Our Democracy is at Risk!
A little bit of what I know in a Nutshell...
March 27, 2025
A little bit of what I know in a Nutshell...
March 27, 2025
Welcome to Trump 2.0! Here's a quick rundown of everything I know about what's happened over the last couple of months. I'm going to try to list as many resources as possible to help give you a better picture and also to back up what I am talking about. Admittedly, I did not pay attention to the very beginning of Trump 2.0. I personally boycotted his Inaugural speech. I started to pay more attention right at the beginning of February. This is what I know. Feel free to email me if you want me to source something. Some links are also to Instagram so FYI.
White Supremacy and Racism. I have a previous post talking about this, but in a quick snippet he ran his platform on white supremacy under the guise of White Christian Nationalism. Basically, white males are afraid they're a dying race and no longer going to be in power. This all ties into Christianity's ideological beliefs in patriarchy as well.
We also know that Elon Musk had a huge factor in Trump's elections, basically buying the presidency. He donated $277 million to $300 million to Trump's campaign. I'm seeing conflicting reports on the exact amount, but regardless that's a shit ton of money.
The Tech Bros. This includes Elon Musk along with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. There were some others as well but let's not be to technical, time is fleeting. We know these rich bastards donated money towards Trump's campaign.
Russian propaganda. I'm going to dive further into this in another article so be sure to sign up for my newsletter. In short though, Russian propaganda works in these main ways: controlling the narrative, disinformation and misinformation, weaponizing social media, playing the victim, exploiting existing divisions, creating a false moral equivalence, rewriting history, and targeting different audiences.
There is a theory out there that there may have been some election interference due to Trump winning all of the swing states and that's highly unusual. This is being pursued in court by the Election Truth Alliance. Here's a link to their most recent update. PBS actually had an article out in 2024 discussing something fishy going on as well.
Culture influences politics. Read more about that here. There's been several culture shifts that have helped Trump get elected. The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. Inherently, I don't think their views are to far fetched to look at making us healthier, but the concern is that they are completely denying the science that is already out there. Trad Wives online who are "traditional homemakers" pushing their agenda to return Moms back home and other influence through right wing online media.
Fox News. We can see where Fox news leans through a media bias chart. Here are some facts about Fox News and there's even a book called Network Propaganda that has a chapter on how "Fox News actively used its position at the core of the right-wing media ecosystem to support the president in the central political controversy of his presidency." Here is also a great article talking about Fox news and how it has shifted the Republican party through lies.
Mind control. Steven Hassan a mental-health professional and cult expert can teach us more about this. Steven Hassan was actually part of the Moonie's cult and has now dedicated his life to helping those escape cults. He wrote a book called The Cult of Trump which I'm currently reading, so I'll probably write another article discussing this more. He also has an instagram page, YouTube Channel, and a podcast.
This was the long game for the Republican party. I don't have direct sources on that yet, but once I find it I'll come back and add it.
Elon Musk was selected as a "special government official" to Donald Trump and to the head of DOGE. Although there's been some legal battles surrounding this and they keep deflecting on who the head of DOGE is and even blaming someone named Amy Gleason.
We also know that Elon Musk is a contractor for the federal government through his company's SpaceX and Tesla accounting for at least $15.4 billion dollars. Government spending actually has to be transparent to the public, they have it all online for us to see already. Here's one SpaceX contract. There may be more but I don't have time to find them, along with a Tesla one either. It's all there if you want to dig further.
Other concerns about Elon Musk is that he is trying to buy the Wisconsin Supreme Court. He also did a Nazi Salute.
We know that Trump selected Elon Musk to be head of DOGE to look for "waste, fraud, and abuse". It's in my opinion that they created DOGE to be able to go around our governmental process of closing agencies through congress. Right around that time DOGE cancelled USAID, NIH, National Parks, along with some other agencies as well. It's hard to remember exactly. Many of these are playing out in court because we know in the federal government, an agency is typically abolished through an act of Congress, which can consolidate, discontinue, or redistribute the agency's functions. We also know that these civil servants have been fired for "poor performance". Why aren't they being stopped from doing something that is supposed to be done through Congress? Well, the Republican Congress members are either in on it, being blackmailed, being paid, or they're extremely afraid of Trump and what he may do to them if they go against him. We will probably not know for sure until all this madness is over, or we may never know. We also know that Republicans have the majority in the House and in the Senate.
