One cannot fully appreciate the level of danger President Donald Trump brings to every assumption ever made about American self-governance without acknowledging that whatever else the man may be, he has been a master at reading the room, manipulating the right-wing press, existing less as winner than feral survivor, able to walk the edge, an anti-political-gravity machine.
Now, though, he seems on the edge of losing that never-more-necessary skill.
Trump has failed more in the last six weeks than in any other period in his political life, outside January 2021. Not content to pull back and reevaluate, he may have just made his worst read yet.
No doubt, any Trump implosion will involve a lagging economy and more messy Epstein revelations. But tied into both those realities is Trump's newly announced lawsuit seeking $10 billion from the Internal Revenue Service, for "leaking" his tax documents — the IRS being part of a government he "rules" with glee and considers his piggy bank. Yes, the suit enrages the left — but everything does. More importantly, this will enrage too much of the right, especially if the suit is successful.
MAGA celebrates the man who sleeps with porn stars and owns Mar-a-Lago, who has bragged from day one that he's "really rich." Some supporters will still defend him. Nothing comes more naturally to these folks than falling into the victimhood in which they entrench themselves so comfortably: "Look at what the IRS did to him! They investigated... "
Yeah, they did. Set aside that those investigations were in far better faith than those of Jerome Powell, Hunter Biden, or the auto-pen: the man ended up president again, richer than ever. Now his lawsuit looks like a bank robbery — because that's precisely what it is. Even more dangerous to Trump, it makes him look desperate, more gluttonous than righteous, and will insult many followers.
"We thought that you already had limitless money, and now you say you need a few more billion, so you're giving it to yourself?"
Basically, yeah.
He might once have assured himself that he can navigate the landscape better than anyone, that it's a risk worth taking given the gold, and he'll survive anyway. But he's given himself reason to doubt lately, so much so that the IRS suit looks particularly reckless.
Look at all Trump managed to do since the holidays.
He grabbed Nicolás Maduro in the middle of the night with an operation of almost breathtaking professionalism if dubious motivation — then immediately coughed up the snap by practically declaring himself king of Venezueala and never looking more adolescent in his neediness than when "accepting" the Nobel Peace Prize won by Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.
Then he stormed off to Davos, to humiliate himself in pursuit of the white whale that is Greenland, only to fail and get owned by Canadian PM Mark Carney.
Regarding Minneapolis and the depredations of ICE, Trump fumbled and appears to be backing down from the message, to the degree that he's even forced MAGA pols to turn on him, or at least take him less seriously.
And then came Epstein again...
So demanding the government he runs give him $10 billion fits the pattern — as oblivious as it is gratuitous, a net worth between five and ten billion apparently not enough. He wants to double it with daylight robbery? This looks particularly stupid.
Good, although the stupidity is less of a problem than the shameless greed. Trump isn't suing for $10 billion as symbolism. This is about getting a check, nothing more.
Picture it now. We enter summer 2026 with Americans on edge. The cities are hot, tempers are high, everyone nervous because inflation refuses to come down, markets become increasingly uneasy, and real economic fear sets in, even if short of panic. Does Trump really want to have the IRS announce that it "settled" his case for any significant amount?
Put it this way, our system uses lawsuits to remedy damages and punish when things go awry. This lawsuit involves a "victim" whose net worth has done nothing but shoot up since he entered public life. What needs remedying?
But even that matters less than a voter sitting back, knowing Trump "banked" on winning by filing, wondering "Why the f--- does this guy get to give himself a few billion more dollars for the trouble while I just took a second job?"
Such thoughts will not consume all of MAGA, but they will consume enough.
If Trump's Nobel hold-up revealed his immaturity, self-absorption, and shameless simplicity at previously unseen levels, then this move highlights greed and cluelessness so shocking that even the most cynical might say, "Whoa." Trump thought he could wrestle Greenland away from Denmark only to get hung with a giant "L." The pattern could repeat here, only on this one, he'll surely get his check, only to then "lose" far more than money.
One last thing. No question, Trump believes that even though every president endures troublesome leaks, he is the world's biggest victim. So if he really wanted to stick it to the leakers in the IRS, he could actually sue for one dollar and tell the world he wants to make a statement, for either the government or a jury to admit he was wronged. He could do so. But he's Trump, and no principle stands above "the" principle: "Only money matters."
Nice move, Ace. Normally, I would be the one needing to check myself, having failed in predicting your political demise all too many times. But with your recent record, there's reason to believe that you've developed a bit of a blind spot.
Relentless greed does that, and one senses that even MAGA has its limits, if feeling economically left out. In this case, they will.
- Jason Miciak is past Associate Editor for Occupy Democrats, an author, and attorney. He can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com and on "X" at @JasonMiciak, and now follow on Blue Sky.
