Real populism is governing in public interest, not a small knot of elitist governing in their self interest

Real populism is governing in the public interest and not governing in the self-interest of those rich, politically connected, and the billionaires. One form of populism is economic. Another is techbro populism. Sadly, another form is racist. All are at work in America today, and more than one might dwell in the hearts and minds of some voters at the same time.

Economic populism is an easy concept to grasp. Recent articles in the Atlantic magazine have been focusing on the influence of the techno bros, the chiefs of high-tech industries, who are the recent drivers of anti-democracy fascist like influences in the White House and pubic policy. It explains why these newly minted oligarchs love Putin, Orban, and CPAC, as their businesses flourish when government is shaped to support their economic well-being.  The only population they consider is their own and not the rest of us.  

One of the characteristics of populist movements in the past, the Tea Party, and even MAGA has always been a resentment of elites controlling their lives and making their lives, working class and even many in the middle class, economically difficult.  This is largely based on economic concerns... especially since consumers are the ones who feel the pain. 

Techbro populism is another matter. The Atlantic's recent article by George Packer fingers the culprits as those who surround and influence Trump, such as Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and others. (JD Vance is a protege of Thiel. Musk, a native of South Africa, echoes the racist and elitist makeup of fascists of the 1930's and the apartheid supporters of the last century. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/06/david-sacks-crypto-ai-venture-capital/686941/

  This new techbro populism is the polar opposite of economic populism: These techbros want a government that helps their businesses and serves their interests, led by a small group of elites who run the government to advance their self-interested goals. However, another element has been part of the techbros mantra. It is anti-elite: extreme libertarian and "keep the government out of my business." However, it has recently changed. It is a new realization that government action is okay "when it helps my business through favorable tax and administrative policies". Libertarianism is a long-held populist concept held by many. "The best government is the least government" is their frequently uttered mantra. There is a strong anti-elitist streak in its followers.  Brotech populism is self-contradictory: it is both elitist and anti-elitist at the same time.  The impact, though, is anti populist and elitist. Techbros often do not care, or may not even grasp, what it is like to be on a budget for individuals and families. 'What's a few cents if gas at the pump rises?  They just do not get the uproar.

Such governance by rich elitists contains the seed of their own eventual destruction and will eventually be brought down by those whose needs are not met, as the rich and a ruling oligarchy become richer and those whose needs are not met become poorer. A lot of time and pain have to flow under the bridge before it dawns on the masses. It certainly happened to Viktor Orban in Hungary, as popular resentment of his oligarchical and corrupt rule resulted in economic pain. It became so strong that the masses of ordinary people overcame even Orban's suppression of the free press and political gerrymandering and took to a whisper campaign, quiet organizing, and the ballot box. Orban was defeated.

A few MAGA-ers have awakened to this challenge against their own interests. It is close to how the Trump administration is operating now, a rule by the rich, characterized by those techbro s who sat directly behind Trump when he put his hands on the bible for his second term. Trump's lust for respect by accumulating power and wealth is similar to the tech bros' goals. That is Trump's peer group, only he adds just the Mar-a-Lago type, very wealthy, who never have to worry about a budget, and Putin, rumored to be the richest one in the world, who he is influenced by and influences a loyalist group of oligarchs, too. 

Why do most MAGA turn a blind eye to Trump's peer group oligarchy and his attempt to Orbanize America? They shouldn't, logic dictates. What MAGA and liberals have in common is the ability to rise up through democratically protected peaceful means, such as through the ballot box or peaceful street demonstrations.  Preservation of democracy and a government that rules in the public interest, rather than the elite wealthy, should be and are common values, even if they are not yet realized or under threat. So what else is driving much of the MAGA if not economic populism?

