There has been a tremor in the political force. Can you feel it?
President Donald Trump is tempting his presidential fate, having gotten away with literally everything he's ever done in his political and personal life, even a civil judgment for sexual abuse and a violent attempted coup on the Capitol. But he is now throwing aside whatever degree of caution may have once held him back. In the course of just the last month, he's pushed even MAGA's tolerance to the absolute brink. Past history acknowledged, there's no rule that says he will forever get away with everything. He seems determined to put the system through the ultimate stress test.
Something's gotta give, and it might be us. But he's certainly putting himself at risk, too.
Let's don hazmat suits or Mandalorian armor and pick through recent headlines setting out Trump's most recent monetization of his power. Then we'll look at how it's playing among Republicans and the general electorate.
There is, of course, the unprecedented move to literally grab $1.776 billion from the United States Treasury and use it to "compensate" allies Trump claims were victims of DOJ prosecution (He's even daring to be cute, the "1776," true independence from the law). In theory, the fund is the result of Trump dismissing his lawsuit against the I.R.S. for leaking his family's tax information.
Except that's not how settlements work, and "victims" of possible DOJ overreach were always free to file their own claims to be adjudicated by a judge, not Trump's friends. The only thing demarcating these claims as special is that they were done violently in Trump's name. To the extent no law prevents such a settlement, it's surely because no one ever envisioned anyone, never mind a president, requesting one. Not to be rude, but it's also fair to note there is always the possibility that any settlement payments going out come with the expectation that a percentage gets donated to charity, and we all know how Trump handles those.
Prove me wrong.
Moving on, Trump recently disclosed that not only is he heavily invested in equities, but he is also very active in his trades, more active than most traders. He's also quite good at it. Uncannily good. After all, why bother studying future trends when you're the president and can create them?
Commentators cannot help but note the overlap between his stock purchases and presidential action taken on behalf of those companies. As but one example, in February, Trump bought between $1 million and $5 million worth of AI chipmaker Nvidia, and a week later, the company expanded its AI deal with Meta Platforms. Pro-tip: When Trump includes a company's stock ticker in a statement, it may indicate he has "skin" in the game. Trump bought up to $530,000 worth of Palantir in March and then in April tweeted: “Palantir Technologies (PLTR) has proven to have great war-fighting capabilities and equipment. Just ask our enemies!!!”
There is actually a program out there for this if you know where to look.
Nice work if you can get it. Send your resume to the Electoral College.
Something is going on with the ballroom. No one, not even Donald Trump, obsesses about opulence to the degree that Trump obsesses about his ballroom. Not a single day goes by that he doesn't mention the pressing need for what is supposed to be just a gigantic luxurious space to entertain guests.
Yet, the way Trump sounds, it's a wonder the country got this far without one. And on Tuesday, Trump made the strangest comment.
Right. Hang on. Mr. President? Sir?
Readers will be forgiven for collapsing into particularly dark paranoia about why this "ballroom's" most notable features involve anti-missile capacity and a clear line of sight for defensive snipers from the roof. Social media is drowning in posts noting that the clearest explanation is that Trump doesn't plan on leaving the White House, and good luck trying to dig him out, whether by powers enumerated within the Constitution or those emanated from an F-16. He seems to believe he's invulnerable, and for all we know, he's right. Regardless, something is clearly amiss. (By the time he mentions he's putting in the world's first underground golf course beneath DC, it will be too late.)
Whatever the ballroom's real purpose, the American public remains stupefied over how the conspicuous national absence became priority one. On those three to four occasions when the average American finds themselves in need of a ballroom, perhaps a daughter's wedding, we rent what we call "halls" from churches, Rotary, schools, or - gulp, golf clubs. Somehow, we manage.
There is, however, an upside, and we're back around to Trump tempting fate. Those of us opposed to Trump have never been more "on message" than when keeping our mouths shut, watching someone in a red hat pump gas into their truck. Ford doesn't call them F150s as shorthand for "Fill it for $150.00." Meanwhile, that MAGA's president is on the radio, noting that his one-billion-dollar ballroom probably comes with parking for tanks.
