As a background to the most consequential American constitutional crisis since 1861, the Democrats have gained in every special election since 2024. Katelyn Grey has just flipped a rural Iowa State seat reflecting a 21 percent swing since the 2022 election of District 1 in Iowa and the MAGA crowd who pitch up to town halls are being booed, America is facing the Second Civil War.
Donald Trump has stated, “I have the right to do what ever I want to do. I am the President”. This he is trumpeting with a 37 percent approval rating. This is not politics as usual, Trump will not easily accept a loss of the 2026 Congressional elections. This period in history is only about Trump, who has the levers of power. So the question remains what if anything can thwart his path to autocracy.? He has one vulnerability that has much bipartisan agreement -.the release of the Epstein Files. There have been continuous attempts at diversion from that subject but it won't go away. In addition he still has to find a way to prevent the Democrats from winning the midterm elections.
NOT POLITICS AS USUAL - ITS THE SECOND CIVIL WAR
Donald J. Trump, the 47th President of the United States of America, is the leader of the 2025 White Supremacy Confederates and who is turning his Presidency into the Second Civil War where the winner will decide who “We the People” are. This is not politics as usual. This is not a policy debate about trickle down economics versus when Governments’ should intervene in the economy or provide a safety net for the less privileged, this is the real deal. The issue is whether only whites are the real Americans and regardless of whether they are in the minority should be in power running an authoritarian government.
Just as there would not have been the 1861 Civil War sans Lincoln, there can be no “Second Civil War’ without Trump.The latter has the racist credentials to lead this fight with his resume of two ongoing public campaigns, calling for the death sentence of five African American youths who had been wrongly accused for a rape in Central Park and then his infamous thinly disguised racist attack on the first Black American President, Barack Obama, proclaiming that he was not legitimate for a period over nearly 7 years. Unlike Lincoln however who had a cabinet of “equals”, Trump has an administration of ignorant sycophantic nonentities.
This battle for the soul of America is ugly and undisguised. Donald Trump, the modern day Jefferson Davis, is even objecting to the historical narrative of what an abomination slavery was. Trump believes that slavery was not so bad. He has attacked the world renowned Smithsonian Museum complex’s focus, “Everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been”.His objective is to rewrite history while simultaneously conducting his second coup against the Constitution.
WIN 2026 MIDTERMS BY CREATING MORE REPUBLICAN SEATS
Trump is justifiably fearful of the 2026 Congressional elections where under current circumstances the MAGA Republicans would definitely lose the House and have a reasonable chance of losing the Senate. His answer is to gerrymander the Republican States to obtain additional seats in Congress. So far the biggest move is in Republican Texas adding 5 seats. This effort has been met by California who have moved constitutionally to provide the same number for the Democrats. There are far more Republican States where he could pick up seats then there are Democratic opportunities.
It remains to be seen how the gerrymandering equation will end. Republican Congressmen in some instances are queasy about it as often their districts are turned from a definite “win” projection to a “lean” which could put them at risk especially the way the voters are reacting presently. Others will lose their seats in Democratic States. Trump has an agenda to limit minority opposition voting as well by attacking methods used by them such as postal voting.
Trump’s objective appears to be to make this the last election and he has said so in so many words, “This will be the last time you will vote”. At a Believer’s Summit, he declared to the attendants, “Christians, get and vote, just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed. It’ll be fine.You won’t have to vote anymore”. Trump has mused that maybe America would prefer a dictator, “Maybe we like a dictator”. Finally, he has said the quiet part out loud,”If we happen to be in a war. No more elections. THAT’S GOOD”
THE CHAOTIC NEW ADMINISTRATION
Trump has through his cuckoo land cabinet and Elon Musk’s DOGE, (Department of Government Efficiency), ransacked the bureaucratic state. This is sure to cause chaos down the line. Although, for example, Social Security has not been touched as yet but if offices are closed, phones aren’t answered retirees won’t be able to register easily nor will queries be answered. In addition a whole cadre of expertise has been gutted across the board especially in the armed forces and national security. Trump terminated the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because he didn’t like the message of the low new job numbers. This is the path of all autocrats. Hitler as well, in the bunker, denied that the war was going badly on the Eastern Front, screaming at the messengers.
There is chaos everywhere. As Heather Cox Richardson points out the Federal Work Force has been short staffed for years. Scott Kuper Trump’s head of Office of Personnel Management, stated that there would be 300,000 workers less. The decrease includes those with expertise built up over decades, Particularly hard hit is the Center For Disease Control; (CDC), where the vaccine panel has been gutted and replaced by anti vaxers. His destructive behavior towards vaccines is criminal and will result in deaths. Thirty thousand scientists have either been axed or have resigned. The Head of the CDC was fired by Secretary Kennedy 5 months after her appointment, (a common occurrence in this administration). Kennedy who has no medical credentials has the most bizarre theories on health care. For example he stated authoritatively that there should be different vaccine schedules for African Americans. He also has a belief in the survival of the fittest.
There is a daily score of how much the tariffs are going to be for this country or that. The policy is based on a lie in that Trump claims the countries pay the duty whereas it is in fact a sales tax on the consumer isn’t the only cause for confusion. This crude attempt at upsetting world trade is not based on any rationale. A 50 percent tariff on Brazilian goods because they are charging his friend President Bolsonaro with an attempted coup and the same for India because Prime Minister Modi is irritating him. The tariffs on Mexico and Canada, America’s largest trading partners have not been decided on. American agriculture trade, particularly soya beens, is at a halt because China is importing from Brazil. The final humiliation is that Trump didn’t bother to confirm that he was legally entitled to impose tariffs and an Appeal Court has ruled against him. He has to hope the Supreme Court will once again bail him out.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, (ICE), and all the cutely named concentration camps seem to be out of the news for the moment. The crudest one of the lot “Alligator Alcatraz” has been shut by court order. (It was hopelessly mismanaged and cost Florida 218 million dollars not to mention the Federal tax payer money spent without authority). If the poster child for the deportation of criminal illegals is Abrego Garcia the dysfunction is there for all to behold. Ever since March he has been in and out of detention centers including a period in the infamous Salvadorian concentration prison. At every step of Garcia’s saga the Trump administration insistence has been that he is going to be deported. As of August 25 the Courts have categorically instructed Trump’s Department of Justice not to remove him from “the continental United States”. So far Trump has abused the judiciary but not as yet defied them.
Trump has impacted every aspect of American culture and government from the logo of a folksy restaurant, Cracker Barrel to the sacrosanct, the axing of a Governor of the Federal Reserve. By the way he has also claimed to have settled 10 wars in the interim.
CRIME IS NOW PROBLEM NUMBER ONE NOT IMMIGRATION
Signs are that the number one Trump policy namely immigration has so disgusted the population that the issue du jour has changed to save America from crime. Trump apparently needs to send in the troops to effect this. So far there have been two experiments, one in Los Angeles and the other in Washington DC. In the former he was ostensibly just protecting Federal Buildings while in the latter his objective was to fight crime. While that was bogus nevertheless the Federal Government has extensive control over Washington and he could send in the National Guard. Trump has made it quite clear that this is his new thrust - clear up the crime infested capitols of the Blue Democratic States with the National Guard.
It is not coincidence that every potential city target for “crime prevention” has a black Mayor. The fact that crime has decreased throughout the country but particularly in the Blue States does not hinder President Trump anymore than the economy is worsening and prices are increasing as a result of his tariffs. His announced next target for crime reduction via the National Guard is Chicago and then Baltimore. Governor Pritzker of Illinois all but told him to go to hell. For the first half of 2025 major crime is down in every sector in Illinois by a third. In an outright declaration of war Pritzker noted that 13 of the top 20 states where crimes was the highest in America had Republican Governors. More significantly 8 of the top 10 cities where crime rates were the worst were under Republican stewardship. Moving the National Guard in is going to be a hard sell for “crime” under these circumstances even for the Supreme Court. But Trump has other strings to his bow, more emergencies.
SO WHAT CAN IMPACT TRUMP?
Trump’s approval numbers generally and on every issue are in the tank. However in spite of the fact that he is delusional and he is running a sh-t show, he still exudes confidence and is set on his path to allow a MAGA authoritarian state to replace democracy.
Without Trump, MAGA is all but dead. Already Trump is losing the internet and only Fox News is credibly backing him. “The Epstein Files” have already done deep damage. (See Blogs; “This is Epsteingate and Trump: The Epstein Tsunami”). Public interest is not waning and 7 out of ten polled believed that he is not handling the issue well. For the moment troops in Washington and chaos in the CDC are diversion enough to keep this off the front page. Ghislaine Maxwell’s characterization of Trump as a “gentleman” preceding her removal to a low security prison also has grabbed the headlines.
On September 3 a bipartisan resolution in The House of Representatives will demand the release of the full Epstein files, not the garbage that the Department of Justice has dropped thus far. The House Oversight Committee chaired by a Republican has subpoenaed the prosecutor who fully investigated Epstein in 2005. They have also subpoenaed a co operating Epstein estate for about a dozen different categories of documents including a “Birthday Book”.The latter allegedly includes a lewd drawing by Trump who signed his name in a wavy fashion where the pubis is. Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal has already published the picture together with messages about “the secrets” that Trump claimed he and Epstein kept together. As this story develops the Epstein’s family forensic pathologist’s finding that homicide was more likely the cause of death is being revisited on the internet.
So a bipartisan House maybe on their way to expose the knight who campaigned to uncover “The Deep State”. Joe Rogan the most followed Trump influencer with many others have stated Trump has already “crossed a line”.Could the avatar who campaigned to uncover the deep state be part it himself? It is Trump’s biographer and Epstein chronicler Michael Wolff’s opinion that the full contents of the Epstein files will never be released.
On the night of September 3rd there will be a bipartisan Press Conference where 10 victims will also appear and Trump’s omnipotence will have its severest test yet.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
It really is hard to imagine what follows. Perhaps a significant loss of Congress will turn Trump into more than a lame duck and stop his Civil War dead. He is old, off his game and cognitively impaired. His only show now is his cabinet meetings which is a feeble mimicry of Saturday Night Live. It is hard to see him winning in 2026. it is even harder to imagine him allowing the Democrats to take over Congress. Even if MAGA loses the second Civil War the path back to American “exceptionalism” will be long and hard.
There are serious questions being asked about the President’s physical and mental health. Vice President Vance has stated that he is ready to take over “God forbid a terrible tragedy with Trump” but that Trump is in “excellent health”. He added, smilingly, that he had enough on the job training, (in the last 7 months).
