David Brooks on September 14, 2026
Donald Trump. Foto: Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP
Sometimes the things a journalist has to report on becomes so murky and absurd that they provoke a laugh that is not at all humorous, but rather maniacal.
What can one do when one watches the U.S. president publicly offer bribes to voters in this country—literally buying their votes for $5,000 from every American adult to maintain the Republican Party’s control of Congress? Not only does this imply a cost of more than $1.2 trillion—which no one knows where it will come from—but it also raises questions about the legality of bribing citizens from the White House.
However, the electoral system has long been up for sale to the wealthiest bidders. Millionaire megadonors are already trying to buy the outcome of the upcoming midterm election—the 20 most generous have already invested $1.2 billion in this race, mostly in favor of the Republicans, according to The New York Times; another $1 billion (a conservative estimate) in what is called “dark money” is already flowing into these midterm elections—; it is “dark” because the donors’ identities are unknown, as they channel those funds through lobbying and political action committees. Experts predict that records will be broken for the total cost of the process, in which control of both chambers of Congress will be at stake.
And if money isn’t enough, cheating is also fair game. The president, at the same Republican convention where he offered his bribe to the public last week in Dallas, forced the thousands of attendees to swear allegiance “to the greatest president in U.S. history” and to do everything—including “cheating like hell”—to win this upcoming election.
The groundwork has been laid to suppress voting in various sectors, including, in some states, redrawing electoral districts to marginalize communities that typically vote for Democrats, threatening to deploy armed immigration agents to polling places, issuing threats against state election officials—including criminal investigations into some officials—and more. It cannot be ruled out that the president and his team will attempt to use even more alarming measures to cast doubt on the results or even invoke national emergency laws to freeze or even nullify the electoral process.
But if money, fraud attempts, and other tactics fail, it seems divine intervention may be on the horizon, as a video was posted on Trump’s official account on the social media platform X proclaiming: “God gave us Donald Trump” to save the country and fight against enemies, including “Marxists.”
Those who criticize and reject all of this are labeled “communists” by the president and his subordinates, such as his secretary of state, his vice president, and legislative leaders. This neo-McCarthyist accusation has been used for months. It remains to be seen whether it will work, because to many it sounds a bit outdated and obsolete.
It seems to have an effect among his most loyal supporters: last week, Senator Ted Cruz called the mayor of New York and progressive Democratic candidates “communists,” prompting convention attendees to chant “Kill them!” and “Shoot them!” The president himself learned this rhetoric at a young age—he was trained in politics by his father’s friend Roy Cohn, who served as Senator Joe McCarthy’s right-hand man in the 1950s.
And speaking of the president’s father, Fred, historian Adam Hochschild, in his book American Midnight, writes about a march of about a thousand members of the white supremacist group Ku Klux Klan through New York in 1927. Among the hooded marchers arrested for inciting violence was a real estate developer named Fred Trump.
As journalists, it falls to us to report all of this “objectively.” Manic laughter and seeking refuge in the blues are private matters, though they also make one want to report on them. One finds solace in miracles like this newspaper in which I’m writing this, sharing music and collective anger, as well as recalling the words of singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen: “There’s a crack, a crack in everything / That’s how the light gets in.”
Source: Cubadebate, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English