Let's go back to the "waste, fraud, and abuse" thing. Well where are the receipts? There have been multiple independent reports actually discussing that the DOGE team has falsified the information that they have listed on their government website. Here's a link to one independent tracker and here and here. PBS has also reported on the misleading claims. You can actually watch their committee meetings on YouTube. I've watched a couple over a month ago and at that time Elon Musk wasn't even showing up at committee hearings. It's believed that some of these earlier firings in the government were because civil servants were investigating Elon Musk's businesses. At this point the firings of agencies is now handed over to the head of the agencies. The current agency in the process of being dismantled is Social Security, which the head of was selected by Donald Trump. They're trying to dismantle it through the inside out by closing buildings, firing people, and making it harder for seniors to reach them by phone. PBS has reported on this.
So DOGE is supposed to be a government agency and according to The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) law this gives the public the right to access records from federal government agencies. Enacted in 1966, FOIA promotes transparency and accountability by allowing individuals, journalists, and organizations to request government documents and information, with some exceptions. Fill out this paperwork and get it sent into DOGE for transparency!
The short answer, Tax Cuts for the 1%, but let's discuss why we suspect that. In 2017, Donald Trump enacted the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The economic impact of this tax cut was variable. There was an initial increase in GDP over the first two years, but that did slow down. The problem with extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is that it's going to be the biggest tax cut for the 1% ever.
We also know that with their proposed tax cut plan the national debt will be going up by $6 Trillion over the next 10 years, if their budget is passed. Because of the amount of tax cut they want to give, the budget has to be cut elsewhere (I explain a little more further down in a video). One particular area that is gaining a lot of concern is the $880 billion cut from the Energy and Commerce Committee because this committee oversees the Health and Human Services (HHS). The HHS is our Medicare and Medicaid. All other areas are seeing an impact for these tax cuts and many of which you've heard about on the news I'm sure, like the VA. Here's an article discussing in depth the proposed tax plan.
We have been fed a lie, and the trickle down effect does not work! Many people believe a tax cut will be good for us except we never see the money come back to us from these massive corporations who are making record breaking profits. Now this tax cut we are also being left without many of our social nets.
Now if they made the tax cut where the bottom half gets a tax break and the 1% were taxed appropriately that would definitely benefit us, but given the record of Trump I don't believe that would happen.
He started Trump 2.0 with "shock and awe" "a military strategy, also known as "rapid dominance," that aims to achieve overwhelming victory by using a massive show of force to paralyze the enemy's perception of the battlefield and destroy their will to fight".
He has psychological issues of mental instability, extreme hedonism, grandiose omnipotence, and narcissistic tendencies. This comes from the book The Cult of Trump. There's also a mental health professional by the name of Brandy X. Lee who wrote a book called The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump. This is on my list of books to read. This book is a compilation of 27 psychiatrists discussing his mental health issues. She also has a Substack where you can follow her.
He uses Russian Propaganda by constantly lying and posting on Truth Social (a social media platform he created) to control the narrative to his base. You don't have to sign up to Truth Social to see his post, you can actually go to this website to see what he posts. It's just a website that directly links what he posts.
Is he a Russian Spy? The Mueller Report talked about this, but I haven't read it, it's on my TBR list. Craig Unger, an American journalist is absolutely convinced he is and has written books about it before. He talks about it here in this interview. Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, probably a duck? I'll let you be the judge of that.
He has aligned with Russia. He has blamed Ukraine for the invasion of its own country by Russia. This has concerned Europe and now they have created a new European Union. Although we are still in NATO there is concern that we may not protect Europe if Russia were to attack because of our new fondness to Russia.
