What if I’m not losing my mind?
Bear with me.
What if Vladimir Putin has already offered Trump the thing he craves most: significance? What if, behind closed doors, he’s whispering to him, “Donald, I’ll take Europe. You take the Americas. Together, we can end the age of democracy and start a new one—one where we decide who rises and who falls.”
And what if Trump, who is so easily controlled by the promise of power, said yes?
This week, when NATO officials visited the U.S., Donald Trump didn’t talk about unity or shared defense. He didn’t talk about Article 5. He talked about Canada. Greenland. As in taking them over and how it makes perfect sense. How could anyone not see that, he seems to think? Like territories to be annexed, not allies to be protected. This isn’t just delusion—it’s direction. The kind that someone else may be guiding him toward.
Do you really think he came up with this himself?
Stephen Miller, who’s been in Trump’s inner circle for years, is no fool. He is methodical. He studies regimes. His fingerprints are on immigration policy that tore families apart, on the language of “invasion,” and on speeches that echo the early tactics of European fascists. This is a man who doesn’t need Trump to understand the endgame—he just needs Trump to sit on the throne and sign the papers. Goebbles with a smartphone and access to the West Wing.
And what if while Trump eats his cheeseburgers and watches reruns of himself on Fox, the rest of us are being sorted into categories: Useful. Hopeless. Disposable.
What if hopelessness is the point? The end game?
Because hopeless people stop organizing. Hopeless people stop voting. Hopeless people stop resisting.
And let’s be clear: resistance is being systemically dismantled. Voting rights have been slashed in at least 27 states since 2020. Book bans are at a record high. Over 160 bills restricting protest rights have been introduced or passed across the country. Gag orders. Classroom surveillance. History rewritten in real time.
What if this is all by design and I’m not just losing my mind?
What if Orban and Putin and Trump speak more often than we know—and that’s why Trump has no time for conversations about Yemen or civilian casualties or diplomacy. Because global cooperation only matters if you believe in humanity. He believes in leverage.
What if Elon Musk promised him something at Mar-a-Lago last fall? Maybe not a literal switch to rig an election, but the equivalent. A pipeline: control of the platforms, the algorithms, the “truth.” X, Tesla, SpaceX—those aren’t just brands. They’re levers of infrastructure, influence, and escape.
Is it really so hard to imagine that a man who launched a car into space might also promise a presidency on Earth?
And what if that’s why Trump suddenly said he didn’t care how people vote—because he’s been assured it won’t matter? What if swing states flipping all at once isn’t a miracle, but a contract? Never happened before this past election. WHAT IF I’M NOT LOSING MY MIND?
What if everyone has something on everyone now? Like, what if Susan Collins isn’t voting the way she is out of loyalty or party, or just plain dumbness, but out of fear?
What if compromise is dead and blackmail is the new currency?
What if we’re already living in the early days of the second version of America—one without guardrails, without institutions that hold, where the judiciary has been captured, the press neutralized, and truth made optional?
And what if the people—the only real remaining check—have been fed so much fear and fatigue that they don’t realize they’re the ones holding the final match?
What if I’m not crazy?
What if I’m just finally seeing this clearly, and it’s so dark it looks like madness?
Naw. Back to sleep Christine. The darkness of night does strange things to our thinking right?
Next time you’re up at 4am maybe you should give me a. All, as I too am staring into the darkness…
Saving this essay elsewhere to bring it out in 2026 and see where we are. Unsettling in how real this could be. 😬😬😬🫣😥