Is Trump’s America Crumbling?

Last night at 9:01 p.m., the President of the United States posted one of his most incoherent Truth Social rants to date. In it, he claimed there’s “almost no inflation,” bragged about stopping five wars, praised himself for bringing in trillions through tariffs, and declared the United States is now “the strongest, richest, and most respected” it’s ever been. Then he threw in some weird threats and a shoutout to Leonard Leo and the Koch network before signing it, like always, “President DJT.”

Here is the full post:

“We are taking in TRILLIONS of Dollars in Tariffs and Investment Dollars from foreign lands because of Tariffs. I have stopped 5 of the eight WARS directly because of the threat of Tariffs if they don’t stop fighting or, better yet, if they start. There is almost no Inflation, and the worst in USA History under Sleepy Joe Biden. The Stock Market just hit an ALL-TIME HIGH for the 48th time in 9 months. To Leonard Leo, Koch, and all of the Countries and Slimeballs that have ripped off the United States of America for years through the use of their own Tariffs, we don’t have a Court System that’s going to let you destroy our Country any longer. This is the richest, strongest, and most respected the USA has ever been. November 5th, and Tariffs, are the reasons why. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT”

If that was your only window into America, you might think we were living in some golden age, with a clearly unstable leader, but somehow still thriving. Of course, anyone actually living here, working, struggling, raising kids, watching grocery and housing costs climb, knows better. That kind of messaging isn’t based on truth or data. It’s the rambling of a demented man who knows his time is running out. It’s always the same playbook when the walls close in.

We’ve seen this pattern before. Hitler, especially near the end of World War II, would spiral into long, disjointed monologues, bouncing between ancient myths, racial pseudoscience, military fantasy, and even architecture. Mussolini’s final speeches were full of bluster, slogans, and wild conspiracies. Franco spent his last years muttering about imagined global plots. When fascist leaders start losing control, their words unravel first. The cracks spread, revealing the hollowness inside.

With Trump, it’s even more obvious. This is a man who ran on vague promises and “simple” solutions to complex problems, but never once outlined what he’d actually do. There was always a “concept of a plan” coming in two weeks.” But nothing ever came. And now? The confusion isn’t just a strategy. It’s all he’s got left. He’s long since lost the ability to tell the difference between a plan and a slogan. Now, even the performance is slipping.

Trump’s rant last night followed that script: part performance, part tantrum, part propaganda blast.

And while he’s bragging about prosperity, here’s the actual news. More than half of all U.S. homes lost value in the past year. Zillow reports over 53% of properties declined, the biggest drop since the Great Recession. Most fell around 10%. That’s a steep slide into collapse. Families who thought they were building something stable are now watching equity vanish. The “strongest America ever”? That could not be farther from the truth.

And while he’s spinning that fantasy, his own government project, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, just quietly shut down eight months early. It was sold as a plan to save $1 trillion by cutting waste and streamlining government. But even the administration now says it saved around $175–200 billion, and that number is shaky at best. Most of the “savings” came from reshuffling budgets, moving numbers around, or cutting things that weren’t going to be funded anyway. When you look closer, it probably cost taxpayers more than it saved.

And that’s not even counting the damage it did. Thousands of experienced public servants were fired. Critical jobs that protect Americans, both domestically and abroad, were cut or left vacant. People who knew how to keep things running were pushed out — and in some cases, replaced by political loyalists. It’s going to take decades to rebuild what was lost.

But here’s the thing: that wasn’t a mistake made by people who had their hearts in the right place and simply couldn’t pull it off. Exactly what happened was the point all along. DOGE was never really about making government work better. It was about weakening it. It was a test run for Project 2025, the plan to fire experts, gut public institutions, and replace them with people who will follow orders, no matter what. If you take out the people who hold the system together, the system breaks. And that’s exactly what they’re trying to do.

Plus, it concentrates power at the top. Weaker departments with fewer workers means less oversight and more room for abuse, corruption, and unchecked authority. When there’s no one left to say no, anything can happen, and that’s by design.

