A Very Dangerous Time for America

Posted on June 29, 2026 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, June 29, 2026

The next four months are going to be stressful and dangerous for America. Regardless of anything he says, President Trump is desperate to control the midterm elections which are now eighteen weeks away. If he maintains his majorities in Congress, he will be able to do irreversible damage to our country. If he doesn’t he will be a frustrated, angry lame duck, but he might be even more dangerous, then. If the midterms change the balance of power in Congress, we’re in for two years of tantrums and specious lawsuits over rigged elections.

Trump’s mental illness is on display daily. The more he loses the worse that will get, and the Supreme Court, today, handed him a stinging loss, upholding state laws that allow mail-in ballots to be counted after election day as long as they’re postmarked on time. They also refused to void a five million dollar judgment against him for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll, and they’re widely expected to deny Trump’s claim that would overturn the 14th Amendment guarantee that anyone born in the United States is a citizen.

The fact that the Senate pulled back its vote on the War Powers Resolution means that nothing is restraining Trump’s erratic behavior and postings on social media. His latest threat to annihilate Iran is another of his childish rants. They only make negotiations more difficult – have you ever tried to reason with a five-year-old having a tantrum? If an equitable peace agreement is ever reached it will be because the negotiators on both sides tune Trump out. None of his attempts to intimidate Iran have had any effect, because they know the war is extremely unpopular among American voters, as is Trump himself.

It’s hard for diplomats, legislators, and average Americans to predict what might happen next when our president’s words rarely have anything to do with reality. By now we’re used to the lies, insults, and delusional fantasies, but all that accomplishes is teaching us it’s best to ignore him. When people ask me to predict what he’ll do next, I usually say it’s impossible to know because Trump is driven by his ego, his greed, and his rage that everyone hasn’t fallen worshipfully in line whenever he speaks. At this moment, it’s harder than usual.

The problem is that Trump’s desperation to hold onto and increase his power is obvious to everyone, everywhere. The Congress knows, Iran knows, our Gulf allies know, and Israel knows. So do Europe, Russia, and China. And then there’s damage to our economy and the price of gas.

Iran seems to believe Trump would never resort to restarting the war, as do many home-grown pundits. They reason that only a quarter of us supported it from the outset, and the frightening speed at which we are dissipating our military resources makes any kind of massive assault irresponsible, not least because it’s now clear to everyone that only a D-Day style ground invasion or the use of a nuclear weapon can achieve Trump’s goals. Common sense would argue that neither of those has any chance of occurring, but when was the last time anything Trump did conformed with common sense?

The problem I see is that Trump has truly painted himself into a corner with no clear way out. His own party screams that he’s sabotaging the November election by focusing on a lost war and a series of vanity projects, but they’ve been doing that for months with no effect. My question is what is more likely to push Trump over the edge and down the rabbit hole, giving up his ego-driven need to dominate everyone and act rationally or being defied by an enemy he despises and seriously underestimated.

In the game of outrageous rants and threats, Iran’s are more credible. Their attacks on our bases in the Gulf States continue and our allies in the region fear the destruction of their oil wealth. The whole region is basically mercenary, pledging allegiance to the highest bidder. My fear is that in the end, Trump’s rage at being constantly outmaneuvered may eventually drown out all the other crazy voices in his head.

We know how he loves to order the military into battle, and it wouldn’t surprise me if one day he simply cracks and orders an all-out assault on Iran. If that happens, who’s going to stand in his way? Every senior military officer knows that if they do anything but march in lockstep, Pete Hegseth with simply fire them. And even if the Senate realizes their error and quickly reverses themselves, once the fighting re-starts in earnest it will be too little too late. The only way to stop him at that point would be to exercise the 25th amendment, but that takes time, and in the midst of total warfare anything could happen.

It’s really hard to see how anything good can come of this.

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Days of Reckoning

Posted on June 22, 2026 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, June 21, 2026,

The concept of a day of reckoning is universal in Judeo-Christian and Islamic cultures. We’re taught since childhood, and we grow up believing that we will eventually be held accountable for our actions.

It hasn’t always turned out that way, however. Donald Trump is especially adept at stymying the legal process. He was convicted of ninety-four felonies prior to the 2024 election, but armed with the Supreme Court decision that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted for pretty much anything, there’s no doubt that a principal reason he ran again was to avoid sentences being imposed on him.

The courts held all that in abeyance during the 2024 election campaign, and Trump spent a fortune on lawyers skilled at delaying legal proceedings. If he could delay them until after the election and he won, he could use (misuse?) the Department of Justice to quash all his indictments and convictions, and that is exactly what happened.

No doubt, Trump feels invincible. He has a captive majority in both houses of Congress and a Supreme Court that will not get in his way unless he commits egregious constitutional violations like his tariff policy. Trump advocates the idea that it’s better to apologize than ask permission, though in fact he never does either. He knows the adage that possession is nine tenths of the law and he uses it constantly.

