By Charles Mason

Joe Rogan, you have every right to be angry, and so do the men who voted for Donald Trump and expected something different. On October 29, Rogan read Trump’s entire Truth Social post about Bill Maher aloud, about nine minutes of it. He called it a bad look and said Trump’s broken promise of no more war was the biggest letdown for his supporters. He has called the war a “giant quagmire” and compared the immigration crackdown to Gestapo tactics.

You are not wrong. But a complaint is not a plan.

1. Define the problem

Why they voted. In Pew’s September 2024 survey of registered voters, 93% of Trump supporters said the economy was very important to their vote, 82% immigration, 76% violent crime, and 70% foreign policy. A Navigator Research survey found 63% of men under 45 disapproved of Biden’s handling of the economy. Pew’s validated-voter study found men under 50 split 49% Trump to 48% Harris after Biden won them by 10 points in 2020. That is an 11-point swing.

What happened to those reasons? Analysts told Reuters many young men report little tangible improvement since Trump returned. Pew puts his approval at 30% among adults. A Third Way survey found 8% of young men who backed Trump's plan to vote. Democratic and Republican and independent young men are more likely to skip the midterms. About 31% of young men state an intention to vote, down from 42% in 2022.

A correction to Olinga. He reports a CNN exit poll showing Trump winning men 18 to 29, 49% to 47%. ABC’s polling director, analyzing the same national exit poll, reported the reverse. Other surveys produced larger Trump margins among young men. I use Pew’s validated figure for men under 50.

The two failures are federal. Congress and the President hold the authority, and service members, taxpayers, and retail investors pay for them.

2. The governing system

War timeline

February 28: U.S. operations against Iran began.

March 2: Trump notified Congress, starting the 60-day clock.

May 1: The 60-day mark. Trump told Congress hostilities had “terminated.” Hegseth said the clock was paused during the ceasefire.

June 3: House adopted H. Con. Res. 86, 215 to 208.

June 23: Senate adopted it, 50 to 48, with McConnell and McCormick absent.

July 7: Military action resumed.

July 10: Trump notified Congress. The administration treats it as a new 60-day period. The letter does not expressly say so, according to the Dallas Express.

July 23: House adopted a second concurrent resolution, H. Con. Res. 89, 214 to 208.

September 24: Senate rejected H. Con. Res. 89, 49 to 50.

H. Con. Res. 86 is a concurrent resolution, which never goes to the president and is widely seen as nonbinding. On July 23 the House adopted a second concurrent resolution, H. Con. Res. 89, 214 to 208. The Senate rejected it on September 24, 49 to 50.

The Pentagon’s casualty database showed 23 U.S. service members dead and 865 wounded in its October 29 update. The total includes noncombat deaths. It splits between Operation Epic Fury (15 deaths, 417 wounded) and the later Overseas Operations category covering casualties since July 7 (8 deaths, 448 wounded). Al Jazeera reported that the Hormuz blockade has pushed up oil, natural gas, and fertilizer prices.

Money. Democratic senators wrote in January 2025 that Trump Organization affiliates hold 80% of the $TRUMP coin’s supply. On November 22 the coin’s promoter will host a dinner for its top 185 holders at Trump National Golf Club in Northern Virginia, with a VIP reception with Trump for the top 29. The site says no attendee gets a private meet and greet. A CBS News analysis found more than half of the top holders listed had used exchanges that bar U.S. customers. Financial disclosures show Trump generated about $635 million from “Celebration Coins” in 2025, within about $1.4 billion in total crypto income.

Section 202(c) excludes the President and Vice President from the definitions of “officer” and “employee” used in § 208, so that statute does not apply to them. Other laws are not affected by that exclusion. The bribery statute requires proof of a corrupt exchange tied to an official act. The Foreign Emoluments Clause reaches benefits from a foreign state, and the Domestic Emoluments Clause reaches benefits from the federal government or the states, so neither reaches payments from private buyers unless a buyer is such an entity. I have seen no evidence on who the holders are beyond CBS’s finding that many appear to be overseas.

Congress is already fighting over the coin. The Clarity Act, a crypto market bill, failed a Senate procedural vote, 49 to 50, and restrictions on Trump’s crypto holdings were a central sticking point.

Structure. Trump has repeatedly told Senate Republicans to “TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER.” He also told NBC he was “not joking” about a third term, which the 22nd Amendment bars. Those are real concerns, and they are efforts to bend the system or its rules.

The alternative. The Democratic Socialists of America released “Workers Deserve More” on July 14. Its authors say a committee drafted it from April to June and the National Political Committee approved it. It calls for abolishing the Electoral College and the Senate, expanding the House, and replacing the President and Supreme Court with “an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.” It states the aim of drafting a new constitution and creating a democratic socialist republic.

It calls for public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries. It calls for ending ICE detentions and deportations, granting amnesty to all immigrants regardless of status, and ending visa caps. It calls for defunding the Department of War and closing overseas bases. On policing, it calls for demilitarizing departments and ending qualified immunity as steps toward fully abolishing the police and prison system. The older 2021 platform, as posted by DSA’s Abolition Working Group, says to cut police budgets “annually towards zero.”

On Fox News Sunday on July 26, co-chair Megan Romer called the Senate “an anachronistic institution.” She affirmed abolishing ICE and defunding the Pentagon, and said ending borders is a goal “As a long-term plan, yep.” Co-chair Ashik Siddique said of abolishing the Senate, “we don’t think that’s extreme.”

