The Wit and Wisdom of Donald John Trump

Donald Trump is no Winston Churchill. He does not, as Oliver Wendell Holmes urged, ” carve every word before you let it fall”. More often than not, when Trump speaks, as Rod Serling said, “You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost up ahead – your next stop, the Twilight Zone!”


A collection of Trump’s curious remarks:

o Dec. 15, 2025: A Truth Social post by Trump on the Dec. 14 murder of actor and director Rob Reiner and his wife – “Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS. He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. “

o. Dec. 1, 2025: A female reporter to Trump – Can you tell us what they were looking at with the MRI test? What part of the body? Trump: I have no idea. It was just an MRI. It wasn’t the brain because I took a cognitive test and aced it. I got a perfect mark, which you would be incapable of doing.”

Nov. 28, 2025: “Q: Do you plan to attend Sarah’s funeral?  (National Guard soldier killed in DC) TRUMP: I haven’t thought about it yet, but it’s certainly something I can conceive of. I love West Virginia. You know, I won West Virginia by one of the biggest margins of any president anywhere.”

o Nov. 17, 2025: Trump speaking at McDonald’s Impact Summit: “As an example, if you take me at 20 for one year, sleepy Joe Biden, you know what he was? Less than one for four years. And if they got elected, they would’ve been at minus 10 because people were moving out of the country in record numbers and welfare and other charges were increasing at levels that nobody has ever seen before. So, you would’ve had double and maybe 50%, maybe literally more than they’ve ever seen.”

“Why is the Gulf of Mexico called the Gulf of Mexico?” I said, “We’re changing the name.” And now it’s the Gulf of America. It has nothing to do with McDonald’s, but maybe it does because it’s very nice… We have 92% of the shoreline, they have 8%. I wouldn’t say I made a lot of friends in Mexico, but they still like me. Wasn’t that a good change? No, seriously, wasn’t that beautiful? “(Fact: The United States controls approximately 45% of the Gulf of Mexico; Mexico claims about 48%; Cuba claims 5%)

“And we got rid of the drip-drip water. We call it the drip-drip where drip-drips out of the sink. States with tremendous water, so much water, they have nothing but problems getting rid. They had restrictions on water. It comes down from heaven, right? They had restrictions on water. So you want to wash your hands or like me, I want to wash my hair. I lather up. Then I turn that and there’s no water. The water’s drip, they call it. “

o Nov. 13, 2025: “Christians and more, think of this, more than twice as likely foster care they’ll adopt the general population. They adopt to it so easily. When they get out, they adopt to it like it’s become second nature. It’s amazing.”

o Nov. 12, 2025: An interview with Fox host Laura Ingraham discussing Trump’s proposal to initiate 50 year mortgages: Q – Is a 50 year mortgage really a good idea? Trump: It’s not even a big deal. You go from 40 years to 50. Ingraham: It’s 30 years. Trump: It’s not even a big deal! You go from 40 to 50 years. And what it means is you pay something less. From 30, some people had a 40, and now they have a 50. You pay it over a long period of time. It’s not like a big factor!”

o Oct. 28, 2025: (1) Trump in a speech to US service members on the USS George Washington, an aircraft carrier stationed in Japan: “I’d like to be an Admiral. I always wanted to be an admiral, to be honest.” (2) “You know, we won the second election (2020) by a lot, so we had to just prove it by winning the third — by too big to rig, I called it. It was too big to rig.”  (3) “I ended eight wars in eight months,” including “Kosovo and Serbia, Egypt and Ethiopia.” The facts: The war between Kosovo and Serbia didn’t occur during his presidency, and there was no war between Egypt and Ethiopia for Trump to end. (4) “we have 92% of the shoreline” of the Gulf of Mexico. Fact: There is a  roughly even divide in Gulf coastline between Mexico and the US .

o October 27, 2025: Asked by a reporter about an CE raid on a Hyundai battery factory: Q – “Did I hear you right that you said you were opposed to the way that raid in Georgia was handled? Trump: I was opposed to getting them out and before they got out they were pretty well set but before they got out, I said they could stay. They’re going to be coming back.”

o October 19, 2025: “Trees fall down after a short period of time, about 18 months. They become really dry. They become really like a matchstick and they get up. You know, there’s no water pouring through and they become very, very, uh . They just explode. ” So much for the redwoods, I guess.

o Sept. 30, 2025: Sorry, this is a long one. Remarks by President Trump to 800 of the nation’s top military generals and admirals, along with their top enlisted advisors, flown from around the world to Marine Corps Base Quantico – “We were not respected with Biden. They looked at him falling downstairs every day. Every day, the guy is falling downstairs. He said, It’s not our President. We can’t have it. I’m very careful. You know, when I walk downstairs for, like, a month, stairs, like these stairs, I’m very—I walk very slowly. Nobody has to set a record. Just try not to fall, because it doesn’t work out well. A few of our presidents have fallen and it became a part of their legacy. We don’t want that. You walk nice and easy. You’re not having—you don’t have to set any record. Be cool. Be cool when you walk down, but don’t—don’t pop down the stairs. So one thing with Obama, I had zero respect for him as a President, but he would bop down those stairs. I’ve never seen it. Da-da, da-da, da-da, bop, bop, bop. He’d go down the stairs. Wouldn’t hold on. I said, It’s great. I don’t want to do it. I guess I could do it. But eventually, bad things are going to happen, and it only takes once. But he did a lousy job as president. A year ago, we were a dead country. We were dead. This country was going to hell.”

