The Dictatorship
Democrats’ ‘President Musk’ strategy wasn’t subtle — but it worked
When Democrats began referring to Elon Musk as “President Musk,” their goal was transparent: get under the skin of an insecure president-elect by saying Musk holds the real power in their relationship. The strategy wasn’t subtle, but it worked just as intended. Speaking at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest conference in Phoenix on Sunday, Donald Trump couldn’t help rebutting the claim that anyone but him is in charge. “He’s not going to be president, that I can tell you,” Trump said. “And I’m safe. You know why he can’t be? He wasn’t born in this country.”
You never need a Ph.D. in psychology to understand Trump’s motives and fears; he puts them right on the surface. His almost comical obsession with showing everyone how strong and manly he is — in this case, insisting that he couldn’t possibly be under the thumb of the world’s richest man — plainly derives from a terror that people will see him as weak. But just days before he’s about to take power, that’s exactly what he is.
Look at what happened in Trump’s return to legislative dealmaking. As Congress moved to avert a shutdown to begin his second term, Trump failed to get what he wanted at every step.
Again and again Trump’s ham-handed attempts at strength only wind up looking weak.
It began with a bipartisan deal that would fund the government through March, giving the new Republican Congress time to craft tax and budget bills to its (and Trump’s) liking. But after Musk posted his opposition to the deal, Trump rushed to say he, too, was opposed to it.
After the deal collapsed, Trump then tried to avoid a debt ceiling increase in his first year, a move designed to limit leverage for both Democrats and anti-government members of his own party. First he called for the debt ceiling to be abolishedbut when House Republicans wouldn’t go for that, he pivoted to suggesting it be suspended for two years. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., dutifully offered a new funding bill with that provision — and it went down to defeat as 38 Republicans voted no.
When a spending bill finally passed Friday, it didn’t include the debt limit suspension Trump had demanded. As NBC News reported“On Wednesday, Trump had threatened to primary ‘Any Republican’ who voted for a funding bill without a debt limit extension; on Friday, 170 House Republicans did just that.”
This pattern — Trump makes demands, Congress says no, Trump does nothing — was precisely what characterized his legislative efforts in his first term. There wasn’t a single instance in which he bent Congress to his will or negotiated his way to a win when the outcome was in doubt. His only significant legislative accomplishment was the 2017 tax cut for the wealthy — a foregone conclusion given that Republicans controlled both houses. By contrast, among his blunders was the longest government shutdown in history, which ended only when he caved and gave up his demand for funding for a border wall.
That’s not to say Trump can’t exert control over his party or successfully punish those who oppose him. He often does. He has ended the careers of Republicans who stood up to him, intimidated some in the news media and — with the help of conservative Supreme Court justices — managed to evade legal accountability for all manner of misdeeds. But because he has such a simple-minded understanding of how power and politics work, again and again Trump’s ham-handed attempts at strength only wind up looking weak.
The problem is that madness isn’t strength; it’s just mad.
It’s apparent in his standard negotiating strategy: He makes bombastic threats, then waits for everyone else to give in, never bothering to learn what they’re after or how he might persuade them. So he says he’ll bomb every enemy, sue every critic and destroy everyone who opposes him. One might have to take the threats seriously, because it’s always possible Trump will do what he says. But most of the time he doesn’t.
Trump has long spoken of the value of being a “crazy guy” in negotiations. His approach recalls Richard Nixon’s “Madman Theory” of foreign policy: Convince your enemies that you are erratic and irrational, and they’ll step carefully to avoid setting you off. The problem is that madness isn’t strength; it’s just mad.
Take, for instance, the pronouncements Trump has recently made about seizing the Panama Canal, annexing Canada and taking control of Greenland: when they don’t happen, he just looks like a fool. Similarly, after the 2024 election, Trump will have a governing trifecta and his first popular vote victory. But the entirely unnecessary spending showdown destroyed whatever momentum he could have had entering the White House.
