In Case You Missed It: He's Still Nuts
Bad stuff barrels at us fast these days, too fast to process, categorize and archive. So it is sometimes hard to keep track of just how flat-out batshit bonkers Donald Trump is. And how drunk on power. I want to help you all out today.
In the last week alone, the president of the United Sates did the following:
Threatened to withhold billions of dollars in federal aid for an ongoing tunnel project in New York unless Democrats agree to name New York’s Penn Station and Washington D.C.’s Dulles airport after him.
Gave a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast — hosted by an evangelical organization dedicated to Christian charity— in which he talked exclusively and incessantly about how great he is and how stupid was his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. Biden, he said, was so mentally enfeebled while in office he didn’t even know he was president.
Said that he alone was responsible for saving Sudanese activist Mariam Ibrahim from a death sentence for her Christian faith. “That was me,” he said. Trump claimed he accomplished her release from prison with a single phone call to Sudanese leaders, who snapped to attention and told him, “Yes, sir, we will do it right away.” Ms. Ibrahim was released in 2014 because of a global outcry on her behalf. That was two and a half years before Trump was president, and one year before he’d even become a candidate.
Posted a video online in which Barack and Michelle Obama are portrayed as monkeys. He took it down when bipartisan outrage ensued, blaming it on an unnamed subordinate whom he said would not be fired. He declined to apologize.
In a phone call, told German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that he once had an “incredible” time visiting that country, especially a day he spent in Vienna.
Decided to close the newly named Trump Kennedy Center for two years after virtually every performing artist with any integrity cancelled upcoming appearances because of the name. Trump says it’s for “renovations.”
Said he wants to “nationalize” elections in America, unconstitutionally taking the right of electoral oversight from the states and, in effect, giving it to himself and the majority Republican party in Congress.
Announced he was going to hold the first meeting of the newly created “Board of Peace,” a conclave of nations run by Donald Trump, the only person who will have veto power over all decisions. . Trump wants this organization to supersede the United Nations Security Council, because he doesn’t like the United Nations. So far, only a few countries have agreed to join the Donald Trump Board of Peace. These include Belarus, Azerbaijan, Morocco, Bahrain, Kosovo, Qatar, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Albania and Uzbekistan. Not France, Russia, England, Spain, Japan, Germany, China, etc.
Bragged in a Truth Social post that his public approval poll numbers are his “highest ever.” They are, in fact, his lowest ever, across all surveys, un-misinterpretable by any sane person.
Repeat: That’s the last week alone. I honestly think that when there comes a reckoning, a case can be made that a number of key Republican leaders — people who know how dire this situation is and have been too cowardly, or too compromised, to act — need to be face criminal charge. There are statutes that that (with some creative lawyerly tinkering) could apply, including criminal negligence, reckless endangerment, or accomplice liability.
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Today’s Gene Pool Gene Poll:
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You may know by now that Will Lewis, the deservedly reviled publisher of The Washington Post, stepped down yesterday, just days after savaging his staff by firing nearly a third of them, including almost everyone who covers sports or reviews books or music or writes and edits foreign news.
The strong rumor among staff — this may or may not be true — is that Jeff Bezos went apeshit when he saw a photo of Lewis walking the red carpet yesterday in San Francisco at the site of the upcoming Super Bowl; this is a man who had just fired nearly everyone at the paper who covers football.
The photo was taken by Nicki Jhabvala, a former sportswriter for The Post who was covering the event for her new employer, The Athletic.
It was, allegedly, the final straw for Bezos, as it came two days after Lewis had declined to personally take part in the newsroom Zoom call in which 300 people were told they were out of a job. And then he made himself unreachable — ghosting his staff.
I am privy to some internal chat groups of current and former Post staffers. They reacted to Lewis’s departure with understandable joy, and some gloating. Lewis was seen as a billionaire whisperer, a toady who pretended to speak for his workers, but actually betrayed them to Jeff Bezos. The comments were of the “Ding dong, the snitch is dead” variety.
One staffer said they had had a bottle of liquor in their desk for when this happened, and regretted for the first time that everyone wasn’t at the office on a Saturday night.
Another, a former newspaper guild leader: “I’m glad Will Lewis has been fired. I wish it had happened before he fired all my friends.”
Another, referring to the photo: “He still looks drunk.”
And this, from fired sports writer Barry Sverluga, on Twitter: “You failed, mate. You epically, monumentally failed, and showed yourself to be a coward in the process.”
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Okay. We’re done here.
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And, finally, we are in this together. I could use support, if you are able to give it: