For the average American, it’s time to get back to the fundamentals. Time to ask one simple question, “What has my government done for me?’ It shouldn’t be a difficult question to answer. At the very basic level, the question is, “Are you and your family better off today than you were when Trump entered the White House for the second time?” These are not questions you should need much time to answer; nine times out of ten, you can answer them in an instant.
Just for context, the man in whose hands your livelihood is held increased his wealth by $2.4 BILLION in 2025 alone. Just for context, that’s:
Almost 32,000 times the US median salary in the same year.
167.000 times the average annual grocery costs for a family of four.
The annual cost of close to 100,000 family mortgage payments.
37,000 times the cost of a Home Health Aide (44 hours/week)
Trump has claimed over and over again that affordability is a Democrat hoax as he attempts to convince the American people that their bank balance is not receding as much as their eyes and their lived experience tell them. The question you have to ask yourself is how invested in my financial plight is a man who earned $2.4 billion last year. If you even have to think about answering that, can I suggest you seek urgent medical help because you are having a major common-sense crisis that requires urgent intervention.
Trump makes absolutely no secret of the fact that he’s ruling for the few at the expense of the many; he wears it as a badge of honour. Let’s face it, taking care of 30 million people is much easier than taking care of 350 million; it’s simple maths. He has never, nor does he ever intend to, walk a mile in your shoes to understand the challenges you face; he simply doesn’t care. For those of us on the outside looking in, it’s beyond comprehension that a government is prepared to go to war with those it has an obligation to protect, in order to facilitate the rich getting richer while the rest become targets for unregulated exploitation and extortion. What’s even more disturbing, is that the bottom 90% (his victims) are just sitting by and watching it happen. It’s like watching turkeys vote for Thanksgiving.
It begs the question, WHY? and it’s something I ask myself every day. Over the centuries, it has always been said of religion that it was the opiate of the masses. A story told to provide hope in a ‘jam tomorrow’ world. If you ‘donated’ to the church every week, you would reap your reward, but not until after you were dead. What’s more, how much you gave would determine whether you were on the concierge floor in heaven or in steerage. I suppose the question of the week must be, did Lyndsay Graham even make it into steerage this week, when God examined the Gaza balance sheet at the pearly gates?
I digress, but all of the above should sound very familiar. In Trump world, if you have nothing to give him, you are of no use. The church of Trump demands unquestioning loyalty as an entry-level requirement. This was on full display yesterday during the confirmation hearing for Jay Clayton in his quest to become Director of National Intelligence. Strange that he couldn’t answer a simple question: ‘Did President Biden win the 2020 election?’ The truth is, unless you pledge absolute loyalty not to the nation but to Trump, you simply don’t pass the sniff test. As an aside, it is worth noting that appointing Clayton as Director of National Intelligence is like appointing the local butcher to fix your car.
The whole reason Trump constantly finds himself in a hole he can’t escape from is because the people he appoints to senior positions within government have just one qualification: loyalty to him. It’s why US diplomacy is in the toilet. Cronyism is at epidemic levels within government. Once you fire the experts at every level of the analytical decision-making process, because truth is the enemy, you are left with an incubator of incompetence that breeds poor decision-making. You only have to look at Marco Rubio at press events when he’s forced to appear behind Trump as he faces questions. He absolutely knows that what Trump is doing is wrong and is hurting America, but his instinct for self-furtherance outweighs his obligation to his oath of office. In my book, that makes him the worst of the worst, yet I have no doubt he will run for president in 2028.
Let’s take a moment to look at what Trump promised in 2025 to make life better for American families. He promised to reduce the cost of living and hand out both DOGE and Tariff checks; what was not to like? Nothing, of course, unless it was all a lie, which it clearly was. He was going to cut everyone’s taxes; instead, he imposed illegal tariffs, imposing an average 20% sales tax on goods imported from overseas. He even removed the de minimis exemption for imported goods valued at under $800, which decimated microbusinesses.
His Big Beautiful Bill has resulted in millions of Americans being unable to afford healthcare and millions more facing crippling health insurance premiums. According to a piece written for The Conversation by Aparna Soni, Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at Indiana University, written on July 13th 2026:
Federal data released on June 26, 2026, shows that marketplace enrollment fell from 21.8 million people in February 2025 to 19.2 million in February 2026, a decline of about 2.6 million people, or 12%. That is the steepest single-year decline since the marketplaces opened in 2014.
If you add to that rising inflation and energy prices, not to mention his attack on SNAP, Trump has done nothing but fleece hard-working Americans at the altar of greed. All in service of Corporate America and the wealthy who bought him the keys to the White House.