The philosophy of Project 2025 was for Trump to attack relentlessly on all fronts whether his actions were legal or not and dare everyone else to stop him. That worked very well for him until the Court’s decision on tariffs, but that defeat didn’t deter him at all. The assaults on voting rights, immigrants, and the social net that tens of millions of Americans depend on, including health care and food stamps, continue unabated. And with the skyrocketing costs of the Iran war, that will only get worse.

In Trump’s mind, assuring that wealthy Americans pay no taxes and rebuilding the capabilities of our military are much higher priorities than the basic needs of American citizens. Given his track record throughout his life, does anyone doubt that in the four plus months until the midterm elections he will pull every dirty trick and underhanded stunt he can to maintain his Congressional majorities? As time grows tighter, he can jam up both his opposition and the courts.

It’s clear to everyone but his most rabid supporters, and many of them too, that Trump is becoming more unhinged and irrational every day. What kind of leader posts the nonsense he does on social media in the midst of negotiations to end a dangerous and costly war? What kind of leader ignores his expert advisors and allows his actions to be completely dominated by his ego and mental illness?

It’s extremely clear that as of today, the winners of Trump’s Iran War were Iran, China, and Russia; the losers: the United States and, by far, Israel, which has squandered whatever good will it had with Europe and seriously eroded American support. It’s also extremely clear that Trump has severely hurt our economy and most of the established trade and economic policies world-wide.

He is despised by a large majority of Americans, and he is mocked by most national leaders while they praise and appease him to his face. His administration doesn’t even make an effort to hide either its corruption or its pre-occupation with things like the reflecting pool and Trump’s lust to have the biggest ballrooms and the tallest arches in the world, while plastering his name on every building and institution he can get away with.

The question for Congress and American voters is simple. With the election approaching fast and the certainty that Trump will create all the chaos he can before then, can his day of reckoning be delayed any longer? Can our republic and Constitution survive anything but an immediate all-out effort to stop him before he can do any more damage?

How do we do that? First, all the millions of Americans who are burned out on Trump’s antics need to grow a pair and re-engage. Not doing so is exactly what Trump wants, it’s how he wins. If you live in a swing district currently held by a Republican, or even if you don’t, focus on one that is and make a lot of noise at town halls, on social media, and by communicating directly with your representative’s Chief of Staff. Make it crystal clear that if they continue to choose blind loyalty to Trump and party over their constituents, they will be fired on election day.

Write to news outlets, call in to talk radio shows, interact with influential podcast hosts. Exercise your right to free speech and guarantee your right to vote while you still have them. Every day we delay joining the final battle for control of Congress, and by implication, to control and muzzle Trump, increases the chances that the 2026 election will be the last real election we ever participate in.

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Obama vs Trump : Class vs Crass

Posted on June 19, 2026 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, June 19, 2026

The opening of the Obama Presidential Center, yesterday, was in stark contrast to the daily spectacle of our current president going mad in the White House. It was the Obamas (Michele and Barack) at their best and classiest. They never mentioned Donald Trump, instead relying on media commentators to remind their audiences that Trump wasn’t invited, although Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Biden and their wives were highly visible in the crowd.

I was ambivalent about Obama’s presidency. When the former president burst on the scene as a relatively unknown, highly charismatic orator, I was conflicted. He was obviously brilliant, but I fundamentally don’t trust charisma. As Trump showed us, it can be negatively hypnotic like a cobra’s, leading to things like cults and MAGA. Except for his career-making keynote address at the 2004 Democratic Convention, Obama was a complete stranger in 2008. It wasn’t until John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate that I decided to vote for Obama. 

When he won, I like millions of other Americans felt a surprising elation. It wasn’t about  Obama as much it was the sense that by electing him, America had demonstrated we had matured as a nation. In a single populous wave of inclusiveness, we compensated for decades of slavery, Jim Crow laws, segregation, and racism in general. Unfortunately, that turned out to be only an illusion, as the forces of darkness and exclusionism simply went underground to prepare for the coup that Trump has spent his second term attempting to execute.

I thought some of Obama’s policies as president were mistaken, but the one thing he always got right was preaching love instead of hate, equal opportunity instead of elitism, courtesy and empathy over profanity and tone-deafness. Obama’s was an honorable presidency that treated opposing voices with respect and gentility. He never accused Republicans of either treason or stupidity, never openly molested or disrespected women.

One of the happiest experiences of my life was watching the victory celebration in Grant Park in Chicago after the 2008 election. There was no ego on display, no obsession with crowd sizes, no accusing everyone else of cheating. And after all the verbal abuse Obama has taken from Trump, the most impressive thing about yesterday was that the celebration of the Obama Presidential Center was as classy, positive, and inclusive as the 2008 celebration at Grant Park.

It was a reminder of what we always thought of as presidential dignity, of which there has been no sign in Trump’s White House. Where Trump is obsessed with the word “I,” Obama stresses “We.” While Trump goes out of his way to make enemies so he can play the martyr game, Obama always talks about cooperating and working together. It’s not a coincidence that on the same day as the Obama celebration, a poll was released showing that 57% of Americans view Obama favorably while only 30% have a positive view of Trump.

