Mary Trump Media

The US has now been declared insolvent by the Treasury. Seeing that Donald has destroyed our country's reputation, freedom of speech, safety, and economy, are we really surprised that he bankrupted the US like one of his casinos?

6 hours ago | [YT] | 2,310

Mary Trump Media

According to the New York Times,

The Trump administration said on Thursday that it planned to remove sanctions on Iranian oil, an unorthodox move intended to lower surging crew prices, which have hurt US consumers and helped Iran profit. The strategy would be a sharp reversal from years of maximum pressure sanctions aimed to cripple Iran’s economy.

Well, that seems like a rather anodyne way to describe what I personally find mind-blowing.

David Kurtz, over at Talking Points Memo, had a more accurate take:

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything as tortured, corrupt, and upside down as Donald’s attempt to save his own political skin by lifting sanctions on Iran so that it can sell its oil and stabilize energy prices while simultaneously conducting a war against Iran.

Tortured, corrupt, and upside down. There’s another word I’d like to add to that list, but before I get to that, what exactly is Donald doing here?

First of all, he’s showing us very clearly that he had no idea what was going to happen after he launched his illegal, unconstitutional war. He had no idea, even though it should have been patently obvious, that Iran was going to use its best, if not only, strategic advantage—closing the Strait of Hormuz to all traffic except its own—to create economic chaos. He had no idea because, despite the fact that he knows nothing, he thinks he knows everything.


Second, because of his failure to anticipate Iran’s move, oil is now $100 a barrel. It was at $62 per barrel the day before the war started. In a desperate attempt to mitigate the consequences of his recklessness, Donald is lifting sanctions on Iran so that it can sell oil in the hopes that that will bring oil prices down. In other words, Donald is allowing Iran to sell extremely expensive oil which will help it more effectively finance its ability to fight back against the United States.

Tortured, corrupt and upside down—all apply to what Donald is doing. But the other word that is even more applicable here is treason.

In Article III, Section 3 of the United States Constitution, treason is defined very narrowly.

[It] shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.

How else, other than giving our enemy aid and comfort, are we to define Donald’s actions? He is creating the conditions in which it’s possible for the country against whom he started a war to fight more effectively against us, thereby endangering our service members, thousands more of whom are on their way to the Middle East to fight his misguided and corrupt war of choice.

The President of the United States of America is lifting sanctions that were put in place to keep Iran from spreading its influence and developing nuclear weapons while reining in its military capabilities.

Donald Trump is, in the starkest possible terms, making it easier for a country with whom we are at war to kill Americans.

8 hours ago | [YT] | 1,363

Mary Trump Media

It is an incredibly dangerous state of affairs when a country’s leader lies about a war of his choosing for which he has offered no clear rationale and seems to have no idea how to end, but here we are. We’re into week four of the American-Israeli war against Iran. In addition to mounting casualties, sky-rocketing oil prices, and daily displays of callousness from Donald and others in the Trump regime, the FCC threaten the freedom of the press; Donald’s Epstein cover-up expands; and Donald continues to demonstrate his ignorance, his racism, and his cruelty.

Speaking of which, Robert Mueller, former director of the FBI and special counsel tasked with investigating the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, died last night.

As Joyce Vance wrote, “[Mueller] was a giant of a man whose commitment to justice and fairness was staunch.”

In response to Mueller’s death, Donald wrote:

“Good. I’m glad he’s dead.”

As if we needed any more evidence of his pettiness and depravity.

Saying No to the Toddler

Tuesday, 17 March

Our allies finally say no as Donald’s power is challenged, but he continues to escalate his illegal and unconstitutional war. A rare, unified refusal to support him may signals a turning point—only consistent resistance may finally limit his ability to cause further harm.

Forcing the Media to Lie

Wednesday, 18 March

Brendan Carr, the corrupt, sycophantic chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is now threatening to revoke broadcast licenses after Donald criticized media coverage of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, the war of choice he launched without seeking the permission of Congress or the American people.