o Sept. 22, 2025: “Bobby wants to be very careful with what he says. I’m not so careful with what I say. Certain groups, the Amish, as an example – they have essentially no autism.” According to a study cited by the International Society of Autism Research, Preliminary data have identified the presence of ASD in the Amish community at a rate of approximately 1 in 271 children using standard ASD screening and diagnostic tools.

o Sept. 22, 2025: “They’re pumping, it looks like they’re pumping into a horse. You have a little child, a little fragile child, and you get a vat of 80 different vaccines, I guess. 80 different blends. And they pump it in.” In fact, a typical American child receives approximately 25-30 vaccine doses, with the exact number of shots depending on the specific combination vaccines used and whether annual Covid-19 or flu shots  are included. The recommended immunization schedule protects against around 16 serious and potentially deadly diseases from birth to adulthood. 

o “Tariffs are making us rich again. Richer than anybody ever thought was possible.” Economists overwhelmingly conclude that tariffs are not making the United States richer. While tariffs do generate revenue for the government, this is not a net gain for the country because the costs are primarily borne by domestic consumers and businesses through higher prices and reduced economic growth. 

o Sept. 5, 2025: Asked if he would trust new jobs numbers issued that day – “Well, we’re going to have to see what the numbers, I don’t know, they come out tomorrow. But the real numbers that I’m talking about are going to be whatever it is. But, uh, will be in a year from now when these monstrous huge beautiful places they’re palaces of genius and when they start opening up. You’re seeing, I think you’ll see job numbers that are absolutely incredible. Right now it’s a lot of construction numbers, but you’re going to see job numbers like our country has never seen before.”

o August 26, 2025: “Foreign nations are paying hundreds of billions of dollars (in tariffs) straight into our treasury. Numbers nobody has seen before. Many of those countries, just to sit at the table, are paying us hundreds of billions of dollars. Trillions of dollars is coming into our country. Trillions.” Foreign nations don’t pay tariffs directly to the U.S. government. American companies that import goods from foreign countries pay the tariffs to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. and then try to recoup the money by absorbing the cost or raising prices.

Trump on deploying the National Guard to Chicago: “I have the right to do anything I want to do. I’m the president of the United States.” Umm. Not exactly.

“There’s no inflation.” The inflation rate as of August. 25, 2025 was 2.7%, above the Fed’s 2% target.

o August 25, 2025: “”We are going to be doing numbers on the cost of drugs…I’m not talking 20% decrease. I’m talking 1,000%.”

o Aug. 25, 2025: “I gave Wes Moore (Governor of Maryland) a lot of money to fix his demolished bridge. I will now have to rethink that decision??” Trump had nothing to do with the appropriation of funds to rebuild the Baltimore bridge after a ship struck it. The appropriation was passed in 2024 as part of a continuing resolution President Biden signed into law.

o Aug. 20, 2025: “Crimea is massive — I would say, like, the size of Texas or something — in the middle of the ocean. And it’s gorgeous.” Crimea is roughly 1/25th the size of Texas and is a peninsula in the Black Sea that borders the Sea of Azov.

o Aug. 19, 2025: Although some want Netanyahu prosecuted on war crime charges, “he’s a war hero” Trump said. “He’s a war hero because we worked together. He’s a war hero. I guess I am too.” Trump has never been deployed or fought in a war.

o Aug. 19, 2025: “The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.” Posted on Truth Social. Uh, well, maybe slavery wasn’t so bad.

o Aug. 18, 2025: “We are now the only Country in the World that uses Mail-In Voting. All others gave it up because of the MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD ENCOUNTERED.” Data compiled by a Sweden-based organization that advocates for democracy globally, The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, found in an October 2024 report found that 34 countries or territories allow mail-in voting.

o August 10, 2025: Truth Social post – “The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY. We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital.” It’s spelled Capitol, Mr. President.

o August 1, 2025. “I think we’re gonna be very successful fairly soon (in lowering drug prices). We’ll have drug prices coming down by 500%, 600%, 800%, even 1,200%.”

o July 27, 2025: “You have a certain place in the Massachusetts area that over the last 20 years had 1 or 2 whales wash ashore. And over the last short period of time they had 18. Ok? Because it’s driving them loco. No, windmills will not happen in the United States.” According g to NOAA, , there is no scientific evidence that noise resulting from offshore wind site characterization surveys could potentially cause whale deaths. There are no known links between large whale deaths and ongoing offshore wind activities. There are, according to the U.S. Wind Turbine Database (USWTDB), 76,051 wind turbines operating across 45 states, plus Guam and Puerto Rico.

o July 23, 2025: “This is somebody nobody else can do. I can get the drug prices down… 1000% 600% 500% 1500%. Numbers that are not even thought to be achievable.” Huh?

o On July 16, 2025, during a rant against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Trump said, “I’m surprised he was appointed. I was surprised that Biden put him in.” Trump nominated Powell for the position in 2017.

o At a July 14, 2025 Oval Office press conference:

Q – If Putin escalates further, how far are you willing to go in response if Putin were to escalate and send more bombs in coming days? TRUMP: “Don’t ask me a question like that. They’re not Americans that are dying in it. I have a problem – and JD has a problem with it. It’s a stance that he’s had for a long time – they’re not Americans dying. We want to defend our country.”

