A (or One) Skeptic

From the first time that I ever heard of Donald Trump — and honestly, I don’t remember exactly when that was, but it was probably through People Magazine — I thought that he was an obnoxious character, the poster child for the “Ugly American.” Since then, of course, my opinion of him has gone lower and lower.

But even I never thought that I’d see something this ridiculous.

Trump, as is well known, doesn’t know a single Bible-verse. If he believes in anything he believes in the “Prosperity Gospel,” a religious movement, primarily within Protestant Christianity, that teaches a direct link between faith, financial giving, and material wealth. 

The central teaching of that “gospel”  is that God rewards true believers with financial prosperity, physical health, and worldly success. Adherents believe among other things that financial wealth is a sign of God’s favor and blessing, that poverty or illness reflects insufficient faith or spiritual failure, and that positive confession — speaking success and wealth into existence through prayer — can materially alter one’s circumstances.

In other words, it’s perfect for Trump.

This image was actually too much even for many in the evangelical community, and Trump actually took it down. But imagine the level of delusion that somebody must have to post something like this. Just imagine!

Having established in Part 1 of this two-part essay that Republicans have abandoned or reversed many of their proclaimed principles in their support of President Trump, it’s time to look at the most common explanation: identity fusion.

Identity Fusion

Identity Fusion is a psychological concept describing a state where a person’s sense of personal identity becomes deeply merged with a group identity.  While most people identify with groups (such as a sports team, a nation, a religion) they still maintain a clear sense of themselves as separate individuals. In identity fusion, that separation breaks down.  Research suggests identity fusion is often triggered through shared suffering or hardship. 

Some psychologists have proposed the idea that human reasoning didn’t evolve primarily to find truth, but to win arguments and justify our existing positions to others. People naturally seek, interpret, and remember information in ways that confirm what they already believe. When presented with contradictory evidence, many people actually dig in harder (a well-documented phenomenon called the backfire effect or belief perseverance). Jonathan Haidt‘s work suggests that moral and social judgments are largely made intuitively and emotionally first, with conscious reasoning coming in afterward to rationalize the conclusion already reached. A number of experts have speculated that it is one of the reasons that a substantial minority of Trump supporters will not stop supporting him, regardless of what he does.

So, what is it about Trump, his personality, his character that their identities have been fused with? This is the question that we’re trying to address today. There are two groups in particujlar who have been noted for their hard-core, unshakeable support of Trump: (1) evangelical Christians and (2) working class white men.

Evangelical Christians

Evangelical Christianity is a broad Protestant movement that is spread across Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and many non-denominational churches. What sets it apart is the emphasis placed on a conscious, personal decision to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Being “born again” is generally considered essential, not just nominal church membership or infant baptism. Faith is understood as a personal relationship with God, not primarily with an institutional or inherited identity. While mostly politically conservative, especially in the United States, are evangelical there is actually a broad spectrum of political beliefs that are part of evangelicism.

In any case, for evangelicals who do feel fused with Trump,  here are the primary reasons that it appears that they do so:

1. They see Trump as an “embattled protector,” who defends them against a hostile American culture that is dismissive of traditional morality.
2. They have shared grievances and a persecution identity, and view themselves as being under attack (especially from the legacy media).
3. They see his norm-breaking behavior as a rejection of elite moral gatekeeping and admire his willingness to use power unapologetically.
4. They also admire his protection of hierarchy and authority, emphasizing strong masculine leadership and order over pluralism.
5. They overlook his personal failings and see Trump as an “imperfect vessel” to achieve a righteous purpose.

White Working-Class Men

It is not only evangelicals that feel fused with Trump, but also other groups. In particular white men without college degrees. The key reasons for this appear to be (1) economic nationalism and the belief that their jobs have been taken by immigrants; (2) perceived loss of cultural status; and (3) the pervasive sense that others have advanced at their expense. (There is also some overlap, obviously, with the resentments of evangelical Christians, previously cataloged.)

Not all of Trump’s supporters are fused with his identity. Those who are not are (frankly) easier to cleave away from Trump and are the ones who are most likely now to be saying “I didn’t vote for this” (Yes you did, but we’ll save that argument for another day). Other groups and their general reasons for supporting Trump include (1) traditional conservatives who support Trump primarily because he is anti-regulation and opposed to “woke” or progressive social norms; (2) conservative Catholics who are primarily concerned about abortion and gender questions; (3) anti-establishment voters who distrust government, media, and elites, and who love the fact that Trump “disrupts” the political system; and (4) suburban and business-oriented Republicans (often college-educated and higher income) whose primary motivations may be tax policy and deregulation.

Also, it must also be acknowledged that racism is an important factor in support for Trump. How important a factor is currently part of a heated debate. There is plenty of evidence that “racial resentment” is often highly correlated with support forTrump. On the other hand, it is also true that Trump increased his support from Black and Hispanic voters from 2016 to 2020 and again from 2020 to 2024. Significant numbers of Trump voters previously voted for Obama in 2008 or 2012. Economic anxiety, cultural displacement, distrust of institutions, and a sense that coastal elites look down on working-class Americans all appear to be significant independent factors. 

