Tag Archives: Donald Trump

Nate White on Donald Trump

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Someone asked “Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”
Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England, wrote this magnificent response: Taken from his X post at https://x.com/Ipitythepoorfo1/status/1317856496647049217
“A few things spring to mind.Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem.
For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.
So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever.
I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman.
But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers.
And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface.
Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront.
Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul.
And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist.
Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that.
He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat.
He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully.
That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead.
There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.
So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
* Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
* You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.
This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss.
After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.
God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid.
He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart.
In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.
And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish:
‘My God… what… have… I… created?
If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”
With thanks to Rhonda Schrader, Ray DiFazio and Michael Lussier, who all republished this piece before it finally made its way to me.

Game of Cards, for dVerse Poets, Aug 12, 2025

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Game of Cards

I would pay a pretty tuppence
to invest in his comeuppance.
His smug assurance, his galling preening.
He’s like a babe in need of weaning,
sucking at the teat of fame.
What other mortal needs his name
written on towers around the world?
He’s Ozymandias, stone lip curled
in cruel splendor, sure in his power
reasserted on every tower.
But remember, as he counts each coup,
how all the mighty have fallen, too.
False knights wear armor prone to tarnish.
His Midas touch will lose its varnish.
We’ll laud the day when he’ll be dumped—
That day when he’ll be over-trumped!

The dVerse prompt is Power.

“Coup d’état” For the Three Things Challenge 141, Aug 3, 2025

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Coup d’état

Build up all your borders. Put truth behind a scrim.
Remove all your immigrants. Trim and trim and trim.
Box up all your freedoms and lock them safe away.
Amend the 10 Commandments to “Ye shall not be gay.”
Dumb down all our children to increase control
so you can assure that you’ll retain control.
Tear apart two hundred fifty years of “free”
to put into your control what once was liberty.
Subjugate your citizens and say it is God’s will.
Then provide the Kool-Aid to see if they will swill.

Prompt words for the Three Things Challenge are: BORDER, TRIM, BOX

Bye Bye Freedom of Speech!!!!!

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Opinion Today
July 22, 2025
By Carl Swanson

Deputy Editorial Director, Opinion

The writer and podcast host Molly Jong-Fast grew up knowing that her grandfather Howard Fast, known for writing the novel the movie “Spartacus” was based on, was also famous for being blacklisted in Hollywood for refusing to give information to the House Un-American Activities Committee.

In a guest essay for Times Opinion, she writes that she was reminded of what her grandfather went through after CBS’s decision last week to cancel Stephen Colbert’s late-night show. Colbert had been graciously derisive of President Trump for years. The cancellation looks to Jong-Fast like a “dark moment for an American media company seemingly bowing and scraping” to the president, “obeying in advance, hoping to make a deal,” since Paramount, CBS’s parent company, is in the midst of closing a merger with Skydance that requires approval from his administration.

For its part, CBS released a statement saying that the cancellation was “purely a financial decision,” and it’s true that “The Late Show,” like most everything else on TV, isn’t the moneymaker it once was (although it is still the top-rated late-night show on air). But it’s also true that Paramount’s chairwoman, Shari Redstone, has a family fortune tied up in getting the Skydance deal done.

What does this mean for free speech?

It’s pretty clear now that nobody is safe from an administration determined to bring anyone or anything it sees as standing in its way, no matter how august — Harvard University, high-powered law firms, and TV networks — to heel. And, as Colbert might have just shown, “We’ll never be able to mock Mr. Trump into submission.”

To Read the entire article, go HERE

Illustration by Sam Whitney/The New York Times

 

Yoli’s Sorrows

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Three days a week, I teach Spanish here in my house  to Yolanda and Pasiano’s children as well as Yolanda’s nieces and stepdaughter. Her daughter Yoli was so sleepy during lessons today that I asked if she wanted coffee or a caffeine pill and she said no. I asked if she had to go to school and she said no she was on vacation and I asked if she could sleep when she went home and she said yes.

While I was driving her home, I asked why she had trouble sleeping and she said, “Guerra” (War) and then Donald Trump. She is so worried about the threat of a nuclear war that she can’t sleep! I talked to her and said it helped me to listen to podcasts and she said she listened to them but they were all about Trump and his actions. It just breaks my heart.

I told her I couldn’t sleep for the same reason and I decided I just needed to do what the Mexican people have always done under repressive regimes–– Spanish, French—even the Aztecs. To pull in to contact with family and friends and to do as much for each other as we can to make a different world for those around us. She has no power to change Donald Trump. She can only affect the world around her and try to get as much joy from it as possible.

Then I sobbed all the way home after leaving her off at her house and had to go to the bathroom mirror to catch sight of myself and take myself in hand. If I can’t even do it, how can I expect a 14 year old girl to do so?

For The Sunday Whirl 711, June 22, 2025

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                                                           Getty image 

War Games

Peaceful visions stream into space and speed along their way
as our president plays war games, deciding its the day
that he’ll become a soldier, bone spurs a lesser grief––
his soldiering tasks much easier as Commander in Chief
sitting in his desk chair, pushing buttons that
could bring about a world war (wearing his MAGA hat.)