Meanwhile, on X (formerly Twitter), we can now see the machine behind the chaos and disinformation. Users can now view where accounts are actually based. And guess what? Some of the loudest MAGA voices aren’t even American. The “MAGA Nation” who has almost 400k followers and who’s bio says “Standing strong with President Trump 🇺🇸 | America First | Patriot Voice for We The People” profile shows Eastern Europe as its location. “MAGA Scope” is posting from Nigeria. “America First” is tweeting from Bangladesh. And “Trump Is My President”? That one’s out of Macedonia.

The truth is getting harder to ignore. This is a coordinated disinformation campaign designed to influence our elections and destabilize public trust. It creates confusion, inflames division, and drowns out real information with constant noise. This isn’t a grassroots movement; it’s a global propaganda machine. Fake accounts write the scripts. Real people, our neighbors, our family members, actual Americans looking for real information, are falling for these fake bot accounts and just hitting share, thinking they’re amplifying someone who truly understands and cares about our country.

Most of that content? Created by a tiny handful of accounts. Pew Research shows just 10% of users create 92% of posts on X. If you cut off the foreign-run bot farms and disinformation networks, the entire feed would go quiet. The everyday MAGA voter isn’t writing this stuff; they’re just pressing share and amplifying it. The entire structure relies on overseas accounts poisoning our public discourse. If the bots vanished, most of the movement’s momentum would too.

And now, AI is making it even harder to tell what’s real. That cute video of animals bouncing on trampolines? It was fake, AI-generated. And it went viral. Why? Because it triggered something emotional. It was whimsical, warm. No one wanted to stop and check, they just hit share. And this is where it gets dangerous.

Now imagine that same tool used to create a fake protest. A fake confession. A fake criminal video. A fake act of war. AI can do that now. Convincingly. And it’s already being used for political content. Sometimes it’s obvious: blurry corners, warped text, hands with six fingers. Sometimes it’s almost perfect. And when people are emotional, they don’t check. They react.

So here’s a new rule: if something makes you feel something intense, heartbreak, rage, triumph, pause. Ask yourself: Is this too perfect? Does it play into a narrative too cleanly? If you’re not sure if something is real, check. Google it and ask, “Is this true?” “Where did this come from?” “Are these good sources?” You don’t need to be an expert, just stay curious and ask questions.

And while the internet is flooded with noise, out in the real world, people are cutting through it. In California, activists have launched a protest that’s as symbolic as it is strategic. Organized by day laborer advocates, protestors are going to Home Depot, buying 17-cent ice scrapers, and immediately returning them, again and again. They’re clogging return lines, disrupting store operations, and sending a clear message: scrape ICE out. This is peaceful resistance with purpose. It’s smart, creative, and rooted in the fight for human rights. And it’s working, not just because of the action itself, but because of the attention and solidarity it’s building. This is what good trouble looks like.

So here’s what I want you to hold onto tonight: Trump is going to get more desperate the closer we get to the midterms. It’s going to be exhausting for all of us. So if you can, fill up your strength reserves now and lean into this upcoming season of being with your family, your friends, the warmth of being together. We can live in both urgency and joy.

I keep thinking about those peak pandemic years, and everything we lost because of Trump’s failures. The birthdays, the holidays, the time with people we’ll never get back. We can’t let him steal any more years from us. But we also can’t afford to look away, not when our neighbors, our communities, our democracy itself is being harmed in real time.

It’s a balancing act. But it’s one we’re strong enough to hold. We can fight while still living. We can protect what’s good while pushing back against what’s wrong. And we each have a part to play in breaking this country free from the grip of MAGA. That part, whatever it looks like for you, matters more than ever right now.

I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather

P.S. If you’ve made it this far, chances are we see things the same way. You can help keep this work going by subscribing to my Substack; there’s a free option, or you can become a paid subscriber for just $5 a month. Paid subscriptions help me reach more people, cover more ground, and keep telling the truth about what’s happening to our country.