I've covered Trump for years -- and I've never seen him this scared

[marmar]

I’ve covered Trump for years — and I’ve never seen him this scared
As the shutdown shifts the focus, JD Vance waits in the wings

By Brian Karem
White House columnist
Published October 3, 2025 9:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) I have never seen Donald Trump this scared.

....(snip)....

This is different. The government has shut down for the third time during a Trump presidency. Though Republicans control the House, Senate and presidency — and GOP appointees hold a majority on the Supreme Court — Trump says the budget impasse is still the fault of the radical left and former President Joe Biden. In other words, Trump is a victim — at least according to Presidential Pep Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

The president wants to use American cities as training grounds for the U.S. military. ICE agents are spreading chaos, beating and detaining American citizens. Trump is talking about nuclear war, calling it the “N” word. He has Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the minister of plagues, spreading disinformation about health care. Christian Nationalists are engaged in an ongoing purge of anyone in government who doesn’t see things their way. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump’s dog of war, has instituted some of the most racist regulations seen in the military since it was integrated nearly 80 years ago.

....(snip)....

Trump’s actions are those of a despot trying to seize total power. But there’s a deeper reason why recently he’s sounding even more maniacal. He is the proverbial New York sewer rat, cornered and lashing out in a desperate attempt to survive. He also knows he is becoming more vulnerable. But it’s not just his own mortality, shrinking mental acuity and the Jeffrey Epstein case that is scaring him.

Perhaps just as much, or even more, than Epstein, what most recently set Trump off is a criminal case he already beat in court but is still causing him to howl like a wild animal with its leg caught in a trap. On June 8, 2023, he was indicted on 37 felony counts in federal court in Miami. It was an historic moment — the first time a former U.S. president faced federal charges. Those stemmed from the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, which uncovered dozens of boxes of highly classified documents stored in insecure settings. ..................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/10/03/ive-covered-trump-for-years-and-ive-never-seen-him-this-scared/

[Walleye]

1. Maga argument is: but "Melanie's is panty drawer"

[Lovie777]

2. shithole don't give a damn about the USA, except for stealing all it's riches...............

he's scared as in the Epstein files.

[Ferrets are Cool]

3. A cornered animal is the most dangerous kind.

[Clouds Passing]

4. Way to go merrick, major crime goes unpunished

[FakeNoose]

5. He's always blaming the "radical left" ... but he never says what the hell that is

There IS no radical left ... he can't name one person. He can't name one group.
It doesn't exist. This is an invented "enemy" so he doesn't have to admit that HE FAILED.

[maxsolomon]

17. He doesn't need to. All Dems are "Radical Left" now.

I was watching the PBS doc on the Vietnam-era NYC Hard Hat Riot this week; one of the pro-Nixon protestors had a sign denouncing "Radical Left Lunatics".

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...

[FakeNoose]

19. In Nixon's era, there really were radicals

Everyone who organized and demonstrated against the Vietnam War, including 99% of the Baby-Boomers. I'm one of them and proud of it. Please don't try to tell me that today's Democrats are anything like that.

[maxsolomon]

20. I'm not. I'm saying all Dems are being painted with that brush.

Krasnov is calling Chuck Schumer a Radical Leftist.

He's trying to delegitimize the entire Democratic Party in the eyes of the gullible idiots who put him in office again.

[Autumn]

6. Whar does he have to be afraid of ? He has skated on his crimes.

He will skate on everything else he does. He own a party, he owns the courts and he will continue doing what he's doing. Nothing will stop him and when he dies the grift will continue.

[LyfeTimeDem]

9. that's what Project 2025 is all about

10 months in and it's already 48% complete

[Fiendish Thingy]

7. Thanks for posting

It’s worth reading the whole article.

[FakeNoose]

8. Brian Karem - I like how he ends this

From the OP link:

At some point in the not-to-distant future, I was told by a source close to Trump, there is a growing fear that someone in his own inner-circle may whisper the words “25th Amendment,” end the Trump presidency and usher in “The Age of Ultron” — I mean Vance.

That, more than anything else, has Puff Donny scared.

Well OK! Now you're talking my kind of language!
We all know that any discussion of 25A starts and ends with Vance.

[SSJVegeta]

10. If Vance has the courage

[FakeNoose]

16. We know for a fact that Mike Pence didn't

[QED]

11. I think he realizes he's dying and is fearful of his legacy.

He knows he's in poor health and fears what comes next. He wants to be remembered as a strong man, a strong man envisioned by an adolescent. He tried to emulate Saddam Hussein, Putin, and Kim Jong Un with his joke of a birthday parade and his speech to military brass, both of which failed spectacularly.

He's failing and he knows it.

[hibbing]

12. I've seen this movie before n/t

[bronxiteforever]

13. Kick and recommend

[Harker]

14. Get the hook.

[Faux pas]

15. Why can't he be

scared to death?

[rubbersole]

18. That would solve 25% of it.

Going after the treasonous nazis would then be possible. I hope the artery that explodes decides to do it soon. Like today would be nice.

[Faux pas]

21. Yes Please!

[returnee]

22. Call me crazy but...

…I think the speed of his decline and his fear has accelerated since his meet up with Putin.

[JoseBalow]

23. "Presidential Pep Secretary"

I like it!