"puzzlement as to why this administration keeps doing things that regular folks don’t like"
Because Trump doesn't care.
It won't have any effect on his ability to do what he wants. What can people do? At worst he loses congressional majorities and he probably thinks between redistricting and restricting the ability of his enemies to vote even that won't happen. Laws and the Constitution are no effective restraints (see any number of recent Supreme Court actions).
Besides which he and his family have made billions from crypto and other corruption and grifts.
He's surrounded himself with enough sycophants (plus the right wing media bubble) that he probably doesn't even notice.
He may be making America's future worse, but he's old and rich enough that it won't affect him.
So the views of regular folks just don't matter to him.
Which doesn't mean we should give up. Electing the right people to fix this mess will take time and effort, but it's vital for the future.
I say this all the time. The politics is just secondary (and if a flattering advisor told him that socialism would make him richer, he’d move left in a heartbeat).
He ran the second time to a) avoid prison and b) cash in on his name while he was still relevant. And that’s…it.
His hubris also convinces him that whatever he does at any given moment is the right thing, because, hey, he won, right? To be fair, it’s hard to argue against that logic, as flawed as it is.
I feel its way colder than that. I think at heart of all of these moves is population control and to get rid of the poor, uneducated and unproductive people. Dig a little deeper under the surface and all these actions hurt and possibly kill people. I'm sure the theme is somewhere in Project 2025. All of the actions so far have been textbook Nazi Germany.
Keep in mind that "textbook Nazi Germany" was strongly influenced by Jim Crow. Project 2025 has a red, white & blue lineage going back to at least the early 20th century. Jacob Heilbrunn's AMERICA LAST: The Right's Century-Long Romance with Foreign Dictators (Norton, 2024) does a good job on this. In the late '60s and into the '70s it attracted (and enlisted) the electoral clout of (mostly) white people put off by civil rights and women's rights advances. Then along came Reagan . . . The GOP hasn't really delivered all that much for working- or middle-class people, but before Trump II they were much more adept at covering up their sins of omission and commission.
It should be no mystery why Trump keeps doing things people don’t like. His ego may want positive polls but in the end he is going along with Project 2025 instigators who are running the authoritarian playbook handing him EO’s to sign which he has never seen before but further the playbook. Trump expects to be insulated from any backlash that would functionally end his presidency and therefore doesn’t care what the populace think.
He initiates some actions but the 2025 white Christian nationalists like Miller & Vought & others are 24/7 initiating in parallel. The latter know this strategy of “ all at once, flood the zone” is only good until it isn’t. T Clown has little to no outside world now - his narcissistic condition has gorged him into a delusional closet. So yes, more of his “ supporters” are seeing stuff happening all around them - most of it unskillfully managed and poorly thought out. It is a hail storm, winds increasing, problems flooding everywhere. Neighbors are yelling…and hurting. Just getting started….
PK: "...[Trump] has good antennae for working-class sentiment."
Yea, but he doesn't actually care about the working class. So, if he thinks he can win elections and dominate without legitimate election victories, then it must be because he has an alternate plan.
See the use of troops and hyper-partisan gerrymandering.
I think even the low info crowd learned about ‘defending to the death’, the right to free speech. maybe we just need to point this out to anyone who identifies with the ‘don’t tread on me’ mantra
"Second, he overestimates his ability to convince the public not to believe their lying eyes."
The Brainwashing Machine can usually produce spotless brains except when the credit card maxes out and the bank account hits $0. That's a big stain it can't remove.
You don’t vote against someone you vote for someone and the Dems are mud wrestling among themselves… I’m much more pessimistic than you, if the 2026 polling swings sharply D I fear T will announce a national emergency and cancel the elections and/or use the military to assure a “fair election” we are approaching the brink…
"puzzlement as to why this administration keeps doing things that regular folks don’t like"
Because Trump doesn't care.
