In the 1990s, reformers adopted a radical economic program in Russia. It devastated ordinary Russians and created a new class of oligarchs. And it explains the rise of Putin and the leader he is today

Text SIGN PWBLBA to 50409 — America now lives in a split-screen reality — breadlines on one side, bombs on the other. While millions of families brace for the loss of food aid, while federal workers go unpaid, while SNAP benefits expire in defiance of a court order, Donald J. Trump celebrates his new $300 million White House ballroom, a palace built on the rubble of the demolished East Wing. At his gold-rimmed, Gatsby-themed feast, 130 of the nation’s wealthiest donors dined on beef Wellington and butterscotch ice cream while children faced empty refrigerators. Judges have ordered the administration to use funds Congress provided to prevent hunger, and the White House simply refuses. At the same time, Trump has ordered the Pentagon to prepare for “guns-a-blazing” action in Nigeria and has authorized at least fifteen lethal strikes across the Caribbean and eastern Pacific — without congressional approval. Sixty-four people are already dead. The administration insists these are not “hostilities,” because our drones kill from a distance. That is a grotesque abuse of language and of power. The 1973 War Powers Resolution exists to prevent precisely this — a president dragging the country into war without the consent of the governed. The founders placed the power to declare war in Congress for a reason. When one man decides who lives and dies, and does so while turning the People’s House into a personal palace, the Republic itself is in danger. History will remember this moment: a president demolishing the East Wing while demolishing the separation of powers. The gold-plated opulence of Mar-a-Lago and the Great Gatsby galas are not symbols of strength; they are warnings of rot. Congress must act — immediately — to stop these unauthorized wars, to enforce the War Powers Act, to investigate the use of lethal force without oversight, and to restore funding for the programs that feed our people. The American experiment will not survive rule by a man who sees himself as king. Save the country from the mad king Trump — while there is still a country left to save.