Normalizing Depravity

Thursday, 19 March

A look at a deeply troubling case in a New Jersey federal courtroom, where federal prosecutors’ plea deal with a self-confessed child pornographer lays bare the staggering dysfunction of Donald’s DOJ under Pam Bondi. Connecting the dots from the botched plea agreement and the Trump regime’s intervention on behalf of accused rapist and sex trafficker Andrew Tate, the question is: Why is Donald Trump so eager to Trump normalize misogyny and the crimes of sexual predators.

Treating Allies Like Enemies

Friday, 20 March

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi visited the White House yesterday to reaffirm the U.S.–Japan alliance. The meeting unfolded exactly as one might expect when one of the leaders involved has no clear grasp of how to manage the crisis he created. That crisis, of course, is Donald’s war of choice in Iran.

This Week’s Daily Wrap-Ups
Monday, March 16

Most of our allies have responded cautiously or outright rejected Donald’s request to send warships to escort merchant vessels through the embattled Strait of Hormuz. American consumers are not responding well to the spike in gas prices. Brendan Carr, chair of the Federal Communications Commission, is threatening to revoke broadcast licences after Donald criticized media coverage of the U.S.–Israel war with Iran. And seven years after raids on his other properties, investigators are only now searching Jeffrey Epstein’s massive 10,000-acre Zorro Ranch in New Mexico.

Tuesday, March 17

Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, has resigned, saying he “cannot in good conscience” support Donald’s war in Iran because Iran posed no imminent threat to the United States. Kent is a notorious anti-semite, so he is blaming Israel. Senate Republicans are pressing ahead with a major election-year push to make it harder for certain Americans to vote by trying to push through the SAVE America Act. And House Oversight Chair James Comer has formally subpoenaed Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify about the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Thursday, March 19

Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi met with Donald at the White House today to reaffirm the U.S.-Japan alliance. Israel attacked the South Pars natural gas field in Iran last night; Donald falsely claimed he knew nothing about Israel’s plans. The Pentagon plans to ask for an additional $200 billion for Donald’s war in Iran. Meanwhile, there have been reports from religious freedom groups that more than 200 troops had filed complaints about superiors saying the war was “part of God’s divine plan.” And The AP reports that the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, central to coordinating U.S. policy across the Middle East, is operating with fewer resources, less experience, and key leadership gaps.

Friday, March 20

Brent crude briefly topping $119 a barrel, up more than 60% since the war began, while European natural gas prices have roughly doubled. The S&P 500 dropped nearly 1% and is now on track for its fourth straight losing week and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped over 2,200 points (6.6%) in the last month. To counter the economic fallout resulting from his reckless war, Donald is considering lifting sanctions on some Iranian oil. A nineteen-year-old died in ICE custody, one of at least 11 such deaths reported this year. And Donald’s characterization of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is being increasingly called into question.

Independent media is more important than ever. My goal at The Good in Us is to stay above the fray, connect the dots, and bring you clear-eyed analyses and assessments that help you negotiate these chaotic times. It is free to subscribe, and adding your voice to this amazing community is a great way to help us reach more people. If you are able, a paid subscription is a phenomenal way to make sure I can keep expanding Mary Trump Media and speaking truth to power. I will never pull punches, and I will never be beholden to anything but the truth.

Thank you for everything you do.

1 day ago | [YT] | 900

Mary Trump Media

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi visited the White House yesterday to reaffirm the U.S.–Japan alliance. The meeting unfolded exactly as one might expect when one of the leaders involved has no clear grasp of how to manage the crisis he created. That crisis, of course, is Donald’s war of choice in Iran.

Takaichi, Japan’s first female prime minister, is a hard line conservative and she arrived in Washington D.C. with a gesture of goodwill—250 cherry trees to mark America’s upcoming 250th anniversary. She also found herself navigating an Oval Office meeting dominated by the fallout of Donald’s rapidly escalating conflict. What should have been a ceremonial reaffirmation of diplomatic ties became, for Takaichi, an exercise in damage control.

There were visible signs of discomfort throughout the meeting, particularly when reporters pressed the prime minister about Japan’s refusal to help secure the Strait of Hormuz. She reiterated Japan’s opposition to Iran’s nuclear program and appealed directly to Donald’s ego, telling him,

I firmly believe it is only you, Donald, who can achieve peace across the world.

