The Lame Duck

News & Notes, Nov 9

Welcome back to The American Times.

If you’d like, you can watch my Morning Joe appearance talking about Newt Gingrich from Monday morning here. This week, I wrote about the infamous run of Jimmy McMillan, founder of The Rent Is Too Damn High Party. You can read that here if you haven’t already.

Now, let’s get onto the news of the week. A lot happened. Dick Cheney died, Nancy Pelosi announced her retirement, Democrats swept the off-year elections, as the government shutdown continued to drag on.

It is now the longest shutdown in American history. For many, this has meant the abrupt end to benefits like SNAP, which helps feed 42 million Americans. On Thursday, a federal court ordered the immediate restoration of SNAP benefits. Almost immediately, the Justice Department announced it would appeal the ruling. All to say: the Trump Administration wants 42 million of the poorest Americans, those most in need, to starve. This is not something I’m inferring. The White House is now putting its desire to keep Americans hungry into coldly written legal demands.

In Venezuela, 70 people have now been killed by American weapons as U.S. warships remain off the coast of Latin America. In the Senate, a 51-49 vote ensured that the Trump administration’s strikes can continue without Congressional approval—essentially handing its Constitutionally-given war making powers over to the White House. One Republican Senator, Todd Young of Indiana, who voted to allow the White House to continue the strikes said afterward, “As a matter of policy, I am troubled by many aspects and assumptions of this operation and believe it is at odds with the majority of Americans who want the U.S. military less entangled in international conflicts.” Like many Senate Republicans, he disagrees with the new war in Venezuela but is too much of a coward to stand up and do anything of substance.

Elsewhere, masked ICE raids continue across the country, as the National Guard patrols American cities. Cancer research continues to go unfunded, as the NIH remains gutted. Major universities—where the breakthroughs for that research, on things like childhood cancer happen—remain enemies of the administration because of something-something-woke. Wages for working Americans continue to flatline, even while Wall Street (despite a bad end to the week) continues to rake in record profits. And, as this week’s elections showed, affordability—the issue that sent Donald Trump back to the White House— remains the top concern for voters even as it continues unresolved.

In fact, the Labor Department reported last month that consumer prices rose 3% as compared to a year ago, the highest spike since January. The President however disagrees with reality. He said earlier this week, “I don’t want to hear about affordability. Because right now, we’re much less.” Remember that phrase, because it will repeated again and again: I don’t want to hear about affordability.

This points in one direction: the President, increasingly out of touch, is entering the lame duck stage of his presidency. To be clear, he is still powerful in a way that can have any American killed without legal consequences and can end the planet with a push of a button. As Edward Luce astutely said in the Financial Times this week, “The road to hell is paved with premature declarations of Donald Trump’s political demise.” However, after Tuesday’s election results—and with the midterms that also favor Democrats now a year away—Americans may be tired of winning.

As someone who has watched the President closely since the second season of The Apprentice, there’s another thing I’ve noticed in recent weeks that I present without any partisan bias: he is beginning to look and sound old. The golden coif has turned a brittle, light gray. The slurs and bungled words are more common now. The gait has halted. The faces of the President’s friends and allies grow more nervous and uncomfortable as he trails off when talking. We’ve seen this show before. That wasn’t true during the last election when Trump made a point to provide a sharp counterpoint to President Biden’s withering appearance. But Father Time remains undefeated. Of course, this is still the guy who tried to bunker himself in the White House at the end of his last term—and he still may well do that in January 2029.

But the years are piling up, and so are the losses. Of course, we’re a long, long way off from any kind of goodbye. There’s still several acts to go that may signal the most dramatic yet. But don’t run to the bathroom too many more times—because this movie is starting to end.

Other News:

• “Here’s Where Trump’s Multiracial, Working Class Coalition Is Fraying,” in The Wall Street Journal…In 2024, voters swung rightward at a break neck rate. But now the pendulum is swinging back. In modern politics, it might just be impossible to maintain power for consecutive terms unless the economy starts to work for more people.

• “The Crackup at the Heritage Foundation Is a Warning Sign for MAGA World,” in The Wall Street Journal…I wrote about this here a few weeks ago on October 24, before Nick Fuentes went on Tucker Carlson’s show and the mainstream media began paying attention. As I wrote then, “This story is not over, it’s just beginning. And I’ll have more to say on it later. But I want readers to understand that this isn’t a fringe thing anymore, and it’s growing. Folks like Ingrassia, the Young Republicans, and Nick Fuentes aren’t simply being tolerated by the Republican Party, they’re being given seats at the table.”

  • This is now a Civil War within the Republican Party. They have to be forced to own this. The pro-Hitler Fuentes has the momentum and understands the terrain far, far, far better than his older opponents. He is ascendant, cunning, and winning. Republicans will have to make up their minds in the next few months—not the next few years—whether they want him under their tent or not. To put it in simple terms: Fuentes will either be speaking at the 2028 Republican Convention or leading a massive protest outside its gates. And either result will be decisive in the immediate future of Republican politics. To repeat something I’ve said over the last few weeks: there is something that comes after Trumpism, and there’s a chance it is much worse than what came before. Republicans once crossed the Rubicon in 2016 (and again in 2024) to embrace Trump. So don’t hold your breath and believe they’ll make the right decision this time.

• Here’s more on that in the FT. And again, before Democrats gloat at the Republicans’ Nazi sized problem, ask yourself: what if Fuentes wins out?

• The inimitable Mark Leibovich on Dick Cheney in The Atlantic.

Sports:

The baseball season ended on Saturday night, when the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 in 11 innings. Going into the top of the 8^th, the Blue Jays held a 4-2 lead with just six outs to go to seal their first championship since 1993. But their bullpen couldn’t get it done. Miguel Rojas tied it with a homer off Jeff Hoffman in the 9th, and then Will Smith hit another home run in the top of the 11^th to give the Dodgers the lead. However, nothing topped the performance of Dodgers’ pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who threw 2 and 2/3 scoreless innings in relief, just one night after he started Game 6, and threw 6 innings. It was a feat reminiscent of Randy Johnson in 2001, who also started Game 6 and closed Game 7 of that World Series for the Arizona Diamondbacks, to beat the New York Yankees.

And for who think baseball is a dying sport: 51 million people watched Game 7 around the world. In the U.S. alone, 27.4 million tuned in, as compared to 16.4 million who watched Game 7 of the NBA Finals earlier this year.

On Football: Last week, I went 4 for 4 on my picks. In total, I’m 9 for my last 10. That’s a record that is some skill, but a lot of luck. Bettors beware.

In the NFL, the best game of the week is on Monday Night, when the Philadelphia Eagles visit the Green Bay Packers in what might be a preview of the NFC Championship. Other matchups between potential playoff teams on Sunday include the Patriots at Buccaneers (1 PM), the Rams at 49ers (4 PM) and Steelers at Chargers (8 PM). However, in terms of predictions, I’m taking the Bills (-8.5) to crush the Dolphins, and the over (48.5) in Patriots/Bucs.

Until next week.