There’s No Turning This Sinking Ship Around

The slippery slope gets slipperier

It’s only going to get worse for you. [PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Wong, Getty Images]

Deepening social divides along political lines thanks to Donald’s penchant for division; a tanking economy thanks to Donald’s disastrous economic policies; devastating uncertainty about our country’s future thanks to a regime that is following the fascist playbook specifically designed for the purpose—we are in the middle of a perfect storm of catastrophes that no one is less equipped than Donald to manage. He’d be incapable even if he wanted to not because Donald likes things just the way they are—the chaos, the fear, the anger—but because there’s a new twist here that he can’t adjust to—he’s lost the ability to control the narrative. The strategy of lying, spinning, and obfuscating isn’t effective anymore and where, at least to a certain group of people, he looked strong, forceful, and full of fight, he now appears diminished to the point of impotence.

So how does he escape this particular nightmare he’s slept his way into? Well, he can’t. He knows it and it’s driving him crazier than he already was.

Part of the problem for Donald—and for us—is that he has, in some sense, always been institutionalized, shielded from his limitations or his need to succeed on his own in the world because there was always somebody there with more money and more intelligence and more power to bail him out, prop him up, or burnish the myth. My grandparents’ house, and Trump Tower and the West Wing, are all controlled environments in which Donald’s material needs have always been taken care of by other people. His jobs have been a series of sinecures in which the work was done by others (though he happily took credit for it), and Donald has never needed to acquire expertise. All of this has protected him from acknowledging—or suffering the consequences of—own failures.

He’s never had to do an honest day’s work in his life, and no matter how badly he’s failed, he’s been rewarded in ways that are almost unfathomable. He continues to be protected from his own disasters in the White House, where a group of loyalists applauds his every pronouncement or normalizes his criminality to the point that many of us have become numb to the accumulating transgressions. Now, however, unlike any other time in his life, Donald’s failings can neither be hidden nor ignored because even people who support him are feeling the negative effects of his disastrous second term.

It’s not the stress of being president that’s getting to him (he’s barely engaged in the work presidents traditionally do); it’s the effort to keep the rest of us distracted from the fact that his ignorance and incompetence are what have sunk this country to a new low. Far too many people are waking up to the reality that their suffering is entirely down to him. As his poll numbers tank along with the economy, those inclined to believe in him are beginning to question their idea of him.

One of the reasons Donald’s problems are accumulating is because the solution to them has become more complicated. He can pretend they don’t exist, but convincing others they don’t requires more than yelling at reporters or telling people not to trust their own lived experiences. He has painted himself into a corner and he is completely incapable of getting himself out of it. After all, the systems were set up in the first place to protect him from his own weaknesses, not help him negotiate the wider world.

So, the walls of his very expensive and well-guarded padded cell are starting to disintegrate. The people with access to him may be weaker than Donald, they may be more craven, but they are just as desperate in their own way. Their futures are directly dependent on Donald’s success and favor. There has always been a seemingly endless number of people willing to join the chorus that props Donald up, protects him from his own inadequacies, and echoes his grandiose and delusional belief in himself. His inner circle remains deeply invested in perpetuating the fallacy that he is a strong leader who has the best interests of the American people at heart, despite their understanding the absurdity of the premise. But the cracks are beginning to show there, too. There are power plays and jockeying for position going on behind the scenes and, on some level at least, Donald is aware of that, too.

This forces him to fall back on his tactic of being more like himself—louder, more hyperbolic, more grasping and needy and aggrieved. Here’s the thing, though—none of it’s working anymore. I’m not saying that his presidency or the Trump regime is coming to an end, unfortunately. If only. I’m saying Donald can’t turn the sinking ship around because he’s incapable of acknowledging that the ship is sinking in the first place. To do so would be an admission of weakness and responsibility that would open him up to blame.

This country is on the precipice of something awful, but we can pull ourselves back from that brink. Donald, on the other hand, is on a slippery slope down which he will continue to slide. Putting on the brakes would require his recognizing his limitations; deferring to experts; admitting his mistakes; and changing course. Donald is exactly who he’s always been; he’s incapable of change and that may finally be working to our advantage. He doesn’t know it, of course, but ultimately, it’s going to be his insistence that he’s always right that will be his downfall. And I’m here for it.