This is one of those moments when I imagine how historians will view this period twenty years from now. I can hear them all screaming, “How the Hell could America have let this happen? How could we have allowed this egomaniac to completely upend our way of life while running the most corrupt, incompetent administration anyone can remember?”

There are signs that yesterday’s Obama celebration is part of a changing trend, that Americans have had enough of hate-mongering and  divisiveness, of the barely hidden racism and misogyny that characterizes the Trump administration. The massive celebration in New York on the same day that brought literally millions of New Yorkers of every race, color, gender, and religion together to share in the joy of the NBA Knick’s victory was another sign that we’ve had enough of the lies, crudeness, and self-serving policies intended to further enrich Trump and his supporters while average Americans struggle to pay for health care, energy, rent, and food.

We’ve seen the same trend in special elections around the country in which MAGA Republicans have been repeatedly upset by Democrats. Trump continues to hold enormous sway among his own party, but even when the candidates he backed in the primaries won, turnout was low, while voters in Democratic primaries showed excitement and eagerness. Trump and his supporters have set the stage for a historic repudiation in the midterm elections, but that’s only half the game.

To defeat Trumpism, the Democrats are going have to convince people that they can do a better job of governing. They have to present a unified message of hope and inclusion, something they have failed at miserably during the last few cycles. Victory for the great majority of the American people is there for the taking if the Democrats can stop bickering among themselves and prove to Americans that they can be trusted to put the people’s needs first.

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Trump, the G7, and a 60 Day Reprieve

Posted on June 15, 2026 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, June 15, 2026

Anyone but a delusional narcissist like Donald Trump would be mortified. If he were anyone but Donald Trump I would feel empathy for him. Imagine you were in his shoes, heading for a G7 meeting with France, Canada, Germany, the UK, Japan, and Italy. Ignore the formal courtesies and congratulations on achieving a “deal” with Iran, the other leaders despise him and understand full well what a failure his war with Iran has been and how much that has diminished his power and influence.

Trump has spent seventeen months poisoning America’s relationship with all of those countries, and in response, Germany described us as a declining nation, Canada shifted its economic future toward Europe and Asia, Italy accused us of starting an unnecessary war, and the UK government is on the verge of collapse over it. While Trump does a victory lap, everyone else is being very careful to avoid awakening the elephant in the room.

The so-called deal with Iran is simply a sixty-day reprieve from a war which has been a horrific disaster. Every other G7 leader understands that Trump began the war with three objectives, the elimination of Iran’s nuclear threat, bringing down the regime controlled by the ayatollahs and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, and destroying Iran’s offensive military power. None of those objectives has been achieved, and it’s unlikely that any of them will be.

Iran’s massive arsenal of missiles and drones is still largely intact, the regime is now totally under the control of the IRGC, and Iran has consistently insisted that it will not give up its right to enrich uranium. The only thing the memorandum of understanding that extends the ceasefire for sixty days accomplished, assuming its signing isn’t derailed before it happens, was re-opening the Strait of Hormuz which was open to shipping from every nation before Trump ordered the attack.

In other words, as of today, the war has accomplished nothing strategically except burying Iran’s enriched uranium under tons of rubble that can easily be cleared, and Trump’s boast that his “deal” is better than Obama’s is pure fiction. The war cost thousands of lives, a large percentage of which were civilians. Some sources estimate the number of deaths at more than 17,000 with several times that many injuries. We’ve lost aircraft, our bases in the Persian Gulf have sustained billions of dollars in damage, and we’ve dangerously reduced our supply of strategic weapons, which will take hundreds of billions of dollars and years to replace. And that doesn’t count the collateral damage to our economy and to America’s social safety net and tax structure. Someone has to pay for this debacle.

Oil will flow again, gas prices will gradually come down, but as always happens in an oil crisis, profiteering, refinery startups and repairs to oil resources damaged during the war will keep them high for many months. One thing that may have been permanently damaged by the Iran war is America’s support for Israel.

Trump is making Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu out to be a pariah. But that’s typical Trump. Four months ago, Trump and Netanyahu were best buddies, and it didn’t take much flattery on the latter’s part with dreams of a brilliant legacy for Trump to convince him to attack Iran based on evidence of imminent danger that has since been shown to be wrong.

Now, when Netanyahu’s agenda has diverged from Trump’s, he’s treating him the same way he treated everyone in Congress whom he considered disloyal. I don’t know whether Israel’s continuing attacks on Hezbollah are warranted or necessary, but all Trump can see is disloyalty to him. We can all see the fallout, however. Anti-semitism is increasing at a rapid rate in North America and Europe, and polls have shown a sharp decrease in Americans’ sympathy for Israel. Not exactly the legacy Bibi promised his friend Donald.

The destruction and death of a failed war are not the only things Trump is bringing to the G7. There’s also the image, broadcast to anyone on Earth willing to pony up $8.99 to watch it, of Trump’s obscene, tasteless notion of how to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary. According to Donald Trump, a nation that throughout the twentieth century was a beacon of hope for the world, a place that welcomed their huddled masses and offered succor to people fleeing tyranny and death is now a nation of martial arts fanatics. Is that the image we want to project of who we are to the rest of the world?

