“Is this the end of Little Caesar?”

Trump’s Titanic ego hit an iceberg last night (November 4) in the off off-year election of 2025. It wasn’t gigantic as icebergs go but it struck below the waterline, and he’s now taking on water—ice cold water as salty as his tears will be as his fate becomes clear to all.

Trump already knows that his act is no longer original and now in sad reruns, no longer plays as it did when his malign magic could still move crowds and create a very white version of the “call and response” of the Black Church There will be no more enthusiastic responses of “Mexico” when Trump asks who will pay for the wall? As for “Lock her up,” directed at Hillary Clinton, well, he’s more likely to hear “Lock Trump up.” Trump looking vulnerable connotes that the end, his end, is nigh.

Election night brought about a clean sweep for the Democrats. They won where it was expected. They won bigger than expected, and the full scope and consequences of their victory is still revealing itself. They did not simply beat their Republican opposition, but also Republican interests—California Prop 50 being just one example. In New Jersey, Virginia, New York City and California, Democrats outperformed the polls and didn’t eke out victories but thrashed their opponents.
Most critically, this election marked the beginning of the end of Trump’s “Reign of terror” over not only the nation but also over the Republican Party.

As America learned in Iraq, where we were first seen as strong and invincible but then, when we lost control of the streets, we instantly lost the magic of inevitability.

A Goliath is all powerful until he’s not. A Goliath doesn’t have to fall to lose his power and authority. All he has to do to seal his sorry fate is bleed.

Trump emerged from this election bruised and bleeding. He emerged bleating, blaming and blustering. His political life force is pooling on the thirsty ground. He’s finished and knows it. There is no recapturing his malign magic, no putting the blood back into his already deteriorating corpus.

Many of his voters know this. Many of his enablers, in both politics and the private sector, know it’s over, he’s over. On November 4, 2025, Trump became a “Lame Duck,” and a politically dead duck. Remember that a duck, like a chicken, can have his head cut off and still run around for a while before finally biting the barnyard dust.

Why this Republican defeat becomes a greater defeat for Trump will become clear as the Republican politicians begin to desert Trump’s control. They will cease to fear him. They will accept that while in the past he could torpedo a candidate but not get him or her elected, now he’s becoming impotent instead of important.

Elected enablers will no longer pretend to be in his thrall. Rats, who put their careers over the good of either their party or their nation, will desert Trump’s stinking sinking ship.

It has already begun.

“You must immediately get rid of the filibuster,” he demanded.

The Senate Republicans did not jump to attention and enthusiastically shout “Yes Sir!” They remained silent, a kind of silent that does not imply consent. Naturally, Trump doubled down and demanded it once more. Again, they did not jump for joy but showed themselves ready to jump ship.

Trump’s teasing threats to run again in 28 are losing their effect. He knows that he can’t run and that if he ran, he couldn’t win. His polling numbers have never been lower.

No one, except the most delusional MAGA member, wants him. The third term threat, designed to keep Republican pretenders from breaking away and creating alternate power centers (from which to distribute “alternate facts”) has lost its ability to intimidate and freeze the field.

Yes, like the decapitated duck he can squawk and run but not for long. To mix some metaphors, his political stock is being shorted and there’s a run on the bank holding his political capital.

Already morally bankrupt, he’s becoming politically bankrupt. His word is not reliable collateral. The banks have known this for years—even decades. Now everyone will know.

Returning to the main metaphor: The bruising on his hands that resists being camouflaged by face makeup, represents the uncontrollable bleeding that has already begun. Trump, though still running around and loudly quacking, is losing his political life force and exsanguinating before us. This is the end of this Little Caesar.

Jonathandobrer.substack.com