S2. Chapter 30: Operation Epic Missing Endgame

In this episode of The Tao of Lloyd, Lloyd Dobler takes on Chapter 30 of the Tao Te Ching: an ancient warning about force, escalation, and wars with no exits—and drags it straight through the U.S./Israel war with Iran, the fractures inside the MAGA coalition, and a political movement discovering that the very thing that made it powerful may now be the thing that breaks it.

Follow the Tao of Lloyd on the following platforms:

Featuring:
CPAC 2026 and the MAGA generational split
Trump, Iran, and the problem of “no endgame”
Chapter 30 of the Tao Te Ching: “For every force there is a counterforce”
An open letter to “Operation Epic Fury”

Because sometimes the most radical move, is knowing when to stop.

• Full transcript

  And welcome back, for chapter 30.
  
  There was a guy at CPAC last week.  Thirty years old. Iraq and Afghanistan vet. Hat says “America First.” Voted Trump in 2024.

  His name is Joseph Bolick. And he is pissed.

  Not at Fake News. Not communist Kamala Harris. Not at drag queens reading Goodnight Moon at the public library.
  
  So, as CPAC wrapped up its annual revival-meets-trade-show for the Church of White Grievance-  the leader of that Church, the 45th and 47th President of these United States, Donald Trump, is clearly in trouble. Trump usually gets the Christ walking on water meets Hulk Hogan meets the conquering emperor returning from Rome to a crowd already chanting his victory before the battle even starts treatment. Because CPAC feels like a high school pep rally got radicalized by a Breitbart news comment section and then sponsored by a defense contractor and blessed by some holy water from a Charlie Kirk branded piss cup.
  
  But not this year!
  
  The young guns of MAGA are pissed at Donald Trump, because we are now at war with Iran.

  “He’s lied about everything,” Joseph Bolick told a reporter. “If you go into a war where there’s no end game, how is it going to end? There’s no clear objective.”

  A MAGA vet. At CPAC. Channeling Sun Tzu without knowing it.

  Hold that image. We’re coming back to it.

  I’m Lloyd Dobler.
  
  And yes, if you are new here, that Lloyd Dobler. I used to hold up a boombox outside Diane Court’s window, now I hold up some ancient eastern spiritual wisdom like a mirror to better see, and manage the decline of, this evil American Empire.
  
  Today we’re in Chapter 30. The Tao Te Ching’s chapter on force, on war, on the thing that happens when you push too hard and the universe pushes back. We’re calling it: Trouble in MAGAritaville.

  Here’s the scene:
  
  CPAC, 2026. Grapevine, Texas. The annual conservative pep rally, the place where the Republican base comes to be told it’s winning.

  And it’s a split screen.

  On one side: older conservatives, chanting about ending a 47-year conflict. Celebrating shock and awe. Calling dissent weakness.

  On the other side: young guys in “America First” hats who feel ‘betrayed.’ Veterans. College Republicans. The hyper-online young men who carried the 2024 election for Trump are now watching gas prices spike, casualty counts rise, and a president tweet contradictory war updates like he’s invited us all over to Netflix and Chill World War Three and he can’t decide … which version of himself is holding the remote.

  Is it: Trump the dealmaker: “Nobody makes better deals than me—we’re getting out of endless wars.”
  
  Or Trump the wartime president: “We’re hitting them harder than ever—total strength, total victory.”

  Or the Trump campaigning for the Nobel Peace Prize, saying: “This isn’t a war. I’m the president who ends wars.”

  Or the President leaning in romantically for a kiss, resting his hands on the Monroe doctrine and saying: “Honestly, we could just take Cuba. It wouldn’t even be that hard. Nobody talks about that. Would you like me to grab Cuba by the P-. I could, I could just grab Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, I could just gram em by the pussy.”

  Or the Trump who changes his mind and shifts back to Iran, saying “They respect me now. They didn’t respect the last guys.” Immediately followed by “We’re very close to a deal.” and then “The deal’s off. Worst deal ever Actually, it’s back on. Very good conversations. Actually, we might send troops in.”
  
  And all the while the young white mostly male MagaVERSE is like “um Mr. President, I was really fine to Netflix and chill with you and have you fuck me over on the economy, your criminal crypto thingy, and fuck me over with the biggest class war in history called your big beautiful bill, but this America as a war machine thing feels like Netflix and fuck the fuckin party man the fuckin party is fucked!

  Put in more journalist terms: a Politico poll this month found something striking: more than 70 percent of older MAGA men believe Trump has a plan for Iran. Among MAGA men under 35? Less than half. The coalition that built the MAGA wave is cracking along a generational fault line— and the earthquake is named Operation Epic Fury.