Yes, the man waging an illegal, unconstitutional war of choice that has already killed more than 2,300 people across the region including hundreds of children, and at least 13 U.S. service members is going to bring about global peace. Whether Takaichi was being sincere or strategic is unclear but given that roughly 82 percent of the Japanese public opposes the war, the latter seems far more likely.

Donald, for his part, continued to describe the war not as a conflict or an incursion, but as an excursion, as if the mobilization of our military were little more than a casual outing.

This is how he framed it:

Everything was going great. The economy was great. Oil prices were very low. Gasoline was dropping to — I mean, we had a $1.99, $1.85. . . . And I saw what was happening in Iran and I said, ‘I hate to make this excursion, but we’re going to have to do it.”’ And I actually thought the numbers would be worse. [B]ut we’re doing this excursion and when it’s completed, we’re going to have a much safer world. And the Prime Minister agrees with me on this. She considers it to be terrible what Iran did. I think every country does, just about every country does. Iran is a serious threat to the world, to the Middle East and to the world. And everybody agrees with me. I think virtually every country agrees with me on that. I wanted to put out that fire. And I said, ‘You don’t do that, oil prices will go up, the economy will go down a little bit.’ I thought it would be worse, much worse actually. It’s not bad, and it’s going to be over with pretty soon.”

None of that is true. The last time gasoline prices in the United States were below $2 a gallon was in early 2020 when the COVID pandemic brought the world to a halt and demand for gas collapsed. The last time before then that prices dropped below $2 a gallon was in early 2016, during the Obama administration.

Donald’s broader claims are also lies. He did not anticipate Iran’s response—specifically it’s immediate move to close the Strait of Hormuz; there was no meaningful coordination with any of our allies other than Israel; and there is no evidence “everybody agrees” with him. In fact, our allies have little incentive to support a war initiated by an American president who has spent years publicly belittling them and threatening NATO.

Meanwhile, the conflict continues to spin further out of control. Israel struck Iran’s South Pars natural gas field, and Tehran retaliated across the region, targeting energy infrastructure, including major facilities in Qatar. Donald initially claimed he had no knowledge of the Israeli strike and later insisted he had advised against it.

Here is how he described the exchange between him and Netanyahu:

I told him don’t do that. And he will not do that. We did not discuss. We are independent. We get along great. It is coordinated, but on occasion he will do something and if I do not like it and, so we are not doing that anymore.

Let me paraphrase: “I told Netanyahu not to do it. He didn’t do the thing that he actually has done and of which I am denying any knowledge of. We’re independent, but we coordinate on everything except those things on which we do not coordinate.” These glaring logical inconsistencies leave us with two possibilities: either Donald is lying about this, or the commander-in-chief of the United States military was clueless about a strike our only ally in this war carried out. Those are both bad options.

Donald then turned to berating NATO:

We are defending the Strait for everybody else. And then, in the case of NATO, they do not want to help us defend the Strait. And they are the ones that need it, but now they are getting much nicer because they are seeing my attitude. They are getting much nicer, but as far as I am concerned it is too late. UK wants to send aircraft carriers now, and I said, ‘I want the aircraft carriers before the war. I do not want them after the war’s won.’

It’s worth pointing out that our NATO allies didn’t ask for this war and bear no responsibility for the Strait’s being closed. And Donald continues to claim that we’ve won the war, while complaining that our allies aren’t helping us fight the war. We won it, but now we haven’t won it. We were winning. Now we’re not. We don’t need NATO’s help anymore, except of course, we desperately do. And if they don’t give us the help we do not need, unless we do need it, Donald will continue to insult and threaten them.

A Japanese reporter asked Donald directly why the United States hadn’t notified its allies before launching strikes in Iran. I think that’s a simple and entirely reasonable question under the circumstances, and here’s Donald’s response:

One thing, you do not want to signal too much when we go in. We went in very hard and we did not tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan, okay? Why did not you tell me about Pearl Harbor, okay? Right, he is asking me, “Do you believe in surprise?”

