Under the great comb-over weave, there is no policy. No economy. No separation of powers. There is no republic or federalism. There is no religion or science. No justice. No education or compassion. There is only pathology. 

Oh, our lives go on in families and small communities. Babies arrive. People die. Dogs smile and crows squawk. Little things and big ones seem much like before. But the whole, that essential flawed nation, forever seeking renewal under 250-year-old aspirations, has no existence apart from the rotting mind of one man. We are all living in Trump’s brain. 

My Proof:

Asked on Wednesday how he would decide on any further exemptions, Mr. Trump said: “Instinctively, more than anything else. I mean, you almost can’t take a pencil to paper. It’s really more of an instinct, I think, than anything else.”

Trump claimed: “I’m telling you, these countries are calling us up, kissing my ass. They are. They are dying to make a deal.”

Mocking the pleas of foreign leaders, he parodied: “Please, please, sir, make a deal. I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything, sir!”

Definition: Megalomania — a delusional mental illness that is marked by feelings of personal omnipotence and grandeur.

The president has a hole in his being that he knows, to his core, can be filled with the love of others and the exercise of singular power. Nothing else matters. He is incapable of compassion or empathy. Starving hundreds of thousands in Africa gets no more attention than deciding on his blue or red tie in the morning. Crashing the world economy has no victims but him. Facts, data, charts, graphs are only useful if his courtiers can contort them to fit his most recent thought. 

We have known this for years, but for me the tariff episode and those quotes from his 2-hour speech at the National Republican Congressional Committee two days ago erased any self-delusion that systems and rationality, of any sort, will save us from Trump’s decaying mind. 

Look closely at the words. This man has at his fingertips the vastest information processing power in the world. ANY question can be answered in minutes based on some of the best minds in the world. But that isn’t necessary. Look at the simplicity of his formulation, “can’t take a pencil to paper.” When is the last time you sharpened a number 2 yellow pencil? He says the word “computer” as if an object appeared in front of him from a red smoke cloud. 

No, for the president, his “instinct” is the ultimate arbiter of every decision. His two victories (thank you Democrats) and surviving a bullet have only reinforced the narcissistic surety that his every thought is truth. He is the divinely anointed king. I just finished the terrific book “Fight” about the 2024 campaigns. His campaign, now White House, team knows they can never change his mind, but occasionally, over time, they can erode his thinking to a different conclusion. They are all Cromwell in service of Henry VIII. Their heads, one day, will roll too. 

The impending crash of the international order and economy is the best thing that Trump has ever done… for Trump. At long last, he has proven that he, alone, is the world’s essential man. He was joyful saying “kissing my ass” followed by acting out, begging and submission. This is everything he ever wanted, and yet, watching clips from the 2-hour sycophancy that is his cabinet meeting, he seems to go through the motions. The 78-year-old man is tired and all the slobbering over him is not having the vital palliative effect. Even his cabinet seems baffled. After all, all this obedience and narrow focus love is what he requires… isn’t it?

Because I am that guy, I also just read “Regime Change: Toward a Postliberal Future,” by Patrick Deneen. It’s graduate school dry, but I wanted to understand the philosophical essence that is driving the most dangerous Trump artifacts, the Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society courtiers who created and are now enacting Project 2025. These are smart, committed people who have been preparing for this moment for decades. The Democrats, god rest their souls, don’t have any apparatus that approaches their single-minded, detailed planning.

I won’t bother going into the reasons for Project 2025 from the book. You can see the results in your daily doom scroll. What is most interesting is how they view Trump. In 300 pages, he is barely mentioned. They needed two tools for their plan, a populist revolt (thank you NAFTA and Woke overreach), and a demagogue to capture all the rage. Clearly, for them, Trump was merely an ‘as good as any’ option. Trump is a tool, a step needed to change society and overthrow the Enlightenment constitutional core that has sustained America since the founding. Trump is not the plan. He can’t be. They fear his erratic nature because they are rational. However, if a mentally ill old man births regime change, then so be it. The fact he is ancient is the icing on the cake. The plan will outlive the puppet. 

I went to the Tesla takedown and will continue to take part in rallies not dominated by the progressive fringe. It was heartening. I mean that literally. Waving at smiling people in passing cars was good for my heart. I can’t recommend this sort of action enough. Beware, I am sure that when the numbers are in the millions, as they need to be, Trump will take actions he has learned from dictators everywhere. Don’t let that stop you. 

But in the end, I am even more convinced that my original solution is the only way out. Constructive Nihilism is how we put down this rabid, wasted brain dog. The courts will not save us. Trump long ago mastered the judicial branch. The Republican party is dead. There are no good Republicans, only MAGA. They crave power like I do late night french fries after a club show. They are terrorized. As much as Trump scares us, he scares them more.

Sorry. I have no ponies to give. This will only end through pain. We had our chance to stop Trump, and Biden ripped it away from us. The more widely Trump’s empty soul vacuums up people’s lives, the better for us. The rich soil of rebirth builds layers in what Trump lays to waste. 

Take care of yourselves. Be active. And… wait like a guerilla army of insurgents watching for the first signs of weakness in the enemy. Yea, we are at war now because they are with us and we have no choice.