Hunter Biden, a son of the Democratic President Joe Biden, sat on the board of a foreign country and was paid $50,000 a month for five years. He was investigated by the Republicans relentlessly who kept his laptop in the headlines for several years but his indictment for tax evasion did not have anything to do with the laptop. They skillfully turned a storm in a teapot into a hurricane for Hunter and his family.
Jared Kushner worked extensively with the Arab world while in the government. Six months after he left his official position, he secured Two Billion Dollars from the Saudis for his investment fund. Not a peep from anyone on the Republican side.
MAGA’s legal knowledge and skill in navigating the labyrinth of American laws and regulations were striking compared to the Democrats’! Hunter was a loner adventurer in the making-money wilderness and easily caught by the wolves. Kushner was working in coordination with his and his in-law’s family with the support of legal and financial experts and no less his father in law’s influence, more like a global network, the modus operandi of modern world’s mega money-makers. That is how the sitting president and his family made billions of dollars in 2025 while he was, and still is, in the White House, and sit pretty in New York and Palm Beach.
It may offend ordinary people’s common sense, but it may not be illegal. They study the law carefully and push the envelope to pursue billions, not the $50,000 that poor Hunter was accused of.
That says a lot about Donald Trump. He is a genius and has succeeded in spearheading a new brand of politics, you may call it the Randian politics of self-interest as a virtue, heretofore, an anathema to success in politics in America, or in any democratic political system, and made it work so well for him.
But, as I said in a previous article, his absolute dominance of the Republican party leaves no room for growth for the next crop of leaders of the party.
Where can you find another Republican who made 30573 false or misleading claims during his first presidential term and still got the votes to win a second term? Where can you find another politician, let alone a Republican, who raises the price of gas 35.8% higher in a year and a half, started a war without asking Congress and at the same time reported personal (his and his immediate family’s) revenue of over $2 billions, and his party dare not raise its voice. Even Democrats could not say an effective word except to vent their frustration by saying they were outrageous. Where can the Republican party find another leader who has relatives, sons, and son in law ride his coattail to fabulous rich?
What Republican, or any politician in the world, said on TV this about his political opponent: “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president? I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not s’posedta say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?” and won the presidential election in the United States of America, which was supposed to be the world’s leading society of civility?
Can any member of the Republican Party command the devotion and passion, bordering on infatuation, of a 35-year-old blonde, white lady? Could any of them, when they reached 80, be able to excite a 35-year-old beautiful woman to write them intimate letters? It is a rare magnetism that Donald Trump alone in the Republican Party possesses. And that could explain why he incredibly won in 2024 as the white ladies in their 70s, his age, and probably those in their 60s, or 50s, or 40s, and of course in their 30s, the age of his devotee, would probably have never voted for Democrats when he was around.
Would any of his successors, pretend to be a Trumpian, or even more Trumpian than Trump? Probably a lot. Just look at the Republican political landscape in Arizona.
But would a Vance, Rubio, Jordan, Paul, Cotton, Hawley, Britt, Lake etc. be able to exhibit a bizarre aura and carry his banner and culture, or would they be burdened by his legacy and become just copycats clumsily shouting MAGA slogans louder to get attention but do not possess his ability? Would they be able to insist that an Olympian had destroyed the pond even if his government’s lawyers dismissed the charge and looked pale in intimidation? Would they be able to turn around the investigation of the Epstein Files as he did? Would they be able to make a lot of billionaires even happier than they have been with his actions?
Would any of them without the charisma and luck of Donald Trump be attractive enough to the voters to overcome the excesses of the President?
The picture looks bleak.
JOHN P. LE PHONG
(This article appears on X, Facebook, and thelephongjournal.com)