Who “they” are. DSA is independent of the Democratic Party, but its members run in Democratic primaries. It has two House members, Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib, plus Mayor Zohran Mamdani and more than 200 members and endorsed officials, according to a Wikipedia list. Five DSA members won 2026 House primaries as challengers or in open seats, three of them over sitting Democrats. Jeffries said, “I don’t support the DSA agenda.” Booker called an amendment to abolish the Senate “farcical at this point.” Schumer declined to say whether the platform belongs in the party. Mainstream Democrats have their own structural agenda: a House resolution from the Black, Hispanic, and progressive caucus chairs supports ending the Senate’s 60-vote threshold and considering Supreme Court expansion.

3. Theory

Principal-agent theory. Voters and Congress are the principals, and the president is the agent. Rogan’s complaint is that the agent ignores the contract. DSA’s remedy replaces the separately elected executive and the courts with officers chosen by and subordinate to Congress. Whichever majority controlled a single legislature would control all three branches. I read that as concentrating power. That is my judgment.

Public choice. The coin concentrates gains in the hands of insiders. Public ownership of the largest corporations would put investment decisions in the hands of officials whose tenure depends on the majority that chose them.

Institutionalism. Madison’s premise in Federalist No. 51 was that ambition must be made to counteract ambition. DSA’s program treats those friction points as obstacles.

4. Implementation

The present system. I doubt a concurrent resolution can compel withdrawal. In INS v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919 (1983), the Court held that a one-house legislative veto violated bicameralism and presentment. A 1998 House report called it generally accepted that Chadha rendered section 5(c) ineffective, though the provision has never been litigated. Congress still holds the appropriations power. A funding cutoff faces a veto and needs force-protection and withdrawal carve-outs.

On the coin, McDonnell v. United States, 579 U.S. 550 (2016), held that hosting an event does not alone count as an official act. My reading is that a dinner for coin holders would not by itself meet the bribery definition. I have seen no evidence of a connected decision.

DSA’s route. Article V bars depriving a state of its equal Senate vote without its consent, which is why the program calls for a new constitution.

5. Public safety: documented, open, and my analysis

Documented. DSA proposes the policies above.

Open.

Police: cities that cut police budgets in 2020 mostly reversed the cuts within a year, and none cut to zero. Minneapolis’s force fell from about 900 officers in 2020 to 560 by August 2022, driven mostly by departures. Whether the cuts caused the crime increases is disputed.

ICE: it includes Homeland Security Investigations, which made 33,108 criminal arrests in fiscal year 2023. Separating HSI would take an act of Congress, and the program does not say what happens to HSI. The FBI and DEA also investigate these crimes.

Defense: the program defunds the Department of War and closes overseas bases while a war that began February 28 is still running.

No plan. CNN found the program built on 16 ideas with no specific plan for any of them. Romer says crime falls when people have good-paying jobs. That is her claim, not the program’s, and I’ve seen no evidence for it.

My analysis. A program that ends ICE detentions, phases out police and prisons, and defunds the Pentagon while a war is running has to say who does the work and what replaces it.

6. Options

Walk away. A choice not to vote leaves the decision to those who do. Among young people who say they will definitely vote, Harvard finds Democrats ahead 63% to 26%. Harvard’s 2024 youth poll overstated Harris’s lead among likely voters by 17 points. I can’t say whether the 2026 poll has the same problem. It does not follow that the DSA program wins. I read it as a risk, not a fact.

Replace the structure, as DSA proposes. It needs a new constitution and runs into Article V. It has no transition plan, and it concentrates power in one chamber.

Repair inside the Constitution. A war powers clock with a funding cutoff and a joint resolution the president must sign or veto. Beside it, a conflict rule extended to the President and Vice President, with beneficial-owner disclosure for large holders of officeholder-branded tokens. The conflict rule needs legislation and may draw constitutional challenges. I choose it.

7. Judgment and recommendation

Verified facts. Rogan read the post aloud and named the broken no-war promise. The war chronology, votes, and casualty figures above are documented. The President is excluded from § 208 by § 202(c). The DSA program says what I have described, and its leaders defended it on air. Five DSA members won House primaries. Jeffries and Booker rejected the Senate proposal.

Reasonable inferences. The 2024 shift owed more to costs and turnout than to podcasts. A Congress-chosen executive and judiciary would concentrate power.

Predictions, not facts. Higher border encounters, lower clearance rates, reduced readiness, and any loss of particular constitutional rights are possible outcomes, not documented ones.

Disputed. Whether the 60-day clock ran. Whether DSA’s program is a near-term agenda or a long-term vision. Whether the 2020 police cuts caused crime increases. Whether the coin involves a quid pro quo.

My opinion. Trump’s failures need enforceable rules. DSA’s program is a larger risk, because it would replace the rules.

What would change my mind. A formal repudiation of the structural planks by Schumer and the Democratic National Committee, or a platform that rules them out. A costed transition plan for DSA’s police and ICE proposals. A president pursuing a third term by an unconstitutional method.

Recommendation. Congress should pass one bipartisan package, effective at the next inauguration so it binds whoever wins: a war powers clock with a funding cutoff and a joint resolution the president must sign or veto, and a targeted amendment to § 202(c) so that § 208 applies to the President and Vice President. Three measures would show it worked:

Days from the start of sustained hostilities to enacted authorization or documented termination, with a target of 60 or fewer.

Share of large holders of officeholder-branded assets disclosed, plus the number of public ethics determinations issued.

Year-over-year change in real median weekly earnings for men 25 to 34, from Bureau of Labor Statistics data, since costs were the reason for the vote.

To Rogan and the men listening. You did not vote for a perfect man. You voted for lower costs, secure borders, safer streets, and fewer wars. You have every right to demand those results, and Congress has the tools to make Trump deliver them. You also owe yourselves a read of the program competing for your vote.

© 2026 Charles Mason