I have a theory based on some observations: There is another streak of populism: racist populism. I suspect it is more powerful than economic populism in deep red states.  It has been characterized by Trump's appointment of white nationalists in key administrative positions and their obsession with the destruction of DEI, the continued use of racist dog whistles, and the reaction to the recent Supreme Court decision that gutted the civil rights era Voting Rights Act. This decision, pronounced with the piety of promoting fair elections by negating protections against racial gerrymandering, has accomplished the opposite. This decision instead is opening the floodgates to racial gerrymandering as Louisiana now works to eliminate Congressional districts represented by African Americans.  Now, under the cover of the SCOTUS decision, the former slave states' white-dominated legislatures rush to redistrict before and even during the campaigns for November 2026 and 2028. The estimated result is 22 African American congresspeople losing their seats while claiming racism has nothing to do with these actions. How stupid or naive do they think Americans are? 

 Those who get it and agree with the hidden messages in the dog whistles and racist redistricting remain quiet or find some other reason to support the racist intent of their representative in state legislators. They are, in a way, part of a populist movement. They show their consent by remaining quiet or voting for redistricting that is geared to remove as many African Americans from Congress as they can. while still voicing support for their white legislators. Racism as an openly touted value is still politically incorrect, but winks and nods masked in a variety of dog whistles are right there up front, conveying it in other ways. Their silence is deafening. and actions speak louder than words. Silence says as much as anything. Silence is a form of consent.

What are dog whistles? a simple explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8_fgJQHkOc.   

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/state-redistricting-battles-intensify-following-u-s-supreme-court-ruling-on-voting-rights-act

https://apnews.com/article/trump-inauguration-tech-billionaires-zuckerberg-musk-wealth-0896bfc3f50d941d62cebc3074267ecd

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2026/02/white-christian-nationalism-has-taken.h

All politics is local, so national views on gerrymandering I have seen do not differentiate views based on race, but on politics.  Nonetheless, here are nationwide views. In short, most people are not well informed even on political gerrymanders.  https://yougov.com/en-us/articles/52740-large-majorities-americans-say-gerrymandering-major-problem-unfair-should-be-illegal-redistricting-texas-california-poll  

White people are poorly treated, claims Trump. His true self is revealed again

 The president just claimed that "white people in this country are poorly treated."Trump's true self is revealed again. I have been trying to find proof, too, that those who are not DEI hurt white people. By eliminating DEI throughout the federal government, the result is not to level a playing field, but to give a green light and to remove a barrier to what nationalists most desire, which is giving their race (and mine), already a heady majority, more of an advantage over others. This is a nation with nearly 40% percent of those not white. This is the white nationalists' dream to increase domination of a majority over a minority, a formula for a past and a future of racial conflict. It is not just divisive, it is dangerous for a future we hope will be peaceful and governed by and for all of the people.

What we now have is a country led by an obvious racist and who includes white nationalists in non-elected, powerful, influential positions in his administration. Now his administration is actively recruiting white nationalists for ICE. The US government seems to have a clear message for white nationalists | CNN Politics Whatever could go wrong?

What is clear is that Trump has built his political base and risen to near absolute power on racism, from birtherism to central park 5 to the golden escalator to constantly documented dog whistles to rally his fellow racists, like calling tiki torch carrying neo nazis fine people. Trump has made it clear that the only migrants he welcomes to the US are Norwegians and White South Africans. How much more blatantly obvious can a racist be?

The real shame is that so many Americans share or tolerate his racism.

The other shame is that his racist whisperer is in his ear daily and given a permission slip to proceed. Stephen Miller on his staff has a long history of white nationalism. If anything, Miller's contribution to the Trump regime is his anti-immigrant stance, including using the cruelty of family separation as a tool and in deporting immigrants without due process. He is viewed as an extremist in these sensitive matters. Given his anti-immigrant reputation, I doubt if the Bill of Rights and the civil rights-related amendments would be high on his required list of curriculum topics. The Southern Poverty Law Center tags him as an extremist.https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/stephen-miller/. Miller is in charge of this ICE project aimed at ridding the country of as many brown people as he can under the pretext migrants are criminals when 70 percent of those they grab have no criminal record.. ..but are brown and are both american citizens and who only committed a misdemeanor of being undocumented. Miller's campaign involves eliminating the birthright citizenship of those born in the US and cleansing them from this country.

the-independent.com

Trump says white people being treated ‘very badly’ due to civil rights protections

"Slavery was not that bad" is Trump's newest propaganda line.