But still, the racial resentment is what it is.

The Cruelty Question

Finally, the thing that has always struck me personally is how cruel President Trump is. It’s hard not to notice. For some of his voters, the cruelty is clearly the point. And there is actual evidence for this in surveys and polls: a well-documented motivator for some Trump supporters is causing distress to people they dislike. It’s why they’re so delighted in “owning the libs.” It’s confirmed by rally behavior that we’ve all seen, such as when Trump mocked reporter Serge Kovaleski during his first campaign. And “owning” after all is about “dominating,” “defeating” and (especially) “humiliating” those we don’t like.

Conservatives have justifiably felt some resentment at us on the left for condescending to them. We have made mistakes, no question. But after inflicting this incompetent malignant narcissist on the rest of us for another four years, our resentment is also completely justifiable. As fans of relationship psychologist John Gottman know, there is no more destructive emotion in any kind of relationship, whether personal or more global, than contempt. And let’s be honest, that’s what we’re all feeling for each other these days. It’s going to take a long, long time to repair this situation.

Well, by now it’s clear that there is not a single thing that the MAGAverse and Trump supporters used to claim that they believed in that they are not willing to disregard or contradict. The whole thing has become almost comical, as the scale and breadth of their hypocrisy becomes apparent. When the contradictions become so stark and obvious, even the most sophisticated cognitive gymnastics will eventually break down. The “don’t tread on me” crowd has turned into a “comply or die” crowd at a whiplash-inducing speed. 

This is the first part of a two-part article that will first examine the hypocrisy itself. The second part will look into some of the psychological reasons for the loyalty of the MAGA crowd, a lot of which centers on identity fusion. Set forth below are examples where Republicans completely threw out beliefs that they allegedly stood by.

Juan Orlando Hernández vs Nicolas Maduro

In December of 2025 Trump pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, the former President of Honduras. When asked about why he pardoned him, Trump mumbled that claiming he had been “treated very harshly and unfairly” and that his prosecution was a political “setup” by the Biden administration, even though Hernández had been convicted of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and related firearms offenses in a federal district court. In trying to justify his decision to capture Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Trump initially talked about Venezuela as a narco‑terrorist operation and framed the surrounding military campaign as a major anti‑drug effort. Trump then pivoted to admitting that he wanted to have Venezuela’s oil — estimated to be the largest in the world — and claimed (without evidence) that U.S. oil companies would rebuild Venezuela’s infrastructure and that the intervention “won’t cost us anything.” Where were the Republican objections when Hernández was pardoned? Nowhere in sight.

Ashli Babbit vs Rene Good

Ashli Babbit, a 35 year old Air Force veteran, was part of the mob that invaded the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Babbitt was part of the group that reached the Speaker’s Lobby, a hallway directly adjacent to the House chamber. This area had been barricaded with furniture by officers attempting to prevent the mob from entering. To gain entrance, the rioters smashed the glass panes with flagpoles, and other objects. Babbit tried to climb through whereupon USCP Lt. Michael Byrd fired a single shot into her shoulder. A subsequent investigation found (1) that Lt. Byrd reasonably believed he was defending members of Congress and officers from imminent harm, and (2) the mob was actively attempting to breach the final barrier protecting the House chamber.

Exactly five years and one day later, Rene Good, a 37‑year‑old Minneapolis resident and mother of three, was sitting in her Honda Pilot, stopped sideways in the street, as part of the group of people who were observing ICE operations in Minneapolis. ICE agents then yelled contradictory instructions at her, including one that demanded she get out of the car. Good briefly reversed her vehicle, then began moving forward very slowly and to the right, turning away from ICE agent Jonathan Ross, who ultimately fired on her with three shots, killing her. If that wasn’t enough, Ross called her a “fucking bitch” and refused to allow her medical treatment, even though a physician was on the scene. She bled to death in her car.

Yet conservatives somehow see the killing of Rene Good as justified while seeing the shooting of Ashli Babbit as unjustified. They went from “don’t tread on me” to “comply or die” in a microsecond.

Kyle Rittenhouse vs Alex Pretti

Kyle Rittenhouse is the young man, 17 years old at the time, who, on the night of August 25, 2020, brought a Smith & Wesson AR‑style semiautomatic rifle to Kenosha, WI, where he did not live. There were “black lives matter” protests (including some property damage) were occurring after the police shooting of Jacob Blake. During various encounters Rittenhouse fired on  and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, then fired on and killed Anthony Huber, and finally fired on but only injured Gaige Grosskreutz. In November 2021, a jury acquitted him on all charges, where in all three cases Rittenhouse had claimed self-defense because someone was allegedly trying to disarm him. 

