The Storm Trump Started

by | Aug 1, 2026 | Opinions & Commentary

Photo by Josep Castells, Unsplash

The Storm Trump Started

by | Aug 1, 2026 | Opinions & Commentary

Photo by Josep Castells, Unsplash

All of it—every bit of it—lays at the feet of Donald Trump, who is the architect, chief designer and project manager of American ruination and a global war coming into early bloom.

Republished with permission from Steve Schmidt

Yesterday, I woke up at a marina in the beautiful town of Niagara-on-the-Lake at the edge of Lake Ontario, a few miles down river from the famous falls.

A 25-mile per hour north wind was pushing water up the river, where it was meeting the strong current, creating waves eight feet high at the confluence between lake and river.

I was stuck, unable to take the boat back across to Toronto.

I waited.

A few hours later the wind died down, and my friend Dean Blundell and I cruised back across a flat lake that held no traces of having been at a raging boil.

I thought about the juxtaposition of the calm and smooth waters against the chaos of the waves.

I appreciated that it is not so different in the affairs of a person’s life, that of a nation, or even the whole of mankind.

Franklin Roosevelt saw something coming in 1936. He said this:

There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

We too have a rendezvous with destiny—whether we like it or not. The waves will not be abating anytime soon.

The calm waters will come again, but they lie too far over the horizon to be of use in the same way the memory of calmer times matters little in the storm.

Donald Trump and a few hundred people, which include some of the most powerful media executives, law firms, technology companies, CEOs, senators, governors and members of Congress, and other powerful interests engaged in a level of greed, corruption, and lawlessness that is unprecedented across 250 years of American history.

They became enthralled to the most malicious imbecile in our history to ever hold political power in America—a man who is a deviant, a criminal, a thug, a moron and a gold-plated fool. In doing so, they helped set the world on fire.

The world is on fire.

Donald Trump has lost control of the events he set in motion.

The bill is coming due.

Soon, the AI bubble will explode, and take out north of $15 trillion in American wealth.

The war in Iran is metastasizing into World War III.

All of it—every bit of it—lays at the feet of Donald Trump, who is the architect, chief designer and project manager of American ruination and a global war coming into early bloom.

These are very dangerous days. There will be no calm seas for many years.

Buckle up.

We, too, have a rendezvous with destiny. That shouldn’t be taken as a good thing.

A great time of testing lies ahead.

Steve Schmidt

Steve Schmidt

Steve Schmidt is a political analyst for MSNBC and NBC News. He served as a political strategist for George W. Bush and the John McCain presidential campaign. Schmidt is a founder of The Lincoln Project, a group founded to campaign against former President Trump. It became the most financially successful Super-PAC in American history, raising almost $100 million to campaign against Trump's failed 2020 re-election bid. He left the group in 2021.

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