“The Radical Left Lunatics might not like this,
but I think it is quite nice!!!” Truth Social 4/15
Can There Be Any Remaining Doubts of His Insanity?
“If I weren’t president, the world would be torn to pieces.”
Donald Trump after failed Vance Iran negotiation
Trump gives me the feeling of an insane relative who stole my credit card, going on a fool’s errand to spend as much as he can, without my consent, to buy guns, ships and hire armed soldiers to kill, destroy, kill and decimate my life and the lives of those around me. For some odd reason, the banks won’t let me challenge those expenditures and shut down that credit card. Trump is as much a Christian as the devil incarnate himself, it seems, even as his followers (including hordes of GOP member of Congress) seem unwilling to lift a finger to stop him. His actions and his statements confirm, in my mind at least, that Donald Trump is beyond delusional and exceptionally dangerous.
Trump has violated virtually every election pledge he has made, appointing weak and sycophantic cabinet members who tremble at his very words, and every day brings further irreversible damage to our economy, our plunging global influence on life support, and a delusional autocrat tells us his “regime change” (when did that happen again?) has left us in better position: “The U.S. and Israel launched the war with the hope that killing top Iranian officials—starting with Mojtaba’s father, Ali Khamenei—would create the conditions for regime change or at least the emergence of leaders more willing to bend to America and Israel’s interests. In an address to the nation one month into the war, President Trump called the new leadership ‘more reasonable.’... Instead, the void is being filled by radical new leaders who have shown little interest in political compromise at home or abroad.” Wall Street Journal, April 14th. The hardest hardliners we have ever met!!!
Indeed, as the world is now deep into questioning the mental capacity of the President of the United States, Trump’s constant threat to pull the US out of NATO (which actually requires congressional approval) is beginning to have traction among the balance of NATO allies, particularly since Hungary’s pro-Putin regime has just been ousted in a landslide election. “A fallback plan to ensure Europe can defend itself using NATO’s existing military structures if the U.S. departs is gaining traction after getting buy-in from Germany, a long-term opponent of a go-it-alone approach.
“The officials working on the plans, which some officials are referring to as ‘European NATO,’ are seeking to get more Europeans into the alliance’s command-and-control roles and supplement U.S. military assets with their own… The plans, first conceived last year, underscore the depth of European anxiety over U.S. reliability. They accelerated after Trump threatened to seize Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark, and are now gaining fresh urgency amid the standoff over Europe’s refusal to back America’s war in Iran.’ Wall Street Journal, April 15th. A weakened United States, having spent a massive number of its sophisticated military hardware while being stalemated by the cheap drone attacks from what had been touted as a helpless Iran, seems to making a strong impression on China, which is both learning about our weaknesses and watching our global power dissipate.
“When China declared on Monday [4/13] that the U.S. blockade of Iranian oil leaving the Strait of Hormuz was ‘dangerous and irresponsible,’ it was a brief window into President Trump’s latest challenge: how to keep the Iran conflict from upending an emerging détente with China.” NY Times, April 15th. What would happen if China determined that its navy would now escort its tankers through the Strait of Hormuz? Will that become a topic of discussion as Trump and Chinese President Xi meet?
And back here, Trump’s unrestrained spending has had a humongous economic impact on so many levels. Without the slightest congressional authorization, lumbering under the already deficit destroying Big Beautiful tax cut for the rich, Trump seems to be spending us into the ground. Writing for the April 14th FastCompany.com, Sarah Bregel brings us the economic analysis from one Harvard financial expert: “While wars always come with an added cost to taxpayers, a public policy expert is saying the Trump administration’s military efforts in Iran, which include attacking infrastructure and a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, could drag on and come with tremendous costs to the American people—and long term, the projections are alarming… That’s according to Linda Bilmes, a senior lecturer in Public Policy and public finance expert at Harvard’s Kennedy School. She says that the war is already costing about $2 billion a day, but that’s only ‘the tip of the iceberg.’
“In a recent interview, Bilmes said that while the Pentagon said the war cost around $11.3 billion in the first few days of the war alone, that’s an “underestimate,” and the true cost is much higher… ‘According to my calculations, those first few days cost at least $16 billion,’ Bilmes explained. “We are spending down munitions at an extraordinarily fast pace—to put it in perspective, we fired more Patriot missiles in the first four days of the Iran war than we have given to Ukraine over the past four years,” she said.
“The researcher asserted that short-term costs are adding up quickly, as “we are losing high-cost assets,” but it’s the long-term costs that are most troubling. For starters, Bilmes said it’s important not to overlook the cost of human life, which is already being lost. Thousands of Iranians, including at least 1,700 civilians, have already lost their lives to the war. Hundreds of U.S. soldiers have been injured with at least 13 dead. Financially speaking, the cost of medical and disability care for veterans will be substantial. So will be the increase in the defense budget, which Bilmes explained could become permanent…
“‘The president is proposing roughly a 50% increase in the defense budget,’ Bilmes explained. ‘If enacted in full, that would push defense spending to levels about 20% higher than the peak reached during World War II. This raises the baseline. Even if Congress does not agree to approve the full increase, it is highly likely that at least $100 billion per year will be added to the base defense budget that would not have been approved in the absence of this war.’”
“Bilmes says those costs add up to at least $100 billion per year. ‘I am certain we will reach $1 trillion for the Iran war,’ Bilmes explained… While the projections are no doubt troubling, Americans are already paying for the war. Gas prices recently saw the largest jump in about 60 years, which means that air travel costs are also up. And on Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that if the conflict continues to escalate, we could face a global recession.”
If the obviousness of Trump’s delusion isn’t sufficient deterrent to GOP members of Congress, perhaps their belief that they require the voting support of an equal number of MAGA stalwarts to hold their congressional jobs is the most destructive vector in American politics today. Can we afford to wait until the midterm elections to change our destructive course… when ever day our political and economic realities get so much worse so much faster?! Trump would rather battle the Pope than deal with his own crimes and misdemeanors… as the GOP continues to support him.
I’m Peter Dekom, and the most troubling aspect of this not-so-funny comedy of errors is how much of this is a result of the decisions of so many Republican voters.
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