Five-and-a-half years later we have the murder of Alex Pretti. On January 24, 2026, around 9:00 a.m., Pretti, a 37-year old ICU Nurse, was directing traffic around federal vehicles and filming federal agents with his phone in Minneapolis, only about two miles from where George Floyd had been suffocated to death back in 2020. At one point, he stood between an agent and a woman whom the agent had pushed to the ground, placing his arm around her protectively. As a consequence agents pepper-sprayed Pretti, and wrestled him to the ground, removed the gun that Pretti was legally carrying, and then fired at least ten shots within five seconds, continuing even after Pretti lay motionless. The two agents who were identified as having shot Pretti are two experienced border agents from South Texas who, somewhat ironically, are named Jesus Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez.

And what happened to the right’s ferocious defense of the Second Amendment? It went right out the window. Suddenly no one is allowed to bring a gun to a protest. Under the new rules of engagement a uniformed officer could have shot Kyle Rittenhouse dead, no questions asked.

Iran War vs. Other Middle-East Wars

One of the memes that was floating around since Trump joined Israel in attacking Iran on February 28th is that if we voted for Kamala Harris oil prices would spike and the USA would start a new war with Iran, and indeed, many of us voted for Kamala and indeed oil prices have spiked and we started a new war with Iran. One of Trump’s principal campaign promises was that  he would get us out of “forever wars” in the Middle East — even though in November of 2024 we were not in any forever war in the Middle East — and that he would not start any new wars.

And here we are.

Trump’s rationale for starting a war with Iran has been a moving target if there ever was one. At first it was alleged to be regime change and eliminating the nuclear threat (even though Trump alleged he had done that already last year), but after assassinating Ayatollah Khamenei and some of his top leadership team, it turns out he’s been replaced by Mojtaba Khamenei, his own son, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is effectively still in command. Trump has literally trotted out various arguments in calls to different journalists to see how they would “play” with those journalists. Trump’s justifications include, among other things (1) an “imminent threat” self-defense rationale, claiming that Iran was about to attack various Western targets; (2) that Iran had gone back to building up its nuclear program (even though the program had been “obliterated” in last year’s attacks); (3) a regime change and liberation narrative under which the Iranian people would be liberated from radical dictatorship  and could “take over” their own governmen; (4) an economic resource argument, under which Trump and the United States would take control of Iranian oil; and (5) a religious framing of the attacks as a holy war intended to bring about the return of Jesus and the Rapture (this idea has been promoted more by Pete Hegseth than Trump himself)

Of course, the most likely rationale for attacking when he did was that it represented a “wag the dog” strategy to distract from the Epstein files. Also, Bibi Netanyahu saw an opportunity to take out the Iranian regime, which has been a thorn in Natanyahu’s side for a very long time. Iran has been in support of a number of quasi-state actors — Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Palestinian territories, the Houthis in Yemen, the Al-Ashtar Brigades in Bahrain, and various Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria — that have long wanted to drive the Israelis back into the sea.

Regardless, it is clear by now that Trump joined the attack on Iran impulsively, at the urging of Netanyahu, with no backup plan, despite the fact that people warned him that Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz. And with no exit strategy. He is reported to be “already bored” with the war, which he thought he would complete as quickly as the raid on the leadership of Venezuela.

Qanon vs Epstein Files

And last but not least, we have Qanon vs the Epstein files. QAnon is, of course, a wide-ranging conspiracy theory movement that began in 2017 on anonymous message boards which posits that there is a secret global cabal of powerful elites that control governments, media, finance, and culture, and who are running a child-trafficking networks, harvesting children’s blood for rejuvenation, and manipulating world events for personal gain. There is no actual evidence for the Qanon theory.

The Epstein files, on the other hand, refers to several different sets of documents, released at different times by courts, the Department of Justice, and investigative reporters all dealing with the activities of financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. These include court-ordered releases (Giuffre v. Maxwell), DOJ releases from the criminal investigations, materials seized from Epstein’s properties, and redacted court filings from related civil suits. The most recent releases are those from the Department of Justice pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law on November 19, 2025.

Trump’s 2024 Presidential campaign centered on several recurring themes, and these included (1) the restoration of a “lost” America (Make America Great Again), (2) immigration and border security, (3) the cost of living and economic nationalism, (4) retribution and anti-establishment grievances (especially against  his personal enemies) (5) opposition to foreign wars (6) opposition to DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) and other culture war issues, and (7) a promise to release the Epstein files. This promise fit naturally into his campaign themes around exposing a corrupt elite.

All thinking people know by now that Trump is actually the personification of a corrupt elite. It’s estimated that Trump and his family have increased their wealth by $1.4 to $1.8 billion since his return to office, but it could be as high as $3 to $4 billion. We won’t know until Trump is out of office and we have a chance to examine the various ways his family ended up making money. Like Trump’s taxes, we may never know.

As for the Epstein files, there are as many as 38,000 references to Donald Trump, according to multiple outlets reviewing the publicly released and redacted document cache from the Department of Justice, which is more than anyone other than Ghislane Maxwell and Epstein himself.

