Flipping the script on Trump

September 25, 2025

In less than a week, Democrats and those who value democracy have flipped the script on Trump on multiple fronts. Trump is on his back foot, trying to spin defeats and retreats as victories, which makes Trump look pathetic, desperate, and weak.

A week ago, Republicans were using the tragic killing of Charlie Kirk as a cudgel to censor Democrats. Through missteps and miscalculations, Trump converted that tragedy-fueled attack on Democrats to a petty vendetta against comedians who dared to criticize Trump. In the process, he managed to portray himself as a sore loser and provoked the ire of the American people, who felt that their free speech rights were under attack.

The same dynamic is repeating itself on other issues: The weaponization of the DOJ against James Comey, the showdown over the economy, the release of the Epstein files, the scandal of Trump’s border czar accepting $50,000 in cash, the collapse of farm exports because of tariffs, and more.

Does the shift in the political dynamic matter?

YES!

Trump alone is nothing. He relies on frightened subordinates and cowardly Republicans to do his bidding. The more he loses, the less of a threat he is. The more he loses, the bigger loser he is. Like it or not, people do not want to support a loser.

Most importantly, Trump’s losses remove the aura of invincibility he peddles to supporters and opponents alike. His string of losses over the last week proves that we can beat Trump, his enablers, and his corporate sponsors. We are doing so every day, and we can do so in the future.

It will not be easy. It will require discipline and sacrifice on our part. A week ago, many in the resistance were anxious and in despair. We endured a tough week. But we did not quit. We exercised our collective muscle memory to break Trump’s grip on Disney.

In a week, we flipped the script. The pendulum will reverse several times before 2026, but the events of the last seven days teach us that we should not quit, no matter how bleak the outlook. Give Trump a couple of days, and he can turn any advantage into a debacle. So long as we don’t quit, we will be standing by to convert Trump’s missteps into our advantage.

Trump will attempt to indict James Comey—a lose-lose proposition.

Trump is so intent on indicting former FBI director James Comey that he fired the acting US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, nominated by Trump in May. Trump replaced a career prosecutor with his “assistant,” Lindsey Halligan, who has never tried a case in her short career as a junior lawyer. Her only qualifications for the job as US Attorney are that (a) she looks like a Fox News anchor, and (b) she will attempt to indict James Comey without regard to the law, facts, or her ethical obligations.

But it gets worse. Assistant US attorneys in the Eastern District of Virginia are in open rebellion. When Lindsey Halligan walked into the Eastern District offices, she was given a memo by career prosecutors urging her to decline prosecution of James Comey. See MSNBC, Former FBI Director James Comey facing indictment threat.

Trump and Halligan will ignore the judgment of the career prosecutors and attempt to indict Comey nonetheless. As explained by MSNBC,

On Wednesday evening, MSNBC learned that the Justice Department’s plan to indict James Comey encountered a last-minute roadblock earlier this week, when line prosecutors presented President Trump’s newly installed U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia with a memo suggesting their case against the former FBI director is too weak to pursue.

Two sources familiar with the case said the memo explained why prosecutors lack sufficient evidence to convince a grand jury to indict Comey, but U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan can overrule their recommendation.

The high likelihood is that the sources of the MSNBC reporting are the career prosecutors who are urging Halligan not to indict Comey.

Regardless of the source, the reporting puts Trump in a lose–lose position.

He loses if Halligan cannot convince a grand jury to indict Comey for allegedly lying to Congress in 2020. Such a loss will be another humiliating defeat for Trump. Several grand juries have refused to indict protesters falsely accused of assaulting ICE officers during immigration raids. Refusals to indict by grand juries are rare occurrences—except in the Trump administration, which suggests that flimsy cases are being brought by politically motivated prosecutors. See, e.g., The New Republic, Trump Prosecutors Fail Three Times to Indict D.C. Woman at ICE Arrest.

And Trump loses if Halligan manages to secure a weak indictment from a compliant grand jury. Given the public reporting on this matter, there is a high likelihood that the case will be dismissed on grounds of selective prosecution or prosecutorial misconduct at the first opportunity. See Raw Story, ‘Looks like selective prosecution’: Lawyer warns DOJ may have already botched Comey case.