Yes, that flaccid little man wants us to believe that because he went in so hard, we didn’t need to tell our allies. And he’s essentially saying we can’t trust our allies any more than we can trust our enemies. Obviously, Japan was our enemy when they attacked Pearl Harbor. It would’ve been strategically inadvisable for them to alert the United States in advance of the attack. As for why they didn’t tell Donald—he hadn’t even been born yet.

That is the level of unseriousness and incompetence of the man who got us into this war and who controls the most powerful military in the world, including our vast nuclear arsenal.

This is also the same person who once promised us this:

We’re going to win so much. You may even get tired of winning, and you’ll say, “Please, please, it’s too much winning. We can’t take it anymore, Donald. It’s too much.” And I’ll say, “No, it isn’t. We have to keep winning. We have to win more.”

Unlike Donald, I’ve actually had experience with winning and, as someone who has won things, I understand how it works and it is not something I’ve ever gotten tired of.

I am, on the other hand, sick to death of losing—lives, opportunities, security, institutional knowledge, the country’s reputation—because the most incompetent, reckless, and dangerous loser ever to disgrace this planet has unchecked power.

2 days ago | [YT] | 1,431

Mary Trump Media

ICE agents have been deployed into US airports. Is this the most concerned you have been about our government in your lifetime?

2 days ago | [YT] | 4,023

Mary Trump Media

There is a case unfolding in a New Jersey federal courtroom that tells us something important about who this regime is protecting, leaving us to wonder why.

Judge Zahid Quraishi recently presided over what should have been a routine sentencing hearing for Francisco Villafane, a man who pled guilty to possession of child pornography. But given the venue, a federal court in New Jersey, this was anything but routine.

According to a report in The New York Times, the relatively inexperienced line prosecutor on the case, Daniel Rosenblum, showed up accompanied by a more senior colleague, Mark Coyne. Coyne, however, had not filed the appropriate paperwork and had no right to appear before the court. Judge Quraishi made it clear that while Coyne could sit there and pass notes to his colleague, he could not address the Court.

Judge Quraishi had some pointed questions, which he directed at Rosenblum. He wanted to know, for example, why the prosecution had moved forward with a plea agreement before it had all the evidence in hand, and why the defendant was given a favorable deal that allowed him to serve significantly less time than sentencing guidelines required. The judge asked:

How did the screw up happen? Was it your office, the U.S. attorney’s office, the FBI, or both? How did you execute a plea agreement without knowing all the evidence?

Despite the judge’s instruction, Coyne kept interjecting because Rosenblum was struggling to answer basic questions about who is running the New Jersey U.S. attorney’s office, which is in a state of profound dysfunction.

Here’s the background. Alina Habba, Donald’s longtime personal attorney, was appointed U.S. interim attorney, an appointment Judge Matthew Brann found to be unlawful. Attorney General Pam Bondi then installed a three-person leadership team consisting of Philip Lamparello, Jordan Fox, and Ari Fontecchio. Last week, Judge Brann ruled all those appointments to be unlawful as well.

Brann warned that Donald’s reliance on illegal maneuvering to install New Jersey’s top prosecutors could mean that scores of dangerous criminals might have their cases dismissed or their convictions overturned.

Habba, who is now a senior adviser to Attorney General Pam Bondi, has been spotted in the New Jersey office in recent weeks. No one seems to know exactly why. When Rosenblum was asked whether Habba still had some role in operating the office, he said he had no personal knowledge either way. For the record, Judge Quraishi was an assistant U.S. attorney for the district of New Jersey for five years and knows the office well and he has reasons to be suspicious of the leadership structure currently in place.

He ordered all three members of the so-called triumvirate to appear in his courtroom next month and testify under oath about who is actually in charge. Before the hearing ended, Judge Quraishi said this to Rosenblum:

You have lost the confidence and the trust of this court. You have lost the confidence and the trust of the New Jersey legal community, and you are losing the trust and confidence of the public.

This reminds me of something U.S. District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai of Oregon said about the attempts of Donald’s DOJ to seize state voter rolls:

The presumption of regularity that has been previously extended to [the government] that it could be taken at its word—with little doubt about its intentions and stated purposes—no longer holds.

