‘I’m Not Giving It Up.’
Reading Trump’s mind on staying in power, and some free advice for Zohran Mamdani.
Must be something in the water at Bulwark HQ—Bill and Mona ended up on flights of fancy in today’s newsletter, which we trust you’ll enjoy. But we’d be remiss not to mention right up top that the House is back in session today to vote to reopen the government—which means Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva will be seated at last, a cool seven weeks after she was elected. Happy Wednesday.
Reading Trump’s Mind
by William Kristol
You know what I like, late at night here in the White House? I like looking out at where that boring East Wing was. Joe Biden probably loved that place. Jill, too. I snapped my fingers, and it’s gone. Gone! Rubble! Now that’s power.
And we’ve got the great Donald J. Trump Ballroom going up in its place. And we’ll have the Donald J. Trump Triumphal Arch just over the bridge. And the Donald J. Trump Commanders Football Stadium. And Dulles—who the hell was Dulles? Apparently there were two brothers? It doesn’t matter. That will now be the Donald J. Trump International Airport. Now that’s greatness.
And it’s only the beginning.
Those other presidents, sure—they were a big deal. They were famous. They were important. But they tiptoed around. Their people told them they couldn’t do this and they couldn’t do that. That’s the difference with me. I’m in charge. I send the troops into the cities. I blow up the narco boats. I put on tariffs and take them off. I got all the business guys, the creeps who used to look down on me, groveling for favors. I got loyal people all around me who do what I say.
I’m the biggest boss in the whole goddamn world. I’m the most powerful president in our whole goddamn history.
And here’s the thing: I’m not giving it up. No way.
Remember that ad Dick Cheney had in Wyoming before we crushed his daughter in the primary? The one where he said, “In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump”? I had Natalie print that out.
Cheney was bad news, but he was a smart guy. What he said was right. Except he didn’t realize it was a compliment. I’m not a threat to the republic. I am the republic. What did that French guy say? ‘L’etat, c’est me?’ The republic is me.
Some of the other presidents before me dreamed of doing it. Nixon sure did. Roy used to say that Nixon came kinda close—but he still believed in some stupid rules. He couldn’t quite get it done. I’m gonna.
During that first term, I didn’t understand then how much I could do. That I could get away with it all. Now I get it.
We tried to make it happen at the end of 2020. But we weren’t organized and didn’t have a plan. This time is different. We are organized. And we got the plan.
It’s amazing people don’t see this. They write these analyses of what I’m doing, and they all miss the point. The point is 2028. The Times—man has that paper gone downhill!—had some big piece over the weekend that the guys showed me. Front page on Saturday: “Unusual Purges of Top Officers In the Military. Hegseth’s Moves Create an Air of Mistrust.”
The piece goes on and on about how “unpredictable” Pete’s being, and how he’s creating “anxiety,” and there are retired generals quoted expressing “concern” about him. It’s all idiotic. It’s not Pete. It’s me. Pete can’t handle a group chat. He’s not making all this happen! I am. And you know what’s never mentioned in the piece? 2028!
It’s like the articles about the huge increase in size of ICE and the DHS recruitment ads. The commentators say, “Those are rough guys they’re recruiting. Maybe even ‘white nationalists.’” No shit. But you know what those guys are going to be? Not just rough guys. Trump guys. My guys.
Just like the generals are going to be my generals. And just like the Department of Justice is going to be—ha, who am I kidding, already is—my Department of Justice. And Mike Johnson is my speaker. And the Fed’s going to be my Fed, so we can goose the economy before the ’28 election. And more and more of the media’s going to be my media (Viktor and I had a good talk about that on Friday). And the trillions I’ll have made from all the crypto bullshit will be my money that I can spend, if I have to, to keep everyone in line and make sure I win.
I’m not giving all this up. I’m staying in this White House. In my White House. You think I’ve done all this remodeling just to move out?
So we’re getting things in place. In 2027, when I start to make clear I’m running again, there’ll be some squeaking and hand-wringing. But I can get everyone on our side on board easily enough. And the Supreme Court, my court, isn’t going to enforce that stupid amendment. And I’ll start talking about FDR’s four terms, and how the country needed that then, and how we need Trump now.
You know, it’s funny, Dad really hated FDR. Dad always called him ‘Franklin D. Rosenfelt’ and said he was really Jewish. Roy Cohn said Dad was wrong about that. I guess he would have known. But FDR is really a big guy in the history books.
