He held a millionaire-themed party while the clock ran out on food and health care benefits for millions of Americans.
Trump threw a party tonight at Mar-a-Lago. The theme was the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's cynical look at wealth, hedonism, and class privilege during the economic boom of the early 1920s. According to attendees, the event also had another theme: "A Little Party Never Hurt Anybody."
That may be true, but at the same time, Trump's administration reached a number of other milestones today that will mean Americans who can't afford Mar-a-Lago's million-dollar dues won't have much to celebrate. It is now one full month since funding for the government lapsed over Trump's refusal to fund the Affordable Care Act. This means that as of November 1st, Americans who depend on that program for their insurance—the vast majority of whom are in states that voted for Trump—will see premiums skyrocket, often by tens of thousands of dollars a year.
The shutdown is forcing hundreds of thousands of government workers to go without pay, even if they haven't been laid off. Most of them have now missed two consecutive pay periods, which has depressed local economies and stressed food banks.
One thing Trump has found time and money for, though, is his ongoing decorating project at the White House. Today he posted twenty-five pictures of a single bathroom he'd ordered redone in "black and white statuary marble."
The bathroom in question is off the Lincoln Bedroom, which means that the 41 million Americans who rely on SNAP will never get to see it in person. That part of the residence isn't normally part of White House tours, which are on hold anyway as the government has shut down and the East Wing—the only part of the People's House that was ever really open to the public—has been destroyed.
Why does this matter?
Americans who didn't inherit hundreds of millions of dollars don't deserve this kind of contempt from a president who did.
There are much, much more important things for Donald Trump to be worrying about now than picking new toilets for a redecorating project.
It's okay if Trump hasn't read The Great Gatsby, but that doesn't make choosing it as his party's theme any less stupid.
Thursday, October 30, 2025
What did Donald Trump do today?
He forgot he's not a king.
A day after South Korea abandoned all subtlety and gifted him a golden crown, to good diplomatic effect, Trump posted this to his private microblogging website at 3:46 A.M. this morning:
Worked really hard, 24/7, took in Trillions of Dollars, and Chuck
Schumer said trip was “a total dud,” even though he knows it was a
spectacular success. Words like that are almost treasonous!!!
It is not treason, or close to treason, to criticize Donald Trump.
The Constitution of the United States defines treason explicitly, saying that it "shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."
But what Trump really means is that Sen. Schumer is guilty of a crime known as lèse-majesté: an insult to the dignity of the sovereign. If the term is unfamiliar, it's because it hasn't been used much in the last 300 years, and was never a crime in the United States.
As for the factual basis of Sen. Schumer's claims, it's probably fair for Trump to feel that he's "worked really hard" by his standards: he spent a rare weekend away from the seclusion of a private golf resort. Overseas travel is clearly hard on Trump: even a healthy person can feel rundown by jet lag, and Trump suffered even more disorientation than usual as a result.
He said South Korea could use American nuclear submarine technology after South Korea gave him a literal gold crown.
At a highly choreographed meeting at the Gyeongju National Museum in Seoul, South Korean officials presented a delighted Trump with a literal golden crown. Trump stared, rapt, at the enormous crown, which a South Korean official said "symbolizes the divine connection between the authority of the heavens
and the sovereignty on Earth, as well as the strong leadership and
authority of a leader." Trump was also given various other golden accoutrements.
The subtext of the flattery was pretty obvious: Trump has reacted to massive nationwide "No Kings" protests by tweeting AI images of him wearing crowns.
Trump, for his part, promised the South Korean government they could build three nuclear submarines using extremely sensitive American technology. He touted this on social as a revitalizing of the Philadelphia shipbuilding industry, but that is already thriving where commercial ships are concerned—and a South Korean company already owns Philadelphia's shipyards.
