The oddest thing about a populist movement is the presumption that if a candidate is embraced by a bunch of ordinary, disenchanted people who feel themselves overlooked by establishment elites, that somehow that candidate will have something special to bring to the party, some kind of knowledge, that can actually fix the problem. H.L. Mencken saw the folly of this idea early on when he said that, “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.”
Donald Trump has succeeded to the extent that he has because he knows how to plug into the racist, angry, disenchanted id of this country. People vote with their guts, that’s not an original observation. But never in our history prior to Trump have we seen the brain so utterly disconnected from the gut. The main reason for that is that the difference between a Republican and a Democrat never was so night and day as it became in the era of Trump.
Trump is the consummate bullshit artist. And evidently American history will record that America didn’t get enough of a negative lesson the first time around. Trump inherited a roaring economy, which he then proceeded to tank and drove off the cliff when COVID could no longer be contained in March of 2020. For reasons beyond the scope of this column, people decided to go with the devil they knew in 2024 and since January 20, 2025 it has been one eff up after another. Rachel Maddow has codified these “oops” moments and it would be hilarious if there weren’t so many of us hurting for so many reasons since Trump has returned to power.
That’s it, innocent people losing work because the richest man in the world wanted to jump right in there and make sure that he got necessary tax cuts. And what did he find? Oh, some efficiency measures that Joe Biden had already began to implement, except Biden never lied and said he was going to save trillions of dollars.
Trump is tripping over his own shoe laces this time out. And moreover, he doesn’t care. He avoided prison. That was the big deal. So now if he has to take time off the golf course for an Easter egg roll or to fly to the Pope’s funeral in Rome, hey, he’ll do it. Whatever. Nothing’s perfect, right?
The good news is that Trump’s incompetence and his indifference may in fact be what saves America. Because the House and Senate have made it clear that they’re too terrified to stand up to him, major media outlets and some of the biggest law firms in the country are cowed, and even our closest world allies are shaking their heads and treating Trump like a toddler.
For now. Trump will continue to huff and puff but don’t forget, China, Canada, any number of countries can start selling off treasury bonds and it will stop Trump dead in his tracks. Again. This is most likely the template that this misadministration will follow going forward.
The “Dunning-Kruger administration”
And the BEST example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect is good old boy Pete Hegseth. He thinks he is a major force in the world’s Who’s Who of Politics when in fact everybody knows he is incompetent and just a loud noise with a face on it! But hoo boy! He got him some POWAHHH. He bes somebody! Don’t mess with the Pete Man!!! He’s SMOKIN’!! Or is that the Pentagon on fire?