Fridays in Trumpland: 5.9.2025
Standing on Unstable Ground
This week, I had an encounter with a bully.
It concerned a contract that had already been signed between myself and another party, where others had had the chance to bid for the contract, and I was the top pick.
The contract was already signed when the bully, who had also bid for the contract, returned to the other party to offer a better price.
I was a little amazed by this to be honest, given that the bidding process had been one where the terms of the bidding mandated that there was to be no negotiation after bids were submitted for the work. But as the bully did his thing, I sat, and waited, to see whether the other party would relent.
Thankfully, the other party said no, sorry, we’re already under contract, no can do– at least at first.
But the bully was unsatisfied. He returned, again and again, and for the final time in the middle of the night, and undercut my number to a point that I would have been stupid to meet it.
The other party, who until this point had seemed quite honorable and decent, caved to the bully.
No matter that we had a signed contract. No matter that I was the better person for the contract for a variety of reasons. No matter that I had already agreed to terms that were very, very generous.
The other party caved anyway, simply because the bully would not relent until he got what he wanted.
The entire experience was one of waiting to see if what seemed done, final, steady, would in fact collapse at the hands of someone who was insistent on making it happen just to satisfy his own aims, and it was unnerving to say the least.
If this sounds familiar to you, it should.
It is the model by which Trump has essentially run his entire life. He wants what he wants, no matter how crazy, and he will run right over everyone, no matter the cost, no matter the law, no matter what promises have been made and what ones have to be broken, to get it.
I’m still not quite over the way this all reflected in my own life this week, and the way it roadmapped onto so many other things that happened in the last seven days.
For instance, Kristi Noem saying under oath that DHS would never under any circumstances effectuate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to his family, while at the same time claiming she was complying with a Supreme Court order to the contrary. The bully wants what it wants.
For instance, the new acting head of FEMA, David Richardson, berating staff this morning, saying he was there to enact Trump’s agenda, and threatening “don’t get in my way . . . I will run right over you.” The bully wants what it wants.
For instance, Trump threatening toy manufacturer Mattel with tariffs (a real WTF moment) because he thinks American kids have too many dolls. The bully wants what it wants.
This regime wants what he wants, no matter how crazy or illegal, and it will do anything to get it.
It is the experience of the daily unsteady ground that is the current cause of my exhaustion at the moment (and yours too, I expect).
I miss consistency and reliability and trust. I miss not having to think about the minutiae of the social safety net every minute. I miss having confidence that a whole democracy can’t just crumble in a few months.
As I write this, a hearing is underway in the District Court for the District of Vermont concerning whether Rumeysa Öztürk, the Tufts student kidnapped off the street by ICE for writing an op-ed, should be released. While she should be, and in this court that last week ordered the release of Mohsen Mahdawi, she likely will be, the uncertainty for thousands of others remains, with more added to the detention ranks daily. (UPDATE: Öztürk has been ordered immediately released from detention.) It’s hard to fathom the totality of the suffering, if you can even bear to stop and think about it.
And the Supreme Court, after ordering Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return from the El Salvador slave labor concentration camp known as CECOT, turned around this week and upheld Trump’s ban on trans soldiers in the US military, despite a lower court order that established beyond question that the ban was discriminatory and meritless.
Nothing feels stable any longer, and every win is met, with record speed, with a concomitant loss.
All I can say this week is that we should find vestiges of safety right now where we can, and we should keep moving, and moving together. When the ground beneath your feet is shaky, continuing to move toward safety is the only option.
Our obligation is to continue to fight, and to fight to thrive and to save lives, no matter what the bully does.
And if you too are exhausted this week, please rest. These are extremely challenging times.
May we find solidarity and safety in one another.
See you next week.
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Perfect examples of bullying. The current regime thinks it can coerce us to do anything, through lying, forcing, running over us, ignoring us and ignoring the courts. We must continue to push back. Hard. In the courts, through Congress, through our local reps and Senators. Call it out. It's exhausting work. But we can't give up and obey in advance. And we have numbers behind us.
This an exhausting marathon on so many levels, for so many people. My friends and family are all in various states of the fatigue. I try to rest as often as possible, and yet still push back. I value your newsletter, and your patreon group, and your videos, as they continue to inform and uplift me. There is light all around us. Thank you for being a part of that.