MAGA TRUMP UNRAVELS

Trump’s effectiveness as President for the remaining three years of his term is growing more more in doubt as his political control of Congress weakens and as he is appearing more and more mentally challenged.This has resulted in speculation as to who will control and reshape the Republican Party that has been molded by Trump for the past decade. 

The failure of Trump to deliver on his campaign promises particularly relating to the economy and inflation and most importantly the revelations of the Epstein affair haver increased the probability that the Democratic Party will at least retake the House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections. With Republican losses in the interim Speaker Mike Johnson has his work cut out with his tiny majority to control the House of Representatives even before 2026.

The Trump Administration will do all it can to mitigate the damage resulting from  Congress’s resolution to release The Epstein Files The latter was accelerated by the revelations in e mails delivered by the Epstein estate to Congress. Trump will focus on any Democrats that are mentioned and deflect attention from the telltale contents as illustrated by charging key Democrat Legislators with sedition, sicking his masked thugs on “illegals”and bombing fishing boats.

Jay H. Ell will attempt to outline the state of play in these abnormal times starting with the weakening, both mentally and politically, of the powerhouse of the last decade, Donald J. Trump.

TRUMP THE WOBBLING  COLOSSUS

Trump the omnipotent or anointed one, who as Steve Bannon maintains was sent to earth “to be a divine instrument” and who also has been given earthly powers by the Supreme Court unimagined by Constitutionalists, has in the last few months sustained setbacks that have rocked his strongest adherents. These include continued devastating electoral results that have mirrored his record low approval ratings, a humiliation when his desire to remove a late night comedian was thwarted, outright defiance by federal prosecutors who have resigned or been fired in droves recently resulting in the disaster of a prosecution against two of his nemeses, judicial dressings down by the score and of course “The Epstein Files”. 

The unkindest cuts of them all were two rebuffs by the Republican Legislative bodies  which had previously obsequiously and fearfully obeyed his every whim. The first rebuff was from Senate, where the Republicans, in spite of repeated public exhortations by the President to drop the traditional need for 60 votes to pass the financing of the government, refused. This resulted in an historic long government shut down which the Democrats utilized to focus on the fact that health care had effectively been removed for up to 40 million Americans. 

The last brick in the Trump edifice to fall was the realization that at least 70 Republican members of the House of Representatives were about to defy him and commit a “hostile act” in voting for the release of “The Epstein Files”. Trump who operates in an alternate reality decided to change course and instruct the House Republicans to back the bill to release “The Files”.  To everyone’s shock The Senate adapted The House Resolution, by “unanimous consent”. All in all a staggering collapse of support for Trump’s priority to avoid the revelations of his decades long close relationship with the convicted pedophile. It is predicted that he will still not allow these disclosures thereby focussing even more attention on the scandal.

WHO WILL TAKEOVER TRUMP’S MAGA PARTY?

Jay H.Ell muses that this has to be the beginning of the end of the Trump and his Make American Great Again, (MAGA), Republican Party even though there have to some who still attest to his cult. There are other contenders who can set the direction of the Republican Party and obscenely could make it even worse. 

There are the unashamed neo fascists led by Nic Fuentes and supported by the influential Tucker Carlson. These are the real anti semitic deal. While Carlson is a serious contender for 2028 it is his friend Fuentes who admires Hitler and Stalin and is a Holocaust denier. Taking them on is Ted Cruz who is also from the far right but is a traditional Christian Zionist. He, as is Vice President Vance, (the obvious favorite), are  appealing to the Christian Evangelicals and the late Charlie Kirk’s Christian “Turning Point” youth. 

Carlson and Fuentes will hope that the far right base and those that are against all foreign intervention including Israel will be enough to garner them the controls of the Republican Party. So far Majorie Taylor - Greene, who took Trump on and beat him on the release of The Epstein Files, has not declared where she is in the battle for Trump’s MAGA Party. The only potential candidate with traditional Republican values, Marco Rubio, is chanceless.

But so much for what might happen to the Grand Old Party as the Trump MAGA version disintegrates. The immediate issue is the devastation that the Epstein Estate has wreaked by its dumping on the House Oversight Committee a ton of documents in response to a subpoena. 

THE EPSTEIN FILES

The recent trove of 23,000 e-mails released by the Estate of the convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein gave a foretaste of what the FBI files might contain: Was Trump aware of his closest friend for over a decade activities or even a participant- a fact that he has denied? In a related question why is Trump so anxious to shut up Giselle Maxwell, the convicted co conspirator of Epstein sentenced to 20 years in prison for pedophilia? Jay H. Ell has long believed that MAGA Trump’s major vulnerability is “The Epstein Files”, (see blogs in archive on right side , “This is Epsteingate”, July 28, 2025; “Trump: The Epstein Tsunami, August 22, 2025; “Trump, The Second Civil War And Epstein”, September 1, 2025 and “Charlie Kirk, Kimmel, Trump and Epstein, October 5, 2025”).

