Where Leverage Will Get You

Donald J. Trump is a bad man, selfish, deeply materialistic, solipsistic, and a bully, a very successful bully, ready to mow down anyone who rises to challenge him. Thousands of languished court cases attest to his intractability, his indomitability, and ultimately his success. He is also a very powerful man.

His power culminated in 2024 when voters elected him, by this time a convicted felon,¹² U.S. president for a second time. Their belief: he would cut through all the red tape and finally get something done to improve their lives, in other words, he’d do all that bullying for them.³

So how has the bully president helped U.S. citizens so far?

His latest tactic came in response to an August 3 assault on a DOGE operative in Washington, D.C. Decrying a nonexistent “situation of complete and total lawlessness,” Trump declared on August 11 yet another emergency, this time a public safety emergency, assumed command of D.C.’s police force, and deployed 800 National Guard troops to crack down on the city’s crime. For some reason, he included D.C.’s homelessness in the sweep-up. Rather than regret the necessity of taking such action, Trump seemed to relish the maneuver, promptly naming a half dozen other major cities where he might do just the same — that is, if his D.C. trick worked. 

The move evokes Hitler vibes. When a lone-wolf Dutch Communist set the Reichstag alight on February 27, 1933, Adolf Hitler induced German President Paul von Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree the following day. The decree abridged key civil liberties of German citizens, authorized imprisonment of those considered enemies of the Nazis, suppressed newspapers unfriendly to the Nazi party, and facilitated the establishment of a one-party Nazi state.⁴

In helping himself, Trump has been extremely effective. However, despite his admirable flurry of activity, he has proven to be no one’s retribution but his own.

Perhaps D.C. is an unlucky example. If we review the months since his inauguration, surely we will find plenty of times when Trump bullied advantages for us out of the Deep State. We do know he’s been extraordinarily effective at advantaging himself: that plane from Qatar; a gruesome token of thanks in the form of a golden pager from the Israeli prime minister; a $45 million birthday parade; a plunge into cryptocurrency for which he immediately eased regulations; global expansion of his Truth+ video streaming service⁵ while cutting federal funding for an ostensible competitor, Voice of America; a spanking new White House Rose Garden patio (no more Rose Garden); plans to replace the White House’s practically useless East Wing with a ballroom for expensive parties;⁶ worldwide tariffs, which payback, have no doubt, Trump considers all his own; a cut of the high-tech industry’s microchip sales to China.

Yes, in helping himself, Trump has been extremely effective. However, despite his admirable flurry of activity, he has proven to be no one’s retribution but his own. Surely somewhere an instance of his somewhat rarer acts of generosity can be unearthed? How about the affection and tribute evident in his decision to bury his first wife, Ivana, near the first hole of his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey? Unfortunately, that gesture falls flat when we learn from a post of Awareness Of Success: “In New Jersey, one grave can legally turn land into a cemetery — no property tax, no sales tax, no income tax.”⁷⁸

Sure enough, Trump took steps to register the Bedminster golf course land as a nonprofit cemetery company, potentially making the entire property tax-exempt. Rather than a sterling example of magnanimity, the precedent presages grisly years ahead as Trump awaits new opportunities to bury deceased kinsmen — or maybe just anybody — on his Colts Neck property.

With an entire life to fight through, we all resort to the methods that occur to us. What occurred to Trump was threats, intimidation, extortion, cutthroat litigation, and doxxing.

Instead of griping that Trump has failed us, let us acknowledge that Donald’s faults are not Donald’s fault. None of us can help who we are. Donald’s stunted intellect and wizened character were bestowed on him at birth. With an entire life to fight through, we all resort to the methods that occur to us. What occurred to Trump was threats, intimidation, extortion, cutthroat litigation, and doxxing. And they worked. Lucky for him, they always worked. 

As with all reasonable children, pouting was how Trump began. As he matured, pouting gave way to pushing people around. The tactic, handy for a man of his stature and weight, was still in evidence during his first presidential term when he shoved Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic out of his way at a 2017 NATO meeting.⁹ In business, suing people came as naturally as pouting and pushing, which made it kind of fun. Trump, a man of belligerent nature, came to relish the engagements when he realized his opponents loathed the confrontations as intensely as they dreaded the cost. Trump was also surprisingly good at bluff. In case after case, he correctly assessed that he had the connections and wealth to submit his adversaries to an array of punishing legal shenanigans that, if they attempted to ride them out, could end in their ruin.

As president of the United States again, Trump immediately applied his newly broadened powers to familiar strong-arm tactics. Hyperextending his executive authority, he eviscerated federal agencies whose policies did not conform to his dictates. Exhibits in 19 Smithsonian museums fell to the purview of his draconian censorship to ensure they espoused the sort of patriotism he liked. In the civilian sphere, Trump arrogated to himself economic, legal, and military might to squeeze domestic industries, legal firms, and media, who were soon pouring tens of millions of dollars into a library fund for a man who never read a book¹⁰ in addition to ceding substantial control of their enterprises. Universities were hit hard as well, with Trump reinstating federal funding only in exchange for crippling oversight of their academic programs, hiring, and student enrollment. For Trump, it was glorious. For those looking on, it was incomprehensible disaster. 

In foreign policy, Trump abused power to commit novel obscenities every week. Singling out one beleaguered nation after another, he threatened ruinous tariffs if it did not publicly lick his boots. Those waiting in line, fearful of their own fates, maintained hideous silence as those acts were performed. The world was apparently to understand that Trump’s sadistic humiliation of sovereign nations was jolly good with them.

