Trump is more delusional, dangerous and corrupt than during his first term

Yahoo

20-05-2025

It has become very apparent that President Donald Trump is intentionally looking for every opportunity to enrich himself financially this time around, even at the expense of our country. In his first term, he was given some guardrails by the Republican Party. Not having any experience as a public leader, he usually deferred to the norms of how our democracy worked in the past. But this time? Trump selected a completely unqualified Cabinet that swore its allegiance to him. The Republican Party has consistently shown it will not go on record or vote to stop him (except for a few brave souls like Rand Paul). They see exactly what Trump is doing.
To make matters worse, the United States Supreme Court gave Trump a pass by ruling the president cannot be held liable for many of the illegal things he might do. Trump sees this as his green light to do whatever he wants to make himself wealthier and more powerful this time around.
From the Qatar "sky palace" to the crypto meme coin, to cozying up to Saudi Arabia to further his Middle East financial relationships, the amount of corruption in the first four months of his term is staggering and unprecedented.
More: Ohio's Rep. Warren Davidson introduces bill to study 'Trump Derangement Syndrome'
Those of us who voted against him knew what was at risk. Despite Trump saying he knew nothing of Project 2025 (reshaping our government to give more power to the executive branch), it is reported that 40% of this authoritarian movement has already happened. We simply cannot wait until January 2027 for Democrats to take the House of Representatives to address what is going on.
The American people need to show more outrage and badger their representatives and senators nonstop until they grow a spine and stand up to this man. Our Ohio senators are useless. They admit nothing about Trump's corrupt actions. When you write to them, you get a form letter back.
U.S. Rep Warren Davidson is even worse. His website says he has introduced the "Trump Derangement Syndrome Research Act." (I wish I were joking.) He implies we need to understand the irrational, intense hostility towards Trump. I can save Davidson a lot of time and trouble: We see through Trump.
We knew Trump was a selfish narcissist even before he ran for president. From not paying his share of taxes to defrauding charities to other personal scandals, we knew Trump was a conman with little empathy for others. He has always gotten his way in life, being handed his fortune from his father.
He has shown us that he is corrupt; everything is a transaction for him to benefit from. He consistently lies and has no concerns over violating his oath of office.
We are embarrassed that we have a man who says things like "immigrants are eating cats and dogs" as our leader. Our world is suffering greatly from the impacts of climate change, yet this man signs an executive order to "bring back coal." Someone who would not serve in the military himself wants to spend $45 million on a military parade for his birthday.
We are sickened that he has alienated our allies and pals around with other corrupt authoritarian leaders. We are disgusted that he would pardon violent Jan. 6 offenders. The list goes on and on.
I have Trump supporters in my family and can say confidently that they are not well informed. They do not know what he has done, what he has said. They believe many of his lies, and they will not do a deep dive to understand what is really going on in our government. He promised them a better economy, but now admits himself we may have to do with less. He doesn't care since he is benefiting.
So, this is not an irrational, intense hostility that we have. This is our country. This is our future and the future of our children. We see it quickly fading away.
Informed and honest Americans do not like leaders who repeatedly lie and show us they are in it for themselves. Jimmy Carter had to sell his peanut farm, but Trump can rake in the tens of millions with these schemes? That does not even include the on-again-off-again tariffs and their impact on the stock market. (Trump had said he loves it when the stock market is down because then he can buy low and make more money.) We will never know how much he made on that scam.
There's an obvious reason Trump was impeached twice, and we cannot ever forget who this man is. Unfortunately, he is more delusional and dangerous than the first term, and there are no strong, ethical Republicans left willing to stand up to him. Trump supporters must start to realize they are not going to get what they were promised, and Americans need to pay closer attention to whom they are voting for.
The writing was on the wall, but voters clearly failed to read it.
Cindy Johnson lives in Cheviot.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: The real Trump Derangement Syndrome belongs to Republicans | Opinion