So much winning! The events of the last few weeks should have left every American, MAGA or not, wondering how much longer this great nation can continue to function under the cripplingly stupid and intensely corrupt hold of the Trump regime. The President of the United States has been throughout his five-plus years in the Oval, a world-class liar and supreme narcissist who could care less about the success of the America he ostensibly leads. For months, economists had warned the public that Trump’s tariffs would not be paid by foreign governments, as Trump swore to be the case, but instead by American purchasers of the goods being tariffed. The Supreme Court ruled Trump applied these tariffs in a manner that was not legal, and ordered him to return the billions collected . . . to American corporations that paid the tariffs, and then raised their prices on consumers accordingly! So Amazon, car manufacturers and grocery outlets, among hundreds of other entities, have received their “rebates.” Have you received a check from any business acknowledging that, in fact, you paid the tariff? Didn’t think so. Oh, and hands up if you received one of Trump’s promised $2,000 bonus checks. No one? They must be in the mail.

Little lies, big lies. Makes no difference to the Coppertone Kid. His contempt for the American people is limitless. And each lie unchallenged gives him license to continue to expand his campaign of untruthful gibberish: “We have a deal.” “We don’t have a deal.” “They’re desperate to come to the table.” “We’re going to have to bomb Iran into oblivion if they don’t get serious.” “Why aren’t NATO troops helping us open the Strait of Hormuz?” “We don’t need anyone else’s help!” “We won the war on day one. ” “The Strait will open Friday, June 19.” Just mind-numbing rhetoric. Day in, day out. And it takes a toll.

If you actually watch a press conference, it is clear to even the most ardent supporter that Trump’s mental shelf life has long-expired. His elocution is not even a word salad anymore; it’s a vile, pureed self-congratulatory stream of consciousness. When he clearly stated, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situations. I pay no attention to it” and “Inflation, I love the inflation,” he meant every word of it. This is not Trump, in the minds of MAGA, playing three-dimensional chess. It’s a man whose spiraling loss of self-awareness no longer allows him either to shut up, or to weigh the impact of what he is saying to a world audience. We’re long past “Trump being Trump.” This is dangerous territory.

The worst evidence, by far, of the decline of Trump was a presser from the G7 meeting in France, where he took to the stage with half of his cabinet beside him (Rubio looking as if he were appearing in a hostage video!) and tried to explain the magnificence of the “peace treaty” he had just negotiated with Iran. Withheld from the public for three days, the 14-point piece of paper outlines an agenda for the next 60 days of negotiation, but according to Trump, really represents Iran’s “unconditional surrender” to him. A cursory reading of the document will reveal why virtually every commenter, left, right or center, thinks that someone other than Iran has surrendered. Disillusionment (for different, but all the right reasons) is palpable across the political spectrum.

Simply, this framework achieves absolutely zero of Trump’s repeated goals, and rewards Iran monetarily in beyond-extravagant terms. To begin, they will receive more than $125 billion just for sitting at the table, doing or proposing nothing new. Why? Because the Master Dealmaker lifted sanctions previously imposed, and unfroze billions in Iranian assets. And they will have access to an additional $300 billion in “reconstruction funds” (which we can be certain will go toward jobs, hospitals, women’s rights and education!) following the 60-day cease fire. There is currently no accountability for receiving those funds. The previously-open Strait of Hormuz will be open again once all of the mines are cleared, maybe another month, maybe more, depending upon what the insurance companies decide. Clearly no “win” there.

But let’s not stop there. According to Trump, this war of choice was never about regime change. Which is a good thing because for all of Hegseth’s bombing and bombast, all we got for the likely $150 billion Trump vanity “excursion” into Iran was a younger, more radical Iranian Supreme Leader and a more lunatic and confident Islamic Republican Guard to deal with in the future.

But we leave the best of this “unconditional surrender” for last. According to the AP, on at least 38 occasions during the last three weeks, Trump’s mantra has been, “We will never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” Yet with the signing of this memorandum, Iran still possesses over a thousand pounds of highly-enriched uranium and about 75% of its ballistic missile and drone arsenal, all fully capable of supporting Iran’s proxy terror groups throughout the region. Blathering between “We’ll go in and take the dust,” and “China and Russia will help us retrieve the uranium and preserve it offsite,” Trump shows all the disorientation of someone who has lost track not only of the score of the game, but the game itself. Bottom line: he’s 80, he’s bored, things didn’t work out the way he alone thought they would, and no off-ramp magically appeared to allow him a graceful exit.

“You get what you vote for,” the saying goes. This time around, Americans got so much less than they deserve, presidentially and congressionally. Consider it a wake-up call, because the great band The Who was likely wrong– “Will Be Fooled Again!”

STEPHEN HUDDY

Williamsport

Submitted by Virtual Newsroom