Trump Is Dreaming of a White Christmas, but Baby, He's Got the Blues

Affordability isn't going away as an issue, even though he's complaining it's just a 'Democratic con job.'

Illustration by Riley Levine

Donald Trump is facing a December, and likely a New Year, that has him seeing red and feeling oh so blue. What’s behind it? It’s a long list, but the short answer is that more and more voters are seeing him clearly for the first time, and a clear view of Trump is not a pleasant sight.

Let’s take a closer look at some of Trump’s winter woes.

Trump’s Dreaming of a White Christmas

And it’s not limited to Christmas. Trump clearly dreams of being surrounded by nothing but whiteness all the time–and he’s attempting to impose his racist vision on America. This holiday season, America isn’t buying it. Trump’s approval on immigration has cratered.

He’s lost the support among Latinos that had moved his way in 2024, and his cruel abductions, separations, and deportations of immigrants–many of whom are here legally and some are US citizens—are not going over well with the American public in general, including Republicans. And Trump’s instincts here are going from bad to worse. Ramping up his xenophobia and blatant racism against people of color is like making more of a money-losing product and thinking you can make it up in volume. Most people don’t want the hate that Trump is selling. His desperation and deterioration won’t allow him to see that, but the numbers don’t lie.

Pete Hegseth

There’s growing sentiment that Pete should be put out in the cold. Most sane people know that he never should have been confirmed as Defense Secretary, but he had all the qualifications that Trump looks for in a leader: disdain for any principled people under his command and unfailing sycophancy. Hegseth has delivered on those aplenty, but he, for all his bowing and scraping, has still managed to commit a cardinal sin against Dear Leader; he has embarrassed him, not once, but twice, and peak humiliation on both issues is a gift Trump can’t try to regift fast enough. It’s incredible that the lesser of the two issues is Signalgate, which was described in an inspector general’s report yesterday like this:

“The Secretary sent information identifying the quantity and strike times of manned U.S. aircraft over hostile territory over an unapproved, unsecure network approximately 2 to 4 hours before the execution of those strikes.”

“The Secretary’s actions created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed U.S. mission objectives and potential harm to U.S. pilots.”

And this comes on the heels of Trump, seated with Hegseth directly to his left, denying he knew anything about what military experts are widely describing as a war crime at Hegseth’s direction. For his part, Hegseth also attempted to distance himself from the second strike attack on two defenseless men clinging to a portion of their capsized boat, throwing Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley under the bus, and before Congress to attempt to justify the unjustifiable. Some Republicans seem to have found a line even they can’t cross: excusing a war crime when there is video evidence of it being carried out by the U.S. Hegseth might be willing to endlessly spitshine Trump’s shoes with his own tongue, but it might not be enough to save him.

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Illegal Orders

Speaking of video evidence—the Trump Administration should know by now that there is always a video. This time, it’s a video of Hegseth himself declaring that military members are obligated to disobey illegal orders. Yes, that’s right. After threatening to prosecute Senator Mark Kelly for his part in a video calling on troops to do exactly as Hegseth had advised: Do not obey an illegal order. But then we know hypocrisy has never slowed the actions of Trump and his lickspittles.

Job Woes

This week, ADP, the payroll firm, released its November jobs numbers, and, since it’s impossible to trust the data coming out of the federal government, ADP is as good as it gets. But the news isn’t good. The November forecast was for 40,000 new jobs to be created. Instead, the U.S. is down 32,000 jobs, which marks the fourth month of job losses in the last six months of the Trump Administration. Jobs numbers like this, among many other reasons, have Trump’s approval rating on his handling of the economy at its lowest point yet, 36%. Not 36% of Democrats. 36% overall, which means a whole lot of Republican voters are not happy. Which leads us to…

Tennessee

Trump desperately wants to crow about a great GOP victory in Tuesday’s special election. But when is a win not so much a win? When you spend millions in a red state Trump won by 24 points just a year ago, and end up with a margin of victory of only 9 points. Fifteen points is an insane swing, and it does not bode well for 2026 matchups in tighter districts. Usually, when Trump talks about how much he despises flippers, he’s talking about people willing to testify against him.

The Ghost of Epstein Past

The Epstein files are not going away, and Trump’s DOJ has the option of releasing information that will likely look very bad for their boss or continuing to withhold documents, which will only fuel charges of a cover-up and keep the conversation going well into 2026. Like the investigation into the September double-tap/war crime, getting clarity on this murkiness has bipartisan support. As Trump continues to weaken politically, that support will only grow stronger.

Make America Sick Again

Senator (and Dr.) Bill Cassidy, a friend of RFK Jr., chaired his confirmation hearing and, after extracting promises that his buddy clearly never intended to keep, voted to confirm him as Secretary of HHS. Since then, the guy who’s never met a medical conspiracy theory he couldn’t get behind (especially if he could profit off it) is doing exactly as people feared, including Bill Cassidy.

The people Kennedy has put in positions of power within that department, including the vaccine advisory board he’s filled with more conspiracists and incompetents, are debating the Hep B vaccination all children currently receive at birth, without any evidence that it is in the best interests of children and ample evidence that thousands of incurable infections with Hepatitis B are prevented every year, saving thousands of lives. Though Trump and Kennedy enjoy playing footsie with conspiracists, this is yet another area where Trump is underwater. Americans overwhelmingly support vaccinating children, but are having more and more trouble knowing where to turn for reliable medical guidance. I’d suggest the American Academy of Pediatrics. The fact that RFK Jr.’s vaccine panel has cut ties with that trusted organization is evidence of its reliability. How very sad that is.

The Wealthy Are All Right

The many other issues dropping lumps of coal in Trump’s stocking this year will test his love of that fossil fuel, but none more than the affordability crisis. Trump gives a great deal of lip service to helping the forgotten man, but he’s either forgotten his campaign promise to “lower prices on day one” and make life in general more affordable and comfortable for millions struggling in our country.

At no time is that felt more acutely than during the holiday season, and this year is made worse by the uncertainty about whether the healthcare subsidies that keep millions insured and able to access care and medication will continue. Trump could have put this issue to rest with a one-year extension as part of the shutdown deal. Instead, we’re weeks away from massive premium increases that will not only mean millions more uninsured, but also increase healthcare costs overall. As if that weren’t enough, Trump’s tariffs are increasing the cost of already rising food costs through the cost of packaging. Steel and aluminum tariffs are driving up the prices of canned goods that many lower-income folks rely on heavily, the same ones collected at nearly every event during the holiday season. And we cannot forget holiday gift shopping. Middle and lower-income families are cutting back, but don’t you worry, the wealthiest in the country, who just keep getting wealthier thanks to Trump, are buying enough to mask the pain hidden in the sales data.

Does the suffering of the poor and middle class add to Trump’s blue Christmas? Yes, but not for the reasons it troubles normal people with a heart and conscience. Trump’s reason is personal, as is everything with our Narcissist in Chief; it means talk of the affordability crisis is not going away in December and will be there to greet him as 2026 arrives. He can call it a “Democratic con job” as often as he wants, as he did during his North Korean-style cabinet meeting this week, but that only digs his hole deeper. Trying to sell the argument that people are so stupid that they’ve been conned into believing they can’t afford medical care or groceries isn’t something the American people, even Trump supporters, are buying.

No matter how many ghosts visit Trump during his cabinet meeting naps, he will remain the unchanged Scrooge who said this about those in poverty dying at Christmastime:

”If they would rather die [than go to workhouses], they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

It’s painfully easy to imagine that sentiment coming from Trump, but more important to remember that most of your fellow Americans do not feel the same. This New Year offers us a chance to come together and prove it.