The readiness with which powerful institutions and nations gave in to Trump confounded the U.S. population. Although constitutional scholars and legal experts alike railed against Trump’s unconstitutional and illegal moves, Congress only squealed. The judiciary, target once again of Trump’s deft litigation maneuvers, gummed up again. Meanwhile rogue Trump continued his spree, extorting for himself all the money, control, obeisance, trophies, and praise he ever dreamed of, not to mention ever greater power as more institutions and entire nations joined the ranks of those who caved. 

While some may enjoy watching Trump grind his opponents into the dirt, others are wistful, wondering what good such a powerful man could achieve with a change of heart.

Most Trump agreements have turned out to be bombast and bluster, with no meaningful record providing concrete terms and different parties harboring different ideas about what was agreed. Nevertheless, no one can deny Trump’s extraordinary power in forcing players domestically and worldwide to yield to his demands. 

While some may enjoy watching Trump grind his opponents into the dirt, others are wistful, wondering what good such a powerful man could achieve with a change of heart. What if he suddenly wanted to enforce sustainable industry practices or alleviate the woes of the poverty-mired, debt-ridden nations of the world? Could this indomitable man galvanize the world to respond? In short, if Donald Trump were good, would he be as powerful?

The answer is no.

Doing good requires skilled use of a far greater range of tools than Trump commands. While judicial¹¹ use of his beloved leverage may be one of them, extortion, threats, bluffs, bribes, and blandishments have no place. Working for good necessarily embraces a plurality of interests. All concerned must participate. Dialog is required. But these tools require sharing power, which would deny Trump the dictatorial authority he covets and requires. He would have no choice but to refuse to engage.

Doing good requires certain qualities of character and intellect: patience, empathy, an ability to listen to and understand the needs of others, a desire not to trample but uplift the weak, respect for the science that explains how the world works, and selflessness. Trump possesses none of these. The nature of his power is sinister, dirty, and sneaky, meant to steal unfair advantages he savors. That kind of power cannot do good.

So while we might admire Trump’s peculiar knack for getting his own way, or fear it, we must acknowledge that his abilities stop there. Lacking both interest and ability to persuade through thoughtful reasoning, he would be powerless to amass the following of a Martin Luther King Jr. through vision and uplifting rhetoric to provide a troubled and downtrodden population not only hope, but direction.¹²

As long as Trump steers the country, the ailing, poor, and struggling among us are doomed to worse as their voices — crying in the streets even now — continue to be ignored by an administration that, so long as it remains dominated by the intellect and character of one Donald Trump, is powerless to help them. The only choice of the neglected masses is to “take it back,” as Bernie Sanders urged his listeners recently.¹³ Declare their determination to run for office and get themselves elected so that those with a sense of duty to all the people of the nation can do a better job. It is still America, still the United States, still a democracy. That is doable. 

---

1. He was convicted of sexual abuse in 2023. “A jury verdict in May 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming [E. Jean] Carroll. . . . July 2023, Judge Kaplan said that the verdict found that Trump had raped Carroll according to the common definition of the word, i.e. not necessarily implying penile penetration. In August 2023, Kaplan dismissed [Trump’s] countersuit and wrote that Carroll’s accusation of rape is ‘substantially true.’”
   Wikipedia contributors. (2025, August 7). E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 08:21, August 10, 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=E._Jean_Carroll_v._Donald_J._Trump&oldid=1304623097 ↩︎
2. Trump was convicted of felony crimes in 2024. “Donald Trump became the first former American president to be convicted of felony crimes Thursday as a New York jury found him guilty of all 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex.” https://apnews.com/article/trump-trial-deliberations-jury-testimony-verdict-85558c6d08efb434d05b694364470aa0 ↩︎
3. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/08/trump-incompetence/683779/?gift=KCb0cVfD2QVwI0gdg_DQ-Mnm3a6X-X1oVW7fk1PSu3w ↩︎
4. Trump’s tactics were also nearly identical to those used by Robert Wagner when Wagner assumed the office of Reich commissioner of Baden in March 1933 at the appointment of German Chancellor Adolf Hitler. ↩︎
5. Truth+ is a streaming technology owned by Trump Media and Technology Group and integrated into Truth Social web site and apps. ↩︎
6. Many questions here: Who will pay for the parties? Will the ballroom include a massage parlor amenity? If it does, who’s going to foot the bill for those popular massages? ↩︎
7. https://www.instagram.com/p/DNDXTSMiv-i/ ↩︎
8. https://www.news18.com/viral/secret-behind-donald-trump-burying-ex-wife-on-golf-course-tax-saving-tip-9492764.html ↩︎
9. The maneuver was recorded at a meeting of NATO Heads of State and Government on May 25, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iimj0j4NYME ↩︎
10. Trump Presidential Library Fund Inc. is slated to receive the Qatari palace-in-the-sky plane — fitted up at the expense of taxpayers for presidential use — shortly before Trump leaves office, that is to say, when Trump has neither the need nor right to possess such a plane. As for the United States, it betrays highly questionable judgment to equip an aircraft with cutting-edge technology ensuring the highest security, unrivaled defensive and perhaps offensive capabilities, and features to survive a nuclear attack and present it to a convicted felon to fly around the world in. ↩︎
11. Even the necessity of being judicious disqualifies Trump from the job. ↩︎
12. But what about the significant MAGA movement Trump has created and leads? Hasn’t he given his millions of followers vision and direction? The author begs to be excused from that discussion at this time. ↩︎
13. https://youtu.be/_g8JEv7tDpk?si=EpDmxJpuhSo8NxTD ↩︎