As we approach the Holidays and the New Year, our leaders are in a full retreat from reality. This situation doesn’t bode well for our future. As I pointed out in my last post, Democrats only offer bromides featuring price controls and socialism that have proven to make matters even worse. However, they’re not in control of anything at the national level, and can only throw temper tantrums like the lengthy Government we just experienced. For all the problems it caused, it changed nothing.

Our Republican President is another story. With control of the executive branch, both houses of Congress, and a conservative Supreme Court majority, he sets the agenda. If the recent elections weren’t enough of a wakeup call, Trump’s continued decline in approval indicates that the public isn’t buying what he’s selling:

The 2024 Democratic election debacle, in part, was traced to taking too many 80-20 positions, such as biological boys playing women’s sports, with them holding the short end. Now, Trump takes minority positions, but doesn’t seem to realize it. Trump’s inability to see the big picture may not only leave him an impotent lame duck but also threaten the future of the Republican Party by alienating core supporters and moderates alike.

Failing to speak against some of his most ardent “New right” supporters, who claim there is nothing wrong with the likes of Tucker Carlson normalizing the anti-Semite Nick Fuentes on his podcast. I’ve denounced left-wing anti-semitism, and right-wing bigotry is no less odious. There is nothing inclusive about “white supremacy” and “Christian Nationalism.”

Trump’s inexplicable deference to Putin’s Russia took an even darker turn this week, with an ultimatum to Ukraine that they must accept his 28-point peace plan by Thanksgiving. A plan that asks nothing of Russia, but demands Ukraine give up strategic land and cap its military strength, while forgoing NATO membership forever. In other words, a rolling surrender.  

The only thing the U.S. is offering is to take action against Russia if it resumes the war. The nation that is stabbing you in the back wants you to believe it will come to your aid in the future. Remember, in the Budapest Accord, we promised to protect Ukraine if it gave up its nuclear weapons, but we failed to honor it.

While Europe failed to keep its NATO commitments in the past, it’s now arming as quickly as possible. They now fund Ukraine, with the U.S. only selling weapons at a profit to Europe to give to Ukraine. Now that our allies have stepped up, Trump continues to take Russia’s side. The message to all our friends and allies is clear: you don’t matter. However, they may already have got that message when they got tariffed.

Anti-semitism isn’t a good look for any party, and Republicans generally support Israel, in sharp contrast to the Democrats. The substantial majority of American people prefer Ukraine over Russia, so why has the President been wishy-washy on the wing of the party leaning towards anti-semitism? Why is he favoring the less popular aggressor country in a war?  

Add the unpopularity of Trump’s tariff policy, and his overzealous immigration policy, and you have a party going into the mid-term elections with the same expectation of survival as the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae.

So why is Trump pursuing policies so detrimental to his party? He may not be getting a balanced picture of the situation. Unlike his first term, Trump has surrounded himself with either New Right people or spinless yes people. Only the “new right” favors Russia over Ukraine. Vice-President Vance, the leading new righter in the administration, makes no bones about his distaste for Ukraine and its President. Tariffs and anti-immigration stances are hallmarks of their endorsement of industrial policy economics.

An example of this information bubble is that Trump’s successful first term as Secretary of State has warned of rewarding Putin’s Ukraine aggression. Because he contemplated a Presidential run before 2024, Trump deemed him disloyal and excluded him from the second term. Instead, we get the ever-malleable Marco Rubio. One has only to look at his 2016 Presidential run policies and compare them with what he spouts today. It’s hard to believe it’s the same person. Which of the two is likely to give his best advice rather than what Trump wants to hear?

It’s no secret the New Right has little use for Reagan Republicans—those who still believe in free-market capitalism rather than Trump’s tariff-based industrial policies. Those who think we should support freedom-loving people rather than ruthless dictators. Maybe those in the White House and their friends wouldn’t shed a tear if these Reaganites bite the dust in the midterms?

The recent elections were a disaster for Republicans, but there was one saving grace: New York City elected an avowed Marxist from the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party. With policies that already proved unworkable, the GOP could make Zohran Mamdani the face of the Democratic Party. A far-out Communist who has bad ideas, he is a warning of what will happen if you vote Democrat. Mamdni’s socialism gave Republicans a rallying theme:

So what does Trump do? He invites Mandani to the White House and treats the Marxist as a regular guy—one with much in common with him. Trump emphasized the policy similarities between himself and Bernie Sanders in 2016, especially on things such as tariffs. I’ve said as much, but it’s not something a Republican should say out loud-so much for the Republican rallying theme.

Why would Trump undercut his own party? As I’ve pointed out before, Donald Trump is a narcissist, and parties and people are here to serve him, not the other way around. Loyalty is a one-way street. Just ask Marjorie Taylor Greene. No matter how strongly she backed the President in the past, differ once, and you’re toast. How dare she demand the release of the Epstein files, which she and other Republicans campaigned on when he didn’t want it?

Republicans are going to have to decide what they stand for now and in the future, rather than sticking with a lame-duck with bad ideas and poll numbers. Do they really want the stain of dishonor that inevitably follows the fall of Ukraine, just as Biden’s disastrous Afghan withdrawal underlay their 2024 debacle?

While Republicans contemplate their future, they might ask what our “peace-loving” President is up to in the Caribbean with a vast fleet and blowing up boats without warning or inspection. Regime change by military force?