Mount Rushmore

I wonder which he wants more: the Nobel Peace Prize or his head on Mount Rushmore.

(from earlier this year, January 2025)

Magic Math

President Trump said his administration has reached a deal to lower the cost of weight loss drugs.

Dr. Mehmet Oz then went on to proclaim that Americans could lose "135 billion pounds" by 2026 midterm elections with this new drug pricing.

Trump was less than impressed after hearing this. See his reaction in the photo above.

Apparently Dr. Oz did not use any logic when he came up with this number because . . . . .

Miss Un-Congeniality

Cry and whine a little louder.

Gag Me with a Spoon

He's been begging for this for years.  Please, no.

Trumpian Stupidity

MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell tore into President Donald Trump on Wednesday’s (July 9) edition of The Last Word as he shared the recurring “theme” of the Trump presidency.

Lawrence O'Donnell

The longtime host focused on Trump’s response to reporters’ questions about his administration’s order to pause sending munitions to Ukraine last week amid the country’s ongoing war with Russia. When originally asked the question by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins about who ordered the pause on Tuesday (July 8), the President responded, “I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”

Trump was similarly evasive when the New York Times‘ White House reporter Shawn McCreesh brought the question up again on Wednesday, asking the President if he’s since been able to figure out who ordered the pause.

“Well, I haven’t thought about it,” Trump replied.

McCreesh followed up, wondering “what it says that such a big decision could be made” without Trump knowing.

“I would know,” Trump retorted. “If a decision was made, I will know… I’d be the first to know. In fact, most likely, I’d give the order.”

“If you don’t think that that string of English words made any sense, then you are correct. It did not make any sense,” O’Donnell said of Trump’s response to the question. However, the MSNBC host did say there was a “shred of truth” in one thing Trump said, pointing to the line, “I haven’t thought about it.”

“That is the truth of everything Donald Trump does and doesn’t do as president: ‘I haven’t thought about it,’” O’Donnell continued. “That is the theme of the Trump presidency. In your lifetime of listening to presidents being asked questions about policy situations they are actively engaged in every day, you have never once heard a president say, ‘I haven’t thought about it.’

O’Donnell said, “It takes Trumpian stupidity to say something like that,” adding, “And when you’re as stupid as Donald Trump, you have no idea how stupid your stupidity sounds. Donald Trump is trapped in his stupidity. There is no way he can fake sounding smart about anything, not even his lifetime passion and greatest expertise, golf, which he simply lies about.”

Book: Oath and Honor

In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and many around him, including certain other elected Republican officials, intentionally breached their oath to the Constitution: they ignored the rulings of dozens of courts, plotted to overturn a lawful election, and provoked a violent attack on our Capitol. Liz Cheney, one of the few Republican officials to take a stand against these efforts, witnessed the attack first-hand, and then helped lead the Congressional Select Committee investigation into how it happened. In Oath and Honor, she tells the story of this perilous moment in our history, those who helped Trump spread the stolen election lie, those whose actions preserved our constitutional framework, and the risks we still face.

So informative. I learned so much more about everything that led up to the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. I'm so impressed by the incredible amount of hard work and attention to detail of the January 6th committee in their pursuit of the truth. It's a true story of patriotism and the pursuit of truth by dedicated leaders who put love of country before their own self interests.

Excerpts:

Continues to show Trump's lack of character. He's a liar, a bully, and a cheat.

Hands Off

There were many protest marches across the country over the weekend. Named "Hands Off" rallies.

Here is one of the signs from one of the rallies.

Don't Forget to Sign on the Dotted Line

President Trump spent almost an hour on Wednesday talking to an invited audience in the Rose Garden of the White House about his plans to impose levies on dozens of U.S. trading partners. He used his “Liberation Day” address to outline how he would bring manufacturing back to the country by signing his controversial executive order. Then he had to be “guided back” on stage following his tariff-touting speech after “forgetting” to sign his executive order.

One person who spotted the clip on X wrote:
          “Trump having his first Biden moment was not on my bingo card for 2025.”
Another joked:
          “Trump: “Mission accomplished!” Staff: “Sir, you forgot the mission.”
A further asked:
          “Does he know where’s he’s going?”
While another went on:
          “Buddy is in another galaxy.”

His Own Special Seal

He's a liar, a bully, and a cheat. He deserves his own special presidential seal.

He's a bunch of other things, too.

Failed Prognosticator

A new CNN video clip shows just how far off the mark President Donald Trump has been with his economic predictions. Trump last year promised he would “immediately begin a brand-new Trump economic boom” if he won the election. “It’ll be a boom!” he vowed. “We’re gonna turn this country around so fast.”

