By Jim Downard | FāVS News Columnist
Last April I laid out the ironic parallels Trump 2.0 has with the dystopian Pottersville alternate world conjured by angel second class Clarence’s Almighty in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Now more months into this, our non-fictional mess, we can see more clearly some of the grim trajectory. Though by necessity a political post, it touches on philosophy and ethics intersecting themes common to the FāVS platform.
Start with the draconic tariffs Trump’s 1970 brain is crack addict stuck on, combined with the vile thuggery of the masked ICE Trumpstapo patrolling the nation with gloating enthusiasm.
ICE is currently running self-serving ads excoriating police in sanctuary cities like Seattle for supposedly failing their constitutional duties in not helping ICE apprehend violent drug smuggling migrant criminals — as if those were the most actively being rounded up by their black vans. Adding to this cliché melodrama, ex-TV Superman Dean Cain is among those heeding ICE’s siren call.
From farms to construction sites to the big furniture maker in Georgia (the largest employer in Marjorie Taylor Green’s district — oh, how the mythic gods love their irony!) many billions of economic activity is being tariffed and raided to a halt. This adds outrage by outrage to nerves already fizzing on the economic edge as millions of Americans notch in their belts, swallowing what they can of the tariff price hikes to avoid catapulting their products and services out of the market. What happens when the belt notches run out, and millions of Americans rein in spending all at once?
The bloated billionaires running Trump 2.0 are oblivious to such concerns, living in their well-lawyered world of limos and private planes. All is “A Wonderful Life” up on their gold-slathered Olympus, still spending freely with all the money they might otherwise have seen slip through their fingers for the Public Good had their advantageous tax breaks not been made permanent in that “Big Beautiful Bill” our all-smiles creationist Speaker Mike Johnson burbled so enthusiastically about, Trump’s rubber stamp Congress of spineless toadies cheering “Jawohl, mein Commandant!” to do as their golden-plated calf has decreed.
Jimmy Kimmel goes and comes
But beneath that surface economic tumult, there is the ongoing campaign to make over what used to be our government in the Heritage Foundation Project 2025 image (and remember its architect Russel Vought is back in the Administration wearing as many hats as he can to speed this insidious authoritarian revolution), compounded by Trump’s personal vengeance inclinations. Using the potential pressure of FCC licensing, ABC dropped Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show for supposedly claiming Charlie Kirk’s assassin was a MAGA sort (which he hadn’t actually claimed, as I knew having heard his monologue when it aired).
Never mind the hypocritical Trumpistas opposing the very actions FCC Chairman Brendan Carr sought to do (including Carr himself). Arrogant hypocrisy is a reliably ongoing Trump 2.0 product in a way ending inflation or bringing peace to Ukraine on Day One clearly are not.
Enter the Vox Populi. A tornado of outrage over Kimmel’s cancellation (and owner Disney’s stock sagging a few billion dollars in consequence) led to ABC reinstating him, though two right-wing media conglomerates decided to keep him cancelled anyway, such as Sinclair pulling the plug on their Seattle station.
Fortunately viewers could still catch Kimmel’s trenchant monologues on YouTube, including his quite poignant first one (I delighted when he started with “As I was saying,” which was how Jack Paar had resumed his spot after NBC cancelled him over 60 years ago for what was by today’s standard an innocuous joke about a toilet). After a few days even Sinclair changed their mind and resumed airing the show.
All of which reminded the world is not yet an arm of Trump 2.0, and it behooves citizens of conscience and gumption to keep it that way.
Bolton and Comey on the indictment block
But the vengeful man-baby Trump’s outrage at opponents remains unsated, and moves our scope to the indictments aimed at Trump 1.0 appointees who have become critics, security advisor John Bolton (now accused of having unauthorized secrets in his possession) and former FBI director James Comey (accused now of lying to slithering Senator Ted Cruz back in 2017 regarding who told whom to do what at the FBI regarding Hillary Clinton’s interest in Trump-Russia connections).
While no fan of ideologue Bolton, and Comey has his weak spots too in the 2016 Clinton matter, it is near certain both are exceedingly careful people, and appear quite anxious to see their day in court to defend themselves against what appear for all the world to be politically-motivated vengeance prosecution — exactly the sort of thing Trump and his enablers were strenuously assuring us was what they were dedicated never to doing.
So far our court systems have not collapsed to rubber stamp all of Trump 2.0’s decrees, and on that slim hook we citizens of a patriotic inclination may pin some shadowy hope.
Whither goest us all now?
So have your schadenfreude popcorn handy as the next months and years play out.
● Will malignant narcissist Donald Trump grow ever more frustrated by each mounting failure and escalate to some potentially more constitutionally dangerous lashing-out action, at home or abroad? Or will he be temporarily sated by the afterglow of dragooning the IDF and Hamas into a much-needed cease fire and hostage release?
● If we are in 1929, and a full Depression level crash looms, fueled by systemic problems left to fester far too long by both parties (unaffordable housing, predatory for profit health care and unsustainable income inequality), how will such a mess challenge our compassion and endurance to hold together as a nation? Believers and non-believers alike will have opportunities for holding to their convictions or abandoning them in expedient self-interest.
● And the Bigger Picture: how will our neighbors react to a crash here, and will things play out better than the dismal 1930s, where our Depression swirled out to trigger a world war of unprecedented death and despair? Today’s European Union is an admittedly clunky operation, but it represents a 450 million population free trade zone that may react very differently than their insular 1930s counterparts. As for the People’s Republic of China (today’s imperialists striving to dominate the world economically as well as militarily), could economic stress pull it apart just as the USSR disintegrated in the 1980s. And maybe sucking down Putin’s Russia, too, (just as WWI brought down the old Tsars).
● Finally, could a Trump Depression end up spurring decades of progressive reform, as the prior two depressions in the 1890s and 1930s did? So there might be many a bright candle awaiting to guide us all through a coming darkness, as our vast network of interconnecting media finally starts linking truth faster than lies. Above all, everything must be done to ensure that the network is not allowed to be compromised by the Trumps and Carrs of the world — let alone the Putins or Xis.
Millions of candles can be mighty bright. Keep your lighter handy.
The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News. FāVS News values diverse perspectives and thoughtful analysis on matters of faith and spirituality.
Never miss a story. Get the top headlines, breaking news, commentaries, and handpicked favorites delivered straight to your inbox every morning. Subscribe to our quick, free and informative FāVS News Daily Newsletter.
