Jamie Stiehm

When the history of this benighted era is written, people will wonder about the madman president. They will ask what we did to try to resist his rampages against our federal government.

For Donald J. Trump, “mad” can be taken in both ways.

First, his state of mind is very angry, all the time: at allies, at journalists, at Republicans who dare to cross him.

Former FBI Director James Comey, indicted twice by Trump’s “Justice” Department, ironically made Trump’s 2016 ascension to the presidency possible by slagging off Hillary Clinton twice for no reason. But Trump’s revenge for Comey’s Russian investigation will never rest.

There is not a method to the other kind of “mad.” Trump is displaying disturbing behavior: as if the head inmate is running the asylum that is Washington these days. His posts by night are juvenile insults and self-aggrandizing images: his face added to Mount Rushmore, for example.

The fuming, sleepless nights betray a bitter mind that’s obsessed with making sure his political opponents lose in the upcoming 2026 elections. Dr. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican senator who voted to convict Trump at his second impeachment trial, is high on that list.

Have you noticed Trump takes trouble with him wherever he goes? Funny how that is. The violence of Jan. 6, 2021, will never be forgotten. The White House Correspondents’ Dinner was a surreal spectacle.

This president has introduced chaos theory into American governance. He takes pride in being volatile and unpredictable, sure that that appeals to his ever-shrinking MAGA “base.”

I don’t think he cares much about alienating the populace anymore. Democracy is supposed to be guided by popular will, but it seems Trump takes a perverse pleasure in policies that hurt the poor and career government experts in law, medicine, foreign aid and the environment.

There is only one D.C. denizen that Trump seems to think can do no wrong: Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, the loudest mouth in town — or “across the river,” as they say.

There’s some kind of lovefest going on as they wage an unwinnable war together, just the two of them, with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff along for the joyride.

But Iran, a formidable foe, is not easily conquered. The chairman said so, but Trump knew better. The consequences of this short war are already clear in high gas prices, public disapproval and congressional demands for answers.

Yet Trump keeps on with his so-called naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. This strategy is stolen from John F. Kennedy, like the national Performing Arts Center that now bears Trump’s name along with Kennedy’s.

“Usurper,” as James Joyce once wrote. Trump has paved over the Kennedy Rose Garden and hired the harmful family black sheep to be a Cabinet member. All part of some private revenge campaign for a long-ago snub? You tell me.

Now to the latest outrage on Trump’s watch.

His handpicked “Trump three” Supreme Court members just dealt a devastating blow to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, along with the three members appointed by the two Republican George Bushes: Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito.

Knowing the Congressional Black Caucus as a fine group of lawmakers, many from the South, I fear we won’t see their like again as they age out of office. They made it to the House of Representatives in the first place because the Voting Rights Act required fair and even House districts to be drawn reflecting the Black and white populations in their states.

This law, to correct racism baked into culture, became a cornerstone of the Civil Rights movement.

Alito, another angry white man, wrote the 6-3 ruling that abolished that foundation. Roberts fully supported this devolution, as attacking and abolishing Voting Rights was virtually a career goal.

In the nation’s 250th year, we have a lot of pieces to pick up and glue back together. Celebrations should not hide the constitutional crisis and dismiss the sharp divide we’re in right now.

The Founders would see us as stuck in a cruel joke, a tragedy of the absurd.

The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.