Donald Loses His Marbles - Trump 47 - May 2026

 

             Groundhog Day,

       Groundhog Week,

Groundhog Month

May 1-2, 2026: It’s a new month. We’re off to a great start, with flowers blooming, birds warbling, and America on a Donald-Trump-themed “winning streak.” 

It is hard not to notice that our beloved President Dumpling continues to insist that the Iran War is “terminated,” yet the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. Iran still has all its enriched uranium. You might notice that description fits the situation the day the U.S. and Israel decided to launch the attacks. 

Except the Strait was open.  

Also: Gas was not $4.33 per gallon. 

  

Who dares deny that our “greatest president” is laser-focused on the issues that matter? On Truth Social, Donald’s own media site, we have this: 

 (Again, the Strait of Hormuz is currently closed.)

 

* 

Deficit reduction? Not by a mile. 

HOW ABOUT all the great deficit reductions we’re reaping because of Donald’s first term tax cuts (which he promised would pay for themselves), from the money he said we would be raising by imposing tariffs, from the massive DOGE cuts, and from his One Big, Beautiful Bill, passed just last year! 

Ah… one can only dream. 

Last week, the cumulative national debt surpassed the size of the U.S. economy. No matter what politicians tell us, that’s an unsustainable path. The deficit now equals 100.2% of the nation’s economy. It is highly unlikely that President Dumpling will dent the deficit during the rest of his term. 

 

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security is bringing back a hundred former FEMA employees – made “former” last year by DHS head Kristi Noem, now “former” herself. Those hundred employees were cut in a “cost-saving move.” 

Then leaders at the Federal Emergency Management Agency realized they needed those workers, who were among the first on the ground to help victims of tornadoes and flash floods. 

(This was a particularly stupid DOGE “cost-cutting” move.)

 

We now know that Director Noem needed to “save money,” so that DHS could buy two Gulfstream G700 jets (price: $200 million). She really needed one with a bedroom in back where she would allegedly boink her subordinate, Corey Lewandowski, while both she and Cory cheated on their spouses. 

Director Noem enjoyed her rides during her time in office.

(It was like Jeffrey Epstein’s plane, but without the teenage girls.)

 

* 

IT’S HARD not to be grossed out by some of what we hear from the nutty fringe folks on the right – but those nuts do adore Trump! Christian nationalist Pastor Joel Webbon could be heard recently, grumbling about “suicidal empathy” and how we must pursue the “full removal of feminism” from politics. He believes, “virtuous, ambitious, masculine men” must forcefully take away power. 

You can figure out from whom. 

 

A growing number of right-wing religious leaders are clear. The Nineteenth Amendment, granting the vote to women, should be repealed. 

In the spirit of suppressing women’s rights, Trump appointee, Circuit Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan, has ruled that the abortion drug mifepristone cannot be provided to women by mail. The mechanics of the ruling mean that the drug will not be available by mail until as late as November. 

Now women must pay to go to their doctors – and then the doctors can proscribe it. Until now, you could rely on telehealth – which also meant consulting your doctor – but now you can’t. “This isn’t about science,” complained one abortion rights’ advocate. “It’s about making abortion as difficult, expensive, and unreachable as possible. Telehealth has transformed healthcare. Selectively stripping that away from abortion patients is a political blockade.”

 

* 

Bombs away with Bible literacy! 

JUDGE DUNCAN made even more news when he wrote the majority opinion in a Circuit Court case decided 9-8, allowing Texas schools to require posting the Ten Commandments in every schoolroom. 

In Judge Duncan’s view, this was not a case of the government “establishing religion,” which is forbidden under the First Amendment. So, can a blogger ask? If we believe in Bible literacy, shouldn’t we encourage children to ask teachers, “If the Bible says adulterers should be “put to death,” doesn’t that mean Donald Trump?” 

Kids could also ask, “If we stone adulterers, is there an age limit on who can throw stones?” (Leviticus 20:10) 

Among those doomed to get drilled by rocks, we know Secretary of War and Hair Gel Pete Hegseth (adultery at least five times – in his first marriage) would be a key target. And he kept cheating in his second marriage. 

And third. 

(Maybe we should just squish him with a giant boulder.)

 

How about RFK Jr.? That horny fucker one kept a record in his journal of the 37 times he cheated on his first wife. 

Jesse Watters for sure. He committed adultery. 

And very possibly Sean Hannity, as well. 

Speaking of Texas, what about Ken Paxton, Trump’s pick for a seat in the U.S. Senate from that very state! He cheated on his wife with a “Christian influencer, and the mother of seven children of her own. 

(A dose of Christian hypocrisy as a bonus!)

 

And then you’d need a mountain-sized pile of stones to deal with all the people in the Epstein Files. 

Kristi Noem would have to dodge the rocks, of course. Her husband says she was cheating on him and there was nothing he could do. 

Corey Lewandowski would be targeted too.

 

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More Bible literacy! 

JUST ONE STEP below the Commandments, we have various admonitions, which could be included on another excellent chart and posted in every Texas school room. No tattoos, for example (Leviticus 19:28). 

No charging interest on loans (Deuteronomy 23:19). 

“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” (Exodus 22:18). 

Teachers, feel free to discuss. 

 

Then you have stoning to death for gay men.

And stoning for individuals guilty of blasphemy. 

And stoning for children, over the age of sixteen, who curse their parents or refuse to obey. 

Or we could leave religious instruction out of our schools and leave it to ministers and priests and imams. 

No! Forget the imams! According to the president’s pals, we can’t trust any Muslim Americans. 

The poor blogger has great respect for all the excellent Christians and Jews he knows, who cherish the Bible, and whose beliefs may well be far more correct than mine. I just don’t think we need the Bible in school. 

Or the Quran. 

Or The Book of Mormon. 

What next? Do Texas schools bring in Pastor Webbon (above) to speak to boys and girls about their proper places in the scheme of governance?

 

* 

Trump can still recognize a camel. 

The president is still bragging about passing a cognitive test three times. This blogger is 77. He has taken the same test twice and “aced” it, just like Donald Dumpling. Except, you don’t really “ace” it at all. You answer a bunch of simple questions. For example, you are given three words near the start of the test and must remember them until the test is over – about fifteen minutes. 

Frankly, if you miss even two or three questions on the test it’s a sign you may already be developing dementia. 

Oh no, oh no. Donald brags about his scores. Because Donald brags about everything. If his lips are moving, you know he’s bragging. 

For example, he said recently that he was shown three animals – including a camel. I think the other two were an elephant and a dog. So, Donald bragged because he knew which one was the camel. Wow!!! That also meant he knew the elephant and the dog weren’t camels. Wow!!!!!!! 

Other questions may include, “What year is it?” “Where are you now?” 

Unfortunately, the President of the United States may be starting to hallucinate. In a recent speech, Donald gave an example of what he said was a “tough question” on the cognitive test. “You know, they say, ‘take a number, any number’, ‘OK, I’ll take 99’, ‘multiply times nine’, ‘OK’, ‘divide it by three’, ‘good’, ‘add 4,293’, ‘that’s good’, ‘divide by two, subtract 93, divide by nine, what’s your answer?’”

 

I’m not sure anyone listening to Donald is dumb enough to believe that story. Then again, the MAGA faithful seem willing to believe almost anything the man says. 

Not to be rude, but if you believe Donald could do that problem in his head, you might need to take the cognitive test yourself.

 

* 

THE PRESIDENT has also been busy lying to himself. Having “fixed” the Reflecting Pool in D.C., by having it painted bright blue, using swimming pool paint, he posted a picture of himself and some of his biggest toadies, bobbing in the waters. Trump hasn’t been this thin (as shown in an AI-generated photo) in twenty years. There’s a lady in a bikini who looks good. Not sure who she is. 

 (Her lips look normal, so I know it can’t be Laura Loomer.) 

 

In another late night post, Donald added to an extensive list of individuals he has described as “low IQ,” this time tagging Hakeem Jeffries, whom he also labeled a “thug.” There are some who will insist Trump is racist, since Jeffries is black – and Trump has also called several African Americans “low IQ.” 

But let’s give the man his due. He has also called Tucker Carlson “low IQ,” and described his first Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, as “dumb as a rock.”

 

* 

Could the next president take away the license for Fox News? 

TRUMP also took time on May 1, to attack freedom of the press and free speech again. The New York Times, he said, was offering coverage of the Iran War that was “actually seditious, in my opinion” mostly because the Times was reporting that we might be losing the fight. Donald also felt the urge to call CNN “stupid,” and describe the news channel as “the enemy,” for the same reason. 

I believe that making fun of Donald is the best way to show others who he really is. Unfortunately, his attacks on the free press and free speech are never funny – and always danger signs. 

If you are MAGA down to your panties, figure out how dangerous it will be if the next president, probably a Democrat the way the country is going, started saying he wanted to take away the license of Fox News. 

Really, who can be so clueless as to miss that? 

(See: Donald Trump threatening ABC.)

 

* 

Let’s 86 47? 

WE CAN REPORT, in similar fashion, that Donald is a threat to free expression. He has ordered Todd Blanche to indict James Comey for posting a picture of seashells, formed to read “8647,” which is supposedly Comey calling for the president to be killed. And Blanche has done as ordered. 

This diligent blogger would like to note examples of others making much more real threats to presidents, vice presidents, etc. And Todd Blanche isn’t going to indict them. Because Todd is a tool. 

How about Ted Nugent – now considered by people on the right to be a hero and a great patriot? Remember the good old days when Nugent told President Obama to “suck on my machine gun?” That sounds more menacing than “seashells by the seashore.” In 2013, a Republican member of Congress invited Nugent to the State of the Union Address – even after that. 

“I am excited to have a patriot like Ted Nugent joining me in the House Chamber to hear from President Obama,” Congressman Steve Stockman said. “After the Address, I’m sure Ted will have plenty to say.” 

In February 2014, Ted also called Obama a “subhuman mongrel.” If that doesn’t sound like racism to you, it’s probably because you’re a racist, yourself. 

Also not being indicted: Fox News Bullshit Artist Jesse Watters, who recently celebrated the “killing” of ABC News Anchor Terry Moran, “86’d” for calling Stephen Miller a hateful bigot, and David Hogg of the Democratic National Committee, whom Watters also said had been “86’d.” 

Don’t forget, Jesse will need to be stoned. 

We can also include former congressman Matt Gaetz, once Trump’s first choice for attorney general in a second term, who made it clear he was thrilled to see blood flow with several Republicans – members of his own party- “86’d” for daring to balk the machinations of Donald J. Dope. 

Plus, we have the right-wing influencer, Joe Propisco, not being indicted for making the same exact “threat” when Joe Biden occupied the White House. 

 

Not being indicted – but in fact pardoned – we would have all the people who made threats to former presidents, current vice presidents, members of Congress who wouldn’t kiss Donald’ fat ass, etc. – during the January 6, 2021, riot, including the fools who called for the hanging of VP Mike Pence. 

(Below: See the Trump plan to pay the same people money.)

 

Meanwhile, Air Force veteran Mark Davis can be seen driving around Florida with an “8647” license plate and wearing an “86 47” hat. He’s running for office and sells “86 47” hats and t-shirts to raise campaign funds. 

He says he dares Trump’s goons to arrest him. 

You don’t have to like it, but freedom of expression, so long as it survives, means we are still safe from government overreach.

