As we begin another week, the least among us are being punished for what it now appears is the crime of poverty, by a government for whom corporate welfare has become a central tenet of society. As the hour approached for the deliberate removal of SNAP benefits for 42 million Americans, Trump held an ostentatious Halloween ball that spoke to everything this administration stands for.
We are witnessing the moral collapse of the alleged richest, most powerful nation on earth at the hands of a sociopathic narcissist being used as a useful idiot by a cabal of malign actors looking to reimagine the economic world order. There is no better example of social Darwinism than Trump’s Halloween Ball. It was the ball of a mad emperor, drunk on what he believes is his absolute power to shape the world. The level of arrogance is beyond breathtaking as food is withheld from the most vulnerable.
There is no better example of who America really is than the mass mobilisation of everyday Americans stepping up to feed the people this administration has made a conscious decision to starve for political gain. It is an age-old tactic used throughout history as a weapon of war, generally but not exclusively against the citizens of a foreign nation. In this case, it’s being used against the administration’s own population. Trump has decided to go to war against half the country as punishment for them not voting for him.
Time and time again, we hear him speak, viewing Americans through the prism of ‘us and them’. How can he hurt Democrats? How can he target his enemies? How can he humiliate the opposition? He is so intoxicated by his own fantasy narrative that he fails to understand his tenuous grip on power. He believes he does not need Congress; he sees any oversight as an impediment to his absolute control. His focus has now shifted to abolishing the filibuster, as he seeks to remove any vestige of the power to slow down his march toward autocratic rule.
This is a good time to remind everyone again that Trump was elected president by 32% of eligible voters in the US. As noted by Elizabeth Kivowitz, January 15, 2025, from the UCLA Newsroom:
“Trump won only a plurality of the popular vote, with one of the slimmest margins in history and among the smallest electoral college wins, while the GOP’s majority in the House is among the thinnest in the past century and in the Senate well short of breaking a filibuster — all far short, too, of what Bill Clinton and Barack Obama experienced when they entered office.
“Perhaps the only thing empirically historic about the Trump and Republican win is the gap between the mandate claims and the actual evidence.”
The problem we now face is that the government is closed, and Trump has absolutely no incentive to reopen it. While it’s closed, the Epstein files will not be released, and critical economic data will remain hidden. Why would he open it? The fact that SNAP recipients will go hungry means absolutely nothing to him. He and his rich friends will be just fine.
This week marks the first real test of public sentiment on the Trump agenda, with elections in Virginia, New Jersey and New York at the top of the list, not to mention Prop 50 in California. Trump seems to have paid little attention to it, preferring instead to visit Asia and bring back more fantasy wins for an economy that is heading into trouble. What Trump has become very good at is being the Storyteller in Chief and building a fantasy economic prosperity narrative that lacks any data to support, while obscuring job numbers and the growing independent evidence of economic distress.
The elections on November 4th will be the first real test of voter sentiment in this new era of tyranny. While it is a test for Trump, they will deliver a dangerous false sense of security for Democrats. Suppose this goes as I expect, and Democratic candidates are victorious. In that case, I can guarantee a very loud and sustained lap of honour from Democratic leadership, claiming that Democrats have turned the corner, when nothing could be further from the truth. The harsh reality is that in this moment, this is NOT a vote of confidence for the Democrats, but a resounding protest vote against the Trump agenda. I hate to say it, but you could put up a monkey against a Republican candidate in this moment, and the monkey would win.
It is vitally important that Democrats recognise this, but they won’t, and for me, that’s a problem. Expect to be submerged in DNC begging emails telling you we are turning the corner. DO NOT LISTEN to that narrative, the corner is far from being turned, and the road ahead to win back the Trust of the American people will be long and arduous.
As you know, I have long advocated strategic economic disengagement. While I would repeat my warning that strikes are a VERY DANGEROUS move right now, when employers are looking to trim payroll, I am all in on economic strikes. On this point, I would like to draw your attention to a movement called ‘The Big Beautiful Boycott’, a new organisation led by a small group of digital activists, including ‘Total Hipocrisy’ on TikTok. The Big Beautiful Boycott also has its own TikTok account. I would strongly suggest you check them out, because for me, they are a group of volunteers who have sat down and given structure to the approach of identifying companies to boycott, with links to the funding they have provided to this administration.
The thing I love about this effort is that they identified a line of attack and took action on their own dime. Bookmark their website, and please show them some love, because independent movements like this do make a difference. Also, if you visit their TikTok account, please be sure to tell them that Martin from Truth Matters sent you. This is about spreading the word and mass participation. They stood this effort up in a week, and I can’t praise them enough. They’re listening and are happy to receive feedback and comments.
This brings me neatly into my own humble effort to examine this on a broader economic level. The Truth Portal will make its debut a week from today if everything goes to plan. I have restructured my day to start writing earlier, with a conscious aim to keep my posts to no more than a seven-minute read. Where this is not possible, I’ll split the posts into two and try to deliver both on the same day to avoid disrupting continuity. This means that my posts will now be published around 9am ET each day, Monday to Friday.
The weekend will be dedicated to content creation and preparation for my new podcast, which will begin in January 2026, as well as a new weekly high-production-value news magazine. It’s been suggested that this shift will dilute what I deliver here on Substack. I can absolutely assure you that it will be the opposite. I have been creating content far longer than I have been writing long-form pieces here on Substack. As a messaging specialist, I know the value of an all-inclusive media approach to political messaging.
Believe me when I say I understand messaging and what it takes to stand any chance of making a difference, and that comes from a combination of written work, short-form messaging, and, above all, visual messaging. Emotionally connective narrative pieces, along with short-form visual messaging, are a compelling vehicle to help move the dial. Please take a moment to look at this Ad I created in 2019, then tell me I don’t understand the political landscape. I could have made this yesterday.
Today marks a step up in my efforts to provide a comprehensive information network that mirrors the care and attention taken in my writing here. How extensive this becomes is down to how much support I get along the way. Don’t misunderstand: this is happening regardless of the support offered to this project; it just makes it much easier. The investment in hardware and software this weekend has made my eyes water, but rest assured, I am all in on this fight. Every stakeholder in this project, through paid subscriptions and one-off donations, which I can now facilitate following our first big donation of $2,500 last week. The level of faith entrusted to me is humbling to say the least, and it is this which is fueling my work here.
The focus now has to be on what the Democrats must do to regain voters' trust. Despite the euphoria that will likely surround upcoming election results, the real problem of trust will remain — and sadly will not recede — until the current leadership steps aside. Democrats need to listen to voters and build an electoral proposition that serves the people, not special interests. We’ll talk about that in detail in my next post, where we’ll also discuss the steps Trump is taking to remove the opportunity for free and fair elections in 2026.
Next week I’ll be hosting a Zoom meeting to mark the launch of the new website. All my family here are welcome to attend, and I’ll be happy to answer any questions about the vision for Truth Matters moving forward. I emphasise again that there will be no dilution of efforts here on Substack; indeed, the opposite will be true. The new content will bring added value to our relationship. It will give you a curated, searchable resource for facts, stats, and, above all, the truth. You’ll be able to filter content by policy and issues, too.
The aim is to establish the Truth Portal as a trusted, fully searchable hub. It may not seem easy to envisage. However, I would invite you to take this journey with me in the coming weeks to understand just what value it will bring to the effort to help Americans fight the tyranny that currently blights this nation.
Elon rigged the election as Trump himself admitted. We should be focusing more on election integrity.
Beggars belief. Still can’t understand why the most powerful nation in the whole world seems to be going to hell in a handbasket: it seems greed and arrogance and lack of compassion and kindness and accountability are going on here