Democrats’ Rough 2026

 Democrats have been assiduous in shredding their credibility since the 2024 election.

So how is it going? In the Republic, I mean. Pretty well, I’d say. President Trump just announced the Mother of All Oil Deals with Venezuela, the country he liberated from its narco Chinese puppet Nicolás Maduro at the beginning of 2026. (Was it only at the beginning of January 2026 that President Trump extracted Maduro and his wife from their heavily guarded palace? Yes. Time flies when you are having a good time.) “BREAKING NEWS,” the president reported on social media,

The United States of America has just entered into an Agreement with the Country of Venezuela on, THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY! At my direction, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, working closely with Highly Respected Interim President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, and, through a partnership with private business, have secured majority U.S. control of more than 65 BILLION BARRELS of proven Oil Reserves in Venezuela, at no cost to the American Taxpayer. This Historic Transaction MORE THAN DOUBLES American Oil Reserves, greatly increases our Oil Supply, and will substantially lower Gas Prices for all Americans, long into the future, while helping to continue to set Venezuela on a course toward Tremendous Success and Great Prosperity. This Transaction will greatly strengthen the already growing relationship between Venezuela and the United States! Thank you for your attention to this groundbreaking matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

This is good—nay, great, which is to say GREAT—news for America and ordinary Americans (if any Americans can be said to be “ordinary”). It is bad news for Democrats. Why? Hearken to what President Trump said. The deal not only “greatly increases our Oil Supply,” it will also “substantially lower Gas Prices for all Americans, long into the future.” As Jeeves might have observed when he heard that, rem acu tetigisti. Suffering from an acute, and possibly terminal, case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, the Democrats have been assiduous in shredding their credibility since the 2024 election. To an extraordinary extent, they have thrown their lot in with all the many varieties of America haters, from the so-called Democratic Socialists of America to the mouth-frothing, Sharia-law-spouting lunatics who want to turn the United States into another Muslim hellhole.

The Trump administration has been on a tear since noon on January 20, 2025. The border. Energy. Foreign policy. The economy. The toxin of so-called “DEI”—i.e., invidious discrimination masquerading as higher virtue. The weaponization of “gender dysphoria.” The administrative state and its chief export: stifling over-regulation whose only real purpose is to employ regulators and stymie innovation. Anti-semitism on college campuses and sundry municipalities. On all those fronts and more, Trump 2.0 has been like a whirlwind, aiding the good, hindering the bad. It has made the Democrats punch drunk. Their tires are treadless. Wherever they touch reality, they spin out. They can’t get traction. President Trump revitalizes American manufacturing. How can the Democrats be against that? Because—turn the amp up to 11—TRUMP! President Trump tackles rising anti-Semitism at elite universities. What can the Democrats say about that? The best they have come up with is Rep. Jamie Raskin’s pathetic effort to say that the Trump administration is using anti-semitism as a “pretext” to punish or “retaliate” against those noble repositories of “progressive” fatuousness, elite universities.

No, the Democrats open their cupboards and find them nearly bare. Just about the only issue they managed to salvage was “affordability.” The United States has pulverized the Iranian military and is in the process of strangling it economically. A temporary side effect is slightly higher gas prices, which means higher prices for many consumer items. “Please, please, please let the prices stay high,” the Democrats beg as the midterm elections heave into view.

As I write, most polls say that the Democrats are likely to win back the House and possibly the Senate in November. I have never thought that likely. As for the polls, remember what those fake partisan megaphones said about Francesca Hong and Karen Bass. But now that President Trump has put the United States in charge of Venezuela’s huge petroleum reserves, gas prices will plummet and the Democrats will wave their magic wand of “affordability” only to discover that the magic is gone.

I almost feel sorry for the Democrats (emphasis most decidedly on the adverb). Reality just won’t give them a break these days. For the last several years, they have been able to hornswoggle the public with their insanity about boys being girls and girls being boys, climate hysteria, racial hypertrophy, and quite astonishing economic illiteracy. I think that Trump’s present Cabinet is about the best Cabinet since George Washington found himself chewing the fat with Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. In fact, when I ponder the performance of Marco Rubio, Scott Bessent, Pete Hegseth, and Howard Lutnick, among others, I incline to the belief that Trump’s Cabinet might be the best in history.

That is a subject for another day. For now, I will leave you with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s deliciously devastating missive to the skirling squaw from Massachusetts, Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Responding to an August 13 letter from Senator Warren (or her staff), Secretary Bessent took an acetylene torch to the grandstanding anti-Trump huckster. “I am in receipt of your August 13 letter,” Sec. Bessent began,

which unfortunately reveals that you know even less about foreign exchange markets than you do about banking. Terrifyingly, the opening paragraph is wrong about where the money came, what the transaction was, and whether there was even a borrower. What is equally shocking, but not surprising: not a single member of your media mob has a rudimentary-enough level of financial market literacy to spot your remedial error.

Treasury exchanged existing Exchange Stabilization Fund foreign-currency assets for yen. No new congressional appropriation was involved, and no credit was extended to Japan. Japan owes Treasury nothing. There is therefore no risk that Japan will fail to repay a debt that does not exist.

You state that it is “not clear” how preventing disorder in Japan benefits the United States. As your letter notes, Japan is a major holder of U.S. Treasuries. It is also a critical trading partner and a treaty ally. Disorderly yen markets can trigger forced unwinds, which could destabilize global markets and ultimately raise borrowing costs for American families and businesses. For a fuller explanation, I recommend any entry-level course in international finance for you and your staff, or I can give you a tutorial on Foreign Exchange for Dummies.

Ouch.

I would like to propose that every member of the Senate sit for a viva voce examination administered by Scott Bessent on that book, Foreign Exchange for Dummies. Sec. Bessent’s post was the cause of considerable hilarity when it appeared on X. I was happy to see that, in addition to supporting financial literacy, he is doing his bit to strengthen Americans’ vocabulary. In the text accompanying his letter on X, Sec. Bessent continues his scorched earth treatment of the Squaw. “In her latest sciolistic letter to me, @SenWarren made it clear that she knows even less about foreign exchange markets than she does about banking.” The internet was abuzz with appreciative comment about the word “sciolistic.” I am glad to see it. The American Heritage Dictionary defines “sciolism” as “A pretentious attitude of scholarship; superficial knowledgeability.” I first encountered the word in the writings of William F. Buckley Jr. It is, indeed, a Buckley sort of word: Latinate and deflationary, recondite and precise. It is probably too kind for Elizabeth Warren and whoever gins up her complaints, but it is a nice addition to the general rhetorical armory.

Roger Kimball is editor and publisher of The New Criterion and the president and publisher of Encounter Books.

https://amgreatness.com/2026/08/30/sciolistic-and-treadless-the-democrats-rough-2026/