As we watch this administration attempting to turn the nation into a nativist white Christian autocracy ruled by the most incompetent criminal president in our history, we have to hold onto the belief that Americans can still discern a phony when they see one (paraphrasing Truman’s comments about MacArthur). The Economist reports Trump’s approval rating at 39 percent as of December 28, 2025, so perhaps Truman was correct. My question is how did a small majority of voters reelect him knowing what he was like after his first term and his promises of what he would do if reelected?
We knew he was a liar (The Washington Post tracked his falsehoods and found 30,573 in his first term) and that his claim that the election was stolen was an ongoing fabrication, one he is still clinging to. (He lost 60 cases, as cited by Liz Cheney, before over 400 federal and state trial and appellate judges across the country, including the Supreme Court. None found enough evidence to justify even a fact-finding hearing.)
Are Americans so blinded that we refuse to believe what has been before our eyes and ears for four years, or do we simply ignore proven facts because we believe in something or someone and don’t want to be bothered by reality? Is Trump really a cult-like figure, or is it that many of us feel so powerless we believe we cannot affect the direction our lives in a nation controlled by the rich, the supposed deep state? What do they believe now that Trump and his cronies are the deep state? What do they make of Musk’s DOGE, which was going to save $1 trillion but has consistently misrepresented its results and is reported to have lied throughout its existence?
The New York Times reported on December 28 that federal spending actually went up by October 2025, Musk’s selected date for his $1 trillion cut. It notes that two of the supposed biggest cuts, two defense contracts totaling $7.9 billion, are still in effect. Most remarkably, “those two false entries were bigger than 25,000 of DOGE’s other claims, combined.” Musk has admitted that he should have “worked on my companies” and said if he could go back in time, he would not do it again. The mea culpa is revealing but shows a complete disregard for the terminations and disruption of the federal workforce and the diminution of federal services and programs in the U.S. and around the world. So much for the brilliance and arrogance of the tech masters of the universe and an administration that analyzes nothing based on facts, competence, or the effect of its policies on the nation and the world.
Since I do not want to write a book, I will only say that we will all pay a steep price for Trump’s foreign policy (if there is one other than using tariffs to punish his former allies and sucking up to Putin and other dictators) and his domestic cuts to government services, such as the Department of Education, the VA, research grants to universities, etc., etc. His weaponization of military forces in our cities and his immigration policies, which are hurting our workforce and neighbors and disrupting the ideals of a nation built on immigration, are so foolish in their conception and execution that they are now being questioned by both the right and left. As for the environment, he thinks climate change does not exist. We should not be surprised—this is what he ran on, and it is a core tenet of the MAGA movement: destroy and limit government as much as possible and privatize those aspects that cannot be cut entirely and utilize government policies (particularly in foreign affairs, domestic spending, contracting, etc.) to enrich Trump, his family, and his minions.
A subtext, more clearly coming into focus, is Trump’s pandering to his primary constituency: evangelical Christians. He wants a white Christian nation, in complete violation of the Constitution and the law. Immigration is only available for white South Africans, and not those from “shithole” countries comprised of primarily Black and brown people. (There are now 39 countries whose citizens are basically precluded from immigrating to the U.S., all of them primarily Muslim or Black.)
Holiday greetings on federal government websites extol Christianity and are not even pretending to be ecumenical. Look at the Department of Defense, the State Department, and Department of Labor websites, celebrating the “birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” and “the Hope of Eternal Life through Christ.” You would hope that someone would read the Establishment Clause of the Constitution, but then again, Trump regularly claims divine intervention for saving his life and regularly posts messianic imagery, even depicting himself with Jesus. Maybe all of this has increased the sale of the “God Bless American Bibles” he has been hawking since 2024. (As a bonus they contain the lyrics to a Lee Greenwood song, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the Constitution.)
What to do? I cannot recommend going out with pitchforks, but something akin to that is required. Organize for the mid-terms, take action in your community, donate to charities and political entities that are working for democracy—let’s support each other. You are not alone; do not despair. We are a majority—and more of our fellow citizens are beginning to understand that our nation is at great risk. Many years ago, I figured out that I could determine my state of wellbeing by whether I slept at night. I have not been sleeping well for a long time. That has to stop.
