Thanksgiving In A State Of Exception – A President Living Off Images That Have Nothing To Do With Reality

Donald Trump smiles into the cameras, two turkeys at his side, but hardly anyone is impressed by it anymore. While Waddle and Gobble are carried through the hotel, graphics run across the screens of the news channels that look dramatic at first glance. Groceries 85 percent, electricity 78 percent, health care 67 percent, housing 66 percent, gasoline 54 percent. Anyone who sees only the numbers immediately feels as if the United States is on the edge of an economic collapse. But these percentages are not price increases, they are purely survey values: They show how many people say that their costs are higher than a year ago, not by how much they have actually risen.

This makes them attractive to anyone who turns images into headlines that then circulate in the German speaking world for clicks, outrage and plenty of income for the operators of the respective, for example Facebook pages. We can only advise: do not share these things immediately with the attached texts and at least check the claim of such posts. This type of fake news spreading is a problem for us as well, and the grotesque part is that these people earn not little money with it, while the field that explains honestly and properly is literally fighting for every cent. These are strange times., während die Sparte, die ehrlich und ordentlich aufklärt, wortwörtlich um jeden Cent kämpfen muss. Es sind schon verrückte Zeiten.

The official data tell a different story. Groceries, energy, housing, health care – everything is rising, but in the range of a few percentage points of 3 to 5 percent. The great uncertainty does not come from a sudden jump, but from the sum of the years: millions of Americans have been living since 2022 with prices that feel like a slowly tightening ring. That cannot be filtered away with a photo of two turkeys.

Politically, it is breaking apart in the same way. Don Bacon, not someone who usually exaggerates, calls Trump’s Ukraine plan a giving up before negotiations even begin. Mitch McConnell says openly that Putin has “led Trump around all year long.” When two Republicans of this magnitude say out loud what others only think, it carries weight. It shows how deep the unrest in his own party has become – and how little backing Trump still has there when the big questions are on the table. Then comes the G20 summit, and Trump does not appear. Jeffrey Sachs explains the reason the way many describe it behind closed doors: “Because he has the mind of a four year old and is throwing a tantrum.” Lula says they do not need an emperor – and he hits the point. Trump avoids places where he is not automatically the biggest figure in the room.

One of the clearest breaking points runs through Georgia. Marjorie Taylor Greene, for years one of the most reliable voices at his side, throws in the towel, and that after a public fight with him. In her home state, they say she would have won the election even without Trump. The fact that even she turns away speaks volumes. And while the president pardons turkeys, the political environment continues to slip out of his hands. Ukraine, Venezuela, the prices, his own party – everything becomes heavier. At the same time, graphics circulate online that are meant to stir outrage because outrage sells well. Anyone who uses these images shifts the line between information and agitation to the point where, in the end, no one knows what is still true.

The holidays will not save Trump. The backdrop no longer holds. The numbers, the politics, the international stage – everything moves relentlessly into the foreground. And the big question becomes more visible: how long can a president rely on staging when even the images no longer carry what he needs?