🔊 “Midnight in America: A Big Beautiful Lie”

How Trump’s budget bill trades democracy for oligarchy — and why Hungary’s protests may hold the key to fighting back

I turned on the TV this morning just in time to catch the fascist-in-chief lying to reporters on his way to persuade Republicans to screw over the entire country with his Big Beautiful Bullshit Bill.

Well, it is beautiful — but only if you’re part of the wealthiest 2% or a Fortune 500 CEO. Not so much if you’re among the least fortunate: women, children, infants, the physically or mentally challenged. They know it’s a shameful bill — or they wouldn’t be holding votes and strategy meetings in the dead of night, including one at 1:00 a.m. this Wednesday.

By the time you read this, you’ve likely already heard the results of that meeting.

BREAKING NEWS: The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has just announced that the proposed budget will slash Medicare by $500 billion.

But I digress.

Trump was off and running again this morning with his usual numbers game. I genuinely don’t understand why his MAGA base doesn’t question how his figures change from one interview, press conference, or social media post to the next. The first thing I heard him claim today was that he has “the highest poll numbers in the history of the country.”

Then he dropped a doozy:

If this bill doesn’t pass, our taxes will go up by 68%.

There’s absolutely nothing — nothing — to support that wild exaggeration.

So I ask: Do his supporters actually believe these numbers? Or do they just not care — as long as he keeps disappearing immigrants, arresting dissenters, and hurling middle-of-the-night insults at his imagined enemies?

Here’s the truth: Trump is the only modern U.S. president who never surpassed 50% approval in Gallup polling during either of his terms. His approval ratings have remained consistently low, mirroring our deep political divide.

In an earlier SubStack, I told you I’d write about this budget proposal. I haven’t forgotten. I just got sidetracked by revisiting Project 2025, because — let’s be honest — the Trump administration and the current Republican Congress are following that document, not the Constitution.

If you haven’t already, I urge you to read my May 19 post:

“Project 2025: A Manual for the Unmaking of American Democracy.”

It’s essential to remember how we got here — to this increasingly authoritarian state. It’s both maddening and terrifying.

But here’s the hope: Hungary.

Yes, Hungary — the very country Project 2025 planners studied for advice on converting a democracy into an authoritarian regime. After Trump’s first term, several of them traveled there to learn from Viktor Orbán.

But now? Now Hungarians are fighting back.

Their citizens have marched in the streets for months, growing in numbers and determination, to stand up against their autocrat. They are our inspiration.

It’s time to look to Hungary again — this time not as a blueprint for authoritarianism, but as a model of resistance.