I am grateful for all of my readers, and I greatly welcome ALL reader comments, including highly critical comments. I do not take critical comments personally, but regard them as an opportunity for introspection and possibly to clarify something or provide additional information to help make my point.
Reviewing the comments to my post of earlier today, Are You Ready for the Coming Energy Shock?, I see that many of my readers are unhappy with my characterization of the Trump administration as psychopathic clowns.
And so, I would like to clarify something for my readers: I am very strongly opposed to war, and to violence in general, unless it is absolutely necessary for defending my country, my community, or my family.
For an entire decade between 2015 and 2025, I was a fierce defender of Donald Trump—often at the cost of social ostracism—BECAUSE he clearly articulated and promised on dozens of occasions that he would cease the US government’s policy of perpetual warfare abroad.
For me to now adopt the attitude “You broke your promise about refraining from mass death, maiming, and destruction, but that’s okay with me, and I still think you’re a swell guy,” would be contemptibly obsequious and display a pitiful lack of self-respect.
To explain WHY I have assumed this posture would require a very long column citing a great deal of history, literature, and personal experience visiting veterans suffering from Traumatic Brain Injuries, and I am currently pressed for time.
My new book, Mind Viruses: America’s Irrational Obsessions, contains a chapter on Iran that carefully elucidates that nation’s history, its relations with Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States, drawing on assessments of the Iranian regime written by seasoned intelligence agency analysts, including Israeli intelligence analysts.
In response to the unfounded accusation that I am suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, I would like to express my perception that many of my negative commentators are suffering from a trauma bond with the President of the United States—both the office and the man who is currently occupying it. This bond causes them to tolerate being abused by the POTUS and to believe his lame excuses for breaking his promises.
A Google search for “Trauma Bond” yielded the following definition.
A trauma bond is a powerful, unhealthy emotional attachment that develops between a victim and their abuser, often characterized by a cycle of intense abuse followed by periods of affection or kindness. Coined by Dr. Patrick Carnes, this bond is rooted in fear, dependency, and intermittent reinforcement, making it incredibly difficult for victims to leave, even when they recognize the toxicity.
For four years, we were constantly abused by the madness of the Biden administration and the preposterous insistence that the senile Joe Biden was our true executive. Then Trump managed to get reelected president because he seemed to understand and sympathize with our distress about censorship, the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, and the U.S. proxy war in Ukraine against nuclear-armed Russia. He really offered a helping hand.
The bond between the abused (We the People) and the abuser (the U.S. government) was thereby reconstituted.
After entering office, he then:
Refused to acknowledge that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are toxic.
Honored Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla by inviting him to the White House
Did NOT demand a full investigation of the origin of SARS-CoV-2
Did NOT end the U.S. proxy war against Ukraine as he promised
Did NOT demand the full disclosure of the Epstein Files
Attacked Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene for demanding the full release of the Epstein Files
Did NOT demand that Google-YouTube cease running its vigorous shadow-banning program on dissident voices
Did NOT in the slightest tame the voracious beast of runaway federal spending
Did NOT reduce the undue influence of national security state
Now, despite his dozens of promises of no new wars since he announced his candidacy in 2015, he has started a war with Iran—a country four times the size of Iraq with twice the population and a standing army of 610,000 active duty personnel.
Like a the proverbial abused wife who can’t break free from her abusive husband, tens of millions of Trump supporters cannot see that he reconstituted their bond with the U.S. federal government, which is now abusing them again.
The ONLY way for this country to reclaim its health and vitality is through a widespread movement to reassert LIMITS of federal power, which happens to be the key underlying concept of the U.S. Constitution.
Only when We the People tell the U.S. government—regardless of who is president—that we reject the continuous expansion of its size and power, and especially its abominable wars, will the cycle of abuse end.
Well said John. You speak eloquently for the many of us who feel and think the same way.
great article - thanks for the clear summary of the basics.