(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Good Job, Trump Supporters! - December 2025 [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-12-12 After years of writing about Trump’s awfulness only to see him reelected, I’ve decided to condense my commentary on him down to a single monthly summary in order to maintain my sanity. I’ve also decided to start sharing these reflections on The Daily Kos (first post!). So what has the president-elect been up to since November 5? As Ron Filipkowski of Meidas+ writes, “Trump has now appointed 14 billionaires to his administration. A government of oligarchs.” Heather Cox Richardson further notes that “While the total net worth of the officials in Biden’s Cabinet was about $118 million…the worth of Trump’s roster of appointees [is estimated] to be at least $344.4 billion, more than the gross domestic product of 169 countries.” I’m sure this is exactly what Trump supporters had in mind when they voted against the elites rigging the system. Money, not votes, controls our government now, which is to say, we’re a democracy in name only. Not surprisingly, Trump is promising to deregulate those billionaires’ businesses and lower their taxes even further, making up the difference with tariffs that will be paid by everyday consumers. Speaking of which… Trump has proposed an across-the-board tariff of 25% on imports from Canada and Mexico and a 100% tariff on imports from China — literally, our three biggest trading partners. For the last time, these taxes will be paid by American consumers, not foreign nations. While tariffs can be used to protect domestic industries from foreign competition, most of the products hit by these tariffs have no domestic substitute. As such, the tariffs will be an import tax with no benefit to the American economy. There is simply no way to square Trump’s promised tariffs with his promises to lower prices and cut inflation. It’s likely he’s using tariffs as a threat to get other concessions from foreign governments, but ultimately he’ll either have to back off from his promised tariffs or face the blowback of rising prices — the thing that he got elected on in the first place. DOGE In order to “drain the swamp” and fight back against the “deep state” of unelected bureaucrats, Trump has recruited two equally unelected and even less accountable billionaires — Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — to create a new advisory body aimed at slashing the federal government. In another irreconcilable contradiction, Trump is promising both to slash government spending and to protect Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and military spending while also cutting taxes. See a breakdown of federal spending here. Ultimately, Trump will either have to raise taxes through tariffs (enraging his base who voted for cheaper groceries), raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations (enraging his main backers), cut popular government programs, or let the national debt continue to explode. I’m betting on the latter. While there is obviously fraud, corruption, and waste that could and should be cut from the federal government, neither Musk nor Ramaswamy have shown much capacity for grasping the complexities and nuances that sorting good spending from bad would require. Their proposals have been ham-fisted, to say the least. Such programs have been tried before. DOGE will ultimately be little more than an opportunity for Musk to gain power over those tasked with regulating his empire and to channel favorable government contracts his way. No longer even attempting to disguise such blatant corruption and conflicts of interest, Ramaswamy has recently suggested rescinding a $6.6 billion government loan to Rivian, which just so happens to be one of Musk’s biggest competitors in the electric vehicle market. This article in The Washington Post explains why arithmetic makes DOGE’s supposed aspirations all but impossible, and this piece from The New Republic describes the essential obtuseness of Musk and Ramaswamy’s approach. Musk, who makes tens of millions of dollars per day just by already being rich has been hinting that he plans to advocate cuts to Social Security, driving America’s elderly poor into deeper destitution so that he can add a few more billions to his pile. Another example of this supposed genius’s obliviousness: Musk called for the ACLU to be defunded…despite the fact that they receive zero taxpayer funding. This moron now has more control over our economy than any single other person, elected or otherwise. Notably, if DOGE does successfully raze federal administrative agencies, they will simultaneously kneecap Trump’s ability to enact his agenda by getting rid of the bureaucrats who are needed to enforce and implement his dictates. As Nicholas Bagley writes in The Atlantic, “They want to blame the bureaucrats, but they’re going to need those very same bureaucrats if they want to get anything done.” That Trump is simultaneously trying to diminish and consolidate the power of the administrative state speaks to how bizarre of a situation we’re in. Expect the next four years to be like this constantly. On the upside, such contradictions of basic logic are why most of Trump’s promises will never