Arthur E. Sowers is a resident of Harbeson.
It is pretty clear from the results of the November 2026 election that the people of this country were even more dissatisfied with Trump 2.0 than all the polls indicated. In the articles I read, Donald Trump’s economy and Trump’s war with Iran came up most often as top complaints. I always had my own long list of complaints, including that Trump spoke so much nonsense. Here are some examples: “Mexico will pay for it”; “I will fix everything”; “I can declassify anything just by thinking it”; and “The war is over; we won.” Because of him, we now have a vastly increased national debt. Trump’s retreat from international relationships just gives the rest of the world to China. His self-granted entitlement to “take” Canada, Greenland, Venezuela, Gaza, etc., shows that he is a kleptocrat. Trump did not “fix” anything. He actually broke almost everything he touched. He made the Department of Justice into his own “gestapo.” He uses executive orders to override our Constitution and, years ago, got the Supreme Court to give him absolute immunity. Thus, he can do bad things, and nobody can touch him.
Do we still have democracy? This Monday, Nov. 9, postelection article from POLITICO says Trump is still inventing fairy tales to undermine our elections: “Trump claims election fraud without evidence to excuse midterm rebuke.” Ha! They have a better democracy in Brazil. Jair Bolsonaro tried an “election steal” stunt, just like Trump did. It took years, but Brazil’s courts finally sentenced Bolsonaro to jail for 27 years for attempting an illegal coup. Just read the first two sentences of this NBC News article for that short story: “Brazil’s former president Bolsonaro leaves hospital and returns to jail.”
Trump’s failures massively outnumber his successes. Before 2015, it was his business bankruptcies and thousands of court cases. His mindset and the mindsets of other unnamed persons were behind making deepfake video clips and putting Trump’s face on top of cartoon heroes (e.g., Superman, Rambo). His face was pasted over persons who should not be so defiled (e.g., the pope). His face was also pasted on sacred figures (e.g., Jesus). Trump put his own name anywhere, undeservedly, including on airports, bridges, the Kennedy Center, coins, various products like gold watches, a golden smartphone, perfumes and many more things. He doesn’t create anything noble or honorable, just materialistic, ostentatious and opulent. Thus, he just steals nice stuff and acts like he owns it or self-awards multiple Nobel Prizes. It is just because he “thinks it.” He sees the “Arc de Triomphe” in France and decides he wants his own “Arch of Triumph,” too. Polls show that Trump’s “Musk/Department of Government Efficiency” project was not only illegal but failed to deliver as promised. The Reflecting Pool upgrade ended up a scandal. And nobody wants the Trump ballroom. Is there some deeper message or meaning to the cruel, mean and nasty frown in the face he has chosen for his official portrait?
Trump is not good at getting us a good ending. On the contrary, he is good at getting bad endings. I fed the following keyword string into google.com for an artificial intelligence summary: “Historical figures jinxed to always fail projects started.” And I got a short list of many historical names and many examples that are easy to understand and are valid. Here is a quote of the first two sentences the AI gave me: “While many legendary figures are celebrated for their ultimate triumphs, history is full of brilliant, ambitious, or high-ranking individuals who seemed genuinely ‘jinxed’ to watch every grand project they started fall apart. Whether plagued by terrible timing, astronomical bad luck, or systemic blind spots, these figures became famous for their monumental failures.” And here is a quote of the first two sentences of the first example: “Tsar Nicholas II, (t)he final Emperor of Russia was fundamentally ill-suited for the massive geopolitical shifts of the early 20th century. Every single major project he initiated or (oversaw) resulted in catastrophe.” And that ending was followed by Russia becoming communist.
After the Nov. 3 election, Trump is now making staff “adjustments.” Resignations and firings are mixed in with the usual blame games because, if Trump has to look perfect, then some other people must now be seen as imperfect and become sacrificial “fall guys.”
Where do we go from here? This very nice and very easy-to-read 2025 PsyPost Media essay gives much insight into what makes Trump tick: “The psychological puzzle of Donald Trump: Eye-opening findings from 20 studies.” The author gave two- or three-sentence summaries — all easy to read and understand — from each of the 20 studies. Here is one surprising quote: “A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that individuals with strong populist beliefs, particularly those aligned with Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda, were more likely to have been arrested in their lifetime.” A search for that particular article was successful. It is a free download and has the title: “America First populism, social volatility, and self-reported arrests.” At the end of the PsyPost article is a link to further studies.
Days after the election, Trump was “softball interviewed” by CBS News, and the “softball write-up” of that interview is in this article: “10 takeaways from Trump’s 60 Minutes interview: Why GOP lost the midterms, what went wrong on immigration and more.” The CNN version of that interview is in this article: “Trump’s regrets on immigration enforcement, and other takeaways from his ‘60 Minutes’ interview.” The (maybe) good news is that he might not escalate the Iran war. The very slightly conciliatory news is that he admits, a tiny bit, about going “too far” on the deportations. The subjects of Israel, Ukraine, etc. — and the massive disasters caused by his tariff actions, his xenophobia, racism and sexism — were not brought up at all. The bad news is that we still have a divisive, erratic and ideologically far-right extremist fanatic who thinks he is a medieval king.
Keep your seat belts fastened. The dust is not going to settle. On Monday, many articles came out about the latest anti-Trump protest: his (nonexistent?) bone spurs that kept him out of serving his country. Here is just one of many articles on this, from Forbes: “Statue Mocking Trump’s Vietnam Draft Deferment Erected On National Mall.”
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
