Tag Archives: Donald Trump

Trump’s callousness in full view

You want a measure of the callousness of the Dumbass in Chief, the guy who said he looks out for the “little guy”?

On the second day of Donald Trump’s unprovoked international trade war, a day in which the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed more than 2,000 points , costing total investments to lose trillions of dollars, Trump jets off to Florida to play a few rounds of golf.

Hey, no worries, man. The MAGA Moron in Chief doesn’t give a rat’s red backside about the loss of millions of Americans’ retirement funds. He said he does, but you know how believable anything is that flies out of Trump’s overfed pie hole.

It kind of reminds me of the February 2021 escapade in which Sen. Ted Cruz sought to grab a few rays in Cancun while Texans were freezing to death in the killer winter storm that paralyzed the entire damn state. Cruz got caught escaping, returned to Texas … and then blamed his daughter for talkiing the family into the ill-fated family vacation.

This time, the callousness belongs to the president of the United States of America, who launched an unprovoked international trade war by imposing tariffs on virtually every product imported into this country. Nobel laureates have proclaimed this to be a catastrophe. So have politidians of both parties. Even the great President Reagan beomoaned tariffs in the 1980s, calliing them a national sales tax that falls on every Amerixan to pay.

One of the countless lies that Trump told voters while campaigning for the presidency is that he cares about them, their welfare and their livelihood.

He doesn’t give a sh** about ’em, the folks who followed him all over creation to cheer on the lies he told them.

Here’s a thought: If he truly cared about us, he would keep the golf clubs stashed away and he would rescind the tariffs he knew would cause the havoc they have caused.

Move over, President W.H. Harrison

I long have held the late President William Henry Harrison up as the model for setting the dubious record for making stupid presidential decisions.

Donald Trump is challenging President Harrison for that title.

Harrison’s stupidity manifested itself on inauguration day, March 3, 1841. It was bitterly cold in Washington, D.C. Harrison’s medical team warned him to bundle up before delivering his inaugural speech. He ignored the medical advice and stood in the cold rain for well past an hour droning on about whatever was the issue of the day.

He then caught pneumonia and was bed-ridden until April 4. That’s when he died. They swore in VP John Tyler.

Profoundly stupid on the president’s part, correct? Yes. It was.

Trump has been told by Nobel laureate economists on the left and the right that the tariffs he has imposed will be catastrophic. They will punish Americans who will pay exhorbitantly high prices for goods and commodities imported from abroad. They will do little harm that Trump intends to inflict on the exporting nations.

But … he imposed the tariffs anyway. He has put millions of Americans’ livelihood in potentially dire peril. He launched without apparent provocation and international trade war that includes some of our strongest, most reliable and faithful allies and trading partners. Such as Canada, Mexico, France, Australia and Japan.

Yes, the dumbass in chief has decided to declare economic war on the entire planet apparently believing he is going to strengthen our hand in the world market.

Well, President Harrison’s stupidity had an obvious negative impact on his personal health and well-being. Donald Trump’s stupidity will reverberate all across Planet Earth.

Step aside, W.H. Harrison. You have company in the pantheon of pitiful presidents.

Trump inscribe’s hideous legacy

What does it say about a U.S. president who hears from the top economists on Earth that a policy he is considering would bring unvarnished disaster for Americans’ life savings … but then goes ahead with the decision to proceed?

It tells me that the president is hellbent on inscribing his place as the worst president in U.S. history.

How in the name of economic sanity can Donald J. Trump impose tariffs on our closest allies and most reliable trading partners and then watch as retirement accounts vaporize in real time?

He has through executive action spurred an international trade war, guaranteed a huge spike in inflation, forced the nation into a negative economic growth pattern and cost Americans billions of dollars in their retirement accounts.

Where I come from, that makes Trump the worst president in the history of the republic.