And if the case is tried, the high likelihood is that Comey will be found “not guilty.”

While Trump doesn’t care about conviction (because he views the burden of defending against the indictment as payback), the public will see the exoneration of James Comey as a major loss for Trump.

Any rational actor would refrain from seeking the indictment of James Comey because it is a lose-lose proposition. But Trump is not rational. Far from it.

Trump is already losing the messaging battle over the upcoming partial shutdown

Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries may have outmaneuvered Trump on the messaging battle over the upcoming shutdown. Schumer and Jefferies wisely bypassed Congress and sought to take the negotiations directly to Trump. Given Trump’s desire to control everything, he readily agreed to a meeting with Schumer and Jefferies.

Trump then abruptly backed out of the meeting without providing any explanation—until Wednesday. Trump now says that he canceled the meeting with Democrats because they were (allegedly) going to make the following demands (in Trump’s own words, although I have organized them to make reading easier):

• Create Transgender operations for everybody;

• Have dead people on the Medicaid roles [sic];

• No Consequences for Violent Criminals;

• Force our Country to open our Borders to Criminals and to the World;

• Allow men to play in women’s sports;

• Allow Illegal Alien Criminals to steal Billions of Dollars in American Taxpayer Benefits

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that the above list is NOT what Democrats are demanding in exchange for their support for a continuing resolution.

Someone with modest curiosity could easily locate this letter from Rep. Jeffries and Senator Schumer: Jeffries, Schumer Demand Trump Meet To Address Gop Government Shutdown And Healthcare Crisis

The “demands” in the letter are as follows:

[W]e will not support a dirty spending bill that continues the Republican assault on healthcare which includes devastating Medicaid and Medicare cuts; skyrocketing premiums, co-pays, and deductibles; the refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits; unprecedented attacks on medical research and the public health system; the suppression of vaccine availability; and the forced closure of hospitals, nursing homes and community-based health clinics nationwide.

Nothing about open borders, immunity for criminals, men playing women’s sports, transgender operations for everybody, or dead people receiving Medicaid benefits.

Trump wants to be in charge but doesn’t want to do the work. So, he makes up ludicrous claims that no one believes.

Trump smells of desperation and clammy sweat.

One step closer to release of the Epstein files

Adelita Grijalva won a special election in Arizona to succeed her late father in representing the 7th Congressional District. See Arizona special election: Who is Democrat Adelita Grijalva; wins seat, becomes first Latina in Congress.

Representative Grijalva’s victory is significant on several fronts:

• She will be the first Latina in Congress;¹

• She “overperformed” in her expected margin of victory, outpacing Kamala Harris’s margin in the district in 2024 by 17 percentage points; and

• She is the final signature needed on the discharge petition to force a vote on the House floor to release the Epstein files. See Alternet, ‘Final Epstein vote secured’: Here are 3 crucial election takeaways.

While the first two points are significant, the fact that Grijalva’s election will force a vote on the release of the Epstein files is a significant victory for Democrats and the handful of Republicans demanding transparency and justice for the Epstein victims.

When the floor vote occurs, Republicans will be forced to vote for or against transparency in a case involving the sex trafficking and rape of minor girls. Most Republicans will remain loyal to Trump and vote against the passage of the legislation sponsored by Representative Thomas Massie. The bill, H.R.4405 Epstein Files Transparency Act, will then go to the Senate for a vote—where it is almost certainly likely to fail (due to the filibuster).

But Trump is about to lose control of the narrative, just as Speaker Mike Johnson is losing control of the Republican caucus. This is another big setback for Trump that will overlap entirely with the shutdown caused by Trump’s inability to make a deal with Democrats that is fair to the American people.

US grain and soybean sales to China collapse

China is the leading market for grain and soybean sales to the US. As a result of Trump’s tariffs, those sales have fallen off a cliff. See Raw Story, ‘No sign of Chinese buying’: Trump credited for ‘devastating’ US farmers’ soybeans market​

Per Raw Story,

President Donald Trump’s tariffs have decimated U.S. farmers’ soybean market and there is “no sign of Chinese buying.”