 As part of the White Nationalist influence in the GOP, as personified by Project 2025's anti-DEI purpose, now the Trump regime is trying to rewrite official history (revisionism like the Chinese and Russian communists undertook to justify their policies) by pressuring the Smithsonian to stop portraying slavery as so terrible. Trump says the Smithsonian focuses too much on 'how bad slavery was'   Even now, reference to Trump's impeachments is removed from the Smithsonian because of his objections. Trump’s impeachments have been removed from a Smithsonian exhibit, for now : NPR If the Smithsonian complies, it will become the Trump Propaganda History Museum.  Its lies will be revealed by the preservation of the real history of newspaper report archives and of slavery in America by many institutions not dependent on federal funding. This recent outrage, coupled with recruitment appeals to racists to join ICE "to defend your culture", is the newest example of Trump's racist appeal to some of his core supporters.

To bring this up to date, the persistence of these racist attitudes in my native Oklahoma is that the anti-woke attitudes will be taught to their children in school, as all teachers hired from blue states will have to be screened to get teaching jobs for compliance with anti-wokism..Exclusive: Oklahoma to begin controversial test to weed out ‘woke’ teacher applicants today | CNN Politics  Oklahoma by any measure ranks lowest in education, near the bottom of the 50 states. Oklahoma schools ranked nearly the worst in the nation in new study  Whatever education their children get will now be MAGA's view.  Oklahoma has already banned  DEI on higher education campuses.  DEI ban on Oklahoma college campuses signed into law • Oklahoma Voice.   Nearly 8% of Oklahoma's population in African-American per Google AI, and Tulsa was the site of the most famous racial massacre of blacks  by whites,( Greenwood, 1921), in US history per Wikipedia..

 What is so horrible about this newest example of the racism element in Trump's MAGA movement to paint slavery as not that bad is that slavery has been a part of human history forever, and usually those enslaved were bounty and victims of a lost war, regardless of race or religion, but the uniqueness of American slavery is that those enslaved were of a particular race and color, enslaved because they were considered inferior, less intelligent, less competent, for one reason, because they were black.

. I remember my days growing up as a little white girl in a Jim Crow-like culture in Oklahoma, where I was sat down, not my parents, but by my music teacher,  and told  Negroes were descended from monkeys and were just not equal to white people. I was 12 or so in the early 1950s.  I had been told by my parents, who were from the north, that black people were every bit as smart and intelligent as white people.  They were human beings like us and deserved to be treated likewise.

 There were two attitudes I heard expressed by other adults then, too. It was either that they deserved being cared for because they were inferior to us whites, a paternalistic holiness; after all they got free food, clothing, and housing, and medical care. Say what? Here is what I know. This was in return for work with no pay, rape, beatings of the slackers, and death to those who revolted. Slaves were property.  Starving and sick and unable to work were of no value. Rebellious slaves were to be feared.  Negroes were to be controlled by violence, lynching,  and brute force to keep them in their place. (I am using the word "Negroes"; that was the term used in "polite" white people's conversation then; the "n" word was in more common and open usage.).  Whether Trump himself is like that, he is careful with his words, is a matter of deduction and surmise, but with such statements, he reflects some of those same racist attitudes held in the ruby red south that  I remember from growing up in that culture.  Cudos to  Joe Scarborough on MSNBC today, that those who deny the awfulness of human slavery in the US are like the holocaust deniers.  He is right: both deniers are ...trying to erase the guilt of their participating or approving in acts that are the worst examples of an awful side of human nature.

