Delhi There’s no way to keep up with the chaos of the current Trump administration, but it is possible to understand how they work, and where they are going. Or, maybe I should say that I increasingly have a working theory. I think they know the clock is ticking, so they have to blow up as many bridges as they can, before they are forced to stop and retreat.
They have fundamentally adopted the strategy of not needing to ask for permission, even as they have abandoned any pretense that they will say they are sorry later. The problem with acting with impunity, ignoring court orders, dealing with legal and regulatory restrictions with subterfuge and sabotage is, as every hardened criminal knows, eventually your luck runs out and you get caught. I think the Trump administration, from Musk on down, know and understand this, so they are racing out the clock before they are stopped. They are certainly enabled by both the hardcore support they have in Congress, as well as all the rest of the elected that are trying to huddle in the fallout shelters there until the anti-government bombing is over.
Polls indicated that Trump and the administration’s support for all of this mayhem is rapidly dropping. Pockets of resistance are cropping up even with the Republican ranks. The Bannonites are at war with the Musk-ovics. Trump’s own inability to focus and concentrate has him extended too far from any rational supply lines as he fights China, his hit list, all of Europe, the UN, Ukraine, and an endless list of others. The incompetence of his Cabinet of Yes will force one embarrassing walk back after another. Some of that has already started. We all know this can’t end well, and these folks aren’t stupid; they know it as well.
None of this is to say that damage won’t be done. It’s clearly being done now. People here and abroad will die because of their ruthless, ideological missteps. Nor can we gauge yet how long the current pain will persist, but the end of this reign of terror is coming, and whether Trump knows it or not, his people absolutely do, including Musk.
Their strategy seems to be to run out the clock as best they can. Get as much done as they can before they are stopped, and hope that the damage is permanent and hard to repair. It is absolutely a unique way to run a government, while still pretending to believe in democratic norms and the rule of law, but looking at the ongoing massacre in the Justice Department is a case study. Dyed in the wool Republicans, who have clerked for the most conservative Supreme Court Justices are resigning in protest. These are not Democratic woke folk. These are the minor league stars of their future.
In another instance take their contempt of court orders by espousing a new theory of “impoundment,” where they are claiming that they are releasing frozen funds, but actually keeping them in the deep freezer by impounding them as they look for contract violations and other excuses to suspend payments. Firing federal workers without just cause is temporary, especially when federal workers are in every Congressional district in the country. Clawing back $20 billion in infrastructure grants will have contractors and business men going crazy. Furthermore, the fact that much of it is illegal, eventually catches up to you.
They are sprinting to the finish on their death star 2025 project, but the crash is coming, even as the collateral damage is immense. At least, this is what I want to believe.