Donald Trump
April 2, 2025
Absence of prophetic voice is Trump’s undoing
There are some of us who offer social and political commentary for public consumption who warned about the shambolic and chaotic presidency that would ensue if now US President Donald Trump should be given a second term.
It should give no comfort to anyone, and it certainly does not to this writer, that much of the commentary was spot on. In no instance did it take a genius to figure it out. Trump himself had been amazingly transparent as to what his intentions were before he was elected.
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Now America and the world has been thrown into a maelstrom of chaos, and this is just the beginning. Take, for example, Trump’s assault on the democratic institutions and especially the judiciary that has served the country well for almost 250 years. This behaviour had begun to emerge in the first term, but now his disdain for the rule of law, and the judiciary in general, is palpable. I had predicted that if he won, the courts would be very busy, and many lawyers would be enriched given the number of lawsuits that would be filed consequent upon the erratic, abusive, and illegal use of the power of the executive order (EO).
This is working true to form, because Trump knows that the EO is the most important tool in his dictatorial tool box, which he alone can exercise without reference to Congress or the judiciary. You can try to stop him in the courts, as is now the case, but you cannot stop him from signing them. It is a matter of how quick the courts respond to stop his most egregious edicts. By and large, seeing the necessity for quick action, the courts have acted commendably in blocking him.
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As a wannabe dictator, Trump sees the EO more as a tool by which he can rule with decree and indulge any offensive action that he deems fit. He finds it repulsive that the courts should stand in his way, thus his recent attacks on federal judges. He has nothing but utter contempt for the Republican-held Congress and expects it to acquiesce to his demands when he makes them. In fact, the processes that the Congress has to go through to get a Bill passed and signed by him are a bit too tedious and slow for his liking, all he has to do is issue an EO and that will do the trick. It then becomes a matter of how much damage can be done before the courts act.
Trump plays with tariffs as a child does with his toys. The same impulsive instincts that drive his attack on the rule of law are in evidence in the ways in which he uses tariffs to demonstrate who is in charge and how much he can flex the powers of the presidency; thus, it does not matter too seriously what the consequences are of any tariffs he levies against any country.
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The driving force for him is not economic necessity, but a psychological imperative which satiates his desire to be respected, and even feared. This is the real danger of the chaotic application of tariffs. And he does not have to refer to the Congress to issue them. Very few will be contested in the courts.
Trump’s actions to date are in plain sight for everyone to see. What one sees from day to day, from tariffs to the disembowelling of the architecture of Government is frightening, and I believe there is worse to come. As the democratic institutions are being systematically dismantled, one wonders what would things be like if there should be a full dictatorial control of the country. Anyone who believes that this cannot happen is living in the land of Oz.
It is in this light that I find the supine acceptance by the Congress of what is taking place to be very reprehensible. The 535 members of Congress were elected to represent the interests of their constituents; instead, most of them are bowing to the dictates of an Administration which often acts contrary to the interests of those who elected them. Many Republican representatives in Congress are not even holding meetings in their districts lest they be asked to account for the chaotic governance that is occurring.
I find the silence and quiescence of the younger members of the Congress, especially those on the ruling Republican side, to be particularly disheartening and repulsive. No one wishes President Trump any ill will, but at 79 years old he is literally sitting in the exit lounge. Within the next 10 years the debility of mind and body will be quite obvious.
Given the enormous power he has, thanks to the Supreme Court, he should be aiming for a legacy that the most revered statesmen in the world are known for today. Instead, he is going in a direction that will give him pariah status with the likes of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, and some of the worst figures in human history.
But, alas, there is no one to speak truth to his power. And when people like myself do, we are ridiculed and accused of hating Trump. We may very well be the ones who have his best interest at heart, but this is not readily seen or admitted. I have said repeatedly in this column that one of Trump’s biggest problems is that he has no advocate, no prophetic voice to dissuade him from the soundings of his own voice — and neither does he believe he needs one. So he surrounds himself with sycophants and soothsayers who will tell him what he wants to hear and aid and abet his most egregious behaviour, even when they know that such behaviour is injurious to the welfare of the country. They are doing him and the country a disservice by bowing to his every wish and command.
Younger senators like Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Mike Lee, to name a few, are sometimes puzzling to comprehend. Here are men who still have a fairly long political career ahead of them. Yet, by their quiescence, they seem prepared to squander what political capital they may yet possess in their cowardly acceptance of Trumpism. Lindsay Graham and others of his ilk, who are known to pander to whatever political winds that blow, are in a league all by themselves in terms of their indifference to whether the country goes over the precipice or not. Their wimpish approach to the politics of the day is quite jarring. They are proving themselves to be unworthy of the offices they occupy.
As for the Democrats, they are still in a daze over the lost presidential election. This is understandable, but their honeymoon with gloom and doom has to end. Perhaps they may want to put a temporary halt to the flood of requests that keep coming for a small donation here and there. Do they not know that many people are suffering donation fatigue and would prefer not to be bothered now with such requests, however small?
Those in Congress who are being paid by the taxpayers ought to organise around a credible and workable set of policies and principles that people, especially the independents, can buy into. They must keep a keen eye on the Federal Election Commission and any attempt by the Trump Administration to strip it of its independence, undermine its functions by denying funding, or indulging any other practice that may indicate a willingness to undermine its integrity going into the 2026 midterms. This will be one of the most crucial midterms in American political history. We ignore the subtle rigging of elections to our own peril.
Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest, social commentator, and author of the books Finding Peace in the Midst of Life’s Storms; Your Self-esteem Guide to a Better Life; and Beyond Petulance: Republican Politics and the Future of America. He hosts a podcast — Mango Tree Dialogues — on his YouTube channel. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or stead6655@aol.com.
Raulston Nembhard