Keeping track of Trump court cases: updated to 8/1/25

 Tracking the court actions and lawsuits over Trump’s agenda  

6/20/25 I once got into a tangle with a Trumpster regarding the importance of the rule of law. The response was a litany of all of the court rulings against Trump's interest, claiming the anti-Trump decisions, from the 2020 stolen elections to now, were because the judges were all liberal... despite rulings by Reagan and Trump appointees. Yesterday, two court decisions were particularly significant: one upheld the federal government's right to use National Guard troops without the state governor's approval, as seen in the recent California case. The other went against the attempt by the Trump administration to withhold already approved funds for roads and bridges to force states to comply with Trump's mass immigration deportations. What say you, Trumpsters? The only court rulings you respect are those that support Trump's policies?

UPDATES ON TOPIC POST APR 30 

Immigration: special temporary status;  evidence of Trump's racist motivation.   The evidence used by the plaintiff of the racist nature of the Trump regimes order was Trump and Trump offical's own words. crista_ramos_et_al_v._kirstjen_nielsen.pdf

'Huge': Supreme Court hands Florida loss in bid to bar undocumented migrants  ruling says states cannot enforce immigration laws. Florida tried to bar an undocumented person from entering the state from another state.

A district judge ruled against theTrump regime's attempt to arbitrarily, without concern for specific situations on the ground, end special temporary protective status for refugees from anywhere. While this may disappoint those who back Trump's plans to get as many brown people out of the US, note that people caught up in that illegal Trump act were also Ukrainians, whose homeland they would have been faced with returning to, is hardly safer, especially given Russia's drone strikes. Another reason given by the judge is significant...agreeing with the plaintiff's argument that the Trump regime was abusing the law because it was attempting to keep brown people from replacing white people, referring to the infamous ideology held by Nazis and US neo nazis. (Jews will not replace us) The report by Newsweek did not contain what evidence there was of the racist nature of Trump position, but that may be worthwhile digging into . Donald Trump suffers major legal blow over migrant protections

msn.com

Donald Trump suffers major legal blow over migrant protections

Donald Trump suffers quadruple legal blow within hours

immigration'

Pacito v. Trump: Challenging Trump’s suspension of USRAP | International Refugee Assistance Project

Update: 7/2/2025 Trump blocked by federal judges to end asylum granting and to end special temporary status for Haitians.  Judge Blocks Trump's Bid to Deny Migrants Asylum

• The targets of cruel and unconstitutional treatment of migrants are limited to certain races, yet 500,000 of European descent in the US are also undocumented.. Only those of Hispanic or Asian descent receive such treatment and are snatched without warrant from jobs and the street, deprived of due process despite court orders, and sent to gulags without attorneys or recourse to prove they had not committed a crime deserving deportation or disappeared in a foreign gulag (though SCOTUS did rule they needed due process and Trump is accused of defying)), or for just being undocumented, they can be shipped to a foreign country, not the one of their origin., Supreme Court allows third-country deportations for now : NPR   

Trump says he’s ‘not defying the Supreme Court’ amid standoff over wrongly deported man - POLITICO  re the Abrego Garcia case.

Update 6 20 2025 https://www.npr.org/2025/06/19/g-s1-73050/trump-national-guard-california-immigration      Appeals court approves federal use of national guard, even though the governor did not approve. 

In another case, Trump tried to deny transportation funding to force states to abide by Trump's ICE actions. The district court ruled against the Trump administration, but expect appeals. https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-judge-blocks-trump-plan-tie-states-transportation-funds-immigration-2025-06-20/#:~:text=June%2019%20(Reuters)%20%2D%20A,their%20government%20subdivisions%2C%20like%20cities.