The "deal" Trump announced today follows a now-familiar pattern: He pretended pre-existing foreign ownership of American businesses were new investments, and made promises (like the nuclear technology) that future administrations will be bound by in exchange for meaningless "commitments" for more of the same. A promise by South Korea to pay what amounts to a $350 billion bribe in exchange for being exempted from tariffs, for example, falls apart on the details. It's quite likely that Trump's entire tariff regime will be radically scaled back by the courts within weeks, or at the very least immediately dropped by future administrations. In the meantime, the requirement that South Korea invest in American businesses or buy American oil and gas—again, things they already do as the normal course of trade—is completely unenforceable year-to-year.
In other words, whether he understands it or not, Trump traded access to some of the most closely-guarded military technology in the American arsenal for the chance to make some triumphant tweets—and a crown.
Why does this matter?
Any other president flattered in such an obvious and manipulative fashion would know enough to be insulted.
American diplomacy should be about what's best for the country, not what will make Trump look like he accomplished something.
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
What did Donald Trump do today?
He fired the people who'd have the next say on the ballroom he demolished the East Wing for.
Today, Trump fired the entire membership of the Commission on Fine Arts, an advisory body made up of architects, civil engineers, and urban planners. Its role is to advise the federal government on the design and construction of buildings and monuments. It would have already met to discuss Trump's destruction of the East Wing of the White House and the ballroom that will supposedly be replacing it, but the federal government shutdown canceled its planned October 1 meeting. Now, it seems likely it will not meet at all.
On one level, this is hardly unusual: Trump has purged dozens of advisory boards since returning to office, on subjects ranging from national defense and homeland security to the arts and humanities. But his unlawful destruction of the East Wing—home of the last remaining traces of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy's imprint on the White House, after Trump bulldozed the Rose Garden this summer—has been deeply unpopular, and he may be trying to avoid further scrutiny by people who actually know something about design and building.
The Commission on Fine Arts would also have had a say in Trump's plans to hastily build a "triumphal arch" somewhere in Washington in time for the 250th anniversary celebrations next year. Next to the ballroom, which his own press secretary has called his "main priority," building such an arch appears to be Trump's favorite new diversion. He's taken to carrying models of proposed designs around with him and showing them off to reporters.
There's a certain comic irony here: Trump is finally, and for the first time in his life, finding some success in the building trades—and all it took was an infinite pool of other people's money and the ability to completely ignore the law and zoning regulations. But as many people have noticed, there's a sinister subtext to go along with the comic one: wannabe authoritarians rarely renovate the presidential mansion with the next occupant in mind. Trump has spent most of the last thirty years (including a great deal of his time in office) living at Mar-a-Lago, a property with ballrooms very much like the ones he says he plans to build on the ruins of the East Wing.
It's something that's clearly been on Trump's mind too: yesterday, in the same conversation where he once again marveled at his ability to pass a "very hard" dementia screening test, he teased the idea of staying in office after his current term ends. (Of course, he already sells "TRUMP 2028" campaign merchandise, so "tease" might be the wrong word.)
Why does this matter?
Presidents with good ideas for White House additions wouldn't be—and historically haven't been—afraid to run them past people who know what they're doing.
Monday, October 27, 2025
What did Donald Trump do today?
He accidentally revealed more about his "routine physical" than he probably meant to.
Last month, Trump visited Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. At the time, his staff insisted that the visit was "routine," even though it was the second such screening in a year, and Trump had been suffering from a variety of visible symptoms and prolonged absences from the public eye.
Speaking with reporters today aboard Air Force One, Trump confirmed that he had undergone an MRI, adding, "I gave you the full results." This is a lie: the results of the MRI—or even its existence—had not been disclosed before. Pressed for details, he called it "perfect" and insisted that his physicians told him it was "some of the best reports they've ever seen."
MRIs, or magnetic resonance imaging scans, are never, ever given as a matter of routine to healthy patients—no matter how elderly or politically important. They are only given to help diagnose specific ailments, or to rule out or confirm a diagnosis. While armchair diagnosis is hardly a science, it's been difficult for medical professionals to miss the potential symptoms of heart disease or transient ischemic attacks (better known as "mini-strokes") that Trump has displayed in recent years. MRIs can help diagnose both.
Trump, and this is a direct quote, characterized it as "very hard."
Why does this matter?
Presidents don't have to be in perfect health, but they do have to be willing to tell the truth about their health.
Presidents who are cognitively impaired, even just some of the time, are not fit for office and should resign or be removed.
Sunday, October 26, 2025
What did Donald Trump do today?
He got very upset about a lot of things that were his fault.
Trump spent a rare Saturday away from the clubhouse of one of his resorts today, traveling to Malaysia. Ostensibly, the occasion was the biannual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. But in practice, Trump was preoccupied for much of the day with old grievances about self-inflicted wounds.
This year's ASEAN summit provided an opportunity for other nations to take stock of the chaos caused by Trump's unilateral trade war against the rest of the world—and to profit from it. Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, in particular, was poised and eager to move his country into the vacuum created by Trump's trade barriers, particularly where China was concerned. Carney capitalized on the chaos caused by Trump's seemingly random and tantrum-driven tariffs by reminding Asian leaders of Canada's stability and respect for international law.
Trump, for his part, announced a couple more "frameworks" for future agreements, although these would only keep the prices of imported goods at their current elevated level—vastly higher than markets in other countries—and then only for as long as he keeps his word. Since Trump seems to let his famously unpredictable mood govern how high he sets trade barriers, that may not be long: he recently added 10% to the taxes American consumers pay on Canadian goods just because a television ad made him upset.
Trump's mood was generally not good today, either. He spoke today at what was supposed to be a chance to take credit for a "peace deal" between Cambodia and Indonesia. (No such deal exists; the simmering border dispute between the two countries continues.) But he broke into his prepared remarks to complain that the United Nations hadn't already resolved the dispute, which led him quickly to a conspiratorial rant about the broken escalator and teleprompter at his most recent appearance before the General Assembly. (As was widely and conclusively reported on at the time, Trump staffers were responsible for both of those minor glitches.)
Trump also fell back on what has become an emotional soothing ritual: demanding on social media that he really did win the 2020 election, and that his political enemies be prosecuted over the fact of his loss.
What’s worse, the NBA Players cheating at cards, and probably much else,
or the Democrats cheating on Elections. The 2020 Presidential Election,
being Rigged and Stolen, is a far bigger SCANDAL. Look what happened to
our Country when a Crooked Moron became our “President!” We now know
everything. I hope the DOJ pursues this with as much “gusto” as
befitting the biggest SCANDAL in American history! If not, it will
happen again, including the upcoming Midterms. No mail-in or “Early”
Voting, Yes to Voter ID! Watch how totally dishonest the California Prop
Vote is! Millions of Ballots being “shipped.” GET SMART REPUBLICANS,
BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!!
Trump has installed his own defense lawyers as the senior leadership of the Department of Justice, and they've shown a willingness to bring criminal charges simply because Trump demands it. (Career prosecutors who have refused to bring baseless charges have been summarily fired.) But it will be an uphill battle in this case: it is not, under the law and Constitution, illegal for Donald Trump to lose an election or for the rest of the federal and state governments to notice that he lost an election.
Why does this matter?
Nobody who thought his side would win a fair election would be trying to discredit elections.
In a democracy, being a political enemy of the leader is not a crime.
Travel can be difficult, but even with that excuse, Presidents who can't control their emotions aren't fit to serve.
Saturday, October 25, 2025
What did Donald Trump do today?
He raised the taxes Americans pay on Canadian goods because a commercial hurt his feelings.
On April 25, 1987, President Ronald Reagan recorded his weekly radio address. He discussed a small duty he'd placed on one category of Japanese goods, a step the Republican president said he was "loath to take." He then explained why imposing barriers to free trade was generally a bad idea, even if it seemed "patriotic" to protect American manufacturers: it actually weakens businesses by making them less innovative and more dependent on government aid, and it invites retaliation. President Reagan closed by speaking out against proposed legislation in Congress that would impose more tariffs than he wanted to, which he believed would hurt his ability to conduct delicate trade negotiations.
Last week, the government of Ontario, Canada's most populous province, bought ad time on American television networks that played the audio from that address. Trump immediately declared himself outraged and called off trade negotiations with Canada, the United States' largest trading partner.
Today, in a post to his private microblogging website, Trump announced he was adding a 10% tax on top of all other tariffs he'd previously imposed on Canadian goods. Much of the lengthy rant dealt with Trump's anger that the ad had run during the World Series game last night, in which the Toronto Blue Jays (from a country Trump has threatened to annex) beat the Los Angeles Dodgers (from a city Trump actually has sent military forces into) by a score of 11-4.
The substance of Trump's complaint is that the ad is a "FRAUD," and that it was only meant to influence the Supreme Court's upcoming deliberations over the legality of Trump's entire trade war.
In a strange way, Trump is half right: since the law he is citing as authority to impose these taxes on American consumers requires that it be in response to an economic emergency, it does affect the legality of his actions if he does so for reasons that have nothing to do with that. For example, imposing a 10% tax because Canada hurt his feelings by having a Republican icon call his actions stupid and short-sighted. (Or, as a Canadian manufacturer put it, "A TV commercial is about to cost American consumers about fifty billion dollars because [Trump's] mad.")
Trump is wrong about the "FRAUD" part, though. As the recordings make clear, no part of last week's ad distorts or alters anything Reagan said, but simply edits the message down to fit under a minute.
The text of the original address is given below, with the portions quoted by the Canadian version in bold.
My fellow Americans:
Prime Minister Nakasone of Japan will be visiting me here at the
White House next week. It's an important visit, because while I expect
to take up our relations with our good friend Japan, which overall
remain excellent, recent disagreements between our two countries on the
issue of trade will also be high on our agenda.
As perhaps you've heard, last week I placed new duties on some
Japanese products in response to Japan's inability to enforce their
trade agreement with us on electronic devices called semiconductors.
Now, imposing such tariffs or trade barriers and restrictions of any
kind are steps that I am loath to take. And in a moment I'll mention the
sound economic reasons for this: that over the long run such trade
barriers hurt every American worker and consumer. But the Japanese
semiconductors were a special case. We had clear evidence that Japanese
companies were engaging in unfair trade practices that violated an
agreement between Japan and the United States. We expect our trading
partners to live up to their agreements. As I've often said: Our
commitment to free trade is also a commitment to fair trade.
But you know, in imposing these tariffs we were just trying to deal
with a particular problem, not begin a trade war. So, next week I'll be
giving Prime Minister Nakasone this same message: We want to continue to
work cooperatively on trade problems and want very much to lift these
trade restrictions as soon as evidence permits. We want to do this,
because we feel both Japan and the United States have an obligation to
promote the prosperity and economic development that only free trade can
bring.
Now, that message of free trade is one I conveyed to Canada's leaders
a few weeks ago, and it was warmly received there. Indeed, throughout
the world there's a growing realization that the way to prosperity for
all nations is rejecting protectionist legislation and promoting fair
and free competition. Now, there are sound historical reasons for this.
For those of us who lived through the Great Depression, the memory of
the suffering it caused is deep and searing. And today many economic
analysts and historians argue that high tariff legislation passed back
in that period called the Smoot-Hawley tariff greatly deepened the
depression and prevented economic recovery.
You see, at first, when someone says, "Let's impose tariffs on
foreign imports," it looks like they're doing the patriotic thing by
protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes for a short while
it works -- but only for a short time. What eventually occurs is: First,
homegrown industries start relying on government protection in the form
of high tariffs. They stop competing and stop making the innovative
management and technological changes they need to succeed in world
markets. And then, while all this is going on, something even worse
occurs. High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries
and the triggering of fierce trade wars. The result is more and more
tariffs, higher and higher trade barriers, and less and less
competition. So, soon, because of the prices made artificially high by
tariffs that subsidize inefficiency and poor management, people stop
buying. Then the worst happens: Markets shrink and collapse; businesses
and industries shut down; and millions of people lose their jobs.