This is how far we have fallen and it is precisely what many people knew would happen as the Trump regime fired prosecutors and civil servants with decades of expertise and replaced them with incompetent loyalists—or failed to replace them at all.

The way the DOJ is handling the case in New Jersey is emblematic of its unprofessionalism and dysfunction, and it also points to another deeply disturbing pattern. Typically, prosecutors take charges of child pornography seriously. The instinct should be to throw the book at offenders, not grant them sweetheart deals—especially when prosecutors failed to look at all of the available evidence, which is exactly what happened with the Villafane case.

It’s worth asking why Pam Bondi thinks a man who is guilty of child pornography deserves a sentence significant more lenient than sentencing guidelines call for.

This bizarrely lax attitude towards sex crimes and those who commit them is endemic to the Trump regime and the DOJ as it is currently constituted, as exemplified most obviously by the extreme reluctance to release the Epstein files or investigate, charge, and try the guilty.

But then there’s Donald’s long history of associating with sexual abusers of women. Andrew Tate, one of the most openly and aggressively misogynistic figures in public life with a massive and influential social media following, is facing charges of rape and sex trafficking in both Romania and Great Britain. So is his brother, Tristan. Both were ordered to remain in Romania while the case against them was being built, but in the meantime, they forged alliances with members of the Trump family, including Donny and Barron.

After Donald’s second inauguration, according to Megan Twohey:

[A]n extraordinary order came down from the highest levels of the Romanian government instructing prosecutors to reach a compromise with the brothers.

And then those travel bans were lifted, which was something that the prosecutors did not want to do. . . . Once [Donald] was reelected, there were supporters of the Tates here in the United States who ascended into the administration, including a special diplomatic envoy named Richard Grenell, who . . . had at least two conversations with Romanian officials about the Tates’ case.

And then within days of that second conversation, the order came down in Romania ordering the compromise that led to the lifting of the travel bans. And we have been told that the Romanian prime minister believed that that would appease the Trump administration.

Very shortly after the ban was lifted, the Tates were flown by private jet to Florida.

The Trump regime is engaged in a systematic effort to normalize misogyny and the crimes of rape and sex trafficking and child pornography while protecting the men who commit those crimes.

So, we need to keep asking the questions: Why is Donald’s DOJ going easy on child pornographers? Why is it covering for men credibly accused of raping and trafficking girls and young women? Why is a man who is himself an adjudicated rapist and who has been credibly accused of sexual harassment and assault by almost two dozen women, associated with so many of these men? These are not rhetorical questions. We demand answers. In the meantime, the actions and the silence of the complicit speak for themselves.

5 days ago | [YT] | 5,356

Mary Trump Media

Brendan Carr, the corrupt, sycophantic chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is now threatening to revoke broadcast licenses after Donald criticized media coverage of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, the war of choice he launched without seeking the permission of Congress or the American people.

What was Donald’s issue with the coverage? It’s accurate, so Carr is suggesting that television and radio stations could lose their licenses if they do not change their reporting to be more favorable to Donald--which is to say he is going to punish television and radio stations unless they start to lie. In an interview with increasingly Trump-regime-friendly CBS News, Carr claimed that broadcast licenses are not guaranteed rights and warned that stations could lose them if they failed to serve the public interest by, in his words, “telling the truth.”

In other words, Carr wants reporters and news organizations to lie to the American people about the very serious topic of war all in service to make Donald look good and his decisions seem rational.

Committing journalism, the very thing broadcasters are licensed to do, is being treated by the FCC as a potential violation if the reporting continues to displease Donald. Carr went even further, accusing some broadcasters of spreading “fake news,” which, as we all know, is Donald’s slight whenever factual reporting reflects badly on him.

Over the weekend, Carr posted a message on Twitter that made his intentions very clear:

Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions - also known as the fake news - have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up.

The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.

And frankly, changing course is in their own business interests since trust in legacy media has now fallen to an all-time low of just 9% and are ratings disasters.

The American people have subsidized broadcasters to the tune of billions of dollars by providing free access to the nation’s airwaves.

It is very important to bring trust back into media, which has earned itself the label of fake news.