The fall harvest has started without any orders from China, the world’s biggest buyer, according to a new report published on agriculture.com’s Successful Farming.

American farmers are reporting record yields for crops this fall but it’s unclear who will buy them. The USDA estimates that American farmers are harvesting 4.3 billion bushels, however there is no indication if or when shipments to China will continue. Most years, China buys more than half of U.S. soybean exports — but not this year.

China has also completely halted purchases of US corn—a strategy that it adopted as soon as Trump was inaugurated. (Trump started a trade war with China in his first term, so China began its retaliatory slow-down in January 2025.) See World Grain, (4/21/2025) Report: China halts US corn, soybean orders.

The White House is deflecting criticism by saying that it will pay farmers for losses suffered as a result of Trump’s tariffs. See Fortune Magazine, Trump may use tariff revenue to bail out farmers, agriculture secretary says. They’re reeling from challenges caused by the levies to begin with.

Opportunities for Reader Engagement

Join me on Thursday to help register high school seniors with the Civics Center

Reminder: I will host a fundraiser on Thursday, September 25, at 4:00 p.m. PT/7:00 p.m. ET with the Civics Center to promote high school senior registration. Details and sign up here.

Make your voice heard regarding a drastic re-organization of the Department of Agriculture

I received the following note from a reader regarding a massive reorganization of the Department of Agriculture that will hamper its effectiveness and reach:

The deadline of September 30 for commenting on US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins disastrous plan to reorganize and radically overhaul the entire U.S. Department of Agriculture is just days away. The Plan, as outlined in a memo, here, was concocted without consultation with stakeholders, including Congress, farmers, ranchers, states, tribes, or the public/communities that depend on and enjoy our National Forests.

Could you encourage your readers to comment by email at reorganiation@USDA.gov simply asking that USDA pause the reorganization until proper consultation can take place and the impacts of the planned reorganization are demonstrated?

The planned reorganization includes moving more than half of the 4600 DC staff to a reduced number of regional offices. USDA has already suffered significant staff losses (reportedly 20,000) through DOGE cuts and the deferred resignation program. The reorganization would dismantle the Child and Adult Care Food Program putting our most vulnerable families at risk of food insecurity and gut USDA’s research programs. As an environmentalist, I am deeply concerned with the impact of the planned reorganization on the US Forest Service.

Concluding Thoughts

I can hear and feel the increasing enthusiasm of readers as we lean into the next “No Kings Day” protests on October 18, 2025. Jill and I plan to be in Concord, MA, for No Kings Day—where the American Revolution began! Stay tuned for details.

But more importantly, begin your planning for the next round of mass protests. Who knows? We may be protesting the ongoing shutdown of the government by Trump.

We are living through anxious times, and action is the antidote to anxiety. We will make it through this difficult period as long as we do not give up. But if we do more, we will shorten the period of chaos and uncertainty by being active participants in the effort to redeem democracy.

So, let’s follow in the footsteps of the first American revolutionaries by taking to the streets on October 18, 2025!

Talk to you tomorrow!

Protest Photos

Below: Indivisble, San Jose

Below: Indivisible Mid-Penn Action Fair

A note from a reader regarding a “pop-up” protest greeting Robert Kennedy: We had a pop-up protest yesterday when RFK Jr. came to Aquinnah to meet with Native Americans. We had one “greeting” when he arrived at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport and another in Aquinnah with an estimated hundred people. Both protests were organized on very short notice and deemed very encouraging.

Below: Dublin, CA

Daily Dose of Perspective

The open star cluster, NGC 6604, sits in the middle of the image below. The space surrounding the star cluster is filled with diffuse gas and dust. Lonely stars in the vastness of space.

On the top right edge of the image, you can see a portion of the more famous Eagle Nebula.

1. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban American woman, was elected to Congress in 1989. See Ileana Ros-Lehtinen - Wikipedia.