Anxiety ripples through Trumpworld as report warns of 'beginning of the end'

President Donald Trump's tough-guy act is looking more like a tell than a threat.

The 80-year-old president has absorbed a cascade of defeats in the past week week as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates over his objections, the Supreme Court struck down his push to restrict mail-in voting, a federal judge blocked him from slapping his name on the Kennedy Center, and Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) ran a campaign ad distancing herself from his immigration enforcement record, Axios reported.

On top of all that, gas prices climbed more than a dollar over the past year and diesel hit a record high.

"Time, power and support wane for all lame-duck presidents," Axios reported. "This is what the beginning of the end looks like, which is what scares Trump advisers and confidants most. Trump often retreats to his worst impulses when he feels most powerless."

One senior official brushed off the rough week to Axios reporter Marc Caputo, insisting there's "No Panicans Allowed" — an in-house rebrand of the "bedwetter" jab Trump allies use for anyone showing nerves.

But some in Trumpworld are growing anxious about the possibility of Democrats taking over congressional majorities and launching investigations of the president and his administration, and Axios reported that Trump would undoubtedly issue blanket pardons to anyone he perceives as loyal.

Katie Miller, a veteran of Trump's first administration and wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, wrote on X over the weekend that her family "spent money we did not have on lawyers because of multiple partisan Democrat led investigations into President Trump" after his first term. "You can't convince me Democrats won't do this again," she wrote.

That stands as a signal that Trump's inner circle is already rehearsing its legal defense for a Democratic-controlled Congress that hasn't been elected yet.

According to Axios, the president himself has spent the past year war-gaming a third impeachment fight, banking on Republicans holding the Senate to blunt any real threat of removal.

"The president can count to 67," said one longtime adviser, "and he has bigger balls than anyone in D.C."

However, the boast also acknowledges that Trump's protection comes from Senate vote-counting, not from the public opinion that Axios says is turning against him on the economy, AI and the Iran war alike.