The memory of all this occurring back in the thirties made me
determined when I came to Washington to spare the American people the
protectionist legislation that destroys prosperity. Now, it hasn't
always been easy. There are those in this Congress, just as there were
back in the thirties, who want to go for the quick political advantage,
who will risk America's prosperity for the sake of a short-term appeal
to some special interest group, who forget that more than 5 million
American jobs are directly tied to the foreign export business and
additional millions are tied to imports. Well, I've never forgotten
those jobs. And on trade issues, by and large, we've done well. In
certain select cases, like the Japanese semiconductors, we've taken
steps to stop unfair practices against American products, but we've
still maintained our basic, long-term commitment to free trade and
economic growth.
So, with my meeting with Prime Minister Nakasone and the Venice
economic summit coming up, it's terribly important not to restrict a
President's options in such trade dealings with foreign governments.
Unfortunately, some in the Congress are trying to do exactly that. I'll
keep you informed on this dangerous legislation, because it's just
another form of protectionism and I may need your help to stop it.
Remember, America's jobs and growth are at stake.
Until next week, thanks for listening, and God bless you.
Why does this matter?
American trade policy should be built on what's best for Americans, not presidential tantrums.
It shouldn't be this easy for a foreign government—even a close ally and trading partner—to manipulate an American president.
Former president Ronald Reagan calling you an idiot from beyond the grave might be humiliating, but it's not a national emergency.
Friday, October 24, 2025
What did Donald Trump do today?
He said an anonymous "friend" was donating money for the military salaries he refuses to allow Congress to fund.
Today was the 24th day of the latest Trump shutdown, already the second-longest shutdown in American history. (The longest was Trump's, too.) Most government workers missed their first full paycheck today, including those that are required to continue working during the shutdown.
Legally, Trump doesn't get to pick and choose which government services are shut down, or which workers get paid. The Constitution specifically requires that no money can be spent that hasn't been appropriated by Congress. But Trump has demanded that money, including salaries, continue to flow to certain programs and employees in spite of the law. This appears to be a strategy of political survival for Trump, whose approval ratings are at their lowest point in his presidency, with another massive crisis about to hit Americans' pocketbooks in just a few days.
The reason the government shuts down when appropriations bills expire is not because it doesn't have money—it does. Taxes are still being collected and bonds being sold. Rather, it's because presidents do not get to decide for themselves what the budget is. That's not just a core principle of democracy—the idea that kings shouldn't have direct and unchallenged personal control over the treasury is something that wars have been fought over in out-and-out monarchies.
That brings us to today, when Trump insisted that a story he told yesterday, about an anonymous "friend" donating $130 million to cover the
salaries of military personnel, was actually true. Again, the issue is not that the federal government can't afford to pay its workers—it's that Trump has failed to get appropriations bills passed through a Congress his party controls.
There is, to say the least, a lot of skepticism that Trump's "friend" or any such donation really exists, although the Department of Defense and the White House claimed that such a gift had been accepted—and then refused further comment.
Among the questions neither Trump nor his administration would answer today:
whether the "friend" actually existed
what the name of the "friend" is
whether the "friend" is an American citizen
whether the "friend" was donating their own money, or acting on behalf of a third party
whether the payment was in the form of actual money, or the supposed dollar value of the crypto tokens Trump makes a profit from in fees every time they are traded
whether it was an actual irrevocable gift to the Treasury, or some kind of loan or advance tax
what the "friend" expected in return
whether the "friend" has a business relationship with Trump
how paying salaries Congress hasn't appropriated money for doesn't violate the Antideficiency Act, which explicitly forbids having private individuals pay for lapsed appropriations
why Trump is pressuring the Republican-controlled House to stay out of session, which keeps it from passing bills to fund the government legally
whether Trump's "friend" actually believed the government needed money, as opposed to an appropriations bill
If it were legal for private individuals to sponsor military paychecks, $130 million would cover about eight hours' worth.
