After 250 years, repeated trial and error has lead to this–

not a shining city on a hill but a fascist-adjacent government headed by a nearly octogenarian con man who shows clear signs of both malignant narcissism and Alzheimer’s dementia.

Donald J. Trump’s father died at 93 after suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease for many years. I should also mention that he and his father were both sued by our government in 1973 for refusing to rent to black people; the feds were forced to sue him a second time after he failed to implement the terms of his first consent agreement. I should further mention that Trump’s father was arrested at a Ku Klux Klan march in 1927. Finally, I should mention that Mr Trump has been caught lying on so many occasions that nothing he says should be taken at face value. Except when he betrays his true motives.

There is no question that, besides being a malignant narcissist, Mr Trump has always been a racist. He is also an inveterate liar and he cheats at golf.

Trump’s surge of immigration agents to Minnesota was motivated not by an abundance of illegal aliens, but by retaliation for his very low voter support in that state, 3 elections in a row. In one statement just before the surge, he admitted his motive was “retribution.” Nonetheless, a federal judge has refused to rule that the agents’ behavior was sufficiently egregious to cross a line because there was no precedent for this type of transgression. Apparently he needs the prosecuting attorney to point out to him in an intelligible brief that retaliation is an inappropriate motive for this type of operation.

Trump has, with the assistance of the Republican Congress, financed a huge expansion of the government’s paramilitary forces (ICE and Border Patrol) and detention facilities nominally associated with removal of illegal immigrants from the United States. He has cancelled the policy of releasing immigrants on bail in order to persecute them by keeping them incarcerated in horrific conditions without access to lawyers. The “big, beautiful bill” increased the budget for immigration operations from under $10 billion a year to roughly $30 billion. There is money said to be earmarked for an increase of 10,000 agents and detentions up to 135,000 people at a time. Training for agents has been reduced from six months to 47 days. Money for these operations has been appropriated for the next three years in a row, so it will be very hard to claw back if Congress changes its mind.

The plan is to remove a million aliens a year. To do so, Trump is trying to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Afghanis (among many others). Returning people to Afghanistan and Haiti could be a death sentence.

What happens when this force runs out of aliens to deport? What do these agents do afterwards? I think that they could be repurposed for internal repression and internment of dissidents. Federal agents could also be used during the mid-term elections by appearing at polling sites. The purpose is to intimidate voters and prevent some from voting. This is of course illegal under federal laws. Trump would justify sending federal agents by fabricating an emergency that requires their presence.

The mid-terms are also at risk in other ways. First, in a test run, the FBI seized all the original ballots from Fulton County, Georgia for the 2020 presidential election. Their subpoena was based on allegations by known election deniers that fraud may have occurred– all of whose claims have been thoroughly debunked in court before. By seizing the ballots from counties that vote against Trump, he could attempt to invalidate votes against him and tilt the state results in his favor.

Another scheme relates to the appearance of a lead in early vote tabulations that reverses after later-arriving batches of ballots are counted. Trump has claimed that this is evidence of fraud, and he could attempt to stop ballot counting early, while he still has a lead.

Trump has pre-emptively made repeated claims that mail voting is rife with fraud and has attempted to end no-excuse mail voting with executive orders and administrative plans– these are of course inappropriate because elections are a state responsibility and the federal government does not have the authority to dictate to states how they administer elections. These claims about mail voting are an attempt to pre-emptively justify additional attempts to restrict mail ballots which may play out immediately before or during the election.

Trump is aware that he and Republicans are likely to lose control of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate in the mid-term elections. He is likely to use all available means to prevent this loss. We anticipate “Dirty Tricks” or attempts by the federal government to interfere in balloting in several ways.

Two avenues– the seizure of ballots in counties likely to vote strongly Democratic (a la Fulton County), and attempts to negate the effects of mail-in balloting (possibly by stopping vote-counting early)– are to be expected. There may be other techniques to tilt the mid-term elections that have occurred to Trump and his advisers.

The bottom line is that Trump knows that after January 20, 2029, he will no longer have access to the most important levers of power: control of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security (which he has massively enlarged since returning to power), the Department of Justice, and the Defense Department. He knows that he must take action to prevent being arrested immediately after he steps down.

Trump’s control over the Defense Department is not secure but he has removed almost the entire top level of command. Recently, the top Army general was forced to retire, effective immediately– in the middle of the Iran war. This seems like an odd thing to do during wartime, and it has hurt morale. We can only surmise that the problem relates to a difference of opinion on the next steps to take in the war. There may have been an objection to Trump’s threats to attack electric power plants, desalination plants and other essential civilian infrastructure, seeing as this would be a war crime and would likely provoke retaliation. The destruction of desalination plants, in particular, would have a negative effect on quality of life in Iran and all the countries of the Middle East.

Trump’s instincts for self-preservation and his complete lack of ethical boundaries combine to present a great risk that he will take actions that damage global well-being. His pursuit of aggression against Iran may create a world-wide economic disaster. If he succeeds in rigging the mid-term elections, that may negate the possibility of impeaching him afterwards or even of investigating his corruption and co-optation of government powers. His continued pursuit of tariffs and extreme anti-immigrant roundups are likely to slow the American economy.

Trump’s actions have weakened the United States in many ways, enhancing Russia’s chances of retaking the lost territory of the Soviet Union and damaging the economy of the entire free world. Vladimir Putin must be very pleased at the results of the KGB’s long term project to harness “useful idiots” in the US. His star pupil is none other than Donald J Trump himself. The era of American hegemony is over, and Trump has finished it off.