 

* 

News involving money. 

THE STOCK MARKET is doing well, at least. But another Trump family business, American Bitcoin, once touted by Eric Trump, has lost 92% of its valuation. Good news for original investors – like Eric – however. He has somehow managed to increase his stake by $90 million. 

  

The U.S. economy grew in the second quarter of 2026, at an annualized rate of 2.0%. GDP grew by 2.2% in 2025. That was down from 2.4% growth during President Biden’s last full year in office. 

During Donald’s first term he claimed GDP growth was going to soar. “We're bringing it from 1 percent up to 4 percent,” he bragged. “And I actually think we can go higher than 4 percent. I think you can go to 5 percent or 6 percent.” That meant the tax cuts would pay for themselves. 

That growth never happened. Not even close. The tax cuts did not pay for themselves. The blogger is pretty sure they never will. 

Donald started this term with the same promise. Tax cuts would make the U.S. economy boom. There would be 25 million new jobs in the next ten years, or 2.5 million annually, meaning he would create jobs when he was no longer president, and very possibly moldering in the grave. 

For the entirety of 2025, only 181,000 jobs were added, or 93% fewer than Donald predicted. A very poor prediction, for sure.

 

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THE PRESIDENT’S manic posting on Truth Social might also concern an ordinary American in possession of his, her, or they faculties. For example, nothing smells of emotional stability so sweetly as calling political foes “Human Garbage.” 

And why are all the people who oppose this president always “treasonous?” I, for one, oppose the president because he routinely uses dehumanizing language. I don’t ever think that’s healthy. 

It’s not “treasonous” to point that out, either. 

 

Also, we have the President of the United States wasting time to attack some random rock band. Until now, I had never heard of Along Came Jones. Why is Trump picking a fight with these people. 

They aren’t the Beatles.

 

  

If that isn’t a waste of time, Donald also attacked the political pundit Bill Maher. This is both concerning and pathetic. Again, we have the dehumanizing language, “Newscum,” the “low IQ” insult, and of course, the all-caps, “MORON.” 

Frankly, I don’t think this is healthy: 

 

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Epstein Files news. 

HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) has been floating the idea that maybe a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell might be worth it. As he told Politico, “A lot of people” believe a pardon-for-testimony swap would be worth it, but that his committee remains “split.”

Now Newsmax, the media outlet that carries water for Trump every hour of every day 366 days in every Leap Year, offers a headline: THE PUSH FOR A MAXWELL PARDON IS BUILDING. 

This seems interesting, since Maxwell’s best bet for a “Get Out of Jail” card is to say that Donald Dumpling is a saint – and also interesting because The Dumpling tried so hard to block release of all the Epstein Files – and interesting, in addition, because Acting Attorney General Blanche has said there’s really no way to indict anyone whose names appear in the Files. 

Did you know: Alex Acosta, the former U.S. attorney who did more to make it possible for Epstein to keep molesting young girls for an additional decade, is now a member of the Newsmax board of directors? 

Well, he is. 

If you are one of the MAGA faithful, did you know about Acosta’s role – since he also served as Trump’s Secretary of Labor during his first term? If not, you need to read more. And maybe not spend half your life showing up for dozens of Trump rallies like you’re in some weird cult. 

Never mind, you already are. 

On the topic of cults, let us consider the practices of The Word of Faith Church in North Carolina, where congregants can assault a gay member of the church to “save” him in the end. I am pretty sure they would approve of putting up lists of the Ten Commandments in every American classroom. Not sure about their position on executing witches, though. Probably not good.

Trump left, Epstein second from left, Ingrid Seynhaeven, right.

 

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Hatred: The new Republican brand. 

HATRED OF OTHERS is now a big part of the Republican brand. Congressman Randy Fine continues to pile up groups of people he hates, recently adding Armenian Americans to his list. “We don’t want Armenians to be able to serve in Congress,” he explained in a interview rant. 

The blogger suspects that Fine’s condemnation is an extension of his hate for Muslim Americans – that is, that he thinks most Armenians are Muslim. (Something tells me Rep. Fine couldn’t find Armenia on a blank map, even if you told him that it bordered Turkey, and was west of the Caspian Sea. 

There are currently 1.5 Armenian Americans living in this country, most of whom are Christian. 

I don’t think Rep. Fine could find the Caspian Sea, either, but he might be able to identify the Atlantic Ocean. 

Previously, Rep. Fine said that if he was forced to choose between dogs and Muslims, he’d choose dogs. He’s that kind of guy. 

Other groups that Republicans now fashionably hate would include: pet-eating Haitian immigrants, black and brown immigrants, transgenders (all colors), socialists who want to increase taxes on billionaires, Dumocrats (a new category created by President Trump), reporters, etc.

___

 

5/3-4/26: The blogger checked the Presidential Schedule on May 3 and noticed an anomaly: An entire day was missing. 

Was Donald raptured? 

 Nope. No rapture. Trump snuck off to play a little golf on Saturday. 

 

* 

Donald is ready for a third term – or is it a fourth! 

PRESIDENT BLUSTER keeps telling Congress that the Iran War is “terminated,” so he doesn’t have to comply with the deadline set by the War Powers Act. That act requires a president to consult with lawmakers if any military action continues for more than 60 days. Today, Iran attacked oil facilities in the UAE and struck a South Korean ship attempting to pass through the Strait of Trump (see map, above). The Pentagon says we sunk six fast enemy boats that were harassing shipping. 

This left Donald with nothing to say, except that Iran would be “blown off the face of the Earth” if they didn’t agree the war was over soon. 

Also today, Donald said that opinion polls showing that most Americans thought he sucked at his job, were “rigged.” With very little positive news to report, he decided to go to Truth Social and post a crappy meme: 

 

The results of opinion polls vary. This one seems accurate: 59% of Americans say they don’t think Trump has the mental sharpness needed to lead the country. 

A majority, 55%, also said they do not think Donald Dumpling has the physical health to be serving as president. 

If gas prices go down, yes, Donald’s approval rating should rise. As of today, where I live, gas prices have spiked. 

Gas prices - Glendale, Ohio.

 

Strange but true. The White House has posted a video lasting 67 minutes and consisting of one-second clips of Donald saying, “Winning,” and repeating that word thousands of times. That’s loco. 

What a waste of taxpayers’ money.

 

President Dumpling continues to delude himself. On Monday, speaking to a gathering of small business leaders, he suggested he might not be ready to leave the White House when his term is up. Regarding small business tax deductions, he added, “...And this way, when I get out of office, in, let’s say, eight or nine years from now [emphasis added], I’ll be able to use it myself.” 

HuffPost notes: 

Trump has frequently mentioned the idea of seeking a third term in office. Last year, he told NBC News that he was not “joking” about the prospect, saying “a lot of people want me to do it.” 

 

“I’m not looking at that,” he told reporters on Air Force One in March 2025. “But I’ll tell you, I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term because the other election, the 2020 election, was totally rigged, so it’s actually sort of a fourth term.”  

(Yeah. He’s sort of nuts.) 

 

On Elon’s media site where right-wingers go to spread scary lies, left-winger Liam Nissan (a parody account with half-a-million followers) posts this: 

 (That’s humor, knuckleheads, not a threat.) 

 

* 

Scary illegal immigrants – or not? 

SCARY IMMIGRANTS, Part #1: People on the right are big into hating illegal immigrants, who want to murder us all. Or vote illegally and then murder us all. When Kalynn Settle, a Colorado woman, had a fatal car wreck, she blamed “a Mexican lady who left the scene,” for the victim’s death. 

Only Settle was the person who caused the fatality, after she ran into a motorcycle rider, and Settle is a white lady, and a citizen – not the scary version of humanity you see, nightly, on Fox News. At the time of the crash, she was driving under the influence of alcohol and cocaine. 

Scary immigrants, Part #2: Recently, a friend of mine had a mob of dangerous illegals (he suspects) attack his house with hammers – and those maniacs put on a new roof. He says most of the men seemed not to speak English but says they showed up one day at 7 a.m. and worked for fourteen hours. Then they were back again, early, and worked into the dark, the next day. 

Then they showed up at 7 a.m. on Sunday and finished the job. The neighbor was so impressed, he tipped each of the six workers $100. 

Scary immigrants, Part #3: Some illegals are dangerous. The idea that they are all a threat doesn’t hold. In Texas, Lee Mongerson Gilley stands accused of killing his pregnant wife. He’s indubitably a white guy and recently cut off his ankle monitor and flew to Italy to seek asylum, since he was facing the death penalty if he returned to his home state. Yeah, U.S. citizens are scary, too. 

Scary immigrants: Part #4: If you want to be scared, consider several of the January 6 rioters, pardoned by President Trump. Since he walked away from a prison sentence for attacking the Capitol, Andrew Paul Johnson has been sentenced to life in prison for molesting two 12-year-old kids. 

Scary immigrants, Part #5: We also have Richard Channing “Chan” Shealy, 53, a South Carolina “worship leader,” now under arrest and charged with filming himself sexually abusing a minor. Not an immigrant! 

Scary immigrants, Part #6: Next, we have the Florida guy charged with firing several shots into another car, after he was “brake-checked,” and chasing that car for miles. And inside was a child. The shooter was not an illegal immigrant. Nicolas Andrew Totherow is suspected of having been vaping THC before the shooting, and he was driving on a suspended license, as well. 

You can find scary immigrants, of course – and I would nominate Elon Musk – but one scary immigrant does not make them all scary. 

 

We know how Google goes. Find one murder story, and you will get links to twenty more. Other killings by non-immigrants this week: Tennessee veteran flees after allegedly killing his wife. 

A Texas jury sentences a former FedEx driver to death after he admits to strangling a seven-year-old girl. 

A Kentucky jury nails a hitman with a long jail sentence, after he travels from California to kill his client’s lover’s husband. 

In Plant City, Florida, a likely domestic violence attack leaves four dead, including children. 

In Minnesota a man allegedly stabs his brother to death after an argument about cleaning up the kitchen. Individual examples prove nothing about people in general. Don’t be stupid, folks.

 

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Religious freedom – only for Christians. 

KNOW WHO might be more dangerous than a busload of illegals? Jenna Ellis! Ellis, a former Trump lawyer, is famous for lying about the “rigged” 2020 election. She plead guilty in court. That confession – to a felony – got her disbarred. 

Now she has her own radio show and she’s offering up new theories regarding the First Amendment. She’s all in on religious freedom – but only for some folks. “The whole point of having a civil society that recognizes the principles of religious freedom is so that we can go and evangelize, so that we can practice our faith, so that we can train up our children in the way they should go,” Ellis said recently. “It’s so that we can preserve and protect the Christian way of life.” 

(This is sometimes known as going to church.)

 

“We don’t have all these protections for our rights that our founders recognize come from God, our creator, so that we can go out and live in a pluralistic society and say, ‘Well, let’s recognize the dignity of Islam,’” she claimed. “That’s not the point. That’s not the purpose whatsoever. We have a civil government that protects the right of Christians to be able to live and work.” 

And screw the Jews, too?

___

 

5/5/26: According to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine our enemies are still feeling frisky. Since the ceasefire was announced, he told reporters today, “Iran has fired at commercial vessels nine times and seized two container ships. And they’ve attacked U.S. forces more than 10 times.” 

