As he begins preparations for his second term in office, Donald Trump is facing a dilemma that could doom his presidency immediately, leading to a collapse of his administration and a massive blowback from voters.
That’s the warning from Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post, who notes that Trump and his top advisers are in a no-win situation.
“He could, for example, enact draconian, across-the-board tariffs; begin massive roundups and deportations of law-abiding ‘dreamers;’ repeal the Affordable Care Act and major bipartisan legislation passed under President Joe Biden; and enact a new round of massive tax cuts for big corporations and wealthy individuals.”
However, if that’s the road Trump chooses to take, he would “make himself extremely unpopular, induce economic and social chaos, and create political problems for his party in the 2026 midterms,” Rubin adds.
Keep in mind that Trump tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2017. That led to the GOP losing badly in the 2018 midterm elections.
The very same thing could happen again, this time with the issue of immigration, Rubin continues.
“Nothing was as near and dear to the hearts of legions of white supremacists and aggrieved MAGA supporters looking for a scapegoat for their economic ills.
“That said, the price tag could be in the hundreds of billions; a dragnet of this size would require a sweeping police state, deprive Americans of millions of workers, upset economic progress, and create images as devastating as those we saw during the child separation debacle (which, if you recall, he eventually had to abandon).”
However, the immigration issue is a major priority for many hardliners in the Republican Party, meaning Trump will have no choice but to start down a path that could quickly backfire on him.
Rubin explains: “A false start and failure could well color the remainder of his presidency, leaving him politically weakened, reviled, and coping with a self-made economic crisis.”
There’s also the matter of tariffs, which could send the U.S. economy into a tailspin.
“Trump can choose to follow his radical ideological backers or he can choose to be politically and economically successful. He cannot do both,” Rubin concludes.
Given that Trump has never been good at making the right choices when it comes to governing and building coalitions, the chances of his self-immolation would appear almost guaranteed.
