Billionaire Elon Musk was riding high: the richest man in the world and confirmed First Buddy of the President of the United States. But most importantly for an immigrant from South Africa, he was included in the inner circle that makes decisions on the most important issues of America, and the world – a circle of two, himself and Donald J. Trump, he believed.

His exceptional antennae may have picked up some signal, before the super nova exploded in the White House, that things did not seem to be as he thought or anticipated. But the super nova confirmed his suspicion. In front of staff members, a cabinet secretary who is supposed to fawn all over him – First Buddy holds the same status as the One he is buddy with – shouted to his face “fuck you” – not once, not twice but three times. He was awakened to the stark-naked fact that he had never been accepted. He was a foreigner. Worse, he has never belonged to the Trump orbit, let alone the Circle-of-Two.

He feels he has been played, used. For a man who single-handedly and ACCURATELY sent rockets and space crafts into space, a feat not even the venerable Boeing can do, a man who looked down on everyone including the president of the United States, his ego is torn big time. Maybe he is angry at himself, too. The genius engineer suddenly becomes aware that he is, politically, a novice.

That, figuratively speaking, kills him, not Tesla losing subsidies or the disgusting abomination Big Beautiful Bill.

He must have been feeling that he had joined a political Sam Peckinpah’s Wild Bunch in a wild chaotic journey, a slow-motion traverse into darkness that he willingly and wholeheartedly devoted a huge portion of his fortune and his invaluable personal time in order to be a part of its mission to restore the White Supremacy that he knew as a young boy in South Africa. Presumably, the admission of White South African immigrants into the U.S. had something to do with Mr. Musk. If in fact it was, at the end of June 2025, a grand total of 68 White South Africans having been admitted is undoubtedly a great insult to the man who was used to huge numbers.

That was the root cause of his recent outbursts.

One should never take anything said, or done, by a man of Mr. Musk’s caliber

(in terms of brain power as well as fortune) lightly. As the owner of a social media outlet and hi-tech companies which routinely collect data, and leader of DOGE, his ability to gather information is immense and deep. The posts by Mr. Musk about the Epstein File and that “without me Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House, and the Republicans would be 51/49 in the Senate” is eerie as the 51/49 is so particular.

It may not be a rant. What did he do, and how, to help Mr. Trump and the Republicans to win the races beside contribution of money to MAGA’s PACs? What facts does he have to support his allegation of the potential losses of TWO Republican Senators to the Democrats without his help? Was his assertion that the president was in the Epstein file true? How does he know that?

Different but related questions: Does the president’s warning to Mr. Musk not to “defect” to the DP carry any real threat to the billionaire and how such threat can be carried out? If so, does it aim at nipping in the bud any attempt to reveal any hidden secrets?

The Trump era has introduced into in American politics and society all kinds of anomaly, but this must be a first that a former employee (albeit temporary) of the President of the United States seemingly publicly blackmails him. But considering his emotional state, his outburst was most likely not blackmailing but shooting from the hip, a Pike Bishop charging into a courtyard in Mexico blazing guns for revenge, in blind rage, unthinking.

What is the next move for Mr. Musk? The president has inadvertently given him ideas. He warns Mr.  Musk not to defect to the other side, meaning the Democratic Party. That actually is not a bad choice. The Republic has stood on two legs and maintained its stability since its founding with that reliable makeup. Presently, one leg is crippled and the other is like the proverbial bull in a China (cups and dishes) shop. Repairing and propping the crippled one up is a crucial undertaking, worthy of the talent of someone like Mr. Musk. Switching his help to the Democratic Party is not only recommended and commendable but could turn out to be one of the best achievements coming from his genius brain and fortune.

The government must pay close attention to the extent of Mr. Musk’s control and fielding of space technology before making threats of consequences against him or his companies. SpaceX is the only American company currently providing America with space ability while waiting for the old traditional money guzzling space companies to figure out how to shoot a rocket into space without burning it up in mid air or flying a spacecraft to the space station and returning it back to earth without fatal leaking fuel.

Since President Trump was voted back into power, unpredictability seems to have followed him into the White House, and the country has not had a dull moment during the 140 days into his four-year presidency.

There may be too much excitement for the good health of the country.

JOHN P. LE PHONG                                                                                (This article appears on Facebook, X, and thelephongjournal.com)

When Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev’s efforts to reform the Soviet Union led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, a young Russian harbored a resentment of what he called “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century”. He seethed with deep anger and was determined to restore the power and prestige of the old Soviet Union. It is not farfetched to imagine that he would, shirtless and shoeless, ride a saddle-less horse all the way to Ukraine to plant the Russian flag in Kyiv. It does not seem easy to soothe his psyche until Ukraine will again become a Russian vassal.

Undoubtedly, President Trump is the one American politician that Mr. Putin feels friendly and comfortable enough to talk to without requiring him to seat at the other end of a 100-foot-long table. Political hyperbole aside, any thinking that Mr. Putin will be persuaded to stop the war soon and let even half of Ukraine join the Western alliance is imprudent, especially if the thinking comes from the European Union and NATO.

Since the end of WWII, Europe has behaved like a second child in a family of Western Civilized Democracy, enjoying life to the fullest but doing almost nothing in terms of defending the territory. All responsibility rests on the shoulder of Big Sam – a brother living afar on the other side of an ocean. For all those years protected by Big Sam, the European Union has built a few, very few defense, industrial, or hardware companies, but several billion-dollar fashion and fast-fashion companies. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the American’s detachment are a wake-up call for Europe to take their destiny back into their own hands.

