Right-wing fantasy meets the brick wall of reality

Trump spent the last two years making an awful lot of promises. He’s gunna instantly end every war on the planet. He’s gunna fire half the public service. He’s gunna eliminate any spending he doesn’t like. He’s gunna fire half the FBI. He’s gunna jail selected journalists. He’s gunna increase America’s oil production. He’s gunna make trans people disappear. He’s gunna make gays invisible. He’s gunna make abortion illegal. He’s gunna lower prices, increase wages, eliminate Unions, make women safer, build a wall, put Police back in charge, and be a boon for the stock market. He’s gunna end mask mandates, save women’s sport, free the oppressed firearms, pass uniform electoral laws and prove he actually won the election before last.

He’s gunna give everyone a tax cut, fix the national debt, eliminate inflation, slap tariffs on trading partners and bring back a Happy Christmas. He’s gunna make Greenland and Panama an offer they can’t refuse. He’s gunna end climate change (by ignoring climate change). He’s gunna force corporations to make stuff in the USA, undo Obamacare, deport millions of people, end the green new scam, scrap all electric vehicles, end the tax on tips, prevent World War III, and eliminate woke and wokeness once and for all.

In short, Trump has promised that as soon as he is elected, ice cream will taste sweeter, everyone will be younger, sexier, and richer, and America will at once be transformed into a great white godly nation (once again).

That was then: this is now. Two weeks after Trumps crowning as King of America, the American Revolution 2.0 has been a bit of a flop. The main problem – apparently – is that Trump is not actually a god. It seems that he can only do much the same things as every other President before him. Who could have guessed?

So, while Trump has signed more than three hundred executive orders, the planned ‘shock and awe’ campaign has turned into a bit of a farce. The MAGA movement has hit a brick wall called ‘reality’.

All of the fondest MAGA fantasies are instantly dissipating upon contact with the court system. Trump can say anything he wants in an executive order but if it is illegal then it simply won’t happen. As a result, more than half the orders that Trump has issued so far have already been nullified. The Democrats and deep state Judges just won’t let Trump be Trump. It is – according to at least half of the press outlets in the USA – positively treasonous. It seems that even though he won an election, Trump still has to obey the law. The damn Democrats and courts won’t just let him do anything he wants.

First a court declared that the administration can’t stop the government from spending money that has already been authorized in a budget. Then another opined that Trump can’t just unilaterally fire public servants. Then a third advised that removing Attorney’s General without demonstrating cause to Congress is actually illegal. Who could have possibly foreseen that this would be the case? Moreover, it seems that another deep state Judge is about to issue an injunction declaring that Trump is not allowed to inflict revenge upon the many FBI agents who have investigated him over the years.

The right-wing media in the US have spent the last four years rewriting history. They have been informing everyone who will listen that Trump did not fail the first time around but rather was thwarted by the deep state, covid, the devil, and the Democrats. Then legal warfare was launched against him in an effort to continue the dark lies and malfeasance of those who are ripping off the working man by imposing equity, equality and diversity. Fox and Friends (esp. friends named Murdoch) have been busily explaining how blacks, the disabled, minorities, feminists, civil rights campaigners, university students, Marxists, socialists, communists, liberals, and the mentally challenged have all united to steal the American dream. Blah blah blah blah.

It was bullshit. Trump and his close minions know it is all bullshit. But it got him elected and that was all that mattered. However, Trump has only managed to postpone his many pending problems for just a little while. He is still in deep doodoo.

The clock is ticking. Trump can never run again. So, as soon as the GOP preselection process begins the knives will be out. A lot of readers will protest that this is wishful thinking, but the advent of the Trump era did not mean that political gravity was suddenly abolished and that everyone in the GOP were now friends forever. Trump’s most dedicated enemies are Republicans, not Democrats. In this term, as soon as the president’s approval ratings fall below that of any one of his GOP opponents, he is toast. And Trump’s approval ratings have been in freefall. They have been declining by one percentage point per day for the last ten days. The lies are catching up. It seems Trump hit the high point of his presidency on the day he took office. Anyways, this show is a long way from finished.

I am going to sit back, order lots of popcorn, and continue to watch the progress of American Revolution 2.0 on my tele. Oddly, I find I am not at all despairing. In fact, I am just beginning to enjoy the show. I think this is because Trump has at last turned into a caricature of himself who is surrounded by a cast of evil villains that are direct from central casting, and I have seen this show plenty of times before. It is a quintessentially American plot. Moreover, I am pretty sure I know how it ends.

 

Also by Dr Moylan: Election 2025: Who let the dogs out?

 

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