When a political candidate is able to win a landslide election victory after in the face of [sic] hoaxes and distortions, there is something very wrong. It means the public has lost faith and confidence in the media. And we can’t allow that to happen.

Time for change!

The FCC regulates the public airwaves; oversees radio, television, and satellite communications; and issues licenses to individual broadcast stations, not entire networks. That creates some limits on how much damage someone in Carr’s position can do.

Still, we need to pay attention when the Chair of the FCC is amplifying the propaganda being churned out by his boss. And his threats matter because they’re clearly meant to have a chilling effect on the media’s ability to report the news honestly and accurately. When the federal government openly suggests that stations could lose their licenses for reporting news it does not like, that crosses a red line.

In response to Carr’s post, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) pointed out that it’s illegal for the government to censor speech simply because it dislikes the media’s coverage of Donald’s war with Iran. She wrote:

The First Amendment does not allow the government to punish journalists for doing their jobs.

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) went further:

This is the federal government telling news stations to provide favorable coverage of the war or their licenses will be pulled. A truly extraordinary moment. We are not on the verge of a totalitarian takeover. We are in the middle of it.

Act like it.

Senator Murphy is exactly right. This is not a hypothetical danger. We are not standing at the edge of authoritarianism wondering if it might arrive one day. We are in the middle of it.

The attempt to intimidate journalists, put pressure on media institutions, and weaponize regulatory agencies against critics are classic tactics used by authoritarian regimes, of which the Trump regime is one.

Donald launches the attacks, crafts the disinformation, and spreads the propaganda and then his underlings do his bidding. His political allies and loyalists are in positions of power throughout the federal government. Brendan Carr did not appoint himself. Donald nominated him to be a commissioner of the FCC in 2017 and Pres. Joe Biden nominated him again in 2023. He’s been confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate three times. So, there’s a lot of blame to go around. It’s Donald, however, who made Carr Chair of the FCC in January of 2025 after Carr proved his MAGA bona fides after writing the FCC chapter of the fascist manifesto, Project 2025.

This moment has exposed the weaknesses of institutions like the FCC that, during the Trump regime, are increasingly acting in contravention to their stated missions and no longer push back against the encroachments of an out-of-control executive. Corporate media companies have bent the knee repeatedly, often out of fear of retaliation or a desire to avoid conflict. White-shoe law firms have too often chosen capitulation over resistance. Many institutions of higher learning have also given in at the first opportunity.

Each of these decisions may seem small in isolation. Each may have been justified as pragmatic or even necessary. But when powerful institutions decide it is safer to cooperate with a corrupt fascist regime than to resist, they make it easier for authoritarian actors to consolidate power and endanger the rest of us.

The federal government possesses enormous regulatory authority and controls investigative agencies and enforcement mechanisms that can be used to create immense pressure on individuals and organizations. When that power is used responsibly, it serves the public good. When it is wielded to intimidate critics and silence the press, it becomes a tool for dismantling the very democracy it was designed to protect.

The less transparency there is from the White House, the greater the information vacuum. And that brings me to something that surfaced this weekend that illustrates the perils of the moment we’re living through. Ali Larijani, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, posted the following just days before being killed by the Israelis:

I’ve heard that the remaining members of Epstein’s network have devised a conspiracy to create an incident similar to 9/11 and blame Iran for it. Iran fundamentally opposes such terrorist schemes and has no war with the American people.

Should we trust anyone in the Iranian government? No, of course not. But does the scheme Larjani lays out sound like something the Trump regime might plausibly try given its track record?

This is what happens when people cannot trust their own government. And as it becomes harder for journalists to report the news without fear or favor, an information vacuum is created that gets filled by rumor, disinformation, and conspiracy theories, which then multiply and gain traction.

When the head of the FCC threatens broadcasters for covering a war honestly, that is not a routine matter of political or policy differences; it’s a warning to us that the Trump regime is willing to test how far it can go to weaken the Fourth Estate. When those in power try to silence journalists, it is never to strengthen democracy. The goal, rather, is to create conditions in which they can operate without scrutiny and with impunity. The moment we begin treating these threats as politics as usual, is the moment the foundations of a democratic society begin to crack. Once those cracks begin to widen, repairing them becomes exponentially more difficult.

