Living on borrowed time
The problem with creating illusions is that eventually the illusion becomes transparent and the world sees the Emperor is buck naked.
As the Epstein scandal shows no sign of subsiding, Trump is being forced to flood the zone with more and more distractions. His narcissism prevents him from any competent management of the situation. This is making those around him do their best to protect him look like the idiotic sycophants they are. He’s now decided to take on Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal. He believes that his court filing will bolster his claims that the letter he allegedly sent to Epstein does not exist. Given that I have no firsthand knowledge of its existence, I am unable to contribute to the debate. I’m aware, however, that the Journal article is behind a paywall, but as it’s one of my many subscriptions, you can read it by clicking here, courtesy of me.
What I would say is that if Trump, as seems the case, had reached out to Murdoch before the article's publication, one would assume the Journal is confident it’s on firm legal ground. I can’t believe that Trump would want to endure the discovery phase of any trial, so I can only assume he’s trying to control the immediate narrative as usual, and will quietly drop the case once he’s achieved his objective. The stupid thing is, he’s simply breathing new life into something he is desperate for to go away.
Amidst the evident fractures now within his MAGA base, Trump is finding the limitations of his power to make things disappear, even with all the levers of government at his disposal. He is unfamiliar with his base being non-compliant. While he still appears to have Republican legislators largely under control, the cracks are beginning to emerge. If it’s one thing you can take to the bank in politics, cracks can slowly lead to catastrophic structural failure.
Many may not agree, but I now see Trump as a man overboard in shark-infested waters, which is an interesting analogy, given his previous discussions of he'd rather be electrocuted than eaten by a shark. The struggles he’s now facing go way beyond the Epstein scandal. His health is now in question as he is exhibiting swelling in his lower legs. Those of us who have seen this in elderly relatives will be familiar with what is often a sign of congestive heart failure.
Much has been said about the hiding of Joe Biden’s health and cognitive status. I suspect that when the history books are written, it will be revealed that Trump’s health conditions were long misrepresented, just as was his education. The man is a control freak, and his press secretary is complicit in propagating his lies. Nobody lives forever, and his lifestyle and the fact that he is clinically obese pour cold water on the effusive reports from enablers that he is in ‘excellent health’. This is a man who, during his campaign, produced a letter stating that he would be the "healthiest individual ever elected"; subsequently, the doctor named as the author said that Mr Trump had written the letter himself. This is who he is. A proven liar, sexual predator and a cheat; there’s no other way to describe him, and no, I won’t be living in fear of a defamation suit.
When you play Trump’s game, you have to play reactive politics because you can’t outrun the cumulative errors being made. The issue with tariffs is that they take time to work their way through the system, which provides an initial false sense of security, allowing the administration to paint a picture that the economy, far from suffering, is benefiting from Trump’s tariff agenda. It’s a classic ‘fur coat and no knickers’ situation where all is not what it seems. The markets seem to be sticking their fingers in their ears, shouting la, la, la in an attempt not to react until they are forced to.
The problem with the Republican approach to their legislative agenda is that it is not based on the greater good, which is how a government should operate; it has its roots in social Darwinism delivered as retributive political vengeance. Societal regression is the objective, and it is being enacted with no regard for the social consequences. The disconcerting thing is that it is being implemented under the guise of asserting Christian values, when to any right-minded observer, it represents the antithesis of Christian teachings.
A vindictive government is, by nature, a bad government, and that is where the US is right now. The world is marching toward green energy, regardless of America's desire to return to the days of the Pony Express. Nobody is going to argue that fossil fuels are dead (no pun intended) in the immediate moment. The bitter feud between the environmental and fossil fuel lobbies is unlikely to cool anytime soon. Nobody understands the competing benefits of the two energy generation sources better than China. The unprecedented growth of the Chinese economy has compelled it to utilise readily available fossil fuels to expand its industrial base. It didn’t decide to use fossil fuels driven by political ideology; it did it through economic necessity, and this is where the US and China diverge in their economic vision for the future.
China has viewed it as a means to an end, but under Trump, the US sees it as a cultural, political and ideological imperative. His administration is building an economic agenda based on climate change denial and the belief that the only ‘real’ energy comes from oil and gas. Any reputable global economist will tell you this is state-level stupidity of the highest order. The US seems to have an inability to look beyond perceived short-term gain. Trump is desperately flapping around in the deep end, drowning in debt, with $9.3 trillion of it to refinance this year. Meanwhile, capital is fleeing the US, and tariffs are poised to push inflation higher as the year progresses. This is a man who has spent his entire business life gaming the system, and he now believes he can also game the markets and the global economy. Unfortunately, the bond markets don’t wear red hats or believe a word he says. Despite Trump’s view to the contrary, the bond traders are driving the bus, not the guy who’s a burger away from a gold casket and me dancing naked on my back lawn to celebrate.
