Everything is getting worse, but the country hasn’t collapsed. This is all by design. Donald Trump is a useful idiot for the people behind the scenes and Project 2025, most notably Russell Vought. The Trump administration is using the nation’s finances like a personal piggy bank for themselves and large corporations while gutting agencies that provide critical services. The misconception is that Trump is driving things into the ground. He’s not. He’s just making things so shitty that the corporate state looks good in compari...
Everything is getting worse, but the country hasn’t collapsed. This is all by design. Donald Trump is a useful idiot for the people behind the scenes and Project 2025, most notably Russell Vought. The Trump administration is using the nation’s finances like a personal piggy bank for themselves and large corporations while gutting agencies that provide critical services. The misconception is that Trump is driving things into the ground. He’s not. He’s just making things so shitty that the corporate state looks good in comparison.
Resources
ProPublica: “Their Entire Apparatus Is Exposed to Our Strategy”
ProPublica: “We Want the Bureaucrats to Be Traumatically Affected”
Yahoo: This Trump Official Promised To Traumatize Federal Workers — Watch His Words Come Back To Haunt Him
The New York Times: Two Dead and Scores Rescued as Flooding Engulfs Central Texas
IMF: World Economic Outlook Update, July 2026: Global Economy in Crosscurrents of War and Technology
ProPublica: “Put Them in Trauma”: Inside a Key MAGA Leader’s Plans for a New Trump Agenda
The New York Times: Why Silicon Valley’s Most Powerful People Are So Obsessed With Hobbits
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Consumer Price Index Summary - 2026 M06 Results
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Producer Price Index News Release summary - 2026 M06 Results
U.S. News: Trump Administration’s Changes to the CFPB Cost Americans $19B, a New Report Says
KFF: In Preliminary Rate Filings, ACA Marketplace Insurers Largely Propose Double-Digit Premium Increase For 2027, Following a Steep Climb This Year
National Association of Realtors: NAR Pending Home Sales Report Shows 5.4% Decrease in June
The New York Times: Cyclospora Cases Rise Rapidly, With No Source Yet Confirmed
The New Yorker: The Human Cost of DOGE’s War on U.S.A.I.D.
The Washington Post: The gaps in CDC’s public health data are creating dangerous blind spots
Axios: Measurement tweaks will make inflation data look better
UNFTR Resources
Episode: “Russputin” and the Tsar.
Episode: Project 2025.
Video: U.S. Financials in Free Fall | Graham, McConnell, and the Strait of Hormuz
Video: Trump Is a Useful Idiot for the People Behind the Scenes.
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