Instead, it’s been a bust as the market plunged from record highs in former President Joe Biden’s final weeks, to weeks of losses since Trump announced tariffs and other trade war measures. 

Stocks tanked yet again on Thursday, and the market reached “correction” territory, which is when major indexes drop by 10%. 

Ironically, that’s just what Trump said would happen... if he lost. He said it in 2020, predicting that stocks “will go to hell” if Biden won. 

The Dow reached a then-all-time-high of 31,188 on Biden’s inauguration ― and continued to rise, peaking above 45,000 in December 2024. 

Trump issued similar warnings last year, with the CNN video clip showing him predicting a “Kamala economic crash” if then-Vice President Kamala Harris won the election. 

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HuffPost - 3/13/2025

Sooner Than You Think

Longtime political strategist James Carville warned Democratic politicians not to get in the way of the protests springing up around the nation against President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally, Elon Musk. 

"What I think they should do is what we call in rural America play possum,” he said on MSNBC. “Just let it go. Don’t get in the way of it. Or as we like to say, ‘Don’t just stand there. Do nothing.’ Let this germinate.” 

He compared the movement against Trump to a freight train on the move and told Democratic politicians to keep out of the way until the right time. 

“In the immortal words of Dalton in Road House, be nice until it’s time not to be nice,” Carville said. “And that time is coming shortly.” 

Carville also took aim at moderates who say people are overreacting to Trump. “No one is overreacting,” he said. “We’re living in real time in a catastrophe.”

But he said the tide will turn against Trump ― and predicted it will happen “way sooner than you think.”

Carville pointed to one specific date coming up later this year: the Nov. 5 election in Virginia, where voters will replace outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican who has aligned himself closely with Trump. 

“Think about the turnout among federal employees,” he said. “What percent of the voters in northern Virginia are federal employees or families of federal employees? Do you think they’re gonna vote? I think they’re gonna vote. I think I know which way they’re gonna vote, and they’re gonna vote heavily.” 

Federal workers have been targeted by Trump and Musk, who have been slashing budgets, shutting down departments and laying off workers. 

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the Internet: HuffPost

Trophy Time

Oh my. He's been in office just over 2 weeks, and he's already gained multiple trophies.

What are these accomplishments?

See also Totally Trump: He is Never Wrong
Totally Trump: Today's Prediction 
Totally Trump: Insurrection

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adapted from Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Blitz

Donald Trump's return to Washington has been defined largely by bombarding the country with a dizzying amount of brash actions and rhetoric that opponents admit is exhausting.

"He’s throwing a lot of things at us at once. Lots of executive orders and lots of changes," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the minority whip, told USA TODAY. "Some of them are confusing, chaotic. I don't think…we are going to keep up with it."

Whether it is pardoning violent Jan. 6 defendants; firing inspectors general; revoking security detail for past critics; looking to end birthright citizenship; investigating media outlets; or having Dr. Phil join televised raids apprehending undocumented immigrants, the so-called "flood the zone" strategy, popularized in the first administration by former chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, has returned.

What's different, experts say, is the rapid fire appears to have striking accuracy even as some actions − such as freezing federal grant funding − cause heartburn for friends and foes alike.

"As chaotic as it's been in the first few weeks, Trump 2.0 came in with a much better understanding of the federal government, and a team dedicated to helping him get his wins, including members of Congress," said Casey Burgat, director of the legislative affairs program at the George Washington University Graduate School of Management.

"It's clear that many of the Trump 1.0 folks stuck around D.C. and have been gearing up for a second Trump term."

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USA Today

What a Man

Wonderful. [Sarcasm.] 'Twill be interesting to see what transpires next.

Fox News Made a Boo-boo

 Trump's favorite news source.

Trump Derangement Syndrome

He has such a way with naming people.

Yes, Trump is deranged. 

Synonyms:  crazy  |  daft  |  gaga  |  cuckoo  |  loony  |  nuts  |  wacko  |  unhinged  |  bonkers  |  screwy  |  demented  |  lunatic  . . . .  just to name a few.

Felon-in-Chief

Speak for Yourself

What do you mean? No one wants it? No American is happy about it?

In 2018 when George H.W. Bush died, then-president Trump ordered all American flags be flown at half-mast for 30 days. Now, DJT opposes this tradition. 

Now, this I can get behind.

Fantasy January 6

A blanket pardon of those convicted of crimes at the Capitol would be the logical conclusion of Trump’s four-year attempt to rewrite the history of that horrific day. His strategy on that score was as straightforward as it was effective. He simply said, over and over, that the insurrection was not a crime or a coup but something righteous and gallant. It was “a day of love,” and the violent thugs who carried it out were patriots and heroes, the ones now jailed for their crimes actually “political prisoners.”