come to pass. January 6 Trump has also promised to pardon all of the January 6 seditionists on his first day in office. The fact that Trump won reelection at all definitively proves that the Democrats are unable to steal elections. If they could have, they would have. Therefore, the 2020 election was also not stolen, and the January 6 attackers were very much trying to overthrow a legitimate, democratic election because they didn’t like the result. The fact that Trump won in 2024 also illustrates the fact that all those millions of Republican claiming stolen elections and election fraud knew very well that their votes would be counted and so also knew they were parroting a lie all along. MAGA is built on a foundation of bullshit, and they know it. Ron Filipkowski writes, “With Trump promising to pardon J6 defendants, the DOJ just released a report showing that nearly 600 of them have been charged or convicted with assaulting police officers. Not backing the blue on this one.” No surprise, while promising to protect traitors who assaulted police officers and defiled the Capitol, Trump also says that those investigating the attack “should go to jail.” Illustrating his complete lack of self-awareness, he said recently that Biden: “went after his political opponent violently because he knew he couldn’t beat him, and I think it really was a bad thing.” He also claimed bizarrely that the January 6 Committee “deleted and destroyed” evidence that Nancy Pelosi, a prime target of the attackers, was somehow responsible for the insurrection. Liz Cheney expresses it best: “Here is the truth: Donald Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election and seize power. He mobilized an angry mob and sent them to the United States Capitol, where they attacked police officers, invaded the building, and halted the official counting of electoral votes…Donald Trump’s suggestion that members of Congress who later investigated his illegal and unconstitutional actions should be jailed is a continuation of his assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic.” Deportations The main thrust of Trump’s campaign was his promise to deport every undocumented immigrant from the United States by whatever means. He has indicated that he plans to make an emergency declaration that will allow him to deploy the military domestically to find and remove these immigrants. It remains to be seen who else he might decide to detain, deport, or incarcerate once his police state is in place. Americans will realize too late that their fear of immigrants has led them to captivity. Trump’s actions also make it clear that child separation policies are still on the table, even if he denies it. Stephen Miller, who conceived of the child separation policy in Trump’s first term, is now Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff. Tom Homan, who implemented the policy, is now Trump’s “border czar.” Under Trump’s policies, if children born in the U.S. (i.e., U.S. citizens) have parents who are undocumented, those children will have to either be deported with their parents or be separated from their parents in order to remain here. In The Washington Post, Philip Bump writes: “To put a fine point on it: Those children would be ‘sent back’ to countries in which they have never lived, by the government of a country in which they are legal citizens.” This is not a fringe issue; Bump cites research showing that there are “about 4.5 million citizen children of undocumented immigrants” who will face losing either their parents or their homeland. Strangely, the people supporting this policy of ripping children from their parents still resent being called “deplorable.” The truth hurts, I suppose. Trump has also promised to end and perhaps rescind birthright citizenship. This would require repealing the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which would be all but impossible, but he’s never been big on upholding the Constitution, you know, the U.S. President’s primary obligation. It is possible that this right could go away through a severe reinterpretation by the Supreme Court, unfortunately, should they choose to expend the shred of public confidence they have left. Speaking about the deportation plan, Miller said on Fox News that “It’s going to be at light speed the moment President Trump puts his hand on that Bible and takes the oath of office.” For reference, that same Bible calls on followers to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, comfort the grieving, and welcome the stranger. Jesus further says in Matthew 25: 40: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Fortunately for Trump, modern Christianity is primarily about adherence to empty symbols and has little or nothing to do with actually living according to Jesus’s teachings. Project 2025 Heather Cox Richardson writes: “Trump ran away from Project 2025 during the campaign because it was so unpopular. He denied he knew anything about it, calling it ‘ridiculous and abysmal,’ and on September 16 the leader of Trump’s transition team, Howard Lutnick, said there were ‘Absolutely zero. No connection. Zero,’ ties between the team and Project 2025. Now, though, Trump has done an about-face and has said he will nominate at least five people associated with Project 2025 to his administration.” Not that anyone is or should be the least bit surprised by Trump telling blatant lies at this point, but at least we know the plans his team is working from. For a preview of their intended future, just look to repressive faux-democracies in Turkey or Hungary that conservatives are endlessly fawning over. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. For Secretary of Health and Human Services Trump has chosen an anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist who contracted a brain worm, most likely from consuming roadkill. Seventy-five Nobel laureates in medicine, chemistry, economics, and physics recently wrote a letter to senators urging them to reject RFK for the role. However, in the Trump administration, incompetence is a feature, not a flaw, because the less qualified a nominee is for their role, the more they owe Trump for giving it to them and the more easily he can control them. Pete Hegseth For Defense Secretary, Trump has nominated a Fox New weekend talk show host with a history of abusing women, cheating on wives, drinking on the job, supporting Christian nationalism, and advocating for use of the military against American citizens. If confirmed by the Senate, Hegseth would oversee the Department of Defense, which has 2.6 million employees and a budget of nearly a trillion dollars. By comparison, the largest organization Hegseth has ever overseen, Concerned Veterans for America, had a few dozen employees and a budget of $15 million. Essentially, he would be in charge of the security of the entire nation because Trump saw him on TV. Matt Gaetz While he has since been withdrawn from consideration, it’s important to remember that Trump nominated an alleged sex trafficker, pedophile, and drug abuser for the role of Attorney General, the nation’s top law enforcement official. We may never know the full details of Gaetz’s behavior since House Republicans have voted to block the release of the Gaetz ethics report, as usual putting party before country and principle (if they even have any left). But the fact that they saw the need to do so is damning in its own right. Just a reminder that the party of “law and order” and “family values” who are constantly fear-mongering about “groomers” on the left will go out of their way to protect a child abuser when there’s on their team. Tulsi Gabbard For the Director of National Intelligence, Trump nominated an apologist for the Assad dictatorship in Syria and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, both of which have been responsible for torture, repressions, kidnappings, and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians. Timothy Snyder writes, “In June 2015, as a congresswoman from Hawai’i, Gabbard visited Syria. During her stay, she was introduced to girls who had been burned from head to toe by a regime air strike. Her reaction to the situation, according to her translator, was to try to persuade the girls that they had been injured not by Syrian forces, but by the resistance. But this was impossible. Only Syria (at the time of her visit) and Russia (beginning weeks later) were flying planes and dropping bombs. Either Gabbard was catastrophically uninformed about the most basic elements of the theater of war she was visiting, or she was consciously spreading disinformation. Those are the two possibilities. The first is disqualifying; the second is worse…The Russian media refers to Tulsi Gabbard as a ‘Russian agent’ and as ‘girlfriend,’ with good reason.” Rest of the Cabinet See this Heather Cox Richardson piece for more details on Trump’s terrible cabinet picks. Suffice to say, insecure men always surround themselves with inferior people, loyalists, and those who can be compromised or intimidated into obedience. The incompetence of Trump’s cabinet will be destructive; on the plus side, it will also put limits on how much of his agenda he is actually able to implement. More Gibberish Trump on Truth Social: “The Democrats are fighting hard to get rid of the popular vote in future elections. They want all future presidential elections to be based exclusively on the Electoral College!” The guy who has now twice won the presidency, and who lost the popular vote the first time, doesn’t even have a basic understanding of how our elections work. He of all people should understand how meaningless the popular vote is in this country. Anyone who pays attention to Trump will notice that he doesn’t actually do all that much. He talks and bloviates and complains, but mostly lets things take their course — after which he takes credit for anything good that happens and finds someone to blame for the rest. This is why so many Trump loyalists end up bankrupt and/or in jail and why his staff is in constant flux. As an illustration, post-election Trump has already pivoted from his “American carnage” rhetoric in order to take credit for as many of Biden’s achievements as he can. Buyer’s Remorse One very encouraging sign is how many of Trump’s supporters are already having buyer’s remorse. Many red state leaders are now defending Biden’s spending bills, which are pouring billions into their states, employing thousands of workers, and revitalizing rural economies. Greg