Trump’s New Favorite Enemies - His Own Fans

It is a bizarre moment in the history of political self-denial: Donald J. Trump, celebrated martyr of truth, apostle of alternative facts, and leader of the “Great Unmasking” movement, is turning against those who once carried him on their shoulders - because they dare to ask questions. The Epstein files? A Democratic trick. Criticism of it? “Bullshit.” Anyone who still expresses doubt is a “PAST supporter” - an ex-fan he wants to publicly excommunicate. A president who casts out his disciples for believing in what he once sold them as gospel.

And while Trump proclaims his new doctrine of faith in the digital sanctuary of his social media account, the political mass continues in the background: a hand-picked circle of Republican lawmakers is confronted in the Oval Office with a draft to dismiss Jerome Powell - as if the U.S. Federal Reserve were a reality TV show where the president yells “You’re fired!” when the interest rates don’t dance. It is a cabinet of vanity: while Europe begs for trade agreements, while Indonesia sells a tariff capitulation with a 19% surcharge as a “fair deal,” and while Mike Huckabee appears as an ambassador of ridicule at Netanyahu’s corruption trial, Trump juggles scandals like flaming clubs in a circus act.

But the biggest showstopper is still to come: the deportation premiere to the monarchy of Eswatini, perhaps the most unknown kingdom in the world, now unwillingly turned into the new target of America’s deterrence policy. Five migrants - from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Yemen, and Cuba - were put on a flight because Trump wanted to prove that “third-country deportation” is not a legal nightmare but a best-selling export of American toughness. The Homeland Security Department called the deported “uniquely barbaric” in a social media post - showing about as much empathy as a cactus in a courtroom. Of course, none of this is accidental but rather methodical. The president, who cannot bear being seen through, performs a ballet of exclusion. Anyone who stops clapping becomes the enemy. Anyone who wants to see the files becomes a traitor. And when a Republican congresswoman announces during a crisis meeting on X (formerly Twitter) that Jerome Powell will soon be fired, one might think we’re living in a dystopian play - if the cast weren’t so tragically real. What remains is an image of contradictions: a president outraged over a 700-million-dollar mishap at the Fed while spending over two billion on campaign theatrics. A former TV star who ends criticism of the judiciary with an all-caps post. And a movement that tears itself apart because its prophet forgot what he once preached. The MAGA world does not collapse from its enemies - it collapses from its own truth. And in the end, Donald Trump stands alone on stage, flanked by echoes, staged symbols of faith, and a cardboard cutout of Jerome Powell. He no longer needs applause. Only obedience.