The European Union and NATO were not created so that Europeans could enjoy, and now is enjoying, 35 hour-work week, 14 holidays a year, and 11 official work months a year. In reality, they work fewer than 11 months a year if you count their 25 paid vacation days.

In 1990, the U.S.’s GDP was $6 Trillion versus EU.’s $6.2T. In 2000, the U.S. surpassed the RU $10.3T v. $8.7T. But in 2010, the EU’s GDP was again bigger than the U.S.’s, $16.3T v. $15T. But in 2024, the U.S. surged ahead with $28T versus $19T for the EU.

It was possible that Brother Sam told them not to play with guns, so they poured their energy and enthusiasm into fashion. But these numbers tell them that if they wanted, they could be as strong as the Americans.

Now is the time to do so.

The Russians have been smirking at the EU. Without the U.S. nuclear bombs threatening to rain down on Russian cities from above, the EU to them is a paper tiger. Now the U.S. cannot make any clearer that the EU is on its own, Russia has no reason not to swallow Ukraine and threaten other EU’s members such as the Baltic countries and Poland. Only a powerful nuclear-capable EU could deter such scenario from happening. During WWII, just one European country, Germany, could shake the Soviet Union empire in its boots. The EU is many times bigger than Germany and many times more resourceful.

One great concern is the European tradition of bickering among themselves and their habit of getting into a military duel easily, triggered by relatively unimportant events such as the death of an Archduke.

Political leaders and heads of states of the EU have paid tribute to Washington. They show respect but also the need for the support of America. Such tribute also serves to prove the maturity of European leaders overcoming their customary pride, especially the Germanic pride, one of the causes triggering the catastrophic WWII.  They obviously want the American participation in their foreign affairs.

But they must resist the American Republican MAGA’s insidious effort to mess with their internal affairs. The good news is the Democracy Defenders in Europe are still strong and have the upper hand over the racists and extremists such as the follower s of AfD and Die Heimat in Germany, and the Rassemblement National in France.

Europe, England and France in particular, is the cradle of Democracy and has a long history defending it. It should not let the power of a dictatorship or the illusion of the renewal of a bygone monarchy force it to stray from the path of Democracy. It must develop its own defense forces to stay independent from foreign powers and to protect its democratic institutions and traditions. The world has admired and wholeheartedly adopted its ideals. It seems like the world needs it again to steer it through a time dominated by reactionary, selfish, and sadistic Jungian Shadow.

America Democratic force for the time being has gone underground, preferring incognito for fear of MAGA’s punishment. MAGA has for years studied and learned a few tactics to punish its opponents. They don’t kill you – too crude. They just threaten you with nightmares or in fact create nightmares for you and family.

The thought that waking up one day finding himself walking down the step of a truck into the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador is enough to sweat a Democrat into clamming shut his mouth. Or ICE swoops on campuses to arrest an alleged “illegal” who is not illegal. Oops, we make a mistake but a life as their parents have worked hard and hoped for is gone – forever. A hint of pulling the purse string literally (grants) or figuratively (strict regulations) could force a university to kowtow or persuade billionaire CEOs clasping their hands in front of their crotch meekly getting in line to be granted an audience with the king.

Thus, Europe, which has the bravery in the face of fierce and violent onslaught by the racists and extremists, and the power to marginalize the French Zealots and classify the AfD German right-sing extremists in spite of the American government’s open support for AfD.

It’s not easy to understand the Russian psychology, wanting the whole planet earth but unable to digest what they have got. They occupy one third of the landmass of Asia and Europe combined but have always been in fear of being unsecured and unsafe against its little neighbors. They need to liberate themselves by reading more of the works of Neo-Freudian psychoanalysts.

In only four years, the German Nazi built a formidable fighting machine not just enough to defend itself but so strong that it swept through Europe and reached Moscow to the East. It is not unreasonable to expect that Modern Europe does not need four years but probably two to build a defense credible enough for Moscow to think twice before moving their tanks across the border of any of its neighbors in Eastern Europe like they did in Ukraine.

After WWII, it has taken the Americans a long time to get over the thought that giving the Germans the nuclear bomb is like giving Al Capone a bazooka. But the way Putin stares at Europe from the East licking his lips, it is about time to change that. Even the Poles want the bomb too.

Time has changed. Europe must change too. It should invest less in sex, fashion lady bags, and gourmet food, and more in defense hardware to protect itself and probably the world.

JOHN P. LE PHONG

(This article can be read on Facebook, X, and thelephongjournal.com)

 

Commoners fought with blood, sweat, and tears for Equality and Freedom against the oppression of Monarchies. They sacrificed themselves for the cause, and hundreds of thousands had died over the centuries to get rid of the brutal, abusive, and oppressive regime, namely the Monarchy, to create and build a political regime that have served and protected everyone. It is called Democracy.

During World War II, we commoners died in the millions to fight dictatorships to protect Democracy.

The Unites States of America was founded on those democratic ideas and principles and firmly committed itself to them by adopting the Declaration of Independence and ratifying the Constitution. It has developed a most humane and enlightened body of law. It has shown itself to be the best political system humankind has known and lived in. It may not mean much for billionaires as they own ranch land half the size of Montana, or many skyscrapers in Chicago, or a few coal mines, or many manufacturing facilities, or assets spanning the country. They don’t even know how to spell Democracy, which may in fact interfere with their idiosyncrasies.

