By Ben Meiselas
On Saturday morning, Trump once again demonstrated how quickly the country’s highest office can be degraded when placed in the hands of someone both unwell and unwilling to confront reality. But what else is new?
As Donald Trump spiraled through another barrage of social media posts, I noticed a familiar picture: a president deteriorating before the nation’s eyes, presiding over a regime that is collapsing under the weight of its own incompetence.
Trump’s morning meltdown followed a now-typical pattern. He raged online, insulted journalists, lied about the economy, created new grievances, and, when confronted by public backlash, quietly disabled Instagram comments to hide the widespread disgust from his own followers. Just another day that ends in “y.” It also exposes an underlying truth. Trump knows he has lost control of the narrative, of his inner circle, and, increasingly, of himself.
The latest targets of his rage were female journalists, continuing a long line of gendered attacks that have become a defining feature of his presidency and his life. In recent weeks he labeled a New York Times reporter “ugly,” a Bloomberg reporter “Piggy,” and told another she lacked the cognitive ability to pass his well-publicized cognitive test. This morning, he called CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins “stupid and nasty” because she questioned, accurately, why the White House ballroom renovation has ballooned in cost. Trump, who just fired the architect responsible for the project after ripping down the East Wing, appears to be stiffing contractors again. Surprise, surprise.
Between his misogynistic tirades, Trump attempted to revive his so-called “affordability crusade,” touting a “tiny truck solution” to the economic pain he insists was caused by former President Biden. The problem is simple. Trump has been in charge for nearly a year. Inflation has surged. Mortgage rates are at their highest levels since the pandemic. And his retreat from global markets through a series of reckless tariffs has driven prices even higher for American families. Trump’s bandaid solutions? You will only buy your kids one doll. You will drive in tiny trucks. You will take 50 years to pay off your mortgage.
The truth is that as Americans struggle with rising prices, Trump has been fixated on something else entirely: a fake peace prize he created for himself with the deeply troubled president of FIFA. This week, Trump became the inaugural, and only, recipient of the “FIFA Peace Prize,” awarded in a small ceremony in Washington featuring a medal, a trophy, and an uncomfortable level of enthusiasm from the president. California Governor Gavin Newsom summed up the absurdity perfectly when he joked that he had just been awarded the “Kohl’s Peace Prize,” complete with fifty dollars in Kohl’s Cash.
It would be easy to dismiss all of this as clownish spectacle if it weren’t paired with genuine danger. Trump’s Department of Defense (yes, that’s the name) continues to justify unlawful military actions abroad. His Treasury Department misleadingly celebrates high Treasury yields even though such spikes typically reflect economic distress. The yields haven’t been this high since 2020, they bragged! Uh…do they remember what happened to the economy, and the world, in 2020?
And most alarming of all, the White House released a 2025 National Security Strategy that openly declares the United States will “cultivate resistance to Europe’s current trajectory” and seeks to undermine NATO as a “perpetually expanding alliance.” In plain terms, the policy states that the United States now intends to support far-right movements inside Europe with the explicit aim of weakening the European Union. Let me be clear: the MAGA goal right now is to end ties with the EU, and instead embrace autocratic nations like Russia. I will be writing a deeper dive on this later on this Substack. This places democratic allies across the continent at risk, and I don’t think it is getting nearly enough attention.
Paired with his administration’s grotesque propaganda video that unlawfully used pop star Sabrina Carpenter’s music to accompany scenes of migrant abuse, deleted only after Carpenter publicly condemned it as “evil and disgusting,” Trump’s posture toward Europe and the world is one of escalating hostility and profound instability. Even his own supporters appear increasingly unsettled. The White House’s Instagram account recently posted a photo of Trump captioned “Daddy’s Home,” prompting a flood of comments pointing out his declining cognitive condition and bizarre public behavior. Reports indicate that signs have been posted around the West Wing to help him navigate the building.
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Back to my report.
Trump’s decline stands in stark contrast to the steadiness offered by former President Biden, who recently told young LGBTQ Americans, “You are loved and people do care about you.” Trump, meanwhile, rambled incoherently at a FIFA-adjacent event about the United States being “the hottest country anywhere in the world,” a claim he insisted was universally praised by “every single leader in the world.”
The nation is not witnessing strength. It is witnessing a presidency unraveling in real time. And while Trump rages, insults journalists, and collects self-awarded trophies, the country continues to drift into deeper crisis. It is more important than ever that Americans rely on credible, independent journalism to cut through the noise.
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