Of all of Trump’s despicable antics, turning the south lawn of the White House into a combat zone may be the most offensive. And that’s before we note that it was a for profit event that netted millions for UFC and Paramount, which is now owned by Trump ally David Ellison. And who footed the bill for the profits to Trump’s friends? The American taxpayers, who spent $60 million to put on the event.

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Regime Changes

Posted on June 13, 2026 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, June 13, 2026

2026 may be remembered more for regime changes than anything else, assuming the wrongheaded war with Iran doesn’t erupt into something much larger and more dangerous. The latter possibility seems frighteningly more likely than it did when Donald Trump realized the war wasn’t going to achieve his goals, but instead was threatening the midterm elections, and declared a cease fire in April. The revelations that Trump was seriously considering putting troops on the ground in Iran to extract that nation’s enriched uranium and invading and occupying Kharg Island, combined with Iran appearing to have no intention of giving up its right to enrich uranium makes everything tenuous.

It’s taking weeks to finalize a memorandum of understanding that would start the clock on sixty days of final negotiations to end the war, and it’s clear that the only thing definitive about the proposed MOU is restoring the Strait of Hormuz to normal operations. But even that isn’t a return to the pre-war status quo, as Iran’s hardline leaders say they intend to control the Strait and charge fees for traversing it.

That position reflects the unpleasant reality that Trump achieved one of the two non-negotiable goals he announced when he ordered the initial attack on Iran, but like most of Trump’s promises, it didn’t turn out the way he intended. He got the regime change he demanded, but he replaced a theocratic regime led by Ayatollah Ali Khomeini, with a secular regime nominally headed by his son but totally under the brazen control of the IRGC, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Iran expert Stephen Erlanger said in today’s New York Times, that the elder Khomeini, who died in the first attack on Tehran, “had for years banned the production of a nuclear weapon and always worked to avoid a joint Israeli-American attack,” while the younger generation of hardliners who replaced him “no longer feel [the] same constraints.” There is no doubt that the regime change Trump catalyzed has worsened the situation in the region and the prospects for a lasting peace.

Trump achieved a regime change in Venezuela, which was really more of a snatch and grab operation by highly trained American Special Forces against a defenseless country that couldn’t even protect its president. While Trump has claimed this was a brilliant military and diplomatic victory, it was mostly about stealing Venezuela’s oil resources. Trump has repeatedly voiced  his desire to enrich his family and billionaire donors with oil from both Venezuela and Iran.

For months, Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have talked about regime change in Cuba. It’s impossible to know whether they can pull that off, even with Cuba’s economy on life support, because there is no transparency about any of the administration’s plans, but my guess is that Iran will drag out negotiations until just before our midterm elections, and given Trump’s pre-occupation with vanity projects – keeping his name on the Kennedy Center, building his obscene victory arch and ballroom – Cuba will be turn out to be just an afterthought.

All of which brings us to two potential regime changes that Trump never intended. The coming months will see a long-awaited political reckoning for Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu has been under indictment for fraud and bribery since 2019. He has technically been on trial since 2020, but has successfully used his office to delay the proceedings. He also tried to force Israel’s Supreme Court to void his indictment but was rebuffed.

Most Israelis blamed Netanyahu for failing to prevent the attack by Hamas that triggered Israel’s virtual destruction of Gaza, and Israelis’ frustration over the virtually constant state of war from then until the current war with Iran and Hezbollah forced Netanyahu to schedule national elections for September or October. Stay tuned for what could be a decisive regime change in Israel, especially if he and Trump are unable to force real concessions about Iran’s nuclear program.

And finally, the regime change three-fourths of Americans hope and pray for. Donald Trump’s abject failure at governing and his attempts to grab power and undermine our Constitution have made him the most unpopular, hated president in the modern era. His obvious attempts to restrict voting in blue states, gerrymander red states, and install an incompetent loyalist as Acting Director of National Intelligence to rig the election in Trump’s favor, have made a Democratic takeover of the House in November inevitable. And since polling shows that even Trump’s best demographic, blue collar non-college graduates, are abandoning him in droves, control of the Senate is in play as well.

I’m confident that Trump’s full court press to control the election will fail. The last twenty-six months of his term will be spent as a frustrated, totally unhinged lame duck, assuming he completes his term, if his own party doesn’t wind up impeaching him. Not exactly the regime change we desperately need, but close enough to salvage our democracy and restore balance to our place in the world.

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The Full Cost of the Iran War

Posted on June 10, 2026 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, June 10, 2026,

We wake up every morning hoping to learn that our president has finally reached the initial stages of a deal to permanently end the fighting around the Persian Gulf and neighboring countries. Every day that goal seems more tenuous, and today, Donald Trump, who has claimed for weeks that he’s in no hurry to make a deal with Iran, accused that country of dragging its feet and threatened to attack its energy infrastructure to punish them.