This is odd, since Donald said three days ago that fighting with Iran was over and so he need not listen to Congress – even though Congress has sole power to declare war under the Constitution. 

Donald is not a big fan of what the Constitution says. And besides, he’s focused on building his ballroom. 

Someone should inform Chairman Caine he has no need to worry. The war’s over. Time to bring the boys and girls home. 

Did we just mention that big, beautiful ballroom? Republican lawmakers have decided to add a billion dollars to the budget bill for the Secret Service. That way, Donald Dumpling can finally have his dancing venue. They are insisting that this money must be spent for security purposes. 

This is not the same as when President Dumpling promised that his ballroom would be built entirely with donated funds.

 

* 

No more fat Americans? 

MR. TRUMP has made a big deal of reinstating the Presidential Physical Fitness Award for schools (and, of course, had to slam Obama for ending it), as part of the push to Make America Healthy Again. It’s part of a necessary effort to combat a rising tide of obesity among Americans of all ages.

And who doesn’t think, “Top physical condition,” when Donald Dumpling’s name surfaces in such a context? 

Trump then took some of the kids outside, after they showed up to watch him sign the requisite Executive Order. Donald (who doesn’t believe in exercise, because he says the body is like a battery and can only store so much energy) wanted to show off his skill with a putter. So, it was time to make a six-foot putt. 

Try #1: Miss. 

Try #2: Miss. 

Try #3: Miss. Then he quit. This was the kind of determination and skill that allows Dumpling Man to keep sweeping club championships at all the many golf courses he owns. 

You can catch a glimpse of how the president pulls it off, if you watch this clip. Yeah, shocker. He cheats.

___ 

 

5/6/26: America’s most dedicated and least appreciated blogger (me) opposes all efforts to demonize groups based on the actions of individuals. I do not believe, for example, that one January 6 rioter/rapist proves anything about Trump supporters, generally. Or even those rioters. 

It does make you wonder what kind of numbskull would pardon every rioter charged that day, including the guy who battered police with a baseball bat.

 

* 

No nukes is good nukes. 

THE PRESIDENT is mad again this morning – technically, he’s mad again every morning – because Pope Leo has called for peace. 

Trump now insists that Leo is “endangering a lot of Catholics” because he’s fine if the Iranians have nuclear weapons. 

Apparently, Donald does not realize that the Catholic Church has long opposed the proliferation of nuclear weapons. See, for example, Pope Francis in 2017, on the immorality of nuclear war. 

The Dumpling did take time yesterday, during a meeting which included children, to say that if he hadn’t stopped Iran from getting nuclear weapons, they would have hit Israel – and Europe – and the United States. To hear the poor dope talk, you would have thought Washington D.C. would have been a smoking crater this morning when the children awke. 

Please note: For the last 47 years, other presidents hve been dealing with Iran; and Iran has never had nukes – and only Donald has been “forced” to go to war, or else we’d be in a nuclear war. 

Considering how long Trump has been president, you would think some aide would have explained to him the M.A.D. concept – that in nuclear war, enemies would face “mutually assured destruction.” So, don’t worry, kids. You and your loved ones aren’t going to be turned to ashes today, or any day soon, no matter what Iran does regarding nukes. 

Like Pope Leo, this blogger is opposed to Iran having nukes. North Korea, too. You may recall that Trump threatened “fire and fury” during his first term, if Kim Jong-un refused to give up his arsenal. Then Donald bragged and said his new friend, Chairman Kim, was going to give him all his nukes, and Donald would deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. And Kim snookered his friend Donald and didn’t give him a single nuke. 

He still hasn’t – and won’t. 

 

Today, Iran celebrated the end of the war with the United States – which President Trump insists isn’t a war – and says, it doesn’t matter, anyway, because it’s over and we won – by firing on three U.S. Navy vessels in the Straits of Hormuz. 

U.S. forces celebrated their victory by eliminating “inbound threats” and blowing up Iranian missile and drone launch sites, plus command-and-control locations that were deemed “responsible for attacking US forces.” 

(Yay, the war is over!) 

 

President Trump celebrated his great victory in the Iran War – which he says is an “excursion” – by posting on social media, insisting all was good. “Just like we knocked them out again today, we’ll knock them out a lot harder, and a lot more violently, in the future, if they don’t get their Deal signed, FAST!” 

Let’s hope the Iranian military follows Truth Social and realizes, as Donald says, that they have already lost. 

For kicks, U.S. warplanes bombed an Iranian oil depot on Qeshm Island, also located in the Strait of Hormuz.

 

* 

THE JOBS REPORT for April is out: 115,000 jobs added and unemployment steady at 4.3%. Not a terrible jobs number. Certainly, not great. February job numbers were revised downward by 23,000, and March numbers were revised upward by 7,000. Sadly, the labor participation rate has fallen steadily since Donald took charge again, from 62.6 to 61.8 percent. 

According to the Federal Reserve, the U.S. labor force in April included 170 million workers, down from 170.7 million when Joe Biden left office. 

In the first four months this year, the U.S. economy has added 296,000 jobs – whereas Donald promised, if elected again, that his brilliant policies would produce 2.5 million jobs every year.  

___

 

Is Kash Patel a lush? 

5/7/26: At this point, I’m not sure members of Team Trump are even trying to pretend they follow the laws – or even display good judgement. 

Consider F.B.I. Director Kash Patel, who flew to Italy (on the taxpayers’ dime – no dollar – no expensive jet) in part so he could watch the U.S. men’s hockey team win gold. Kash could be seen partying wildly in the locker room after the game, and spraying champagne like the biggest drunken frat boy in sports. 

Not long after, The Atlantic began getting tips that Kash might have a drinking problem – and Patel promised to sue the magazine for $250 million. 

The magazine has published a second report that would seem to bolster the first. In an organization known for high standards of behavior while on duty, Kash is handing out bottles of personalized branded bourbon, with a label reading “Kash Patel FBI Director.” An image of an FBI shield is surrounded by text displaying Patel’s director title and his favored spelling of his first name: Ka$h. An eagle holds the shield in its talons, along with the number 9, one assumes to represent Patel’s place in F.B.I. history, since he’s the ninth director. In other cases, the 750-milliliter bottles bear his signature, with a ‘#9’ added for fun. 

One question, of course, is who pays for those bottles – because Kash has been having a great deal of fun handing them out to members of his staff and random civilians, who look like they might need a shot. 

Or six. 

The F.B.I. has responded to such news by opening a criminal leak investigation, in hopes of finding out who at the F.B.I. might be talking to reporters and making Kash look like a fool. 

The writer for The Atlantic, Sarah Fitzpatrick, cited a dozen anonymous sources, and included details about incidents (plural) where Patel had drunk so much the night before that his security detail had trouble awakening him the next morning. 

 

FUN FACT: We won’t know this until later in the month – but you do wonder who is vetting all these people. U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks will bite the dust before May is over and turn in his resignation, “effective immediately.” He will claim that he is returning home to spend more time with his family. News sources suggest that he was regularly soliciting foreign sex workers. 

In fact, the Washington Examiner, a conservative newspaper, reports that six Border Patrol agents had come forward to say that Banks liked to party with the prostitutes. So even if Kash is a lush he’s not as bad as Banks! 

And who ended an investigation into Banks’ behavior. Just guess. Okay … it was Kristi Noem!

I say unto you, bringeth the stones.

 

 

FUN FACT #2: Only later will we learn that in private testimony before a congressional panel, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was asked about his ties with Jeffrey Epstein. That included a visit he made to Epstein’s Caribbean island where sex crimes were always on the “to do” list. 

Lutnick had previously claimed that he vowed to avoid all ties with the predator after he and his wife were disgusted at first meeting him. 

That was in 2005. 

(It took Trump decades to figure out that Epstein was repulsive.) 

 

But there he was, on Little St. James Island, with Jeffrey and the girls, in 2012. And today, he says he doesn’t remember why he changed his mind and went there for lunch – with his wife – and children – and the family’s nannies. 

Reuters now reports that Lutnick also invited Epstein to join him for a 2015 fundraiser. For: Hillary Clinton.

___ 

 

5/11/26: The inflation rate rises in April to 3.8 percent annually – which sucks for Donald J. Dumpling, who promised to bring prices down on “Day 1.” Not to mention how much it sucks for the average American. 

In the latest opinion poll, out today, only 23% approve of Donald’s handling of inflation, and that’s counting all the billionaires and their kids.

___ 

 

No nukes for Iran – under Obama. 

5/12/26: Reporters stopped the president today, before he could hop a flight to China and put a few questions to Donald Dumpling. For example, was he motivated by consumers’ financial pain, related to his decision to go to war with Iran, to work out a deal of some kind. “Not even a little bit,” he replied. “The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran – they can’t have a nuclear weapon.” 

We all remember when President Obama worked out a deal with Iran and never had to go to war, and Iran never had a nuclear weapon during his eight years in the White House. And then Donald ripped up that deal. 

“The Iran Deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into,” he grumbled. 

(To recap: Iran never had nuclear weapons while Obama was in office.)

 

 

* 

Dangerous transgender? Dangerous anyone? 

Richard Lee Upright, a Christian school teacher, and “Vandalia church missionary,” according to his little-used Facebook account) has been arrested and charged with creating nude AI pictures, using female students’ faces. He has been charged with 20 counts of engaging in sexual exploitation – with likely more to come. 

Bond has been set at $27 million. 

Just as there are dangerous transgender individuals, there are dangerous Christian individuals. A wise policy is to sort them out individually. 

Meanwhile the blogger’s home was attacked by immigrants (illegal, pet-eating, raping and killing types?) with power washers! They made the place look like the blogger painted it yesterday, when, in fact, he painted his house in 2014. 

These perfectly harmless and quite diligent workers were Lebanese. 

A father and son.

 

We have also heard a great deal about Somali immigrants ripping off the welfare system in Minnesota. No taxpayer should ever be content to be ripped off by anyone, from politicians to Somali immigrants, to Florida healthcare businessmen. 

On Wednesday, Brett Blackman was convicted of bilking Medicare to the happy tune of $1 billion. 

His co-conspiratory, Gary Cox, had previously been convicted and sentenced to fifteen years behind bars. And a shitload of crooked doctors and businesspersons helped make the scheme work, with the fraudsters working mainly out of Kansas. 

(I don’t see any evidence that illegal immigrants were involved in the fraud.)

___ 

 

5/13/26: More bad news as consumer prices rose a “whopping 1.4 percent” in April and now stand 6 percent higher in the last year. 

Even Rick Santelli, normally a cheerleader for Donald J. Trump can only go, “Wow, wow.” But not in a good way, in kind of like, “Wow, that driver just ran over that poor cat.”

 

* 

“You’re a great leader.” 

On the other side of the globe, Donald was enjoying time with his best bud, the communist autocrat Xi Jinping – who is now serving a life term as president of China, a dream scenario come true for Trump, if only it were him. 

At dinner, Donald announced to all in attendance, and viewers round the world, and to Xi, “You’re a great leader. I tell everybody you’re a great leader. Sometimes people don’t like me saying it. But I say it anyway. Because it’s true.” 

Then he added, “I always tell the truth.” 

Xi responded with a carefully worded warning to the President of the United States, suggesting that the U.S. should not fall into the “Thucydides Trap.” 

