It has become routine for Trump to spend the weekend posting wildly on social media, and this weekend was no exception.
asserted
weekend → become → media
After attacking the press on Saturday morning, at 9:18 he posted a video with foreboding music that sped up as the video played, showing a glowering Trump walking down a hall toward the camera while his voice intoned: “This is the final battle.
asserted
This → attack → camera
With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state.
asserted
we → demolish → state
We will expel the warmongers from our government.
asserted
We → expel → government
We will drive out the globalists, we will cast out the communists, Marxists, and fascists.
asserted
we → drive → communists
We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country.
asserted
that → throw → country
We will rout the fake news media, and we will liberate America from these villains once and for all.”
asserted
we → rout → all
The administration clearly set out to provoke a backlash when it played what appeared to be the same ad later in the day during NFL games, Fox News Sunday, Saturday Night Live, and several college football games with the addition of the words: “Paid for by the U.S. Government.”
asserted
what → set → Government
As Stephen Collinson of CNN noted, Trump often tries to provoke a response to his outrageous behavior in order to feed the narrative that he is under attack from an establishment deep state because he is trying to save the nation.
asserted
he → note → nation
And this did, indeed, provoke a response.
asserted
this → provoke → response
While the White House maintained the ad was a “public service announcement,” Richard Painter, who served as a White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, said using public funds for “government-sponsored propaganda” could be “an impeachable offense.”
uncertain
using → maintain → propaganda
That image worked well enough in his 2016 campaign that he recycled it for the 2024 campaign, when videos nearly identical to the one he posted on Saturday appeared repeatedly.
asserted
he → work → Saturday
But its power now seems to be primarily in its ability to reinforce Trump’s fantasy of himself.
asserted
power → seem → himself
Thirty-six thousand social media users liked a post that read: “Why is there a Donald Trump ad during an NFL game when he’s not running for office and why is the US government paying for a political ad[?]”
asserted
government → like → ad
Trump seemed to be working overtime on boosting his self-image on social media on Saturday, posting a series of videos showing a triumphal movie version of his second term, narrated by MAGA supporters.
asserted
Trump → seem → supporters
One video from2023 showed him attacking Democrats, other videos showed him winning his second term, setting out at top speed to fulfill his campaign promises, hosting the UFC mixed martial arts fight at the White House, and launching Operation Epic Fury against Iran.
asserted
him → show → Iran
Still others intoned heroic literature, including “If” by Rudyard Kipling (that’s the one that starts: “If you can keep your head when all about you/ Are losing theirs and blaming it on you”) with Trump as the hero.
asserted
you/ → intone → hero
While the first video seemed intended to rally his supporters, the rest of the videos, with their litany of broken promises—“expel the warmongers”?—and the praise of supporters who have left or been cast out of the government, felt weirdly like a requiem.
asserted
who → intend → requiem
And the ads created yet another headache for Republican lawmakers hoping to retain control of Congress after the midterm elections.
asserted
ads → create → elections
On Friday the administration announced it is refusing to spend about a billion dollars Congress appropriated for programs that help the American people—a refusal the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) says is illegal—and on Saturday, Trump used taxpayer money for his own vanity ads.
asserted
Trump → announce → ads
That misuse of public money comes on top of the administration announcement last week that it was removing about 760,000 people from Affordable Care Act health coverage rolls, claiming they were fraudulently enrolled in the program and that cutting them and dishonest brokers would save $2.2 billion.
asserted
cutting → come → billion
For the past week, Trump’s collapsing job approval numbers and the increasing chances that the Democrats will prevail in the upcoming midterm elections have dominated the media.
asserted
Democrats → collapse → media
In the New Yorker, Susan Glasser wrote about “The Week Republicans Finally Panicked About Trump.”
asserted
Republicans → write → Trump
She notes that “[n]o modern president has ever gone into a midterm election this unpopular.”
asserted
president → note → election
His approval rating is now twice as low as it was in 2018 when Republicans lost forty-one House seats.
asserted
Republicans → lose → seats
At Strength in Numbers, G. Elliott Morris reported on September 25 that only 24% of American adults say the U.S. is better off under Trump than it had been under Biden.
asserted
it → report → Biden
Fifty-eight percent say it’s worse off, and most of them say it’s much worse.
asserted
it → say → them
Morris notes that in the last month, Trump’s approval rating has fallen most sharply among voters who identified themselves as Republicans.
asserted
who → note → Republicans
Today Morris reported that media coverage of the Republicans’ midterm convention failed to come close to the number of stories about the Iran war, about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and about the Justice Department, the FBI, and the Epstein files.
asserted
coverage → report → Department
On Saturday, Patrick Thomas and Lindsay Wise of the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s tariffs that undermined the sales of agricultural products, his imports of foreign beef, and the rising costs of diesel, gas, and fertilizer have eroded his support in the agricultural areas that used to be the backbone of his support.
asserted
that → report → support
On Sunday, Samuel Benson and Eric Bazail-Eimil of Politico reported that Republicans in battleground states—Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Texas, and even Florida—are on defense as their voters turn against the ICE agents conducting raids in the states.
asserted
voters → report → states
An ICE agent’s shooting of a food delivery driver from Venezuela in Austin, Texas, on September 20 is highlighting the issue, especially since the agent was not wearing a body camera as required.
asserted
agent → highlight → camera
Like the tariffs, the raids are challenging the loyalty of even those who voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2024.
asserted
who → challenge → 2024
Although voters in counties that depend on agriculture supported Trump by almost 78%, on September 24 the Kansas Livestock Association, Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association, and Texas Cattle Feeders Association released a statement warning that ICE activity is endangering their animals and operations, and has a “massive chilling effect” on “the legal, documented, skilled workers that put beef on the table and keep the cattle supply chain moving.”
asserted
chain → depend → table
In what appears to be a dig at the president, they note that their supply chains are already under pressure and call the raids “a costly and unnecessary impact to cattle producers already suffering from unwelcome political interference to both the markets as well as the physical supply chain.”
asserted
chains → appear → markets
Rural areas, which tend to have more people employed in agriculture, fishing, and logging, as well as longer travel distances, are particularly hard hit by the high prices of diesel and gasoline caused by the Iran war.
asserted
people → tend → war
Yesterday, Gregory S. Schneider and Evan Halper of the Washington Post reported that the skyrocketing price of diesel has pushed Republican candidates even in staunchly Republican districts to call for an end to the war in Iran.
asserted
price → report → Iran
In Iowa, Representative Ashley Hinson, who voted four times against forcing Trump to end the Iran war and is now the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, is one of those now complaining about the high cost of gas and diesel.
asserted
who → vote → gas
Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers of Michigan also previously supported the war but now is saying “[t]he war with Iran needs to end and end quickly.”
asserted
war → support → Iran
Republicans hoping to retain control of Congress after the midterms are fighting uphill battles in contested states, and some of their candidates are in the news for all the wrong reasons.
asserted
some → hop → reasons
…and 21 more, not listed.
The Aporia
