A CLASS IN HOW NOT TO BE PRESIDENT. AND THE GOP MADE IT POSSIBLE

America has never watched a presidency self-immolate in real time. And take an entire country down with him. The Bulwark called Trump “an economic serial killer, whacking firms left and right.” Trump’s tariffs, deportations of farm workers and cancelling of foreign food aid programs, led farm bankruptcies to rise 46% in 2025 from the previous year. Higher costs for diesel, fertilizer, and other products because of the Iran war are further killing farmers. Tariffs have cut into manufacturing jobs. Corporate bankruptcies last year were at their highest level in more than a decade. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is paying almost $2B to stop wind projects and has cancelled or stalled dozens of other renewable energy products. While China soars in that field. Customs and Border Protection is supposed to issue tariff refunds beginning today, but the money will not go to consumers. It will go to the “trade community.” In The Atlantic, neoconservative foreign policy scholar Robert Kagan ranked the Iran debacle as worse than Vietnam. There will be no going back to a world in which the Strait of Hormuz is open, he writes. Iran is now a key player in the region, China and Russia are strengthened, and the U.S. is “substantially diminished.” Anyone can see that “just a few weeks of war with a second-rank power” drastically reduced American weapons stocks, opening the way for aggression from China or Russia, while “the conflict has revealed an America that is unreliable and incapable of finishing what it started.” The Trump administration seems incapable of any real negotiating with Iran. Just say NO seems to be their only strategy. Trump falls back on threats to bomb Iran into oblivion, even though he is relying on a ceasefire to justify his refusal to ask Congress for authority to continue his war. Gas prices have jumped more than 50% since the war began, with an average more than $4.50 a gallon. Now he is planning to suspend the federal gas tax to bring down the cost of gasoline. This would cost the federal government about a half a billion dollars a week in revenue. All while the national debt is skyrocketing. It crossed $39T in March just five months after hitting $38T. And is on track to hit $40T before the midterm elections. The party of fiscal responsibility did this. Meanwhile Trump’s Truth Social feed reads like a diary of a madman. And that’s not hyperbole. But WaPo reported last week that, determined to mesmerize Americans that all is going well, Trump is posting signs around DC showing him in a hard hat near construction scaffolding that read: “Thank you, PRESIDENT TRUMP.” He needs to be reminded that none of what he’s accomplished would have been possible without the GOP. But we know, even if he doesn’t.