It won't have any effect on his ability to do what he wants. What can people do? At worst he loses congressional majorities and he probably thinks between redistricting and restricting the ability of his enemies to vote even that won't happen. Laws and the Constitution are no effective restraints (see any number of recent Supreme Court actions).
Besides which he and his family have made billions from crypto and other corruption and grifts.
He's surrounded himself with enough sycophants (plus the right wing media bubble) that he probably doesn't even notice.
He may be making America's future worse, but he's old and rich enough that it won't affect him.
So the views of regular folks just don't matter to him.
Which doesn't mean we should give up. Electing the right people to fix this mess will take time and effort, but it's vital for the future.
I say this all the time. The politics is just secondary (and if a flattering advisor told him that socialism would make him richer, he’d move left in a heartbeat).
He ran the second time to a) avoid prison and b) cash in on his name while he was still relevant. And that’s…it.
His hubris also convinces him that whatever he does at any given moment is the right thing, because, hey, he won, right? To be fair, it’s hard to argue against that logic, as flawed as it is.
I feel its way colder than that. I think at heart of all of these moves is population control and to get rid of the poor, uneducated and unproductive people. Dig a little deeper under the surface and all these actions hurt and possibly kill people. I'm sure the theme is somewhere in Project 2025. All of the actions so far have been textbook Nazi Germany.
Keep in mind that "textbook Nazi Germany" was strongly influenced by Jim Crow. Project 2025 has a red, white & blue lineage going back to at least the early 20th century. Jacob Heilbrunn's AMERICA LAST: The Right's Century-Long Romance with Foreign Dictators (Norton, 2024) does a good job on this. In the late '60s and into the '70s it attracted (and enlisted) the electoral clout of (mostly) white people put off by civil rights and women's rights advances. Then along came Reagan . . . The GOP hasn't really delivered all that much for working- or middle-class people, but before Trump II they were much more adept at covering up their sins of omission and commission.
He does not expect to leave office - therefore, why worry about how Americans will react to his actions...
It should be no mystery why Trump keeps doing things people don’t like. His ego may want positive polls but in the end he is going along with Project 2025 instigators who are running the authoritarian playbook handing him EO’s to sign which he has never seen before but further the playbook. Trump expects to be insulated from any backlash that would functionally end his presidency and therefore doesn’t care what the populace think.
He initiates some actions but the 2025 white Christian nationalists like Miller & Vought & others are 24/7 initiating in parallel. The latter know this strategy of “ all at once, flood the zone” is only good until it isn’t. T Clown has little to no outside world now - his narcissistic condition has gorged him into a delusional closet. So yes, more of his “ supporters” are seeing stuff happening all around them - most of it unskillfully managed and poorly thought out. It is a hail storm, winds increasing, problems flooding everywhere. Neighbors are yelling…and hurting. Just getting started….
Well put, Jared! it’s difficult in this current moment to offer logical commentary on much of anything. You do it well; thank you for that… /glc
PK: "...[Trump] has good antennae for working-class sentiment."
Yea, but he doesn't actually care about the working class. So, if he thinks he can win elections and dominate without legitimate election victories, then it must be because he has an alternate plan.
See the use of troops and hyper-partisan gerrymandering.
I think even the low info crowd learned about ‘defending to the death’, the right to free speech. maybe we just need to point this out to anyone who identifies with the ‘don’t tread on me’ mantra
What you explain here sheds a lot of light about what's going on in the NYC mayoral race.
"Second, he overestimates his ability to convince the public not to believe their lying eyes."
The Brainwashing Machine can usually produce spotless brains except when the credit card maxes out and the bank account hits $0. That's a big stain it can't remove.
You don’t vote against someone you vote for someone and the Dems are mud wrestling among themselves… I’m much more pessimistic than you, if the 2026 polling swings sharply D I fear T will announce a national emergency and cancel the elections and/or use the military to assure a “fair election” we are approaching the brink…