Democratic institutions do not defend themselves. That requires people inside of the government, in the media, and across civil society to recognize what is happening and refuse to normalize it. Moments like this reveal whether our institutions are still capable of defending democracy, or if we are fast approaching the point at which we are about to lose something essential if we refuse to do something about it.

6 days ago | [YT] | 1,809

Mary Trump Media

As you may have heard, despite declaring the war over, Donald has been desperately seeking help from U.S. allies to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. I have bad news for him. His delusions aside, every single country he has asked so far has said no. What we’re now seeing play out on the world stage is something long overdue: a toddler finally being told no.

Our allies’ united refusal is not the only thing rattling Donald right now. I think the latest phase of his unraveling began earlier this year when his corrupt, illegitimate supermajority of the Supreme Court that has bent over backwards to enable him nearly every step of the way, finally drew a line when it declared his tariffs were unconstitutional and must be undone. How did Donald respond?

He attacked the justices who had, up to that point, given him almost everything he could hope for, including near-total presidential immunity. These justices have bent the law and broken the Constitution in ways that continue to protect him while expanding his power. The one time they told him something he did not want to hear, he lashed out; he insulted them; he called them traitors. And then he refused to comply with their decision anyway.

That’s right, instead of following the court’s ruling, he doubled down and imposed another 15% tariff across the board.

After all, who’s going to stop him? Donald continues to do what he’s always done: push the envelope to see what he can get away with. If nobody stops him (which they almost always never do), he pushes further and gets away with more. On those rare occasions when he’s thwarted, he doesn’t course correct like a mature human being; he doesn’t come up with a different strategy. He doubles down.

When the person engaging in this kind of behavior has the power to bring the world to the brink of economic chaos and a war nobody but him wants, we should all be on our guard. But it’s a long-established pattern: Most frequently, the person who stands up to him—after being threatened or blackmailed—eventually backs down. This gives him more room, more power, more oxygen. He becomes emboldened to do worse things, to take bigger risks, to inflict more pain, to acquire more wealth and more power. Rarely has anybody stood up and said no in a way that sticks.

But that may finally be shifting.

Donald has dragged America into a war of his choosing without permission of the U.S. government or the support of the American people. Nobody, with the exception of Donald and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wanted this. It is a war that nobody, including Donald, can justify. And perhaps most telling of all, it is a war that nobody, including Donald, knows how to end.

For once, our allies are not falling in line behind him. Instead of humoring him, they’re standing up against him. They are finally, at long last, saying that very simple and powerful word: no. They are saying, “We do not want this. We did not ask for this. You did not consult us before starting this, and therefore we owe you nothing.”

And most importantly, they’re saying: “We will not risk our blood and treasure to help you wage an illegal and unconstitutional war that endangers us all.”

They will not participate in Donald’s war crimes; nor will they help him clean up the political disasters he has created for himself, both at home and abroad. Make no mistake, this situation is already costing him politically. His reckless and ill-considered actions have helped drive massive spikes in oil prices, and the kind of economic shock that reverberates quickly across the globe.

Our allies are beginning to understand something that people inside the U.S. government often pretend not to understand: weakening Donald politically is actually good for the United States, and it is good for the rest of the world.

I suspect that many of our allies are quietly relieved to see Donald’s position weakening, because a diminished Trump regime means a more secure international coalition, fewer reckless decisions, fewer unilateral acts of aggression, and fewer moments during which the entire world has to hold its breath hoping that American leadership doesn’t plunge all of us further into chaos.

In this context, it’s particularly revealing who Donald has not asked for help—that embarrassing gaggle of failing democracies and autocracies that make up his so-called Board of Peace, countries like Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, and Hungary. Donald created that group as a way to convince people, erroneously, that he has global support when, in reality, he does not. The “Board of Peace” is also a very effective mechanism through which to steal more money from the American people. On February 26, Donald pledged $10 billion American dollars, funds over which he, as permanent chair, has discretion.