When a genuinely strong president sits in the Oval Office, everyone in both parties knows that when he makes either a threat or a promise, he’ll keep his word. No one trusts Trump on either count. For him, strength is about bluster and dominance. He will always be the loudest person in the room, and he treats every interaction, whether between people or between countries, as a zero-sum contest for supremacy in which there will always be a winner and a loser. But his recent failure to bend Congress to his will foreshadows a difficult four years for dealing with his own party, let alone the rest of Washington.
In the wake of the near-shutdown, it seems that Trump’s second term could look almost exactly like his first term. Republicans will pass another tax cut — much of which would extend the previous tax cut — because nothing is more important to the GOP. But after that, things could get messy. With a razor-thin House majority and dozens of Republicans ready to make trouble over spending bills, it would take a shrewd negotiator or a president of genuine strength to successfully navigate the legislative minefield. Donald Trump is not going to be that president.
International rage over FIFA’s close ties to President Donald Trump has reached a fever pitch after soccer’s governing body announced a plan to sell a significant stake to an investor group led by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law.
The president and his family have all but turned the White House into their personal piggy bank. And FIFA — which has its own sordid history of corruption — seems to have made itself a party to Trump’s self-enrichment under Gianni Infantino’s leadership, such as by paying for space inside Trump Tower in New York. (The organization has defended the office rental as a World Cup outpost.)
Soccer is seen by many as a unifying game. But Trump’s incorporation of FIFA into his political dynasty is threatening that idea.
FIFA has announced plans to sell a large minority stake in a new company that will run its main events, including the World Cup and Club World Cup, as part of a plan to triple the amount of development money it dishes out to its 211 member associations.
Under the proposals — which are subject to approval by a majority of those national associations and FIFA’s 37-member council — a new entity called FIFA Forward Enterprises (FFE) will take over all commercial operations, while FIFA remains the game’s global governing body and retains a majority stake in FFE.
A press release from FIFA confirmed the plans and said Thrive Eternal, which was launched by Joshua Kushner, is expected to lead the investment group that would control FIFA Forward Enterprise. FIFA did not clarify why Thrive Eternal was selected, and Kushner was already dabbling in sports.
But Trump basically has already given son-in-law Jared Kushner carte blanche to dictate U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East while simultaneously hatching business plans in the region. (Jared Kushner has denied any conflicts of interest.)
Joshua Kushner reportedly has been a major donor to Democrats. But, predictably, the idea of another Kushner becoming financially entwined with the World Cup — the world’s most popular sporting event — and basically being dropped into a position of global significance isn’t going over well. Several other soccer governing bodies have expressed concerns, including Europe’s UEFA.
“This crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross,” UEFA said in a statement about The Athletic’s report, adding: “The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade — especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially. None of us are the owners of football. It is not FIFA’s to sell.”
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee also rebuked the plan, writing on X: “Apparently the fake Peace Prize and giant lease with Trump Tower weren’t enough — now Infantino performs a kickback hat trick by pursuing a multibillion-dollar deal with Jared Kushner’s brother to sell ownership stakes in the World Cup to private investors.”
FIFA, Donald Trump’s favorite corrupt racketeering enterprise in world sports, is now going directly into business with the Trump family!
Apparently the fake Peace Prize and giant lease with Trump Tower weren’t enough—now Infantino performs a kickback hat trick by pursuing a… https://t.co/knSZibuMea
— House Judiciary Dems (@HouseJudiciary) July 28, 2026
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., has already launched an investigation into the FIFA leader’s relationship with the Trump administration, while dozens of European lawmakers — citing concerns about “potential breaches of political neutrality” — have called for the FIFA Ethics Committee to investigate Infantino. This new proposal seems unlikely to assuage those concerns.
But what it does seem likely to do is fuel global anger toward the U.S. — the kind that has been growing since Trump retook office.
And when you consider that, it’s truly remarkable how the same MAGA movement whose members whined for years about politics mixing with sports is now in lockstep with a president who seems dead-set on casting his shadow over every sports event he can.
This post on X basically sums up the foul stench around FIFA’s latest proposal.