Yesterday, he ordered an attack on a reservoir, denying potable water to a nearby town. That sounds like a tone deaf escalation of the fighting and possibly a war crime.

Trump himself is the greatest obstacle to a deal. His social media posts, his daily self-contradictions, his obvious lack of respect for Iran’s negotiators, and his wild threats make already difficult negotiations nearly impossible. Every day this continues, Trump and Congressional Republicans grow more desperate about the midterm elections, and everyone else bears the costs of the war.

Some of those costs are transparent, while others, perhaps the bulk of them are not. The Apache helicopter that Iran took down this week will cost $120 million to replace. Our brilliant military was able to rescue the crew, but even rescue missions cost a fortune. That Apache helicopter we lost cost $10,000 per hour to fly, and an F35 fighter costs $40,000 per hour.

We know about the downed Apache because it was too visible to cover up, but we have no idea, how many of our aircraft have been damaged or destroyed on the ground by Iranian strikes. We have little or no information about the cost of repairing the damage done by Iranian missile attacks on our bases in allied countries in the Persian Gulf, likewise the human cost of casualties on those bases.

We’ve heard various estimates of the alarming rate at which our munitions are being expended. That includes expensive precision missiles and bombs, and the defensive missiles that comprise Israel’s Iron Dome and the defensive batteries protecting all of our bases that are within each of Iran’s missiles and drones. Add it all up. New aircraft, new missiles and drones, reconstruction of damaged buildings and aircraft runways, and the injuries and stress on our troops from having to be constantly on alert for incoming missiles. We could be looking a nearly a trillion dollars in recovery costs when this is all over, just to return our military to the level of preparedness it enjoyed before the war.

To those costs, we must add the disruption to the American and world economies. We complain about four dollar plus gasoline, but Europe and Asia are facing far greater increases in energy costs, and some of our allies, (South Korea, Japan, the Phillipines,) are dangerously close to running out of oil.

The skyrocketing cost of fertilizers as a result of this war increases the price of food and raises the specter of shortages and famines, all of which is exacerbated by Trump killing USAID. The costs, taken together, are staggering, and they’re still rising, largely out of sight of most Americans.

These costs will re-ignite the guns or butter debate we seem to have every generation. How are we going to pay to restore the economy and our military preparedness – Trump asked Congress for $350 billion, today – while millions of Americans are losing their health care, their social security benefits are being threatened, and the social safety net seems to be cut back more each month. Where will the money to pay for all this come from with Trump’s permanent tax cuts on the wealthy in place?

In addition to financial costs, there are other significant costs that can’t be quantified in dollars and cents. The war has severely damaged our relationships with Europe, and Trump has weakened our response capability in the western Pacific so badly it’s almost an invitation to China to threaten Taiwan. Our prestige and the perceptions of America by foreigners are all suffering from this war, too. The number of European and Asian touurists visiting America and spending money here has already dropped significantly compared to before Trump’s second term.

Perhaps most significant is risk, whose cost is unknown. As Trump writhes trying to find a path out of the cul-de-sac he’s trapped himself in, his options for ending the conflict shrink. The last few days have seen attacks by United States forces and Iran on each other accelerate, threatening the tenuous peace negotiations. When Trump runs out of possible exit ramps, our greatest risk is that he will wildly escalate the war out of fury and frustration that things didn’t turn out as he wanted them to.

The chances of the Iran war spiraling out of control grow every day that our incompetent president allows it to continue. But let’s not let Congress off the hook. If our representatives grew a pair and stood up to Trump, this war could be history before summer’s end.

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I Call the Shots!

Posted on June 9, 2026 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, June 9, 2026

If ever there were an epithet that described Donald Trump, it’s the title of this piece. Our arrogant, rude, egotistical president has a desperate need to be in charge, or at least to have all of his sycophants tell him he is. That mostly worked for him until he entered politics. And therein lies the fundamental flaw in his assertion, in 2015, that what America needed was a successful businessman to run the country.

There are multiple flaws in that argument. One is the questionable suggestion that Trump is a successful businessman. Making money is not the only criteria for reaching such a conclusion. Other things, like the respect and admiration of peers and subordinates, the sense that the person in charge possesses a moral center and compassion for the people whose labors are what is actually making the business successful are more important. By those measures, Trump is anything but a model of success. The level to which people who have worked for or with him despise and distrust Trump is remarkable.

In business, a hated leader is tolerated as long as they’re making money for their partners and investors. When profits turn into losses or businesses run into severe protests or legal challenges, corporate boards and shareholders are ruthless. Presidents and CEOs find out quickly that they’re as replaceable as soiled underwear. Corporations don’t worry about fairness, ethics, or the approval of the masses. Make enough enemies and lose your edge, and you’re gone.

It doesn’t work that way in government. In a well-functioning republic, no single individual can maintain the kind of control Trump craves indefinitely. Screw up as badly as Trump does, anger and insult people indiscriminately, and let everyone see his total lack of compassion, and eventually they’ll topple him. It took all of Trump’s first term, which ended in the debacle of the January sixth insurrection at the Capitol, for that to sink in.