In truth, it should not be a difficult decision when voters arrive at the ballot box, and yet past experience tells us that people seem more than happy to vote against their own interests. As someone who has been around politics all my life, I have never seen anything like it. That being said, Trump knows that polling suggests the people are angry, and they blame him for their rising cost of living and for the disaster that is the Iran war, which means gas prices are squeezing them even further. As I write this, they are above $4 and edging towards $4.50.
As I have written on a number of occasions, the thing Trump fears most of all is truth and the accountability that comes with it. In that respect, he is beyond desperate to control the election process in November, ensuring accountability is kept at arm’s length. We will certainly know more about his intentions following his inevitable butchery of the English language in his Hans Christian Andersen-sponsored address to the nation this evening. I’m sure he will make the case for choosing his own electors for the Republican Party to face. The sickening thing is, Republicans will fall in line like the good little puppies they have proved themselves to be when it comes to defending the indefensible.
Many have said this fight is not about Trump; it’s about those pulling the strings from the shadows. I absolutely concur, but the point people miss when they make that statement is that the puppet masters could not achieve what they are attempting without Trump. Peter Thiel said it out loud. He’s the magic sauce that has brought enough voters to the party to deliver them the power they now hold. Hardened Trump voters are not Republicans; they are Trump fanboys and girls. Most have little understanding of politics and would walk through fire for him. If you remove Trump from the equation, the Republicans are just a man walking a dog. They are Samson with a buzz cut.
This is why to effect change, it has to be a two-stage process. First, you have to take the loaded gun that he wanders around with and remove the threat he poses. Democrats can do this simply by winning back the House and reclaiming the power of the subpoena. They can then go to town on corruption investigations to their heart’s content. Trump will play the victim, but frankly, who cares? Once you have nullified the threat, the reality of the problem Republicans face will hit home, but it will be too late.
The first part is the easy part, assuming Trump does not interfere with the outcome. Spoiler alert: he will absolutely try to suggest that communists stole the election. It’s in the DNA of all sore losers. I’ve started to join up all the dots on how I think he will do this, but I’m keeping my powder dry until we hear what he has to say this evening. Part two is the BIG challenge. If Democrats retake the House and possibly the Senate, though I think the latter is a bigger challenge, the obvious question is: will they simply deliver Republican light? And I hate to tell you that I think that’s EXACTLY what they will do.
Yes, they will introduce some performative policy to make their base believe they’re doing something when, in reality, they have absolutely no appetite for transformative change, merely ambition to punch their new tickets on the next ‘gravy train’. I am reminded of what one of my favourite comedians once said:
“Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that who cares? He’s a mile away and you’ve got his shoes!”
This is emblematic of the Democratic establishment’s attitude to those they have been elected to serve. The people cast the votes, but many of the same special interests that have supported the tyranny that Trump has brought to America will be the masters they serve. Yes, they’ll act as agents for the distribution of the crumbs from the rich man’s, claiming it as evidence of their commitment to serving the many, not the few. However, in reality, nothing will have changed.
To transform society, you need a vision, social ambition and the audacity of hope. Alas, as we saw yesterday, half of the Democratic caucus voted to continue to fund military aid to Israel, making them not the party of change, but rather representative of one complicit in genocide. I understand that this is an inflammatory statement, but if it walks like a duck and it quacks, it’s probably a duck. In that respect, I’m afraid Hakeem Jeffries and the wider Democratic leadership left their integrity at the AIPAC ATM. This renders them servants of Israel, not representatives of the American people and enemies of moral decency. Uncomfortable, I know, but in my view accurate.
The critical point I’m making is one of my fervent beliefs. Transformative societal change takes more than handing corporate America a blue suit to wear. It takes a ‘people first’ focus on reimagining America for the better. The good news is that Trump has created an entire unilateral toolkit to enforce change; it’s time to fight fire with fire and use the model he’s created to turn the gun on tyranny and empty the magazine. You can call it political violence if you like; I just believe justice is a dish best served cold.
Now I’ve got all that off my chest, and I’ve harvested the first of my corgettes today; we can turn tomorrow to my thoughts on working with the vision of Adam Smith in the 21st Century. It’s time to level up the tax playing field. Taxing the rich might be the populist soundbite, but it’s just a small part of a much bigger picture that needs to shift the conversation's focus from income to assets.
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There aren’t many other options for cancer except cut, burn or poison, otherwise it grows unchecked and kills the host.
Good. We don't need them to work smarter.
Avarice is bad and they are already fooling many enough.