The Daily Populous Wednesday June 3rd, 2026 evening edition
Authored by usatoday.com and submitted by Difficult-Bee6066

June 3, 2026, 4:02 a.m. ET

President Donald Trump is proving to be the POTUS he has accused Joe Biden of being and scared Americans into thinking Kamala Harris would be. If only his Make America Great Again disciples could recognize that.

On May 28, a CNN story revealed that Trump’s Department of Justice had launched a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, a former Elle advice columnist who has accused the president of sexually assaulting her in a New York City department store three decades ago.

Carroll, who won two lawsuits against Trump, is now being investigated for perjury related to her 2022 deposition statement, in which she claimed that she did not receive any outside funding to help pay her legal costs.

Does Trump remind you of anything? Perhaps what he said about Biden?

It’s starting to look vaguely familiar – almost like he’s doing the exact same things he has accused Biden of doing. Trump and his supporters lament “lawfare” wielded by the executive branch under his predecessor’s tenure, even attempting to set up a fund for people who believe they are victims of government weaponization.

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!

Yet here he is, going after people he disagrees with. Only he's doing it systemically, with so far, zero success in the court system that Trump emerged from as a felon.

For a bonus, he even wanted to use government money to reward his supporters, who MAGA believes were targeted by Biden. This includes the people who stormed the Capitol in Trump's name on Jan. 6, 2021. Sure, Trump backed away from that. But imagine if Biden did anything similar?

To put it another way. Trump was convicted in a court of law, while Republicans accused Biden of weaponizing the government. Trump is now clearly weaponizing the government in ways so malicious and haphazard that judges are openly calling DOJ lawyers liars. This is what actual "lawfare" looks like, by the way.

The irony seems to be undetectable to MAGA, who are cheering on Trump’s political warpath with glee. To them, this is liberals getting what they deserve for what Biden supposedly did to this country. To everyone else, this is a laugh-to-avoid-crying scenario. Trump is truly egotistical enough that he is oblivious to the way he’s projecting his own shortcomings onto a former president who no longer has any political power.

What else is President Trump up to? Let's take a look.

The comparison doesn’t stop at his penchant for punishing politicians. While Trump lambasted Biden’s economy well into his second term, Gallup reports that economic confidence in May 2026 was the lowest since 2022. The economy has yet to improve in the time since Trump took office again – in fact, things have gotten more expensive thanks to the tariffs he implemented in 2025.

At least financial unease during Biden’s tenure was a product of the COVID-19 pandemic, something the president couldn’t control.

Trump, turning 80 on June 14, also doesn’t seem to grasp that, while he may be four years younger than Biden, he’s still old.

In January, Trump made a comment to The New York Times about Biden being "the worst thing that ever happened to old people,” despite the fact that the president is showing every bit of his age.

He complained about Biden overseeing high gas prices and tapping into oil reserves, yet gas prices are up to $4.30 a gallon on average and have drained the nation's oil reserves faster than the previous administration.

He called inflation under Biden a "crisis," yet a report shows that in April, inflation accelerated at the fastest pace in three years.

In a way, Trump is even leading the country the way he said former Vice President Kamala Harris would if she had won the presidential election. In October 2024, he said a Harris administration was guaranteed to lead to World War III. Now he’s plunged the United States into a conflict with Iran with no end in sight, doing so without the approval of Congress. He's arrested the leader of Venezuela and is increasing pressure on Cuba.

He said that Harris, under Biden, “decimated the middle class” and would continue to do so if elected president. Now, the middle class continues to shrink under the Trump administration.

Donald Trump is morally bankrupt. That's clear as day.

What Trump is doing to Carroll is especially heinous, considering the circumstances. Carroll, who says the president sexually abused her in the 1990s and won a lawsuit where a jury found this to be true, is now being tormented by the most powerful man in the nation. There is something that feels inherently violating about this revelation.

Trump has proved time and again that he has no code of ethics; he only has himself and the lengths he’ll go to protect his ego. His morals are so ambiguous that he is now a mirror of the person he claimed Biden was and the president he claimed Harris would be. Perhaps that’s why Republicans who don’t identify with the MAGA movement are growing increasingly wary of him.

Republicans were terrified of the possibility of another Democratic presidency because they believe that any elected official advocating for a social safety net and a more equitable America is too extreme. And they only see the presidency as the vengeful office they turned it into.

The GOP disguised its disdain for these things by declaring both Biden and Harris corrupt and incompetent, yet Republican leaders cheer for Trump when he makes corrupt choices or proves that he is an incompetent leader. They welcome the chaos with open arms; after all, it is what they voted for.

This political paradox is as amusing as it is frustrating. It seems that anything goes when you're a president who only cares about yourself, to the point that you'd become the person you claimed was ruining the country. Irony, thy name is Trump.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on Bluesky: @sarapequeno.bsky.social

papa-papaya on June 3rd, 2026 at 11:11 UTC »

Trump warned me that if I voted for Kamala we would start unnecessary wars and everything would be more expensive. He was right: I voted for Kamala and all that stuff is happening!

Numerous-Thought5230 on June 3rd, 2026 at 10:48 UTC »

Everything he rants about is projection

Tipnfloe on June 3rd, 2026 at 10:48 UTC »

i think he's much worse