Donald Trump is a troll. That is why the media lives by the dangerous mantra of taking him seriously but not literally. But he is not only a troll.

His first foray into politics was spreading the racist birther conspiracy theory which claimed President Obama was not born in the United States. When he ran for office in 2016, his campaign was built on hatred and fear-mongering. 

After he lost in 2020, he not only lied about the election but kept his base fed with propaganda about the criminal justice system. The legacy media was happy to keep a spotlight on him because his delusional posts on Truth Social were good for ratings. 

It’s what Trump does best. He baits with idiocy, lets the media chase distractions, and then not-so-quietly dismantles our government. 

When this is all over and we’re standing in the rubble of our democracy, asking, “What happened?” I’ll point you to last week. 

As Trump shut down the government, he also led a masterclass in trolling. Welcoming Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries into his office, he proudly placed Trump 2028 hats on the Resolute Desk. The same desk where President Roosevelt led our country through World War II and President Kennedy fought for the Civil Rights Act was now adorned with a symbol of tyranny. 

It seemed no one knew what to make of the hats. “They just randomly appeared in the middle of the meeting on the desk. It was the strangest thing ever,” Jeffries said. “I just looked at the hat, looked at [Vice President] JD Vance, who was seated to my left, and said, ‘Don’t you got a problem with this?’ and he said, ‘No comment.’ And that was the end of it.”

A pathetic display by the Yale-educated lawyer and so-called “heir apparent” to the Republican nomination. If we’re looking at a Trump 2028, Vance may be waiting as long as King Charles to take the throne.

Trump continued his trolling well into the night. On Truth Social, he posted a childish video of himself flinging the hat at Jeffries. Maybe he’s taken a page out of the Boris Johnson School of Lunacy — if you don’t look the part of a tyrant, they won’t think you’re acting like one. 

At best, the 2028 hats are childish. At worst, they’re part of an active coup. 

If President Obama had campaign merchandise in the Oval Office, Republicans would have called for impeachment. If he had joked that he might serve a third term, they would have sought to have him indicted. 

We should be shocked that the president wears campaign merch outside of the campaign trail. We should be horrified that he flaunts it in the Oval Office. We should be outraged that our president seemingly has no plans to move out of the White House in 2028. 

But, somehow, we have come to expect this. 

Donald Trump is trolling us, but he is also testing us. He’s seeing if we’ll take his threats seriously and literally. He’s seeing how we’ll respond and what he can get away with. He’s seeing if we’ll fight back.

After this stunt in the Oval Office, I decided to take a peek at Donald Trump’s merchandise store — as they say, follow the money. 

His merch store is adorned with his usual tacky style, selling everything from a Trump-themed cornhole set to an engraved charcuterie board. Of course, everything is overpriced and everything is MAGA.

Under the collections section, there’s a subcategory: the 2028 collection. He’s selling the infamous Trump 2028 hat ($50), a Trump 2028 can cooler ($18), and a Trump 2028 shirt ($36). And there on the shirt, in parentheses, reads one sentence: “rewrite the rules.” 

“The future looks bright!” the shirt’s description reads.  

Rewrite the rules.

Trump isn’t speaking to us — he’s telling his followers his game plan. Remember on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump told his mob to go to the Capitol, to fight like hell, and to stop the steal. They did. They stormed the Capitol.

Now, he’s telling his supporters there will be a Trump 2028. He’s telling them the administration is going to rewrite the rules – except these rules can’t be rewritten by Trump or even Republicans in Congress. They are in the Constitution. 

When questioned by the media about his 2028 plans, Trump laughs it off — “probably not!” He mocks Schumer and Jeffries with the hat. He acts like it’s a joke. Don’t be fooled. It’s not a joke. It’s a message, and we better start listening. 

I recently interviewed authoritarian expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat on my podcast. She warned me that we are falling into a dictatorship faster than we realize. 

“We’re in what, month nine?” she said. “There is no equivalent in the speed at which this is happening among 20th-century or 21st-century leaders who came to office via election.”

We’re losing our democracy faster than Russia, Hungary, and Turkey. We are losing it faster than Italy and Germany once did. And there is no guarantee that we will get it back. 

Donald Trump is a troll who knows how to bait the legacy media. He is a clown who knows how to play his base. He is a tyrant who should be taken seriously and literally. 

He is not selling Trump 2028 hats as a joke. He is not simply trying to make a profit. He is planning to rewrite the rules of our Constitution — and if we don’t stop him now, it may be too late. 

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