The American people don't need "gifts" from Trump's "friends" to fund their government, but they do need a president willing to govern under the law.
Trump is not a king, his billionaire "friends" are not the nobility, and even if they were this would still be an insane way to run a country.
Thursday, October 23, 2025
What did Donald Trump do today?
He pardoned a money launderer for Hamas whose crypto firm has made him billions of dollars.
Today, Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to using his position at Binance to launder money on behalf of Hamas, among other criminal or terrorist organizations. The company itself pleaded guilty to a wide range of crimes including money laundering and helping criminal clients evade international sanctions.
Binance is currently being sued by the victims of the Oct. 7th, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel. The suit charges that Binance enabled the attack by providing Hamas with secure and secret funding channels it used to acquire weapons.
But Binance also has made Trump's ventures into the scam-ridden crypto industry enormously profitable. It agreed to accept $2 billion in financing from an investment fund for the United Arab Emirates, but in crypto "stablecoins" controlled by a Trump family business rather than actual money. The result is that Trump personally made millions of dollars in transaction fees.
In other words, Binance sold part of itself at below market value in order to indirectly funnel money into Trump's pockets while it was actively lobbying for a pardon for Zhao.
Zhao had been forbidden as part of his sentence from working in finance. This is a common punishment in white collar fraud cases, to prevent criminals with expert knowledge of the financial system from simply learning how to avoid getting caught the next time. Trump's pardon also undoes that protection, and similar restrictions on Binance itself.
Trump administration officials today blamed the Biden administration for overprosecuting Binance and Zhao—again, for knowing enabling Hamas to evade sanctions and fund the attack that started the ongoing war in Gaza. Asked about it by CNN's Kaitlyn Collins, Trump became angry and insisted that "what he did is not even a crime, wasn’t even a crime."
Why does this matter?
It is wrong to sell pardons.
Wednesday, October 22, 2025
What did Donald Trump do today?
He told struggling ranchers that they "don't understand" that they're actually making too much money.
Thanks to Trump's imposition of massive taxes on imported consumer goods, and in particular on Brazil, the price of beef in the United States has skyrocketed. Normally, the silver lining would be that U.S. beef producers would benefit from the higher prices. But because Trump has declared a trade war on essentially the entire world, they're struggling too. Fuel, machinery, feed, fertilizer, and other essentials for the ranching business have all gotten more expensive too, erasing profits and causing business failures.
Then, when Trump announced he'd lower domestic beef prices by striking a sweetheart deal with Argentina. The president of Argentina is Javier Milei, who has shown a lucrative talent for manipulating Trump, most recently into a $20 billion currency bailout—and, as Trump announced recently, a deal to import cheap (and possibly diseased) Argentinian beef.
In other words, Trump made things worse for the beef industry by imposing one set of tariffs, and is now threatening to make things much worse by relaxing the only ones that worked in their favor. Ranchers, to say nothing of politicians from rural areas that depend on ranches, were understandably outraged and have been furiously attacking Trump's "betrayal" of the American beef industry ever since.
Trump may have meant to smooth things over today in a post to his private microblogging site, but what he actually said was this:
The Cattle Ranchers, who I love, don't understand that the only reason they are doing so well, for the first time in decades, is because I put Tariffs on cattle coming into the United States, including a 50% Tariff on Brazil. If it weren't for me, they would be doing just as they've done for the past 20 years - Terrible! It would be nice if they would understand that, but they also have to get their prices down, because the consumer is a very big factor in my thinking, also!
In other words, Trump is saying that he thinks that the market price of beef is whatever beef producers want it to be, instead of something determined by supply and demand. It's not clear why Trump thinks that his "beloved" cattle ranchers should have to absorb the costs of his other trade taxes.