Right now, I’ve won and lost and then won again. I’m like that guy Grover Cleveland. Who the hell remembers him? They named some crummy city after him. I don’t want to be like Grover Cleveland. I want to be like FDR.
Actually, you know what? I’m gonna go beyond FDR. I’m gonna go past them all. Dad used to say to me: “You’re a king.” I’m getting there. Dad wasn’t a big reader, but he liked this line from Shakespeare. “All the world’s a stage, and you gotta be the biggest guy on it.”
That’s me.
Free Advice for Zohran
by Mona Charen
I’m no Zohran Mamdani fan and, as such, I’m not inclined to give him advice. But I would suggest that when an opportunity is staring you in the face, you’d be foolish to let it pass.
After taking the oath of office January 1, 2026, Mandani should declare a state of emergency. That gives the mayor all kinds of powers, just as Trump’s invocation of national emergencies has been the bogus basis for tariffs, military deployments to American cities, the designation of Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, sanctions against the International Criminal Court, declaring Brazil a national security threat, and murderous strikes on vessels at sea.
Equipped with emergency powers, Mayor Mamdani should use eminent domain to seize the Trump Organization. Its revenues would help fund free buses and free child care for New Yorkers. While he’s at it, Mamdani should also take ownership of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue and Trump World Tower on United Nations Plaza. Eminent domain permits governments to seize private property when there is a bona fide public purpose. Trump Tower has 263 residential condos that could be transformed into low-income housing. Trump World Tower has even more space: 376 apartments. The city is facing a housing affordability crisis, is it not? It’s an emergency!
To be sure, the NY government would have to pay “just compensation” to Trump for the loss of the property. But he’d probably be taking a haircut. Business Insider reported that Trump branded properties have seen a 49 percent drop in average price per square foot since 2013. Trump himself would lose the 10,000 square foot apartment (which he claimed was 30,000 square feet), which is very sad. But one of the people who lives there is an immigrant, so Mayor Mamdani could note that his action is consistent with the president’s policy of making immigrants’ lives miserable.
This isn’t the only page Mamdani should take from the Trump playbook. The new mayor might also want to empower his Business Integrity Commission to investigate whether Stephen Schwarzman, Howard Lutnick, John Catsimatidis, Charles Kushner, Bill Ackman, or a host of other wealthy New York Trump backers has any history of mortgage fraud, tax delinquency, or other shenanigans. Why let Bill Pulte be the only game in town?
And if Trump were to threaten to withhold federal funds to New York, Mayor Mamdani could announce that he is exploring whether to stop sending tax revenues to the feds. Rules, laws, and procedures are for cucks, after all.
Trump would surely object that 1) the state of emergency is fake; and 2) this is a gross abuse of government authority, to which the obvious reply is: You don’t say??? Government in a well-functioning democracy is not the plaything of one man. It is not intended to be used to protect one’s friends or target one’s foes. Mamdani would be exceeding his rightful authority. Yup.
An enraged Trump would sue to stop this gross violation of his rights. But while the suits (in both senses of the word) are wending their way through the courts, Mamdani should just send the bulldozers to Trump Tower and get busy reducing it to dust. The current tower is unsuitable for low-income housing. The city of New York could fit many more units in that space. And while he’s at it, he can rename the street it’s on. “E. Jean Carroll Boulevard” has a nice ring to it.
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AROUND THE BULWARK
It’s Time to Pivot to 2026 Election Security… Don’t underestimate how Trump and his allies will attempt to control the outcome of the midterms, MONA CHAREN writes.
Nuking the Filibuster Is Still on the Menu… In Press Pass, JOE PERTICONE highlights that the deal to reopen the government isn’t enough for Trump’s most loyal Senate Republicans.
‘Peace Through Trump’ in Ukraine? Don’t Count on It. Trump rolled out the red carpet. Putin rolls out new missiles, observes CATHY YOUNG.
Here Is How an Obamacare Deal Might Actually Work… A compromise on subsidies is possible—but not if Republicans are determined to resurrect their repeal agenda. JONATHAN COHN has this dispatch in The Breakdown.
Quick Hits
KEEPING THE BLOOD OFF THEIR HANDS: We’ve got another blinking light on the dashboard of international relations and another opportunity to consider the unpleasant answer to the question: “Are we the baddies?” CNN reports that the United Kingdom has stopped sharing intelligence with the United States about Caribbean boats suspected of trafficking drugs “because it does not want to be complicit in US military strikes and believes the attacks are illegal.”