… Q – Why are you giving Putin 50 more days? TRUMP: “I’ve just really been involved in this for not very long. It wasn’t an initial focus. This is a Biden war. This is a Democrat war.”

o July 10, 2025:

Asked about the Epstein files, Trump posted: Could you all just FOCUS on the very many other more important things to discuss than whether or not I may or MAY NOT be all over the Epstein Files? There was a BIG FLOOD in Texas. Huge flood as it relates to water. Many people DIED. Many beautiful young girls. Perhaps some not so beautiful illegal Mexican peoples as well. Perhaps drug dealers disguised as day laborers. You can never tell. They don’t speak American. That is very suspicious. Again, forget about me and the Epstein Files. Focus on MEXICANS and FLOODING.

Talking about the deadly Texas floods: You know, it’s called rain. It rains a lot in certain places. But, now their idea, you know, did you see the other day? They just, I opened it up and they closed it again. I opened it, they close it, washing machines to wash your dishes.


o REPORTER: How do you want Republican voters in NYC to vote in the upcoming mayoral election?  TRUMP: We have tremendous power at the White House to run places when we have to. We could run DC … we’re thinking about doing it, to be honest with you.

o On July 1, 2025, a reporter from the Fox News Channel asked Trump about Alligator Alcatraz, the new detention facility in the Everglades: “Mr. President, is there an expected time frame that detainees will spend here? Days, weeks, months?”

Trump’s reply: “In Florida? I’m going to spend a lot. Look, this is my home state. I love it, I love your government, I love all the people around. These are all friends of mine. They know very well. I mean, I’m not surprised that they do so well. They’re great people. Ron has been a friend of mine for a long time. I feel very comfortable in the state. I’ll spend a lot of time here. I want to, you know, for four years, I’ve got to be in Washington, and I’m okay with it because I love the White House. I even fixed up the little Oval Office, I make it—it’s like a diamond, it’s beautiful. It’s so beautiful. It wasn’t maintained properly, I will tell you that. But even when it wasn’t, it was still the Oval Office, so it meant a lot. But I’ll spend as much time as I can here. You know, my vacation is generally here, because it’s convenient. I live in Palm Beach. It’s my home. And I have a very nice little place, nice little cottage to stay at, right? But we have a lot of fun, and I’m a big contributor to Florida, you know, pay a lot of tax, and a lot of people moved from New York, and I don’t know what New York is going to do. A lot of people moved to Florida from New York, and it was for a lot of reasons, but one of them was taxes. The taxes are so high in New York, they’re leaving. I don’t know what New York’s going to do about that, because some of the biggest, wealthiest people, and some of the people that pay the most taxes of any people anywhere in the world, for that matter, they’re moving to Florida and other places. So we’re going to have to help some of these states out, I think. But thank you very much. I’ll be here as much as I can. Very nice question.”

o “Gettysburg, what an unbelievable battle that was, The Battle of Gettysburg. What an unbelievable – I mean, it was so much and so interesting, and so vicious and horrible, and so beautiful in so many different ways. It, it represented such a big portion of the success of this country. Gettysburg, wow. I go to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to look and to watch.”

o On why Trump wouldn’t call Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz after the targeted shootings of state lawmakers: “I don’t really call him. He’s slick — he appointed this guy to a position. I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out. I’m not calling him. why would I call him? I could call him and say, ‘Hi, how you doing? The guy doesn’t have a clue. He’s a, he’s a mess. So, you know, I could be nice and call him but why waste time?”

o “[Harris’s] vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. He also says execution after birth – it’s execution, no longer abortion because the baby is born – is okay.”

o Reporter – “Is there ‘a threshold’ of pain in the stock market you are unwilling to tolerate?” “I think your question is so stupid.”

o On why he decided to reopen Alcatraz: “Well, I guess I was supposed to be a moviemaker. We’re talking about, we started with the movie making it will end. I mean, it represents something very strong, very powerful in terms of law and order. Our country needs law and order. Alcatraz is, I would say, the ultimate, right? Alcatraz, Sing Sing and Alcatraz, the movies, but, uh, it’s now a museum, believe it or not. A lot of people go there. It housed the most violent criminals in the world. …It sort of represents something that’s both horrible and beautiful and strong and miserable. It’s got a lot of qualities that are interesting.”

Alcatraz

o On sea level rise with climate change: “It’s going to create more oceanfront property.”

o “Silence of the Lamb! Has anyone ever seen The Silence of the Lambs? The late, great Hannibal Lecter is a wonderful man. He oftentimes would have a friend for dinner. Remember the last scene? Excuse me, I’m about to have a friend for dinner as this poor doctor walked by. I’m about to have a friend for dinner. But Hannibal Lecter. Congratulations. The late, great Hannibal Lecter. We have people that are being released into our country that we don’t want in our country.”

Hannibal Lecter

o On airplanes during the revolutionary war: “Our army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do, and at Fort McHenry, under the rockets’ red glare, it had nothing but victory.”