Republicans have responded awkwardly to the disclosures, and certainly not in unison. At various points members have called for full transparency, have argued that mentions are not evidence, have accused Democrats of politicizing the issue, and have urged the DOJ to release all the remaining documents.

Every accusation is a confession. That seems to be the new slogan when it comes to Republicans accusing Democrats, conservatives accusing liberals and progressives.

After what he posted in the wake of the murder of Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle by their very own son, our Cryto-pedohile piece of excrement of a President really has hit a new low. Rob Reiner and his wife died in about as cruel a fashion as you can die: being knifed to death by one of his own kids. Imagine lying there, with the life ebbing out of you, knowing that one of your own kids had done this to you.

And what did President Trump do? Made it all about him.

Trump has, of course, done many worse things which will have an impact on many more people, but in terms of personal behavior, it doesn’t really get lower than this. According to Trump, the cause of Reiner’s death was the “massive, unyielding, incurable affliction called TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”

At this point, anyone who does not have Trump Derangement Syndrome is no longer a sentient human being. This guy is so hopelessly out of touch, so intentionally cruel, so blatantly self-deluded, that any sentient human being would be revolted by his presence. In the same post, Trump goes on to crow that the Trump administration has “surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness,” with the “Golden Age of America upon us.” Somehow, miraculously, Trump and his obsession with tariffs has not yet wrecked the American economy. (Why that is so will be the subject of a future post.) 

Trump really is disassociated from reality. I don’t know if the problem is that he can no longer discern reality or he can no longer say anything truthful because it is too painful for his fragile ego to bear. Is his cognitive dissonance so strong that anything but complete fantasy is unacceptable?

Regardless of what is true for Trump personally, the majority of Republican professionals clearly have a much better sense of the truth than he does. These Profiles in Cowardice will eventually have to answer for their crimes, but that may be too little too late. It will be to our everlasting shame that this piece of shit is the President of the United States, is the “leader of the free world,” is supposed to be an exemplar of morality for the rest of us.

MAGA Republicans, every day that you defend and excuse this guy, every day that you also claim to be part of a “Christian” nation, you piss away the very little credibility you have left. No one is going to care about you anymore. We’ll all be like, “can’t afford health care?”, “losing your family farm?,” “having an ectopic pregnancy?”, well too bad. Good luck getting that sorted out in the state where you come from.

We’re done already. After three more years of this guy, we will be unrecoverable.

You might have missed it, but a sad event took place last week in the legal cases against Donald Trump. It was the final dismissal of the case in Georgia. The one where they had Trump on tape, saying,

“All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. I just want to find 11,780 votes. Give me a break fellas.”

They had this mothereffer on tape! They had him on tape!

And we still didn’t get a conviction.

So, let’s review. The Georgia case was one of the four cases that together, accounted for Trump’s 91 indictments.

1. The case in New York, in which Trump was accused of the falsification of business records to hide his payments to Stormy Daniels, and which led to his conviction on 34 counts.
2. The case in Florida, in which Trump was accused of mishandling classified documents, which Judge Aileen Canon slow-walked to death.
3. The case in Washington D.C. stemming directly from the January 6th insurrection, which eventually also ran out of time, despite Jack Smith’s best efforts.
4. This Georgia case, brought by D.A. Fani Willis, revolving around Trump’s phone call and the conspiracy to overturn votes in Georgia.

The Georgia case had one big advantage, which is that it was brought under state law, so that Trump would not be able to pardon himself.

From the start, Fani Willis made several mistakes. First, she made the case too large. It eventually involved a conspiracy between 18 named defendants, plus Trump, which made it a behemoth to prosecute. Second, she began a romantic relationship with her lead prosecutor, Nathan Wade.

Oh boy.

Wade had been hired in November of 2021 as a “special” prosecutor to help oversee this large and complicated case. This romantic relationship was a nothingburger, it made  no difference to the prosecution of Trump. It was less of an ethical conflict than Trump engages in every single day. And yet, it derailed the case.

First, it should be acknowledged that it’s generally a bad idea for anyone at the top of a chain of command to get romantically involved with a subordinate. 

In short, Fani Willis should have known better.

But there was no actual ethical or financial conflict.

Some of the attorneys for defendants other than Trump alleged (without proving) that the arrangement was akin to a “quasi-kickback scheme” because Wade (who was being paid by Willis’s office for his work on the case) used some of those earnings to fund shared vacations with Willis.

This is absurd. It presupposes that Wade chose to prosecute people because he wanted more money from Willis’ office, whereas the reality was that Willis had had trouble finding someone willing to undertake this massive and complicated prosecution in a very politically charged environment. All indications are that she became involved with Willis sometime after he came on board.

Nevertheless, on March 15, 2024, trial judge Scott F. McAfee ruled that Willis’s relationship with Wade created a “significant appearance of impropriety,” which caused Wade to resign from the case.

Not good enough for the Georgia Court of Appeals, which ruled 2–1 in December that Willis (and her entire office) still had to be disqualified due to the “appearance of impropriety” arising from her relationship with Wade.

