At 6 p.m. Pacific today, the 43rd day of his second term as President of the United States of America, expect a triumphant Donald John Trump to appear before a joint session of Congress, with Justices of the Supreme Court in attendance. He will be gloating as only Trump can.
Before he became president, Barack Obama wrote a book, “The Audacity of Hope. Donald Trump has been working on his screenplay, “The Audacity,” for a decade. It will debut tonight, outshining the Oscars.
For he will stand before the Congress and the Supreme Court as the first president in U.S. history freed of the shackles of the separation of powers so carefully crafted by the framers of the constitution, the first president to lose the onerous bonds of the checks and balances afforded by three co-equal branches of government.
Those two bodies, probably not quite knowing how it could have happened, perhaps even yet thinking it can’t have, will sit emasculated, without courage, without dignity, having capitulated to a tyrant rather than do what’s right. I wonder what they really see when they look at Zelensky, who twice stood up to Trump’s blandishments and wrath and twice did the right thing? I hope they feel at least a little shame.
Trump will bask in the cheers of MAGA, revel in the glow of the white supremacists and white Christian nationalists who enabled him. He will smile and wave proudly to the “go team, go!” cheers of the sycophants in his administration who did lip service to the Congress that confirmed them, each grossly unqualified, each able to smirk without a trace of conscience as they lay their hand on the Bible and unsolemnly swore to protect their constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, even while knowing their selection was solely based on their unquestioned and unwavering loyalty to Trump, as demonstrated by their ability to obey his commands and convey his lies, unquestioning, without hesitation.
Expect to hear a lot of lies tonight, for the Don won’t be able to change such a longstanding trait. Indeed even he won’t yet quite believe he actually pulled it off. He’ll keep giving lip service to the constitution, try to hide or justify the many things he did to accomplish his long-time quest to at last prove to his late daddy that he really is a success, he is somebody, and not the terrible disappointment daddy always saw him as.
Expect to hear all about his triumphant meeting Friday with Volodymyr, how he got back at that upstart who refused to do as he was told back in 2019 and instead of giving him dirt on Biden got him impeached. Friday was his retribution, giving justification to do again what he was impeached for, withholding disbursement of funds authorized by congress. In so doing, he confirmed his unique but unconstitutional standing as the first U.S. citizen to take advantage of a Supreme Court decision, formally requested by the first and only convicted felon to hold the nation’s highest office and by virtue of being elected again to a non-consecutive term, to be held exempt from criminal prosecution … to be above the law.
And it’s becoming more obvious by the day that he’s not doing what he’s doing for MAGA, for white supremacy … not even for the white Christian nationalists so certain Trump will be the instrument God uses to taker His rightful place in our government, schools and houses of iniquity, amen. It’s not the U.S. gaining the most benefit, it’s Putin and Russia.
Friday’s clash was just the first good tiding to flow Russia’s way — in its wake Trump called for plans to lift sanctions and restore ties with Moscow and ordered defense secretary Pete Hegseth to pull the plug on offensive cyberoperations against Russia. He imposes tariffs on our closest neighbors, Mexico and Canada, which will in no way help the U.S. but also favor his idol, Vladimir Putin.
Tonight’s affair, at which Trump promises to “tell it like it is,” is not a state of the union address, but a joint congressional address.
Donald John Trump may be the worst president in United States history, but you have to give credit where it’s due — he is one hell of a fine con artist. And tonight could well be his coronation.