Image AI-generated on ChatGTP

o “But the transgender thing is incredible, think of it! Your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation, the school decides what’s going to happen with your child. And you know many of these childs (sic) 15 years later say, what the hell happened, who did this to me? They say, who did this to me? It’s incredible.”

o “Whoever heard you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election where you have every right to do it, you get indicted, and your poll numbers go up?” When people get indicted, your poll numbers go down. But it was such, such nonsense.”

o On Senator John McCain: “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

o “The great pandemic certainly was a terrible thing where they lost anywhere from 50 to 100 million people. Probably ended the Second World War, all the soldiers were sick.”

o “I think Viagra is wonderful if you need it, if you have medical issues, if you’ve had surgery. I’ve just never needed it. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind if there were an anti-Viagra, something with the opposite effect. I’m not bragging. I’m just lucky. I don’t need it. I’ve always said, “If you need Viagra, you’re probably with the wrong girl.”

o “My fingers are long and beautiful, as it has been well documented, are various other parts of my body.”

o On consulting with others on foreign policy: “I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things.”

o On him stealing a gossip columnist’s girlfriend: “Any girl you have, I can take from you.”

o On why Napolean failed to invade Russia in the 18th century: “His one problem is he didn’t go to Russia that night because he had extracurricular activities, and they froze to death,”

o Criticizing a nuclear deal the Obama administration negotiated with Iran: “…but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me — it would have been so easy, and it’s not as important as these lives are — nuclear is so powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what’s going to happen and he was right, who would have thought? — but when you look at what’s going on with the four prisoners — now it used to be three, now it’s four — but when it was three and even now, I would have said it’s all in the messenger; fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don’t, they haven’t figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it’s gonna take them about another 150 years — but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us, this is horrible.”

o Responding to a complaint about illegal immigrants taking away opportunities from Americans. “It’s going to start with the Black population. African Americans are losing their jobs. And I don’t know if you heard the latest statistic, that of the jobs that these people created, which is very little, every single job was taken – about 107 percent – was taken by illegal immigrants.”

o Speaking about hurricane Florence: “This is one of the wettest we’ve seen, from the standpoint of water.”

o “Right now, in a number of states, the laws allow a baby to be born from his or her mother’s womb in. the ninth month. It is wrong. It has to change.”

o On the affect of wind turbines: “If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value. And they say the noise causes cancer. You tell me that one, okay?”

o Reporter: “George W. Bush said the reason the Oval Office is round as there are no corners you can hide in.” Trump:
“Well, there’s truth to that. There is truth to that. There are certainly no corners. And you look, there’s a certain openness. But there’s nobody out there. You know, there is an openness, but I’ve never seen anybody out there actually, as you could imagine.”

o On the impact of his tariffs. “You know, somebody said, ‘Oh, the shelves are going to be open. Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know? And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.”

o On the Dodgers winning the 2024 World Series: “When you ran out the healthy arms, you ran out of really healthy— they had great arms but they ran out. It’s called sports. It’s called baseball in particular and pitchers I guess you could say.”

o On Project 25, which has been guiding his 2nd term: “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

o On wind power and bacon: “You take a look at bacon and some of these products. Some people don’t eat bacon anymore. And we are going to get the energy prices down. When we get energy down — you know, this was caused by their horrible energy — wind, they want wind all over the place. But when it doesn’t blow, we have a little problem.”

o On his supporters storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021: “The primary scene in Washington was hundreds of thousands, the largest group of people I’ve ever spoken before, and I’ve spoken – and it was love and peace. And some people went to the Capitol. And a lot of strange things happened there. A lot of strange things with people being waved into the Capitol by police, with people screaming, go in with – that never got into trouble, you know? I don’t want to mention names, but you know who they are. A lot of strange things happened.”

Credit: BBC

o On whether Chinese ownership of TikTok is a security threat: “I think it is a threat. I – I – frankly, I think everything’s a threat. There’s nothing that’s not a threat.They do treat me very badly. Oh, and he told me no way. You’re the No. 1 person on all of Google for stories. I mean – which probably makes sense, to be honest with you. I hate (inaudible). Most of them are bad stories but these are minor details, right? Be – and it’s only bad because of the fake news, cause the news is really fake. We – that’s the one we really have to – straighten it – and we have to straighten out our press because we have a corrupt press.”

o Aug. 10, 2020: “In 1917 … the great pandemic certainly was a terrible thing where they lost anywhere from 50 to 100 million people. Probably ended the Second World War, all the soldiers were sick. That was a terrible situation.” The pandemic, due to the Spanish Flu, occurred in 1918-1919 toward the end of WWI.

o On how he would react if Playboy magazine were to feature a picture of his daughter Ivanka on its cover: “I don’t think Ivanka would do that inside the magazine. Although she does have a very nice figure. I’ve said that if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I would be dating her.”

Credit:New York Magazine

o On attractive girlfriends serving as an antidote to bad press: “You know, it doesn’t really matter what they write as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass.”

o On his sexual prowess: “Oftentimes when I was sleeping with one of the top women in the world I would say to myself, thinking about me as a boy from Queens, ‘Can you believe what I am getting?”


o On politics in the year 2000: . “One of the key problems today is that politics is such a disgrace. Good people don’t go into government. I’d want to change that.”

o A Trump tweet at 12:06 a.m. on May 31, 2017: “Despite the constant negative press covfefe.”

o “I’m automatically attracted to beautiful women — I just start kissing them, it’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ‘em by the pussy.”

o On his superiority to “the haters”: “Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest -and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure, it’s not your fault.”

o Said during a Rose Garden speech on tariffs: “It’s such an old-fashioned term, but a beautiful term: groceries. It says ‘a bag with different things in it.”

o On violent sadists being employed by the federal government: “The other thing we did is, we had civil service, 9,000 people that were crooks and thugs and sadists, a lot of sadists. They enjoyed beating up our wounded warriors in less than primetime. You know, in primetime, they would’ve gotten the hell beat out of them, but our people were in bad shape and they would beat them up. We had sadists. Can you believe this is a country? But it’s the way it is.”

o “They should give me the Nobel prize for Rwanda and have you looked at the Congo? You could say Serbia. You could say a lot of them. The big one is India and Pakistan. I should have gotten it 4-5 times. They won’t give it because they only give it to liberals.”

