What I’ve noticed are: fewer MAGA hats, fewer trucks hanging either US or TRUMP flags out of their beds, and neighbors who voted for Trump either avoiding me (their loss), or not filling me in on the latest Fox talking point when I run into them. Who knows if it means anything, but it sure makes shopping at Walmart less aggravating. 😂
Susan Pethick...those kinds of shifts...less visible signaling...less eagerness to talk politics... a little more quiet...don’t usually happen for no reason.
It doesn’t always mean people have changed their MINDS… but...it can mean the confidence...the momentum...or...the desire to broadcast it isn’t what it was.
And...honestly, what you said at the end made me smile; sometimes the first sign of a shift...isn’t a headline, it’s just…a slightly more peaceful trip to Walmart.
You’re noticing the texture of change as it happens, Susan. That’s not nothing!
Believe his ability to throw globs of his crappy mojo and have it continue to blind his followers to truth, has ended. He doesn't get that yet. Sincerely hope the Gulf States realize they fell for it, cut their loses and freeze out Kushner-Witkoff, period.
Actually, I believe that MBS is operating as Trump's handler at this point. The Saudis are wayyy too invested in Trump to lose this war. The Saudis want to get their hands on the natural resources in Iran, and if there's any nuclear material left behind, the Saudis can use it to build/expand their own nuclear program. And in exchange for sending our young men and women to fight on foreign soil, Trump will not only be cleared of any prior debts with the Saudis, but his family business will be allowed to pursue business interests there, and throughout the Arab nations. (As an aside, I also believe that the middle east provides a new source of young girls and boys to sexually abuse for those who are so inclined.) I'm now sick after writing this, and I need to 🤮.
I'm also seeing a lot of explanations of what's going on from Anonymous. While some of it seems to be way out in left field, there are some things they've said that align with what you've written, Jack. These are scary bad times, but we all need to stick together. #holdfast
That slipped away. Saudis assume pride of place, but rest of the emiratis have a nice life and usually choose their own path. They hire the ethnically hierarchical help, have their toys. I grew up in Jordan, lived in several muslim countries including SA and Iran. The Persians as a whole are idiosyncratic culturally, but embraced controlling women Forever, which current religion requires. The superwealthy elite welcomed into my country in 21st c now in forefront, represent gross immorality/amorality I don't yet see a way past. Oil still plays a global role, will after I'm gone. Saudi control of our resources will be a benevolent sneer to our current political satraps, but the ultimate grail ? is who watches the sunset on the Mediterranean beach, not the Red Sea or the Arabian Gulf.
He has gone radio silent this week, ‘cause the chickens are comin’ home to roost and he cannot understand why his schtick isn’t working with the entire world. He has declared “victory” in Iran, and the Iranian people are unequivocally calling him out on his utter bullshit. It’s giving other leaders permission to do the same. If he had confined his “I won” strategy to within the borders of the United States, he might have been able to maintain the illusion for a longer period. At the same time, he and his family are banking billions. All of that money needs to be frozen and taken to be used for reparation payments in the Middle East and South America, and to all of the people ICE has deported and/or put in concentration camps.
Thanks, Jack, for helping me understand what I already felt in my lizard brain.
Jack’s piece on the confidence trap is a stark reminder of how often leaders mistake certainty for competence. Public messaging promises clean victories and decisive action, yet the reality on the ground — chaotic, asymmetric, and unpredictable — rarely aligns with those statements. The danger comes when officials believe the comforting narrative more than the evidence in front of them. That gap between perception and reality is where miscalculations happen, risks escalate, and strategic failures become inevitable. Understanding this dynamic isn’t just theory — it’s essential for anyone following the trajectory of current conflicts and the policies driving them.
The people that get all of the press coverage are the committed ones. The media sites pole numbers and tries to frame them as realistically or as pro their view as they can. But when people are put on to show Trump support, they come across as desperate. The show this by being loud, fast taking and unwilling to ket an interviewer get a word in or a question . I see this on CNN and fox all the time. MsNow, not so much, but they too have their moments. I totally agree with Jack, when everything is the greatest or the worst ever, then noting is great or really bad. His message loses his audience with the first superlative.
