The Trump Financial Crisis

How Dear Leader's relentless corruption could trigger a "sell America" meltdown

Of all the disasters Trump has brought upon us, the worst is yet to come.

As Fortune reported this week, "a full-blown fiscal crisis" is now the most likely scenario that will result from Trump's disastrous policies and failure to address America's "debt trajectory."

This latest analysis, which comes from David Kelly, Chief Global Strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, details the triggers that could bring us to the point at which "global investors lost confidence in U.S. Treasuries en masse, long-term rates would spike, the dollar would fall, and risk assets around the world would sell off sharply."

According to Kelly, America's debt crisis has not been caused by economic underperformance. It's the result of "unfunded tax cuts, stimulus checks and wars." In other words, we have George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump — two presidents who rose to power despite losing the popular vote — to thank for the state we find ourselves in.

One of the crisis triggers that Kelly highlights is the next U.S. debt fight in Congress, which is already penciled in for summer 2027, when the nation's credit limit blasts through its latest "ceiling" of $41.1 trillion.

But that assumes the next Trump crash doesn't happen even sooner.

What if Trump's corruption causes a sudden "sell America" meltdown?

Under Trump, America's reputation has become so tarnished that one recent survey shows that the world now holds Putin's Russia in higher regard.

Allies can no longer trust Trump. Trading partners can't rely on him. Enemies routinely exploit him.

Thanks to Trump, global investors are losing faith in the U.S. dollar more rapidly than ever.

While "de-dollarization" has been happening slowly for years, it accelerated during Trump's first term when Putin launched Russia's official de-dollarization strategy.

The trend accelerated after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when the U.S. and its allies removed selected Russian banks from the SWIFT global financial messaging network:

In response, Moscow deepened financial ties with China and India, settling more trade in non-dollar currencies. Recently, between 2023 and 2025, central banks worldwide, especially in emerging markets, have been expanding gold reserves at a remarkable pace. This surge in gold buying underscores a collective desire to manage risk and strengthen financial sovereignty amid global uncertainty.

Today, de-dollarization is no longer being driven simply because of the risks associated with our annual deficits or our growing national debt.

It's also being driven by countries' realization that what could happen to Russia could also happen to them.

Japan and China are already offloading U.S. Treasuries at a worrying pace.

More and more major countries — including Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — are attempting to break their dollar dependence by accepting local currencies in global trade and financial transactions.

Meanwhile, Trump's erratic and inflationary tariffs — combined with his unhinged threats of war and invasion, against enemies (Iran, Venezuela, Cuba) and allies (Canada, Greenland, the Panama Canal) alike — are only reinforcing the wisdom of these de-dollarization strategies.

Trump is already causing the world to lose faith in the "full faith and credit" of the U.S. government

We got a glimpse of the danger ahead in January 2026. That's when Trump — "out of the blue" — accelerated the "sell America" trade and sent gold prices soaring by ordering his politicized DOJ to launch an investigation into then-Fed chairman Jerome Powell.

In recent months, markets have held things together because belief in the "TACO trade" (Trump Always Chickens Out), reinforced by Trump's repeated chicken-like behavior, has offset the "sell America" trade.

But Trump may not always chicken out.

We should never lose sight of the fact that Trump is a psychopath who will try anything his demented brain conjures up — be it a coup, a war, or an economic crisis — to stay in power and sway his political fortunes.

Trump keeps telling us he no longer cares about the economic distress and financial pain he is inflicting on ordinary Americans.

His every action is about consolidating wealth and power for himself, his family, and his criminal accomplices.

Trump's personal corruption is a given. But once that corruption extends to the Federal Reserve — if the Fed under new chair Kevin Warsh abandons its price-stability mandate in service of Trump's short-term political needs — then all bets are off.

We've already reached the point where it will only take a few dominoes to fall for a "full-blown" Trump Financial Crisis to begin:

1. The White House attacks — and captures — the Fed
2. The Fed cuts rates despite inflation and fiscal fears
3. Investors dump U.S. Treasuries
4. The dollar weakens sharply
5. Inflation soars
6. Congress fails to pass a credible fiscal plan
7. Banks and credit markets seize up
8. Emergency interventions fail
9. Unemployment surges
10. Protests, strikes, and civil unrest follows

It wouldn't take long for America to reach a "national emergency" stage. The point where an authoritarian leader might declare "no more elections." Where tech fascists would hasten the end of democracy by unveiling new uses for all their surveillance tech and drones.

The last time a GOP president plunged us into a global financial crisis, at least we had the benefit of a smart, cool-headed leader called Obama to clean up the mess.

When Trump's disastrous response to Covid cratered the economy, we had Biden to pull us out.

In the next crisis, our fate will be in the hands of a demented would-be dictator, a gang of unhinged, megalomaniacal broligarchs — and the army of thugs and terrorists now on our police state payroll.

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