Trump, 79, once received a degree from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.
Why does this matter?
The problem is that Donald Trump doesn't understand why his import taxes are killing businesses, not that the businesses being killed by them don't understand.
Donald Trump's personal friendship with one foreign leader is not more important than the entire American beef industry or the consumers who rely on it.
Tuesday, October 21, 2025
What did Donald Trump do today?
He floated the idea of just taking $230M directly from the Treasury for himself.
The New York Timesreported today that Trump was considering demanding a $230 million "settlement" from the Department of Justice to compensate him for its investigations into his theft of classified materials and his illegal attempts to cling to power after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
Trump is the head of the executive branch, and all of the top officials at DOJ—the people who would, in theory, have to approve it—are his former defense lawyers. So in other words, Trump is floating the idea of simply giving himself $230 million out of the Treasury because he personally believes he's entitled to it. One legal expert cited in the NYT story called it a "travesty" and that "the ethical conflict is just so basic and fundamental, you don’t need a law professor to explain it.”
REPORTER: —the Justice Department, are you asking them to pay you compensation for the federal investigation that happened to you, and how much are you asking for?
TRUMP: Oh, for the — I guess— they probably owe me a lot of money for that. Yeah, that's true, that's very interesting. …As far as the all of the litigation, everything that's been about, yeah, they probably owe me a lot of money. …And you know that decision would have to go across my desk, and it’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself. In other words, did you ever have one of those cases where you have to decide how much you’re paying yourself in damages? But I was damaged very greatly.
The DOJ does, on rare occasions, enter into these kinds of settlements—but only when actual wrongdoing has been committed against a genuinely innocent target. But in reality, Trump is still liable for prosecution for the extremely serious federal charges pending against him when he returned to office. The indictments were dismissed for technical reasons when special counsel Jack Smith resigned on the eve of Trump's return to office, but the vast amounts of evidence, ranging from the boxes of classified documents Trump hid in a Mar-a-Lago toilet to Trump's out-in-the-open attempts to thwart the certification of President-Elect Joe Biden, culminating in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
He started literally tearing down the White House, after promising he wouldn't.
Trump has spent a great deal of time during his second term playing interior decorator and amateur remodeler with the White House. He's drenched the Oval Office in gold paint and cheap plastic accessories, something he's clearly proud of, to judge from his lengthy and unprompted explanations of it to reporters. He's also paved over the once-iconic Rose Garden, turning into something more like a concrete pool deck at one of his resorts.
Today, he began construction on his latest project: a massive outbuilding meant to house a ballroom, something Trump apparently feels the seat of American executive power needs. To be specific, he started by tearing the facade off the East Wing of the White House itself, something he'd promised he wouldn't do. When the initial plans were widely derided as ugly and unnecessary in
July, Trump promised that he would pay "total respect" to the actual
White House, and a spokesperson promised that "nothing will be torn down."
Bizarrely, the Trump White House apparently tried to keep the images of the physical destruction of the People's House a secret, even though it was clearly visible to anyone visiting the massive Treasury Building next door.
Being president does not actually give Trump the legal authority to knock down walls in the White House, but then neither does it give him the authority to build a massive function hall next door to it without going through the legally established process. There's also a public corruption angle: rather than have the construction costs (conservatively estimated at $250M) come from the public treasury, Trump has been "requesting" contributions from a lengthy list of companies his administration regulates. Much like the massive slush fund he's created for his inaugurations, the ballroom complex has become a way for corporations to buy Trump's goodwill, and physical access to him along the way.
This isn't Trump's first attempt at the building trades. While he's best known for his work as a reality TV game show host, Trump actually spent most of his adult life as the occasionally disastrous steward of the real estate empire he inherited from his father.
Why does this matter?
It's always wrong when a president deliberately ignores the law because he doesn't feel like following it.
