Asked by a reporter on March 16 about his plans for Cuba, President Donald Trump replied he would be “taking Cuba in some form … whether I free it, take it. Think I could do anything I want with it.”

“I could do anything” rings jarringly similar to Trump’s words on the infamous Access Hollywood hot mic tape, spoken in another oddly candid conversation with a reporter, Billy Bush, in 2005: “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”

Trump’s megalomania continues to grow because he is so rarely punished for it. The Access Hollywood leak, so close to Election Day 2016, spooked him enough to produce the rarest of Trump’s utterances: an apology. But it was mixed with excuses of being mere “locker room talk,” which kept the conversation, even among denouncers, largely on the man he is with women—on the way Trump treats “our wives and daughters.” In a society that has historically blamed victims and protected perpetrators of sexual assault, that framing allowed his philosophy to be compartmentalized and downplayed: That’s him with women, sure, but—in the words of Melania Trump—her husband still had “the heart and mind of a leader.”

Less than a month later, voters (or those the Electoral College smiles upon, at least) proved 2005 Trump right. If you’re a star, apparently, you can do anything: brag about grabbing genitals, fake an apology, get elected to lead this one nation under God.

But, of course, “I can do anything” isn’t just Trump’s modus operandi with women. It’s his mantra—how he moves through life: selfishly, chaotically, with little forethought and no expectation of consequences. And we’ve seen how that translates into policy; from tariffs to vaccines to DOGE, from Minneapolis to Venezuela to Iran.

Turns out, if you’re an abusive, impulsive narcissist in your relations with women, you tend to be one in other areas of life, too. Who would’ve thought?

Reality often shows Trump he can’t literally do anything. In his first term, he couldn’t repeal Obamacare, contain a pandemic, and win (or steal) consecutive elections. Out of office, he couldn’t escape being found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up an extramarital tryst or being found liable by a civil jury for the sexual assault of E. Jean Carroll. And he hasn’t silenced the dozens of women who accused him of sexual assault or misconduct, many of whom describe the exact behavior Trump bragged about in that disgraceful man-to-man chat.

Yet we—well, 49 percent of us—again ignored the warning signs and sent Trump back to the White House, where, armed with the “unitary executive theory”—the con-law solution for Trump’s authoritarian-curious administration—he’s translated his lifelong adherence to doing as he pleases and taking what he wants into a treacherous style of governance.

Reality can still intrude. Minnesotans chased out Operation Metro Surge. Skittish financial markets appear to have scared him off seizing Greenland. The Supreme Court refused to let him send the National Guard to states where they are not wanted and denied his claim to emergency tariff-wielding powers. But such setbacks don’t change Trump’s belief he can do anything; instead, they prompt him to take even bigger risks just to prove he can.

“I don’t even wait,” Trump said on that cursed Access Hollywood bus. On Iran, not only did Trump not wait, he seemingly didn’t think. Last weekend, Trump told NBC News that he was “surprised” that Iran attacked neighboring countries in response to Operation Epic Fury.

Still, learning experiences don’t seem to affect the delusional and vainglorious as they might the rest of us. Trump took to Truth Social on Tuesday to pivot from petulantly demanding that NATO countries help secure the critical oil and natural gas shipping lane, the Strait of Hormuz, and instead petulantly claim we don’t need their help: “speaking as President of the United States of America, by far the Most Powerful Country Anywhere in the World, WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!”

But, of course, we do. Even a military superpower needs allies in war, and allies are hard to find when war is waged on specious grounds without a diplomatic endgame. Under different circumstances, the president being forced to reckon with the consequences of his actions may have brought solace—even glee—to some. Alas, the repercussions of this mess will come for us all.

New at the Monthly…

Resisting Trump’s threat to leave NATO. On Tuesday, the president claimed he could leave NATO without congressional consent. But Politics Editor Bill Scher notes that a law enacted in 2023 explicitly forbids any president to unilaterally leave NATO. Trump may want to ignore it, but Democrats should make sure NATO knows about it. Read here.

Getting played by Iranian drones. Mike Lofgren, historian and former congressional staffer, explains how the pricey American military is having a difficult time shutting down Iran’s low-cost drone brigade. The ultimate winner? China. Read here.

Saving the civil service. Peter M. Shane, constitutional law professor, examines the Supreme Court’s recent ruling limiting the president’s tariff power, and finds precedents that could help civil servants whom Trump plans to strip of worker protections. Read here.

Saving the American Women’s History Museum. Historian Lindsay M. Chervinsky urges Congress to quit squabbling and secure a site for the long planned museum, and reminds us of women’s contributions to the preservation of early American history. Read here.

Plus…

Contributing Editor Jonathan Alter interviews Tim Weiner, author of The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century, about the history of the intelligence agency as well as the current war with Iran.
Politics Editor Bill Scher explores how the cryptocurrency industry, the artificial intelligence industry, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee are trying to influence Democratic primaries.

Thanks as always for your readership and support.

Have a great week!

Gillen Tener Martin, Associate Editor