Introduction
This post focuses on examples of Trump’s inflated self-image as a president who sees himself as being above the law, his implausible notion of making manufacturing in the U.S. a dominating global force, and how, as one example,
his policies harm the poor.
#1 - A thirst for power
Trump casts himself as a superior president, among the best 3 or 4 presidents in U.S. history. Indeed, he has said his presidency is like being a king. He has also viewed himself as a “messiah,” as Robert Reich notes, Donald Trump keeps comparing himself to Jesus. “Whether he actually has a messiah complex or is just conning his supporters, he's playing to a growing GOP faction that wants America to be a white Christian Nationalist state, with Donald Trump as a divine ruler. Be Warned” (https://tiktok.com/rbreich/video/7384440520371899694)
Former judge J. Michael Luttig writes this about Trump’s inflated self-image (https://theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/05/law-america-trump-constitution/682793).
“The 47th president seems to wish he were king—and he is willing to destroy what is precious about this country to get what he wants.”
“The president of the United States appears to have long ago forgotten that Americans fought the Revolutionary War not merely to secure their independence from the British monarchy but to establish a government of laws, not of men, so that they and future generations of Americans would never again be subject to the whims of a tyrannical king. As Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense in 1776, ‘For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other.’”
“Donald Trump seems also not to understand John Adams’s fundamental observation about the new nation that came into the world that same year. Just last month, an interviewer from Time magazine asked the president in the Oval Office, ‘Mr. President, you were showing us the new paintings you have behind us. You put all these new portraits. One of them includes John Adams. John Adams said we’re a government ruled by laws, not by men. Do you agree with that?’ To which the president replied: ‘John Adams said that? Where was the painting?’
“When the interviewer pointed to the portrait, Trump asked: ‘We’re a government ruled by laws, not by men? Well, I think we’re a government ruled by law, but you know, somebody has to administer the law. So therefore men, certainly, men and women, certainly play a role in it. I wouldn’t agree with it 100 percent. We are a government where men are involved in the process of law, and ideally, you’re going to have honest men like me.’
“And earlier this month, a television journalist asked Trump the simple question ‘Don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?’ Astonishingly, the president answered, ‘I don’t know.’ The interviewer then asked, ‘Don’t you agree that every person in the United States is entitled to due process?’ The president again replied, “I don’t know.”
Luttig then writes,
“This is not a man who respects the rule of law, nor one who seeks to understand it.
Thus far, Trump’s presidency has been a reign of lawless aggression by a tyrannical wannabe king, a rampage of presidential lawlessness in which Trump has proudly wielded the powers of the office and the federal government to persecute his enemies, while at the same time pardoning, glorifying, and favoring his political allies and friends—among them those who attacked the U.S. Capitol during the insurrection that Trump fomented on January 6, 2021. The president’s utter contempt for the Constitution and laws of the United States has been on spectacular display since Inauguration Day.”
“On his first day back, foreshadowing his all-out assault on the rule of law, Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of 1,200 [1,500+] January 6 rioters. Soon, he began to persecute his political enemies—of whom there are now countless numbers—and to fire the prosecutors for the United States who attempted to hold him accountable for the grave crimes against the Constitution that he committed after losing the 2020 election.”
#2 - Trump dubious claims his tariffs will make America manufacturing “great again”
One of Trump’s mottos is that he wants to “Make America Great Again,” or the acronym MAGA.
His greatest support is for his fellow billionaires and other rich folks. This is reflected in his goal of wanting to permanently lower taxes on them, to pursue massive deregulation, to open opportunities for the enrichment of him and his family, and, overall, to reduce the size and cost of the federal government. It is reflected in his goal of “draining the swamp,” referring to his long-standing desire to reduce the federal bureaucracy and services. He wants to maximize the independence of companies in the private sector of the economy.
The illusion of a Manufacturing restoration
Trump believes that the U.S. needs to bring back a competitive and growing manufacturing sector. He had hoped that his muddled and highly disruptive tariff policies would accomplish this. America. Michael A. Cohen criticizes Trump’s as mistaken in this promise (https://msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-tariffs-manufacturing-jobs-economic-growth-rcna200701). Michael A. Cohen is a columnist for MSNBC and a senior fellow and co-director of the Afghanistan Assumptions Project at the Center for Strategic Studies at the Fletcher School, Tufts University.
Cohen writes, “Of all the illogical, wildly incoherent and downright bizarre aspects of President Donald Trump’s tariff war, there is perhaps nothing more inexplicable than the White House’s fixation on restoring and reshoring American manufacturing, making the U.S. “a global manufacturing hub.”
“Manufacturing is a mere 10% of the U.S. GDP and has been steadily declining for years (by comparison, health care is 17.5% of GDP, real estate is around 14% percent and professional and business services account for around 13% of GDP).
