Well, I think we’ve finally cracked the code on Trumpism. Call it hubris (excessive pride or undeserved self-confidence) or nihilism (The rejection of all religious and moral principles in the belief that life is meaningless). Either way, it’s overreach. I’m not ready to for the hundredth time to say, “Aha, the worm has turned. America has awakened to this nightmare,” because I’ve been wrong a hundred times, but I will say there are signs that average people have had enough.
From proclaiming personal ownership of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, to the history on display at the world’s largest and greatest museum, The Smithsonian, the man who uses the personal pronoun “I” on anything and everything that isn’t his, is having a day.
We already knew that Donald Trump is an attention-craving/attention-starved man who must never be upstaged or humiliated. What we didn’t know was that the Loyalists that he has surrounded himself with are nihilists in conservative clothing. Why decimate our national emergency response efforts? FEMA exists solely to help those in need after disaster strikes, taking its resources flies in the face of the American Way. Until now, we have, as a nation, tried to help people in distress. So much for the Depression-era song, “Brother can you spare a dime.”
Authoritarianism abounds. A frustrated and fed up former DOJ worker threw a submarine sandwich (too bad it wasn’t the whole submarine) at an occupying soldier in DC. Of course they arrested him. Then they overreached by charging him with a felony. The grand jury they empaneled refused to indict him.
There’s an old saying that grand juries are so stacked in the prosecution’s favor (there’s no defense lawyer present, and no counter arguments are allowed), that they could indict a ham sandwich, making the score:
Ham Sandwich 1
Federal Prosecutors 0.
Then there was the case where “Judge” Jeanine Piro’s US Attorneys’ Office in DC—where she has infamously charged her prosecutors with pursuing the most aggressive felony charges against anyone standing up for the people and against the administration, tried to indict Sydney Lori Reid for assault three times—she interfered in an ICE detainment—and were rebuffed by grand juries—three different ones—all three times.
The new score:
Ham Sandwich 4
Government 0
This is more unusual than I can state, but then, what’s “usual” about any of this behavior?
The administration is getting high on its own supply. But I suppose you can’t blame them for thinking they can ignore and abrogate the rule of law at every turn considering that they’ve managed to do so regularly up till this very moment. Even the very right-wing The Free Press agrees, also calling this an undemocratic power-grabbing overreach.
It’s not just the defunding of our best protections against corporate fraud and healthcare, now, by Executive Order, it’s also now illegal to burn the flag. Here’s what the president said: “My Administration will act to restore respect and sanctity to the American Flag and prosecute those who incite violence or otherwise violate our laws while desecrating this symbol of our country, to the fullest extent permissible under any available authority.” One assumes they know it’s settled law, but so was Roe v. Wade. They obviously want a test case to take to the Supreme Court. It will be interesting to see if the Supremes will reverse their own precedent and decides flag burning is now a felony.
Getting Fired on Truth Social
That’s the lot Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook faces. Coincidentally or not, she is the first Black woman to serve as a Fed governor. The way this administration has fired people of color—particularly, but not exclusively—from high ranking military officers to the Fed looks like anything but coincidence. Governor Cook said, “I will not resign. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022.” The Trump Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation. No surprise, that.
Currently only Illinois governor JB Pritzker and Gavin Newsom of California have had the resolve to fight back. Of course we all fear that the Republican-controlled legislatures will pick up Trump’s wishes to suppress likely Democratic voters ability to register and/or vote.
He did say, “Vote for me now, and you’ll never have to vote again.” Their obvious goal is one-party rule, just like China, Russia, and Hungary. The playbook is deceptively simple: gerrymander districts to ensure you block competitors; threaten noncompliant media with loss of license, huge lawsuits, and jail; suppress the vote by purging the rolls, claiming fraud where none exists, and generally undermining confidence in the system.
But I end where we began, with nihilism, because stripping FEMA of resources, canceling medical and scientific studies while heaping doubt on proven vaccines, abrogating the Constitutional rights of immigrants, stripping new satellites of climate surveillance hardware and software, aren’t conservative or progressive goals, they are nihilistic ones.
©2025 Jon Sinton
Nihilism it is, Jon. Thanks for your strong writing!
Don’t hold back, Jon. Tell us how you really feel. In for the long haul.