o On media reporting that the US aerial attacks on Iranian nuclear sites may not have” obliterated ” them as Trump asserted: “They’re really hurting great pilots that put their lives on the line. CNN is scum. And so is MSDNC, their all. I think CNN ought to apologize to the pilots of the B2s. I think MSDNC ought to apologize. I think these guys really; these networks and these cable networks are real losers. You really are. You’re real losers. You’re gutless losers. I say that to CNN, ’cause I watch it. I got no choice. I got to watch that garbage. It’s all garbage. It’s all fake news. But, I think CNN is a gutless group of people.”

o In a 1997 interview with radio personality Howard Stern , Trump claimed he was a “brave soldier” for avoiding STDs during his single years in the late ’90s. “It’s amazing, I can’t even believe it. I’ve been so lucky in terms of that whole world, it is a dangerous world out there. It’s like Vietnam, sort of. It is my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave solider,” Trump said when Stern asked how he handled making sure he wasn’t contracting STDs from the women he was sleeping with. Trump went on, calling women’s vaginas “potential landmines” and saying “there’s some real danger there.”

OK, one more.

Trump speaking at a Nevada rally on the danger of electric boats: “So I said, “Let me ask you a question.” And he said, “Nobody ever asks this question,” and it must because of MIT, my relationship to MIT. Very smart. I say, “What would happen if the boat sank from its weight, and you’re in the boat, and you have this tremendously powerful battery, and the battery’s now under water, and there’s a shark that’s approximately 10 yards over there”—by the way, a lot of shark attacks lately, do you notice that? Lotta shark—I watched some guys justifying it today, “Well, they weren’t really that angry, they bit off the young lady’s leg because of the fact that they were, they were . . . not hungry but they misunderstood what—who she was.” These people are crazy. He said, “There’s no problem with sharks, they just didn’t really understand a young woman swimming,” no, really got decimated and other people, too, a lot of shark attacks. So I said, “There’s a shark ten yards away from the boat, ten yards, or here. Do I get electrocuted if the boat is sinking, water goes over the battery, the boat is sinking? Do I stay on top of the boat and get electrocuted, or do I jump over by the shark and not get electrocuted?” Because I will tell you, he didn’t know the answer. He said, “You know, nobody’s ever asked me that question.” I said, “I think it’s a good question. I think there’s a lot of electric current coming through that water.” But you know what I’d do if there was a shark or you get electrocuted? I’ll take electrocution every single time.”

And none of this, of course, includes the the vitriol Trump spews on Truth Social, such as this post after CNN’s Natasha Bertrand reported that the U.S. strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities did not destroy the country’s nuclear program, but, in an initial finding that could change with additional intelligence, only set it back by months:

“Natasha Bertrand should be FIRED from CNN! I watched her for three days doing Fake News. She should be IMMEDIATELY reprimanded, and then thrown out “like a dog.” She lied on the Laptop from Hell Story, and now she lied on the Nuclear Sites Story, attempting to destroy our Patriot Pilots by making them look bad when, in fact, they did a GREAT job and hit “pay dirt” — TOTAL OBLITERATION! She should not be allowed to work at Fake News CNN. It’s people like her who destroyed the reputation of a once great Network. Her slant was so obviously negative, besides, she doesn’t have what it takes to be an on camera correspondent, not even close. FIRE NATASHA!”

Stop the madness: enough with the extravagant presidential centers

Enough with the lavish presidential centers.

Barack Obama revealed the latest iteration of the planned Obama Presidential Center in Chicago on Jan. 9.

ObamaCenterJan2018

Newest design of Obama Presidential Center, Jan. 9, 2018’\\\\[[[”\’

“Michelle and I want this center to be more than just a building,” Obama said in a video statement released on Jan. 9. “We want to create an economic engine for the South Side of Chicago, a cultural attraction that showcases the South Side to the rest of the world.”

Why?

Why can’t it just be a damn presidential library?

As presented on Obama.org, the 225,000 sq. ft. the Obama Presidential Center will consist of: the Forum, a two-story public meeting space; a 235 ft. tall 165,000 sq. ft. museum tower; a library building; a plaza; an athletic center with multi-sport indoor facilities; a new outdoor running track; and a 400-450 space underground parking garage. At an event to unveil the plans, Obama said he’s also like to add a snow sledding hill, as well as play lots and paddle boats for a lagoon in new park space.

Not only will the library be one of the smaller elements of the site, it won’t actually contain any paper records. Instead, all Obama’s unclassified records will be digitized, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Obama’s actual papers will go to separate facilities maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration at locations to be determined, John Valceanu, NARA’s director of communication and marketing in Washington told the Chicago Tribune.

Opposition to the center is already surfacing. Faculty at the University of Chicago, where Obama was a lecturer at the Law School, released a letter on Jan. 8 asserting they had “concerns that the Obama Center as currently planned will not provide the promised development or economic benefits to the neighborhoods” and that the private Center would be taking over a major part of a historic Chicago park.

“Jackson Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, is on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of the most important urban parks in the nation,” the letter said. “Construction of a permanent architectural monument violates Olmsted’s vision of a democratic urban park.”

The letter also bemoaned expected public expenses associated with the Center.
“ It is the taxpayers of Chicago who are going to be forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for this project, according to estimates by the Chicago Department of Transportation,” the letter said.

As of Jan. 10, 173 faculty had signed the letter.

Martin Nesbitt, chair of the Obama Foundation, estimated the total cost of the project will be $350 million. Groundbreaking is planned for late 2018 and and the grand opening in 2021.

