President Donald Trump is haunted by the fear of a third impeachment action against him if Democrats retake the House of Representatives in the fast-approaching midterm elections scheduled for November 3.      

Speaking at a rally in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to support Senate candidate Darline Graham, sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, Trump warned: “If we lose the midterms, I am going to be impeached. They are going to impeach me. They have no idea why!” 

On the contrary: Democrats know well why they want to remove him from office. Among their reasons: 

• Starting an unprovoked war with Iran.
• Attacking longtime American allies like Canada, England and Greenland.
• Cozying up to Communist dictators such as Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-Un.
• Ordering the Justice Department to indict his critics such as New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.
• Flooding Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, with 3,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who terrorized (and murdered) both American citizens and illegal aliens. 

Donald Trump

Trump’s Republican accomplices in Congress fully understand the threat he faces—and what it poses for them. Thanks to his unprovoked war on Iran, oil shipments have been constrained worldwide—and Americans are furious at soaring prices for gas, food and housing.

Meanwhile, Trump arrogantly claims that “affordability” is a “Democratic hoax.” And, like Adolf Hitler contemplating architectural models while Nazi Germany neared destruction, he focuses on vanity projects like a 90,000 square foot White House ballroom and a towering “Victory Arch” overlooking Arlington Cemetery. 

As a result, Trump’s current national approval rating hovers between 33% and 38%. And Republicans fear that his unpopularity will spell doom for their own re-election prospects.

On June 26, Mike Johnson (R-LA), Speaker of the House of Representatives, warned his colleagues:

“If we were to lose the midterms, heaven forbid, these Democrats, y’all, impeachment’s not even the biggest concern. They will turn every committee of Congress into an investigative body, and they’ll go after the president’s family, the Cabinet, his donors and friends—half of you in this room will be targeted.”

Mike Johnson

Frederick Wellman, the Democratic congressional candidate for Missouri’s 2nd District, was quick to agree:

“You’re damn right we will investigate crimes and corruption. Who moved $180 million in oil futures 15 minutes before Iran announcements? Who has gotten sole source contracts because of their connections to the Trump family? 

“Where did our Social Security data go when DOGE downloaded it into portable hard drives? Where are the rest of the Epstein files? On and on this Congress has chosen covering up crimes instead of stopping them. That ends in November.”

Donald Trump is notorious for being thin-skinned. He has never displayed a sense of humor—nor an ability to laugh at himself. And he cannot abide listening to news that contradicts whatever he wants to do or believe.

The role that Natalie Harp plays in his life cannot be fully understood unless one accepts this fundamental truth: Trump, like Adolf Hitler, believes that if he just thinks positively, reality will bend to meet his wishes.

For this, he needs—and devours—a constant supply of “happy news” that confirms what he wants to believe. “News” that Harp is thrilled to constantly supply.

Thus, six months after launching a war he expected to be over in four to six weeks, Trump could say: “Right now, the situation is so good.”

Trump said this after leading reporters on a tour of the White House’s South Lawn to show off his latest renovations.

Presidents—and tyrants—who substitute “happy news” for hard truth usually come to a bad end. Hitler fired generals like Heinz Guderian—the architect of his sweeping victory over France in 1940—when they told him an offensive could not be continued or that their soldiers were needlessly dying for lack of supplies. 

It did not win Hitler his war.

As Donald Trump lurches from one self-manufactured crisis to another, two warnings from Niccolo Machiavelli, the Florentine statesman and father of modern political science, take on special meaning: 

“I must not omit an important subject, and mention of a mistake which princes can with difficulty avoid, if they are not very prudent, or if they do not make a good choice. And this is with regard to flatterers, of which courts are full, because men take pleasure in their own things and deceive themselves about them that they can with difficulty guard against this plague.”

And:

“It is an infallible rule that a prince who is not wise himself cannot be well advised, unless by chance he leaves himself entirely in the hands of one man who rules him in everything, and happens to be a very prudent man. In this case, he may doubtless be well governed, but it would not last long, for the governor would in a short time deprive him of the state.”

Noted historian Barbara Tuchman put it even more directly: “A great empire and little minds go ill together.”