Bleak

It’s hard to get my head around the corruption and grift in Trump world. It’s also hard to follow the news in general because it’s all so depressing. The most upsetting part is watching my fellow citizens look away from, or even embrace, this ugly period in our history.

The Trump family just increased their wealth by $5 billion when their World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency scheme began trading publicly. As NPR wrote, “A few years ago, Trump referred to crypto as a scam, but he has now embraced it and has vowed to make the U.S. the crypto capital of the world.” The Wall Street Journal said, “Trump’s erupting crypto wealth comes as his administration has instructed authorities to loosen the reins on crypto companies.” It’s just shameless grift.

Republicans are silent, of course. They’ve embraced public corruption like they’ve embraced authoritarianism. The two go hand-in-hand.

Still, it’s shocking to see the President of the Unites States profit off of his position with virtually no public outcry. There’s really no press to hold him accountable anymore. The traditional mainstream media has lost the trust and confidence of too many Americans. In our fragmented information world, not enough people hear about the corruption and too few even care. Republicans have successfully convinced them that everybody does it.

And the news just goes downhill from there.

Trump sending troops into cities is normalizing the federal government usurping local power. Expect to see the National Guard in Democratic cities and states throughout the next few years. Again, the fact that there’s no loud public outcry is disturbing. Trump is using the military like his own private militia and Americans seem fine with it.

It’s shocking that we’ve got a full-blown quack leading our public health efforts. RFK, Jr., is fighting hard to bring back childhood diseases that had largely been defeated. The only Republican who seems to be pushing back is Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy. Of course, Cassidy cast the vote that made Kennedy Secretary of Health and Human Services in the first place. Still, Cassidy is warning that upending childhood vaccine schedules will lead to a lot of pain and suffering for people.

If there’s any bright spot, it’s that the courts are pushing back. At least the lower courts. They’ve ruled that Trump used the National Guard and Marines illegally when he invaded Los Angeles. They also ruled his tariffs illegal.

I worry that the Supreme Court is going to side with Trump in some of his most authoritarian actions. As one article noted, the Justices would be more willing to restrain him if Congress had not surrendered their role of oversight. John Roberts doesn’t want the court to become the only check on White House power.

Let’s hope for some good news this fall. Maybe the American people will start to pay more attention now that summer is over. Maybe Democrat will figure out how to communicate better. Politics can change very quickly. I’m still optimistic about Democrats’ chances in the 2026 election if Republican don’t steal them. I’m also sure that we need to keep shining the light no matter how dim it seems.