High Plains Blogger readers might recall that in 2016 I pledged never to post the word “President” directly in front of Donald Trump’s name.

My belief then was that he wasn’t my president. Not only did I vote against him, I considered him fundamentally unfit to hold the nation’s highest elected office. I still cling to that belief.

Six weeks into his second go-round as POTUS, the wisdom of that pledge is being brought into sharper focus. Only for a different reason.

He has taken office in the shadow of the world’s richest human being, Elon Musk. How in the world can this be? I can’t figure out how a publicity-seeking former reality TV mogul, real estate developer and huckster without equal can cede the spotlight to a tycoon who isn’t even eligible to run for president, as he was born in South Africa.

Americans didn’t elect Musk to anything. They elected Trump. However, Trump has turned budgeting authority over to Musk and his made-up Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE as it’s now known colloquially.

What’s more, he sits quietly while Musk takes Secretary of State Marco Rubio to task for not cutting enough from his State Department budget. Good grief! That isn’t Musk’s place! The authority to make such demands in public belongs exclusively to the president of the United States!

You see, Trump isn’t acting like the individual elected to the presidency. He has become the sidekick, the second banana, the guy riding shotgun in the clown car.

It is ridiculous and outrageous at the same time.

It also gives my pledge look all the more prescient.