Donald, instead, has turned to China to help him out of the geopolitical mess he created. This serves to empower China further (it’s important to keep in mind that this entire fiasco benefits China and Russia—two of our greatest adversaries—at least until Donald got back into the Oval Office in 2025. And it benefits them at the expense of American influence and security. And yet even China said, “No.”

Everyone is saying no to him. These refusals, though, will only matter if it is unwavering.

Over the past few days, we’ve seen signs that Donald is losing control to a degree that we may not have seen before. His behavior toward reporters has become even more volatile and inappropriate. Journalists asking basic, legitimate questions about the war he started, questions any president should be prepared to answer, are being met with insults and temper tantrums.

When a female reporter asked a straightforward question:

Can you explain why are you sending 5,000 additional Marines and sailors?

Donald shushed her and said,

You’re a very obnoxious person.

He then turned to a male reporter who, without missing a beat, asked another question without any concern for how his colleague had been treated (a conversation for another time).

This is how Donald has always operated, but there’s an important difference between throwing temper tantrums during business negotiations, when you have all of the power and leverage, and doing it while managing multiple international crises, most of your own making.

Donald likes to claim that he is a master dealmaker—he is not now, nor has he ever been—not even if we entertain that myth for a moment, the reality is that as a businessman, he always negotiated from a position of overwhelming advantage.

When he was at the Trump Organization, thanks to my grandfather, Donald had more money, more lawyers, more resources, and more leverage than the people he was dealing with. Every negotiation was structured in his favor from the very beginning, and by the time a deal was ready to be finalized, all Donald had to do to make sure he got his way was show up at the last minute and, if the other party did not give him everything he wanted, he’d throw a tantrum, and, if necessary, threaten to bury them in lawsuits if they didn’t comply with his wishes.

That’s not how negotiations work. That is how weak people without any moral compass behave when they are handed enormous, unfair advantages.

What we are witnessing now is something Donald has almost certainly never experienced in his life: he is negotiating from a position of increasing weakness, and he has absolutely no idea how to handle it.

For most of his life, Donald has been protected by wealth, by privilege, and by individuals and institutions that were reluctant to hold him accountable. Even when he failed, the consequences were mitigated by those who realized he was still of use to them. Even when he crossed lines, someone eventually stepped in to smooth things over for him.

But we are living in a very different moment, because this is not just about him and his business interests anymore, and we’re not just talking about the Republican Party anymore. We’re talking about the fact that, through his reckless and dangerous actions, Donald has put the entire world at risk without having secured the support of the American people, of Congress, or other world leaders.

In response, our allies are showing us something that has been missing for far too long: resolve.

To our allies around the world, if you care about the future of NATO and Western liberal democracy, if you care about America and the survival of our democracy, which you should, keep doing exactly what you are doing.

Keep saying no.

1 week ago | [YT] | 6,326

Mary Trump Media

If a U.S.‑backed war drives up oil prices, eases pressure on Russian exports, and diverts military focus from Ukraine—what does that reveal about how this conflict is being managed?

1 week ago | [YT] | 3,544

Mary Trump Media

Last November, Donald fulfilled a critical element of Project 2025 by elevating Brandon Carr as chair of the FCC.
And under his rule, Carr, the architect of the FCC section of Project 2025, is eviscerating our media landscape — and our access to the truth.
As chair, he’s investigated Disney, ABC, CBS, NBC News for being mean to his boss — which is to say reporting facts about Donald.
Of course, Fox and other legacy conservative outlets have been left untouched because they’re an asset to the regime.

But friend, their message to journalists couldn’t be clearer: Speak out, and you’ll be placed under federal investigation at best.

Brandon Carr, Donald, and all his sycophants are rushing us headlong into the age of censorship. As the Trump regime increasingly attacks, investigates, and arrests journalists, the need to support independent voices is essential.

Mary Trump Media is committed to fighting this censorship on the frontlines to bring truth to the American people. Amplify our work and support our independent reporting today.

Project 2025 is being implemented like clockwork — and suppressing our dissent by burying the truth is one of their chief tactics.

But friend, we refuse to be intimidated into silence. And that’s a promise.

— Mary Trump Media

1 week ago | [YT] | 3,226