Trump never made a case for war and still hasn’t defined what victory is. Without having Congress declare war, Trump, in partnership with the government of Israel, just took out a head of state and a number of other Iranian leaders. Perhaps they thought that the killing of Khamenei would force the Iranian government to collapse and the people of Iran would rise up and create a new Iranian government. Well, Khamenei was 86-years-old at the time. And I am sure the Iranians knew that Khamenei would not live forever. Perhaps he was already a figurehead and those around him had already been making plans and were running the government.

After all, Trump will be turning 80-years-old on June 14^th. And the way he has been acting, having difficulty staying on point and making statements about the Iran war that go this way one day and that way the next. But Trump’s pronouncements come and go, but the U.S. war effort continues to be steady. I feel that Trump is also a figurehead and that it is his aides like Stephen Miller who are really calling the shots.

And then there is immigration. Recent polls show that 40 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s immigration policies. And when the polls focus on deportation, fully 67 percent of Americans don’t approve of Trump’s deportation policies. That number edged upwards with the killing of two protesters by ICE agents in Minneapolis. Trump fired his man implementing the ICE raids in Minneapolis and his replacement has quietly retreated from Trump’s deportation push. That doesn’t mean Trump doesn’t intend to pursue aggressive deportation policies. I think he is just laying low until after the mid-term elections in November.

And then there is the economy. The economy was one of Trump’s strong points with voters. During the 2024 election, Trump continuously bashed Joe Biden and the Democrats on the economy. But what has Trump done? With his One Big Beautiful Bill, Trump has created even larger federal deficits with its tax cuts for people with higher incomes that are higher than those for muddle class people. Trump has been growing the federal deficit.

But what does he care? I think Trump hasn’t paid federal income taxes for a couple of decades. And so Trump doesn’t have any skin in the game. He can spend away and it doesn’t impact him personally. Running up the debt is probably a back door approach to shrinking the federal government so that it is small enough one day, as a Republican operative put it, so that it could be flushed down the toilet.

With the way that Trump has clogged the courts as he does what he wants with the federal government regardless of the Constitution and then the state and federal courts have to consider the facts and rein Trump in. How many billions of dollars has Trump’s reckless use of power cost our judicial system and out federal government. Trump doesn’t care. It’s everyone else’s money that he is spending and not a nickle of his own.

And so due to the Iran war that has caused the cost of a gallon of gas to rise by $1 or more and Trump’s erratic tariff policies, inflation has been rising. Our cost of living has been increasing. My tax bill has gone up, not to speak of my mortgage and condo fees and even storage locker fees. The price of food has gone up dramatically. Due Value Meals even exist anymore?

While it was once his political strong point, polls indicate that only 31 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the economy.

And then there are the issues that don’t appear on the radar like Trump’s championing of fossil fuels and decimating EPA regulations and his firing of a significant number of employees of the U.S. Forestry Department and other anti-climate change measures. These are measures that will make the opposition very active in the coming mid-term elections.

From all of the polling that I have seen in the last few months, there aren’t any Trump policies that have a majority of Americans supporting them. Not a one that I have seen.

Although Trump believes that he can do no wrong and that every idea he has and policy implemented are brilliant, the rest of us are left scratching our heads.

And so Republicans are retreating from Trump. It’s not his policies that are going to be at the center of Republican strategies to keep the meager Republican majorities in the House and Senate. It appears that Trump is going to become “invisible’ and the major Republican message is that things would be worse under Democrats.

Now let’s see. The last Middle East War was started by George W. Bush, a Republican. The last balanced federal budget — that actually had a surplus to pay off some of the federal deficit — was Barack Obama, a Democrat. The Republicans say that Democrats are soft on crime, but there have been 116 mass shootings in the U.S. so far in 2026. And to be honest, I see more people speeding and running red lights and stop signs than I ever saw before. After all, a lawless president will swput lawlessness among his supporters and others.

If saying things would be worse under Democrats, that’s a pretty weak argument. And remember, it was a U.S. Supreme Court with three members appointed by Trump who granted Trump immunity for any crimes he commits as president.

So we have a president who willfully ignores the law and does what he pleases including enriching his family through policies he enacts. He is a role model for every criminal in the country.

Who’s soft on crime?