Willis appealed, but later the Supreme Court of Georgia declined to take up the case, thereby making the disqualification final. That triggered the transfer of the case to a new prosecutor, in this case Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia.

He, in turn, decided this week that “there is no realistic prospect that a sitting President will be compelled to appear in Georgia to stand trial,” so it would be “futile and unproductive” to push forward with the case.

He’s not wrong about that.

Also, complicating the case now is the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States, which would have required the courts to litigate which of the president’s many bad behaviors counts as “official acts” and is therefore immune from prosecution.

Commentators noted that Skandalakis’s decision to drop the charges was “not surprising” since his agency does not have the resources to prosecute such a complex case with numerous co-defendants.

Fani Willis, in the meantime, was re-elected District Attorney of Fulton County in November of 2024 with 68.1% of the vote, contradicting the notion that her voters were upset with her for her indiscretion with Nathan Wade.

Far from being the victim of a “witch hunt,” Trump has proven, again and again, to basically be the luckiest son-of-a-bitch alive with respect to legal matters. By now it’s clear that he’s never going to see the inside of a jail cell, and frankly it would be impractical (if not just impossible) to imprison a former President with his secret service protection. But the same is not true for most of Trump’s subordinates and associates.

Trump will die a very rich man, and maybe the greatest grifter of all time. 

From now on, it can never again be said that “no one is above the law.” Clearly Trump is above the law. He is the cherry on top of a massively distorted legal system in which the powerless are punished and the powerful mostly get away scot free. It will be interesting to see if the legal system ever catches up with the flagrantly corrupt Elon Musk. I’m not betting on that.

As we wait for the release of the Epstein files, a question arises as to how and why these particular files became so important. We have to set some context for all of this. Epstein wasn’t the first and won’t be the last powerful rich white guy to take advantage of women.

Pizzagate

For context, let’s go back to the “Pizzagate” conspiracy in which Qanon followers and other MAGA types came to believe that Democrats were running a child prostitution ring out of a pizza shop in Washington D.C. 

Huh?

How did they come to believe this?

Well, that turns out to be a long story, and involves John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign chair, whose personal Gmail was hacked and published by WikiLeaks. In those emails there were a bunch of references to people ordering pizza at a D.C. restaurant called Comet Ping Pong (which has ping pong tables inside). For some reason a lot of right wing types decided that the references to pizza were actually references to child abuse, and that the restaurant was the center of a child prostitution ring.

Why did they decide this?

Who the hell knows.

It’s what happens when you become more and more detached from reality.

Eventually, on December 4, 2016, 28-year old Edgar Maddison Welch drove to Washington D.C. from North Carolina, armed with an AR-15-style rifle and a .38-caliber handgun, to “save the children.” Miraculously, he didn’t kill anyone. 

That really should have been the end of it.

But, of course it wasn’t.

Epstein’s Island

MAGA conspiracy theorists were still convinced that Democrats were somehow promoting child sex rings and child pornography, and switched their inquiry to their involvement with Jeffrey Epstein. In particular, Qanon followers believe that a cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic child molesters in league with the “deep state” is operating a global child sex trafficking ring, and that Donald Trump is secretly leading the fight against them.

As if!

Epstein — although largely non-denominational — has (of course) been a long-time close friend of Donald Trump. There are many photos of Epstein and his “girlfriend” Ghislane Maxwell hanging out with Donald and Melania Trump. At some point, in the mid 2000’s, Trump and Epstein had a falling out. It’s not clear why. Competing theories include (1) that Epstein “took” spa staff from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, and (2) that it was the result of a real-estate conflict when Trump and Epstein both bid for the same Palm Beach property (Maison de L’Amitie) and fell out over it.

Who knows.

Their relationship had clearly soured by the time Trump became President.

Bill Clinton and Other Democrats

Now, why do so many MAGA types believe so ardently that Epstein was intimately involved with Democrats?

Again, who knows for sure. Some of it seems to have to do with their animus against Bill Clinton, who did have contact with Jeffrey Epstein — although never as much as President Trump — and their general belief that Democrats are somehow sordid and immoral.

Whatever.

For his part, Bill Clinton had limited contact with Jeffrey Epstein. What is verified is that Clinton took several flights on Epstein’s private jet in the period around 2002–2003, in connection with the work of the Clinton Foundation. Epstein also visited the White House during Clinton’s presidency. Records show Epstein made multiple visits between 1993–1995 when Clinton was President. But that was well before his June 30, 2008 guilty plea to “Solicitation of prostitution” and “Solicitation of prostitution with a minor” charges in Florida state court.

Having more contact and viewing him as a personal friend was Larry Summers, the former President of Harvard and United States Secretary of the Treasury under Bill Clinton. But even with Summers there is no evidence that Summers knew of Epstein’s sex trafficking, or did anything illegal. 

Then there is Ehud Barak, the former Prime Minister of Israel. The former leader of the Labor Party, Barak is neither American nor a Democrat. But he’s a “progressive.” Again, there is no evidence that Barak knew of or participated in Epstein’s illegal activities.

