Trump’s Vincibility

We can’t fix a broken system by defending it

Next month marks eleven years since Trump rode down that golden escalator and unleashed his depravity on our political system. Despite an attempted coup, a felony conviction, and countless scandals, he maintains a remarkable hold on the Republican Party and on much of our political system.

During his first campaign, Trump joked he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters. Then, it sounded outrageous. But over time, that line stopped sounding like a hyperbole and started to feel like a political reality.

So I get it when people tell me he feels invincible. He has gotten away with it. So far.

But one thing about being married to a historian, is that it’s a good way to be alerted when familiar patterns start to repeat themselves. History shows that when authoritarians believe there are no limits on their power, they begin making larger and larger mistakes.

That is where Trump is right now.

He is politically weaker than he appears. The cracks in his coalition have become visible. And if Democrats can recognize this moment for the opportunity it is, we have a real chance to break his hold on this country.

One of the clearest examples is Trump’s deeply unpopular war in Iran.

Trump has offered no coherent strategy, no clear exit plan, and no honest accounting of why the U.S. is at war with Iran. Thirteen American service members are dead. The 60-day clock established by the War Powers Act for unauthorized military action has long expired.

Last Tuesday, the Senate voted 50–47 to advance a resolution forcing Trump to end military action in Iran. Four Republicans crossed the aisle.

Then came the House vote.

Or rather, the House vote that never happened.

On Thursday, the House was supposed to take its own War Powers vote. But Republican leadership knew they were going to lose so they cancelled the vote entirely. They sent members home rather than allow a bipartisan majority to go on record opposing the President and his unauthorized war.

But they can’t delay that vote forever.

House Republicans will have to either stand up to Trump or vote against the majority of Americans who oppose this war.

It’s not just the war. Trump’s corruption has become so brazen that even parts of his own party are starting to recoil.

Last week, Trump’s acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced a $1.776 billion (yes, that number is deliberate) slush fund to compensate people who claim they were politically targeted by the Justice Department during Biden’s term. Among those eligible are individuals convicted of assaulting Capitol police officers on January 6th.

The setup of this fund is a mind-bending exercise in corruption. It is effectively a settlement between the Trump organization on one side, and the federal government Trump controls on the other. Trump is the plaintiff and the defendant. He holds the pen that signs the check to himself, his friends, and radicalized militia members acting on his behalf. A separate provision bars the IRS from ever auditing his or his family members’ tax returns.

Some of the sharpest criticism of this decision has come from the highest levels of the Republican Party.

Mitch McConnell called it “stupid on stilts.” Lisa Murkowski publicly reminded the White House that laws don’t simply materialize on the President’s desk to be signed. Senate Republicans left Washington for Memorial Day without passing Trump’s immigration enforcement funding package because they could not resolve internal disagreements over the slush fund provision. Trump’s party broke discipline because his corruption is becoming impossible to defend.

The war he won’t end and the slush fund are connected by the same underlying reality: a president using the government as his own organized crime ring.

Trump built his entire political identity around the opposite claim. He predicated his appeal on the fact that he was a self-funded billionaire who didn’t need this job, who was doing it because he cared so deeply about the American people.

The facade is cracking. You can see it in his approval numbers. You can see it in Republican senators struggling to defend indefensible behavior. You can see it when House GOP leadership has to cancel votes.

Trump and Republicans were able to win because millions of people look at our broken political system and do not see anyone else willing to seriously challenge it.

They see a Washington that runs on legalized bribery, laws written by lobbyists, a healthcare system that bankrupts families, and a housing market that has priced young people out of the communities they grew up in. Then they see Democrats whose response, too often, is to defend the institutions that produced those outcomes.

People are not wrong about the system.

The system is broken. It is corrupt. The status quo is screwing them over.

And if our party positions itself as the party that will defend the status quo against authoritarianism we will lose. Again.

What I am trying to do in my own campaign — and what Democrats across the country need to do — is make anti-corruption and democratic reform central to our agenda.

We need a real plan for accountability starting in January of 2027. Investigations. Oversight. Reforms that make it harder for presidents to weaponize government for personal gain. And we need an economic agenda that confronts the concentration of wealth and power that has hollowed out our communities. Because here is the thing about Trump:

The reason he survives scandal after scandal, is not because he is politically brilliant. It is because he identified the right villain.

Washington.

The system.

He told Americans the system was rigged against them, and millions believed him, because the system is rigged against them.

If Democrats want to win voters back, we have to make the argument ourselves. We have to be willing to say clearly and specifically, that concentrated wealth, corruption and corporate influence are distorting our democracy and making life harder for working people.

Then we have to show up every day with the policies to fix it.

Trump is not invincible. He never was. He is a corrupt man running a corrupt government, and the country is starting to see it.

Our job is to give them somewhere to go.

If there are candidates in our party you see centering the message of anti-corruption, accountability and corporate greed, speak up and support them. Volunteer, make a donation, host an event, more candidates will share this message if we can show that it’s resonating. Our general election campaign is now in full swing, and I hope you’ll consider supporting our work here.

Thanks for all you do.

— Daniel