He doesn’t take advice. He heeds only his overfed “gut” and his “hunch.” He seeks to punish nations for “ripping us off,” yet imposes tariffs on such economic giants as American Samoa and Vanuatu.

Yours truly’s retirement account is vanishing before my eyes. Why? Because the numbskull in chief doesn’t care one damn bit about protecting the people who pledged to protect when he took office.

Musk wearing out his welcome?

Some within the political punditry class of Americans are beginning to speculate over many folks predicted would happen once Donald Trump took the oath of office as POTUS.

There’s been some legitimate reporting that Elon Musk, the de facto co-president, might be on the way out at the West Wing.

I haven’t heard much conjecture yet as to why Trump and Musk will part company. I do have a theory. It is that Musk is stealing Trump’s thunder.

Some of us have begun referring to the administration as the Musk-Trump administration. You know what that does to any ego-driven politician in America? It sends them into orbit. If that’s what is happening with Trump, well, I don’t blame him one bit for getting upset.

Americans voted for Trump, not the world’s richest man, as president. I wasn’t one of them, but that’s not the point. I accept the verdict of the slim majority of Americans who cast their lot with the twice-impeached, convicted felon who won the 2024 election. I still believe they made a mistake, but the results were certified and entered into the record.

The White House, quite naturally, says Trump is standing by Musk. But anyone whose butter hasn’t slipped off their noodle knows of Trump’s mercurial temperament.

Which is to say that today’s statement of loyalty and support by Trump can turn the next day into a social media pink slip.

Trump needs serious reality check

Earth to Donald Trump: The nation’s founders, the men who crafted the government you were elected to lead, gave you limited power for a reason.

They didn’t want an imperial presidency in the United States of America.

Thus, Trump needs to comprehend that he cannot declare something to be and then expect it to occur.

He says he wants to take back the Panama Canal from Panama. He wants to purchase Greenland from Denmark. He wants Canada to become the 51st state of the United States.

The simple and undeniable fact is that Trump cannot possibly make any of that happen simply because he is the POTUS. Yet, he keeps blathering on with statements that defy all logic. They are utter nonsense. He has no authority anywhere to make any of it happen.

He declares media criticism of his antics to be “illegal.” He calls for the closing down of media outlets that present opinions with which he disagrees. He calls for the impeachment of federal judges … only to be scolded by the chief justice of the Supreme Court that impeachment is not an option for removal of judges who issue opinions at variance with Trump’s.

The dude is out of control. He is a maniac. He acts, talks and behaves with sheer stupdity.

However, Americans managed to elect this nimrod to the highest office in the land. Go … figure.

Musk, Trump testing our faith

Elon Musk and his puppet, Donald Trump, are testing my faith in the U.S. Constitution’s ability to hold up to the full frontal assault these two nimrods are launching.

Yes, my faith is bending, but I believe — at least I hope — it is far from breaking.

Trump campaigned for the presidency vowing to leave veterans benefits and Social Security alone. He said he wouldn’t cut either program. Then he hauls Elon Musk aboard the clown car and Musk — the richest man on Earth — starts yammering about cuts in vets’ programs and calls Social Security a “ponzi scheme.”

OK, the disph** doesn’t know a ponzi scheme if it bit him in the ass. Social Security is a compact this government made in 1935 with elderly Americans to provide them with assistance to live in their retirement years.

We have paid into the system and as we seek to enjoy retirement from a lifetime of working hard, we are getting some of it back. What does Elon Musk know about any of that? Not a damn thing!

As for veterans benefits, for Donald J. Trump — the draft dodger in chief — to say a word about cutting benefits for those of us who did serve our country is merely adding unconscionable insult to unforgiveable injury.

Some of us are old enough to remember a time when Democratic leaders in Congress sought to monkey around with elderly benefits. In the 1980s, House Speaker Tip O’Neill and senior U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois got caught making untoward comments about Social Security. The outcry from the masses was so vigorous that they both backed down.

