Photograph Source: The White House – Public Domain
SuperTrump had two super weeks from June 22, 2025 to July 4. First, he sent B-2 Sprint bombers 7,000 miles non-stop to hit their targets without losing one American life. Then, emboldened by his success as Commander-in-Chief, he convinced NATO partners to submit to his 5% Gross Domestic Product (GDP) defense spending demands as the “daddy” of the transAtlantic alliance. And finally, at home, SuperTrump arm twisted Republican members of Congress to vote a suicidal Big Beautiful Bill (BBB). SuperTrump is flying high, all powerful and omnipresent; his power growing in leaps and bounds. Where is the kryptonite to stop him?
SuperTrump’s Iran mission made Americans forget past foreign failures. Remember the 1980 Operation Eagle Claw under President Jimmy Carter when the U.S. military was humiliated in the desert sand trying to rescue the captured American hostages and eight U.S. soldiers died? Or the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu under President Clinton when 18 U.S. soldiers lost their lives in Somalia? What about 2013 when President Barack Obama said that if Saddam Hussein crossed a red line by using chemical weapons there would be consequences? And Saddam did, with no Obama reaction.
All three failures engraved in America’s memory. The failures of three Democratic leaders are part of a post-Vietnam image of declining United States power.
SuperTrump changes that image. With no hesitation, he sends B-2 bunker busters to “obliterate” Iran’s nuclear program. Above multilateral treaties or domestic rules, he is a law unto himself. Forget international norms about respecting sovereign territory or the 1973 War Powers Act that requires Congressional consent for military action. SuperTrump may not have totally obliterated Iran’s nuclear capabilities, but he obliterated the memories of past Democratic presidents’ weaknesses.
The immediate consequences of SuperTrump’s “success” were evident. NATO members meekly lined up behind his demands that they raise their defense spending to 5% of GDP. An American president willing to take the risk and succeeding in sending planes thousands of miles to bomb Iran is NATO’s “daddy.”
Thirty-two NATO members obeyed “daddy,” promising radical defense spending increases by 2035 with no idea how they would do it. (How, for example, will debt ridden France pay for this?) “President Trump hailed it as a personal triumph,” the BBC reported. “It’s a monumental win for the United States,” SuperTrump bragged, “because we were carrying much more than our fair share…But this is a big win for Europe and for actually Western civilisation,” and certainly for SuperTrump and his image busting.
And then the BBB was passed. If only one more Republican Senator had voted no, but they didn’t. SuperTrump knows how to twist arms. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina voted no, then quickly said he was throwing in the political towel, afraid for his political future after crossing SuperTrump. What about Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska? She, who had publicly said she was afraid of going against SuperTrump, proved it by voting yes for BBB when extra goodies were spread among her Alaska constituents.
And the Democrats counterpunch to SuperTrump? They established a Project 2029 to give their version of the Republicans’ successful Heritage 2025 program. Among the eminent leaders of the steering committee are Jake Sullivan and Anne Marie Slaughter. Neither has ever run for political office. The only thing they have in common are degrees from Oxford and Harvard/Yale Law Schools.
Who is to counter SuperTrump? Where are the new Ragin’ Cajun James Carville to help the floundering Democratic Party? Where are the David Axelrods? Carville helped Bill Clinton get elected. Axelrod steered Barack Obama to the Oval Office. Neither Carville nor Axelrod have Oxford/Harvard/Yale diplomas.
Is there no kryptonite to stop SuperTrump? The Democrats have not had a powerful leader since Lyndon Johnson, the LBJ of the Great Society, not the LBJ of the Vietnam War. For example: Would Johnson have allowed Ruth Bader Ginsburg to stay on the Supreme Court permitting Trump to name a new Supreme Court Justice as Obama did? (For the record, Johnson attended Southwest Texas State Teachers College.)
SuperTrump is all about power. Americans love power. Just look at some current sports heroes: Yankee Stadium is packed to watch Aaron Judge launch 400 foot home runs. Wimbledon watchers cheer Carlos Alcaraz’s 100 mph furious forehands and Ben Shelton’s sizzling serves. Sedate golfers roar when Rory McElroy drives a 400 yard bullet down the middle of a fairway. And basketball buffs are eager to see LeBron James play one more season of dramatic slam dunks. Moonshot homers, whiplash forehands and thundering serves, larger drivers and longer drives, rimrattling dunks; they are all about power. And don’t think the 75 million who voted for SuperTrump are more interested in Oxford tutorials than raw power.
And it will take power to counter SuperTrump. If the Democrats have lost their power mode, what about Elon Musk’s new political party? Can the world’s richest man regain his DOGE mojo to threaten SuperTrump and his MAGA following? Or Zohran Mambani and democratic socialists? Can the possible future mayor of New York join Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders to find the right kryptonite to stop SuperTrump?
SuperTrump exists in DJT’s dreams with his MAGA followers. When SuperTrump boasts that “This has been the best two weeks – has anybody ever had a better two weeks than this?” the virtual must be separated from reality. A recent poll, for example, showed that only 29% of voters approved BBB; Iran’s nuclear sites were not obliterated.
Donald Trump’s super two weeks have ended. SuperTrump is an illusion. It will take real power, not virtual kryptonite or Project 2029 to stop him.
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