Leopards ate my soybean exports

I perhaps am petty, but 10 months into Donald Trump’s administration, I still gobble down stories of his voters facing ruin due to his policies. Rural Iowa voters have been particularly hard hit, because Trump’s trade war is absolutely devastating agricultural exports. But hey, if it drives down the price of tofu at home, win/win for me, a vegetarian. 

Cruel jokes aside, it’s interesting that Trump thinks all he has to do is lie about Ronald Reagan’s anti-tariff views and all this goes away. More than ever, he seems to believe his lies will trump reality, even when it’s hitting people hard in the wallet. He’s right to feel this way about his base, people who have proved they’d rather die than admit a liberal was right. But for that shaky middle that voted based on the price of eggs, I am feeling that bet won’t pay off.

Trump loves making his base apologize for him

I’m sure most readers have followed the story both of Trump bulldozing the White House to build himself a tacky ballroom and him demanding the Justice Department write him a check for a quarter billion dollars. He’s always been a sociopathic narcissist, but even by his standards, the corruption is shocking. (His advanced age probably plays a role.) But I won’t rehash a million thinkpieces about the symbolism here.

Instead, I’ll recount a conversation I had with a MAGA relative on January 6, 2021. I was very angry, as rioters were still in the Capitol. My relative’s argument for why it was okay was bizarre. She went off on how local government employees are supposedly corrupt. Her “evidence” for this was that she occasionally saw them sitting in cars, and, she assumed, not working. She was so outraged that someone might be loafing on the taxpayer dime that, she argued, this insurrection was no big deal by comparison. For what it’s worth, it’s just as likely they were working, just in ways she couldn’t see.

I don’t speak with her anymore for mental health reasons, but I have no doubt that she’s still arguing that it’s okay for Trump to rummage through the Treasury and destroy a crucial piece of American history. Not that I believed for a single, solitary second that she was genuinely concerned about non-existent issues of corruption and good governance. It’s fascism. She just wanted an excuse to be a fascist.

But while the MAGA base is unsalvageable, I take hope in this: there are a lot of voters who, either because they’re dim or ignorant, simply didn’t take liberals seriously when we said Trump would rob us blind. The White House demolition is hard to ignore. Trump is losing his grip on the fairweather voters, and this can’t be helping him.

If you have MAGA relatives, what excuses are they making for the White House demolition?

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“Just following orders” is not an excuse to commit crimes

Trump may have immunity for crimes he commits but, crucially, no one who works for him does. Indeed, there are both rules and laws requiring federal employees and military members to reject illegal orders from the president. Trump can tell you to murder random people in boats or to steal money from the Treasury, but if you do it, legally, you could be held to account.

I’ve been frustrated that Democrats aren’t making this point loudly, repeatedly and into every camera they find. So I’ve been pleased to see that the tide is turning. Rep. Nancy Pelosi publicly stated last week, “While the President may enjoy absolute immunity courtesy of his rogue Supreme Court, those who operate under his orders do not.” Despite all the White House screaming at her, she didn’t back down, either.

In a different but related vein, I was recently listening to the popular “Last Podcast on the Left,” which is doing a WWII history series right now. They made a point to talk at length about people who kept tabs on SS doings during the war, records which were later used to prosecute those people during the Nuremberg trials. You know, where Nazis tried to argue they were “just following orders” and went to prison anyway?

Their point was one I want to repeat and underscore for readers of this newsletter: there is value in recording ICE agents you catch breaking the law. There’s a reason they want to hide behind masks. The more information the public has on them, the higher the chance that there’s accountability after Trump is out of office. He may think he’ll be president forever, but he won’t be. Both good guys and bad guys need to remember that, and think about what happens after this is over.

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What we're reading this week

• “ICE is out of control and beyond repair,” Paul Waldman, Public Notice

• “It Needs to Be Said Again: Leave Britney Alone,” Kat Tenbarge, New York Times

• “The Kavanaugh stop, 50 days later,” Chris Geidner, Law Dork

• “Three Reasons I Still Have Hope for America,” Garrett Graff, Doomsday Scenario

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