Scientific Funding

Like a lot of bad people, Epstein was a complicated guy. On the plus side, he contributed enormously to the funding of scientific research. For example:

• Epstein was a significant private donor to MIT’s Media Lab, and is known to have contributed $525,000 personally, another $250,000 from his foundation, and another $125,000 from other donors he “solicited.”
• Epstein donated approximately $6.5 million to Harvard’s Program for Evolutionary Dynamics.
• Epstein donated somewhere between $250k–$500k to The Santa Fe Institute, which focuses on complexity science.
• Epstein donated approximately $500,000 to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ.
• Epstein donated to various individual scientists, including Stephen Hawking, Lawrence Krauss (Arizona State University), Marvin Minsky (MIT), and George Church (Harvard geneticist)
• Epstein funded or hosted private scientific gatherings in the Virgin Islands and New Mexico, and including on his own island.

At the time that all of these luminaries were seeking funding from Epstein, he had only been convicted of two solicitation offenses. Should they all have refused to do business with him at the time?

Now we know, in light of the 2019 investigation into his sex trafficking of minors and related charges that Epstein had engaged in very bad things. But that is a post-hoc realization, after his “suicide” while waiting for the charges to be resolved.

Trump’s Pledges

During the 2024 campaign Trump promised several times to “release” the Epstein “files” as part of an overall pledge of transparency and open government. He apparently thought, at the time, that there would be material embarrassing to the Democrats in those releases. But, as is typical of Trump, they were not clear promises, just vague assertions. In June 2024, on Fox & Friends, when asked “Would you declassify the Epstein files?” Trump said “Yeah, yeah, I would.” In September 2024, on the Lex Fridman podcast, he said he would “certainly take a look at it,” and that he’d “have no problem” releasing additional Epstein-related documents. Still, this is what his MAGA supporters determined he would do.

By the time he was in office and Pam Bondi had had a chance to look at what was in the “files” — and it’s not exactly clear what the files encompass — they must have had a change of heart. 

But by then everybody, including his supporters, really wanted to know what’s in those files.

For example, people want to know what it meant when Mark Epstein wrote to his brother “Ask him if Putin has the photos of Trump blowing Bubba?” (That email appears in a set of documents released in November 2025 from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein to the House of Representatives in response to a subpoena.)

Now that the Epstein Transparency Bill has been signed into law, I guess we’ll find out the answer to some of these questions. The materials are more likely to be embarrassing  to Trump than to Democrats, and having made such a show of refusing to release them — including having his boy, Speaker Mike Johnson refuse to swear in Adelita Grijalva for 50 days after her special election victory on September 23, 2025 — people really want to see what the hell is in these files.

Since the Supreme Court liberated Trump from criminal liability in Trump v. United States, the Donald’s assault on legality has been non-stop and unrelenting. There are so many examples that we could examine, but I want to examine one particular issue, because it’s one that (as a former government lawyer) I have some familiarity with.

And that issue is Trump’s demand for $230 million compensation under the Federal Tort Claims Act.

So, let’s back up for a minute and answer the question, what is a tort claim act?

Federal Tort Claims Act

And briefly, a tort claims act is a way for citizens to sue their own government when they’ve been damaged by the government’s negligence. Historically, under English common law, the King could not be sued in his own courts (“The King can do no wrong”). This doctrine carried over into the U.S., where for much of American history, the federal and state governments were immune from civil lawsuits unless they expressly consented. In 1946, Congress enacted the Federal Tort Claims Act, to replace the system of ad hoc compensation that had grown over the years.

The way the Tort Claims Act works is that one has to make an official claim for a tort committed by one or more federal employees working within the scope of their employment. A tort is not a crime, but typically an accident where someone is injured. 

• So, with respect to the federal government, a car accident caused by a postal worker delivering mail would be a good example of a tort. 
• Another example might be a medical malpractice case against a doctor at a federally funded health clinic. 

The claim must be based on negligence (and not an intentional tort or a crime); if the federal employee was acting within their discretion (such as a federal judge), that will disqualify the claim. In other words, the Tort Claims Act is a very limited and specific exception to the rule that you cannot sue the federal government.

In order to make a claim you have to provide a presentment within two years of the incident; the claim must indicate the specific amount of money sought. The agency against whom the claim is made has six months to investigate and either approve or deny the claim. If the agency denies the claim (or fails to act within six months) the claimant can file in federal district court.

Trump’s Claims

Trump had made two claims (1) about the Aug. 8, 2022 search at Mar-a-Lago, and (2) about the “Crossfire Hurricane” Russia investigation back in 2016. The first claim is for $100 million and the second is for $130 million. It appears that most of these damages are “punitive” as opposed to “actual.”

Of course, punitive damages are not allowed under the tort claims act.