Musk and Trump should face an equal rage-filled response if they try to monkey around with old folks’ retirement and veterans’ pre-paid benefits.

Trump 2.0 no better than Trump 1.0

Word out of D.C. is that the second version of the Donald Trump adminisration is different from the first one.

The pundit class suggests that this version of Trump came into office prepared for the rigors of the office, whereas the first time around he entered office with nary a clue about anything.

The difference appears to be that Trump knows this time what he wants to do and is going about his business with ruthlessness and callous disregard for how it affects the people whose lives he is changing.

That’s better than before? Hardly!

The area where Trump remains horribly ignorant is in understanding the limits of his power. Whereas the first version of Trump didn’t know what the hell he was doing, the second version of him knows what he wants … but then issues orders as if they have the force of law.

The don’t.

A president cannot summarily fire public service employees. Nor can he dismantle a Cabinet office created by Congress. Nor can a POTUS ignore willingly an order issued by a federal judge. Nor can a president demand a judge be impeached just because he or she issues an order that angers Trump.

It’s far worse than a mixed bag with this version of the once-former president. He might be more organized and more pulled together than he was when he stumbled into office in 2017.

He also is far more dangerous than many of us even imagined.

World has gone mad!

Let us be sure we don’t pussyfoot around the obvious … which is that our political world has gone stark-raving mad.

How can I make such a claim? I have a friend in Germany, a journalist and a student of American politics. He usually is spot on with his understanding of U.S. political trends, as he said they occasionally mirror developing trends in Germany.

My friend wrote me a note that led with this: “I don’t understrand what is happening to your country.”

The major concern for my friend is the U.S.’s new found friendship with an assassin, a killer, a dictator and a highly aggressive head of state, Vladimir Putin.

Putin invaded Ukraine three years ago in a bold-faced territory grab from a sovereign nation. Ukraine also is an ally of the United States. President Biden immediately went to NATO officials to enlist their support for our financial and materiel aid to Ukraine. He got it.

Now, Biden is retired. He’s gone back to Delaware and is playing with his grandkids. Meanwhile, the nimrod who succeeded him has cozied up to Putin, seeking to broker a cease fire. Donald Trump hasn’t made a single demand of Russia other than for the troops to stop firing at Ukrainians.

Therefore, my friend in the beautifiul Bavaria region of Germany is as confused as many of us are about what has become of this nation.

For the first time in U.S. history, we have turned our backs on a dependable ally — Ukraine — in favor of an aggressor state while the two countries are in the middle of a bloody ground war!

Therein lies my friend’s confusion. He doesn’t understand this country. Nor do I.

Does this oath even matter?

Donald J. Trump took his presidential oath of office in January while doing something that wasn’t lost on me or millions of others: He did not put his hand on a Bible.

Thus, when he vowed to “defend and protect” the Constitution and the government under which the founders created, that must have given him some way out of sticking to the sacred oath presidents normally take.

That must be the only possible rationale he is applying as he and Elon Musk lay waste to the government he vowed to defend and protect.

The Trump vow to be his supporters’ “retribution” is playing out as he and Musk fire thousands of public servants, seeking to slash billions of dollars from the budget.

Trump now, I suppose, can look at himself in the mirror and say with an overfed straight face that he can do all this without violating any sacred oath. Good grief! The guy is without conscience, without any moral compass, without any sense of empathy or decency.

Why else would he bring Earth’s richest human being on board to do his dirty work? Musk has none of those aforementioned qualities, so he can issue orders from his DOGE platform. Indeed, Musk doesn’t even have to answer to voters, as he didn’t run for office. He’s a hired gun whose task is to be Trump’s hit man.

I wasn’t alert enough to expect this kind of blowback at the second Trump inaugural when I noticed that Trump didn’t put his hand on a Bible. The gesture likely meant nothing at all to a man with zero compassion for the lives he is grinding into the dirt.

Trump is POTUS? Hardly!

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.