For years, the UK, which controls a number of territories in the Caribbean where it bases intelligence assets, has helped the US locate vessels suspected of carrying drugs so that the US Coast Guard could interdict them, the sources said. That meant the ships would be stopped, boarded, its crew detained, and drugs seized. . . .
But shortly after the US began launching lethal strikes against the boats in September, however, the UK grew concerned that the US might use intelligence provided by the British to select targets. British officials believe the US military strikes, which have killed 76 people, violate international law, the sources said. The intelligence pause began over a month ago, they said.
SHOOTING THE WHISTLEBLOWER: With everything else going on, the late-October news of the firings of about a dozen internal watchdogs at Fannie May didn’t make much of a splash. Now, however, the Wall Street Journal has more alarming reporting on this story. The officials who were fired had been probing whether Bill Pulte, Trump’s hatchet man at the federal mortgage agency, had improperly accessed agency documents in order to dig up dirt on Trump opponents like New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Fannie’s ethics and investigations group had received internal complaints alleging senior officials had improperly directed staff to access the mortgage documents of James and others, according to the people. The Fannie investigators were probing to find out who had made the orders, whether Pulte had the authority to seek the documents and whether or not they had followed proper procedure, the people said.
That group elevated the probe about the James documents to the more senior Office of Inspector General for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the agency that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and that Pulte heads, the people said. The acting inspector general then passed the report to the U.S. attorney’s office in eastern Virginia, some of the people said.
That office, under the leadership of a Trump-appointed interim U.S. attorney, Lindsey Halligan, had brought a criminal case alleging mortgage fraud against James. A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office hasn’t responded to a request for comment.
That’s the topsy-turvy world we live in now. Agency watchdogs, following the usual protocols, look into internal complaints that the boss is indulging in unsavory conduct for political gain at the behest of his boss, the president. They then elevate their findings to the relevant federal prosecutor—who, as it turns out, is another presidential bootlicker. Their investigation is promptly deep-sixed, and the suspicious characters responsible for carrying it out are promptly shown the door.
A small, self-serving suggestion: next time, bring your findings to The Bulwark. We’ve got a secure tip box.
MEGAMILLIONAIRES IN CONTROL: Yet another day on the interesting-ethics-dilemmas beat in today’s Washington: The New York Times reports on the IRS’s longtime effort to crack down on a legal loophole many hedge funders use to avoid paying millions of dollars in self-employment taxes—an effort they’re now moving away from under Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who stands to pocket nearly a million dollars if the IRS ultimately decides not to enforce. Here’s the Times:
Like many firms on Wall Street, Mr. Bessent’s hedge fund, Key Square Capital Management, was set up as a limited partnership. Through that structure, Mr. Bessent avoided paying roughly $910,000 in Medicare taxes on money he made running his hedge fund in 2021, 2022 and 2023, according to a memorandum prepared by Democratic Senate staff for Mr. Bessent’s confirmation hearing in January. . . .
Mr. Bessent’s decision to not pay the additional tax has now put him in the unusual spot of personally opposing — and having a personal stake in — how the I.R.S. interprets tax law. And since he took office, the Treasury and I.R.S. have backed away from developing regulations to address it.
Under the Biden administration, the I.R.S. and Treasury made it a goal to curb the ability of firm owners to avoid paying self-employment taxes like Mr. Bessent did. In 2023 and 2024, they included the issue on a public list of priorities for further guidance or regulation.
When the Trump administration put out its tax regulation proposals last month, developing plans for collecting more self-employment taxes from owners of limited partnerships was no longer on the list. A Treasury spokesman said the new proposals for regulations — called the Priority Guidance Plan, or P.G.P. — was focused on “burden-reduction initiatives” and implementing the tax law Republicans passed over the summer.
Cheap Shots
This tweet is nine days old, and Rep. Nancy Mace is still fighting with the Charleston Airport:
Cute, but reading Trump's mind is like a do-it-yourself colonoscopy.
Thanks Mona, now you are singing from the Christopher Armitage hymnal - and it is beautiful music!! US "Blue" states and cities: STOP SENDING TAX REVENUES TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. Put it in an escrow account and force the Fed to prove that they are spending the money (OUR money) via the agreed to appropriations (aka: The Law). Let the "Red" taker states sink under the weight of their own mismanagement, corruption and hatreds.