Mixed orange bag
The New York Times on Monday scored Donald Trump’s first year in office: “President Trump campaigned in 2024 on promises to “end inflation,” bring back manufacturing jobs and deliver an economic boom. A year after he returned to the White House, he has yet to deliver on those pledges.” There’s been some progress, but even those gains are obscured by what Paul Krugman describes as “Sundowning in America.” We’ll come back to that.
A few household items are cheaper. Gas has come down somewhat (he pledged to get it below $2/gal.). And eggs, somewhat. But “December saw the biggest one-month increase in grocery prices since 2022.” Trump can fool some of the people all of the time, but he can’t fool the ones who shop for groceries.
The Times finds that (gift article)”residential electricity prices in December were up 6.7 percent from a year earlier, and have risen far more in some areas.” So not a lot of help there.
“We will bring our automaking industry to the record levels of 37 years ago and we’ll be able to do it very quickly through tariffs.”
Nope. “Globally, U.S. carmakers have lost ground to foreign competitors, particularly Chinese companies specializing in affordable electric vehicles. Employment in the automaking sector has fallen by about 28,000 jobs in the past year.”
How about onshoring manufacturing? Not really.
Manufacturing employment was roughly flat in Mr. Trump’s first few months back in the White House, but has now fallen for eight straight months. Wage growth for rank-and-file factory workers also slowed in 2025.
Etc. This is that “truthful hyperbole” for which Trump is famous. Except for the truthful part.
There is plenty of circus but no bread in Trump 2.0, especially for all the civil servants DOGE fired in Trump’s first months. The only ones seeing gains in the first year of Trump 2.0 are those with investments. (Go figure.) Some of that was fueled by investor irrational exuberance over AI.
The Times Editorial Board finds that Trump himself pocketed at least $1.4 billion from being president in his first year back in office, including that $400 billion jet from Qatar.
But there’s not enough money in the world to fill the void where Trump’s soul should be. At some point soon he may not remember how much he owns or even where he is.
Krugman watched his father’s sundowning and recognizes it in Trump. Referencing Trump’s insane note to Norway, Krugman writes:
This might not exactly be sundowning, since it’s not clear that Trump is lucid and rational at any time of the day. What is incontrovertible is that he’s deeply unwell and rapidly getting sicker.
In fact, Trump is so deeply unwell that it’s time to stop blaming him for all the terrible things he’s doing. He is what he is. Responsibility for the catastrophe overtaking America now rests with his enablers — people who have to know that he’s a sick man but continue to support his depredations.
Some of these enablers are monsters themselves. For example, Stephen Miller, Trump’s immigration czar and the architect of his violent ethnic cleansing policies, is clearly a fanatic who is using Trump to achieve his own fascist goals.
However, many of Trump’s enablers aren’t fanatics, just amoral opportunists. Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, clearly understands how destructive Trump’s actions are, evidenced by the fact that he has at times tried to tone them down. But for some inexplicable reason, Bessent has decided to sell his soul to Trump.
Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noem, Kash Patel. The lot are there for the reflected glow from Trump.
Our deer-in-the-headlights Congress bears responsibility for Trump’s body remaining in office while his brain checks out for fantasies of destroying NATO and becoming emperor of the Western Hemisphere. There was a time in this country when Republicans from the House and Senate knew it was time for a Republican president to turn in his notice. They marched down to the Oval Office and made clear Richard Nixon could leave or be ousted.
But that when there were a few Republicans left with integrity and more devotion to their country than to their own ambitions.
I fear Trump may dispatch those arctic troops from Alaska to Greenland. Question is, will his commanders obey those illegal orders? The clock is ticking on Greenland. Urge your Republican representatives to grow a spine before it’s too late. Do it now.