The Death of Trust
For all his lying, cheating, and fraud Trump is remarkably honest about who he is.
Trump is a natural born con-man and abuser who lies as easily as he breaths. He has a feral instinct for finding and dominating his marks, and he has an instinctive need to bully and punch down anyone and everyone around him. He has done it so long that at this point he may simply be unable to conceive of any other way. He is an abuser who, in his own words, treats women "like shit" and sees sexism, misogyny, even violence, as the natural way of things. He is an open racist who attacks minorities and foreigners and who sells deportations as revenge porn. He is, above all, a would-be dictator who sees the entire government as a blunt instrument of his will and a vehicle for profit.
Trump is not bound by morality, decency, or the law. He sent thugs to attack his own vice president and will do that, or more, as soon as he can. Despite, or perhaps because of this, many have put their faith in him to deliver security, prosperity, even morality (by force) that they claim to want. They won't get it. The most they will get is the entertainment of watching other people be crushed alongside them. That, and the death of trust.
Trust is central to the functioning of society. We cannot, cannot, physically control everything all the time so we have to have some trust in institutions, markets, the law, even each other to get through the day. And while you can trust in Trump's cruelty you cannot trust in any promise he gives or any institution he runs. Trump poisons trust in everything.
This is not accidental.
The way that an abuser (or a dictator) stays on top is by cutting off all other paths. When you trust noone, have no foundation, and a surfeit of fear you will never think of escape. And at least with an endless supply of other victims you can always enjoy the show. But sooner or later the poison will come for you. No matter how obsequious you are, no matter how loyal, you will be the target and you will have to pay the price. Pence learned that, Vance knows it, and so too does everyone else.
Lets consider the trust he is destroying:
Trust in Markets
Markets are not born of nature, they are created by laws. And what markets require above all else is trust, trust that you can participate in them safely; trust that it isn't just a pile of fraud; and trust that the table won't be flipped over any second. Traders and investors say they love "freedom" but what they really want is carefully-controlled change that lets them accurately price the downside risks and go to bed without fearing what each moment will bring.
Consider hamburgers.
We can go out to eat because a bad hamburger may be disgusting but it won't kill us. The patty may be inorganic but it isn't made of rat feces or humans and the lettuce once was a plant. The whole market for restaurants, and the jobs in them, exist because we all feel safe going out to eat and we all feel safe enough to try new things. The same is true for overpriced coffee, banks, and airlines. The rules set a floor on downside risk, then the market can function. Without them, the downside risk is death and the whole thing falls apart.
Trump is halting the enforcement of laws on fraud, he is laying off safety inspectors, purging the FAA and gutting enforcement of everything from workplace safety to food and drug inspections, to financial fraud. In the meantime the cost of buying anything is going up and, with the rise of crypto scams and the destruction at the FDIC and CFPB, it is becoming fraud all the way down. Only con-men and gamblers benefit from a market defined by NFTs and a grifter in chief, and sooner or later they will run out of marks.
The hamburger of course, is the end of the story. In order for the burger joint to exist someone had to invest in plants and equipment. Someone had to take the time to raise a cow. Many, many people had to invest over the long term. Everything around us from hamburgers to houses depend upon layers and layers of sustained investment in tools, materials, plants and personnel. You can only make those investments if you know they will be paid back. Trump on the other hand, has jacked up costs with erratic tariffs that rise on a mood swing and then paused them (temporarily) as soon as he is fluffed just right. He has manipulated the markets and let his cronies cash in. He has issued deranged edicts that upend whole industries, or cancelled contracts that will bankrupt honest businesses just to soothe his ego and address some online grudge.
What sane person would make long-term investments in such an environment? Who even could? The trust you need to commit to the market is gone, and anyone who can get out will. The only people who will "win" are those that pay off Trump, and those costs will never stop rising.
Trust in the Law
Markets of course, are for trade not problem solving. Sooner or later we all have a problem to solve. If someone cheats you, if your rights are trampled, or if bad things simply happen there is always the law. After all, bad things always happen, and an independent legal system, with its guarantee of equality under the law, is the backstop that keeps society functioning.
Until it is gone.
Trump is ending law enforcement. He is gutting agencies that provide oversight for people, and staffing the rest with ideologues who will use it as a blunt instrument to protect his friends and crush his enemies. And, one by one he is corrupting law firms by forcing them to put his interests, and their wealth, ahead of their clients, or even the law itself. He is sending innocent people to life imprisonment (or worse) in foreign gulags, and denying due process to everyone he can.
He is not joking about this. He is looking forward to it. As Heather Cox Richardson put it:
Once you have replaced the principle of equality before the law with the idea that some people have no rights, you have granted your approval to the idea of an authoritarian government. At that point, all you can do is to hope that the dictator and his henchmen overlook you.
When the courthouse door is shut, it does not matter what the law says. When your lawyer might sell you out to protect themselves, it does not matter what your case is. And if enforcement is erratic, inconsistent, or corrupt, then your rights mean nothing. Even if Trump leaves tomorrow this stain will forever remain.
Trusting Republicans.
Trump is not acting alone.
Republicans chose Trump. He has won three party primaries and continues to have their full support. Trump insults the disabled, women, and minorities and they cheer him on. Trump produces revenge porn and they suck it up. They endorse each threat of violence, each illegal rendition, each lie, each hurled abuse. They absolve him for insurrection even when their own lives are on the line, and each time he abuses his power, they rush to cede more.
They may dust their support with false pieties about temper, family values, or marginal tax rates. They may put on impotent shows of "concern" that fool noone. But the bottom line is that they are with him one hundred percent. Every vice, every bit of violence, every act of chaos, *all of it* is what they chose.
When Trump sends innocent people to die in foreign gulags, they are on board.
When he threatens to send Americans the same way, they cheer.
If they support him in this, what won't they do?
How can we ever turn our backs on them again?
Trust in America
Trump may be the Republicans' id but he is America's president. We elected him, twice. And we spent generations building up the power that he is now abusing to bludgeon us and the world. Trump's assault on trust is not just within America but it is between America and the world as a whole. Like a long term partner who suddenly takes up day drinking and random violence, we are driving away everyone and they are right to go. They are abandoning our products, our investments, and our "security guarantees" which are no longer the promise of a friend's support, but sound now like a knife at their throats and a demand for their fealty. After what Trump and his whole gang has said about Greenland and Canada, who in their right mind would welcome a US base?
We have threatened to seize their land, started trade wars on bad math and insanity. We have cut off food aid and medicine preferring to let them rot rather than save lives. We have chosen to let millions die and disease spread because empathy is now "suicide". Our values have been revealed to be as cheap as the fake gilt on an overpriced bible, and our masks of decency, honesty, and reliability are now irrevocably shattered.
Some day Trump will go. Some day he and his successors will be gone. Some day Elon Musks' house of cards will finally fall.
But the broken trust which we have earned, that will forever remain because this is what we, as a nation, chose.
That hits a bunch of nerves!