Well Played Mr. Trump

/ Jeff Cann

So *this* is who we are!

Sally Edelstein’s blog Envisioning the American Dream included a post yesterday (July third, the day the house approved the senate version of Project 2025) that mourned the loss of American exceptionalism. To her, exceptionalism meant a country striving towards the ideal stated in the last line of the original Pledge of Allegiance: One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I left a comment that I began workshopping earlier in the week on a couple of other blogs touching on the concept of American exceptionalism: American exceptionalism began its slow crawl to its grave with the U-S-A chant at the 1980 Olympics. The only exceptional part of America today is our arrogance. We are now the bullies of the world–the kid you liked in 2nd grade but became a dick long before high school. The house is about to cast the vote that will codify poverty, double-down on climate change and cast us ever closer to insolvency. The America you’re looking for is gone.

Today is the culmination of the Republican vision from my entire adult life. The rich get richer… Other benefits include more funds to deport our working class, millions of Americans losing health insurance coverage, more financial pressure on American colleges and college-bound Americans, and a last-ditch-effort to try to prove trickle-down economics can work.

A couple of populist tax cuts included in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” directly benefit my family:  Susan earns tips, and both our kids earn overtime. All that income is now tax free. I suppose this should make me happy, but I’d rather see the nation pay down its debt. Donald Trump’s businesses have filed for bankruptcy six times. Is this his clever endgame for America?

On the day Trump solidified his first Republican nomination, I posted on Twitter: Today’s news seems like the last sentence in the first chapter of a dystopian novel. Using that analogy, I feel like today, Independence Day 2025, we’ve hit the cliffhanger chapter break immediately prior to Armageddon. The chaos of the past nine years was the exposition. Tomorrow, things get ugly.

Trump is often portrayed as an undisciplined megalomaniac. The undisciplined part just got harder to prove. Today, he achieved many long-held goals of the Republican party. That he did it on his self-imposed, symbolic deadline of Independence Day is icing on his cake. Well played, my nemesis, well played.

Buckle up, America. The ride gets rougher from here.

Photo by Sonder Quest on Unsplash

27 thoughts on “Well Played Mr. Trump”

  1. I want to say we’re dying a slow death, but America’s grave is quickly approaching and there seems to be no stopping it.

    I have a lot of feelings about all of this and none of it positive. Yet people keep believing this is all for the best. My eyesight without my glasses is terrible and even I can see that this is a mess that’s going to get worse.

    There’s a protest in my neck of the woods today and I suspect other places as well. I’m glad of that, there needs to be more demonstrations.

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    • As you would say SMH. I can’t understand what people are thinking. Evern the senators who voted for the bill said it was horrible. Trump has played some jedi mind trick on the nation. Nicolae Carpathia! As a Christian, do you get that reference?

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      • Too well. And that’s about what it is. That and The Omen references I’ve been seeing are spot on. I can’t believe we’re living this. And there are people I’ve friended that are soooo blind as to what’s happening. HOW?! 🙄😒

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  2. I got a propaganda email today from Social Security. It touted the Big Beautiful Bill and told me I wouldn’t have to pay taxes.

    My SSDI gross is about $24,000 a year and they take out about $3000 of that for Medicare. I’ve never paid taxes on that because it’s well below the poverty line.

    Daughter told me her hospital is planning to lay off a bunch of people. We wouldn’t want to cut into profits now would we 🙄

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    • I got that email too. I’m sure the employees at SSA are aghast. Hospitals are going to get clobbered. Will they treat and lose money or turn people away at the door? I guess if they’re laying off staff, they plan on turning people away. Sad stuff.

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      • I don’t think they can turn people away from the ER. I’m sure the wait times will get worse, and I’m guessing that the extra costs will be absorbed by people with other insurance.

        Daughter has a union so her job is safe, and it’s a big enough hospital that it’s not going anywhere.

        Ben has medi-cal so I’m hoping it won’t affect him.

        I’m actually more worried about how big ICE is going to be. I’ve lived within 20 miles of Mexico my entire life. I can give first hand account that we aren’t being overrun. The cartels are a problem in Tijuana, but they’re not bringing their “wars” across the border.

        It’s very very quiet around town today. People are hunkering down. It’s sad.

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  4. It’s awful, Jeff. I don’t know what to say other than to try and encapsulate some thoughts in verse and hope that somehow things don’t get as bad as we fear they may.

    ‘Indissoluble, solved’
    ~
    fiction mandated
    The Ugly American
    signed into two laws
    …………………………….

    ‘Running a Social Deficit”
    ~
    dismal trickle down
    dry tongues lapping rank pools
    rich tongues kiss ass
    …………………………….
    ‘Trumph’
    ~
    evil has triumphed
    proud boys did more than nothing
    they barked out loud cheers
    ………………………………………
    Jeff, I wish you well.
    Kind regards, DD

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  6. Too many people in the US are not seeing the writing on the wall. Even as norms and institutions are beings smashed, they still say things like, “things will change in the midterms when the Democrats come back.” The Republicans aren’t leaving office. You are in for some very darks days. Sometimes, I think I must be dreaming all this.

