The most startling development in the political world this week was that Republicans in Congress (some of them, at least) seem to be waking up to the fact that Donald Trump's poll numbers are sinking like a stone and that the only thing he cares about is building his palatial ballroom and wreaking vengeance on anyone who annoys him (including plenty of Republicans).

Is this the beginning of a wider break from Trump for Republicans deeply worried about their prospects in the midterm elections? Only time will tell, but it's rather astonishing how fast things seem to be shifting. And this pushback is happening not just on one issue, but on a whole range of them.

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We are now well into the primary election season, so it's time to take a look at the biggest burning question Democrats have at the moment: will they be able to ride a blue wave in November that is big enough to flip control of the U.S. Senate, or is this merely starry-eyed optimism run amok?

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This Wednesday, we will hit a political milestone which is rather grim for me to contemplate (please read this as a trigger warning: this is going to be a very dismal column, so please stop reading now if you aren't in the mood for that sort of thing). On May 20th, Donald Trump will have been in office for exactly one-third of his second term. It will mark 16 months from when he was sworn in -- but the grim part is that this means we've still got twice as long as what we've all just been through before his term will finally be over. When you consider what has already happened so far, contemplating another 32 months of it is downright frightening.

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We began writing this column series lo these many years ago to help tongue-tied Democrats formulate snappy lines to use when being interviewed on television and/or to use in their campaign ads. These days, however, we have to wonder whether we should just pack it in and not even bother. We say this because Donald Trump keeps providing the best talking points Democrats could ever hope for, serving them up on a weekly basis. And this week's was an absolute doozy.

When a reporter asked Trump if Americans' financial situation was motivating him to make a deal with Iran as soon as possible, Trump responded: "Not even a little bit... I don't think about Americans' financial situation. I don't think about anybody."

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With less than a month to go before California holds its primary election, it now looks as if the state's Democrats are going to avoid disaster. That is good news for Democratic voters in the state, who outnumber Republican voters by about 3-to-2. But even the fact that we got so close to disaster is going to spur efforts to reform the state's current primary system.

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The U.S. Senate did some interesting things today, including voting on yet another motion to end the war in Iran -- which would have actually passed if John Fetterman had voted with his fellow Democrats, since there are now three Republicans backing the idea. But what caught my eye was a 99-0 vote (!) that is mostly symbolic and merely a baby step, but it is at least a baby step in the right direction.

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Donald Trump is stuck in a trap of his own making, it seems. He has finally met his match in stubbornness. And we're all paying the price for it. But Trump doesn't care -- which he will even flat-out admit, as he did today.

Trump was asked by a reporter to what extent "Americans' financial situations are motivating him" to quickly strike a deal to end the war with Iran. His answer: "Not even a little bit." He later expanded upon his answer: "I don't think about Americans' financial situation. I don't think about anybody."

[Aside: Look for these quotes to appear in a Democratic campaign ad near you, real soon now!]

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The political highlight of this week was supposed to be Donald Trump flying to China to meet with Xi Jinping. Now there are doubts whether this will even happen, or whether it will be postponed yet again. This summit meeting was initially scheduled for the middle of last month, but it had to be postponed because of the war Trump had started with Iran. Trump had hopes of wrapping the whole war up in early April just before he went to China, but those hopes were (obviously) never realized. This time around, Trump could actually decide to start attacking Iran once again, unilaterally ending the fragile ceasefire and escalating his war of choice. If this happens, it is doubtful whether Trump would spend a few days in China during a critical phase of the conflict, but then again with Trump, you never know what he'll wind up doing.

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As Donald Trump's war of choice stumbles and staggers into its third month, you'll be happy to hear that not everyone has been economically hit hard by the rise in prices it has caused. That's right -- there is one clear winner in all of this disruption. This headline sums it up: "Shell Reports Nearly $7 Billion Profit Amid 'Unprecedented Disruption'." Good to know that somebody's doing well, right?

Well... no. Not really. It's no comfort to everyone who is footing the bill for these monumental windfall profits to know that a whole lot of the money they are paying at the pump isn't because the price per barrel of oil has gone up, but is instead just going to line the pockets of Big Oil. But then, that's the way it has always worked, really.

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Is Donald Trump about to become a lame duck? Well, that's probably optimistic, but the possibility that people will shortly begin using the term about him does actually exist, and tonight's Republican primary election returns in Indiana will give some sort of indication as to the likeliness of it happening.

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