White folks have sought solutions for immediate short-term problems (that could have definitely been solved in a democratic, more enlightened way), and voted MAGA into office based on their aggressive promises to provide solutions. Now, it has been shown that MAGA, with the supports of billionaires, has a different agenda that could destroy their ancestors’ centuries of effort to build a long-lasting system guaranteeing freedom and happiness for their offspring – and for mankind.

MAGA and the billionaires are, amazingly, enamored and obsessed with two outmoded and condemned political systems: the dictatorship in Russia and North Korea, and the modern-day slavery policy practiced by the Arabs, the so-called guest workers system of getting foreigners (immigrants) working for them for subsistence pay without any political rights or social protection. Europeans, Canadians, Chinese, and Mexicans be damned. MAGA has made new very good friends.

The Constitution has given Americans, white or non-white, an effective mechanism to protect themselves and their descendants: the vote. In about one and a half years, that vote will decide if MAGA would still be in power, the Potomac River crowded with 700-foot yachts, Burji Khalifar II rising above the Washington Monument, private clubs and associations off limit to commoners growing like mushrooms all over the country, Russians eating caviar, drinking Vodka, and sunbathing on the Capitol Grounds. American common folks would not dare to travel abroad for fear of being stuck at the borders, would pay $3000 for a cell phone and send their children to city colleges as universities, which are being punished for being woke, lose subsidies and foreign students, and will be forced to charge exorbitant tuition to survive.

Voting right was the country’s Founding Fathers’ precious gift to the American common folks as a shield and a sword to protect a safe and fostering environment, which is a free democratic society.

MAGA has openly adopted strategies anathema to Democracy. It pursues and punishes real and perceived enemies whether they are immigrants, objectors, or bastions of high education. They have tried to get rid of immigrants as many and as fast as can be done to create a fait accompli, before the American conscience can intervene. The white majority is now 75% of the U.S.’s total population. After MAGA is done, and with the first wave of white South Africans opening the door for more white immigrants to enter the U.S., the white majority will easily reach 90% or more, soon.

MAGA’s mindset is not just making America isolated but smaller, as little connection and interaction with the outside world as possible.

When my wife and I were in Italy not long ago, we were having dinner at the Machiavelli Restaurant (or a restaurant on the Machiavelli Estate) in Florence, the entertainers of the evening was a young Italian couple. During a break, they approached our table of six or eight patrons, two Vietnamese, us, and the rest being white. They asked, “Are you Americans,” then smiled at us, the Vietnamese. They were controlled in manner and expression but obviously enthusiastic and impressed by the fact that an Asian looking couple WAS American. My wife was very happy to confirm. The rest of the evening, they performed American songs. At the end of the evening, they took pictures with us.

That is the America we want to preserve and promote. Wherever we Americans go, people welcome us with affection and admiration. The world has seen America as an embodiment of goodness, strength, and generosity, NOT of the race.

Do you think the world will now behave the same way when they see us? Does MAGA’s America seemingly look, to them, small-minded, petty, withdrawn, and scared?

This is our country, and Democracy is our legacy. Use your vote to restore, preserve and promote the EXCEPTIONALISM of America.

JOHN P. LE PHONG                                                                                (This article can be read on Facebook, X, and thelephongjournal.com)

Methodically. Methodically.

MAGA won’t take the low road of Lenin. Mao, and Ho’s strategy by exhorting the multitude to rise up and storm the palace.  But exhort them they did, only to win elections. It did try the low road on January 6, 2021, and failed. It has since learned the lesson (or more likely the hot-headed ceded the lead to the thinking billionaires) and has taken the high road, first to take power while steadfastly adhering to the democratic rules.

MAGA took the risky step of exploiting racism to win power. Now in power, it will resort to a more audacious and extremely risky strategy to maintain and preserve its power: bringing down Democracy.

How will it do it? -By working from within, a marvelously cunning scheme.

The calculation is that for the next four years, MAGA’s base in the electorate will still fervently believe in its crusade to take the country back for the white race, or at least for the white race to have total control even if that means a smaller country in terms of people and more isolated in international relations. Then, during these four years, MAGA will not focus on governing but MAGAnize the country, meaning to clear up every trace of any perceived woke personnel in the government and replace them with people with two required qualifications: absolute loyalty and the ability to carry out orders without asking questions. Once it is done, the country will be a de facto Monarchy or Dictatorship.

That has already happened with the periodical “Praising the Leader” sessions where cabinet members take turn to praise the president with one said, “Since you have been in office, President Trump, your DOJ agencies have seized more than 22 million fentanyl pills – 3400 kilos of fentanyl…which saved – are you ready for this MEDIA? – 258 MILLION LIVES”. That makes the citizen in the story “the emperor has no clothes”, who proclaimed that the naked emperor was wearing clothes, seem tame.

Many years back, a news network showed a North Korean woman who, upon seeing for the first time after many years in the dark when the bandage was removed from her eyes, immediately knelt down, hysterically praising and thanking the Dear Leader for curing her blindness, never mind that the curing had been performed by a Western doctor. The irrationality and the blind obedience are strikingly similar. The difference, and most scary, is the cabinet has a lot of power.

Today the cabinet, tomorrow the country.

Politics is a People Game, but the Democrats have emphasized and paid attention more on ideology than people. When they lost a sizable chunk of demography by Nixon’s Southern Strategy, that should have been a wake-up call to adjust their pursuit to wait for the Southerners to understand and catch up. Instead, they have gleefully advocated and executed policies, which are objectionable to a huge number of people they wanted to lead and to vote for them.

Now they are on the sideline hoping for the Supreme Court to come to the rescue. Joseph Stalin (Russian again!) once asked, “The Pope? How many divisions he has?” Indeed, what power does the Supreme Court have? Where is Kilmar Abrego Garcia after the Court ruled that he must be returned to the U.S?

Little by little, methodically, MAGA has moved forth with actions or thrown out trial balloons to determine the next moves. Ironically, MAGA masters the democratic game thoroughly and has played it WITHIN the democratic system dexterously while the Democrats are still feeling their way around trying to find, probably too late, countermoves. Many billionaires and best and brightest minds, previously their allies, have either moved to the other side or kept quiet.

It is not too difficult to see that in a year and a half, MAGA will even more ardently exhort racism to mobilize its base to send more MAGA faithful to Congress and State Houses of Representatives to make its majority reach the two third level. The next step is easy to predict: changing the laws and changing the Federal and State Constitutions.

Why should MAGA and its allies care if such a result would be a catastrophe? The prospect that it could be achieved is enthralling and irresistible to billionaires and game players.

But to the common men and women, Democracy is not a game. In no other political system but only in American Democracy that our rights to live a decent life as a free common man are protected.

Our fate is not in our stars – it is in ourselves.

JOHN P. LE PHONG                                                                                   (This article can be read on Facebook, X, and thelephongjournal.com)

The course MAGA has taken to obtain absolute power is methodical.

To get rid of the foreign elements represented by immigrants and to “take the country back”, Democracy must be undone because Democracy is a “woke” idea, which advocates, promotes, and defends the freedom and equality of everyone that do not fit in with MAGA’s scheme of things.

It started with gaining political power WITHIN the democratic framework to avoid being crushed in the embryo. They did not look far to find the answer to the question of how to do it. MAGA is not just rednecks. Billionaires and many brightest minds are in their rank, who do not like Democracy and prefer Oligarchy or even dictatorship. They are endowed with exceptional talent and intelligence, so they are naturally arrogant, feel superior, and have little tolerance for slower or less intelligent people.  They hate being talked back. When they say do “this” they expect others to do exactly “this” no question asked. Clearly, Democracy has no good use for them.

MAGA’s brightest minds readily found the experiences of the Soviet Union and China’s proletariat revolutions useful. Mao said during the Korean War that you (the Americans) have the atomic bomb, but we (the Chinese) have the people. That sums up Lenin’s and Mao’s insight that from the people, political and even military power would be created. It is profound but simple: in the U.S. that power would come from the voters.

Because of their ideology, MAGA obviously did not expect a majority of American voters would support it especially non-white Americans, who felt themselves to be the scorn of MAGA. But white voters still held the majority. MAGA was therefore presented with the question of how to get their vote, or to be exact, the majority of their votes.

To call upon the white folks to line up behind them was difficult and complicated not only because of political correctness but also white forks did like and had had feelings and respect for other people too. They had been married into other races all over the country and had voted for woke Democrats. The hurdle MAGA had to overcome was tremendous requiring drastic and risky strategy, which had to be potentially so powerful that it would bully through political correctness and pull most if not all white into MAGA’s camp.

They found it: racism.

The clannish mentality seems normal in America. Yale versus Harvard, UCLA versus USC, it is artificial but useful. When it comes to races, competitiveness becomes extremely ferocious because the emotion is more basic and animalistic. Education and law could only help to keep it under a thin layer. With a little prodding, especially from one main political party, the beast would readily wake up. If the country was being invaded, immigrants flooded society with foreign wicked ideas and customs, another country of a different race was competing neck and neck with the white race, white people would stand up in unison to fight for their tradition and values, or more easily felt and understood by the white, or to be truthful by any multitude, for their race. That would trump any feeling white have for other racial relationships including spousal relationship, regardless of how warm it was.

Winning political races is only the means to reach the next goal. For years, MAGA worked doggedly to eradicate the legacy of a black president, so they fully expected that a woke administration would try to bring down any creation by MAGA. So, the next goal would be to stay in power for a long period of time long enough to solidify MAGA grip on the country. To do so, MAGA needed to invoke the mentality of “us” against “them” as long as possible and cause a feeling in the people of uneasiness and uncertain by creating chaos.

But sooner or later, white people would get tired of demagoguery and extremism, realize the phoniness of the race issue, and vote MAGA out. To prevent that from happening is their next goal, which is the dismantling of Democracy and replacing it with an Oligarchy or Dictatorship in the form of the Putin or Kim Jong Un regime. Or even better, an Aristocracy.

The scary thing is the Democrats and the Republicans who love and respect Democracy suddenly disappear from the American political map, withdrawing into the far side of the moon and putting all their hope in the Supreme Court – the same court with six extremely conservative members who voted for everything MAGA, including discarding a sixty-year precedent that protected women’s rights and the expansion of presidential immunity and power.

How to dismantle Democracy?

JOHN P. LE PHONG

(You can read this article on Facebook, X, and thelephongjournal.com)

In the Nineteen Century, France sent gunships to Viet Nam. The royal court debated frantically how to deal with the situation. The mandarins wanted to negotiate with France, but the generals led by Nguyen Tri Phuong fiercely objected. They disliked foreigners and they were patriotic. Unlike the Japanese and the Siamese who chose to talk to the Westerners, General Nguyen and his colleagues were heroic, willing to fight to the death. General Nguyen threatened to commit suicide if the king capitulated to the French’s demands.
How could the king ignore his entreaty, a patriot and his most loyal subject? The general got his wish.
In a battle in Hanoi, the general was captured by the French. Heroic to the end, he refused medical treatment by the French and starved himself to death.
His misunderstanding of the military capability of the two countries, and the situation in general, led to not only his demise but Viet Nam for 67 years ceased to exist and was chopped into three little pieces with strange names: Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina. This traumatic history has taught a lesson, a relevant and very important lesson for our time: heroism sometimes is selfish and disastrous.
MAGA is no doubt patriotic. That they may just want the country for themselves does not make them less patriotic. They have been angry seeing that the country has been “exploited” by foreigners, “hollowed out” by China in the words of one of its more fierce loyalists. They have loudly asserted that the U.S. has been cheated by its trading counterparts, especially China. The president, prompted by their advice, declared that the U.S. and its taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years. Using this self-serving “information”, MAGA has worked hard to push for the imposition of tariffs. They raised the banner “Make America Great Again” (that in hindsight did not make much sense as mentioned below). They have heroically led the charge against foreigners and foreign countries. And the president was persuaded and declared the tariffs war on the world, with China of course receiving the hammer, 125%. That means the common men, the consumers of everyday products will pay double for any item coming from China. If you ever happen to turn a product upside down to look at the bottom, from a teacup to a computer, more often than not you see the three words “Made in China”.
The numbers tell a different story, strikingly different.
During the last three decades, the United States has surged ahead of all major competitors. In 2008, the U.S. economy was about the same size as the Eurozone. By 2023, it was nearly twice that size. U.S. average wages were about 20 percent greater than the average of the advanced industrial world in 1990. They are now around 40 percent higher. The average Japanese person was 50 percent richer than an American in 1995 in terms of GDP per capita. Today, an American is about 150 percent richer than a Japanese person. In fact, the poorest American state, Mississippi, has a higher per capita GDP than Britain or France or Japan, (Source: the Fareed Zakaria GPS).
Now, MAGA, like General Nguyen, does not comprehend the situation clearly, misunderstand the balance of forces and underestimates its trading counterparts. With only 14.7% of its total export goes to the U.S., China can afford to go toe to toe with the U.S. and did raise its tariff against American goods also to 125%.
Thank Heavens that we do not lose a country but only a new iPhone, or a good vacations. And who actually will lose them? Us, humble common men yearning all year long for either one of them. We pay for MAGA’s ego and dark intentions.
The country does not need another department, but a small office located somewhere in the West Wing and employing some of the DOGE’s geniuses and their computers to evaluate, each quarter, the president’s appointees to determine their ability to understand the world as it is, not the world they dream it to be.
If they kept making mistakes, the next one would probably cost us not just an iPhone, or a computer, or a good vacation.

JOHN P. LE PHONG
(This article appears on thelephongjournal.com, Facebook, and X).

 

Napoleon purportedly said that if you want a thing done well, do it yourself. That manifests a hands-on type of leader. But t    hat also means underlings could very well do a bad job and sabotage the good plan of the boss.

But bosses, no matter how good they are, cannot do all the jobs themselves. A boss such as the president of the United States needs staff to carry out policies and execute his orders. Their competence is therefore crucial to the success of his policies.

During President Trump’s first term, there were enough mature and experienced politicians or professionals in his cabinet to prevent the disaster of abolishing Obama Care, despite MAGA’s fanatical campaign to kill it for no reason other than its quasi-religious mission to eliminate an important achievement of a black president.
In the first few months of his second term, the president has declared his intention to achieve many strategic goals that makes even a seasoned politician dizzy: wooing Russia, abandoning Ukraine, distancing from NATO and the EU, taking the Panama Canal back, buying Greenland, assimilating Canada, dealing with Iran and its nuclear problem, taking over the Gaza Strip, bombing the Houthis, raising punishing tariffs, and a new but unsurprising goal of getting around the 22nd Amendment to serve a third term. All that requires the help of tremendously experienced and nuanced supporting staff.

Unfortunately, none of them is in his cabinets or among his second-tier executives because the president seems more comfortable with young inexperienced and un-nuanced people he wants (and they want) to work for him. The Signal chat fiasco, the blunders of ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, the idea of sending a delegation headed by the vice president’s wife to Greenland purportedly for cultural exchange, the barring of the Associated Press from the White House etc. are early signs of such incompetence. A few dismissive words such as labeling the press woke, or there was no secret revealed, or the president has full confidence in his subordinates etc. could calm the water regarding these matters.

But the imposition of high tariffs is a different matter. Tariffs, especially exorbitant tariffs, are confrontational against the wide world. It also directly affects, negatively, common Americans. We pay the price. They involve complicated factors and require the ability to navigate the complexity, control the elements, and reach the desired goals, which are still undefined and murky. Not to hurt common American citizens should have been one of the goals. But clearly, it is what is happening.

Who are the advocates of using tariffs as a weapon? MAGA and its public face Peter Navarro, who has been dead set on bringing down China. Mr. Navarro came up with the tariff ideology when China was still a little shop owner who tried to steal things from the colossal American Factory. He was mad because no one listened to him about punishing China for its misdemeanors. Now back in power again after serving a stint in prison for contempt of Congress, he supports 104% tariff against China.

Not only tariffs hurst common Americans (the president, admits that much), but the world we live in now is totally different, which is no longer a one-way street. No longer the U.S. says “jump” and the rest of the world will obediently say “how high”. Powerful forces are at play and powerful nations are no longer fawningly submissive.

In this high-stake world game for dominance, the American team is manned by amateurs.

In WWII, the arrogance of the leadership led to millions of deaths and the total destruction of societies, and the common men bore the brunt of the catastrophe.

No one, including Elon Musk and Fareed Zakaria among the best minds of our time, understands why MAGA wants to raise tariffs. And now with its amateurish team handling the tariff war, we don’t go to bed and have nightmares. We lie in bed sleepless.

JOHN P. LE PHONG
(This article appears on Facebook, X, and thelephongjournal.com).

Stoking racism and the Americans’ fear of immigrants diluting the traditional culture of America, MAGA has won political battles and in 2024 the cultural war. Paraphrasing the words of former House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, they have broken the Democratic Party.

After the debate between the two candidates, Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, the Democrats were overjoyed because they believed he had lost the debate. Later, Mr. Trump seemed to be rambling in many political rallies. They were sure that they had a better chance of winning the election. Before they could get over their giddiness, Mr. Trump defeated the Vice President. Shocked and bewildered, they have since watched the Republicans hegemonize American politics without any meaningful resistance. Still, it was politically fair and square for the Republicans in a Democracy. But gradually something sinister emerges.

Racism is always an explosive emotional issue in any region of the Earth.  The U.S. has done a better job to keep a lid on it. But the energy has always been there and MAGA saw it and successfully maneuvered to exploit that energy, first to galvanize people who are avert to foreign culture to form a solid base against alien elements, then using the base to gain and solidify power. Using MAGA’s favorite terminology, it has weaponized that base to beat the Democrats and to control the Republican Party and its members including elected officials.

Absolute power is a nemesis of Democracy, and no American political party or citizen has sought absolute power, until now as it is clear that MAGA is seeking it. Why the Democrats, the Knight Templars of Democracy, did not see it? Their complacent belief that the American political climate and soil were not well-suited for an un-democratic regime such as dictatorship, aristocracy, or oligarchy is partially responsible for their being caught off guard. But credit must be given to MAGA for hatching a plan, a long-term plan of working from the ground up (an American version of Lenin’s workers and Mao’s and Ho’s peasants) that has been executed one step at a time until it gathers sufficient force for an all-out onslaught against Democracy. That time is now when it has all branches of government under its absolute control. It does not need professionals to be heads of departments or attorneys general to run a government. It only needs loyal and faithful cadres who don’t have to be experienced (the Signal Chat fiasco comes to mind) but pledge allegiance to MAGA, learn how to repeat MAGA’s lines, and take orders without question.

There is little doubt that MAGA wants to gut Democracy, or at least Democracy for all. There is currently no significant obstacle against it doing so openly and speedily: Republicans are uniformly in line and Democrats have been rendered impotent.

Only a few weeks after taking over Washington, MAGA adopted one of the most heinous schemes in the history of dictatorial regimes, Mao Zedong’s Communist Chinese Red Guards. Battalions of young Chinese Communists (not unlike DOGE cadres) were given power to roam the country, create chaos, terrorize Chinese of all ranks, and turn the Chinese society into a nightmare.

MAGA has copied that strategy to a certain extent to threaten judges with impeachment, terminating or reducing necessity services in departments and agencies, planning to lay off tens of thousands of employees (DHHS). Thousands of newly hired federal employees were let go at the whim of DOGE. That was hailed by MAGA as efficiency but think of those young new hired who were full of hope and dreams when they were hired, dreams of buying a new car, getting an apartment of their own, or even getting married. Those dreams evaporated because a twenty-something decided that they must be fired.

The President prides himself on being a consummate deal maker who plays big games. So, he does not get into a game and expects to win by just having one bargain chip, let’s call it A. He is also bringing to the game B, C, D and so on. Hey Putin, Xie, Democracy lovers, and ordinary Americans, I got NATO, Europe, Ukraine, Canada, Greenland, Mexico, Taiwan, North Korea, the Houthis, exorbitant tariffs, immigrants (not just illegal), and something new, Third Presidential Term. You don’t know if I will play them all or what chip I will play with. You don’t know what I want. Truth be told, I don’t exactly know what I want. But with so many chips I have in my vest’s pockets, I am sure I will win at least something.

What is the goal after dismantling Democracy, doesn’t seem to be well-defined at this point. Why eliminate or weaken the Education Department? Does it, together with its opposition to student loan forgiveness and high tariffs thus higher costs of living, aim at not just making sure the ordinary Americans know and stay in their place but also making America less attractive to foreigners? So, the immigration problems would be solved, humanely MAGA would claim, and saving billions of dollars from being spent on building the wall?

Regardless, the road starts getting rougher and life will be more difficult for most ordinary Americans – for no legitimate reason except MAGA’s dark ambition. That the cost of getting a new car will increase by some accounts by $15,000 is just an example. For billionaires, losing a few billion dollars here and there is just a tiny wave in a teacup. But for the probationary federal workers and most Americans, losing a job or paying such a high price for a necessity is a tsunami.

Politicians are sometimes expected to be emotional, impetuous, or even irrational. They fight to get their point across sometimes without reason, only passion, such as exhorting us to work 80 hours – or more – a week.

Historical events have proved the immense practical wisdom of the Founding Fathers to split the government into three branches so they can keep an eye on each other. The Supreme Court was intended as the reservoir of wisdom and reason created by the Constitution to protect and defend the Constitution itself. In the 2024 Supreme Court case, Trump v. United States, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion giving the executive branch more power by granting absolute immunity to a sitting or former president, for official acts while in office.

Whether the Supreme Court, especially the Chief Justice, has abstained from their constitutional duties is a question for better legal minds to ponder and debate. But, the Chief Justice, who mildly scolded the President for his suggestion that a judge be impeached for ruling against one of his executive orders, and the Court must forgive the President for assuming that Justices and Judges are his subordinates and the U.S. Attorney General for making statements as if she has authority to reprimand and discipline judges.

JOHN P. LE PHONG                                                                                                                                                          (This article can be found on Facebook, X, and the blog thelephongjournal.com)

A judge blocks the presidential executive order to deport illegal immigrants. MAGA immediately demand: “Impeach the judge”, never mind that it is not how our legal system works.
Chief Justice John Roberts feels that MAGA goes too far in wielding its power, politely reminds them, “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”

MAGA’s various reactions to the Chief Justice’s statement are telling. Immediately after he issued his statement, a Fox commentator denounced him on a talk show, “Roberts (the Chief Justice), shut the f… up.”

People gather to protest near a Tesla dealership, the U.S. Attorney General threatens them with criminal prosecution. Heck, a law student or any American knows that picketing is a constitutional right. Did she know she was wrong? Of course she did. She is a lawyer. But working for MAGA and wanting to stay in the job, she must show some zealotry. She must use rude blunt force, MAGA’s favorite political weapon.

Reason, what is right and what is wrong, is set aside, as if we were back to the Upper Paleolithic period, Cro-Magnon man ruled absolute: “Woman, where is my meat?” Smack. “Junior, you left your pet in the shack again.” Smack.

MAGA’s angry, blunt, and ugly attitude is not impulsive. It is methodical, planned, and well-coordinated strategy to turn the Democratic America into an Oligarchy or Aristocracy, a plan that seems to have converted and seduced many billionaires to MAGA camp. It was effective to win the 2024 national elections, then it could succeed again to create a dictatorship.

The Minority Leader, Senator Chuck Schumer, was criticized by his party’s members for his decision not to fight the budget to a standstill. But it was a well-considered decision. Imagine a stalemate, what would then happen? If MAGA can denounce an opposing judge as crooked and files an impeach article against him, it would be irresistible for it to declare a national crisis. The Defense Secretary would don his Army Combat Fatigues, cigar in mouth, stand upright in his jeep, and lead a few divisions of U.S. Military to cross the Potomac River to surround the Capitol and the White House to “protect” our country against woke politicians and their allied.

FBI agents would knock on the doors of Mr. Schumer, Senator Schiff, and all other politicians around the Capital declared as “woke” by MAGA and ship them to Northwest Stadium for education.

Then, the President would appear in the balcony of the White House, somberly, calmly, measuredly, avuncularly, and solemnly declared to the nation that he would never let the nation fall into chaos; he would do his best to protect the citizens of this country against crooked politicians. In order to save the country, he would have to suspend the Constitution and appoint Mr. Musk Deputy Commander in Chief to supervise all government actions.

Farfetched? If Mr. Hegseth heads the Defense Department, Mr. Katel leads the FBI from Las Vegas, anything could happen.

The President is a man who plays big games. Only big games. The first time he entered politics, he applied for the presidency right away. He did not care for a little lower position such as governor, congressman, or senator to learn the rope, like John F. Kennedy, his idol if he has any.

The first time as president of the most powerful country on earth, and as such the leader of the free world, he met the president of Russia, an un-democratic country and the nemesis of the U.S. and the free world, he publicly and warmly took Mr. Putin to a room for a private talk, just two of them and the interpreters. He was clearly oblivious to the world’s shock and confusion. A few weeks into his second term, he dressed down America’s heretofore most important allies in Europe and, reinforced by the Vice President, publicly berated the head of one of them in the White House. He accused Ukraine as the aggressor which started the Russia-Ukraine war, in disregard of the fact that the opposite is true. He wanted to purchase a country, Greenland, and assimilate another, Canada, into the U.S. as the 51st state. Those are earth-shaking events, and he did it almost casually.

Extraordinary actions, extraordinary proposals, extraordinary games. But with such thinking and self-confidence, one should be forgiven for suspecting that bringing down Democracy and replacing it with a dictatorship of some form would be a thrilling challenge to the President and he truly believed that with MAGA behind (or in front of) him, he could do it. Regardless of the terrifying ramifications of the outcome, it would be just a big game to play, and to win through the art of negotiation and using rude blunt force.
Since he entered politics, the ultimate noble pursuit of men, he has shown the world that it was not a big deal but relatively easy for him.

After four years under incredibly harsh attacks by his opponents, he overcame all hurdles to win the presidency a second time. Now he presides over not an administration but in the words of the editor-in-chief of the Economist, a court, that means every member of his “court” would act like a mandarin, bowing and taking orders from the king without questions and ever ready to declare the king’s clothes were beautiful while he was naked.

Returning to power in 2025, the President has earned the right to be nonchalant about politics or governing even a huge and complicated country like the U.S. entangled with so many diverse interest groups: nothing sacred or reverent about it; he could do it while texting.

It is not unreasonable for him to believe that he will win again.