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    • Yes, I agree, many people are deluded, and many are scared to speak up. I hope the Dems can do better in the midterms, but a) I don’t see it happening, and b) the law is already passed. See my comment to Tyronica. Some weird mojo going on.

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  7. At what point do the masses rise up? I watch all this unfold from outside the US (Trump is front and centre in Australian news) and wonder when those who voted for him but will lose out, will turn on him? Or maybe they’re too star struck to realise they’ve been dudded?

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    • Well, the masses are massing with protests every weekend, but ‘rise up?’ That seems more like a right wing thing. They’ve got all the guns. He’s been in office for just over 4 months. I can’t imagine what he will do in 4 years. I frequently think about bailing on the country. Dudded 🙂 I love Aussie slang.

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  8. Everything you wrote aligns with how it appears from the outside. So many things that confuse and appall. How could the country that has been the world’s Superman become its Sewerman? Perhaps that belief in superpowers (and religion) clogs the cognitive dissonnance. And still, as many of your responders confirm, people cheer. WTactualF?

    To echo/extend the question of Rose2852, what happens when people realise they have lost their country?

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  9. What you write is true. I couldn’t actually celebrate the 4th of July. I was too depressed. But I guess, I can’t quite give up on things just yet. The polling suggests there are a lot of unhappy people out there who don’t like what Trump is doing. However, the Democrats have been lousy at mounting an opposition. The truth is some people will never believe a lie is a lie until they are bitten by it. And a lot of people are about to be bitten. Will they wake up? I hope so.

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    • Will people even know they’ve been bitten? Trump will say “no, things are better now,” and they’ll believe him. We went to a park on the 4th for a food truck dinner. The place was mobbed, probably mostly with MAGA. I didn’t feel anything in the air. I’m not sure how much they care about this bill. They just want the nonwhite people deported.

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      • There will always be some who will believe Trump. But not everyone will always believe him. I can see a shift a little around here if you look close enough. Unlike prior years, there are not as many Trump signs left in the yards. I know of only one “crazy MAGA” house a few blocks from me, and even there the Trump signs are gone. Unfortunately, the Trump signs have been replaced by anti-Democrat signs. But still, that is a shift in sentiment. Anyhow, I guess I will continue to hope and believe that most people are good and only need to wake up.

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  10. Bonjour Jeff,

    Merci pour ce billet lucide et courageux. En tant que lecteur d’Haïti, je ressens aussi à distance les répercussions des décisions politiques prises aux États-Unis, notamment quand elles influencent l’économie mondiale et les politiques migratoires qui touchent tant de familles haïtiennes.

    Votre analyse sur l’exceptionnalisme américain qui bascule vers l’arrogance mondiale me paraît juste. Cela rappelle que le pouvoir sans conscience collective peut mener à l’effondrement moral d’une nation, même aussi puissante que les États-Unis.

    Vous avez raison de souligner qu’au-delà des avantages fiscaux ponctuels, c’est l’avenir commun qui est en jeu. La montée du cynisme politique, l’affaiblissement des protections sociales et la normalisation des inégalités ne peuvent qu’augmenter les tensions, à l’intérieur comme à l’extérieur.

    Merci pour votre sincérité et pour continuer à écrire malgré un contexte qui peut sembler pesant. Cela aide à garder l’esprit critique éveillé.

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    • I really feel for U.S. Haitians right now. Vance & Trump stumbled upon them as a scapegoat, and it played well with MAGA focus groups. It’s hard to watch what he’s doing to our country and I have enough international readers to know that he’s completely torpedoed what was left of our global reputation. I’m sad when I realize it will take the rest of my life to rebuild the world’s trust, if it is even possible.

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      • Bonjour Jeff,

        Merci beaucoup pour votre retour et pour vos paroles sincères.

        Je voulais simplement ajouter qu’au-delà des grandes questions politiques et économiques dont vous parlez si justement, ici en Haïti, la réalité quotidienne reste très difficile. Personnellement, malgré mes efforts, il m’est très compliqué de trouver un emploi stable. La conjoncture économique, les faiblesses institutionnelles et le manque d’opportunités poussent beaucoup de jeunes à envisager l’émigration, même dans des conditions incertaines.

        Je continue malgré tout à me former et à chercher des opportunités, convaincu que chaque effort compte. En vous lisant, cela me redonne aussi un peu de courage : savoir qu’il y a des personnes dévouées et lucides comme vous qui prennent le temps de réfléchir et de partager, c’est important.

        Merci encore pour votre engagement à écrire et à garder un regard critique sur la situation mondiale.

        Bien à vous,
        Bruce-Lee St-Germain

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