Sargent writes in The New Republic: “In Georgia, for instance, some local Republicans are openly worried about Trump’s threat to roll back President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. The IRA is pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into incentives for the manufacture and purchase of green energy technologies, from electric vehicles to batteries to solar power…One of Trump’s central campaign claims was that Biden’s green energy investments will cause enormous job losses in manufacturing sectors like the traditional auto industry. In reality, the IRA is spurring an outpouring of private investment that’s creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs, many in advanced manufacturing and well suited for people without college degrees — in the very areas that in MAGA folklore were abandoned by liberal and Democratic elites.” Sargent continues: “Reuters reports that agriculture interests, which are heavily concentrated in GOP areas, are urging the incoming Trump administration to refrain from removing untold numbers of migrants working throughout the food supply chain, including in farming, dairy, and meatpacking.” And so on for the construction industry, landscaping, and other industries kept afloat by cheap immigrant labor for which there is no viable substitute. Many who voted for Trump to get rid of Obamacare, but who depend on the Affordable Care Act (and are too checked-out to realize they’re the same thing), are now realizing the potential consequences of their vote. This could be why Trump, in a recent interview, said both that “Obamacare was a disaster” and that he “saved Obamacare” despite having worked tirelessly to undermine and repeal it during his first administration. (As a reminder, it was only saved at the last moment by John McCain’s famous “thumbs down.”) Without Hate, MAGA Has No Identity It’s a fair comeuppance that Congress, the Supreme Court, and every other power center has been willing to give Trump unlimited deference in order to overcome the hated liberals, but now that they’ve succeeded, and are faced with the prospect of actually leading, they have no organizing cause or purpose. Trump is their problem now, and the trick will be for libs to stop trying to save the GOP from itself and just let it implode in spectacular fashion. The lack of celebration on the right is incredibly conspicuous. I expected a wave of gloating and glee from Republicans after the election. Instead, they seem angrier than ever, continuing to lurk around liberal sites and writers, trolling, and looking for fights. Many keep calling on liberals to unify and stop being so divisive, and the gaslighting involved is maddening — though I don’t think they’re doing it intentionally so much as they are profoundly ignorant. On some level I think Trump supporters resent the rest of us for not making the compromises they have. They call for “unity,” but what they want is for us to become as servile as they are so our existence no longer reflects back their own cowardice and lack of integrity. I suspect that not only did Trump voters not expect to win (their whole identity is grounded in victimhood and ideas about oppression that could only arise from people who have never seen the real thing), but they didn’t actually want to win. With no one to make them feel picked on and to project their inferiorities onto, they have nothing to identify with or bind their community. Without their hatred of us to hold them together, I expect they’ll quickly fall apart. MAGA is a cult organized around a raging inferiority complex; success may well be their death knell. Fighting Didn’t Work. Reasoning Didn’t Work. Time to Shun? As many Trump supporters now find themselves shunned by friends and family for whom politics has real-life consequences, they seem only more eager for conflict as a way to remain engaged. Because without the anger, fear, and quarreling they have nothing but the reality of Trump all to themselves. Those Trump voters who treat politics with all the seriousness of a meme war are in for a rude awakening. Ossiana Tepfenhart writes on Medium: “A lot of MAGAts are starting to realize the true outcome of their actions: being estranged from their family. They didn’t think that their loved ones would actually distance themselves over their choice to vote against human rights. And now they’re upset and angry… After all the vitriol, anger, and work they put against our rights, you’d think they’d be happy that people are avoiding them, right? Well, wrong.” Knowing that MAGA lives to “own the libs,” to troll, to get in fights that give them a sense of purpose, shunning is likely the best strategy for dealing with them now. MAGA is like the abusive drunk whose wife has finally walked out on him. And they’re mad because they know they have it coming. The Word of the Year for 2025: “FAFO.” In Summary So good job, Trump supporters! You sold out your country to a pack of incompetent billionaires hellbent on destroying the lives of millions of hard-working, peaceful immigrants for having the audacity to come here seeking a better life. And you’re not even going to get the cheap groceries you sold your souls for. Well done. 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