His confidence is starting to come across as desperation. His messaging is contradictory. He wants to maintain the illusion that he’s a winner. The problem is that he has no concept of what the reality is for most of us & people are starting to see through the BS.
Jack, your statement that we don't process facts, we process certainty, will stick with me. I've noticed Trump being more insistent recently as in this quote from an NPR article this week, ""We've won this. This war has been won," Trump declared in the Oval Office Tuesday." Hard to imagine anybody is still falling for his act any more.
This has really helped me understand the MAGA mentality. I’ve been searching my mind to figure out how anyone who has any ability at all to function as a human here can still support him. But I was reminded of a radio show by Garrison Keeler, Prairie Home Companion, that my husband and I used to listen to late in the evenings as college students in the 1980s. His dry humor about life in a fictitious rural Minnesota town was charming. “Lake Woebegone: where all the women are strong, the men are good looking, and the CHILDREN ARE ALL ABOVE AVERAGE.” An example of overuse and lies, but in this case, sweet because it was kind, and definitely for entertainment that caused no harm. I would like to live there now.
It started here in our little town shortly after the inauguration. Our neighbors across the street had a huge banner on their lawn. They decorated it seasonally with flowers and colored lights and had security cameras on it. It was up from 2020-2025. Came down in February 2025. Our red town had many banners and yard signs but only 1 left now. Yesterday, I saw the first Trumper truck that I had seen in months. I think that's when it hit me how few are still around.
This explains how this Prez’ narcissism actuates (right word?) on other humans. “What I want is always right no matter how it affects anyone else.” This confidence attracts and gives cover to cruel, selfish operatives like Stephen
Miller and Tom Homan; to vacant power-hungry politicians like Kristi Noem; to Christian Nationalists like Mike Johnson.
This same confidence shows in tv preachers and Hillsdale College. “We are the one true faith. Just say the prayer to get your ‘Get out of hell free card’, then live your life according to local standards. Oh, and send us all your money.”
Jack, email on my phone screen is my only option for viewing your newsletter and people’s comments. Thank you for everything that shows. I tried to absorb it all as I read it, and I certainly can match various people to your defined degrees of support for him.
I never understood why anyone believed anything he said, and even after the podcast interview a few years ago when he admitted his loss, they continued to promote the lie, just as he did and still does in order to rile people and to create hatred and anger, division and cruelty, all to promote himself and his grifting. He had responded to a question about the 2020 election loss, with, “We lost that one by a whisker.”
I am wondering when that recognition will happen for the first category of supporters. What a horrible feeling that would be for anyone who has believed him in his lies all along! Do you think anyone or most people will begin to see through it all? (It seems that the realization, although it would promote a completely different feeling, is similar to a four year old realizing about Santa Clause, and in the next second realizing that the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Ferry are in the same category. That was exciting, but for followers of his, the realization of having been duped in so many ways, and for so long, must be terribly painful. I am sorry for anyone to have to suffer that realization about his lies and the truth of his lack of character, plus the fact that they have been used and led to be rude to people who knew and know the truth, but at the same time, I want everyone to realize and understand the truth.
It seems that anyone who has remained a follower up to the current time, or very recent time, would wake up when they are being told that he won this war he started, especially if they or any of their family members are being sent, after that declaration, to the scene, and some people are not living to come back home. That is tragic, but surely they would grasp the reality.
I think that at that point, if reality begins to strike, other lies and their fallacies would come to mind and fall over like dominoes in fast succession. Then we would know the finishing point was in those particular minds, if they express their thoughts. If they simply internalize it, the evidence would come out at the polls, although he told them they would “never have to vote again.”
I still will need to review the precious explanations you included, Jack, in order to remember and apply them in the future, but I am so grateful to have them.
The MTG, Massie, Mace breakaways are evidence of this erosion...may it continue to an impeachment or resignation! And a similar dynamic is evolving in the Epstein arena.
Until recently, though the vast majority of rational women and men were and are appalled with the violations of girls, and the massive machine and coverup that has prevented justice to this point, the outcry in MAGAland has been a whisper at best. But again, the erosion of support (though not as massive as some of us may have expected) IS happening. Again, MTG and Massie were the first "outliers", but their refusal to back down in the face of losing their cult membership, has been admirable and consistent.