The Obama Foundation, established in Jan. 2014, has been hard at work trying to raise money from the public to build and help maintain the Center.

During 2015-16, the Foundation raised $14,371,979 and had net assets of $10,888,797 at the end of 2016, according to the standard Form 990 non-profits are required to file annually with the IRS.

The Foundation raised its fundraising game substantially during those two years, spending just $12,000 on professional fundraising fees in 2015 and $578,579 in 2016. The Foundation’s 2017 Form 990 report is not yet available, but if the Foundation’s goal is $350 million [l;it likely has quite a way to go.

“We once held the office of president, as well as its occupant, in high regard,” Anthony Clark wrote in his book, The Last Campaign: How Presidents Rewrite History, Run for Posterity, and Enshrine Their Legacies. “As we have lowered our opinions of both, presidential libraries, consequently, have grown larger and more powerful—and, not incidentally, less truthful.”

Writing in Salon, Clark said presidential centers tend to be “proud, defensive, and a little self-absorbed” and eventually become theme parks with declining numbers of visitors.

With that in mind, it is discouraging to see the number of extravagant presidential centers continue to grow. Do we really need another presidential center funded by influence seekers and built by a /legacy-hungry ex-president?

Unfortunately, each successive administration seems to think its library needs to be more grandiose than its predecessor.

The 135,000 sq. ft. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, including endowment of an Institute at Harvard for the study of politics and public affairs, cost $20.8 million in 1979; $99.8 million if you include the $79 million 68,000 sq. ft. Edward M. Kennedy Institute, complete with a full-scale replica of the U.S. Senate Chamber, added in March 2015

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Center for Public Affairs cost $60 million.

The William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum in Little Rock, AR cost $165 million.

At the rate things are going, The Donald J. Trump Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Presidential Library and Emporium will be a billion dollar extravaganza.

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The Donald J. Trump Center on the Hudson?

Enough of this insanity.

It’s time to stop this arms race of ever-expanding and more lavish presidential centers celebrating former presidents’ egos.

Not ANOTHER Grandiose Presidential Center and Foundation!

The Clinton Foundation isn’t going to be the last money-grubbing institution established by a former president. Another foundation money race is already on.

Hours before Donald Trump’s inauguration, Barak Obama posted a two-minute video on Obama.org calling on Americans to contribute to the Obama Foundation which will oversee the construction of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.

obamas-chicago-library

The Obama Foundation will “focus on developing the next generation of citizens — and what it means to be a good citizen in the 21st century,” according to obama.org.

The Obama Foundation will try to raise money from the public to build and help maintain the Barack Obama Presidential Center. The Foundation has already raised $7.3 million at the end of 2015. The fundraising total for 2016 hasn’t been disclosed. The Center is expected to cost $1 billion.

“We once held the office of president, as well as its occupant, in high regard,” Anthony Clark wrote in his book, The Last Campaign: How Presidents Rewrite History, Run for Posterity, and Enshrine Their Legacies. “As we have lowered our opinions of both, presidential libraries, consequently, have grown larger and more powerful—and, not incidentally, less truthful.”

Writing in Salon, Clark said presidential centers tend to be “proud, defensive, and a little self-absorbed” that eventually become theme parks with declining numbers of visitors.

With that in mind, it is discouraging to see the number of extravagant presidential centers continue to grow. Do we really need another library and recklessly large foundation funded by influence seekers and built by a legacy-hungry ex-president?

Unfortunately, each successive administration seems to think its library needs to be more grandiose than its predecessor.

The 135,000 sq. ft. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, including endowment of an Institute at Harvard for the study of politics and public affairs, cost $20.8 million. Adjusted for inflation, that would be $72.1 million.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Center for Public Affairs, the largest of all the presidential libraries, cost $60 million. Adjusted for inflation, that would be equivalent to a little more than $130 million now.

Obama’s $1 billion project would be twice what George W. Bush raised for his library and its programs.

It would also be more than the $165 million spent on William J. Clinton’s Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Obama’s massive fundraising effort may well lead to all the same conflicts and questions associated with the Clinton Foundation.

It’s time to stop this arms race of ever-expanding presidential libraries and foundations.

So much for free speech: the left and Chicago’s anti-Trump demonstrations

trumpchaos

A Trump supporter (R), confronts a demonstrator after Donald Trump canceled his rally at the University of Illinois at Chicago on March 11, 2016

With all the hyperventilating by major media about the chaos that forced cancellation of Donald Trump’s planned March 11 event in Chicago, there’s been little mention of the role left-wing organizations played in fomenting and supporting the clashes with the goal of shutting down the event.

Not only that, but an analysis of news coverage by ABC, CBS and NBC found that the protesters escaped nearly all blame. By a 15-to-1 margin, the networks blamed Trump, not the leftist protesters, for the campaign violence.

“The left’s coercive tactics aimed at shutting down speech with which they disagree are appalling and un-American, and they would be shocking were they not so commonly employed; Trump didn’t start that fire,” James Taranto wrote today,

Ignored by most of the media, anti-Trump progressives played a major role in spurring the turmoil.

Prior to the event, left-leaning activist groups and individuals aggressively recruited protesters to obstruct it.  Typical was a prominent Chicago activist, Ja’Mal Green, who posted on his Facebook page, “Everyone, get your tickets to this. We’re all going in!!!! ‪#‎SHUTDOWN”. (Not everybody on Facebook agreed with his tactics. One person commented, “…the ” shutdown” caused many fence sitters to jump into the Trump camp. Stifling freedom of speech for another while gloating over your free speech stand makes no sense.”)

