U.S. President Donald Trump reacts at the Amgen Irish Open 2026, at Trump International Golf Links in Doonbeg, County Clare, Ireland, September 13, 2026. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton
President Donald Trump has suffered a string of defeat in the last few weeks, but veteran, activist and “Independent Americans Podcast” host Paul Rieckhoff, told CNN Wednesday that he should get accustomed to that losing sensation in the weeks leading into November and the remaining two years of his term.
The Supreme Court recently told Trump where to put his attempt to constrict mail in voting, Congress has passed a Russian sanctions bill against a nation led by what Trump considered a friend. And on Wednesday his own appointed Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh voted to raise interest rates despite Trump engaging a year-long war with the former fed chair over the same threat.
To top all that off, the underpowered nation of Iran is beating Trump to a pulp on his economy by launching savvy military attacks that have ballooned global oil prices — assuring that an angry host of voters will be heading to polls in November to punish the party in power, and Trump.
CNN anchor Erin Burnett of “Erin Burnett Out Front” called it “surreal” that Trump claimed his Fed raised rates to “make Trump do as bad as they can possibly do,” as opposed to trying to save his economy from his own bad policies.
To that, Rieckhoff delivered a dose of “real.”
“Here's what's real — and maybe the good news,” said Rieckhoff. “It feels like the system is actually pushing back, right? You've got the fed rate hike, you've got the Supreme Court, you've got [Rep. Thomas] Massie (R-Ky.) Congress [voting to impeach Trump’s secretary of defense], and it feels like the body politic is actually activating its white blood cells to fight against the authoritarian virus that is Trump.”
“It’s like, finally, hooray for some patriotism,” Rieckhoff continued. “People who are putting the country first, our economy, our national security, our best interests, first. And Trump doesn't like it. It makes him feel very uncomfortable. But that might be his new normal for the next couple of months.”
Burnett noted House Speaker Mike Johnson “circling the wagons as quickly as he possible” to protect Trump secretary of defense to avoid “a catastrophe for Trump,” but Rieckoff said this won’t deter Trump from realizing that his grip is slipping.
“He's obviously lost control of the war in Iran. He's lost control of the economy. He's lost control of the Supreme Court. He's lost control of congress. You've got somebody like Massie who could … even leave the Republican Party and be a formidable opponent, and I think we have this this new normal where Trump can't control everything, especially the narrative on things like the economy and the Iran war, which continues to be a sucking chest wound for our military and our economy,” said Rieckoff.
He warned, however, that when Trump realizes he’s losing control is when “he gets his most desperate.”
“He often does a move that is unexpected and even radical. And I think it's not a time to have a failure of imagination,” he concluded.
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