I have read Thucydides with relish, myself, but had not heard that term. So, an explanation: It was coined by an expert in international relations, in the early 2010s. It refers to the war between Athens and Sparta, that lasted from 431 to 404 B.C. As Thucydides, an Athenian general, later wrote in History of the Peloponnesian War, “The rise of Athens frightened Sparta and forced them into war.” 

Xi wondered: “Can China and the United States overcome the ‘Thucydides Trap’ and establish a new paradigm for relations between great powers?” Ever the clueless bozo, Trump went back to his hotel (or wherever he’s staying) and insisted that Xi was really saying Joe Biden was pathetic. 

“When President Xi very elegantly referred to the United States as perhaps being a declining nation, he was referring to the tremendous damage we suffered during the four years of Sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden Administration, and on that score, he was 100% correct,” Trump wrote. “Our Country suffered immeasurably with open borders, high taxes, transgender for everybody, men in women’s sports, DEI, horrible trade deals, rampant crime, and so much more!”

  

FUN FACT: In Australia, plans for a 91-story Trump Tower have been cancelled. “Let’s just say that with the Iran war and everything else, the Trump brand was increasingly unpopular in Australia,” David Young, CEO of Altus Property Group, the company that had taken on the project, said in a statement.

___ 

 

Why would anyone trust Elliott Broidy? 

5/14/26: According to my favorite magazine, Correctional News, the Bureau of Prisons has awarded a five-year contract, worth $106 million to LEO Technologies to use AI to monitor inmate phone calls. 

Elliott Broidy, LEO’s CEO, is the very same disgraced GOP fundraiser who pleaded guilty to running an illegal, back-channel foreign lobbying campaign, only to be pardoned by Trump in 2021. A man convicted of selling access to the highest levels of the U.S. government is now being trusted with a massive federal surveillance contract. You can’t make this up. 

Plus, the bum got a pardon. 

We also know that years ago, Broidy dodged a pile of felonies related to bribing New York State officials – by ratting out the people who took his bribes. 

Even better, if you like conspiracy stories, back in 2018, we learned that Elliott paid $1.6 million to hush up a story about his affair with a Playboy Bunny. But there were plenty of whispers that the impregnation was a result of Donald J. Trump’s boinking said Bunny, Shera Bechard. The payoff to the Bunny was negotiated by … Michael J. Cohen, Donald’s personal lawyer at the time. 

Add Mr. Broidy to our list of adulterers who should have been stoned, per the rules of the Bible.

We're going to need more stones.

* 

IN THE LAST YEAR, with Donald Dumpling back at the helm, sort of like Captain Edward Smith on April 14, 1912, foreclosure rates have surged 18%. Hardest hit are residents of Delaware, Florida and South Carolina.

 

* 

WE CAN ALSO REPORT that Donald has a plan. He will drop his $10 billion lawsuit filed against the I.R.S., after his tax records were leaked to The New York Times, way back when he was steering the ship of state the first time around. 

You may recall that those records showed most years he paid zero dollars in federal income taxes – a neat trick – which all of us would love to pull if we legally could. 

So, justice prevails? 

Guess again. What Trump now demands (and his own DOJ is set to agree) is that all audits of his taxes or the taxes of his family members and businesses be dropped. Additionally, a fund of $1.776 billion will be set up, under his control – and that pile of money will be used to pay off persons Donald thinks were the victims of “weaponization” of the DOJ. You know, people like the January 6, 2021, rioters. 

Fuck.

 

* 

I AM LEERY of anything I see on X, but this appears to be a real photo of a proud Trump supporter, with a bad Trump tattoo … 

Also: Against the Bible.

___ 

 

5/15/26: The president turned testy today, on his flight back from China and called a reporter for The New York Times “treasonous” because that reporter had the audacity to ask him why we might need to start bombing Iran again. 

You know. Since Donald has said the war is over, Iran has no cards to play, it’s not really a war, anyway, etc. 

Anyway, now he’s back on friendly soil.

 

* 

CONGRESSMAN RANDY FINE, of the great State of Florida (motto: “Where old codgers come to walk on the beach and shrivel like prunes.) is busy again hating on millions of Americans because Randy really doesn’t like millions of Americans, and what millions of Americans think or say. Randy is not especially fond of First Amendment rights, either, if you consider his posts. 

Today, he had this to say: “Paperwork doesn’t make you an American. We must denaturalize and deport millions like Zohran Mamdani [emphasis added] who lied to gain citizenship, hate this country, and seek our destruction. The barbarians are inside the gate.” 

Mamdani, of course, is the duly elected mayor of New York City. 

The blogger did have a good laugh when one user on X, responded, calling Rep. Fine a “corrupt, racist blimp.” 

Let’s just say, no one will ever bet on Congressman Fine to win a marathon, but maybe a race to the refrigerator.

Congressman Hater.

 

* 

NOW THAT DONALD is back, he’s sounding like he’s ready to dump another long-time ally of the United States. In this case: Taiwan. At issue is a promisd shipment of arms to that island nation, already authorized by the U.S. Congress. 

In an interview with Brett Baier, Trump seems less than enthused. “When you look at the odds, China is very, very powerful, big country,” he explains. “That’s a very small island. Think of it, it’s 59 miles away. We’re 9500 miles away. That’s a little bit of a difficult problem. Taiwan was developed because we had presidents that didn’t know what the hell they were doing. They stole our chip industry.” 

To be exact, U.S. presidents going back all the way to Dwight D. Eisenhower have made defense of Formosa – now called Taiwan – a building block in efforts to limit the growth of Communist Chinese power. 

Trump has already screwed our allies, the Kurds, who did most of the fighting to destroy ISIS in Iraq. Then he screwed the Afghan government and negotiated a peace deal with only the Taliban. Then he insulted our NATO allies, who sent thousands of troops to help us in that fight. 

Really, the guy’s a dick.

 

* 

DID THE TOPIC of “dicks” just come up? You may have eard about an outbreak of the deadly hantavirus on a cruise ship. The disease is often fatal – but, unlike COVID does not easily spread. So what health official is tasked with shaping the U.S. response to the new threat? 

According to CNN’s @KFILE the man in charge is a specialist in penile implants, who once hosted a podcast called “Erection Connection.” 

Oh, brother.

 

* 

AS FOR OUR DEAR DONALD, that boy has been busy, busy, busy, making more than 3,700 stock trades in the first quarter of 2026. The president often enjoys placing stock orders for companies with whom the government does business or whose profitability can be dramatically enhanced by Trump’s own policy decisions. 

In one trade, for example, Dumpling Don bought between $500,000 and $1,000,000 of Nvidia stock. A week later, the U.S. Commerce Department gave Nvidia the greenlight to sell computer chips to China. Nvidia stock soared in value – almost as if Donald knew it would. 

Because he did.

___ 

 

Opportunities that President Trump let slip through his hands. 

5/16/26: In a New York Times opinion piece, E. J. Dionne Jr. writes about lost opportunities with Donald Dumpling in office. 

Here are some of his most pointed observations: 

We are in a moment when we need to build — more housing and better ways to address child care, elder care and health systems. The country also needs to think ahead: about the disruptive impact of artificial intelligence, the need for alternatives to fossil fuels, the imperative of strengthening rather than wrecking alliances and of curbing inequality that is rising unsustainably and leaving nearly 60 percent of consumer spending in the hands of just the top 20 percent of us. …

 

But no, the president seems oblivious. 

It’s disconcerting that Mr. Trump’s visit to China this week coincided with a growing consensus in China that he has been, in the words of a Beijing think tank, an “accelerator of American political decay” and thus of American decline. … 

Dionne continued: 

The president’s most important missed opportunities are rooted in his seeming to believe his own rhetoric casting the Biden administration as a catastrophic failure. Yes, voters who swung to Mr. Trump were mad about prices and a porous southern border. But they certainly weren’t looking for him to wreck what was working. The Economist magazine was onto something when it declared that President Joe Biden’s economy was “the envy of the world.”

 

“Trump had this economy that by most accounts had finally contained inflation, and he could have ridden it,” Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University historian and the editor of a recently published historical assessment of the Biden years, told me. “Instead, he decided to put in place this tariff program that created unease and instability, and pulled back from Biden-era investments — in new technology, for example — that most economists argued could have been successful.” 

 

One final comment I thought resonated, by way of Jared Bernstein, who led Mr. Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers and is a policy fellow at Stanford’s Institute for Economic Policy Research. “Whenever you hear someone say, ‘Strait of Hormuz,’ think about the Trump’s administration’s opposition to clean energy. The idea that we would stop pursuing more abundant energy supplies is a massive own-goal kick.” 

In the process, Bernstein warned, the United States had ceded dominance to China on wind turbines and solar panels, and on electric cars. “China is absolutely cleaning our clock,” he told Dionne. 

Opinion, yes. 

Accurate? 

It seems to be in the eyes of this blogger.

 

* 

As goes the ponderosa pine, so goes the West. 

We have a second warning, also from the Times, in an editorial titled, “A Water Doom Loop is Coming.” Gary Ferguson is the author of the piece, as well as the book, The Twilight Forest: An Elegy for Ponderosa in a Changing West. 

Ferguson offers a grim assessment: 

IIn much of the Southwest, the ponderosa pine is the one and only truly big tree, thriving in dry heat and poor soils. The painter Georgia O’Keeffe captured the beauty of a stately ponderosa north of Taos, N.M., in one of her most stunning works, “The Lawrence Tree.” The creators of the television show “Yellowstone” were so taken with ponderosa forests that they did much of their filming within one far from Yellowstone in western Montana.

 

But after about 26 years of exceptionally high heat and drought, hundreds of millions of these trees in lands stretching from New Mexico and Colorado to the southern Sierra Nevada of California have died. And in many places, something even more startling is happening: The trees aren’t coming back.

 

Ecologists warn that in just 25 years, more than 70 percent of the Southwestern needle leaf evergreen forests, which include ponderosa pines, may be replaced by grass in what might qualify as the first significant post-climate-change shift in the landscape of America.

 

One of the biggest consequences is the loss of shade. Without the forest canopy overhead, snow can evaporate quickly instead of trickling into rivers, streams and aquifers. In the mountainous parts of the West, where roughly 70 percent of freshwater runoff originates as snowpack, that’s a huge deal, a sign of a catastrophic feedback loop that is beginning to form.

 

Lands that are no longer covered by snow also absorb more heat from the sun, which dries them out and leaves them more vulnerable to large wildfires. Those fires in turn put more carbon into the atmosphere, warming the climate even more. In 50 or so years, by some estimates, snow could virtually disappear from the West, making life there exceedingly difficult. 

 

If you’ve been watching the Trump administration over the last sixteen months, you won’t be surprised by Ferguson’s take on where we stand and – much the worse – where we’re headed. 

The government should treat this situation as deeply threatening to the habitability of the West. But as heat and drought battered the region this spring, the federal government, utterly dismissive of climate change, was shredding an astonishing number of forest-related conservation efforts. At the end of March, the Trump administration introduced a reckless plan to restructure the Forest Service, gutting much of the scientific research into how we might mitigate the effects of climate change on public forests. The threatened (or in some cases, abandoned) studies looked at climate-related insect and tree disease and wildfire behavior — the understanding of which is essential to public safety.

 

The ponderosa pine is a rugged species. Ferguson can see a possible comeback in certain areas. But the future of the American West is, he insists, at risk.

