Behold, it’s the Trump who stole Christmas | Robert Reich

Trump gave what was billed as a “Christmas speech” in rural Pennsylvania this past week that began with his “wishing each and everyone one of you a very merry Christmas, happy New Year, all of that stuff” and boasting that now, under his presidency: “Everybody’s saying ‘merry Christmas’ again.”

He then claimed – contrary to the experience of nearly everyone in the crowd – that he had gotten them “lower prices” and “bigger paychecks”. He also asserted that anyone having difficulty making ends meet should just cut back on buying stuff. “You can give up certain products. You can give up pencils … Every child can get 37 pencils. They only need one or two,” he said, adding: “You don’t need 37 dolls for your daughter. Two or three is nice. You don’t need 37 dolls.”

It’s rich – Trump preaching austerity while raking in billions from his crypto investments.

“The only thing that is truly going up big, it’s called the stock market and your 401(k)s,” Trump continued, apparently unaware that 92% of the stock market is owned by the richest 10% of Americans while most Americans own no stock at all. Just over a third have a 401(k), 403(b), 503(b) or Thrift Savings Plan.

He was supposed to talk about affordability, but Trump’s narcissistic brain seemed incapable of the minimal empathy to recognize the public’s angst over the cost of living. So he veered far off the affordability script to attack Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota congresswoman, ridicule windmills, mock transgender people, and call Joe Biden a “son of a bitch”.

Small wonder that most voters have had it with Trump. Even the Maga faithful are starting to have second thoughts.

In Miami this past week, voters delivered the mayor’s office to a Democrat for the first time in nearly 30 years and rebuffed the Republican candidate, whom Trump endorsed – by a whopping 59% to 41%. Miami’s new mayor-elect, Eileen Higgins, said the city is “at the tip of the spear” of affordability concerns in America.

In Indiana this past week, Republican senators rejected a redistricting plan that Trump had tried to bully them into accepting. He threatened to primary legislators who didn’t go along and even whipped up supporters to pressure them (including so-called swatting of their homes– hoax reports to provoke a police response – and even some reported death threats).

It didn’t work. Twenty-one senators from the Republican majority in the Indiana senate and all 10 senate Democrats voted it down.

Even congressional Republicans are starting to desert him as they see that the wannabe emperor has no clothes: his ability to hurt or help them in next year’s midterms is rapidly diminishing.

They’ve rejected his demand to end the filibuster, rebuked his incipient healthcare plan, forced him to cave on the Epstein files, won’t approve his bonkers $2,000 tariff checks for Americans, fret about his boat strikes off the coasts of Central and South America, and are in open rebellion against his hand-picked speaker of the House.

Trump won’t steal Christmas, but it’s looking increasingly likely that Christmas will steal Trump.

• Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now