Trump also just gave himself a license to steal — literally. Admittedly, this might be a subpart of the $1.78 billion settlement, but it deserves its own mention. Trump just managed to pardon himself and his family for everything he's ever known to have done, plus a lot more we may never know he did, because his "settlement agreement," springing from his IRS file leak (It happened on his watch; he is ultimately to blame), includes this clause begging for impeachment. The United States is forever barred from:
Prosecuting or pursuing, any and all claims, counterclaims, causes of action, appeals, or requests for any relief... whether presently known or unknown... that have been or could have been asserted by Defendants against any of the Plaintiffs... which arise out of (1) any matters that were raised or could have been raised in the Case or the Pending Agency Claims; (2) Lawfare and/or Weaponization; or (3) any matters currently pending or that could be pending (including tax returns filed before the Effective Date)...
Remember, HE was the Plaintiff, and yet this reads like a defendant's release. Any president even asking about such a settlement should be immediately impeached because he's directly asserting that he cannot be investigated by the United States Department of Justice, the crime fighters, for any crimes (Lawfare or "Weaponization"), and clauses two and three are not confined to looking backward in time but can be read prospectively. Somewhere, Putin is whistling in appreciation; it's cleaner than throwing people out windows. But no less a message: "Don't touch me."
Spare the comments about MAGA allowing Trump to do anything, and this is just more of that. And yes, yes — Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy just got primaried out for voting "guilty" in Trump Impeachment II (Impeachments will likely look like the Star Wars series by the end of all this, especially if we get around to 2028 and Impeachment IV "A New Hope"). Additionally, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie just got thumped for daring to investigate Epstein against Trump's wishes. But those are GOP primary voters, the type still responding to Trump funding emails begging for cash. These people are not representative of the general electorate.
Our final exhibit involves pointing out that Trump campaigned on "America First," and yet has spent his most recent Oval Office time palling around with billionaires of all nationalities, seducing not only the Musks, the Bezos's, and Ellisons, but also the Saudis, the jet-setting, and thoughtfully gifting, Qataris, and, of course, the man that many call the "real" richest man on earth, Vladimir Putin. The only time Trump pays attention to American workers is on those occasions when he wants people to buy stock from the company at which they work. Poor people in the Kentucky hill country know that Trump only cares about them when someone from Kentucky demands that Epstein's pals be investigated, and then Trump cares a lot. (It is almost like Trump is trying to tell us something.)
He really is tempting fate this time, the ballroom as a modern Versailles, the slush fund for the private army, day trading from the Oval, the get out of jail free card, it's all making news, and nearly all of this happening amidst Trump's lowest polling ever, averaging 38.5% approval. One need not be a political savant to note that everything listed above will move the needle down, way down. And, that, dear friends, is where we may run face-first into a wall as solid as it is disturbing.
Because what's the only takeaway?
For whatever else Trump might be, he is the master of branding; he's acutely aware of his political trends to the same degree as market trends, which is evidently a lot. He knows none of this will help his political fortunes, only his fortunes. And that's a problem because we're almost forced to conclude that Trump believes he's hit his own tipping point, that literally nothing political matters from today forward. He can do anything. Polls don't matter. Politics doesn't matter. Crimes don't matter. His fears vanished. We find ourselves staring at the "post-presidential accountability period," or at least that's apparently how he sees it.
We know how we see it, have for a long time. Now everyone does. There has been a tremor in the political force, and all sides are at a tipping point. Americans cannot take much more, and Trump cannot take too much. We struggle to eat and gas up; he struggles to further maximize his luxury and safety. One side wins, loser loses; there is no middle ground for settlement — we've seen what Trump settlements look like.
Yes, he's gotten away with everything he's done before. But he's never done anything like this. And he's damn sure never done it at a point during which Americans are struggling as we are. Marie Antoinette made a similar bet in a similar dynamic, and we all know how that turned out. Granted, Versailles wasn't built with defensive sniper sightlines in mind, never mind anti-drone tech. And Trump won't let the cake out of the ballroom, especially if it's chocolate. But there is overlap here, and no, Mr. President, that's a history lesson, not a threat, noted in the spirit of '76, no kings. Not "86."
The only certainty is that this isn't sustainable. Something changed over the last month, a tremor in the political force. It is now or never. Either some galvanizing movement finally reins in Trump's reign, or the last vestiges of what we considered our constitutional republic get sold for scrap, no doubt used as ballroom redoubt.
Jason Miciak is a Rawstory Columnist at Large, past associate editor of Occupy Democrats, an author, American attorney, and single parent girldad. Please follow on Bluesky. He can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com