I am torn between a Trump removal and meaningful justice for the survivors as to which is my #1 priority, but I will land on the Epstein side. We can overcome a Trump in time, but we can't continue as human beings if we do not aggressively adjudicate the Epstein atrocities.
I believe another Trump will not happen again for at least a generation or two, but any chance we could have another Epstein is, to me, more of an existential threat. Once a girl or woman has been violated, (and I do not for a moment say that I know what this does to her) she carries that her entire life. This cannot repeat.
Enjoyed your perspective. One brief comment-having “another” Epstein isn’t episodic. It’s continuous. His “network” and others lurking about the universe are like drug cartels - one kingpin gets knocked off, another one is ready to step in.
Agreed, and thank you. Here is supporting evidence. Supposed Christian ministers using their acquired power to enslave young victims. First, sexually violating a youth is abhorrent at best. But to do it in the name of Christ adds an element of a far deeper level of depravity.
No argument here - the hypocrisy and the irony shouldn’t be lost on Yrumpers but maybe there’s a crack of light dawning. I remain hopeful while cynical. As a fallen away Catholic, leaving because of the pedophilia, it never ceases to amaze me how so many “faithful” remain faithful! I don’t believe, for a minute, that priests have been “cured” - I believe that the Church has become more adapt at hiding the activity.
I too was raised Catholic, and attended Catholic school all the way through my Masters, though chose St. Francis for the Masters primarily because of the program length and location. Through HS was my parents choice. But having said this, I “left” in high school and also primarily because of the pedophile issues as well as the general hypocrisy. I belong to no religion and doubt I ever will (I am 73). People say I will go back on my death bed. But I have been there (well, close but no cigar, so to speak), and I am entirely confident in having no church affiliation. I do believe in being as close to what Jesus taught as possible. I do have a rather comical priest to altar boy interaction (not sexual).
I’m 74 and converted when I married a cradle Catholic in 1971. We both left in the late ‘90s - my late husband was a retired law enforcement officer and I’m a retired early childhood professor….so the whole pedophilia stuff was abhorrent to us personally and professionally.
Your deathbed comment reminds me of my husband’s Alzheimer’s journey. As the disease progressed and his short term memory regressed, he became close to the Deacon who visited his care facility. My late husband was a product of Catholic education and was an altar boy. He and the Deacon would pray old school Baltimore Catechism and often in Latin! That was crystal clear to my husband! It gave him peace and I ended up having a memorial Mass for him - a small concession for his soul.
Me? I was raised in a middle of the road Protestant faith so if I’m haunted by dementia, I’ll be happy for my religious memories of Protestant faith of a joyful God. 🤔
I’ve always been leery of anyone who talks the religious talk but has no concept of walking a religious walk. Don’t believe I’m a better person for sitting inside a church building…….
Thank you for following me. I doubt I will try anything original on here though. I am here as I subscribed to Jack's work. My wife is a church-goer and is fine with me not being one. And I respect her faith choice. I guess I am agnostic, though I WANT there to be a God. I find the prospect that we may simply cease to exist more scary than hell. Sort of a Warren Zevon philosophy "'Cause I'd rather feel bad than not feel anything at all".
Youth pastors have done so much damage. It is the perfect spot for child predators apparently besides the priesthood. Thanks for posting this. Am ex-catholic since age 17 because of going to catholic schools. Thankfully we did not 'do' religion at home so leaving was easy. Am 76 now. No regrets. Thank you for your thoughts. - Toni
What I’ve noticed are: fewer MAGA hats, fewer trucks hanging either US or TRUMP flags out of their beds, and neighbors who voted for Trump either avoiding me (their loss), or not filling me in on the latest Fox talking point when I run into them. Who knows if it means anything, but it sure makes shopping at Walmart less aggravating. 😂
Susan Pethick...those kinds of shifts...less visible signaling...less eagerness to talk politics... a little more quiet...don’t usually happen for no reason.
It doesn’t always mean people have changed their MINDS… but...it can mean the confidence...the momentum...or...the desire to broadcast it isn’t what it was.
