By Ben Meiselas
Donald Trump continues to spiral out of control, and nowhere is that more apparent than in his Monday morning tirades. As I reviewed the latest headlines, it was easy to see what’s been triggering his rage: collapsing economic confidence, damning whistleblower reports about his corrupt treatment of convicted criminals, and growing public disgust with his behavior. Trump’s response? To lash out at working people, specifically, air traffic controllers, accusing them of disloyalty during his manufactured government shutdown.
He posted that any air traffic controller who didn’t work for free “will be substantially docked” and warned that those who “did nothing but complain” would face “negative marks” and “no severance of any kind.” In the same breath, he promised $10,000 bonuses to those he deemed “true patriots.” It’s the language of a dictator—punish dissent, reward obedience. And it’s an unmistakable threat against federal employees whose only “crime” was refusing to work without pay.
But the cruelty doesn’t stop there. As Democrats in the House Judiciary Committee revealed, Trump’s Bureau of Prisons has bent every rule imaginable to protect one of the most notorious criminals alive: Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker who worked alongside Jeffrey Epstein. Whistleblower documents show Maxwell is being treated like royalty at her minimum-security “Club Fed” facility. She’s receiving hand-delivered meals, access to a service puppy, after-hours private exercise sessions, and even unmonitored meetings with guests carrying computers, an unprecedented breach of security that, as Congressman Jamie Raskin warned, poses “extraordinary risks” to justice.
Trump’s favoritism toward Maxwell is no outlier. It’s part of a disturbing pattern. He pardoned Michael McMahon, a former police officer convicted of acting as an agent of the Chinese government to harass families on U.S. soil, simply because McMahon attended a Trump event and declared himself “full MAGA.” Another felon, Jonathan Braun, leveraged family ties to Jared Kushner for a commutation, only to later be accused of sexual assault and violent threats.
These are the people Trump surrounds himself with and rewards. Over and over, his circle is littered with those accused or convicted of sexual assault, trafficking, or abuse. It’s not a coincidence.
Meanwhile, ordinary Americans are suffering under Trump’s economic chaos. With the Bureau of Labor Statistics shuttered during the shutdown, private estimates suggest the U.S. lost as many as 153,000 jobs last month. Consumer confidence is near historic lows. Prices are soaring due to Trump’s reckless tariffs, which have turned basic goods, yes, even Italian pasta, into luxury items.
And yet, as the public turns against him, he was loudly booed and flipped off at a Washington Commanders game this weekend, some Democratic senators inexplicably chose this moment to cave to him. Eight senators sided with Republicans to reopen the government without securing protections for health care or SNAP benefits. Their justification? That “standing up to Trump wasn’t working.”
That logic is infuriating. The American people just spoke loudly at the ballot box. They understand what’s at stake and are willing to endure temporary hardship to stop an authoritarian regime. Capitulating now doesn’t ease suffering, but rather it prolongs it. It tells Trump and his enablers that intimidation works.
We are not living in normal times. This is not a moment for half-measures or bipartisan niceties. When the government uses ICE agents as political enforcers, when it starves families by halting SNAP benefits, when it rewards the rich and corrupt while punishing workers, you don’t bend the knee. You stand firm. You fight for the people, for their health care, their wages, their rights, and their democracy.
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