The reason is simple: It’s cheaper to manufacture goods overseas, where labor is less expensive. Moreover, automation has steadily decreased the number of American workers needed to produce goods. Even if the White House could reshore manufacturing to the United States, it would hardly produce an employment renaissance.”
The U.S. economy now revolves around “services”
Cohen explains. “Service industries, including financial and legal services, health care, education and accounting to real estate, tourism, information technology, software development and media and entertainment, make up 70 percent of the U.S. economy. And they are also a considerable element of America’s export economy. In 2022, services represented 30 % of all U.S. exports.
“Yet, this crucial element of the U.S. economy has gone largely unmentioned in Trump’s tariff war. The administration loves to talk about America’s trade deficit but only in terms of manufacturing. It seems the White House is almost embarrassed to talk about the fact that America has a nearly $280 billion trade surplus in services.”
“The worst part of Trump’s tariff strategy is its incoherence and the acute financial uncertainty it has created.”
Just as bad is how Trump and Republicans are supporting budgets that reduce benefits for poor Americans and workers.
#3 - Lowering taxes for the rich, while reducing benefits for poor Americans
Sasha Abramsky, a freelance journalist and a part-time lecturer at the University of California at Davis, reports on how the Republicans are in the process of reducing government support for the poor in what he calls “the oligarch’s budget,” Truthout. May 22, 2025 (https://truthout.org/articles/the-oligarchs-budget-wages-war-on-poor-americans).
Abramsky’s basic point is that “Unless you’re very wealthy, this bill will ultimately leave you worse off and more economically vulnerable,” especially if you are poor.
He continues.
“Early on Thursday [May 22], Republicans passed Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” in the House of Representatives, with just two GOP defectors. The budget codifies trillions of dollars of tax cuts for the wealthy, alongside hugely increased spending on immigration enforcement and the military, both by adding to the national debt and through slashing programs that aid tens of millions of low-income Americans.
“The Center for American Progress noted last week that, with somewhere in the region of $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and SNAP (food stamps) over the next decade, ‘this would be the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in U.S. history.’”
“The budget, which seems likely to pass the Senate, contains the biggest ever cuts to Medicaid and to the SNAP program. As a result of these cuts, tens of millions of people will be impacted — as will states that depend on Medicaid dollars flowing in order to cover their poorer residents, and as will hospitals that need Medicaid funds in order to make ends meet. Ironically, some of the worst-hit areas will be in poor parts of red states, where rural hospitals often survive only because of their Medicaid dollars.
“In poorer neighborhoods, the erosion of SNAP will mean much less money flowing through the local economy, as residents tighten their belts and spend less on food at neighborhood stores. For the first time in the program’s history, the federal government will no longer ensure that children in all 50 states have access to food stamps.
“The bill imposes strict time limits on food stamp access for working-age adults through the age of 65, as well as work requirements, and makes it harder for states or localities to secure waivers from that requirement during economic downturns.
“At the same time, it requires working-age adults to have jobs or do community service in order to access Medicaid — and it ramps up the frequency of eligibility checks, which health advocates believe will create a red tape burden that has the effect of deterring large numbers of people from accessing or retaining health care.
If these changes do indeed kick in, estimates are that a staggering 14 million Americans could lose their health coverage, returning the numbers of uninsured back up almost to pre-Affordable Care Act levels. The Urban Institute and other groups have estimated that somewhere in the region of 3 million families could be cut off from food stamps.”
“On health care, the budget contains one poison pill after the next — including penalizing states that have used their own dollars to expand Medicaid to cover undocumented immigrants and forbidding any reproductive health care organization from receiving Medicaid funds.”
“The bill will, for example, eliminate, in its entirety, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which provides subsidies to almost 6 million households so that they can stay warm in winter and cool in summer. This will, in effect, reduce poor families’ incomes in many states by thousands of dollars per year.
“It will jack up the repayment expenses for student loans, and will eliminate the ability of borrowers to temporarily pause repayments in the face of economic hardship or unemployment.”
“The bill makes it harder for kids to access free school meals and summer EBT cards to tide them and their families over during the school holidays.
“It tightens up eligibility for the child tax credit, with the result that 4.5 million fewer children will qualify for this benefit. It guts clean energy programs, eliminates most tax credits for low-emission energy sources and ends tax credits for the purchase of electric vehicles. Given that the impacts of climate change fall disproportionately on poorer people, all of these cuts will have a particularly harmful impact on low-income Americans.”
“Taken as a whole, this budget is an assault on the well-being of low-income Americans that has virtually no precedent in U.S. history.”
Concluding thoughts
The oligarchs headed by Trump are unrestrained in their destructive policies, their determination of cut government programs for the poor and workers (https://prospect.com/labor/2025-05-21-trump-labor-wreckers), cut taxes for the rich and move the country in the most anti-democratic directions. So far, these goals have only been partially realized because of judicial action, falling polls, and sheer ineptness in attempts to advance them.