In short, America has been trying to outrun the consequences of economic mismanagement since the beginning of Trump’s second term. Some would argue from long before that. His performative mass deportation policy has largely kept people distracted, while he has reduced the federal government to a shadow of its former self. Say what you will about Vought’s budget plan, in which Trump has had little to no input. For all its cruel and deliberately regressive intent, it is a malign legislative masterpiece worthy of its vile creator. It gives the rich their permanent tax cuts from the outset, fires the starting pistol on rampant deregulation, appears benevolent to Joe Average by handing out temporary, limited tax cuts on tips and overtime, while cleverly deferring the impact of SNAP and Medicaid cuts until after the midterms (if they ever take place).
The truth is that America can’t outrun the tsunami of debt it is accumulating. In interest payments alone, the servicing of that debt is eye-watering. This is why Trump may well sack Jerome Powell and install a yes man who will do his bidding. Servicing the current debt burden at current interest rates looks set to be a significant challenge. What Republicans failed to make a song and dance about in their ‘Big Billionaire Welfare Bill’ was the fact that they raised the debt ceiling to the highest level in American history. After claiming that Democrats were bankrupting the country when it reached $36 trillion, their prescription to lift America off economic life support is to raise the debt ceiling to $41.1 trillion—just the thing to do when you're drowning in debt and have taken a hatchet to the economy.
Republicans are now in a race against time to strip the wealth of the low and middle-income Americans before the shit hits the fan. To be VERY CLEAR, there is absolutely no historical data, and I mean NONE, to suggest that the lie Scott Bessant and his great leader are attempting to sell to the American people, that providing massive tax cuts to the rich will deliver salvation in the form of economic growth. It is a deliberate lie, plain and simple. As with all bait-and-switch acts of deception, the perpetrators of the crime are NEVER the ones who pay the price. Without exception, it is always the poor and the vulnerable who are the lambs to the slaughter. The only thing they have done is defer the slaughter date while providing a last meal of limited tax cuts on tips and overtime
As reported by the Brookings Institute on 7th July:
The tax and spending provisions of that bill will add an estimated $3.4 trillion to the federal debt over the next decade before counting added interest costs, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
As noted by the Committee for Responsible Federal Budget on 20th May:
Net interest payments will total $15.7 trillion between FY 2025 and 2034, $2.7 trillion above baseline projections.
Interest costs will more than double, from a projected $973 billion in 2025 to $2.2 trillion in 2034.
Interest will reach a record 5.3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2034 and consume 29% of all revenue.
Interest would remain the second largest program – larger than Medicare or defence – and would approach the size of the Social Security retirement program by the end of the decade.
You don’t have to be a renowned economist to know that this is economic lunacy, yet the likes of Scott Bessent would have you believe that economic growth will take care of it. NO, IT WILL NOT. But what you can depend on is that when the economy buckles from his growth fantasy wet dream, the rich will be lining up to profit from the carnage.
Every day, Americans are sleeping with the enemy, and the level of control and abuse has reached Stockholm Syndrome levels for those wearing red hats. No amount of distraction and misdirection will be able to hide the fact that Americans have been well and truly played. By the time the crime is discovered, it will be too late to remedy without incurring unimaginable economic pain.
I understand why people have become disengaged with politics. People feel that no party prioritises the interests of the people, regardless of their political beliefs. We have reached the point where people are no longer voting for a vision for a better tomorrow; they are voting for the party that will screw them over the least, and that is a problem. Great slogan, ‘Vote for us, we’ll screw you over less than the other guy’ That, my friends, is where American politics is today, and it breaks my heart.
Tomorrow, in the final part of this three-part post, we will take a closer look at the AI Tech Stack race and its implications for the future of families and business across America, as we explore the truth about the impending impact on a society where the political elite are prepared to throw American families under the bus in a blink of an eye.
It's congestive heart failure, not congenital. Congenital heart failure would imply it was present at birth. Just call it heart failure, that's what it is.
Great article. Hasn’t this really been the Republican vision for decades? The federal government should be dismantled except for the military. There should be no guardrails on greed and wealth and no protections for the needy or disadvantaged. The Republicans have pursued this relentlessly and now control all levers of power. It’s evil genius. I’m more and more convinced Trump is the clown front man who they let enrich himself and play with tariffs (until the markets react). There will be significant economic damage, pain and death until we can turn this around. Unfortunately, the Dems have to rebuild the party to fight, it’s going to take some time. Maybe the midterms can help, but that will just be a first step to push back forces of evil.