We’re seeing a lot unfold all at once today. It seems overwhelming and it’s meant to seem overwhelming. That’s the central point — not just a side effect of a lot of things happening at once. I think of it like being in an iMax theater. Maybe even one of those more immersive ones where there’s percussive sound and the seats shake. One of those movies where you’re on a roller coaster or maybe hang gliding. You know you are sitting in a theater, not in motion at all. But the visual stimulus is so overwhelming you cannot help gripping the arm rests like you’re a thousand feet in the air or in free fall.
Of course it’s not exactly the same. This isn’t just a movie. Something real is happening. A lot of real things are happening. We’re not just sitting in a theater. But the point of all of this is to create the apparently overwhelming and unchallengeable feeling that Trump is all-powerful, that his team is all-knowing and have everything figured out, and that nothing can stop him.
That’s simply not true. So don’t forget that, entirely by design, you’re being overwhelmed with sensory stimulus. It’s not real.
With that said, let me focus on something more concrete. You’ve likely seen discussion of this. DC Republicans are arguing about whether to try to push their agenda through in two or more bills, or one big bill that includes everything. This is a very consequential decision. It’s important for Trump’s opponents to understand both options and the dynamics of each. We’ll be discussing this in coming days.
Remember that in 2017 Republicans passed the Trump tax cuts quickly and pretty easily. And then that was basically it. They tried a bunch of other things. But they failed every time. The difference now is that Trump has been head of the GOP for almost a decade. So the things he wants to do aren’t random weird stuff the congressional party has never heard of before. Most of it is their agenda too. Or at least it’s stuff they’ve been running on. That helps a lot. But there’s still a lot of really unpopular stuff. And the reality is that the agenda comes down to huge bonanzas for the super wealthy to be paid for by cutting everyone else’s health care, Medicare, probably Social Security and a bunch of other stuff. If Republicans can stay unified they can pass it all. They’ll try to jam it all into reconciliation bills that only require 50 votes in the Senate. They’ll almost certainly get gentler treatment from the Senate parliamentarian and even though John Thune is talking a tough game they’ll likely be ready to overrule the parliamentarian. But it will be critical to surface all these cuts with the 2026 and 2028 election in mind. The big picture is clear: It’s billionaire tongues-untied time. Gravy and more gravy for Team Billionaire in exchange for losing your health care coverage.