___ 

 

5/17/26: I was curious after I saw a headline wondering if the First Lady accompanied her husband during his trip to China. You know, to help him relax and sleep better, and to be sure he didn’t tire himself out too much on the long flights. It turned out that the lovely Melania did not. 

On the other hand, Natalie Harp, Donald’s super-dedicated, young, blonde staffer, did make the trip. Harp is known to visit Trump late at night and help him post the wild shit he puts up on Truth Social every time. 

Harp can be seen in this photo from China, posted by Lara Trump. That’s the fetching Ms. Harp in green. 

AOL.com refers to the unmarried Ms. Harp in its headline for a story as the “mystery blonde.” But Harp is well known around the White House, and follows Donald wherever he goes, regularly feeding him stories of praise. 

 

Another claim, posted on X, says that Harp’s former friends say she has made $1.2 million over the course of Donald’s second term, simply by following his investment advice. 

Nvidia, anyone? 

It is also said she wants an ambassadorship as a reward. 

(For obvious reasons, Donald might not want to lose her.)

 

The fetching Ms. Harp is said to follow Donald Dumpling everywhere.

 

* 

ALSO ACCOMPANYING Trump to China was movie director Brett Ratner, famous for producing the documentary film about Melania Trump. 

Ratner was previously best known for showing up in the Epstein Files with alarming frequency. Perhaps he and Donald talked about their friend Jeffrey during the flight to the Far East.

 

* 

PRESIDENT TRUMP continues to have difficulty convincing the Iranians that the war is over and that we won! 

 

Sunday afternoon, Donald was forced to post a fresh threat on Truth Social, warning, “For Iran, the clock is ticking, and they better get moving, fast, or there won’t be anything left of them.” 

I hope Natalie was right there by his side, helping him post. Perhaps she even guided his bruised hand as he typed: “TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! President DJT.” 

(“Ooooo, yes, Mr. President! Your job is sooo hard. Yessssssss, oh, yesssssssssssssss.”)

 

* 

IN OTHER NEWS, Big Pharma has failed to convince the U.S. Supreme Court that it can keep charging Medicare the highest prices traffic will bear. Thank God for Donald Trump, fighting to reduce drug prices. No. Wait. The drug companies were trying to have a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which allows Medicare to negotiate prices, ruled a violation of “due process rights.” Having Medicare negotiate on prices was Joe Biden’s idea.

 

* 

WATERS in Lake Mead, the reservoir that provides drinking water to 25 million Americans, in California, Arizona and Nevada, are projected to drop twenty feet this summer, as a prolonged drought in the West continues. It is feared that by next spring, levels will be so low that hydroelectric power generation at the dam will no longer be possible – putting the electricity supply for more than a million people at risk.

___ 

 

5/18/26: I think we can predict that Team Trump will get right on the one case, so far, of an American infected in the latest Ebola outbreak, this one in Congo. 

That patient is being removed from Africa and transported to Germany to be isolated and cared for. Expect Secretary of HHS Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to suggest that the cure will come from injecting mint juleps. 

 

FUN FACT: We won’t know till later in the month, but the U.S. government will come up with a brilliant plan to set up quarantine units in Kenya and send any Americans who might have been exposed there. 

The Kenyan government promptly says, “No thanks.”

 

* 

Keeping chemical companies happy! 

THE TRUMP E.P.A. (formerly known as the Environmental Protection Agency – now renamed Every Pollutant Allowed) – has rescinded Biden-era regulations “designed to protect the nation’s drinking water from the most dangerous cancer-causing per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.” 

These chemicals have been in use since shortly after World War II, and help “make products nonstick, stain-resistant and water-repellent.” So, yay. Stain-resistant shirts and blouses! On the other hand, “PFAS chemicals have been linked to cancer, obesity, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, decreased fertility, liver damage, hormone disruption and damage to the immune system, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.” 

That’s right, the old-fashioned E.P.A, that tried to protect the environment, warned that such “forever chemicals” break down so slowly, over centuries, that strict regulations should be put in place. 

Lee Zelden, of the new E.P.A. says Team Biden failed to follow the rules and overreached, and, hey, America, drink up!

 

* 

IN RELATED NEWS, Dr. Marty Makary, the head of the Food and Drug Administration, resigned abruptly after the president faulted him for refusing to okay the sale of fruit-flavored vaping devices – on grounds that companies were trying to suck in younger customers, despite the risks of cancer involved from vaping. 

Well, I think all Americans will agree that companies that sell tobacco products would never, ever put profit ahead of the health of the American people. According to one expert, we still don’t know how much damage vaping can do. By the time we figure it out, Trump and this blogger will be long gone, but maybe you and your loved ones will already be suffering from cancers caused by drinking water. 

And vaping.

* 

IT WOULD APPEAR there is no limit to the number of times you can post ridiculous shit on X (even when you are parodying the other side in politics) and have that shit be believed, only to later be revealed as nonsense. 

In this case, a fake “California Congressman,” Jack Kimble, a fake “Democrat,” took the actual words (marked below with “MJ”) of real Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a real Republican, and complained about his fake fate. He said he was making less than $200,000 a year (MJ) – despite “working nearly 140 days” every year. And so, he should be allowed to trade stocks (MJ). 

The “nearly 140 days” comment is based on a look at the calendar posted by Majority Leader Steve Scalise, another in-the-flesh Republican: 

  

No doubt, the ordinary taxpayer will notice that our lawmakers only worked three five-day weeks all year. 

By my count, a total of 138 days were spent on the people’s business. 

What clinches the story is the reaction of so many MAGA types on X, who were livid that a lawmaker from California should be so lazy at their expense. In fact, Marcie Everhart, who describes herself as a “hardcore America-First” candidate is running for a seat in Congress from Oklahoma, herself. “WOW. A Californian congressman really said this. As if to justify their rampant personal corruption.” 

She continued, “These jackwagons need to get out of the way for the wave of America First patriots like me EN ROUTE NOW.”  

148. An equally clueless MAGA influencer, Bethany O’Leary, was even more outraged, responding to the fake Congressman Kimble’s post – in which he threatened to leave Congress unless he got a raise, from his current fake salary of $174,000 (MJ) – with this: 

The average American GRINDS 260+ days a year for a fraction of that, pays your salary with their taxes, and somehow doesn’t threaten the country like a whiny toddler when they don’t get a raise.

 

The real threat isn’t you leaving. It’s that entitled clowns like YOU are still there in the first place, living better than the people you claim to serve!!!! Stay. Quit. Rot in the private sector. America will be just fine without another swamp parasite. 

 

Neither Candidate Everhart nor Influencer O’Leary seem to notice that Kimble’s fake words perfectly mirrored the words of their own conservative standard bearer, Speaker Mike Johnson. 

Gunther Eagleman, another right-wing type who posts all day, every day, was too lazy to do the minimal research necessary to see who Rep. Kimble might be. For example: What congressional district did he represent). Instead, Eagerman posted this, to which the non-existent Kimble promptly replied: 

 

I don’t know why anyone pays attention to what these ill-informed buffoons on X have to say. You could go, for example, to this link and search high and low for the elusive Rep. Jack “Be Nimble” Kimble. 

(Eagleman, et. al., have deleted their posts – but not before making followers dumber.)

___

 

5/19/26: President Trump has been telling reporters that he did not know the contractor in charge of repainting the Reflecting Pool in Washington D.C. He made this claim after it was revealed that the job was awarded in a no-bid contract – and that the price has increased from $1.9 million to more than $13 million. 

“Also, I didn’t give out the contract, ‘Interior’ did, to a contractor I did not know, and have never used before,” Dumpling Donald protested. 

The president was mad about what The New York Times had had to say about the no-bid contract and angrily referred to the paper as the “failing New York Times” for probably the hundredth time. 

Meanwhile the Times continues to gain subscribers, passing thirteen million in the first quarter of this year, with profits up 27.2 percent. 

So, ABC decided to clarify the story: 

“Trump said in the Oval Office last month that he had a ‘guy who’s unbelievable at doing swimming pools.’”

 

“He looked at it. He called me up. He said, ‘Sir, we can do something on it,’” Trump said while discussing the planned renovation.  

 

Then the Times did another dig into the records. While President Trump might want to wash his hands (in the pool) of any responsibility, he seems to be rather tightly tied to the whole restoration plan – whether he wants to admit it or not. As the Times reported today: 

The general manager of President Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J., has offered suggestions to guide the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and helped recruit one of the contractors for the job, according to federal documents and a government spokeswoman.

 

The manager, David Schutzenhofer, who has run the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster since 2006, is a private citizen with no known training in engineering or architecture.

 

An Interior Department spokeswoman said Mr. Schutzenhofer had advised the government on the repair project without becoming a temporary government employee. Had he become one, he would have been required to take ethics training and pledge to avoid conflicts of interest.

 

“Mr. Schutzenhofer is unpaid and is volunteering his time to offer suggestions on this project because he is an American patriot,” the spokeswoman, Katie Martin, said in an email. She called Mr. Schutzenhofer a world-renowned leader in the hospitality industry and said he did not “direct” any federal contracts. 

 

The Times did what any reputable news organization must do and solicited comment from other interested parties. The Interior Department offered no details about Schutzenhofer’s involvement. Schutzenhofer himself preferred not to comment. The Trump Organization also passed on offering explanation. 

In response to questions from the newspaper, Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, went with glowing praise in an email: “Thanks to President Trump, the Reflecting Pool will be restored to its proper glory!” 

So, if I understand the position of the president, it might be summarized as follows: He’s going to “Make the Reflecting Pool Great Again.” 

But if there’s stealing of federal dollars involved, or the project turns out to be a failure, he knew nothing about it. 

The Times also noted, “Mr. Trump previously took credit for picking one of the contractors repairing the Reflecting Pool, saying the company had worked on the swimming pool at his golf club in Sterling, Va. But the president later reversed himself, saying he did not know the firm.” 

In fact, one wonders if there’s not a reason the president’s physicians keep asking him to take that cognitive test – now four different times. 

Trump may still be able to pick out the camel in the zoo lineup. He doesn’t appear to remember the swimming pool contractor he picked out for the job.

 

FUN FACTS ABOUT THE POOL BOYS: The Times appears to have located a second no-bid contract, related to the Reflecting Pool job – this time a $1.7 million deal to provide a permanent filtering system, which went to an Ohio company originally contacted by, golly gee, Schutzenhofer again. 

Then Interior Department employees noticed unexpected bubbling in some of the coating already laid down to fix the Pool, and called into question the completion of the job, the next day. 

Finally, Donald seemed to throw out the contract entirely, announcing proudly, “Looking really good! Should be completed before the Fourth of July, our target date. I’ve made this a much larger job than originally contemplated for purposes of Beauty, and a much longer life.”

 

At any rate, the Times kept digging and kept uncovering problems in the way the job was being handled – both by the government officials handing out the dollars and the companies doing the work. For example, Atlantic Industrial Coating, which got the paint job, asked for and was granted a profit margin of 20%, when a normal margin on such contracts would be 6-12%. 

Ca-ching! That would be an extra $850,000. 

Then Atlantic realized it didn’t quite know how to fix the cracks between the concrete slabs that form the Reflecting Fool bottom. In two tests, attempts to stop the leaks failed. 