Sepp Blatter was Infantino’s predecessor as FIFA president and oversaw the organization amid some of its many scandals. When heof all people, is warning about how Trump and Infantino’s relationship is “deeply damaging” soccer, it’s a sign of how far FIFA has descended into the gutter.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.
Today’s edition of quick hits.
* In the Middle East: “Jordan’s air defenses intercepted five missiles launched from Iran early Wednesday, the country’s military said, hours after the U.S. military said it had knocked down an Iranian missile barrage launched against American forces in the Middle East, shattering a brief pause in fighting.”
* At the Fed: “The Federal Reserve on Wednesday voted to hold its key interest rate steady but not without opposition from three officials who have expressed concern over inflation and wanted to hike. Despite increasing support among some officials for a rate increase, the Federal Open Market Committee voted 9-3 to leave the federal funds rate in a range between 3.5% and 3.75%.”
* All eyes on Cornyn: “Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has yet to decide whether he will vote to confirm acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to permanently head the Department of Justice after saying Wednesday he was ‘not prepared’ to lend his support to President Donald Trump’s nominee.”
* This request is intended to repay the National Park Service, whose funds Team Trump unjustly raided: “The Trump administration is asking Congress for an additional $10 million to cover costs related to Freedom 250 events recently held on the National Mall, including a prayer event, a fair and a fireworks show.”
* Will the Carroll case ever end? “The Supreme Court already denied the first of Donald Trump’s two petitions against E. Jean Carroll. But the second petition, filed Tuesday, stands a better chance of gaining the high court’s interest because it raises presidential immunity and is backed by the Justice Department.”
* I’m eager to hear why a private citizen can’t delete the contents of his own phone: “It sounds like something James Bond would use: a gadget that self-destructs if it falls into the wrong hands. But it’s actually an open-source operating system that can be downloaded onto Android phones. Federal prosecutors in Atlanta are bringing an obstruction charge against a U.S. citizen who gave customs officers what is known as a duress passcode, which activated software that erased the contents of his phone.”
* My advice: Read real books written entirely by real people: “A few years into the A.I. era, there is sobering evidence that a significant and growing portion of the novels being sold are written with or by chatbots, and that readers are buying them. A new study conducted by computer scientists using A.I. detection software to analyze thousands of self-published novels on Amazon, found that a substantial number of those novels contained chatbot-generated prose.”
See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse said Wednesday that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was “very condescending” toward them in their meeting with him this month and told them to “get to the point.”
Ahead of the Senate Judiciary Committee vote on whether to move President Donald Trump’s nomination as attorney general to the full Senate for a vote, the survivors were on Capitol Hill urging Republican lawmakers to deny Blanche the position.
Survivor Dani Bensky told reporters that the meeting a couple of weeks ago with Blanche, who had declined to meet with them for months, was “very condescending” and that he would not answer their questions on why investigative leads and referrals in the case have not been followed.
“He actually said the words ‘Get to the point’ to us,” Benskey said. “We’re survivors who have been waiting to meet with him for nine months, eight months.”
Another survivor said Blanche told them he had not read the files.
Bensky, who was standing with other survivors outside the office of Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, voiced appreciation for the senator for his support of survivors. The said they had not met with Cornyn Wednesday but had spoken to Judiciary Committee staff members, and that the meeting was “productive” and the staff members “were very pleasant and very open.”
Cornyn said Wednesday that he is “not prepared to vote yes” on Blanche’s nomination. He also called off a meeting with Blanche, saying the nominee had failed to provide proof that President Donald Trump’s “anti-weaponization” fund is officially dead.
Survivors have been campaigning for GOP holdouts to vote against Blanche’s confirmation. Bensky said her group had run into Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., in the elevator earlier and that he said he would like to meet with them. Tillis has also suggested that he might oppose Blanche’s confirmation.
Bensky said it would have “a massive chilling effect to all survivors across the U.S.” if Blanche’s nomination is moved out of committee and to the full Senate.
Asked for the survivors’ final message to the lawmakers, Bensky said: “It’s not political. Just do the right thing. Just be on the right side of history.”
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
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