By Emil Amok Guillermo

With Donald Trump’s signature of his megabill in the broad daylight of the Fourth of July, there was no need for fireworks.

What was there to celebrate?

It’s now all out in the open.

The House approved the Senate bill, virtually unchanged, in the light of day Friday.

And then the president signed the bill for all to see on the very day we celebrate America’s Declaration of Independence.

Irony of ironies. On a day of freedom, the president signs a bill that saddles us to a bankrupt America.

How do you deal with a historic $37 trillion dollar national debt?

Pay it back? Nope. You make things harder by cutting revenues with a historic tax breaks to the rich.

There should be no doubt who to blame when the ironic crud hits the fan.

Thats “crud,”  my forced acronym for Trump’s legislative descent toward  a “Cruel and Unusual Democracy.”

A stretch? But so is Trump mocking the Democrats at the signing.

“Oh it’s so dangerous,” Trump said sarcastically of the Dems. “So everybody’s going to die. It’s actually just the opposite. Everybody’s going to live.”

Let’s see him say that to his supporters who lose their health care, or access to a rural hospital that’s forced to close. Medicaid recipients left with nothing won’t be thriving like the wealthy who got their big tax cut.

When the impacts of Trump’s legacy bill comes back to hurt normal Americans, there should be no debate.

We all saw the process—Trump did it all without any real concern for the majority of the American people.

The Republicans know there are dangerous things in that bill, called by MAGA supporters the Big Beautiful Bill, Normal folks will come to know it as the Big Ugly.

It’s the largest tax cut ever to the wealthiest Americans, an upside down Robin Hood.

That’s unusual in a nation that used to care for its poor.

Now under Trump it’s OK to be cruel.

The bill will cut health care and food stamps from up to 12 million in the U.S., according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

The impact of these cuts to pay for those tax cuts for the wealthy means that everybody gets hurt in the end.

We’ll all be impacted by a government going broke.

FROM TACO TO CACO

When the Senate passed the bill early last week by a 51-50 vote, we knew it was crazy.  Even supporters of the bill like Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who carved out Alaska from some of the pain because it was a non-contiguous state, didn’t like it. Her carve-out made all the AAPI in Hawaii odd beneficiaries of her selfish political move. But even Murkowski had hoped the bill could be made better if the House slowed it down to work out the cruelty.

Some budget hawks, self-described Reagan conservatives, were concerned enough to make a stink. But they gave in to the bigger stink of Trump.

All Trump did was play to the egos of members of Congress like Chip Roy R-Texas) and Ralph Norman (R-SC). They went to the White House and for the price of a selfie and some White House gift shop swag, they caved.

If TACO–“Trump Always Chickens Out”– is an acronym when he bails on tariffs, this was CACO– “Congress Always Chickens Out”–when it comes to standing up to Trump.

With the House vote, make that “Congress Always Chickens-out Again.”

Legislatively, we were left with CACA.

And it’s all due to the authoritarian persuasiveness of Trump. According to reports, Trump was feeling the expansion of his powers with the Senate vote and the recent SCOTUS win over district judges’ national injunctions.  Now he appears uncheckable. He promised the House hawks he’d fix concerns as his presidential power expands.  That would mean not abiding by certain laws on subsidies and spending.  Norman and others took Trump at his word. That’s how the president has the House in his pocket.

KINGLY POWER

Growing executive power is what this bill is about. It’s the transformation of the presidency into an authoritarian kingship.

Over the weekend, the New York Times reported on memos obtained through the Freedom of Information act that revealed ow the Trump administration believes it is above the law.

The memos show how Attorney General Pam Bondi told tech companies they could lawfully violate laws barring American companies from supporting TikTok. It’s based on the Trump Administration’s belief that the president has the constitutional power to set aside laws.

Set aside laws? You mean break them at will?

This is a president who feels he’s a man in full. Trump actually believes he can nullify any law. And apparently, members of Congress who should act as a check seem to go along with this. When the budget hawks caved and voted with Trump on his bill, they were playing along. Daddy Trump, as NATO calls him,  will make it right.

Add the Supreme Court, where Justice Sonia Sotomayor says Trump has his favorite six “on speed dial,” and what happened to the checks and balances?

Does that sound like America under our Constitution?

We know the Constitution bans cruel and unusual punishment (8th Amendment). But Trump’s megabill passing shows America is hurtling toward becoming a  cruel and unusual democracy, a diminished America, under Trump’s creeping authoritarianism.

Add a few things, like nationalism. A  racist, xenophobic focus on the border and on all immigrants. Hold them at bay with alligators until they disappear. Top it off with an overweening pride in our military. What we’re left with is an America under Trump that appears to be on the throes of seeing a dreaded “F” word come alive and apply to itself.

Emil Guillermo is an award-winning journalist, news analyst and comic stage performer.  He has written a weekly “Amok” column on Asian American issues since 1995. Find him on YouTube, patreon and substack. See him perform live on the Canadian Fringe circuit at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, July 16-27. Get your tickets here.

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