So, I have decided. If the Trump folks ever contact me about a job – say to paint the White House – and tell me it’s a no-bid deal, I am just going to say I want $100 billion. Then I will kick back a few bucks to the right people, maybe Stephen Miller, or Natalie Harp, or Mr. Potato Head, and do what the Trump Organization so often has done in the past. 

I will hire immigrant workers – including immigrant workers with fake legal documents – to do the painting. 

All I will really do is sit back and count my money. 

(Any way you spin it, taxpayers are footing the bill.)

 

* 

The blogger’s opinion. 

Those who scream, “Fake News” the loudest, rarely read or listen to the stories they have deemed fake. In the story of the Reflecting Poll fixup, The New York Times does seek out different opinions. 

In this case, reporters ask John Hart, chief executive of the conservative watchdog group Open the Books, about the cleanup. “The first thing any rational homeowner, family or business does is they solicit competitive bids, because when you rely on sole source contracting, it opens the door to extraordinary waste.” 

Open the Books supported Mr. Trump’s campaign-trail calls for more efficient government. Frankly, who wouldn’t? Every dollar the government spends comes from this liberal blogger or that conservative MAGA believer. In fact, I have never heard anyone utter this statement or anything close: “I would like to pay more in taxes, and then I would like to see the politicians waste the money I gave them.” 

According to Hart, he now believed “the Trump administration was moving in the opposite direction [emphasis added], and wrongly invoking the upcoming celebrations as an emergency, to justify bypassing legally required competition.” Those are the words of reporters, stating his position. 

For Trump fans, the blogger should like to point out that we on the left side of the political scales don’t like seeing our tax dollars farted away any more than our countrymen and women on the other side of the scales. We do in many cases disagree on spending priorities; but waste is waste. For example: Kristi Noem and her flying bedroom. 

We would all be wise to stop shouting so much at those on the other side, focus on ways to cut waste that we can agree upon, and surely, we have a shared interest in catching all the crooks in government that we can. 

 

FUN FACT: Perhaps you missed it, but the Times, the BBC, and other news outlets, also offered stories about government workers and Nondisclosure Agreements. The Trump administration wants all federal employees to sign new NDA’s, broadening restrictions on what they can say – for example to reporters. 

The BBC, for example, asks Orly Lobel, a law professor and the director of the Center for Employment & Labor Policy at the University of San Diego, for comment. In an email Professor Lobel outlined several concerns. First, workers who saw “unethical or simply wasteful or incompetent government behavior” would likely fear to come forward. Second, they might risk trouble in “using their knowledge and skills when they leave the government agency and seek other related employment.”

 

Here’s how I would summarize it: Crooks in government would love it if honest workers had all signed NDA’s and couldn’t come forward to describe what they had seen the crooks doing, behind the scenes.

 

Rich, sexual predators, for example, have often covered their crimes by paying off victims who have evidence against them – and the requiring them to sign NDA’s. It’s neat trick, assuming you’re rich and powerful, and have the morals of a hyena.

___ 

 

5/20/26: At this point, the weirdos who make up the second Trump administration aren’t even bothering to pretend they’re honest – or competent – or even decent human beings. 

For starters, consider the vaunted Trump phone. This “American made” beauty comes with a design of the American flag on the back – real craftsmanship. Only the flag has only eleven stripes. Credit, I guess, that Trump didn’t demand that a fifty-first star (for Venezuela) be added too. 

Also, the “made in America” phone that was promised to gullible chumps who love Trump more than Bill Cosby loved Pudding Pops, is NOT MADE IN AMERICA. Even the people who peddled the phone admit that now. It appears it may be a knockoff of a phone made in Taiwan. Other experts believe the handset may be a Chinese-made model, which can be yours, at Walmart, for $127.99. 

Whereas the golden Trump phone sells for $499. 

 

* 

ON TUESDAY, the president got his fondest wish – to continue to stifle any investigation related to the Epstein Files. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, one of the key voices behind the demands to release those toxic Files, was soundly defeated in the Republican primary. Trump – ever willing to lie about even the littlest details – told reporters that he thought Massie was a “Democrat,” which must have surprised everyone in the “Bluegrass State.” 

The congressman first won his seat in 2012, running as a Republican, and then won again in 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024. 

Even some of the MAGA stalwarts likely realize that Massie’s defeat was a big win for every pedophile named in the Epstein Files. 

We also know that Rep. Massie voted against almost all increased federal spending, as well as tax cuts which were sure to balloon the national debt. So, let’s see how Donald Dumpling’s efforts to shrink the federal deficit are faring. 

To the debt clock we go! 

Nope it’s still spinning:

 (As seen at 9:25 a.m., 5/17/26)

 

 (As seen at 7:49 a.m., 5/21/26)

 

Blame whomever else you want; you cannot not include Mr. Trump in discussions of the continuing red ink bloodbath. If my math is correct, in a little less than four days, the deficit has grown by $3,876,073,927. (It grew by another $30 million while I was working on this math problem!) 

The Trump Tax Cuts are assuredly not paying for themselves – and never will. There’s a higher probability that I will cartwheel across the U.S. this summer, at age 77, than that the Trump Math on this is ever going to work.

 

* 

ONE SUCCESSFUL REDUCTION that Team Trump has managed to pull off has been to make Obamacare less affordable, causing almost five million Americans to decide to do without healthcare insurance. Even if you do keep coverage, the average deductible has increased this year by 37%. 

(MAHA: Make American Healthy Again! Then no one will need healthcare, right!) 

 

Healthcare? Who wants Ebola! There are reasons the U.S. has heretofore spent money to help foreign nations deal with disease outbreaks. Not only does Ebola carry a fatality rate of 25% to 90%, depending on the strain, it is easily spread – like flu, by coughing or touching. Now we learn that an individual from Congo, where the disease is spreading out of control, was allowed to board a flight bound for the United States. 

The U.S. government used to have an agency – with actual medical experts – trained in dealing with actual disease outbreaks of all kinds. Sadly, it has been closed by this second Trump administration.

 

(Thanks to Elon Musk, and his DOGE boys!) 

 

* 

IN IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT (ICE) news, an agent has been charged with multiple felonies after shooting a Minnesota man who he claimed had attacked him with a broom handle and snow shovel – which surveillance video soon showed did not technically “happen.” Agent Christian Castro now faces five felony charges, including one for falsely reporting a crime. 

The individual Castro shot was in this country legally. 

In related news, ICE officer Nicolas Rice has been charged with assaulting a protester in Durango, Colorado, after he was shown grabbing her by the hair and hurling her down an embankment.

 

* 

Your tax dollars pay for insults. 

SPEAKING of the federal budget, how much is Natalie Harp paid to follow President Trump around, and hand him stories about how great he is – and then help him post on Truth Social late at night? 

And possibly tuck him into bed? 

Known to colleagues as the “human printer,” for the stack of glowing articles about the president that she carries around, to boost his spirits, Harp earns $150,000 annually. 

(If she is sleeping with that fat lug, she probably deserves a big raise.) 

 

If we check the same list, we learn that Stephen Miller, whose brain is a clogged toilet filled with noxious ideas, is “worth” $195,200, annually. Steven Cheung, the White House Communications Director, makes the same. 

What do we get from Mr. Cheung for the money we give him? 

Mr. Cheung traffics in insults - so I call him Mr. Potato Head.

 

Recently the singer Natalie Maines, of the Dixie Chicks, blasted our Dear Leader on X. “Our democracy is disappearing right before our eyes,” she warned. “This fugly slut [Trump] is using your gas money to pay the insurrectionists. But don’t worry about it. I’m sure posting selfies will fix everything.” 

Cheung’s job is to respond like this: “Natalie Maines is a despicable nobody who clearly suffers from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted her peanut-sized brain.” 

What about that idea of paying “insurrectionists?” Well, it’s true. The Department of Justice has now settled a lawsuit – filed by President Trump – after his tax returns were leaked during his first term in office. Donald originally wanted $10 billion. He is currently estimated to be worth at least $6.5 billion. 

So, while his personal wealth is ballooning since he took office the second time, he was really hoping “We the People” would hand over a large truckload of loot. 

 

Maines wasn’t the only singer to stir the wrath of Mr. Potato Head and the White House communications team. After Sabrina Carpenter warned ICE not to use her music in videos, our taxpayer-funded servants were johnny on the spot, with a response. 

First, Carpenter had this to say: She called an ICE video set to her hit song “Juno,” “evil and disgusting,” adding, “Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.” You know: Slinging a protester down an embankment by her hair – as just one example. 

And locking up the young wife of a U.S. Army soldier. That makes perfect sense to the MAGAs, I guess. 

Not to mention the widow of another veteran, 85-year-old Marie-Thérèse Ross. Five ICE agents showed up at her door one morning, cuffed her, while still in her bathrobe, pajamas and slippers, and took her to jail. 

She has since been freed. 

As The New York Times notes, “Her experience changed the way she sees the United States and its immigration policies, Ross said. Her husband was a Trump supporter and they used to watch Fox News together. But she was shocked to learn firsthand how immigrants are treated inside immigration facilities.”  

Not to mention shooting and killing two American citizens – who were protesting ICE tactics in Minnesota – kind of a critical First Amendment right. 

(You can understand why Carpenter might oppose the use of her music by ICE.)

 

That is, you can understand if you have a heart and soul. In this case, the task of trashing another American fell to White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson (earning $110,500 per annum), and she twisted the story to suit. “Here’s a Short n’ Sweet message for Sabrina Carpenter: we won’t apologize for deporting dangerous criminal illegal murderers, rapists, and pedophiles from our country,” Jackson said. “Anyone who would defend these sick monsters must be stupid, or is it slow?” 

Let’s see if we can explain to Ms. Jackson. Musicians have copyrights and the Team Trump bozos can’t just use music without permission – which dozens of musicians have complained about. It is doubtful anyone, Carpenter, or this blogger, for example, objects if you arrest and deport rapists and pedophiles, to cite two obvious categories. But if Carpenter doesn’t want her music used, tantamount to endorsing ICE tactics – she’s not “stupid,” and she’s not defending “sick monsters.” 

People with actual souls can watch ICE tear undocumented parents away from their U.S. citizen children, and legitimately think: Yeah, there are monsters involved – and some of them work for ICE. 

Speaking of “press secretary” salaries, White House Press Secretary/Christian Spouter Karoline Leavitt, now on maternity leave, was earning $195,200. You also have Assistant Press Secretaries Davis R. Ingle, Liz Hutson and Taylor R. Rogers ($83,500, each), Harrison Fields, Principal Deputy Press Secretary ($139,500) and Deputy Press Secretaries Anna Kelly ($110,500) and Kush Desai ($110,500). 

We can also toss in Communications Manager Patrick M. Adams ($110,500), a Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Communications Director Kaelen K. Dorr ($155,000), and even a Director of White House Information Technology, Robert J. Eisenhauer ($184,363) and a Pardon Czar, Alice M. Johnson ($145,000 in salary – and maybe all the bribes she can get). 

Final mention: Chief of Staff to the First Lady, Hayley D. Harrison, is paid $195,200 – with her main job to keep Donald at least six feet away from Melania at bedtime – or, really, any other time of day. In all, by my count, 218 individuals working at the White House earn at least $101,500.

 

* 

A chocolate chip cookie bribe. 

