, a terribly broken man with what seems to be an endless supply of charisma. Books will be written (more books) about the coincidences and circumstances that got him where he is. For the first time in my life I am rootiing for the grim reaper, partly because if anyone ever deserved it.... But you're right: it won't be the end. The military is still a question mark, for instance. This ascent of the super-right started when Little Donnie was still in diapers. I would argue it started when FDR took away the rich boys' "freedom" to crash the economy and cobbled together a system that included both capitalism and social security.
Trump is a phenomenon, a terribly broken man with what seems to be an endless supply of charisma. Books will be written (more books) about the coincidences and circumstances that got him where he is. For the first time in my life I am rootiing for the grim reaper, partly because if anyone ever deserved it.... But you're right: it won't be the end. The military is still a question mark, for instance. This ascent of the super-right started when Little Donnie was still in diapers. I would argue it started when FDR took away the rich boys' "freedom" to crash the economy and cobbled together a system that included both capitalism and social security.