After cancellation of the Trump event, an e-mail from MoveOn.org, a liberal advocacy organization, highlighted “the support we provided students in Chicago last night by printing signs and a banner and recruiting MoveOn.org members to join their peaceful protest.”

“We’ll support MoveOn.org members to call out and nonviolently protest Trump’s racist, bigoted, misogynistic, xenophobic, and violent behavior — and show the world that America rejects Trump’s hate,” the email read. “And to keep it going, we’re counting on you to donate whatever you can to cover the costs of everything involved — the organizers, signs, online recruitment ads, training, and more.”

Another e-mail from ThinkProgress.org, part of the Center for American Progress, founded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta, was headlined “How Activists Mobilized to Shut Down Trump in Chicago”.

The e-mail noted approvingly that a student in the U.S. illegally had started a petition on MoveOn.org calling on the school to cancel the event, claiming that Trump’s visit was a “standards and safety issue” and that “I, and other students…are in direct danger.”

Then there’s People for Bernie Sanders, co-founded by Charles Lenchner, who was previously a founder of Ready for Warren, and Winnie Wong, a founding organizer of Occupy Wall Street who also helped launch Ready For Warren.

After cancellation of Trump’s Chicago event, the organization joyfully tweeted, “Remember the ‪#TrumpRally wasn’t just luck. It took organizers from dozens of organizations and thousands of people to pull off. Great work.” (Not all recipients of the tweet were quite as excited. One commenter said, “This is organized vigilantes against Trump/capitalism…”)

I’m not excusing Trump for his rhetoric, but reporters and the media need to do their job and report fully on the campaigns and the players, not just bury us in daily horse race stories, visuals without context and opinions masquerading as news. We’d all be better educated voters if they did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Stupid is as stupid does.” – why so many Americans are ignorant about politics

Watch the Republican debate last night? Learn much about economic issues, the supposed focus of the debate? Didn’t think so.

oct28debate

The substance of the debate was equivalent to this Onion news item: “Eerie: These Two Strangers, Thousands Of Miles Apart, Have Almost The Exact Same Initials”

The inanity and vacuousness of so much political news coverage today is frightening and candidates are part of the problem.

Consider these shallow, uninformative stories that ran recently in major media:

“Mike Tyson wants to see Trump in the White House”

“Supergirl” star responds to Jeb Bush calling her hot”

“GOP is like ‘Grumpycat’, Obama says”

Then we have politicians of all stripes all the way up to the president presenting their views on incredibly complex issues with 140 character tweets and Americans making voting decisions based on those misleading, one-sided tidbits.

Add to this noise the editorials and news stories about non-issues or that are so one-sided and without context that they are a waste of time to read.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, for example, just ran an editorial calling on Senator Rubio to resign because he has missed a lot of Senate votes during his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. The Washington Post ran a follow-up article on what it called the “ferocious” editorial. Nightly network news highlighted the issue last night, too, but none of them bothered to provide any context for the reader or noted that voting record accusations are a common campaign tactic of little relevance.

Had any of the media bothered to do any research, they would have found that Senator Barack Obama missed votes TWICE as often during the 2008 campaign’s early going, and Hillary Clinton ended up doing even worse!

In the final quarter of 2007, leading up to the Iowa Caucuses and New Hampshire Primary, Obama missed 89.4 per cent of his opportunities to vote, while Clinton, in hot pursuit for the Democratic presidential nomination, missed 83.5 per cent.

Then there’s the issue of whether anybody really cares about missed Senate votes.

As Politico reported today, “Going after Rubio that way was just a mistake,” said one of Bush’s donors. “No one cares about missed f–king votes in the Senate. Washington cares about that. The media cares about that. And losing candidates care about that. Jeb sounded like he was losing. And Marco made him pay.”

And, of course, there are the endless horse-race stories showing this candidate up or that candidate down in the polls and offering nothing more of substance.

In the early months of the 2008 presidential campaign, for example, a study released by the Pew Research Center found that the media offered Americans relatively little information about the candidates’ records or what they would do if elected, with 63% of the campaign stories focused on political and tactical aspects compared to just 17% that focused on the personal backgrounds of the candidates, 15% that focused on the candidates’ ideas and policy proposals and just 1% of stories that examined the candidates’ records or past public performance. It has likely gotten even worse since then.

And of course there’s a mind-numbing amount of “gaffe” coverage, particularly online. When a candidate says something that could be portrayed as a gaffe, critics of all stripes jump on it, trying to magnify its importance and reach and generate public alarm about it.

And even if you try to take politics seriously, the media and the candidates often treat it all as mere entertainment, more like the contest on The Voice or the Great Race.

For the media, and too many politicians, it’s all theater, all razzle-dazzle, as Billy Flynn, the silver-tongued lawyer in “Chicago”, so aptly put it.

“It’s all a circus, kid,” Flynn said. “A three ring circus…the whole world – all showbusiness.”

ChicagoCircus

With the news diet that’s fed to them, it’s no wonder Americans are so ill-informed about politics. The result? We get the politicians the 1 percent pay for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Madame Secretary” and Washington: It’s all show business

“Washington is Hollywood for ugly people,” the saying goes.

The manifest connection between the two has been particularly pronounced in the promotion of CBS’ new television show, “Madame Secretary”.

Washington’s denizen’s feel a kinship with actors, who practice a craft of role-playing much like their own, and, being so self-absorbed, they like nothing better than stories about themselves.