It's always wrong when a president lies or breaks a promise, even long past the point where anyone would believe him in the first place.
Someone who wants to be a decorator this badly should probably just be a decorator.
Sunday, October 19, 2025
What did Donald Trump do today?
He confirmed that Putin had either scared or bamboozled him back onto Russia's side in its war against Ukraine.
Several outlets are reporting new details today about Trump's Friday meeting with Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Sources within the Trump administration now say that it became a shouting match, with Trump yelling that Putin would "destroy" Ukraine. Trump reportedly flew into a rage at seeing maps of occupied Ukrainian territory, sweeping them off the table and complaining that he couldn't understand them because he'd never been to the places they showed.
The takeaway message from Friday's meeting, the sources said, was clear: Ukraine should simply let Russia take at the negotiating table even more territory than it has been able to win on the battlefield—specifically, the heavily fortified region that is all that prevents the Putin regime from launching another invasion against Kyiv and the rest of Ukraine. Trump cited Russian talking points in what appears to have been a last-ditch effort to get Zelenskyy to simply give up.
In an interview that aired this morning, Trump confirmed the reporting, saying that Putin was "gonna take something. I mean, they fought and, he, uh, he has
a lot of property. I mean, you know, he's won certain property," before making a derogatory comment about the United States' lack of interest in wars of conquest.
On one level, this does look like the latest in a series of flip-flops as Trump tries desperately to claim a "peace" deal that neither side is interested in. But while Trump's rhetoric has changed almost weekly, the bizarre underlying situation has remained largely unchanged: the United States' posture is that Ukraine is an ally that must be defended, and Donald Trump's position is the opposite.
It's quite likely that Putin himself is the author of Trump's sudden belief in the hopelessness of Ukraine's position. They spoke last Thursday, just before the meeting with Zelenskyy.
In reality, Ukraine's battlefield situation is not nearly so grim as Trump now appears to think it is, and would be much less so if Trump approved adequate military aid including Tomahawk missiles. Trump insisted today that the United States needed every last one of its supply, which is greater than 1,000, even though Ukraine is asking for at most 50, and there is literally no other theater of war in which the US might need to deploy offensive long-range missiles.
Why does this matter?
No one this easily manipulated by a hostile foreign nation is fit to be president.
Neither is the person who throws a tantrum over maps he can't make himself understand.
If Trump isn't acting on Russia's behalf, then the only other explanation is that Putin can scare him so easily with a single phone call that he just gives up.
Saturday, October 18, 2025
What did Donald Trump do today?
He hid at Mar-a-Lago and pretended seven million Americans taking to the streets against him didn't bother him.
Trump posted a picture of himself smiling and wearing a crown to his private blog today. There was no text accompanying it, but it may have been a subtle commentary on a protest held in his hometown of New York City:
However, there are other interpretations. It could also have been a reaction to similar protests held in Bellingham, WA
No Kings rally in Greensboro today! North Carolinians are standing up and speaking out for our democracy!
Join our fight to protect everyone's freedom to vote and speak out against the legislature's harmful gerrymandering scheme: CCNC.me/cd1
#NoKings #Greensboro #NorthCarolina #democracy
My favorite signs from No Kings protest in Indianapolis today! My third one this year. Each one is bigger than the last. This gives me hope for the future. This is the long game for sure but we will win! #Nokings #Indy
No Kings in Louisville, Kentucky: I reported extensively on the 2020 Breonna Taylor protests and I don't think I've every seen as many people protesting in downtown Louisville as I did today.
or some 2,500 other protests against Trump held today under the collective banner of "No Kings." Organizers estimated the total attendance at these rallies at about 7,000,000. That number was confirmed as within the plausible range by an independent statistician, making it by far one of the largest public protests in American history.
Why does this matter?
Because the United States is a democracy, Americans are still free to express just as much contempt for Trump as he has for them.
No matter how much it upsets him—no matter how desperately he needs people to believe it—no matter how special he thinks he is—Donald Trump is not a king.
