Who Has the Trump Cards

Who Has the Trump Cards
By James Quillian, Economist, Natural Law

Some people treat Donald Trump as a kind of savior. He tells them what they want to hear, and who doesn’t enjoy a politician who does that. Politics has long operated on that formula: flatter the public, win their votes, then pursue a private agenda. A skilled politician counts on loyal supporters to excuse every misstep as long as he continues to speak to their sensibilities. It works every time.

Anyone willing to think past the surface can see why presidents, across eras, often display the traits required to climb that far. The incentives reward the personality type that can pursue power without hesitation.

Now look at MAGA. The slogan assumes there was a moment in American history worth restoring. Which one? The country was strongest before power centralized, before the press consolidated into a handful of corporate owners, before imperial ambitions surged at the turn of the 19th century. After the Reagan era, federal policy accelerated the dismantling of free‑market disciplines. Nothing in Donald Trump’s record suggests he intends to address the underlying causes of national decline. There is no indication he is steering the country toward a healthier trajectory.

As for his agenda, only he knows it. For a small class of people, power itself is the incentive—on par with wealth and personal elevation.

Given the current moment, his recent actions strike me in a particular way.

When I was in middle school, my brothers and I used to hand a loaded BB gun to a five‑year‑old neighbor. We taught him how to cock it and told him to try to hit us. He never did. Not once.

That childhood scene mirrors Trump’s behavior since returning to office. He is working hard to please the people who enable him—especially those who could harm him if he disappoints them. It resembles a five‑year‑old taking cues from older kids, eager for approval. And just as the boy never managed to hit any of us, Trump is not achieving the goals he claims to pursue. What he is enjoying is the power itself. He also seems to have forgotten an old truth: no one swallows the ocean in one gulp.

Nothing he is doing points the country toward genuine renewal. Still, he keeps firing BBs—hoping one of them will redeem him or expand the power he already holds.