Supreme Court Lifts Injunction Barring Deportations Under Alien Enemies Act; Brennan Center Reacts | Brennan Center for Justice

Supreme Court allows third-country deportations for now : NPR

Abrego Garcia: Judge stresses due process while rejecting bid to detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia pending trial    however, ICE can still detain him under another law.   6/23/2025

'Lacks any basis in fact': San Francisco warns judge that Trump admin is 'ignoring' injunction by again trying to limit funds  Trump tried to withhold homeless housing funds via HUD to force cities to comply with his immigration policies..  There was an injunction against that...and Trump tried another approach that caused the judge to issue this warning .

birthright citizenship

     Birthright citizenship explained as justices weigh blocks on Trump's order to end it  

     ‘Unprecedented’: Supreme Court Poised to Restrict Anti-Trump Injunctions

      Trump Admin Blames 'Administrative Errors' After ICE Deports Wrong Man - Newsweek  Jordin                   Melgar Salmeron

Deportations of refugess on temporary visas

      https://www.politico.com/.../supreme-court-trump....

The Trump regime can now go ahead. However, whether there is due process, humane treatment, manpower, or always fair and wise are still an issue. Without enough manpower to catch and deport everyone, expect some to go underground, too., taking chances with "catch me if you can".

deportations

       Donald Trump suffers quadruple legal blow within hours    Alien enemies act update 6/5/2025 Federal judge Boasberg:    : due process for El Salvador deportees...required and can sue to get it      (did not demand return) 6/5/2025

      Supreme Court blocks Trump from restarting Alien Enemies Act deportations | CNN Politics  

      https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/16/supreme-court-extends-block-trump-deportations-00355210

SANCTUARY CITIES: Trump lawsuit thrown out that tried to force state to participate in immigration raids

tariffS

    https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/28/business/us-court-blocks-trumps-tariffs

 DOGE 

    ‘Unlawful’: Trump’s Mass Layoff Plan Suffers Blow  5/30  Appeals court upholds; now onto Supreme Court

     https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-s-mass-firings-at-several-agencies-will-remain-on-hold-appeals-court-rules/ar-AA1FOBam?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=c6b6073c4cc44df99a95a47122b64a12&ei=18

     'A meaningful burden': Judge gives Trump huge win, says deposing DOGE staff cannot stop government from enacting 'permanent' USAID 'shutdown'

Update 6/5/2025  Jobs corps, Department of Education; Donald Trump suffers quadruple legal blow within hours

VOA

P

ED DPT/ separation church state  academic freedom

   https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/05/22/supreme-court-religious-charter-school/83788963007/?csp=chromepush

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/22/nx-s1-5407521/trump-education-department-layoffs-injunction#:~:text=Judge%20blocks%20Trump%20administration%20from%20closing%20the%20Education%20Department&text=On%20Thursday%2C%20a%20federal%20judge,Department%20to%20the%20status%20quo.%22

Bills of attainder cited in Harvard suit against Trump targeted orders: bill of attainder | Wex | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_attainder#:~:text=Bills%20of%20attainder%20were%20sometimes,personal%20rig, personal rights. Also search Google AI.  Laws cannot be enacted that target specific groups or people for political reasons. 

Harvard hits Trump administration with lawsuit after DHS bans international students Judge extendsLive updates: Federal judge extends order blocking Trump ban on foreign students at Harvard | AP News TRO

LAW FIRMS

   Judge smacks down Trump in retribution case

BANNING AP

PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP

UNIVERSITY FUNDING, GRANTS AND LOANS

    Harvard hits Trump administration with lawsuit after DHS bans international students

    Live updates: Federal judge blocks Trump administration from blocking foreign students at Harvard | AP News

     

pROTECTING PRIVATE DATA

TRANSGENDER

DEI   https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-discrimination-lawsuit-ohio-205f07a2d47d7a46cfc96a5fefdf9269     Reverse  discrimination case backed (straight vs LGBTQ)

NEW ONES

Free speech protected from government suppression: National Rifle Association v Vullo: MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Free speech got protection from government retribution in unanimous SCOTUS decision

Federal militarization of state and local law enforcement

    https://apnews.com/.../california-immigration-national...

6/13/25 This is a temporary halt on the lower court ruling that the California National Guard control should be returned to the Governor. It is not a ruling on the substance of the lower court judge's ruling. This is a very important issue to follow since the courts now are the only control of federal government overreach, and their bogus argument that the LA demonstrations were a rebellion or invasion that gives the feds justification for ignoring the objections to the deployment by the California governor. One can imagine in other states or in other administrations whether federal militarization without governors' objections, a federal militarized police state, will be allowed.

