It’s the last day of June, 2025, and Donald Trump has been in office less than six months. Yet a headline that you would not have seen in January in the Wall Street Journal, (or anywhere else) you are seeing there today. Why? Because the sages at the Journal see with the same clarity that everybody else does that this BBB-bomb and running Thom Tillis off the way that Trump did, is political suicide. And those very words have been used to describe the BBB-bomb by none other than Elon Musk. So the Journal is back to their comical paddling of Trump. They momentarily left that posture when he did the bunker busting bomb raid on Iran, saying that he “rose to the moment.” Well, that “rise” didn’t last long and now we have the Senate in play, and Trump’s “presidency at risk.” Great.
A common feature of Donald Trump’s two terms as President is that he can’t stand political prosperity. When events are going in his direction, he has an uncanny habit of handing his opponents a sword.
The latest example came Sunday after GOP leaders dragged several holdouts across the line to vote aye and start debate over the Senate version of the budget reconciliation bill. The vote was 51-49, but Mr. Trump couldn’t leave victory alone.
Instead he unloaded on the two GOP dissenters, Rand Paul of Kentucky and especially Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Mr. Trump dumped three different Truth Social posts on Mr. Tillis, calling him a sellout, a “talker and complainer” and various other insults.
He also all but promised to support a Republican opponent in the GOP primary for Senate in 2026, when Mr. Tillis’s term ends. “Numerous people have come forward wanting to run in the Primary against ‘Senator Thom’ Tillis,” Mr. Trump said on Truth Social. “I will be meeting with them over the coming weeks, looking for someone who will properly represent the Great People of North Carolina.”
Mr. Tillis promptly said he won’t run for re-election. Even if Mr. Tillis had already been contemplating retirement, his withdrawal opens a seat that is another pickup opportunity for Democrats next year.
The GOP has a 53-47 majority now, but Susan Collins always has a tough race in Maine if she decides to run again. Democrats are targeting Joni Ernst in Iowa. In the suicide-isn’t-painless department, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is challenging GOP incumbent Sen. John Cornyn. Mr. Paxton may be the only Republican who could lose in Texas given his record harassing business with lawsuits, impeachment, and other embarrassments.
This is all true. What I think would be great is if Susan Collins would do a Thom Tillis and announce her retirement now and help Tillis defeat the BBB-bomb. That’s my favorite political fantasy right now. I don’t expect it to happen, any more than I expect Collins to finally do the right thing and vote the right way, but it’s so satisfying to contemplate.
There are few GOP pickup opportunities in the Senate and if Trump keeps alienating people and coming up with horrifically unpopular legislation, people like Susan Collins, who faces a tough race, might find out that this time she loses, albeit by a small margin. Th electorate has never been more polarized than it is right now. We are a nation terribly divided
The Journal ends its editorial with the observation, “GOP legislative reforms will have no chance if Democrats take the House in 2026. And if they also take the Senate, forget about confirming another Supreme Court nominee. The Trump Presidency will be dead in the water.” So mote it be, as the Wiccan witches say when they cast a spell, So Mote It Be. And it’s even more satisfying that the one doing this to Trump is he, himself.
And yet some 16 months of potential mischief to be tackled/stymied until Nov 3 2026 when the long haul to dismantle and rebuild all that the hold Trump/MAGA/Tea Party on the GOP Has wrought on all 3 branches of government. I say “on the GOP” because good Republicans and Republican ideas exist and have been sidelined.cast aside. The danger is that there will be soooo many faux recantations among the Trump/MAGA/Tea Party factions it will be hard to spot the wolves in sheeps’ clothing. Interesting times
You say in the second sentence that we’re seeing a headline in the Wall Street Journal today that we would not have seen in January. I expected you to reveal it, but you chose not to. I guess I’ll live without knowing what it was.