Politico, an influential political journalism organization that normally focuses on the inside workings of politics, devoted almost 400 words yesterday to last night’s debut of “Madame Secretary”. The coverage included lengthy comments by actor Tim Daley, who plays the husband of actress, Tea Leoni, who plays the Secretary of the State. It also included a link to a 5-minute video “First Look” at the show and comments by Leoni on playing the Secretary of State character.

This was preceded by an almost 300 word item on Sept. 19, inviting Politico’s audience to a high-powered luncheon at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill with the stars and executive producers of “Madam Secretary.” There, Mike Allen, author of the Politico Playbook, and Maggie Haberman, a Politico reporter, would talk with Téa Leoni, Tim Daly, and Executive Producers Barbara Hall, Lori McCreary and Morgan Freeman.

From left at Washington event promoting CBS’s ‘Madam Secretary’: Politico’s Mike Allen; executive producers Lori McCreary and Morgan Freeman; stars Téa Leoni and Tim Daly; executive producer Barbara Hall; Politico’s Maggie Haberman. (Photo: Melissa Quinn/Daily Signal)

From left at Washington event promoting CBS’s ‘Madam Secretary’: Politico’s Mike Allen; executive producers Lori McCreary and Morgan Freeman; stars Téa Leoni and Tim Daly; executive producer Barbara Hall; Politico’s Maggie Haberman. (Photo: Melissa Quinn/Daily Signal)

Allen also noted that National -security influencers packed the theater at the U.S. Institute of Peace on Sept. 18 to see the premier episode, with an introduction by Freeman. Guests munched on crab cakes, sushi, grilled shrimp BLTs and crispy wonton cones – with Georgetown Cupcakes after the show.

Some of the government-media complex who attended the star-studded schmooze-fest included: CBS TV journalist, Bob Schieffer, (who also had a cameo in last night’s show); Huma Abedin, a long-time aide to Hillary Clinton married to the infamous former Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner; N.Y. Times columnist, Maureen Dowd; Nick Merrill, press aide to Hillary Clinton; and Jen Psaki, Deputy Communications Director and Deputy Assistant to President Obama.

I’m sure they all enjoyed themselves immensely, because for politicians, political junkies, the media and actors, it’s all theater, all razzle-dazzle, as Billy Flynn, the silver-tongued lawyer in “Chicago”, so aptly put it.

“It’s all a circus, kid,” Flynn said. “A three ring circus…the whole world – all showbusiness.”

The Merkley Razzle-Dazzle: Both ways is the way I want it

Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) can’t seem to make up his mind.

In 2012, he voted for a bill to reform the federal flood insurance program, a bill everybody knew would mean higher insurance premiums for property owners to deal with a $24 billion debt the program had built up.

Now he’s portraying himself as a champion of the besieged middle class by lambasting those premium increases and voting to roll them back.

Merkley’s situation is captured perfectly in A.R. Ammons’ terse poem: One can’t have it both ways
 and both ways is the only way I
 want it.”

Merkley is obviously assuming that Oregonians just don’t know his voting record or have very short memories.

RazzleDazzle

In 2012, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) was $24 billion in debt, partly because of big losses associated with damage from hurricanes Sandy and Katrina.The program was widely criticized for its below-market insurance rates and huge losses associated with multiple claims on homes and businesses that had flooded repeatedly.

Merkley voted for a bill designed to improve the program’s solvency by having property owners pay insurance rates that better reflected flood risks and reimbursement costs. The bill became law as PL 112-141 on July 6, 2012.

It was abundantly clear from the get-go that affected property owners were going to have to pay a lot more money for federal flood insurance. “The solvency and debt-reduction requirements imposed…by the 2012 reforms…virtually ensures that premiums will be going up across the board,” said an Association of State Floodplain Managers’ summary of the legislation.

But then Congress started hearing from constituents outraged that their flood insurance premiums were rising, some by hefty amounts.

Merkley responded by adopting the “Give ’em the old Razzle Dazzle approach, holding a September 2013 Senate hearing that gave him and others an opportunity to vent about problems with the flood insurance reform.

“The flood insurance bill, in combination with flood zone remapping, is delivering a massive financial blow to middle class families,” Merkley said. “This is unacceptable and substantial changes in the program are needed.”

In March 2014, Congress backtracked on the reform law, passing the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act that reversed some rate hikes and capped annual increases.

In a March 18, 2014 e-newsletter to his constituents, Merkley called the 2012 flood insurance reform law (that he had voted for) “misguided” and said he’d been hard at work to fix the huge rate increases resulting from it. Didn’t he understand what was in the 2012 legislation when he voted for it? If not, why did he vote for a bill he didn’t understand?

President Obama signed the rollback bill on March 21, 2014, even though his administration had argued in January that abandoning the 2012 reforms would “further erode the financial position of the NFIP.”

Members of Congress from both parties and around the country fell all over themselves in an effort to celebrate and take credit for the rollback of the 2012 reforms.

But negative reaction was also swift. “The new legislation will perpetuate a broken system by keeping premiums unrealistically low, encouraging coastal communities to continue to build — and rebuild — in high flood-risk areas, exposing them to growing risks and costs,” said Rachel Cleetus, an economist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “It makes no sense for taxpayers to continue to subsidize flood insurance in high-risk areas that are only going to become riskier with rising seas and worsening storm surges.”

The rollback of the flood insurance hikes may take the heat off Congress for now, but it will have to tackle the issues again because the program’s debt problems have not been fixed. But, hey, that’s for another Congress to worry about.