There is nothing Trump
cannot make worse.
August
15, 2026
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I often write that “The period of time between now and the midterms,
measured in Trump years, is equal to infinity. Anything that can happen,
probably will.”
The statement is a bit opaque, but the events of Friday illustrate it
perfectly. As Democrats understandably worry about the possibility of election
interference, we should take confidence from the fact that Trump works hard
every day to make life more difficult for Republican candidates. At the same
time, he is literally writing campaign ads that favor Democrats.
Time is the enemy of Trump and Republican candidates. Every day brings
new waves of outrage and insults, infuriating an already angry electorate. If
there is a negative story about Democrats, wait five minutes, and Trump will
create a controversy of unthinkable proportions that diminishes the prospects
of the Republican candidates in November.
Trump is historically unpopular and doing his darndest to become even
more so. I say that not to make us feel better, but to rebut the notion that
Trump has superpowers that exempt him from the laws of political gravity.
Indeed, he is being pulled into a gravity well of his own making. He has become
the black hole of the Republican Party, from which there is no escape, only the
inevitable collapse of the party as it is crushed under the weight of Trump’s
corruption and incompetence.
As congressional Republicans skitter away from D.C. in hopes of
distancing themselves from Trump, he is making it impossible for them to
escape. On Friday, Trump managed to make three bad stories for Republicans
materially worse. Every Republican who entertained thoughts of meeting
constituents over the August recess groaned as they heard the latest reporting
about Trump’s out-of-touch, arrogant, and narcissistic behavior.
Trump’s
comments on the USS Abraham Lincoln.
The story about the shabby and dangerous conditions on the USS Abraham
Lincoln is gathering momentum. In any other administration, it might threaten
the presidency. But for Trump, there is no bad story that he cannot make worse.
And he did just that on Friday in a brief exchange with a reporter as Trump was
boarding Marine One. Per Yahoo News,
When told by the same reporter that families of service members were
concerned about conditions on board the USS Lincoln, Trump replied, “No,
they’re not.”
When asked by a reporter whether the ship’s 9-month
deployment had gone on too long, the president replied that it was “not nearly
long enough”
See Yahoo News, Trump dismisses concerns
about USS Abraham Lincoln, says record-setting deployment is ‘not nearly long
enough’.
In a mere 15 seconds, Trump managed to call family members
of the USS Abraham Lincoln crew liars and insulted every member of that crew by
suggesting that the 9-month deployment was not long enough.
Any other president would have issued an abject apology. Not Trump. As he
said later in the day (about high gas prices), “I’ll
never apologize.” More about that in a moment, but
the point is the same. Trump’s response to a mistake is to attack those who
point it out. He will soon attack both the families of the crew members and the
crew members themselves. But he has already treated them with contempt and
callousness, calling into question the veracity of the family members and the
dedication of the crew members.
The dire conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln should be
above politics. But when the president insults members of the military and
their families, it becomes a political issue by definition—and we should make
the most of it.
Trump’s
comments about the high cost of gasoline
Trump managed to make the issue of high gas prices even
worse, as well. At an appearance on Long Island for the Republican nominee for
governor of New York, Trump addressed the issue of high gas prices and said,
So I
just say this. So, for you to pay a tiny little bit more for your gasoline,
just remember, you’re doing it so that a very evil country cannot have — a
country, really, it’s the number one state sponsor of terror in the world, we
don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon. So remember that. When you have to
pay a little bit more, you’re at $4, it’s okay, I mean, it’s not — I’ll never
apologize, I did the right thing . . . .
As with his comments about the USS Abraham Lincoln, Trump’s
comments about gas prices are insulting. Gas prices have increased by about 35%
to 39% since Trump started his war against Iran on February 28. That is not “a
tiny little bit more for your gasoline.” For some Americans, that is the
difference between driving to work or buying groceries—economic choices that
Trump cannot understand.
Moreover, the lack of empathy in Trump’s statement that “I’ll
never apologize” is the functional equivalent of “I
don’t care about you and your economic problems.”
There are many ways to talk about high gas prices that are
traceable to Trump’s war against Iran. Telling people to “suck it up” is the
worst of them. And it is only going to get worse as the peak summer driving
season approaches. I cannot imagine how Trump will make the situation worse,
but I am sure that he will.
Trump
asks US Supreme Court to allow construction of the ballroom to resume.
The grotesque ballroom that Trump is building on the White House grounds
is a national symbol of Trump’s obsession with over-the-top displays of wealth
and self-glorification. By a wide margin, the US electorate believes
that Trump is spending too much time and money
pursuing his own interests to the exclusion of the interests of the American
people.
On the day that Trump insulted the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln and
their families, and told Americans to quit complaining about high gas prices,
Trump filed an emergency application asking the US Supreme Court to allow
construction of his gilded-age ballroom to resume. See USA Today, Trump seeks Supreme Court
help for White House ballroom project.
Trump has tried to sell the ballroom as a military
communications and command center, but no one believes him. The Supreme Court
shouldn’t, either. Trump has described the ballroom in detail, including its
marble floors, gold-plated chandeliers, and expensive draperies—none of which
are necessary for a military command center.
Regardless of how the Supreme Court rules, it will be a
loss for Trump. If the Court allows the construction of the ballroom to resume,
the obscene cost of the ballroom and the renovation project ($900 million) will
be a millstone around the neck of every GOP candidate seeking election. And if
the Court rules against Trump, it will be yet another confirmation that Trump
has no respect for the rule of law.
Most importantly, the ballroom is a powerful and instantly
recognizable symbol of Trump’s corruption and ego. Trump will not let go of his
ballroom; Democrats should accommodate him by reminding voters at every
opportunity that Trump is spending nearly a billion dollars on completely
unnecessary renovations while Americans are struggling to pay for necessities.
Here’s the point: On a single day, Trump undermined the
prospects of Republican candidates across the country by making three bad
stories significantly worse—and he has neither the temperament nor the skills
to repair the damage. And most importantly, he will repeat that performance on
Saturday and every day thereafter, until the midterms.
Our job is to make sure that every voter gets the message:
Trump doesn’t care about you, your families, or your economic struggles. The
signs and ads write themselves.
As always, none of this means we can relent. To the
contrary, we must take these newest outrages and convert them into votes from
disillusioned and angry voters. We can do that!
Concluding
Thoughts.
About a dozen readers sent me this article by Harry Litman on
Substack A Band of Plucky
Protesters Nets One Against ICE.
The thesis of the article is this:
How can a citizen or band of citizens, with no title, office, or army of
lawyers, achieve something concrete in the daily struggle against
authoritarianism?
Litman then describes how a grassroots movement pressured
Citizens Bank to stop lending money to private firms that construct ICE
detention centers. In small towns across the country, people organized protests
and lobbied the bank’s leadership to stop financing ICE facilities. Their
determination paid off when Citizens Bank announced in July that it would wind
down its financial relationship with the private firms that construct ICE
detention centers.
The story is inspiring and instructive, especially in its
affirmation of the power of small groups to coordinate and highlight the
corporate actors who facilitate Trump’s authoritarianism. I recommend the
article in its entirety.
Littman concludes:
