Fighting Effectively Requires Seeing Clearly

I’m drafting a piece for The Big Picture substack today on a decidedly big picture topic: how nearly everything they’re throwing at us these days boils down to two basic strategies—which Trump and Musk are using very effectively against us so far. Here’s an excerpt from my intro to my piece, which comes out later this afternoon.

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It’s tempting to avoid the news these days. The headlines read as a parade of horribles: Trump invokes the Alien Enemies Act! Medicaid funding to be slashed! Green card holders deported! Migrants disappeared to El Salvador! DOGE is inside our federal systems! Social Security in peril! Mass federal layoffs announced!

In situations like this, it’s often very helpful to climb up a level and assess the situation from a higher vantage point. From there, we can see some commonalities in the other side’s strategy and develop our own to counter them.

It takes a bit of discipline, but if we stop thrashing around in panic and rise above the smoke and din, the picture becomes clear. It turns out that neither Donald Trump nor Elon Musk is very original in how he operates. Their M.O.s largely come down to two classic and well-understood ploys: bogeymen and Trojan horses.

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I’ll lay my “big picture” thoughts on bogeymen and Trojan horses later this afternoon!

Jay