Merry Christmas, Donald!
On the Twelfth Day of Christmas, the POTUS gave to me: one ousted White House Chief of Staff; an ill-advised Syrian pullout; one retiring Defense Secretary; a dissolved Trump charity; one sentenced former “fixer”; Trade Wars with China; a deferred sentence for a former National Security Adviser; five DOJ investigations into his conduct; four dictator cronies; three tanking stock markets; two departing Cabinet Secretaries; and a partial governmental shutdown in a pear tree.
One might think, with asteroid Santa coming to its station on Christmas Day, conjoined Donald Trump’s natal Ascendant, that the holiday haul for the 45th President might be pretty good. But apparently, Santa only has coal left in his magic sack.
Topping the Naughty List for 2018 is Donald Trump, who might need a boxcar rather than a stocking to claim all the coal he’s earned
It’s been another whirlwind week in Washington, with such stocking-stuffers as the Acting AG Matt Whitaker ignoring his own DOJ ethics official’s recommendation that he recuse himself from the Mueller investigation; the newly minted AG nominee Bill Barr revealed as a rabid partisan who is staunchly anti-Mueller; the stock market on track for the worst December since the Great Depression, giving back all of 2018’s gains; the new interim White House Chief of Staff on record as calling Trump a “terrible human being”; a surprise immediate withdrawal of all US troops from Syria, a policy endorsed by none other than Vladimir Putin; and the judicially-mandated dissolution of the “charitable” Trump Foundation for what is termed a “shocking pattern of illegality.”
As fake as the beard: Donald Trump contemplates his next distraction from the multiple investigations closing in from all sides
But perhaps the capper of the week (unless we count the partial government shutdown and furlough of tens of thousands of workers four days before Christmas, after a presidential hissy fit over his unattainable wall) was the sudden resignation of four-star General James Mattis as Secretary of Defense, following the President’s Tweet about the “defeat” of ISIS in Syria and the upcoming US troop withdrawal. This came on the 20th, and that’s as good a place as any to review the skies for clues to what the fa-la-la-la-la is going on, but these patterns hold through the entire week and beyond.
Mattis was widely viewed as one of the last “adults” remaining in the administration, an important guardrail on Trumps’ worst whims, excesses, and foolish, uninformed, hasty decisions. As recently as two weeks earlier, Mattis was described as remaining for the long haul, in the saddle until at least the end of the first term. But apparently push came to shove when Trump blindsided the Defense Secretary in a Wednesday morning Tweet announcing that ISIS had been defeated in Syria and the troops were coming home. By the next day, Mattis’ letter announcing his retirement effective the end of February was on the President’s desk.
Defense Secretary James Mattis is just the latest adult to leave the room; without his guiding hand we’re stuck with whatever half-assed idea pops into Trump’s head regarding military matters
Unlike most such letters, on his way out the door Mattis made no adulatory comments about the POTUS, his administration, aims and goals, but rather issued a blistering broadside reflective of how very different their two world views were, finally opining that Trump has “the right” to expect a Defense Secretary more in line with his own philosophy (however misguided). GOP lawmaker response, both to the Syrian withdrawal and the departure of Mattis, showed some significant degree of spine, for a change, and the blowback was intense, with even the toadying Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell taking the President to task.
So what explains all the chaos?
Well, Chaos, for one. This Trans-Neptunian Object, currently at 24 Gemini, is natally squared to Trump’s Sun and has been transiting it ever since The Donald announced his presidential candidacy in 2015, marking him as a chief agent of havoc and disarray, both by birth and under the current influence of this “booster shot” transit. The transit Sun had just passed through its annual opposition to Chaos that week, and was still within orb of opposition from 28 Sagittarius when Mattis resigned. But the kicker here is the exact T-Square formed from Chaos’ simultaneous squares to asteroids America at 24 Virgo and Washingtonia at 24 Pisces, embroiling both the country and its government in Chaos’ particular brand of turmoil, anarchy, mayhem and disorder. Putting the pedal to the metal on this insanity is transit Mars, which at 22 Pisces is exactly squaring Trump’s natal Sun, conjoined his natal Chaos, and creating that uncharacteristic surly response from GOP lawmakers, with its conjunction to Washingtonia. Mars also reflects the centrality of military matters to this week’s insanity.
Donald isn’t really cut out to play the part of the jovial yuletide gift-giver, but if he was to stuff the national stocking with a letter of resignation, it would be the best Christmas ever!