And that is only one of many problems with these two claims. These problems include:

• First, neither of the claims involves a tort.
• Second, both of the claims involve the discretionary function exception because they are part of an investigation. 
• Third, in the Mar-a-Lago case the upper damage limit is $200,000 because that is the tort claims limit in the state of Florida.
• Fourth, the “Russia” investigation is barred by the two year statute of limitations since it took place back in 2016, and in any case, Trump could have made the claim in the four years that he was out of office. (Just a quick reminder that the Mueller report did not exonerate Trump but that DOJ internal rules did not allow the prosecution of a sitting president).
• And fifth, as already mentioned above, the Tort Claims Act does not allow for punitive damages.

But really, most astonishing of all, Trump has asked his own Department of Justice to investigate the previous actions of the Department of Justice.

No President has ever made a FTCA against his own government. No Governor has ever made a tort claim against his state’s government. It is a complete and 100% conflict of interest.

And who, in this Department of Justice, is going to tell Donald Trump that he cannot have his $230 million?

• Donald Trump has already received $16 million from CBS on a meritless defamation claim so that the Skydance merger could go through.
• Donald Trump has already received $15 million from ABC on a very weak defamation claim so that Disney/ABC could get regulatory clearance for a spinoff of ESPN and Hulu assets

And for those who argue that Trump has given up his $400,000 presidential salary, I can only say, give me an effing break. It’s estimated that Trump has increased his personal wealth by approximately $3 billion since the beginning of his second term, much of it through cryptocurrencies. 

By the way, Trump gets a one-time $100,000 for redecoration of the White House. The new East Wing ballroom is expected to cost over $300 million (or 3000 times the allowed limit), and while Trump claims it is privately funded, most donors remain anonymous or undisclosed. The financing is routed through a nonprofit, allowing contributors to deduct donations and shield their identities.

Trump’s Corruption

It will take historians literally years to unravel the corruption of this Trump administration.

Trump doesn’t want that $230 million because he needs the money. He’s just peeved that he was ever investigated for anything, and he’s going to get himself compensated.

This, then, is just one of many examples one could cite that expose the glaring illegality of the Trump administration.

Trump himself will never see the inside of a jail cell, the Supreme Court has pretty much seen to that. His administration, however, is not so shielded.

That is why Steve Bannon recently said that if Republicans lose the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election, “some in this room are going to prison, myself included.” (Bannon made the remark on November 5, 2025, at a gathering hosted by the Conservative Partnership Institute, a pro-Trump advocacy group.)

Well, the Senate voted last night to re-open the government after 41 days of getting nowhere. The seven Democrats who voted to re-open are Dick Durbin (IL), Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen (NV), John Fetterman (PA), and Tim Kaine (VA). Independent Angus King (ME) also voted in favor while Republican renegade Rand Paul (KY) voted against.

The approved bill would keep much of the federal government funded through January 30, while certain agencies would receive funding through the end of next September. The bill still needs to be passed by the house and signed by the President. A procedural vote on Sunday night secured the necessary 60 votes, paving the way for the final passage on Monday.

What Democrats got out of the deal was protection for federal workers who were furloughed or laid off during the shutdown (rehiring, back pay, and prohibiting additional mass reductions-in-force until the end of January); a full-year appropriations bills for certain agencies (military construction, veterans affairs, agriculture, and the legislative branch); and a promise of a future vote in the Senate on extending the Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits that are set to expire on January 1st.

What they didn’t get was a promise to extend those ACA tax credits. 

After the vote there was quite a bit of gnashing of teeth and outrage among the progressive side of the party, that the Democrats had “caved” instead of fighting to the bitter end.

I don’t know about that.

After the vote, Angus King explained that for his part he didn’t see any movement or any possibility that the Republicans would provide that guarantee, even if the government had stayed shut down for another month.

I don’t know that he’s wrong.

For whatever reason, Republicans seem hell bent on depriving Americans of health care and making their health care insurance costs go up.

Is that a winning strategy?

It sure doesn’t look like one.

I mean by now:

• Farmers finally understand that Trump doesn’t give a shit about them and that his tariffs on China have closed the soybean market for soybean farmers.
• Ranchers finally understand that Trump doesn’t give a shit about them and would rather support ranchers in Argentina than to open markets for ranchers here at home.
• Latinos who voted for Trump finally understand that Trump doesn’t give a shit about them and is happy to have his ICE agents racially profile them all over the streets of America.
• Black men who voted for Trump finally understand that Trump doesn’t give a shit about them and has actively worked to scrub DEI initiatives from American life.
• SNAP recipients who voted for Trump finally understand that Trump doesn’t give a shit about them and is eager to deprive them of food as a means to an end.
• Americans who voted for Trump (and who didn’t vote for Trump) now clearly understand that Trump doesn’t give a shit about them and will eagerly deprive them of their health care and send their health care costs skyrocketing.

The results of these policies precipitated the mini-blue tsunami we saw Tuesday of last week. It wasn’t a good look for Republicans.

Democrats have already proved that they are ones trying to save health care and health care costs for Americans. Would being shut down for another month make that any clearer? 

