Trump didn't pivot — he previewed the depravity of what's to come

U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman during an arrival ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 18, 2025. REUTERS

The president lied and lied. He lied so much he appears to think he’s going to scam his way to victory in November. Last week's State of the Union was a preview of what's to come.

Above and below each of Donald Trump's lies was a set of deep-seated beliefs. He doesn’t need the Congress. He doesn’t need the people. He doesn’t need the “disloyal.” He doesn’t need the truth. He believes he can create reality. He believes everyone’s going to believe it.

However, you might not know any of that from reading this morning's headlines. The Associated Press called his lies “takeaways.” NPR called them “familiar notes.” Worst of all, an email alert I received from USA Today called the vast scale of deceit “fighting words.”

A deeper read of followup coverage shows the press corps’ meaning. The president said he was going to use the speech to “sell the public on the economy and unveil new measures meant to lower costs,” according to the Wall Street Journal. The Atlantic said it had “the potential to put his presidency on more stable ground — if he doesn’t get in his own way.”

Turns out, however, the speech was just more of the same scam.

“Trump has spent the last year boasting of his accomplishments while mocking the record of his predecessor, Joe Biden,” the AP reported today. “But much of this bluster has been based on misinformation, which he again fell back on during his State of the Union address.”

For instance:

"When I last spoke in this chamber 12 months ago, I had just inherited a nation in crisis, with a stagnant economy." No. “Incomes are rising fast, the roaring economy is roaring like never before.” Nope. Tariffs are “saving our country, the kind of money we’re taking in.” Nuh-uh.

One falsehood revealed true intent. Tariffs are part of a scheme by moneyed elites to push the burden of taxation downward so that you, me and everyone we know pay more for a civilized country than they do. The ideal is eliminating the income tax, which burdens moneyed elites most, replacing it with a sales tax, like a tariff, which burdens everyone else.

But success would depend on a majority of the people who would be fully burdened by it not to fully understand it. If they did, it would fail. So, I guess, whoops: “I believe the tariffs, paid for by foreign countries, will, like in the past, substantially replace the modern-day system of income tax, taking a great financial burden off the people that I love,” the president said.

“The people that I love,” of course, are the moneyed elite.

Trump is lying so hard about foreigners paying for his tariff scheme, because he wants to prevent the truth from being broadly understood. It's the biggest tax increase in over 30 years, according to multiple studies. Importers pony up the extra expense, but charge more to recoup it. The Federal Reserve said US consumers paid over 90 percent of the added cost.

What’s more is this historic tax increase was illegal the whole time. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that the Congress, and only the Congress, has the tax power. It’s being said Trump accepts the court's judgment, but I don’t know how that can be. He responded with a new round of tariffs (under a new authority) that is, according to Judd Legum, just as illegal.

So not only did Trump scam us with an illegal tax, and not only are corporations that passed on the cost to us going to be refunded, an act the Treasury secretary has already called “ultimate corporate welfare,” he’s also finding new ways of scamming us – at least until the Supreme Court catches up with to him a year from now to strike down his new illegal tax.

By then, of course, it will be too late.

A president who intended to turn the economy around with policies that benefit the majority of people would take into account polling saying that a majority of people disprove. A Fox News poll taken before the high court’s ruling found 63 percent believe Trump has gone too far on tariffs. That’s in addition to 65 percent who disapprove of his handling of inflation.

That poll and others like it amount to what House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called "an extinction-level event." "He’s like negative 40-plus with independents," Jeffries said before last week's speech. "Latino voters are leaving him. Young voters are leaving him. Working-class white voters are leaving him. Independents have abandoned him a long time ago. Any normal person would realize we better change course because this is not working."

That the president’s current course is not working is beside the point, however, given that economic policies benefiting the majority were never the goal. The real objective has always been enacting economic policies that benefit a tiny minority – “the people that I love” – while scamming everyone else into believing Donald Trump cares enough to solve their problems.

Last week's speech was marketed as a chance for Trump to reset. But there’s nothing to reset. If the Republicans hope to avoid slaughter, they'll have to scam even harder.

“He needs all four years to fix the mess,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson in a Fox interview after the State of the Union. “If we lost the midterms – heaven forbid, if we lost the majority in the House – it would be the end of the Trump presidency in a real effect."

“We gotta keep this going,” he said, meaning the scam.

Last week's speech was a preview of what’s of the come.

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