Scandal alone won't bring Trump down — but this will
Everyone is well aware of the Trump administration's well-earned "TACO" problem — the only catchy, and desperately needed, malicious Trump branding yet to seep into the general electorate. And if Trump has taught us anything, it is that branding matters. Fine. Here is some branding. How is life going now that we're all having to pay the "Trump Tax"?No one likes taxes, but Americans take hatred of taxes to Hall of Fame levels — especially conservatives. But usually, we at least buy things with our taxes. We buy roads, schools, and aircraft carriers, all of it through taxes. What do we "buy" with the Trump tax? More pure, untethered, unbothered, near opulent, chaos and ineptitude. More. More. And more. The Trump Tax is the price liberals pay for living under an administration that exists to hate liberals and destroy anything perceived as a liberal establishment — from the Department of War to the Kennedy-Trump Center. Real liberal hatred, and yes — they "voted for that."But MAGAs never wanted to have to actually pay for it. Indeed, there was a point that MAGAs saw the cruelty and destruction as value-added. Trump "cut taxes" and made life cheaper. True or not, it's definitely not true now. In fact, the Trump tax is hitting middle America harder. Try driving 17 miles to Walmart or a movie.A dollar fifty a gallon more on gas? A bag of Doritos at $5.99? A Red Robin cheeseburger at $16.50? Come on, that's quite the surcharge to get a newly named "War Department," especially when you also have yet to pay for the actual war Trump started. At least when Democrats tax things, people get a few tidbits, maybe a bridge, high-speed internet, or doctors' visits out of the deal.Not Trump. With the Trump tax, you get half a Cabinet fired before midterms, Epstein, inflation, and less healthcare. Government under Trump has a "Hegseth-Patel" aura, and that gets expensive. True, there's a chicken-and-egg problem there, but we're branding now. Details matter little, only the end result matters. And the end result is the Trump tax.Making the brand even stronger, Trump's "true north," his only truly reliable element, is "things only get worse." It is not like Trump is going to solve the Trump tax problem. Even the MAGAs probably don't expect that. The only light at the end of the Trump-tax tunnel is blue light, and every Democrat better invest in bulbs, because it's not just a winning message — it's what will bring Trump down.This column has spent the last two months pointing out — hopefully in ways as colorful as meaningful — that scandal alone cannot bring Trump down, but a troubled economy can, even on its own. The chaos causing the problem is that bad.Ask the guy who just filled the F150 to drive twenty-six miles to Home Depot and then paid $12.78 for a Number Two at Chick-fil-A, ask that guy what he thinks of the Trump tax. It sucks. Ask him, "Did you vote for that?"Hand him a blue flashlight, ask if he can now "see a provider," and if the answer is no, ask if he can see the problem, not that an eye doctor is an option. Suddenly, that voter might find himself asking why Trump is so afraid of the Epstein files. (Not exactly a MENSA test.) Maybe he asks why Trump needs the IRS to pay him a few billion dollars in pure grift, or why he must have the never-to-be-damned enough ballroom. It all starts to matter a bit.Branding can be kind of fun, but this is actually starting to matter a lot; because the real tax is only beginning to settle in. Most Americans don't fully appreciate the "costs" associated with the damage to America's international reputation, tariffs and treaties, the real economic damage wrought by the masochistic machete taken to public health, the lack of investment in science, roads, and rails, and no adults around to monitor A.I. as it monitors you. It all adds up and will take two generations to fix. If it's ever fixed. That price is real, but the total is subtle. Nothing about Trump, nor the needed Blue Wave, should be subtle. Best to focus on the Trump tax here and now.And that's good because it is here, it is now, and even MENSA members can't get around it."No tax on tips." Here's a tip for "real America," how much higher is the tip at Olive Garden now? Please do factor in the gas to get there, it's only fair - the pasta wholesaler sure did. You used to get good fun out of "owning the libs." What do you get now? You get Pete Hegseth, and not at a discount, no — not at about a billion a day in Iran.Democrats better get used to the Trump tax, too. It is far more intellectually satisfying to try to appeal to voters' sense of right and wrong, duty, Trump depravity, and yet this is about branding, and branding comes from the gut, not the mind. So hit them where the Trump tax hits, right in the gut. In that sense, there is good news. Branding matters; no one knows it more than the master. And it's never been easier. The Trump tax buys a lot of things, none of which feed, educate, or medicate a family.