Arthur E. Sowers is a resident of Harbeson.
Well, Donald Trump’s idea about tariffs certainly fizzled. And his expansion of the war with Iran was a big fumble. How Trump’s brain works is a good question. He said he was going to “Make America Great Again” and that he would give us a “golden age.” Actually, polls prove to us that neither one of those major promises is going to happen. Lawsuits against his “talks and walks” now number over 600. Inflation is up and so is the price of gas. On May 13, from an Australian news website, came this article: “$1.5b Trump Tower on Gold Coast scrapped less than three months after deal struck.” I quote from the article: “The Trump Organization has removed the project from its website, while the developer says the brand is ‘toxic.’” Did you catch that? Are people now starting to say that the Trump brand is toxic? No, it started a few years ago. Here is an article dated 2021 from a website in Ireland: “Corporate America abandons Trump as the name turns toxic.” But what’s happening is that more and more people are using that word, toxic, in the same sentence as Trump’s name.
Even worse is the chaos unleashed by Trump’s expanded war on Iran. An article from thehill.com shows that the U.S. is losing friends over Trump’s “talks and walks.” The title is “Gulf allies are quietly starting to break with Washington.” On top of that, the recent Trump-Xi Jinping trade powwow in Beijing was supposed to iron out kinks in the U.S.-China trade squabbles. To simplify a summary, I did an internet search on this keyword string: “Trump needs Xi more than Xi needs Trump.” If you do your own research on this, you will find that it is China, not the U.S., that is becoming great. Trump is making things worse for the U.S. And Xi told Trump to keep his nose out of Taiwan. And Trump blinked.
A New York Times article dated May 5 gave us real answers on what goes on in Trump’s brain. The article is titled, “Opinion: ‘When You Think of It, We Shouldn’t Even Have an Election.’” Who do you think said that? That article gave a link that documented that the title came from something Trump actually said. It sure looks like Trump was thinking he should be a permanent president. Or, in other words, he cannot be voted out of office.
That article also quoted his answer to a question about whether there was anything that could stop him. He answered: “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me, and that’s very good.” Well, that sounds like he thinks he already has not only absolute omnipotent power, but also that he, and only he, has an absolutely perfect brain, and he has the absolute power to decide what is truth and justice. What does that make the rest of us? Unimportant? Irrelevant? Does that mean that nobody has the right to show him when his “talks and walks” are wrong?
Trump already thinks he is something like a deity. Among his many daydreams and inappropriate behaviors, he recently posted on the internet a fake image of himself as a “Jesus” with healing powers. And, months earlier, he posted a fake image of himself as the pope. Also, months ago, he posted a fake video of Barack Obama being arrested in the White House. Here is an article (dated July 21, 2025) on thehill.com about that video: “Trump posts fake video of Obama getting arrested.”
Also, on May 12, I saw many news items like this one on NBC News: “Trump says he’s not thinking about Americans’ finances ‘even a little bit’ in Iran talks.” And what this May 11 article suggests is in the title: “Trump and Rubio’s escalating rhetoric show(s) a Cuba invasion could be imminent.” Is Cuba going to become another Gaza?
Then, here is another article on Trump’s latest “fantasy overreach.” The article is titled “Trump’s Venezuela Fantasy Turns America First Inside Out.” How about asking: What happened to America First? And didn’t he say we were not going to get into any more foreign wars? Didn’t we learn from Vietnam and Afghanistan? And we are currently not doing well in Iran. And what makes Trump think Venezuela is going to be a quick pushover?
The idea that Trump should have all the “absolute powers” is a defective idea. Dig on the internet and you will find that it comes from right-wing extremism and the Heritage Foundation. If a deranged, demented, mentally ill, incompetent, corrupt, highly biased or perverted person gets into power and cannot be justly stopped or removed, then that one guy can blow up the whole system and maybe more. That would be a bad ending. Adolf Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte both had such bad ideas, and they led to very bad endings that we should be trying to avoid.
All along and from the start, Trump has been doing “manual overrides” on more and more of our Constitution. There are plenty of articles complaining about this. The Century Foundation is one think tank that evaluated Trump’s “talks and walks.” It produced this informative article on what Trump is doing to America: “Century’s New Democracy Meter Shows America Took an Authoritarian Turn in 2025.”
And, in ending and to put something in the face of the MAGAs, let me compare Donald Trump to Mahatma Gandhi instead of Hitler and Napoleon. I quote from an artificial intelligence summary off the internet: “Mahatma Gandhi led India to independence from British rule (1947) through nonviolent civil disobedience, pioneering peaceful protests like the Salt March and Quit India movement. He worked to eradicate untouchability, promoted women’s rights, fostered religious unity, and advocated for rural self-reliance.” Just think — no lies, no name-calling, no insults, no bullying, no bluster, no bullets, no bombs, no boasting.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
