“His thoughts wandered again. Almost unconsciously, he traces with his finger in the dust on the table: 2+2 = 5” — 1984
I had no intention of watching Trump’s speech, but my inner voice told me I needed to. Thus, I parked myself in my favorite chair and watched. Ninety-nine minutes, I would never get back. But as I watched, I wondered if other people were seeing and hearing the same things I was. I suspect most people did not, as we tend to see and listen to what we want to believe, even when the apparent truth is staring us smack dab in the face.
Trump laid the groundwork for people to deny facts like Big Brother did in George Orwell’s 1984, where 2+2= 5. Listening to Trump drone on about his supposed accomplishments along with promises marginally kept, most he will not, and of those he fails to deliver on, he will blame Biden, Obama, Hillary, and Santa Claus for all the lumps of coal he got for Christmas.
Watching him drone on for almost two hours, I realized what I was hearing: Trump laid the groundwork for justification for all the constitutional violations he plans to commit because he fully believes the Supreme Court gave him the right to become this country’s first dictator. On March 5, 2025, Trump essentially laid out his plans for governance, believing no one can stop him as he has ultimate immunity to damn well do whatever he pleases.
The Republicans consistently rose to their feet with thunderous applause while Democrats sat meekly in their seats holding paddle signs of disagreement. The only person from the Democratic side of the House and Senate who dared to call Trump out was Texas Congressional Representative Al Green, who was eventually escorted out by the Sargent of Arms and later censured for his brave actions.
Essentially, what I watched on March 5, 2025, was Trump preparing the country to believe 2+2 = 5. He, along with his minions, is carefully laying the groundwork for transitioning our democratic republic into an authoritarian, dictatorial form of governance, a statement I do not make lightly, nor do I ask you to take it as an off-the-cuff remark.
Trump is unhinged and is on a highly intense power grab, often seen in individuals who are seeking to establish themselves as dictators. He has taken the opinion Roberts wrote regarding presidential immunity, as many believed and feared he would, that he has absolute immunity to do whatever he wants to whomever he has on his hit list.
A prime example is his latest midnight rant, saying Biden’s pardons are not valid because Biden used an auto-pen to sign his name. Trump often used an auto-pen numerous times during his first term as president, but somehow, this has escaped his attention. Trump’s pettiness and desire to extract retribution on those whom he feels wronged him or people he doesn’t like are examples of his juvenile pettiness for a man of his age.
It is also a sign of his diminishing mental capacity. That should concern us. After all, Trump has made and continues to make it a prime issue, and he uses it against Biden. However, having a leader of a powerful country who may have some diminished capacity is not unusual. We have experienced this here in the US with several of our presidents, and there was no lack of effort to hide it from the public.
Let’s be honest: the American populace is no different from any other country regarding its leader’s health. Like it or not, we have some mythical construct that leaders should be this side of Heracles, endowed with physical strength, not to mention charisma in uncanny abundance.
Intellectual depth and understanding are automatic assumptions, as many believe those who rise to the level of leader of a country such as the US are naturally intelligent; after all, how could they have won the highest position this country has to offer?
We have also had our share of intellectuals in the role of president who also found the job taxing and challenging. Especially with a Congress that believed they had better ideas and would be unwavering in their opposition, forcing the current president to offer some level of compromise for support.
These previous presidents may not have agreed with their opposition and no doubt harbored less than warm feelings for them, but not on the level Trump has demonstrated. He is self-centered and hatefully vindictive. He views himself as the most intelligent person in any room he enters.
His narcissism overrides any common sense, as humility is not part of his narcissistic personality. Trump expressing his concerns would be disruptive to his ultimate goal of getting them to feel the lies he needs to tell them to get their compliance. Truth is the disinfectant to the lies he spreads. Yet, for unexplainable reasons, some seem utterly comfortable with his lies and accept them as truths. Canto III from Dantes Inferno is the only reasonable explanation for why people willingly accept his lies: “We have come to a place I told you of; you will see the miserable people who have lost the good of intellect.’
Those ‘who have lost the good of intellect’ keenly describe Trump supporters who believe the projections, proclamations, and promises he spews forth as if they are genuinely things he could ever accomplish in a single day as he is often prone to promise, fully knowing it’s a lie.
Yet, people believe him, exalt him, and support him to the level of Trump started saying 2+2=5; they would cast aside all their math training, discarding common sense, logic, and hale Trump like the C18 Locker Aliens in Men In Black. Trump is a master of spin, lies, and subterfuge; he gives Satan a run for his money.
Watching his speech to Congress and seeing the Republicans jump up and down, applauding loudly, consistently, and with delicious delight, relishing what they believe will become the start of their achieving their anti-democratic objectives first among them to solidify Trump as a dictator and plunge a dagger in the heart of democracy.
How else are they going to reach their twisted goals of ‘taking their country back and making it a Christian nation’ without handing the reins of power to their version of ‘DEAR LEADER,’ whom they believe is one they have been looking for to accomplish their asinine goals? Republicans who control the House and Senate do not have the same mindset as Republicans of twenty years ago.
It has become clear that the country is moving in a direction that favors a more authoritarian form of governance, which is extremely disturbing. Trump may say words that imply he is for freedom, but his actions tell a different and highly unsettling story. In the world, Trump lives and operates in 2+2= 5. What we witnessed on March 4, 2025, Trump told the country 2+2=5. What we saw with Republicans jumping to their feet with their applause was their tacit agreement and commitment to Trump changing the laws of mathematics, accepting the lie that 2+2=5 and not four.
In essence, what Republicans so proudly clapped and celebrated was not the spirit of a presidency that would be working for the people but a presidency that would have as its motto; ‘abandon all hope, ye who enter here.’ The here would be the Trump construct of perceived accomplishments where there are none.
The fallacy that Trump and his administration are working for the ordinary people when it is not, and the most destructive aspect of his second term, he will make America great again, but not for the ordinary people, for they are, as Dante wrote those who; ‘The world has no record of their existence; heaven’s mercy and justice both disdain them, But, let us not speak of them look only and then pass.’
With their applause for Trump’s lies and pushing his agenda, democracy becomes an ancient memory, an authoritative government is put in place with Trump as the country’s strong man, and the failure to keep our republic becomes a footnote in history because Trump Land, 2+2=5.
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