TEAM TRUMP continues to cast covetous eyes on Greenland – which is currently controlled by our NATO ally Denmark. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, now doubling as Donald Dumpling’s special envoy, is visiting the huge island this week – with the stated goal of making “a bunch of friends.” 

Shortly after his arrival, Sunday, during a tour of Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, a pedestrian shot Landry the finger. At one point, our special envoy offered children free MAGA hats, but some shook their heads. (I don’t think they wanted to look stupid.) At one point Gov. Landry promised a group of children that if they came to his Louisiana mansion, they could have “all the chocolate chip cookies you can eat.” 

Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Greenland’s prime minister, was not impressed with the Chips Ahoy® diplomacy. “We have our red lines,” he told reporters. “And no matter how many chocolate cookies we get, we are not going to change them.” 

Greenlanders are not interested in a U.S. takeover. 

The special envoy tipped his hand, soon after, regarding whose interests mattered in this outreach to Greenland in hopes of making a bunch of friends. “There’s only one line and it’s red, white and blue,” he said. 

 

FUN WITH ICE: Did you know that Greenland ice has been melting at an alarming rate in recent decades? And you used to be able to go to a NASA-related website and see how bad it might be. Now you can still reach the website; but due to funding cuts, information will no longer be updated. 

The War on Science continues. And we have a dimwit in the White House who believes windmills cause cancer. 

  

In other un-science news, the C.D.C. has decided to withhold a study that found the COVID vaccine sharply reduced the risks of hospitalization and emergency room visits last winter. Both risks were cut by half. 

One former top C.D.C. director referred to the decision to hide the results as “suppressing the standard of science.” 

The agency’s scientists had already approved the study – but it would appear the anti-vaxxers and COVID-conspiracy nuts managed to suppress the good news.

 

* 

YOU GO, IMMIGRANTS! We can finally name a group of immigrants President Trump likes: Namely white folks from South Africa. After cutting the number of refugees allowed to find safety in this country to an all-time low of 7,500 in 2025, mercy is now in style again at the White House. Donald Dumpling wants to increase the numbers allowed to enter this year to 17,500, and he’s going to try to see that they’re all white folks – like Elon Musk. And Kimbal Musk, both found regularly in the Epstein Files.

 

* 

THE “DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,” now known as the Department that Kisses Trump Asses,” has agreed that no member of the Trump family, including the Lard Ass in the White House, shall ever be audited for past crimes, such as tax fraud. Audits, criminal charges, the whole works shall be “forever barred.” 

 (I think I am going to start cheating on my taxes!)

 

* 

DONALD TRUMP JR. is getting married again this weekend. And good luck to the young couple. I keep noticing, however, how hard the Christian nationalists are pushing their values forward – as if we all need to follow the Bible, down to the last comma, if we want America to be great again. ADULTER 

I have noted several times that the Bible calls for death for adulterers. So, we know Don Sr. would be dead. Several times over. 

Also, Don Jr. would have been stoned for his affair with Aubrey O’Day.

Stoning - again!

 

 

* 

Judging individuals, not groups. 

I KNOW we are supposed to guard our pets whenever illegal immigrants might be lurking in our neighborhoods. I also know that right-wing news folks are going to highlight any crimes committed by illegals – as if illegals are the only people that we need to fear. A story from Tampa, Florida, involving a 28-year-old native-born American shows us (as we could be shown every day) that people of all types are dangerous. Or not dangerous, depending only on what kind of individuals they are. 

Elisha Christopher Landry is accused of shooting his roommate in the back of the head after an argument over a vape pen. 

Joshua Mulvey, of Toledo, Ohio, has been convicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter, after his girlfriend’s son was found dead in a crib, having starved to death. Kristopher Snyder, 7, weighed 19 pounds when his body gave out. The mother, Samantha Hardiman, has been sentenced to life in prison.

 

* 

A TENNESSEE MAN, Larry Bushart is feeling better today, after his local sheriff was ordered to pay $835,000 for locking him up because of a post he made after Charlie Kirk was killed. (“Murdered,” of course, is the correct word.) 

As The New York Times explains, 

In the posts, he shared memes that accused Mr. Kirk’s organization, Turning Point USA, of perpetrating hate and another that included past comments from President Trump about moving past a school shooting. The sheriff’s office in Perry County, Tenn., claimed that with those posts, he had threatened violence.

 

His bail was set at $2 million, and he remained in jail until the charge against him was dropped.

 

That meant 37 days behind bars for Bushart. Mr. Bushart has promised his wife he will now stay off Facebook. 

The Times also noted that an Austin Peay State University professor, also in Tennessee, fired over a post related to Kirk, reached a $500,000 settlement with the university that also gave him his job back. 

Iowa officials have also agreed to rehire and pay $125,000 to a public defender who was fired over comments about the murder.

 

* 

WE HAVE fresh evidence from Congress, in the form of Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, that lawmakers can truly get dumber over time. Having had five years to study the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, Norman couldn’t sound more clueless if he put his words into “Pig Latin.” 

Thursday, he assured a reporter: 

NORMAN: Look, January 6th was an issue that was made up in the first place.

 

REPORTER: Made up, sir?

 

NORMAN: That was a staged thing from day one.

 

REPORTER: The riot was staged?

 

NORMAN: When you had police officers letting people in the building, when you had people that’s not being prosecuted – Ray, I forget his name. There’s no excuse for that.

 

((He means Ray Epps, I think.)

 

REPORTER: Your colleagues, though, your Republican colleagues ran for their life and barricaded themselves in their chamber. You think they were acting?

 

NORMAN: No, there was a riot there but it was a self-made riot by members who hate Trump. It was made up, in my opinion. 

 

Unlike Congressman Numbskull, I have looked at court records for all the rioters charged; and you don’t have to guess why they were in Washington D.C. that fateful day, because they told us. At least 400 specifically said, on social media, or on video, or in court, that they believed the 2020 election was stolen. 

Countless others talked about “saving” the country, called on “patriots” to remember “1776,” and specifically mentioned the crimes of Democrats, supposedly necessary for Joe Biden to win.

What do you think Congresswoman Boebert was calling for?

 

* 

THE POLLS DON’T LIE, although every so often they do get elections wrong, though not by much. Someone should explain this all to Congressman Norman, so he stops going around, sounding like a blithering idiot. 

The reason Trump lost in 2020 (and then refused to accept defeat) is the same reason his approval rating is below 40% today. Most Americans, watching him govern, can tell he’s a giant asshole, who doesn’t really do much of anything to help them, and can in no way be trusted around women or taxpayers’ money. 

A current average of polls, showing a little before 6 a.m. on May 22: 

 

By my count, the last 94 opinion polls listed have shown Trump in negative territory, almost always by double digits, going back to early March 2026. At that point Trafalgar did have Trump with an approval rating of 50%, and a disapproval rating of 48%, although all the other polls showed him in the red. 

In fact, the last time the president stood in good standing with most Americans was probably March 5, 2025. 

 

Trump fans will tell you, as Donald Dumpling himself will insist, that the polls are “rigged” and “Fake News.” So go back to that date and see that Rasmussen, for example, had Trump at 50-48%, in plus territory by 2 points. 

Wednesday, Rasmussen showed Trump at minus-13. 

You can look all of this up. You don’t have to be a clueless, ill-informed dolt. In mid-October 2020, Trump’s approval rating was only a little better than 44%. Well over half of all Americans (53-54%) disapproved of the job he had done during his first term – and while the gap closed by Election Day, The Dumpling was still down 6-7 points. Incredibly, at no point during his first term did he ever have a plus approval-disapproval rating, when the polls were aggregated. 

 

If you are a true-MAGA believer, there is a good chance you have heard your Golden Calf tell you: He’s the greatest president ever. You may believe that yourself. But you are deluding yourself, if you think most of us love the Pussy-Grabber-in-Chief – Jeffrey Epstein’s friend for far too many years. 

The Golden Calf likes you to believe the polls were way off – for example, that The New York Times was sure he’d lose the 2024 election. And that there was no way Joe Biden could win in 2020. 

Realistically, almost every close observer in 2024, was predicting a Trump win over Harris. Again, you can look all of this up. You don’t need to be – nor do you want to be – as clueless as a cucumber in a garden patch. 

191. RealClearPolitics polling showed in 2020 that Biden would win the popular vote by quite a bit (although their final average showed Trump losing by 7.2 points, whereas he lost by only 4.5.) 

 

And the polls were roughly correct in 2024 – although the final RCP average showed Harris winning the popular vote by 48.7% To 48.6%. 

What worried any observer, like me, who couldn’t stomach Donald Trump, were the polls for the battleground states. Trump was favored to win Pennsylvania – and did. He was favored to win North Carolina. He did. He was favored to win Georgia in a close vote and it was close. Nevada was expected to turn red and did. Harris supposedly had narrow leads in Michigan and Wisconsin but lost both. 

And everyone knew – if all those seven state poll numbers were right (five were), Harris was going to lose. 

The only other states in doubt were New Hampshire and Minnesota, both expected to go blue, and they did. Nebraska Congressional District 1, also blue, went for Harris as predicted. 

In fact, there were only two states where the polling had the wrong person winning; and going into Election Night, the best possible outcome, based on the poll numbers, would have had Kamala Harris winning 236 electoral votes. 

You need 270 to prevail. 

So, as I once told an angry MAGA-man on X, “The polls are the polls,” and Trump, right now, is a magnificently unpopular President of the United States. 

(That angry MAGA man blocked me the same day.)

 

* 

PRESIDENT TRUMP was up at 2 a.m. this morning – no doubt worrying about the Iran War – and gas prices – and grocery prices – and where might be the beautiful Ms. Harp. So, he gathered his thoughts and attacked a television comedian, Stephen Colbert. 

Mr. Maturity, in the White House. 

Trump later posted an AI-generated video of himself grabbing Colbert and tossing him into a dumpster, like a rag doll. You knew right away that it had to be fake because Donald never lifts anything heavier than a Callaway Quantum Triple Diamond Driver on one of the golf courses that he owns.

___ 

 

5/25/26: It’s Memorial Day again, when we honor all those Americans who have served honorably in the Armed Forces. 

Which would, of course, be zero members of the president’s direct family line. Donald’s grandfather dodged service in Germany – and America – landing on our shores in 1885 and establishing the family tradition. Donald’s father would have been old to serve during World War II but chose not to take any risks. 

Patriot Donald? Bone fucking spurs. 

 

Don Jr. and Eric and Ivanka would have been the perfect age to serve after 9/11, but you know … family tradition. 

Now we come to the president’s grandchildren. Some of them could serve, and Barron Trump, too. Kai Trump could rush down to the recruiters’ office tomorrow; but she’s busy being an “influencer.” The most dangerous experience she’s had lately is going to an upscale grocery store and vlogging about it. 

No. I take that back. She attended the Ryder Cup – and could have been conked on the noggin’ by an errant shot off the tee. 

Donald J. Trump III turned 17 in February, so he can enlist in the Marines, as soon as Don Jr. grants permission. The next possible candidate to break the Trumps-don’t-serve streak is Tristan, Don Jr.’s second son. He’s 14, but he can start planning now. Parris Island beckons. And Don Jr. can also stress to Spencer, his 13-year-old son, that patriotism cannot come from the tongue alone. Also approaching service age: Arabella Kushner, Ivanka’s daughter, who will be fifteen in July. 

