PROGRESS REPORT — The Weekly Opine

Losing half your party is a dangerous sign. (Photo credit CBS/YouGov)

Resistance is working

Thanks to the Epstein mess the walls close in on Trump, more so now than when he faced four criminal prosecutions, plus a civil case, two years ago. Those were heady days for Trump haters, as the court system seemed primed to lower the boom. Unfortunately, a series of blunders by prosecutors provided a path for Trump to escape true accountability (prison).

Revelations that District Attorney Fani Willis was dating her lead prosecutor unraveled her case in Georgia. Timid Attorney General Merrick Garland hemmed and hawed just long enough for Trump to run out the clock on the January 6 case. Special Prosecutor Jack Smith’s head scratching strategic error, moving the stolen documents case to Florida (instead of Washington, D.C., where the theft took place), led to a luck-of-the-draw judicial assignment. Judge Aileen Cannon proceeded to obstruct and delay Smith’s case until it withered away.

Trump only faced the music in the hush money criminal case (guilty on all 34 felony counts) and the E. Jean Carroll civil case ($83 million awarded to Carroll). Hush money case Judge Juan Merchan let Trump off easy, accommodating the felon with “unconditional discharge” meaning no prison, no probation, no fine. However, in what may turn out to be a preamble regarding still-to-come findings about Trump’s involvement in the Epstein pedophile crimes, civil case Judge Lewis Kaplan stated that, as the term is commonly used, Trump raped Ms. Carroll.

Strike up the band

Now, heat is on Trump again. Each pressure point can deal his presidency (and the Republican Party) a serious blow.

Trump 2.0 approval ratings started low and have been worsening since Inauguration Day. Polling from CBS/YouGov (see more charts below) paints a distressing picture for a president who has a childlike desperation to be adored.

The Epstein matter shows no signs of abating. With the number of Trump-Epstein best bud’s photos, video, and interviews being discovered almost daily, one wonders if the Republican National Committee took the time to vet Trump in 2015.

The Epstein scandal has caused an alarming loss of support among Trump’s MAGA base. Popular conspiracy promoters such as Alex Jones, Steve Bannon and Megyn Kelly, are pressuring Trump to release the Epstein files. Demanding Trump release the files, MAGA/Nazi Nick Fuentes, who is red-hot with MAGA “bros,” put Trump on blast. Fuentes said, “The liberals were right” while calling the MAGA movement the “biggest scam in American history.” Importantly, hundreds of victims of Epstein want the files released.

Note: fake Christian House Speaker Mike Johnson sending House members home, to avoid a vote on releasing the Epstein files, is meaningless. A timeline of President Nixon’s fall shows it took two years from when Watergate surfaced in late-summer 1972 to when Nixon resigned in August 1974. Like Watergate, the Epstein scandal is not going away. When GOP political leadership turned on Nixon it was game over. Yesterday, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Department of Justice re: the Epstein files.

TACO’s mental state, on display daily, is failing at an alarming rate. His social media rants are the unhinged work of a madman. Trump’s press conferences demonstrate an unprecedented level of rambling ignorance that warrant activating the 25th Amendment disability/unable to discharge presidential duties clause.

Trump’s AI video of Obama being arrested reveals a mentally unstable man worthy of a psychiatrist’s couch. The conditions he is subjecting humans to, at his Florida concentration camp, prove Trump shares the same sick-minded cruelty trait as butchers Benjamin Netanyahu and Adolf Hitler.

Physically, Trump looks bad. His orange makeup is caked on in a thick paste. His gait is uneasy. He is a 79-year-old desperate buffoon. America’s president is in rapid decline mentally and physically. (Wonder if Jake Tapper is working on a book about Trump, who is in far worse condition – and far more dangerous – than Joe Biden ever was.)

Clearly, the people are driving Trump’s downfall. It’s not just his MAGA base. Most of us have had it with a game stacked against all but the elite. DOGE cuts, Republican’s Big Bill, SNAP and Medicaid cuts, tax cuts for wealthy folks, deportations and concentration camps. Enough.

For anyone overwhelmed by the daily barrage of Trump, stay in the fight. Don’t make the mistake many Germans made, thinking Hitler and Nazis would magically disappear. Or that someone else would rid Germany of fascism’s scourge. It is going to take all of us, in sustained, aggressive actions that resist Trump and Republicans, while ensuring the 2026 elections are fair so we can take back the House and Senate.

Below are a few more charts from the CBS/YouGov poll that confirm resistance is having an impact. Rejection of the democracy-destroying Trump/Republican playbook continues to gain momentum.