JOHN P. LE PHONG
(This article can be read on Facebook, X, and thelephongjournal.com)

Asians are the perfect examples to prove that smaller in stature does not reflect a smaller value. The perennial perception that physical strength or bigger shape deserves a higher rung in society has been perpetuated by the bullies to get an advantage without showing anything worth better to justify their superiority. The ability to kill has been the only justification.

The American democratic society has worked hard to reach the idealistic promised land where each person is free and independent, and each person is respected for who they are. It has nurtured men to be free and thinking for themselves and proved that the disdain, disrespect and dismissiveness of anyone of different appearances are contrived and the people’s prejudicial perception or discrimination is man-created to suit their selfish and nearsighted interest.

Germany in 1932 was politically similar to the U.S. in 2016. Hitler gained political power through election. How did he do it? By dangling the menace of the Jews taking over Germany just like the specter of immigrants’ potential taking over of American society spread by MAGA Republicans. But once in power, Hitler resorted to plotting and decrees, or in other words executive orders, to suppress his opponents, cling to power, and make his authority absolute.
The same intimidation tactics are used by MAGA against its political opponents. The striking revelation by a Republican U.S. Senator, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a rare occurrence in Republican politics (a candid admission by a Republican politician against his own party), that the FBI warned him about credible death threats when he was considering voting against the confirmation of Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary. Eventually, he voted to confirm the nomination. According to Vanity Fair, he suggested that if anyone wanted to understand President Trump, they should read “Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go To Work” (A spokesman for the senator denied the story).

Too many similarities between MAGA politics and other dictatorial regimes should alarm non-MAGA Americans. America has made progress in making Democracy stronger and beneficial to all. But manipulators and opportunists have tried to convince the American people otherwise and worked feverously to undermine Democracy. The immigration issue has created an environment readily exploited by these cloudy water fishermen, who dislike Democracy probably because its institutions are based on the idea that all men are created equal; they prefer aristocracy, oligarchy, or a dictatorship of some kind.

In any dictatorial regime, indoctrination is of paramount importance. The Soviet Union established The Young Pioneers to train children and Komsomol to whip young Russian adults into disciplined cadres taking order from the Communist party with no question asked.

Hitler and Germany’s Nazi did the same with organizations such as The Hitler Youth and The League of German Girls, which were composed of several different divisions for young boy, young adults, and girls. Their mission was to train the Germans to obey the Fuhrer and be loyal to him (does it sound familiar?) as the savior of Germany.

In our country at the present time, these anti-democracy opportunists exhort young people not to pursue college studies, which of course include liberal arts, the branch of education that is designed to expand the minds of young people to think and consider other ideas besides what their elders tell them. They offer money to people under 22 years old to quit college.
Why? – The stated reason is that college education does not guaranty success in real life. But a program such as this guaranties that young people are not subject to a more rounded education offered by colleges and universities’ liberal arts departments, the kind of education that, according to MAGA, subjects them to “woke” ideas or “woke” thinking. In short, they give powerful incentive ($100,000) for young Americans not to learn or think for themselves, just take order and obey. They want to produce generations of worker bees.

The weakness of Democracy seems to lie at its foundation. When people are free and thinking, they naturally entertain doubts when presented with an idea or an issue and take time to think and debate even when the issue is of an emergency nature. They are also more tolerant of different or opposing ideas. When faced with the intolerant MAGA’s massive energy created by its obeying and single-minded members, Democracy has little chance without an effective support mechanism. When MAGA whips up the frenzy of immigrants invading the country and foreigners destroying American traditional values, even people who favor Democracy are swayed and set aside the potential danger of losing it all.
A Democratic strategist predicted that support for Trump, Musk, and MAGA ideology would suffer a “massive collapse” within the next month or so. How did he know? Because the bond market has gone up. It reminds us of ancient generals reading the tea leaves before going to battle. He urged his fellow Democrats to lay back. A sign that the country’s economic and financial factors do not support the president’s agenda is good news for the Democrats, but waiting is not by itself a very effective strategy. They do not seem to have thought of an antidote to fight against the anti-democratic forces let alone coming up with one.

Borrowing the experiments of the Soviet Communists and Germany’s Nazi, MAGA tolerates no dissenter, so their energy is concentrated and bullet-like. It has found an ideology to forge a monolith within the Republican Party: White Supremacism, or in lay term: racism. The fact that MAGA successfully maneuvered to stack the Supreme Court with justices who readily side with it to affirm an expanded executive power, tantamount to a dictator’s, indicates that it has played a long game, and the scheme had been hatched a long while ago.

The chaotic immigration policy gave MAGA a perfect scapegoat to seize power and to reach the ultimate goal of White Supremacy. The rude conduct of American leaders in Europe from criticizing its leaders to outright support of its extremist elements makes us wonder if there is a plan in all this such to export MAGA’s “How to Conquer” playbook to Europe to create an international movement to turn Europe into a collective of white nations governed by strongmen or oligarchs?

If such plan in the work, Russia will no longer be needed as a whipping boy and Ukraine will just be an unimportant and politically irrelevant piece of land in the continent. The collateral damage caused by such a plan will be the long campaign to convince people to respect other people as they are. The spectacle in the Oval Office where the President of the United States and his Vice President berating and dressing down the head of another state, the President of Ukraine seems to confirm a tremendous setback in the fight against the bullies of the world and for equality among human beings of different races, nationalities, genders, and stations in life.

JOHN P. LE PHONG
(This article is posted on X, Facebook, and thelephongjournal.com)