But few people are as driven by greed and power-lust as Trump. He spent all of Joe Biden’s presidency plotting to overthrow our rules-based system and undermine our Constitution. That meant accepting the support of right-wing extremists who would prefer that America be a white male Christian oligarchy. In their arrogance, the Heritage Society, which wrote Project 2025, presented it to Trump as his only path to becoming the all-powerful president he dreamt of being, believing with enough money and chutzpah, they could slip their agenda past a sleepy, disengaged electorate and execute a political coup before anyone realized they’d been mugged.

The probability that Project 2025 would succeed was never high, but with an opposition party that constantly tripped over itself and an army of well-financed influencers, this was the best chance the plotters would ever have. For more than a year, Trump and his cronies ran roughshod over everyone, aided to a great degree by a supportive Supreme Court. But as almost often happens when narcissistic leaders, encouraged by their yes-people overreach, Trump’s delusions crashed headlong into reality.

Trump found out that he couldn’t call the shots on tariffs, and even a Republican party cowed by the fear of being primaried wouldn’t stand for the creation of a Nazi-like government police force. Even their craven self-interest had uncrossable red lines, and when Trump’s power-grabbing attempts to neutralize Congress got personal, he learned he was not invincible.

But the die had already been cast for the midterm elections. Independent voters who had swept him into office in 2024 abandoned him in droves, which caused Trump to trigger a gerrymandered redistricting war among the states. But any gains he made as a result weren’t nearly enough to offset approval ratings dropping toward 30%. Thus, as many people predicted he would when his prospects became desperate, he started a war with Iran, or more accurately, he allowed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to manipulate him into starting one.

Trump obviously thought he could control Netanyahu, and he assumed, in spite of warnings by people in his administration who knew better, that he could bully Iran into a quick surrender. It turned out, however, that Trump couldn’t call the shots against people who were as driven and determined as he was. For Trump, this war is about bravado and showing the world how tough he is. For Israel and Iran, however, it’s about long-term survival, which is a far more powerful motivating factor. Neither Israel nor Iran is about to adopt Trump’s agenda, nor is either willing to let him call the shots.

Trump has crashed into the consequences of his own mental illness and incompetence. When one of his business ventures failed, the collateral damage was limited to places like Atlantic City, New Jersey. But when an arrogant president who is also the Commander in Chief of the world’s most powerful military fails so spectacularly, we all pay a huge price.

We’re going to be paying for Trump’s failures for many years to come. So far, the world’s enmity toward America has been focused on Trump, but it’s clear as he inflicts damage on everything he touches, that if Congress doesn’t take back its constitutional power, the nation that everyone once revered will become a pariah.

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Deal Making and Diplomacy – Trump’s Achilles Heels

Posted on June 6, 2026 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, June 6, 2026

Donald Trump believes he is a master deal maker, something he clearly is not. Trump’s idea of deal making during his long career as a real estate developer was always based on the gangster model. He makes deals like a mafia boss armed with expensive lawyers and enforcers. For Trump, making a deal means getting what he wants at the expense of everyone he can successfully bully and punishing everyone he perceives as disloyal.

Anyone who has studied the true art of deal making understands that Trump’s approach, while it sometimes appears to work in the short run, is the worst possible way to forge lasting agreements. It’s a cliché that a good deal is one from which each side walks away believing it won something of value. Deals that endure over time work because each side achieves something sustainable. But Trump’s deals must vanquish the other side, leaving the people he deals with feeling resentful, angry, cheated, and misled.

That’s not the way to conduct diplomacy or trade negotiations. It is certainly not the way to grow lasting alliances based on mutual trust and shared interests. That’s why Trump will never obtain a deal with Iran that his narcissistic personality can accept. Trump cannot  bully the IRGC that now appears to control the Iranian regime. He said at the outset of his war that one of his principal goals was regime change. He seems to have achieved that goal, silencing all the dissident voices within Iran’s government, leaving the hard-liners who hate America and the West in charge.

We abhor the way the Iranian regime treats their own people and sponsors terrorism, but we still must deal with them. To win a lasting peace without first enduring another forever war in the Middle East, both sides must be able to believe and trust each other, which is why Donald Trump’s approach will fail. He ignores the advice of people who know far more about diplomacy than he does, and refuses to understand how the people he must treat with think and what they value. That requires a level of mutual respect that Trump is incapable of. The only way he knows how to deal with potential adversaries is to alternate between the kind of phony obsequiousness that was on display when he fawned over Xi Jinping, and projecting an air of superiority that enrages friends and foes alike.

Therein lies the problem, which can only be solved if the real professionals who have devoted their lives to averting war can somehow control what comes out of Trump’s mouth. Trump’s approach to power is based on lies, misdirection, and creating chaos. In his war with Iran, that can only lead to disaster. Americans, even much of Trump’s base have learned that they can’t trust anything Trump says. He is a serial liar who often seems incapable of distinguishing truth from his own delusions. He reneges on agreements, and considers himself the only trustworthy arbiter of disagreements, and he trusts his own dangerous impulses over facts and expert counsel.

