Alan Zendell, August 31, 2025

Recent polls show that a vast majority of Americans, much larger than the landslide victory Trump claims to have won, do not like the way the second Trump administration is attempting to remake America. The level of fear and uncertainty he has created now exceeds the angst we felt over Vietnam and Watergate. It is as high today as it was on December 7, 1941, when our Pacific fleet lay in ruins in Honolulu. At the time, the most beloved, trusted president we’ve ever had, Franklin Roosevelt, assured us that the only thing we had to fear was fear itself.

It was a great pep talk, but it was wrong, and it’s even more wrong, today. What we have to fear from Trump is the loss of everything our country has stood for, and everything that implies. Serious economists, both in America and other countries, deplore the idea of a world economy driven by tariffs. The only people who like them are the billionaires and corporate CEO’s who profit from them. The people driving this, notably Trump’s EOMB Director, Russell Vought, a primary architect of Project 2025, care only about their own wealth and power.

While Trump continued to lie and spin, taking advantage of the reality that it would take months for the real negative impact of his tariff war to be obvious, things got worse every day. Anyone who wasn’t a rabid MAGA follower knew from the start that prices would skyrocket, and everyone except the billionaires who were enriched by tariffs would be footing the bill. That’s already showing up on our grocery shelves and our Amazon accounts, and it terrifies Trump so much, he fired the person in charge of the Bureau of Labor Statistics that is charged with monitoring and measuring inflation.

It’s a typical authoritarian tactic. If the facts contradict the lies of the administration, change the facts. If you don’t like the result of a highly sophisticated statistical analysis, rig the numbers to conform to your lies. It’s one of the principle ways dictators stay in power.

Regardless of the constant lies streaming from the White House, anyone with eyes and ears understands what’s happening. The power grabs, the attacks on science, on medical research, on public health policy, and our most prominent universities. The dismantling of public broadcasting, the disdain for attempts to protect our planet, the willingness to invade any state or city that voted against Trump and control it with active duty military, and yesterday, killing the development of wind farms that would have provided stable, non-polluting energy for two New England states that had the temerity to vote for Trump’s opponent.

We could talk about Trump’s obvious desire for Russia to destroy and occupy all of Ukraine. We could mention his willingness to destroy Gaza instead of supporting a sustainable solution that would not be condemned by our allies and adversaries alike. We could point to the continual breakdown and weakening of our alliances, but you’ve heard that for months, and most of us continue to cower in the shadows hoping all this will go away.

If all of the above hasn’t moved Democrats, Independents, and what remains of principled Republicans to united opposition, or to inspire someone other than Gavin Newsom to grab the reins of leadership, today’s horrific events might. Open any news website today, and you’ll see a perfect example of how a leader who bases decisions on strength rather than the weakness of an insecure narcissist behaves.

Trump’s imitation of a world-dominating strong man looks pathetic compared to the way Chinese President Xi Jinping seized the moment. Rather than be intimidated by Trump’s threats, Xi simply ignored him and played for time as he laid plans for his own version of a new world order run by real strong men who care more about strengthening their countries than gratifying their egos. Xi is hosting a summit in Tianjin, China whose intent is to nullify Trump and create a mutually beneficial economic bloc that excludes and greatly weakens the United States.

The summit is Xi and Vladimir Putin’s push to enlist like-minded autocrats throughout Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East to unite in opposition against Trump, and by implication, us. Look at who will be there: North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing, Serbia’s Aleksandar Vucic, and Slovakia’s Robert Fico. The biggest prize is Indian Prime Minister Modi, who has been courted by every administration since George W. Bush’s, and whom Trump hurt with a punishing tariff that appears to be the result of Trump’s chaos.

Why would he signal to the world that he supports Putin’s war against Ukraine, and then alienate the world’s largest democracy by punishing them for buying Russian oil? Add to the mix Iran, Pakistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, and what could emerge this week is a formidable anti-American bloc of nations united against us.

Since Trump has also gone out of his way to alienate Europe, Canada, and Mexico, where does that leave America’s role in international trade? Look at how much of what you purchase every day comes from a country that Trump has alienated and what those things will cost a year from now.

If that’s not horrifying enough, don’t forget that Trump publicly and transparently made it clear that he intends to rig the 2026 midterm elections, and if he can’t assure a MAGA victory, he’ll find a pretext to cancel them. The Supreme Court has shown no inclination to stop him.

If not now, America, when? It may already be too late, but every day without serious, organized, opposition leadership  pushes us closer to the tipping point.