Those Americans who believe that Democrats are “just trying to give health care to illegals” are going to continue to believe that regardless of the evidence before their eyes. Cognitive dissonance will not let them believe anything else.

Would it have been nice to get those health care guarantees? Of course.

Would it have been nice to notch a win over Trump and the Republicans? Of course.

But I don’t think that was going to happen, no matter how long the government stayed shut.

And one hidden benefit that may prove to be important in the long run, the Republicans did not nuke the filibuster. That could have led to a lot of bad things being done. And that didn’t happen.

So President Trump, and a few of his acolytes (I’m looking at you Karoline Leavitt) are literally losing their minds. 

Let’s start with Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s official spokesperson. She said this last week before “No Kings” day:

So that’s literally, “The Democratic party’s main constituency are Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals.”

Wow.

Let me just start by noting that none of those three groups can vote in the United States. It seems that Karoline has lost touch with reality.

Too bad. She’s a cute little thing, and at age 28, with her blond tresses, is the perfect Trump spokesperson. She ran for Congress in NH in 2022 and almost won.

Now to the real thing: the day of the “No Kings” protests, Trump posted a video in which he is depicted in a fighter jet wearing a crown, flying over what appears to be Times Square in New York City.

The jet is labeled “King Trump”, and the soundtrack is Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” from Top Gun.

As he flies over the crowd, streams of brown sludge (intended to resemble feces) are dropped on protestors, including a close-up of left-wing influencer Harry Sisson (a 23-year-old political commentator and social media influencer.)

(The video is, frankly, too disgusting for me to post here.)

The video is AI-generated and was created by an account named @XERIAS_X, known for surreal pro-Trump memes. Trump did not add commentary, but the video was widely interpreted as a mocking response to the “No Kings” protests, which drew nearly 7 million participants across 2,700 U.S. cities.

And that, my friends, is our President of the United States.

Previous examples of memes that he’s posted include Trump as the Pope, Trump as Superman, Trump turning Gaza into a resort, and even a fake Taylor Swift endorsement.

The man is losing his mind.

When all is said and done and Trump is finally in the ground, this is going to be the Republican’s legacy. From the party of Abraham Lincoln to the party of this moron, the Republicans are going to own this legacy. It will likely stain them for the rest of their existence.

So, this story about the Young Republican National Federation is really quite astounding, and should reverberate throughout our news cycle for a while to come.

If you’ve been hiding under a rock, or just tuned out our relentlessly frustrating news cycle, there is a group of young Republican leaders that are part of the National Federation, that have been carrying on an extraordinary chat on the messaging app Telegram.

These messages were exchanged between leaders of four chapters — Arizona, Vermont, Kansas and New York — six of eight of whom were young(ish) white men. Incels, if you like.

• Samuel Douglass, state senator from northern Vermont.
• Peter Giunta, former chair of the New York State Young Republicans.
• Bobby Walker, chair of the New York State Young Republicans and former vice chair.
• William Hendrix, vice chair of Kansas Young Republicans.
• Alex Dwyer, chair of the Kansas Young Republicans.
• Anne KayKaty, New York’s national committee member.
• Joe Maligno, general counsel for the New York State Young Republicans.
• Rachel Hope, Arizona Young Republicans events chair.

While the chat at times involved formal conversations about votes, social media strategies and logistics, the chat included a “slew of racist and antisemitic slurs, white supremacist slogans and symbols, comments encouraging rape of political opponents to drive them to suicide, praise for Adolf Hitler, promotion of gas chambers, and enthusiasm for Republicans who they believed supported slavery.”

Wow.

Somehow, reporters from Politico managed to obtain 2,900 pages of messages spanning about seven months, roughly from January through August of 2025. How they got these pages is not clear, and unsurprisingly, Politico has declined to reveal its sources.

So there are two things about this story that I find remarkable. First, this seems to be the consequence of decades of grievance and resentment and fingerpointing on the part of conservatives, so that the Republican party has now fully become the party of hate. How else to describe it? Young white conservatives in America are actually doing pretty well in 2025. And yet, the “we love America” party seems to hate everyone in it.

Second, these  people were willing to put it into writing. When I worked for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, it was pretty much understood that you didn’t put into writing anything that you didn’t want published in the Boston Globe. And here are these young government professionals putting despicable things into writing. One of them reportedly wrote, “If we ever had a leak of this chat we would be cooked [for real, for real].”

No kidding.

So this is where we are in 2025. The GOP is going to have to own what it has created. And this is what it has created. Not for every member of the Republican party. But for a lot of them. A while back someone said something to the effect that “even if you’re not a racist or sexist or homophobe, still Trump’s racism or sexism or homophobia was not a deal-breaker for you.”

And that’s right.

It wasn’t a deal-breaker for you.

And then we had Vice-President J.D. Vance — who has now fully made the transition from sympathetic memoirist to soul-selling scumbag — saying that this was something that “kids do” — “Kids do stupid things, especially young boys.” These are professionals in their 30s, not kids. These are the future leaders of the Republican party.

God help us all.

The Politico Story