A fading force
US Eye , Issue 1665 'Lady Liberty' writes...
IN FORMER times, a satirist might have waited years for a subject as richly comic as Fifa giving Donald Trump a made-up peace prize.

What a scene: at the ceremony in Washington DC, Trump plucked the medal away from the sharp-suited woman holding it and hung it around his own neck, like Napoleon gazumping the Pope to crown himself.

Two days later, he was back in the awards business, hosting the annual Kennedy Center honours, which praised Sylvester Stallone for his painting (seriously) and Kiss for their pioneering work in sticking your tongue out in photos.

But why has Trump, less than a year into his second term, moved into the "lap of honour" phase of his presidency? Perhaps because he's deeply unpopular, the economy is stuttering, and even former pleasures have started to pall.

Once, Trump loved headlining rallies. But his event in a Pennsylvania casino ballroom on 9 December was his first big outing for months, and Trump couldn't even bring himself to care about its ostensible subject, the cost of living. The Democrats always had a "hoax", he claimed, and this time it was "affordability".

Feeling his age
Physically, Trump is struggling. He openly dozed through a televised cabinet meeting. He looks nervous on the stairs of Air Force One. The area surrounding the Oval Office has recently been labelled in gold signage, as if to help an elderly and confused man find his way around.

The White House has been cagey about the frequent bruising on the back of Trump's hand, which suggests he's had an IV cannula inserted, instead claiming the problem is that he shakes too many hands.

Trump still won't tell reporters why (or for what) he had an MRI scan. He has started to issue Truth Social posts claiming that it is "seditious, perhaps even treasonous" to question his health. ("I go out of my way to do long, thorough, and very boring Medical Examinations [...] supervised by top doctors, all of whom have given me PERFECT Marks.")

Any minute now he will rename Thursday after himself or make a horse a senator. It couldn't be worse than Ted Cruz.

Déjà Joe
A bad economy and a fading leader? It's beginning to feel a lot like Biden. The former president's team spent the first half of 2024 telling American voters not to worry about inflation, thanks to "Bidenomics" – and the second half of the year insisting that they hadn't been covering up the health problems of "Sleepy Joe." It didn't work out so well for them.

Power ebbs in a million tiny ways, and Trump is becoming a lame duck à l'orange. Indiana Republicans just defied the president by voting against a new electoral map that would have helped the party retain control of Congress.

Some restive party members are withholding some of Pete Hegseth's travel budget until the secretary of defense releases the video of the navy's possibly illegal strike on a Venezuelan boat. Others have already announced their retirements, meaning that Trump's great threat – supporting a primary challenge against the disloyal – is neutered.

On thin ice
Of course, the president might rage against the dying of the light by becoming more outrageous, more racist and more keen to suggest he could be on the ballot in 2028. But he can probably feel the ice cracking underneath him, as various Maga factions jostle for the succession.

The Heritage Foundation, the pre-eminent right-wing think tank that came up with Trump's blueprint for governing, has already been torn apart by the question of how bad Hitler was, really.

After the midterms next November, ambitious younger Republicans will discover a sudden interest in county fairs in Allegheny and potlucks in Ohio.

"We have three years and two months to go and you know what that is?" said the president at his Pennsylvania event. "In Trump time, three years and two months is called eternity."

Spoken like a man who can hear the clock ticking.