ArcaMax

If there’s one thing never-Trumpers need this holiday season – and, remember, we are the majority of Americans! – it’s a bit of good cheer. Here it is.

First, let’s not kid ourselves. These are still perilous times. Every day, Donald Trump does something more outrageous, more destructive, more un-American – and gets away with it. In the last few weeks alone, he’s launched an illegal war against Venezuela, blowing up 23 small boats and intercepting an oil tanker on the high seas; declared France, Italy, Germany, and Spain America’s new enemy; pardoned the former president of Honduras convicted in helping smuggle tons of cocaine into the United States; torn down the East Wing of the White House; sent the military into Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago, Memphis and New Orleans; unleashed ICE to track down and arrest brown-skinned American citizens; admitted he would personally intervene in the competition between NetFlix and Paramount over who would buy Warner Brothers in order to kill CNN. And announced the EPA is loosening rules on exposure to formaldehyde, which is just what families need, instead of lower grocery prices.

Sheesh! It's too much to keep up with. There’s not enough outrage to go around. As the New Yorker’s Susan Glasser recently wrote, the “new normal is we have to forget about yesterday’s scandals in order to make room in our brain for tomorrow’s.”

However, as bleak as it is, I see glimmers of hope, no matter how faint, in two places: Trump’s political problems and personal problems.

Start with the political. Almost every candidate Trump endorsed this year lost. He lost in the Virginia race for governor, the New Jersey race for governor, the mayor’s race in New York City – and this week he lost in the mayor’s race in Miami. In a stunning win, Eileen Higgins became the first Democrat to lead Miami in almost 30 years, trouncing Trump-endorsed Emilio Gonzalez 59 percent to 41 percent.

Democrats also won down-ballot races: flipping two state Senate seats in Mississippi; electing two Democrats to the Georgia Public Service Commission; flipping 13 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates; and confirming three Democrats to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The only race a Trump-endorsed candidate won was last week’s special congressional election in Tennessee. But, even there, Republican Matt Van Epps only won by 9 points in a district Trump carried by 22.

The numbers don’t lie. Trump’s a political loser, and everybody knows it.

But Trump’s also in trouble on the personal front. There are signs he’s suffering from both physical and mental decline. While the White House is in total denial, two headlines generated a lot of news this week. The Express blared: “White House in State of Panic as Trump Keeps Falling Asleep.” And the Drudge Report asked: “Why Hasn’t His Hand Healed?”

Twice this week, Trump was caught on camera dozing off. During a three-hour Cabinet meeting, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio was praising his foreign policy prowess, Trump, sitting next to him, slumped back in his chair with eyes closed, clearly catching a few z’s. He also dozed off the next day while hosting leaders of Rwanda and the Congo. Looks like “Sleepy Joe” has been replaced by “Dozing Don.”

Also caught on camera, and tracked for months by the Drudge Report, Trump often wears a bandage on his right hand, which also appears swollen. The White House shrugs it off as the result of shaking so many hands, but several medical professionals have raised questions about signs of serious venous insufficiency. He was spotted with one or two bandages on his right hand every day last week.

And then there’s Trump’s mental health, or lack thereof. For years, leading psychiatrists have warned that Trump is mentally unfit to be president, which is more and more evident each passing day. Any doubts about his mental illness disappeared after a 488-word rant Trump released in the middle of the night, December 10, on Truth Social.

It's not enough to read it. As MS-NOW’s Philip Bump said, you have to hear it out loud to make “the bonkers-ness sink in.” So here, dear friends, thanks to AI, is a link to the president of the United States howling at the moon. Listen and cringe.

If the CEO of any company acted that way, he’d have been escorted out of the office by health professionals in white coats.

So, yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. The wheels are starting to come off the Trump train. Just not fast enough.

(Bill Press is host of The BillPressPod, and author of 10 books, including: “From the Left: My Life in the Crossfire.” His email address is: bill@billpress.com. Readers may also follow him on Twitter @billpresspod and on BlueSky @BillPress.bsky.social.)

©2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.