And...honestly, what you said at the end made me smile; sometimes the first sign of a shift...isn’t a headline, it’s just…a slightly more peaceful trip to Walmart.
You’re noticing the texture of change as it happens, Susan. That’s not nothing!
-Jack
I love this! I've noticed fewer signs of MAGA in my neighborhood, too.
Nice, Carol Anne!
-Jack
The trump signs in my neighborhood have evaporated. Tomorrow when I’m out and about I’ll look carefully across a wider area.
Beautiful, Laura Russell.
That's an accurate reflection of what I'm seeing in my region as well!
-Jack
Agree
Believe his ability to throw globs of his crappy mojo and have it continue to blind his followers to truth, has ended. He doesn't get that yet. Sincerely hope the Gulf States realize they fell for it, cut their loses and freeze out Kushner-Witkoff, period.
Actually, I believe that MBS is operating as Trump's handler at this point. The Saudis are wayyy too invested in Trump to lose this war. The Saudis want to get their hands on the natural resources in Iran, and if there's any nuclear material left behind, the Saudis can use it to build/expand their own nuclear program. And in exchange for sending our young men and women to fight on foreign soil, Trump will not only be cleared of any prior debts with the Saudis, but his family business will be allowed to pursue business interests there, and throughout the Arab nations. (As an aside, I also believe that the middle east provides a new source of young girls and boys to sexually abuse for those who are so inclined.) I'm now sick after writing this, and I need to 🤮.
I'm also seeing a lot of explanations of what's going on from Anonymous. While some of it seems to be way out in left field, there are some things they've said that align with what you've written, Jack. These are scary bad times, but we all need to stick together. #holdfast
That slipped away. Saudis assume pride of place, but rest of the emiratis have a nice life and usually choose their own path. They hire the ethnically hierarchical help, have their toys. I grew up in Jordan, lived in several muslim countries including SA and Iran. The Persians as a whole are idiosyncratic culturally, but embraced controlling women Forever, which current religion requires. The superwealthy elite welcomed into my country in 21st c now in forefront, represent gross immorality/amorality I don't yet see a way past. Oil still plays a global role, will after I'm gone. Saudi control of our resources will be a benevolent sneer to our current political satraps, but the ultimate grail ? is who watches the sunset on the Mediterranean beach, not the Red Sea or the Arabian Gulf.
The Saudis tend to get lumped
He has gone radio silent this week, ‘cause the chickens are comin’ home to roost and he cannot understand why his schtick isn’t working with the entire world. He has declared “victory” in Iran, and the Iranian people are unequivocally calling him out on his utter bullshit. It’s giving other leaders permission to do the same. If he had confined his “I won” strategy to within the borders of the United States, he might have been able to maintain the illusion for a longer period. At the same time, he and his family are banking billions. All of that money needs to be frozen and taken to be used for reparation payments in the Middle East and South America, and to all of the people ICE has deported and/or put in concentration camps.
Thanks, Jack, for helping me understand what I already felt in my lizard brain.
Reparations from trump family fortunes would be satisfying
It could certainly finance health care or universal child care!
Right, Diana?!
-Jack
Jack’s piece on the confidence trap is a stark reminder of how often leaders mistake certainty for competence. Public messaging promises clean victories and decisive action, yet the reality on the ground — chaotic, asymmetric, and unpredictable — rarely aligns with those statements. The danger comes when officials believe the comforting narrative more than the evidence in front of them. That gap between perception and reality is where miscalculations happen, risks escalate, and strategic failures become inevitable. Understanding this dynamic isn’t just theory — it’s essential for anyone following the trajectory of current conflicts and the policies driving them.
Fantastic article!
#HOLDFAST
The people that get all of the press coverage are the committed ones. The media sites pole numbers and tries to frame them as realistically or as pro their view as they can. But when people are put on to show Trump support, they come across as desperate. The show this by being loud, fast taking and unwilling to ket an interviewer get a word in or a question . I see this on CNN and fox all the time. MsNow, not so much, but they too have their moments. I totally agree with Jack, when everything is the greatest or the worst ever, then noting is great or really bad. His message loses his audience with the first superlative.
Excellent article!
Thank you!