  Matt Gaetz— Matt Gaetz, people— stood on that stage and said: “A ground invasion of Iran will make our country poorer and less safe.”

  Tucker Carlson: against the war. Megyn Kelly: against the war. Joe Rogan: against the war.

  Which brings us to the question I want you to sit with as we go into this meditation:

  When the thing you used to win becomes the thing that’s breaking you— what do you do with the momentum?

  Let that work on your subconscious mind as we go in for Chapter 30 of the Tao Te Ching.

  [BELL CHIME]

  Alright. Let’s settle in.

  Take a breath. Seriously. Take a long slow deep breath in through the nose like you’re trying to inhale every contradictory Trump Truth Social post into one clean, coherent sentence you can actually believe; hold it there for a beat, and let it go like you’re realizing—oh… this isn’t a strategy, it’s a playlist on shuffle with a defense budget.

  I am not your spiritual advisor. I am a fictional character from a 1989 Cameron Crowe film who has somehow outlasted every foreign policy doctrine of the last four decades. So, you know, take what’s useful. Leave the rest.

  The Tao Verse — Chapter 30

  Whoever relies on the Tao in governing men doesn’t try to force issues or defeat enemies by force of arms. For every force there is a counterforce. Violence, even well intentioned, always rebounds upon oneself.

  The Master does his job and then stops.

  He understands that the universe is forever out of control, and that trying to dominate events goes against the current of the Tao. Because he believes in himself, he doesn’t try to convince others. Because he is content with himself, he doesn’t need others’ approval. Because he accepts himself, the whole world accepts him.

  [BELL CHIME]

  Open your eyes.

  Okay. “For every force there is a counterforce.”

  That’s not pacifism. That’s physics. Lao Tzu was not a hippie. He was an archivist for a dynasty that had watched empires rise and collapse like bad soufflés for centuries. He was writing from data.

  And here’s the part that should land like a flat stone on still water:

  “The Master does his job and then stops.”

  The Tao is not interested in optics. It is not running for Senate in North Carolina. The Tao does not need the crowd to cheer.

  And here’s where I want to get personal for a second, because this verse isn’t just about geopolitics. It’s about the seduction of force— the way we all, at some point, mistake intensity for effectiveness. I mean, let’s be honest, I do it in my writing of these little podcast scripts sometimes. The way we keep pushing in a relationship, an argument, a career, a political movement— because stopping would require admitting we’re not as in control as we said we were.

  Trump’s operation is called Epic Fury. The Tao would look at that name and say:

  Fury is not a strategy. Fury is a feeling that got loose. And when fury runs a foreign policy, the counterforce shows up at your own party’s convention— wearing your hat, quoting your slogan, and telling reporters you lied.

  Here’s the question to sit with:

  What in your own life are you still forcing, past the point where the job was done, because stopping feels like losing?

  Which brings us to an open letter to the force that can’t stop.

  Dear Operation Epic Fury,

  I hope this letter gets to you, at your sad little corner of ambition and consequence, to let you know that you have a branding problem. And the branding problem is the policy problem.

  “Epic Fury” is not a plan. It’s a mood. Moods don’t have exit strategies. Moods don’t answer the question: How does it end? What is the objective? Or, even more critically: why did it start? ( cough, cough) Epstein files.

  The Tao says: whoever governs through force invites counterforce. You’re seeing it in the polls. You’re seeing it in the gas prices. You’re seeing it in the White House staffers who are taking stress-leave. You’re seeing it in Matt Gaetz— Matt Gaetz!— warning about the dangers of military occupation.
  
  Matt Gaetz: a late-stage frat house id
  a man who treats escalation like a personality trait 
  a man whose default setting is maximum chaos, no parental controls

  When you’ve lost Matt Gaetz on foreign interventionism, the Tao has already filed the paperwork.

  Here’s your practice instruction for this week, Operation Epic Fury:
  Find one place where you’re still pushing past done. One objective you’re still escalating even though you can’t define victory. One show of force you’re still performing because stopping would require you to admit you never had an endgame in the first place

  From the edge of empire
  and the center of self
  this is The Tao of Lloyd.

Independent work survives because people decide it should.

This project is independently written, performed, produced, and sustained without ads, paywalls, or corporate backing.
Listener support helps cover the real cost of making each episode and protects the freedom to keep making it this way.
A recurring contribution helps most because it creates steadiness behind the work. But any support matters. Thank you.

In this episode of The Tao of Lloyd, Lloyd Dobler takes on Chapter 30 of the Tao Te Ching: an ancient warning about force, escalation, and wars with no exits—and drags it straight through the U.S./Israel war with Iran, the fractures inside the MAGA coalition, and a political movement discovering that the very thing that made it powerful may now be the thing that breaks it.