Trump’s approach to governing is to tear up the established order in favor of a world in which he and his imagined co-emperors have free reign to do whatever they please. He wants to reverse the progressive gains of the last century, he has withdrawn from the worldwide efforts to combat climate change and the World Health Organization, and is on the verge of undermining NATO. He withdrew from the JCPOA, the deal that Barack Obama and nearly twenty other countries spent two years negotiating with Iran to prevent them from developing nuclear weapons.

The International Atomic Energy Agency routinely inspected Iran’s nuclear facilities and reported that they were complying with the agreement. So why did Trump tear it up? Simply because of his personal animus toward Obama. He couldn’t stand the idea that a black president could achieve such an important success. In Trump’s mind, Obama’s success was the ultimate Wokism, which he and Project 2025 are determined to eradicate.

Iran’s leaders are smart. They understand how Trump thinks far better than he understands them. They know they can’t trust him, and he reinforces that every time he seesaws threats with disingenuous olive branches. Three quarters of Americans don’t trust their president. Why should Iran? A high ranking leader of the IRGC told CNN yesterday that Trump is the problem in their negotiations, that it’s impossible to negotiate with someone who doesn’t understand the first thing about diplomacy.

I despise the Iranian regime and what it stands for. But when it comes to deal making and diplomacy, they’re far better at it than Trump. They have his number, and as Trump is fond of saying, they believe they hold the cards that give them leverage. Trump is never going to get a deal as good as the JCPOA. Everyone but Trump knows that regardless of how they spin it.

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The Only People Who Fear Trump are MAGA Republicans

Posted on May 27, 2026 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, May 27, 2026

Every day, at least one person asks me, “How can Donald Trump ______?” You fill in the blank. I always answer the same way. We can’t possibly know what motivates Donld Trump deep down, because we can’t see everything through the filter of a sociopathic, megalomaniacal narcissist. I know that’s a lot of syllables, but claiming to know how his mental illness influences everything he says and does is like me telling my wife I know what it feels like to give birth. I can’t possibly.

In the sixteen months of his second term, Trump has become even more unhinged. The Republican majorities in Congress and Trump’s hand picked Supreme Court have virtually unfettered him from inconveniences like the Constitution. With the exception of Trump’s illegal tariffs, there has been virtually no oversight of the Executive Branch by either the Legislative or Judiciary Branches. With neither checks nor balances, surrounded by yes-people and sycophants, Trump acts as if he really believes he is not only the King of America but the most powerful and respected leader in the world.

Since Inauguration Day, it’s been extremely painful for Americans who love our country to see Trump parade around like the naked emperor of Hans Christian Anderson’s 1837 fable. He is a laughing stock among world leaders, which is hardly a laughing matter. In Beijing, Trump fawned over Xi Jinping, calling them the G2 and receiving nothing but diplomatic courtesy in return, only to have Vladimir Putin visit Beijing for a mutual love fest with Xi as soon as Trump left.

No one outside his core MAGA base respects Trump. Surely, foreign leaders do not. They see him throw our military around like toy soldiers, putting them at risk and wasting their brilliance on missions whose only real purpose is to salve Trump’s ego. Thus, the leader of America’s staunchest ally, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney politely disengaged from Trump, re-orienting Canada’s trade and even its auto industry away from the United States toward Europe and China. The leader of our next-staunchest ally, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer risked his own leadership when he told Trump where he could stick his Iran War. German Chancellor Freidrich Merz made it clear that Europe and NATO no longer consider America a reliable ally.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has been an outspoken critic of Trump’s Iran War and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a right wing extremist herself broke with Trump over support of NATO and Trump’s criticism of the Pope. Both Denmark and Greenland rejected Trump’s attempt to annex Greenland and other traditional American allies, Australia, South Korea, and Japan, broke with Trump over Iran.

Our allies respect America’s military prowess and they realize that Trump is extremely unpopular with the American people. The whole world saw Trump’s favorability rating at home drop from around 50 percent to 30 in sixteen months. Every foreign leader understands that when Democrats take over the House in November, Trump will be a lame duck, albeit a very dangerous and annoying one. They know Trump fears the exposure of the Epstein Files and that Iran is playing him, stalling for time and betting that Americans will insist on an end to the war before Iran’s economy crashes completely.

Trump isn’t capable of understanding that he has lost. Every since he declared a cease-fire, only to see Benjamin Netanyahu increase his attacks on Hezbollah, many of us have wondered what he would do when it became clear, with the midterms nearing, that Iran is not intimidated by him. He’s certainly capable of inventing his own delusional reality in which he declares victory and walks away. The Obama nuclear deal that Trump tore up was complex enough that most people won’t be able to tell who comes out ahead in the current negotiations, compared to where we would have been in the JCPOA had remained in effect. It seemed like the last thing Trump wanted was to resume full scale war. When Congress returns in six days, it will likely pass a new war powers resolution that asserts their sole authority to declare and pursue war.