Respect 🙏🏻(bow)
His confidence is starting to come across as desperation. His messaging is contradictory. He wants to maintain the illusion that he’s a winner. The problem is that he has no concept of what the reality is for most of us & people are starting to see through the BS.
It’s similar to the boy who cried “wolf” so much that people eventually ignored him.
Jack, your statement that we don't process facts, we process certainty, will stick with me. I've noticed Trump being more insistent recently as in this quote from an NPR article this week, ""We've won this. This war has been won," Trump declared in the Oval Office Tuesday." Hard to imagine anybody is still falling for his act any more.
It’s hubris. It’s inevitable.
This has really helped me understand the MAGA mentality. I’ve been searching my mind to figure out how anyone who has any ability at all to function as a human here can still support him. But I was reminded of a radio show by Garrison Keeler, Prairie Home Companion, that my husband and I used to listen to late in the evenings as college students in the 1980s. His dry humor about life in a fictitious rural Minnesota town was charming. “Lake Woebegone: where all the women are strong, the men are good looking, and the CHILDREN ARE ALL ABOVE AVERAGE.” An example of overuse and lies, but in this case, sweet because it was kind, and definitely for entertainment that caused no harm. I would like to live there now.
It started here in our little town shortly after the inauguration. Our neighbors across the street had a huge banner on their lawn. They decorated it seasonally with flowers and colored lights and had security cameras on it. It was up from 2020-2025. Came down in February 2025. Our red town had many banners and yard signs but only 1 left now. Yesterday, I saw the first Trumper truck that I had seen in months. I think that's when it hit me how few are still around.
Yes, we must now prepare for the inevitable collapse…38 trillion and counting…
This is what worries me the most.
All our infrastructure is quickly being owned by foreign interests, and our huge debt owed to them.
You are absolutely correct about Trump locking himself into a blind alley with a very reduced audience in his coterie.
Trump is a dangerous ,out of control vicious Montebank.
Trump is adhered to a Malefic mind set.
VIEW
This explains how this Prez’ narcissism actuates (right word?) on other humans. “What I want is always right no matter how it affects anyone else.” This confidence attracts and gives cover to cruel, selfish operatives like Stephen
Miller and Tom Homan; to vacant power-hungry politicians like Kristi Noem; to Christian Nationalists like Mike Johnson.
This same confidence shows in tv preachers and Hillsdale College. “We are the one true faith. Just say the prayer to get your ‘Get out of hell free card’, then live your life according to local standards. Oh, and send us all your money.”
Jack, email on my phone screen is my only option for viewing your newsletter and people’s comments. Thank you for everything that shows. I tried to absorb it all as I read it, and I certainly can match various people to your defined degrees of support for him.
I never understood why anyone believed anything he said, and even after the podcast interview a few years ago when he admitted his loss, they continued to promote the lie, just as he did and still does in order to rile people and to create hatred and anger, division and cruelty, all to promote himself and his grifting. He had responded to a question about the 2020 election loss, with, “We lost that one by a whisker.”
I am wondering when that recognition will happen for the first category of supporters. What a horrible feeling that would be for anyone who has believed him in his lies all along! Do you think anyone or most people will begin to see through it all? (It seems that the realization, although it would promote a completely different feeling, is similar to a four year old realizing about Santa Clause, and in the next second realizing that the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Ferry are in the same category. That was exciting, but for followers of his, the realization of having been duped in so many ways, and for so long, must be terribly painful. I am sorry for anyone to have to suffer that realization about his lies and the truth of his lack of character, plus the fact that they have been used and led to be rude to people who knew and know the truth, but at the same time, I want everyone to realize and understand the truth.
It seems that anyone who has remained a follower up to the current time, or very recent time, would wake up when they are being told that he won this war he started, especially if they or any of their family members are being sent, after that declaration, to the scene, and some people are not living to come back home. That is tragic, but surely they would grasp the reality.
I think that at that point, if reality begins to strike, other lies and their fallacies would come to mind and fall over like dominoes in fast succession. Then we would know the finishing point was in those particular minds, if they express their thoughts. If they simply internalize it, the evidence would come out at the polls, although he told them they would “never have to vote again.”
I still will need to review the precious explanations you included, Jack, in order to remember and apply them in the future, but I am so grateful to have them.