During the campaign, Trump proclaimed that one of his first acts if he won would be to free the Jan. 6 “hostages.” His rallies began with a recording of jailed insurrectionists singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Through this repetition, he made it clear to every Republican officeholder and media figure that they, too, were expected to repeat the fantasy version of that day, which many dutifully did.

Trump has used this approach repeatedly: If you say something often enough, his followers will believe it, and it will become true in their own minds. Or something.

Before long the Republican masses believed it — after all, it was what they were being told by the public figures they admired and trusted. Even if they didn’t all buy the most deranged versions of the right-wing account — that the coup was a setup by the FBI, a conspiracy theory touted at times by Tucker Carlson and Kash Patel (Trump’s choice to now lead that very agency) — at least they came around to concluding it was nothing to be worked up about. According to a recent CBS News poll, 72% of Republicans now say they would approve of Trump’s pardoning the insurrectionists.

According to the Justice Department, 13 leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers have been charged with seditious conspiracy over the coup attempt. Another 379 have been charged with felonious assault. The rest — over 1,000 — have been charged with crimes that amounted to being part of the riot, acts like unlawful entry and civil disorder. 

Trump could decide to pardon only those convicted of nonviolent offenses. But that wouldn’t provide quite the exoneration — not just of them, but of Trump himself — that he has really claimed. If Trump leaves out the violent criminals in his pardons, it would mean acknowledging that there was, in fact, an extraordinary amount of violence. A blanket pardon, on the other hand, would sew up the narrative as he would prefer: The election was stolen from him, then his supporters protested, then they were persecuted for exercising their constitutional rights, and in the end he liberated them.

So will he pardon Enrique Tarrio (the former leader of the Proud Boys, who helped plan and coordinate the insurrection, sentenced to 22 years in prison), and along with him Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison after he was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in orchestrating the insurrection? Will he do the same for Daniel “D.J.” Rodriguez, who was sentenced to 12 years for assaulting police officers with a fire extinguisher and a wooden pole and drove a stun gun into the neck of a Capitol Police officer? How about Peter Schwartz, who assaulted officers with a chair and pepper spray? Or Thomas Webster, who wielded a flagpole in the attack and ripped a gas mask off an officer’s face?

There’s little reason to believe Trump thinks anyone involved in the insurrection did anything wrong and should suffer consequences; they were there serving his cause, so they must be blameless. And there is precedent in Trump’s record for a blanket pardon: On his way out of office four years ago, he pardoned or commuted the sentences of a boatload of hoodlums who had committed crimes either on his behalf or in his employ. 

Most important of all, blanket pardons would be the completion of Trump’s attempt to turn the insurrection from a failure into a success. Indeed, one might consider it that way already. Trump and his acolytes tried to overturn an election by various criminal means, and in the end they got what they wanted, even if it took four years. Trump will now return to the White House in triumph. All that’s left is to wipe away the consequences for those who tried to put him there through violence.

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Adapted from an article on MSNBC

He's Got a Plan .....

..... Or So He Says

Americans are starting to wise up to the harsh reality that President-elect Donald Trump has no plan – and never did – to cut prices and bury inflation woes, according to a Washington Post columnist.

“A day late and a dollar short, Americans are realizing that President-elect Donald Trump plans to short them a few dollars. That’s right: Since the election, U.S. consumers have become more likely to say they expect prices to rise next year,” Catherine Rampell wrote.

While Trump ran his 2024 campaign on appealing promises to bring everyday prices that have skyrocketed for consumers in recent years down, he acknowledged in a Time magazine interview only after winning that election that he could do no such thing, Rampell reminded readers.

“I’d like to bring them down,” Trump told Time magazine. “It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard.” The only thing surprising about the admission from Trump “is that he said it out loud,” Rampell wrote.

“One thing Trump didn’t acknowledge, however, is how his economic agenda — tariffs, deportations, tax cuts, and kneecapping the Federal Reserve — could worsen the problem that voters hired him to solve,” according to the columnist. “But Americans seem to be catching on anyway. ….. Americans are absorbing news coverage of Trump’s proposed tariffs and their potential to raise prices on food, cars, apparel, appliances and other common household purchases.”

Trump’s threats of mass deportations could also drive up fruit, vegetable and dairy prices, she warned. And, Rampell concluded, Trump could easily worsen increased prices consumers are already facing in the face of other geopolitical and supply-chain issues.

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adapted from a report on the Internet