Alan Zendell, September 17, 2026

It’s been a long time coming, but the cult of Trump has finally lost its luster. I wish I believed that the growing rate of defections among Republicans reflected a return to integrity and a realization that unchecked, Donald Trump will destroy our country. But I know better. When they kowtowed to Trump, they were being driven by their own self-interest. They knew that if they didn’t toe the Trump-MAGA line his gangster goons would come after them.

As one Republican told the author of an upcoming book, the harassment begins on Truth Social and rapidly spreads to other social media. The next step, depending on the time of year, is dumping money into support for a primary opponent, which has been extremely effective for Trump. If that doesn’t work they turn to personal threats against both the offender and their family. In the end, if they don’t destroy the person who speaks truth against Trump, they wear them down until they’re isolated and exhausted.

The main difference today is that some Republicans’ self-interest tilts the scales toward risking Trump’s ire because his overall toxicity threatens their re-election, and like any ravenous predator, they can smell his weakness and the flagging support of his base. That suggests that when they finally get the Trump albatross off their backs things aren’t likely to return to a better politics, but that’s something we can worry about later. For now, let us be grateful that Trump’s influence is approaching rock bottom, but that doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous.

In fact, he is more dangerous than ever as anyone who observes his irrational daily antics can’t help but notice. The term “cornered rat” seems an apt metaphor. As Trump alienates allies, both nations and people who supported him, as his poll numbers sink to record lows, as the courts consistently rein in his corrupt and illegal actions, and as his incompetence looms larger with every passing day, he feels his power slipping and his mental illness rules him.

With the wars he promised to end on day one raging more intensely than ever, and with his own war of choice with Iran completely beyond his control, he has created chaos in the world’s economy. He has upended decades-long trade relationships, he threatens treaties and alliances that have prevented the world from being destroyed by nuclear war, he has driven the world to a global energy crisis, and he makes insane threats that endanger us all.

Today, Trump has been ranting about destroying Iran completely, demolishing the Kennedy Center if they don’t put his name on it, the disloyalty of the Supreme Court Justices he put in place, and the betrayal of his hand-picked Fed Chief, Kevin Warsh, who chose the economic security of the United States over Trump’s insistence on lowering interest rates in the face of rising inflation. All this in one day!

Today, three-term Republican Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar, a Cuban-American who represents Miami’s Cuban and Central American communities lashed out at Trump’s immigration policy and his refusal to require ICE to respect the rights of her constituents. Ms. Salazar wasn’t defending herself against a likely defeat in November, either. Her statements reeked uncomfortably of principle and integrity, if you’re Trump.

Also today, House Speaker Mike Johnson, whose actions in the past twenty months make it clear that he will never oppose Trump, no matter how dangerous he becomes, chose to send the House home until after the election. The sudden decision was obviously intended to prevent the House from taking up the articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth submitted yesterday by Thomas Massie (R, KY) who in another apparent outbreak of conscience and principle has committed himself to forcing the release of all the remaining Epstein Files, and has had his Congressional career ended by Trump. Massie is amassing bipartisan signatures that he intends to use in the post-election lame duck session to expose the details of Trump’s relationship with Epstein.

All that is encouraging. Trump has alienated and scared so many people, it’s all finally coming home to roost, but is it happening in time to insulate us from Trump’s madness and incompetence? When Trump threatened to obliterate Iran, I wondered if he might actually be serious this time. We know that our armed forces are already dangerously low on strategic weapons, and the defensive missiles that protected Israel and Ukraine so well are now running out. Kyiv is being destroyed by Russia as are American bases in the Gulf states and those states’ oil infrastructure, by Iranian attacks assisted by Russia. We also know that Trump will not order a massive ground assault on Iran.

Where does that leave him? The horrific logical conclusion is that Trump might actually be considering using nuclear weapons. How else could he obliterate Iran? And if he is, with Congress dismissed until after the election, who’s left to stop Trump? There will be no further war powers resolutions for at least two months, and we certainly cannot depend on Pete Hegseth to stop Trump from starting a nuclear war.