Political strategist Steve Schmidt warns that in Donald Trump’s America, shame — “one of freedom’s guardians” — has vanished. Humiliation now reads as a “badge of honor.” Conscience has curdled into “inconvenience.” Schmidt argues the result is institutional erosion and real danger to society.

“There was a time in America when public disgrace meant something,” says Schmidt at The Warning. “A man caught lying to the public would resign. A politician caught in corruption would retreat from public life. A leader who dishonored his office would feel the sting of judgment from neighbors, colleagues, family members and strangers.”

Under Trump, the America where people “understood that character mattered” and that “a good name took a lifetime to build and a moment to lose” is gone, because what is essential, shame, has “disappeared.”

Schmidt says the disappearance of shame may be “the most consequential political development of the last quarter century.”

Shame, he explains, was a “warning light.” It was “society’s way of enforcing standards when laws couldn’t,” and it “reminded people where the boundaries were.”

Schmidt points directly to Trump’s actions.

“Donald Trump was found liable for sexual abuse. He attempted to overturn an election. He incited a mob against the United States Congress. He has told thousands upon thousands of documented lies,” he writes. “None of it brought shame. None of it produced reflection. None of it inspired remorse.”

Scandals have now become fundraising appeals, disgrace has become “grievance.”

“The lesson was clear: the shameless man held power over the ashamed man because he no longer recognized limits.”

Schmidt points the finger at technology, and specifically, social media.

Public life has become “performance.”

“Attention became more valuable than respect,” Schmidt observes. “Fame became more valuable than honor. The ability to provoke became more valuable than the ability to inspire.”

He explains that in Trump’s America, someone can simultaneously be “condemned” by millions and “celebrated” by millions more.

“The result is a culture where shamelessness is often mistaken for strength,” he says, and warns about not just corruption, but “indifference” to it.

“The danger is the normalization of conduct that once would have shocked the conscience,” he explains.

Schmidt says that this may not be permanent. Societies and cultures can rebuild and recover — but that has to begin with honesty.

Image via Reuters 

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was quick to defend President Donald Trump’s widely reported remarks following Wednesday’s sharp spike in inflation, which is now at a three-year high.

“I knew somebody was going to ask me that,” Johnson told CNN’s Manu Raju. “It was totally out of context, you know what he was talking about.”

When pressed whether Trump’s remarks were what voters want to hear right now, Johnson insisted that the president “is laser-focused on the domestic economic situation.”

“He is working to bring down prices, he is going to get the Strait of Hormuz reopened,” Johnson insisted. “We have passed legislation, he has used executive orders to get the cost of living down. Everybody got their highest tax refunds they’ve had in their whole lives, they’re getting great paychecks, there’s all sorts of great economic indicators, but there’s still challenges — gas prices among them.”

“So, what he was saying is, it’s going to be great having that number and compare it to what comes next when we get these situations resolved — that’ll be a fun thing to consider and compare — that was the context,” said the Speaker.

Speaking about the inflation report, as CNBC reported, Trump had told reporters: “No, I love it, the numbers were great.”

“You know what I really love? I love the inflation. You know why?”

“Because as soon as this war is over, you know I can say it now … you know we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil.”

“Nobody knows it. You know who doesn’t know about it? Iran, until right now,” Trump said.

CNBC noted that Trump, “speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, also predicted that inflation is ‘going to come down like a rock’ after the United States’ war against Iran is over.”

Critics blasted Speaker Johnson.

“Trump meant what he said and if people are taking things outta context maybe trump should speak English,” said one social media user.

Another called Johnson a “Trump apologist.”

A third remarked, “Aaaand, right on cue, here’s Mike Johnson, denying Trump said and meant what we all heard him say.”

Speaker Johnson says Trump’s “I love the inflation” comments were taken out of context.

Asked him if that’s what voters want to hear right now. “The president is laser focused on the domestic economic situation.” pic.twitter.com/n3SS0vtqyS

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 10, 2026

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Political strategist Steve Schmidt, a Republican turned Democrat, is blasting President Donald Trump as “despised,” “decrepit,” “bitter,” “angry,” “old,” “lonely,” and “hated” — while warning that “this week of desecration is only going to get worse from here.”

The co-founder of The Lincoln Project, Schmidt declared Trump’s White House — complete with a UFC cage match “Octagon” constructed to celebrate his 80th birthday and the start of the nation’s 250th birthday celebrations — a “symbol for the destruction of this era.”

That destruction, Schmidt says, includes “red hot” inflation and a lost Iran war.

Trump “isn’t just mistrusted. And disliked,” says Schmidt, “Donald Trump is genuinely despised. He’s hated.”

“He has earned this hatred, well and fully,” Schmidt declares, before calling Trump a “decrepit man” who is “the leader of a cult in America.”

“Consider his decrepitude,” Schmidt urges. “He cannot walk in a straight line.”

Offering examples, Schmidt points to Trump’s ankles, his sleeping in meetings, his “slurring of the words.” Trump “is physically and mentally incontinent,” says Schmidt, in words similar to those he used on Monday when he declared the president “psychologically incontinent.”

“And yet, the cynical men, the vandals, who have assaulted the Republic, lit the Constitution on fire, and have curated this fascism from day one, insist, by the time we get to 2028, Trump will just be getting started,” he warned, before playing video of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon declaring he believes Trump will run for president again in 2028, despite the current constitutional ban.

“Donald Trump is the worst president in American history,” Schmidt continued. “He is a human malignancy. A pancreatic cancer on the American Republic, a lethal terminal cancer,” a “MAGA cancer” that “must be excised, fully from our politics.”

“Despite what men like Steve Bannon and Donald Trump promise and threaten,” Schmidt observes, “and then abuse and break, we will always have a vote. And the American people will vote these people out of office with an extreme prejudice come November. We will vote them out from coast to coast. From the top of the ballot to the bottom of the ballot.”

“Donald Trump,” Schmidt continues, “is unfit, physically. Emotionally. In every conceivable way. But especially morally. And because of that, all of us, the American people, all the people of the world are in danger. Make no mistake about that.”

Image via Reuters