Frank Bruni on Trump.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

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And rebukes are indeed possible. That was one takeaway from the Tuesday results of two special House elections in Florida, where the Republican winners in solidly red districts fell far short of Trump’s victory margins there just five months ago. And it was the clear, bold message of what happened on the same day in Wisconsin, where Susan Crawford, the Democratic candidate in a state Supreme Court election, prevailed by 10 percentage points despite Musk’s infusion of $25 million on behalf of her Republican opponent and his assertive campaigning against her.

Maybe voters have already had quite enough of Musk. Maybe they’ve noticed that his boasts of efficiency belie a reality of bedlam. Maybe they’ve realized that while stock prices have dropped, grocery prices haven’t, and that Trump isn’t standing up for America but junking America’s standing — by replacing sensible trade relations with made-for-television tantrums, threatening invasions, bullying erstwhile allies and cavalierly deporting people to a hellhole in El Salvador, due process be damned. Sloppiness, stupidity and savagery define the Trump administration. They could also be the seeds of a midterm comeuppance.

If he allows it. And if he accepts it. Remember that even after he won the presidency in 2016, he was so irked by Hillary Clinton’s sizable popular-vote advantage that he attributed it to illegal votes from undocumented immigrants and set up a commission that was supposed to find evidence of such widespread fraud (and failed to). Recall that after he lost to Joe Biden in 2020, he rejected the results, pressured various officials to overturn them and fired up the hellions who invaded the Capitol. And ask yourself whether, since then, the inner autocrat in Trump has bloomed or withered.

I’m going with bloomed. And I’m basing that on his evisceration of federal agencies and functions without any assent from Congress, which is supposed to decide such matters; on executive orders so audacious that they seem to invite a showdown with the courts; on the free rein he has given Musk, at least so far; and on those third-term reveries, which are wholly consistent with his contempt for constraints and his grandiose self-image.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Thanks for the recommendations!