Arthur E. Sowers is a resident of Harbeson.
According to two poll results, all of Donald Trump’s second-term major efforts and actions are ending up more like failures than successes.
His approval scores keep going down in national polls. Here is just one article, found on YouGov: “Trump hits new lows with Independents as his bad job approval numbers continue.”
This Pew Research Center poll of international opinion also shows growing Trump disapproval: “People in Many Countries Now View China More Positively Than the U.S.”
If we now look at economic data, it shows that the U.S. gross domestic product growth rate (1.5%) is much lower than for communist China (4.7%). References can be obtained in a few seconds by an internet search.
And, if we look at this widely quoted article from an Australian technology think tank, it shows that China is leading the U.S. in 57 of 64 technology areas: “How China Is Outperforming the United States in Critical Technologies.”
Where is that “golden age”? Why am I paying an extra dollar per gallon for gas?
Moving on to the “Make America Great Again” universe, I was worried that the Trump lovers would never see Trump’s bad deeds and bad ideas for what they were. But — surprise, surprise — there is now an anti-Trump revolt growing out of many big MAGA voices! Here are just four of many articles that I have seen about that:
On the topic of corruption, Trump’s self-dealing $1.8 billion slush fund deal might be withdrawn, but they say the part that gives Trump and his family permanent immunity from IRS audits is still in effect. And the rest of it might come back again anyway, too. The title of this House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee report from late 2025 is self-explanatory: “New Report Exposes the Trump Family’s Multi-Billion-Dollar Crypto Empire, Fueled by Self-Dealing and Corrupt Foreign Interests.”
But another Trump scandal was recently described in this Reuters article: “Capital One says it closed Trump Organization’s accounts after anti-money laundering probe.”
Trump loves to tell fairy tales as if they were real or true. Here is a good CNN fact-checker article that extensively confirms that Trump’s fairy tales really are just fairy tales: “‘Remember that?’ Trump again asks Americans to recall something that never happened.”
The main fairy tale he told was a “Remember that?” story about people not being able to watch TV because there was no electricity being generated by wind farms when there was no wind. As a matter of fact, CNN looked into the history and could not verify Trump’s story. But I shall summarize a true story from this Wikipedia article: “Nebraska Public Power District.”
Here are the facts: 1.) Nebraska is a red state; 2.) NPPD has been, for decades, wholly state-owned and is, therefore, 100% socialist; 3.) Its power grid powers the whole state; 4.) The state get 30% of its power from wind; 5.) It has some of the cheapest power (third from cheapest), and its power grid is among the tops in reliability in the whole U.S.
Our president continues to show he is “unfit for office.” The Congressional Record’s Volume 172, Issue 76 (dated April 30), on Page S2162, has a statement, about one page in size, signed and submitted by many medical and psychiatric professionals, saying that Donald Trump is unfit for office.
However, many earlier articles can be found that also say Trump is unfit for office. Here is one from 2024, in The Guardian: “More than 200 health professionals say Trump has ‘malignant narcissism’ in open letter.”
Finally, what is Trump’s purpose in showing himself with a mean, cruel frown on his face in his official images or in the image showing himself as an apparent back-alley, belligerent and two-bit thug, in a long, black coat, looking like he is half his real age and looking like he wants to beat the daylights out of anybody he meets, as he walks toward you? Several “Stars and Stripes” flags are on each side, and there is a wall of burning, scorched-earth flames in the otherwise black background. See examples of these in the Newsweek article: “Multiple New Donald Trump Portraits Appear in White House.”
I decided to ask the google.com artificial intelligence what to make of Trump’s “frown” and “gangster image,” and here is just the first paragraph that I got back: “The deliberate purpose of Donald Trump’s unsmiling frown and tough-talking demeanor in official imagery is to project defiance, alpha-male dominance, and political martyrdom while subverting traditional optics to fuel his personal brand. Rather than adhering to conventional political portraiture aimed at conveying affability, Trump utilizes calculated facial positioning to send specific tactical messages to his base, political rivals, and the broader media landscape.”
Well, I asked for one more google.com AI summary on this keyword string: “History outcomes diplomacy vs. bullying,” and here is just the first paragraph of what I got back: “Historical outcomes heavily favor structured diplomacy over political bullying, as coercive intimidation consistently triggers aggressive backlashes, unstable alliances, and long-term conflicts, whereas diplomatic frameworks establish lasting geopolitical stability.”
Trump 2.0 is going to fail, big-time.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