As well, asteroid Whitehouse has been in a vulnerable position for months, caught up in a protracted conjunction with Uranus while opposing TNO Typhon. With Whitehouse currently at 5 Taurus, conjunct volatile, shocking, nonconformist, shoot-from-the-hip Uranus at 28 Aries and opposing Typhon at 8 Scorpio, noted for storms both literal and metaphoric, creating turbulences and maelstroms in whatever it touches, the administration has been foundering for some time. The impression is of someone caught in a whirlpool and going under for the third time, never to resurface.
Trump gave the nation the gift of a government shutdown for the holidays, after Congress refused to fund his border wall; fortunately, Schumer and Pelosi are as tough a sell as Santa
When Mattis resigned, the transit Sun was exactly trine Uranus (about to turn direct on Epiphany, January 6th), amping up the shock value and the unexpected nature of the act. Meanwhile, asteroids James and Matti (closest to “Mattis”) at 9 and 13 Scorpio were within orb of Typhon, pulling James Mattis into that eddying morass of Trumpian provenance, and opposed Whitehouse in a startling indicator of just how antagonistic the Defense Secretary was to his boss’ latest moves (reportedly a full withdrawal from Afghanistan is also being mooted). With James and Matti is transit Venus at 12 Scorpio – this suggests a soft landing for Mattis, who was simply unable any longer to reconcile his own ethics and morals (both Venusian concerns) with the President’s.
Of course, asteroid Troemper is in the mix as well. At 12 Sagittarius, Troemper is running with transit Mercury and Jupiter at 8 and 9 Sag, a circumstance which one might suspect would produce some positive feedback and optimal results. However, Jupiter is also noted for inflationary behaviors, increasing both positive and negative traits; with Mercury here, Trump is “thinking (Mercury) big (Jupiter)” all right, but his ideas are faulty from the get-go. Part of the spur to his murky, jumbled logic is Neptune’s square from 13 Pisces, lending confusion, self-delusion and a lack of realistic perspectives to his decision-making process.
You can’t be Top Dog all the time; even The Donald has to accept whatever Santa dishes out, whether he likes it or not
Accompanying Neptune, in square to Troemper, is asteroid NOT at 14 Pisces, a symbol that, whatever the choices, the outcomes are unlikely to be as predicted. The aim or intent and the result or effect don’t connect; there is no through-line between the logic of the decision and the consequence of the action. In a further cosmic pile-on, this becomes a T-Square with the addition of asteroid Nemesis at 8 Gemini, exactly opposed Mercury; any decisions made at this time are likely to redound upon the decider, evoking self-undoing or destruction (Nemesis).
We briefly mentioned Santa coming to station, and at 2 Virgo, he’s just within orb of a broad square to Troemper, but he’s not alone. Exact with Santa, and coming to its own retrograde station in December 22nd, is asteroid Isis! Yes, Christmas came early this year for ISIS, whose hand is considerably strengthened by Trump’s feckless withdrawal of US troops. Such a move was also on the Christmas Wish List of Russian president Vladimir Putin and Turkish dictator Erdogan, who reportedly warned Trump that he was about to go after our local Kurdish allies militarily, just before the Commander in Chief pulled the plug on the Syrian venture.
ISIS fighters in Syria cheer Trump’s decision to give them a second chance to overrun the country
There’s one more pattern to be considered. This is an exact T-Square of asteroids Narcissus and Sisyphus, opposed each other from 22 Taurus and Scorpio, with Damocles at the focal point of 22 Aquarius. Narcissus refers to chronic, debilitating, ultimately fatal self-absorption; Sisyphus is the sense of futile effort or endless repetition; Damocles is that sword of doom hanging unseen overhead, threatening to wreak havoc and destruction. All these points connect exactly with Donald Trump’s natal Sun at 22 Gemini (by semisextile, inconjunct and trine respectively). We’ve seen this movie before: an out-of-touch, self-obsessed (Narcissus) POTUS, continuing to repeat past mistakes (Sisyphus), and menacing us all with sudden catastrophe, due to the imminent criminal liability disaster looming ever-present in his mind (Damocles).
Trump can’t even play it straight with Santa; all this mishigas is just another way of distracting from Mueller’s elves as they tie the bow on their upcoming report
So Merry Christmas, Donald! May you get exactly what you’ve earned.