He's pissing on the Constitution. All of Trump's illegal actions can be found here on a litigation tracker.
Chris Murphy presented on the Senate floor showing the current corruption going on within the Trump administration. It's very detailed and I suggest you watch it!
To be entirely honest I hadn't heard of Project 2025 before heavily researching what's going on at the beginning of February. In short it's a 900 page document outlining extreme right authoritarian policies for America. Here's a website talking more about it and also here.
Trump ran his campaign saying he had no idea about Project 2025. If you search the document you can find Trump's name 312 times. There's no way he doesn't know about Project 2025. The policies that he is enacting are directly from Project 2025. An independent website is tracking the progress of these, but many are caught up in courts so I'm not entirely sure how accurate it is at this time, but it's there for you to investigate if you would like.
So who's behind Project 2025? Reports say the Heritage Foundation which is a conservative think tank. However, it's believed that a far right Catholic Cult called Opus Dei is actually behind the Heritage Foundation. There is actually a book called Opus by Gareth Gore talking all about this cult. I'm in the middle of reading this book right now. I have found a lady on social media talking about this very thing. She started a podcast and I recommend you check it out. She breaks everything down and is also interviewing guests. She talks about who she suspects are Opus Dei plants within our government. Gareth Gore was recently interviewed on the LegalAF YouTube Channel. PBS NewsHour also did a segment on Project 2025.
Project 2025 could be a whole article on its own, but this is just a general overview and I am personally just learning about all of this as well. However, I do know that they are interested in having a monarchy or an autocracy government. The White House has alluded to this by posting a picture of Donald Trump as king on their social media page.
This is a whole other rabbit hole I need to explore yet. Curtis Yarvin is a far-right tech bro that does not believe in democracy and wants a more autocratic government. There's a lot to unpack and explore within this belief system behind these tech bros, but in short they are also seeking for governmental power and money.
He keeps coming out with insane executive orders that we know aren't laws. "In essence, an executive order is a presidential statement directing how administration officials and agencies are to effectuate a duly passed federal law." Why isn't anyone saying, "Whoa! Hold up! That's unconstitutional?" Well we know that Republicans have the majority in the House and in the Senate. The Republicans rule the roost right now. To impeach a President the House has to file articles of impeachment and vote on it through a simple majority, then it gets moved to the Senate. This is a lesson for another day.
We do know the courts are working as fast and as diligently as they can to stop him, but the federal courts and SCOTUS are holding on by a thread. He is putting a ton of pressure on the courts and bullying them to try to get them to break.
As of this post Donald Trump is being investigated on whether or not he has followed federal court orders due to sending alleged immigrants to an El Salvador concentration camp. The other concern is whether or not Donald Trump decides to actually follow court orders.
Trump was given Presidential Immunity. PBS discusses that here and here. According to the courts, “Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority”.
The key take away.
There are congressional elections in Florida coming up on April 1st. Democrat Gay Valimont is running in Congressional District 1 and Josh Weil in Congressional District 6. If they when these seats they could sway the power in the house.
There will be an upcoming special election in Texas at some point due to the death of Democratic Representative Sylvester Turner.
Protests in person peacefully.
There's a nationwide protests on 4/5/25 put on by a grassroots organization called 50501 Movement. Check for other local protests in your area.
Fighting with our dollars through economic resistance
Boycott big corporations: Target, Amazon, Walmart, etc. (Many are boycotting Tesla not only here in the USA but all across the world).
Goods Unite Us App to be more informed with where you spend your dollar
People's Union USA are having rolling and strategic economic boycotts
Support small local businesses
Educate others about what's actually going on
Build community and get involved locally so you don't feel so alone
Donate money to organizations you feel are doing good work or to really important special elections coming up
ACLU
Alright, this is the nitty gritty, but there is still SO MUCH more to talk about: DEI, education, abortion, LGBTQ rights, racism, immigration, our national parks. The list goes on! Please subscribe!