‘Unprecedented’: Supreme Court Poised to Restrict Anti-Trump Injunctions

Ending independent agencies and giving Trump more power to fire:Supreme Court allows Trump to fire members of independent agency boards — for now : NPR

States secret actState secrets privilege - Wikipedia

war powers emergency  alien enemies act

  suspension of rights during act of war - Google Search

  https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/16/supreme-court-extends-block-trump-deportations-00355210

VOTING RIGHTS

What kind of a country do I want to leave to my children and grandchildren?

 What kind of a country do we want to leave for our children and grandchildren? I had the rare opportunity to spend 20 years of my life visiting family living in a communist dictatorship in Yugoslavia. I began that experience by witnessing how dictators consolidate power from the beginning as a student in pre-wall Berlin. 1958-1959. From that, I certainly learned what sort of a country I want to leave to my children and grandchildren, and it is not one that is under a Trump dictatorship. He is on his way to establishing one, and I have deja vu all over again.

The downsides of a dictatorship," strong man" president, autocracy, king, fascism, in a nutshell:

1) The people's voice and needs can be easily ignored. With so much money and power in a few hands and few checks left to curb power, a few in charge can pursue their obsessions, which may not be yours or the ones the strong man promised when he was preparing to assume the reins of power. For that reason, Turmp can just ignore the egg grocery and cost of living..inflation in his obsession of tariffs as he is doing now.

2) It is unfair to favor those with power and money and subvert or ignore laws that all once had to abide by with the rule of law. It is unfair. It is not fair to all, but it benefits only one side, the winners and those who hold the reins of power and money. How far is he willing to go on this one, but he is testing the ability to stop him in nearly all of his overtly unconstitutional executive orders and policies, including due process. Neither due process nor civil rights exist in dictatorships. Trump is attempting this with his recent finger raised against the Supreme Court on that issue, due process, concerning shipping deportees to El Salvador's gulag, and his obsession with anti-DEI, rolling back 50 years of gains in civil rights. The question is whether he will abide by Supreme Court decisions or defy them. He is setting himself up to be the ruler of law, the decider of which laws, judges, and courts and their decisions he will honor. The current dispute over the return of Abrega-Garcis, wrongfully sent to the El Salvador gulag may put the term and value of "due process" as a right that extends to undocumented migrants as well. Taking that away, refusing to abide by court rulings and demands, is not something confined to such migrants. Instead, per Donald Trump, he believes that it should be ignored even in the case of American citizens who commit crimes.

3) Fear permeates words and actions throughout society, government, and business.. The repercussions, however, are on the people who are made to fear what happens if they are not loyal to the ruling group or who dare to challenge them. It drives speech and action instead of caring what is helpful to the public good or constituents..Fear of loss of income or political position drives private and public policy leaders to repeat the leader's talking points, whether or not they agree, bow to the president's demands, or keep quiet. Placing federal law enforcement in the president's total control, the Department of Justice is the enforcer. This is what Trump is attempting to do to academia if they do not bow to his anti-DEI orders and in society in general, in curriculum, and in speech and journalism.

Trump's attack on academia is very disturbing, especially when it targets my alma mater, Northwestern, and Cornell and Harvard who gave degrees to cousins and a son.

I applaud Harvard for refusing to buckle to Trump's extortion to force them to do what the federal government demands. tt may look like Trump is using the conflict and ahorrence of anti-Semitism to try to control academic freedom on campus. I hope my alma mater, Northwestern, holds firm against Trump's demands to control them. Northwestern has gone out of its way to deal with anti-Semitism on campus, and its president himself is Jewish. The issue is not anti-semitism. That is a pretext for forcing academia to bend the knee to a wannabe dictatorship. If they do it on this issue, what about others like DEI, of which, in my view, is a Whtie Christian nationalist agenda Trump is enacting with a vengeance...including forcing the ideology down academia's throat as a consolidation of dictatorial powers. Full disclosure: within my family are also Harvard and Cornell graduates, and me, Northwestern.

