Donald Trump has lost his Teflon. The man who once boasted that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and [not] lose any voters,” is in freefall. He is as dangerous as ever, still eager to shoot people where he can, but Americans are done with him.
Two federal judges have showed us what that looks like. In Chicago, Judge April Perry freed the Broadview Six — Americans arrested and charged with felonies for protesting ICE during operation Midway Blitz. Because of Judge Perry’s determination to follow the evidence and the law, we learned the truth — Trump’s Justice Department manipulated a grand jury to bring the indictments and then tried to hide that manipulation. The DOJ was so determined to make a show trial of Americans who protested ICE that they were not just willing to bend the law, but eager to imprison Americans based on a fraudulent indictment.
In Nashville, Tennessee, Judge Waverly Crenshaw freed Kilmar Abrego Garcia. As a reminder, the Trump Administration deported Mr. Abrego Garcia to that CECOT dungeon in El Salvador illegally. DHS was forced to admit its error and bring him home.
Trump doesn’t like admitting error. Instead, he took time in the Oval Office to show reporters a doctored photo of Abrego Garcia’s hands — an amateurish photoshop effort to display tattoos on his knuckles. Trump claimed the photo proved that Abrego Garcia he was a dangerous member of the Tren d’Agua gang. But it was so patently fake, that clear his real intent was to say to Americans that he will arrest whoever he wants. His Justice Department then indicted Abrego Garcia, now back in the U.S. on a charge of human smuggling.
But earlier this month, Judge Crenshaw wrote, “the evidence before this court sadly reflects an abuse of prosecuting power.” He dismissed the case for “selective or vindictive prosecution.”
It turns out that while Donald Trump’s Justice Department endeavors to lock people up with no evidence, with doctored evidence, with lies in court, with whatever it takes, our system of laws and the courage of federal judges stand in the way.
Trump is out there on Fifth Avenue with his gun, but America is pushing back.
Unable to throw innocent people he dislikes into prison, Trump and his Justice Department hatched a plan to reward real criminals — those who stormed the Capitol and were convicted by juries before Trump pardoned them. Trump and his Attorney General faked a litigation settlement to create a $1.776 billion slush fund to reward those insurrectionists. Enrique Tario, convicted of seditious conspiracy and pardoned by Trump, says he hopes to get $5 million from the fund.
But here, too, Americans are pushing back. Police officers who were attacked on January 6th have sued to stop it. The very idea of this slush fund was so instantly toxic that Senate Republicans went home early so they wouldn’t have to vote on it.
Let’s be clear, the slush fund isn’t toxic just because it’s corrupt. Everything Donald Trump does is corrupt. This became toxic on day one because Donald Trump is no longer untouchable.
Why has the Teflon come off? Possibly because Donald Trump is, simply, a terrible President. Americans are worse off because of his bad decisions. Inflation is up; the economy is down. The government he leads cannot do its job. Those early DOGE cuts, his incompetent choices to federal departments and agencies, his personal greed, have stripped the executive branch of talent and focus.
The Justice Department prosecutes his adversaries, protects his vigilantes, and channels America’s treasury into Trump pockets. But it isn’t the only department he destroyed. The Department of Education is gone. The Department of the Interior is now the Department of Mining Rights. The Department Health and Human Services is now the Department of Quacks and Conspiracies. EPA now means Extreme Pollutants Allowed.
Then there’s the Department of Defense. Trump and Pete Hegseth want a partisan military. They have broken with tradition to give highly inflammatory political speeches to our men and women in arms. They have purged the ranks of officers and promoted loyalists where they can. Trump told military leadership they should practice on American streets.
And Trump launched a series of wars. This kind of leadership has not given us a stronger, more lethal, better trained military. It has left us with a tired and demoralized force, and one struggling with a depleted armory.
Now, he is completely befuddled by the war he launched in Iran.
He never gave us a reason for that war. Iran does not have a nuclear weapon. Trump told us their nuclear program was destroyed last year. But he talks of Iran’s nuclear threat every day. He is so weak and confused that he posts aimlessly about destroying Iran and progress making peace with Iran. In the very same post, he tells us America controls the Strait of Hormuz and Iran must open the strait of Hormuz. Instead of seeing strategic ambiguity, Americans now see a frightened President who doesn’t know what to do.
Trump remains dangerous. He will continue to pillage our treasury and abuse our laws. He will continue to shake down foreign governments and undermine democracies in favor of tsars where he can.
But he no longer does any of this with the support, let alone the consent, of the vast majority of Americans.
“But he no longer does any of this with the support, let alone the consent, of the vast majority of Americans.” And the sad part is that 50,000 lies, 2 impeachments, an insurrection, 34 felony convictions, billions of dollars stolen from the American taxpayer, violations of practically every section, phrase, clause, word and letter of the Constitution, the deaths of hundreds of thousands through Covid, blowing up innocent fisherman in international waters, killing innocent protesters on American streets, starting a monumentally stupid war with Iran, defacing the White House in every way imaginable and falling asleep in the Oval Office in front of the entire world was not enough for the vast majority to turn against him. All it took was a $4.50 price tag on a gallon of gasoline and $10 for a dozen eggs.
Terrific articles Lincoln Square. Frankly I personally prefer the articles to constant videos.