The bargain seemed simple enough. If Donald Trump were elected to another term as president- and I’m paraphrasing here- we would see the most significant period of prosperity in the history of our country. Again. Or for the first time? Or was it better than the last time before DEI and LGBTQ+ rights, when women could vote, when Black people couldn’t, and when there weren’t many undocumented people? (But they don’t mind them as long as they’re here legally. They love that Mexican and Chinese food. Maybe, just not the people.)

Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States on January 20, 2025, thus beginning the first 100 days of his second presidency. The 100th day will end on April 30, 2025. We’ve already seen what everyone, including me, predicted: chaos, the irrational behavior of a Madman, unconstitutional actions of a clown, threats of revenge against perceived enemies past and present making people think that they’re the suckers we told them they were, all of these actions met with the overwhelming loudness of silence by 99% of the Republican Congress and voters, like a mob of sheep.

I just received an email from Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist Magazine, not exactly a leftist rag. In the message and the magazine, The Economist describes the first 100 days as the “most consequential…of any modern American president.” Beddoes describes Trump as “…leading a revolutionary project that aspires to remake the economy, the bureaucracy, culture and foreign policy, even the idea of America itself.” That’s heavy stuff, and you know what’s crazy? The question lingers on everyone’s tongue: Who will stop him?

I mean, the GOP could wake up one day from their coma and meekly shout, okay whisper, enough, but you and I know that’s not going to happen. The Democrats could wake up from their coma, take back the House of Representatives next year, hold hearings, make life difficult for Trump, throw up roadblocks, and make noises…and…and…yeah, that’s what I thought.

According to The Economist, “The last source of resistance is the courts.” I mean the Supreme Court (yeah, that court…the one that told us that he’s immune and he took it to mean, I can do anything I want) has found some cojones but how much good did that do (it ain’t over until the fat boy sings)?

And the next presidential election is four years away…if we have another presidential election, and trust me, I’m not holding my breath.

However, I must return to The Economist article:

“Even on the most optimistic reading of the MAGA revolution, Mr. Trump has already done lasting harm to America’s institutions, alliances, and moral standing. And if he is thwarted by investors, voters, or the courts, he is liable to lash out against institutions with even greater ferocity.”

The Economist

In other words, a man trained in the politics of Say No and Don’t give the bastards an inch and the Mafioso style tactics of New York street theater, could just say, No, No, F*ck You and sic the power of the federal government (he saved some for just this occasion) on everyone and their mothers and fathers. Translation: burn the f*cking house down.

You say that doesn’t make any sense. Yeah, because the last 100 days, the four years he was running for President the second time and the four years of White House torture the first time beginning in 2016 and the couple of years before that first presidency, and you didn’t see any of this coming or saw that he has no mission greater than to sow delusion and anger and white supremacy and ego-driven grift so he can retire even richer at a Dacha on the Caspian Sea, far from the long arm of justice that, sooner or later, may catch up or not.

In the meantime, all we can do is to keep exposing the madness and resist in whichever way we can, support the institutions, organizations, and individuals who refuse to bend a knee, hide our friends if necessary, hope that some individuals in the government and law enforcement and the military know that when they took their oaths swearing to the constitution of the United States of America that it meant something.

That a dumb stooge like Trump is not worth sacrificing the best of our ideals even if we haven’t always lived up to them but damn it, we need to keep trying because if we don’t, we won’t have another chance to do it again for maybe a couple of generations at best and even if he’s stopped soon, the damage that he’s done to date, well, let’s just say that that pileup in aisle seven is going to be the biggest damn fart of damage that we haven’t seen in…generations? Hell, maybe as far back as the Civil War.

But probably not as big as the next one. That will be a doozy unless we all grow some cojones and stand firm for a nation that we all talk about in quiet moments of reflection and loud displays of in the street demonstrations and write about in poems and plays and essays and films and know that this is not the nation they think this is and that they can scream anti-Christian bias all they want. Still, the truth is they wouldn’t know what Christianity or Islam or Judaism is if it were nailed to their cerebral cortex.

No shit. I no longer yearn for the next reformation of this country, as was last tried in the sixties and the anti-racism protests of 2020. Trump and his Maggots are not going to fade away into the darkness of history quietly or diplomatically. I’m not sure how, but they will fade or be pushed out, but in the meantime, things may have been changed forever, or as The Economist ended their report, “There is no going back to the way America was 100 days ago. Only 1,361 days left.”