The  Estate e mails gave more than hint at Trump’s involvement in Epstein’s unsavory activities, Epstein writes to Maxwell in 2011, “…… I want you to realize the dog that hasn’t barked yet is Trump… Virginia Roberts Giuffre spent several hours at my house with him….. he has never been mentioned …. Police Chief…. “ to which Maxwell replied, “….  I have been thinking about that….”. Epstein is alluding to the Sherlock Holmes story of the significance of a non event. Epstein had been released from the State Prison in 2009 and was subject to civil litigation at the time of sending this message. 

Tantalizing too is the fact that Epstein fed the Russians information on Trump prior to the infamous Helsinki meeting with Putin in July 2018 where the 45th USA President favored the Russians Premier’s version of interference in the 2016 Presidential election over his own Intelligence Agencies. In a communication with the then Chairman of the European Council, a former Prime Minister of Norway Thorjborn Jagland, Epstein stated, “….I think you might suggest to Putin that Lavrov, (the Russian Foreign Affairs Minister), can get insight by talking to me….”.

Democrat Larry Summers a former member of Clinton’s cabinet is unseemly implicated in the emails. Hilary and Bill Clinton are among the contacts Epstein had in many fields, ranging from politics, economics, academia, entertainment to the arts. A large number were not involved in his sex trafficking operations.

As blogged earlier Epstein was arrested in 2019 on charges of pedophilia and was found dead in his cell. The official verdict was suicide but the forensic pathologist employed by the Epstein family believed that the findings pointed more to homicide. 

It was the Democrats who led the charge to release the files and they too have been profoundly effected by the recent happenings.

THE DEMOCRATS - WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM THEIR FRIENDS.

Traditionally, with the Republicans controlling The Presidency, House and Senate the Democrats are lame ducks for at least the first two years, however they were helped politically by the lunacy of the President’s policies. Up until “The Files” were voted on, Trump appeared to be in control.  

The opportunities to attack the Trump controlled MAGA incumbents was illustrated by what their priorities were in their “Big Beautiful Bill”. The latter provided a massive tax cut for the wealthy, took a host of programs away from the lower income groups, defunded planned parenthood, child care, food stamps and preschool education and took away subsidies from public radio and television. Trump’s crippling tariffs on imported goods pushed up prices more resulting in everything being less and less affordable.

Most devastating the Republican Bill doubled costs for about 20 million citizens on the affordable care act, (ObamaCare) and took about 20,000,000 off Medicaid. It was on that issue that the Democrats shut down the government claiming that the Trump Government needed revenue to pay for their grotesque tax cuts at the expense of their citizen’s health care among other things.The Trump’s authoritarian approach to immigration with his thugs appearing to know no bounds has generally shocked the country while his naked lawless retribution against his enemies is drawing anger from the bench.

All this has helped the Democrats in bye elections which they have won increasing their vote by an average of 15 percent. A crucial bye election is scheduled in early December in red Tennessee where Trump won in 2024 by 22 percent. The polls have terrified to the extent that Trump, Vance and Speaker Johnson are all going to speak in favor of the Republican. A desperately insane political move because if the Democrats can pull off a win it is a no confidence vote in the presidency.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

The Epstein scandal hangs over Trump like a clinging albatross and it won’t go away. Invading Venezuela won’t help nor will charging opposition members with sedition for quoting the constitution.

There is going to be a rearranging of party support and policies. Although there is still a strong cultural and religious bias to what the Republicans stand for they haven’t delivered on that or their affordability platform. One wonders what support this same old same old formula can have in the future because that is where they appear to be headed - a modified autocratic MAGA

The Democrats need to agree on a common vision which can be modified for their three constituencies, Democratic Socialists, middle of the road voters and finally the many disenchanted former Republicans who  are currently homeless.

It is hard to imagine how a mentally compromised Trump can see out three more years. His central financial policy the tariffs are hopelessly unconstitutional and may be declared such by the Supreme Court. The Cabinet members are the most insipid sycophantic group ever assembled in a democracy, and cannot be counted on to declare him unfit under the 25th Amendment.

There is a massive opposition organization to the government entitled Indivisible. Seven million citizens turned up to their last protest held in early October. Their activism plays and will continue play a central role in mobilizing protest and voting in elections. It seems that a second term of Trump has stung and awoken the elephant.