Trump seemed to have trapped himself badly, but when a cornered rat finds itself with no good options it attacks wildly, survival being its only motivator. When Trump said at his cringeowrthy Cabinet meeting today that Iran would never wait him out, he didn’t care about the midterms, and that Oman, a major U. S. ally in the region would either behave or we would “blow them up,” everyone but the sycophants in the Cabinet Room knew we might have crossed a point of no return.

Trump is now in full gangster mode, hurling irrational threats at anyone who displeases him, isolating America from the rest of the world. He is so driven to prove his own delusions there is no way to predict what he’ll do next, but there is now a significant chance that he will escalate attacks on Iran into a region-wide bloodbath, not caring if he bankrupts our strategic weapons supplies and detroys our economy. Mental illness can do that to you.

The most important question on the table is what it will take for his captive Republicans to say, “Enough!” and shut him down.

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What Did Trump Accomplish in Beijing?

Posted on May 16, 2026 by alanpzendell

Alan Zendell, May 16, 2026

As I looked through today’s news reports and opinion pieces from CNN, Fox News, and  the New York Times, I was surprised at their consistency. There were no wildly opposed partisan views, which suggests that much of what I read was likely true.

To organize my thoughts and avoid my biases I imagined my thirteen-year-old grandson responding to a school assignment to watch Trump’s encounters with Xi Jinping and report on what he saw. Looking at it as I imagine he might gave me a simple, common-sense perspective.

President Trump arrived in Beijing lavishing praise and adulation on his Chinese counterpart. Trump can be extremely charming when he wants to be, but anyone who’s been exposed to him for any length of time knows his charm is disingenuous. It’s a character he plays. When he invited television personality and Trump critic Bill Maher to the White House for dinner, Maher said afterward that he was amazed at how friendly and charming Trump was. He added, though, that while Trump allowed Maher to criticize his policies, there was no chance that anything Maher said would make a difference.

Xi did not reciprocate Trump’s obsequious behavior. He never praised Trump or said anything positive about him directly, instead addressing the importance of them being able to work cooperatively. While Trump was fawning over him, Xi delivered a stark warning that if Trump interfered in the dispute between Taiwan and China, it could mean war, but unlike the bombastic Trump, whose threats are always exaggerated and bullying, Xi was subtle, especially when he referred to America as a declining power while China was on the rise. My grandson would have gotten the message clearly.

Trump told anyone who would listen that it was all about relationships, and he was building one with Xi. After the summit meeting he told Fox News he considered Xi a friend. No doubt, he was desperately hoping Xi would say something that was at least conciliatory, but Xi only talked about the importance of the United States and China getting along. When a reporter asked Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi if Xi considered Trump a friend, Yi said China and the United States would continue working together.

Coming home on Air Force One, when he could say anything he wanted, Trump bragged about trade deals he made, suggesting China would buy 750 planes from Boeing, for example. But when asked to confirm that, China would only say it was considering buying a few aircraft but there was no deal. It was much easier to agree that China would resume buying soy beans from American farmers, because that is in both country’s interests. But when it came to the three things Trump needed to get China to agree to, he came home with nothing.

About Iran’s enriched uranium, Xi repeated China’s long-standing position that Iran should not have nuclear weapons with neither specifics nor offers of assistance. About the Strait of Hormuz, Xi said it should be open to all shipping, again, without offering to help, and that resulted in Trump telling the media he didn’t need help and wasn’t asking Xi for any favors. Finally, on an issue that has enormous impact on American industries, security, and the competition to develop AI, no one said anything. China processes 93% of the world’s rare earth minerals, which are vital to all three. Trump understands that if China restricts it’s exportation of rare earths it could destroy our economy. Xi had the leverage going in, and he still does.

Trump’s attempts at flattery and his desperate need to be revered by Xi were on full display when he referred to the United States and China as the world’s two superpowers, quipping “I call us the G-2.”

When XI met with Vladimir Putin before Russia invaded Ukraine, he said the friendship between China and Russia was unbreakable, and both China and Russia have strong ties to Iran. Both countries have been assisting Iran in Trump’s war with satellite intelligence and drone technology.

Putin will visit China next week. The pomp and ceremony Xi showed Trump was a skillful play on Trump’s narcissism. That’s what powerful leaders do when they disrespect the person they’re hosting but have to play the diplomatic game regardless because one serious misstep could be catastrophic in the nuclear age. I can’t wait to see how Xi receives Putin. Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall when Putin and Xi mock Trump’s fantasy of a G-2 that excludes Russia?

My grandson is a smart kid who won’t draw conclusions without evidence. The only way he could possibly answer the question, “what did Trump accomplish in Beijing” would be, “nothing of substance.” For all his bombast, Trump’s hanging out there on his own. The rest of the world sees him as a deranged, dangerous clown. There’s no clear exit from Iran, and the likelihood of a deal to remove Iran’s enriched uranium that was as good as the Obama deal Trump tore up is vanishingly small.

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