LinkedIn on Tuesday, May 19, 2026

I’m sure you’ve noticed.  We have a President of the United States who is desperately trying to sustain his delusion of invincibility.  He is dangerous and recklessly hurtful.  Clinically, he’s a sociopath suffering from malignant narcissism.  In simple, layman’s terms, he is as dumb as he is nuts.  Complicating matters, he is a person in the process of being overwhelmed by the inevitability of aging and by adverse, anxiety-ridden situations he has caused, but cannot control.  He needs help, professional help, but is instead surrounded by enablers fearful of his rath and/or who are taking advantage of him and his authority.  For now, he’s stealing and leaving his mark as much and as often as possible while he can.

How does it end?  For Donald Trump, who is out of control, it ends by virtue of his over doing it.

On July 1, 2024, a majority of Supreme Court Justices ruled the following…

“Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.”

In case you’re wondering, “preclusive” means “preventive.”  Notice that the excerpt from the ruling ends with, “There is no immunity for unofficial acts.”  Perhaps more to the point, the ruling pertains only to “criminal prosecution,” but fails to protect the President from impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate.

Unfortunately for the President, he has interpreted this ruling to mean that he is immune from prosecution related to anything and everything he does while he’s President.  It does not – and I suspect he knows it.  Why else would he have taken control of the Department of Justice if not to protect himself from investigation and prosecution?

In any case, a Congress that is led by Democrats can still impeach the President – or throw his tush to the curb as I prefer to think of the process – which is why Trump is so concerned about the upcoming mid-term elections.  A Democrat controlled House and Senate can impeach and vote to remove him from office.  He just can’t be convicted of any crimes – so Trump chooses to believe.

Personally, I’ll be surprised if the Democrats takeover the Senate which means Trump will be impeached, but not likely convicted and removed from office – unless hard evidence of criminal behavior not related to his Constitutional authority and responsibilities convinces Republicans in the Senate that they and our country have had enough.

Trump’s problem is that sometimes, the devil is in the details.  Mobster Al Capone, for example, was eventually convicted, not of the murder and mayhem he caused, but for something as mundane as tax evasion.

What we now know is that Donald J. Trump has been buying stock at times when his knowledge of pending government actions and/or public pronouncements he has made would reasonably be expected to increase the prices of those stocks.  It’s a process called “insider trading” and is a federal crime punishable by imprisonment.  Not just impeachment, although insider trading can be the justification for impeachment, but by outright arrest, trial, conviction and imprisonment – if not while he’s in office, the day after he’s not.

While the acts, knowledge of which may have encouraged Trump to buy these stocks in such a timely manner, may themselves be judged to be in keeping with his Presidential duties, the act of buying the stocks is not.  Buying the stocks has nothing to do with the Constitutional authority of the Presidency and, for that reason, there is nothing to prevent President Trump from being charged and subsequently convicted of insider trading – whether or not he is also impeached.

So, why, at the very least, is he not being investigated for these suspicious trades?  And charged and convicted?  Because Trump controls the Department of Justice, the leadership of which is effectively deaf, dumb and blind to his corruption.  Insider trading is a federal law, violations of which can only be pursued by the SEC and, most importantly, the DOJ.

What can we do about this lawless unwillingness at the DOJ to act with integrity, independently of the President, and pursue his criminal behavior?  Nothing.

So, how does it all end?  Most probably as a result of the 2028 Presidential elections with the Democrats controlling the House, Senate and White House.  Trump and his family will then spend the rest of their lives running, not for office, but for cover. Democrats, assuming they control the House only subsequent to the mid-terms, will do their best to curtail President Trump’s shenanigans, but the real rebuilding of the American government is going to have to wait until Congress can pull off an impeachment with conviction or until Trump retires from office more than two years from now.

One additional note…  No matter what the Epstein papers reveal about criminal behavior by the President, it’s extent and timing, if any, the Supreme Court will probably stay any action against him by authorities outside the federal government until after he leaves office.