#HOLDFAST!
The MTG, Massie, Mace breakaways are evidence of this erosion...may it continue to an impeachment or resignation! And a similar dynamic is evolving in the Epstein arena.
Until recently, though the vast majority of rational women and men were and are appalled with the violations of girls, and the massive machine and coverup that has prevented justice to this point, the outcry in MAGAland has been a whisper at best. But again, the erosion of support (though not as massive as some of us may have expected) IS happening. Again, MTG and Massie were the first "outliers", but their refusal to back down in the face of losing their cult membership, has been admirable and consistent.
I am torn between a Trump removal and meaningful justice for the survivors as to which is my #1 priority, but I will land on the Epstein side. We can overcome a Trump in time, but we can't continue as human beings if we do not aggressively adjudicate the Epstein atrocities.
I believe another Trump will not happen again for at least a generation or two, but any chance we could have another Epstein is, to me, more of an existential threat. Once a girl or woman has been violated, (and I do not for a moment say that I know what this does to her) she carries that her entire life. This cannot repeat.
Enjoyed your perspective. One brief comment-having “another” Epstein isn’t episodic. It’s continuous. His “network” and others lurking about the universe are like drug cartels - one kingpin gets knocked off, another one is ready to step in.
Agreed, and thank you. Here is supporting evidence. Supposed Christian ministers using their acquired power to enslave young victims. First, sexually violating a youth is abhorrent at best. But to do it in the name of Christ adds an element of a far deeper level of depravity.
https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2026/03/three-church-leaders-and-eight-child-victims-inside-the-living-word-church-abuse-scandal.html
No argument here - the hypocrisy and the irony shouldn’t be lost on Yrumpers but maybe there’s a crack of light dawning. I remain hopeful while cynical. As a fallen away Catholic, leaving because of the pedophilia, it never ceases to amaze me how so many “faithful” remain faithful! I don’t believe, for a minute, that priests have been “cured” - I believe that the Church has become more adapt at hiding the activity.
I too was raised Catholic, and attended Catholic school all the way through my Masters, though chose St. Francis for the Masters primarily because of the program length and location. Through HS was my parents choice. But having said this, I “left” in high school and also primarily because of the pedophile issues as well as the general hypocrisy. I belong to no religion and doubt I ever will (I am 73). People say I will go back on my death bed. But I have been there (well, close but no cigar, so to speak), and I am entirely confident in having no church affiliation. I do believe in being as close to what Jesus taught as possible. I do have a rather comical priest to altar boy interaction (not sexual).
I’m 74 and converted when I married a cradle Catholic in 1971. We both left in the late ‘90s - my late husband was a retired law enforcement officer and I’m a retired early childhood professor….so the whole pedophilia stuff was abhorrent to us personally and professionally.
Your deathbed comment reminds me of my husband’s Alzheimer’s journey. As the disease progressed and his short term memory regressed, he became close to the Deacon who visited his care facility. My late husband was a product of Catholic education and was an altar boy. He and the Deacon would pray old school Baltimore Catechism and often in Latin! That was crystal clear to my husband! It gave him peace and I ended up having a memorial Mass for him - a small concession for his soul.
Me? I was raised in a middle of the road Protestant faith so if I’m haunted by dementia, I’ll be happy for my religious memories of Protestant faith of a joyful God. 🤔
I’ve always been leery of anyone who talks the religious talk but has no concept of walking a religious walk. Don’t believe I’m a better person for sitting inside a church building…….
Thank you for following me. I doubt I will try anything original on here though. I am here as I subscribed to Jack's work. My wife is a church-goer and is fine with me not being one. And I respect her faith choice. I guess I am agnostic, though I WANT there to be a God. I find the prospect that we may simply cease to exist more scary than hell. Sort of a Warren Zevon philosophy "'Cause I'd rather feel bad than not feel anything at all".
Youth pastors have done so much damage. It is the perfect spot for child predators apparently besides the priesthood. Thanks for posting this. Am ex-catholic since age 17 because of going to catholic schools. Thankfully we did not 'do' religion at home so leaving was easy. Am 76 now. No regrets. Thank you for your thoughts. - Toni
Yes, absolutely.