These seeds of war he’s planted grow roots that quickly spread
around a breathing living world so easily turned dead.
Our freedom’s being stifled, the body of our nation
brought down by the curatailment of our health and education.
As this child plays his war games, are his minions listening
for the sounds of bombs in the sunlight swiftly glistening

speeding toward their targets in the good old U.S.A.
perhaps trained on the cities where your children play?
The Bible gives the message of an eye for an eye,
so as you hear the bombs they’ve returned swiftly going by,
will you finally admit that this man that you’ve elected
is one you might more wisely have summarily rejected?

For The Sunday Whirl Wordle #711 the prompt words are: sitting free space go roots body stream breathe listen seeds peace vision. (Getty image)

The Minnesota Shootings and Mike Lee and Trump’s Shameful Response.

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From Heather Cox Richardson.:

At a news conference today, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota Joseph H. Thompson, who was appointed by President Donald Trump just two weeks ago, said that Minnesota suspect Vance Boelter went to the homes of two more politicians than the two he eventually shot along with their spouses. One was on vacation with her family, and at another home, a police officer apparently scared him off.

Thompson said Boelter had “voluminous” writings that showed he had been planning the attacks for “quite some time.” “But,” Thompson added, “I have not seen anything involving some sort of political screed or manifesto that would clearly identify what motivated him. Obviously, his primary motive was to go out and murder people. They were all elected officials. They were all Democrats. Beyond that, I think it’s just way too speculative for anyone that’s reviewed these materials to know and to say what was motivating him in terms of ideology or specific issues.”

Zoe Sottile of CNN reported that Boelter is facing federal charges of two counts of stalking, two counts of murder, and two counts of firearms offenses. He is facing state charges of first-degree murder, second degree murder, and attempted murder.

MAGA loyalists have continued to radicalize in the wake of the shootings, spreading disinformation that blamed the violence on Democrats or joking about the event. Walker Orenstein of the Minnesota Star Tribune debunked the disinformation spread by MAGA loyalists, noting that Boelter was not close to Walz, who simply okayed his reappointment to a bipartisan board that then-governor Mark Dayton had put him on in 2016. According to his roommate, Boelter was a “strong supporter” of Trump.

Emily Anderson Stern and Robert Gehrke of the Salt Lake Tribune called out Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) for his behavior in the aftermath of the shootings. Lee joked about the killings and falsely blamed the violence on his political opponents, tying the shooting to Minnesota governor Tim Walz. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) responded: “This was an incredible woman, her husband, her two kids—yesterday on Father’s Day, there was no Father’s Day for them. They lost both their parents…. This is not a laughing matter, and certainly what we’re seeing is an increase in violence, and this evil man who did this—this is not a joke.”

Of Lee’s behavior, influencer George Takei wrote: “Utah voters: Are these really your values? Mike Lee is the best you can do?” After Lee pinned one of his disturbing tweets to the top of his social media timeline, Tim Miller of The Bulwark wrote: “This is less of a political matter than a sign of deep mental illness.”

As of this afternoon, Trump had not called Walz, calling him “a terrible governor” and “a grossly incompetent person.”

Trump drew criticism of his own incompetence today at the meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) in Kananaskis, Alberta, in Canada. The G7 is a forum of democracies with advanced economies that includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as the European Union. During today’s meetings, Trump seemed to think the United Kingdom and the European Union were the same thing.

Trump also parroted Russian talking points, telling reporters: “The G7 used to be the G8. Barack Obama and a person named Trudeau didn’t want to have Russia in, and I would say that that was a mistake, because I think you wouldn’t have a war right now if you had Russia in, and you wouldn’t have a war right now if Trump were president four years ago.”

In fact, the members of the G7 kicked Russia out of the forum after Russian president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014. And former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau didn’t take office until 2015.

On Friday, journalist Dean Blundell reported that Washington insiders and observers from abroad had noticed how rarely Trump appears in public and how often he falls asleep when he does, prompting speculation that he is not physically able to do the work of the presidency. Blundell suggested Trump’s team would look for a way to get the president out of the G7 early to avoid exposure.

After today’s meetings, at which it appears the U.S. was delaying a joint statement in which G7 members called for an end to the conflict between Israel and Iran, Trump posted on social media: “Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign,” although it was Trump who pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the “Iran nuclear deal” that limited Iran’s nuclear program. He continued: “What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”

More than 9 million people live in Tehran, with more than 16 million in the metropolitan area.

Then Trump’s team announced the situation in the Middle East required the president to leave the G7 a day early.

Twelve minutes after his post about evacuating Tehran, Trump reposted a Newsmax story saying that Trump “deserves an A+ for his job performance so far,” and less than an hour later, he posted an attack on right-wing personality Tucker Carlson and then posted: “AMERICA FIRST means many GREAT things, including that fact that IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” Just before midnight, he posted an attack on California governor Gavin Newsom.

It’s unclear what Trump’s abrupt departure from the G7 indicates for events in the Middle East and U.S. involvement in them. As Brian O’Neill of The Contrarian noted, Trump had said he hoped to negotiate a deal with Iran, and indeed, talks were scheduled for Sunday in Oman when Israel launched its attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities on Friday. O’Neill notes that when Israel struck Iran last Friday without U.S. coordination, the Trump administration was left “scrambling to respond.”