youtube.com

Report: Trump administration freezes $790 million to Northwestern

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

This is an updated, condensed version of two prior postings:

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: What's the big deal about democracy? Who cares? Updated through 3/29/2025

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: What's the big deal about the rule of law? Who cares? Updated to 4/15/2025

Two week mark of the Trump presidency: attempted rule by fear and favor

 To take the standard of the Department of Justice it had until recently, to administer prosecutions "without fear or favor'.is a good standard of how the rule of law should work in order to be as fair and nonpartisan as possible.  It is also a standard for democracy as a whole and describes the ideal fairness standard for which it strives. By the two-week mark of the Trump presidency, Trump has turned that worthy goal upside down, and he is attempting to create a regime using fear and favor to gain power and to keep it.  

This is just the beginning with Trump's opening salvo of decrees and executive orders. The pushback has not begun. We do not know how effective the pushback will be. It will come from the courts and from the voters in the midterm election in two years, which could reinforce the legislative branch, giving them a backbone with a different party in the majority., and restoring some degree of the balance of powers. It could also come from the streets, given the passions and anger Trump has awakened.  It could be propelled by Trump's decisions that result in higher living costs and inflation, disillusioning some of Trump's 2024 voters.

Who is Trump favoring?  Trump is the dream ruler for billionaires. He promises to lower taxes on rich people and free them from administrative constraints on rich people's ability to become richer. These barriers the already rich want to control or eliminate were designed to protect consumers and the environment and to cut the ability of the government to provide help to those unable to help themselves, the sick, the elderly, and racial and societal minorities, Head Start,  and children with poor nutrition. One of the regime's first acts: fire the head of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. Next, they will attempt to eliminate civil service employees by reclassifying through regulation F, removing protections from political pressures, and replacing them with loyalists to Trump or the ideology of Project 2025 so that government rulings are in step with their priorities. Already executed in Trmp's first week: the end of DEI and the firing of all employees associated with the program. The plan laid out in Project 2025 was to eliminate DEI (diversity) goals in hiring and promotions as if it is to make white males who claimed they were the victims of discrimination the sole government rulers again as they were before the civil rights movement of the 1960s. 

The attempt has virtually neutered Congress so far, with the GOP majority nodding heads or being silent and turning over their power to Trump to do as he pleases. Trump and Musk ignored the Constitution and laws that define the executive branch's role in "faithfully executing" the laws and funding Congress passed. Instead, they are attempting to become the controller of the purse in the place of the legislature.

How could this happen? Trump uses the tools of the powers of government to discipline his followers to comply by threats to primary them if they are House members and to destroy those he sees as political enemies by using the DOJ to bankrupt them by filing criminal action (without even probable cause) against anyone else.  Trump's revenge against anyone who had anything to do with bringing criminal charges against him since 2020 may satisfy his hateful instincts, but it also serves as making an example of how he would treat those he sees as his foes and how he keeps his supporters in line.  It is a rule by fear in political messaging as well. Fear of "others" who are not white males and are immigrants has been the leading drumbeat of his campaigns since he first entered national politics. It has been a successful message and strategy. Trump knows what works, and he knows the soul of his core supporters.

Trump is attempting to rule by favor, as well, as he places in power as a reward for loyalty and campaign contributions, primarily the very rich. Top of the favors he promises are lower taxes, with loss to the treasury offset by a reduction in government and national security services and regulations protecting consumers and the environment.  By placing his loyalists up and down government agencies, he can offer those favors to those who have proved their loyalty to him and his priorities.

https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/trump-fires-rohit-chopra-wall-street-consumer-protection-rcna190444?

https://www.yahoo.com/.../invitation-foreign-actors-bondi... Yesieree bob, voters do not need to know what China, Iran, or Russia are doing to help MAGA win in any elections, right? WRONG.