We'd Have Been Committed for Predicting Half of What Trump Has Done

We, not our detractors, were the clear-eyed and clear-headed ones, but that is no comfort right now

Just Dance, Shutterstock, The UnPopulist illustration

Dear Readers:

Today marks the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump’s return to the presidency. We thought it would be the perfect occasion to look back at some of the low-lights of Year 1 of Trump 2.0 and imagine the diagnosis that the self-proclaimed cool heads would have ascribed to us Trump worrywarts if we had predicted even a fraction of what His Orange Eminence and Wannabe Nobel Peace Laureate went on to do.

Actually, we know their diagnosis because they were not shy about telling us. To our faces. It wasn’t just randos on social media, it could be our friends, family members, or colleagues who’d gently, or not so gently, urge us to get a grip, assuring us that “all will be well.” After all, how much damage could one Manhattan real estate mogul with several bankruptcies to his name really do to the republic? Yes, the Jan. 6 insurrection was bad, but our institutions held up then, didn’t they?

The joke is on them but we are too horrified to laugh. We can’t even say, “We told you so” because even in our worst nightmares, we didn’t imagine quite what this man has done.

See for yourself.

Berny Belvedere
Senior Editor

Patient Name: [Redacted]

Date: Nov. 6, 2024

Presenting Problems: Patient referred by family for anxiety and potentially delusional beliefs about the second Trump presidency.

Exam: Patient initially appears well-adjusted, calm, articulate, and rational. But when the subject of Donald Trump winning a second presidential term is raised, patient becomes irritable, anxious, and even despondent. Asked about the source of this anxiety, patient voices bizarre and fantastical worries about what Donald Trump will do when returned to power. Examples include:

• Trump will unilaterally execute boaters in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, conducting unauthorized strikes that kill more than 100 people.

• Trump will render asylum seekers in the U.S. to a foreign prison for intended life sentences without trial, subjecting them to torture and sexual abuse.

• Trump will invade a sovereign nation without congressional approval or authorization.

• Trump will repeatedly threaten to invade Greenland, risking destruction of the NATO alliance, and prompting European allies to deploy troops to deter American invasion.

• Trump will threaten to deploy the military domestically against protesters.

• Trump will accuse members of Congress who posted a video reminding members of the military of their obligation to refuse illegal orders of being traitors who should be prosecuted for sedition.

• Trump will deploy immigration enforcement officers who racially profile American citizens, detaining, tackling, beating, tasing, shooting, and arresting them.

• Trump will deploy masked police forces to terrorize Democratic cities with impunity.

• Trump will refuse to federally investigate when one of those masked police officers kills an observer on camera, calling her a “fucking bitch.”

• Trump will order an end to birthright citizenship, contradicting the 14th Amendment and more than a century of jurisprudence.

• Trump will employ officials who promote white nationalist slogans and imagery.

• Trump will halt all refugee admissions to the U.S. with the sole exception of white South Africans.

• Trump will establish massive immigrant detainment camps where conditions are cruel and inhumane.

• Trump will arrest immigrants for speech protected by the First Amendment.

• Trump will radically increase ICE arrests of immigrants who have no criminal charges or convictions.

• Trump will grant mass pardons to Jan. 6 rioters who invaded the Capitol and assaulted police officers with blunt weapons, chemical sprays, and electric shocks.

• Trump will openly accept extravagant gifts and bribes, such as a luxury 747 jet, a $130,000 gold bar, and another person’s Nobel Peace Prize.

• Trump will abuse the presidency to enrich himself by more than $1 billion.

• Trump will sue The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Penguin Random House, and CNN for publishing books and articles critical of him.

• Trump will threaten the broadcast licenses of television networks that air news and comedy critical of him.

• Trump will use the power of the state to coercively control television networks.

• Trump will use the power of the state to coercively control law firms.

• Trump will use the power of the state to coercively control private American companies, demanding equity stakes for the U.S. government.

• Trump will use the power of the state to coercively control universities, appointing a former World Wrestling Entertainment executive to secretary of education.

• Trump will corrupt and weaponize the Department of Justice to investigate his enemies.

• Trump will threaten the independence of federal agencies, including the Federal Reserve.

• Trump will impose punishingly high tariffs by unconstitutional whim.

• Trump will initiate a destructive trade war with our neighbors Canada and Mexico.

• Trump will threaten the sovereignty of Canada and express desire to control the nation as an American state.

• Trump will recklessly dismantle USAID, leading to potentially millions of preventable deaths.

• Trump will place an anti-vaccine activist in charge of federal health agencies, undermining years of progress in public health and trust in vaccines.

• Trump will transfer notorious sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell to a more comfortable prison and not comply with legal requirements to release files related to the investigation of his friend Jeffrey Epstein.

• Trump will respond to a female reporter asking about the Epstein files with the phrase, “Quiet, piggy.”

• Trump will rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”

• Trump will literally demolish the White House.

• Trump will share video portraying himself as a king piloting a fighter jet and dumping loads of excrements on protesters.

• Trump will declare that the only constraint on his use of American power abroad is, “My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

Diagnosis: Patient’s fears are clearly delusional and out of touch with reality. A president who attempted anything like the above would be constrained by courts and Congress, impeached multiple times over, or removed for mental incapacity via the 25th Amendment. It’s simply impossible to imagine fantastical scenarios such as these occurring within our system of divided government and constitutional guardrails. As such, a diagnosis of Trump Derangement Syndrome is warranted.

Treatment: In the short-term, patient is recommended to spend less time immersed in liberal media that contributes to these delusional views. In particular, the patient’s time on Bluesky needs to be strictly limited and supervised. If symptoms persist, more drastic actions such as total account deletion would need to be considered. A further option would be a course of red pills as an antidote to the liberal diet the patient has ingested.

Prognosis: Longer term, perhaps a year into the new Trump administration, when it is clear that none of these outlandish fears have come to pass, it can be hoped that the patient will make a full recovery.

© The UnPopulist, 2026

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