Being sidelined in foreign affairs at the same time as the American people turned out in huge numbers to protest his administration and as his military parade fizzled shows Trump has less power than he tries to project.

How decisions are being made in the administration is unclear. Notably, after Trump wrote last Thursday that “changes are coming” in deportation orders because it made no sense to deport workers who had been here for a long time and were vital to farms, hotels, and restaurants, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today reversed that decision.

Carol D. Leonnig, Natalie Allison, Marianne LeVine, and Lauren Kaori Gurley of the Washington Post reported that after Trump’s post and comments to reporters, a DHS official told agents to pause raids on agriculture, including meatpacking plants, as well as restaurants and hotels. But on Sunday, DHS leadership suggested a reversal was coming because, as the journalists write, “the White House did not support” the new policy. In a call this morning, officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told agents to continue immigration raids at the businesses Trump had said he was going to protect.

This shift makes it seem as if White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, a white nationalist who insists that the U.S. must deport a million immigrants this year, is determining White House policies, just as he did on the Signal chat about the military strikes on the Houthis in Yemen when his statement that Trump wanted a strike appeared to shut down any further debate of the question.

If Trump is leaving the work of the presidency to others, his family is certainly using the prestige of the presidency to make money. In what it says is in honor of the tenth anniversary of Trump’s trip down the Trump Tower escalator into presidential politics, the Trump Organization has launched a mobile phone service. As Nikki McCann Ramirez of Rolling Stone explains, the plan is essentially another licensing deal, with the disclaimer specifying that the service simply uses the Trump name after contracting with another provider.

The announcement claims that new made-in-America gold phones will be available in September, but as David Pierce of The Verge notes, the photoshopped image of the phone and the wonky specs on it, as well as the impossible promise to make them in America within three months, mean the phone “looks both bad and impossible.” The phone, too, is simply branded with the Trump name; the family business will not design or manufacture it.

The family was evidently in a hurry to get this venture up and running. Kelcee Griffis of Bloomberg reported that the Trump Organization only applied for the trademarks for it last Thursday.

—

Notes:

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/minnesota-shootings-manhunt-06-15-25

https://www.justice.gov/usao-mn/pr/president-donald-j-trump-appoints-joseph-h-thompson-acting-united-states-attorney

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/minnesota-shootings-manhunt-06-15-25#cmbzbc7if002v3b6mcyozzw5i

https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2025/06/16/mineesota-shootinig-sen-amy/

https://www.startribune.com/fact-check-did-vance-boelter-suspect-in-minnesota-shootings-have-close-ties-to-gov-tim-walz/601373519

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/16/republicans-trump-minnesota-lawmakers-killings

Dean Blundell
Rumors of Decline: Trump’s Health Speculation Swirls Ahead of the G7 Summit
Donald Trump is very unwell. Dementia. Incontinence, and safeguarding his serious physical and mental decline, is a MAJOR concern for the Trump Regime, the run-up to this year’s G7 Summit in Alberta: widespread speculation about President Donald Trump’s physical health and stamina…
Read more
3 days ago · 2096 likes · 60 comments · Dean Blundell

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/16/trump-leaving-g7-early-00409449

Trump, Truth Social post, June 16, 2025, 6:30 p.m.

Trump, Truth Social post, June 16, 2025, 6:42 p.m.

Trump, Truth Social post, June 16, 2025, 7:18 p.m.

Trump, Truth Social post, June 16, 2025, 11:50 pm.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/16/politics/trump-israel-iran-g7-statement

https://apnews.com/live/israel-iran-attack#00000197-67c9-d583-a19f-7fcf30bc0000

The Contrarian
The split-screen presidency
By Brian O’Neill…
Read more
14 hours ago · 185 likes · 10 comments

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/12/trump-immigration-migrant-farmers-hotel-workers-deported/84166061007/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/06/16/trump-farms-hotels-immigration-raids/

https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/687492/trump-mobile-phone-t1

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-mobile-cell-phone-profit-off-presidency-1235365459/

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/what-we-know-about-trump-organizations-mobile-service-2025-06-16/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-13/trump-seeks-to-register-his-name-for-mobile-phone-service

X:

Don’t Miss This Possible Way Out of this Mess We Are In!!

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Go here:  https://okcforgottenman.wordpress.com/2025/06/16/ohh-thats-rich/ to hear some of the wisest words I’ve heard concerning how the Democratic party can best act to overcome Trump’s attempted coup. (My word, not his.):

Young Protester Calls out Donald Trump

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This young woman is amazing. Thanks to Forgottenman for bringing her to my attention:

HAPPENING NOW: Young protester calls out Donald Trump for his military parade, failed policies, and urges others to get out and protest 📍No Kings Day protest

— Vince D. Monroy (@vincedmonroy.bsky.social) 2025-06-14T15:56:15.052Z

Rainy “No Kings” Protest Rally in Ajijic, Mexico

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Click on photos to enlarge.