President Trump has 11 grandchildren, and if this blogger lives long enough, he hopes to see all of them prosper, and have children of their own, and finally break the family streak where all we get is hot air. 

As for Memorial Day, I vote Democratic and I was happy to march in a parade with other veterans today. My older brother, who used to vote Republican but now votes Democratic, and I both served during the Vietnam War. I didn’t go to Vietnam, although I volunteered twice. 

My brother didn’t want to go but did get shot at, which was no fun. 

So, when President Dumpling posts another one of his holiday hate messages, I have a math problem for him – and his often amazingly clueless fans. How many wars could a country win, if everybody “served” like people in the Trump clan? 

My brother and I outnumber the Trumps, all by ourselves. 

We lead: 2 to 0.

 

The answer (how many wars could we win) would be 0.

 

Tim Viall in Vietnam.

The blogger in the Marines - and thank you for your service.

Trump also spent valuable time raging at political foes of every shape and size, including former supporters: 

I laugh at all of the Dumocrats, RINOS, and Fools who know nothing about the potential deal I am making with Iran, things that haven’t even been negotiated yet, weak and ineffective people like failed Senator Thom Tillis (Soon out of office!), Bill Cassidy, who just suffered a massive Primary loss, really bad Congressman Thomas Massie, a major sleazebag who lost in a landslide to a great American Patriot (Endorsed by “TRUMP”) after showing tremendous disloyalty to his Party (and Country!), and almost all Dumocrats, people that have totally lost their way, constantly supporting bad policy and even worse candidates, but are constantly critical of each and every fantastic win I have.

 

These people should go home and rest, they do nothing but create division and loss. In other words, they are losers! The deal with Iran will either be a great and meaningful one, or there will be no deal. It will be the exact opposite of the JCPOA disaster negotiated by the failed Obama Administration, which was a direct and open path to a Nuclear Weapon for Iran. No, I don’t do deals like that! President DJT. 

 

Can we quickly point out that Massie’s major sins were: 

A. Pushing for release of the Epstein Files, in which his name does not appear. 

B. But Donald’s does (thousands of times) 

C. Voting against many of Trump’s favorite tax cuts – which Donald claimed would pay for themselves. 

D. Those tax cuts have not.

 

And might we also note that President Obama served two terms in the White House (and Congress never had a need to impeach his ass) and during those eight years the “open path” to a nuclear weapon stayed unopened. Which, if you’re a MAGA fan should tell you something, but sadly, won’t.

___ 

 

5/26/26: May may be winding down. But the crimes and blunders committed by the president and members of his mendacious inner circle just keep piling up. Earlier today, the U.S. launched a series of attacks on Iranian targets along the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranians still don’t know the war is over nor do they understand that they have lost. And as President Dumpling likes to say, for example, on April 4, we hold all the cards, and all the ayatollahs hold are their wieners. 

Somehow, the Strait remains closed. 

Gas prices are now incredibly high; and Americans are not buying The Dumpling’s excuses. In a recent poll, only 25% of those asked said that they approved of Trump’s handling of inflation and prices. Almost everyone else (72% of respondents) said they did not, with 57% “strongly” disapproving. 

That 25% approval shrinks rapidly, if we remove grifting members of the Trump family, all their grifting pals, all the billionaires who get to enjoy massive tax cuts, all the people who got bargain pricing on pardons they bought, and all January 6, 2021, rioters, who now dream of cashing in big on what I think should be called the “Trump Police Beaters’ and Pedophiles’ Relief Fund.” 

The plan to pay off all January 6 rioters, and all the liars who said the 2020 election was rigged and then lost defamation cases because they had no proof– at a cost to taxpayers of $1.176 billion – now appears headed for the dumpster. In a closed-door meeting with Acting Attorney General/Ghislaine Maxwell’s Best Bud Todd Blanche, Republican senators blasted the payoff plan. 

The New York Times noted: 

One participant … speaking on the condition of anonymity [emphasis added], said most Republican senators were incredulous that they were just learning the details of the fund and noted a lack of criteria for any payouts, including a specific prohibition against paying anyone who had been involved in violent actions. 

 

You didn’t read that wrong. Blanche could not even promise that rioters who clubbed cops with baseball bats would not be paid. 

Or rioters who tasered cops, or sprayed them with bear spray, or mace or punched them in the face. 

In fact, the whole fund was to be overseen by a board of five members – four picked by President Trump. One would be chosen by Congress.

Attack police with a baseball bat - and get rewarded.

 

 

The plan was a taxpayer rip off from the first capital letter of the first sentence to the last exclamation point at the end of the agreement. If you ever wonder why “the power of the purse” rests in the hands of the U.S. House of Representatives, now you may understand. Members of the House are elected every two years, giving us the quickest chance to vote them out if they waste our money, and they control how the federal government spends the cash we hand over. 

Well – that some of us hand over. If you have forgotten, President Dumpling fought for years to keep his tax returns hidden from the public, even though every other modern president voluntarily released theirs. The leaked documents obtained by The Times in 2020 showed that Citizen Donald paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016, when he originally ran for president – even though he was telling potential voters that he was a wildly successful billionaire businessman, himself. 

Then, in 2017, during his first year in office, he paid $750 again. I know I paid way more than that, myself. Go check your own tax records. You probably did, too. 

In 10 of the previous 15 years, Donald paid $0 income taxes to the federal government, simply by reporting large business losses. 

So, this plan stank from the start. But to make it worse, Republican lawmakers were afraid to criticize the plan publicly because they feared crossing Donald J. Trump. Not even if he had a plan to rip off taxpayers. 

(It’s like a job requirement for Congress to be a coward, I guess.) 

 

Even stranger, since the fund was supposedly set up to provide compensation to victims of “weaponization” by government agents or agencies, the entire fund would either be spent, or simply go off the books on December 15, 2028, just weeks before Dumpling Don would waddle off to Mar-a-Lago once and for all. No future president would have any money or power to pay off victims of “government weaponization.” Only Donald J. Trump would wield such power. 

Trump didn’t even have to play dumb – because the whole idea was dumb. And crooked. “I guess they made a settlement of some kind,” he told reporters – as if he, the most powerful man in the world, and never heard even a whisper about the deal. “I wasn’t involved in the settlement,” he claimed, but then added, “I could have been involved. But I didn’t choose to be.” 

Because he didn’t need to be. The Department of Justice was working for him – not the American people.

 

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Why would anyone trust the Trumps and their friends? 

If you’ve missed most of the facts over the last ten years, you may not understand why those of us who don’t like Donald don’t like Donald. It’s not Trump Derangement Syndrome, either. That’s just a made-up term without validity in the real world. Look: We know that the Trump Organization, wholly owned by the Trump family, was convicted on seventeen counts of tax fraud before. That scheme involved falsifying business records and then handing out “off-the-books perks to some of the Organization’s top executives. That led to the company getting hit with the maximum fine of $1.6 million. 

Donald Dumpling’s chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, pleaded guilty to fifteen felony counts, and spent several months in jail. 

And who can forget when the Trump children got barred from doing any future charity work in New York, after it was shown the Trump Organization was funneling donation money to Dad’s first presidential campaign. 

But wait, there’s more! We now know that the president executed more than 3,700 stock trades, forty to sixty per day, in the first three months of 2026. Many involved companies whose owners he favored with access or rewarded with policies highly advantageous to their operations. 

To sweeten the deal, President Trump bought stock in companies run by 15 of the 17 chief executives he brought with him to China earlier this month.  

We know the Trump family has profited enormously from its cryptocurrency business, while at the same time Donald Dumps was rolling back regulation of the industry. In fact, “Old Man Dumps” pardoned the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, which had helped the Trump family build its crypto start-up. 

We also know that Jeff Bezos, whose businesses receive federal contracts and depend on U.S. Postal Service rates, paid something close to $28 million to Melania Trump, to make a movie about her life. 

Mr. Trump’s sons and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are involved in multibillion-dollar business ventures in the Gulf Arab states “at the same time the president is making those nations favorites of his foreign policy.” 

As The New York Times has reported, “An investment firm tied to the United Arab Emirates made a $500 million investment in the Trump crypto firm just days before his inauguration.” 

Can you guess which country has been doing most of the shooting, since the Iran War began, to protect the U.A.E.? 

I bet you can. 

Call me a cynic, but I smell a whole bunch of rats – and I’m not alone. A poll by YouGov in March found that 54 percent of Americans believed the term “corrupt” applied “a lot” to the President of the United States.

 

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THE WHITE HOUSE press team spent most of today trying to beat back reports that “Old Man Dumps” often starts to snore during important cabinet meetings and public appearances at the White House. 

In an absolute waste of taxpayers’ money, they cobbled together a series of a dozen posts of reporters blinking on air – making it look as if they, too, were asleep on the job. 

 

The problem being – the pictures came from reporters who were on the air, talking. Or standing up, in front of the White House talking. So, this was just dumb. 

Or “dum.” 

If you’ve missed that little extra nugget of Trumpian genius, he has been pointing out how he has cleverly come up with a new name for the Democrats. It’s now “Dumocrats,” he says. It’s like Donald is seven. 

And not a smart seven-year-old, either. Donald went to the trouble to tell reporters that he had replaced only one letter, and then claimed that most people didn’t know there was a “b” at the end of dumb. 

I think we can now expect the president to come out and call Noah Webster “a loser” and a “low-IQ” individual.

 

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DONALD ALSO tried his hand at writing fan fiction (post presidency, I think he should write erotic novels for octogenarians and make himself the cover boy stud of the Social Security- demographic). 

Here’s the little tale he penned (posting it last week – but then posting it again today – because he liked it so much): 

                                    (Looks like he’s going to have to post it again. See below.)

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5/28/26: The U.S. and Iran have traded fire again. So, the ceasefire isn’t working the way Donald says it should. 

Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham has suggested that if Saudia Arabia will agree to recognize the right of Israel to exist (as the president is pushing the Saudis to do) then the Nobel Peace Prize should be renamed. 

For Trump!!!! 

 

BLOGGER SUGGESTION: I think it is time all Americans start sucking up to Donald Dumpling. I hereby recommend that the NFL rename the Lombardi Trophy, given to the winning team after each Super Bowl. Clearly, it must be, from this day forward, the Trump Trophy, and the silver football at the top shall be replace with a silver model of Trump’s head, bad hair and jowls perfectly crafted and lifelike. 

 

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THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE has decided to waste even more taxpayer dollars by opening a perjury investigation into E. Jean Carroll’s claims against … of course … President Trump. Her crime? Probably none. But she did convince two juries in two separate civil trials, that Donald had defamed her after she said he had sexually assaulted her while she was working in a New York City department store. 

The probe is expected to focus in part on the Reid Hoffman Trust, the entity that helped pay some of Carroll’s legal expenses. 

The blogger is pretty sure this is just another example of abuse of power; but he does admit he was surprised to see the Hoffman Trust involved. Reid Hoffman surfaces way too often in the Epstein Files. 

For example, one email seems to set up a dinner at Fuki Sushi restaurant, on April 8, 2106, with Hoffman. But the sender and recipient’s names are redacted – which is usually a bad sign. 

By law, the names of victims were supposed to be covered up. Meanwhile, Mr. Hoffman’s name shows up in the Files almost 2,700 times. 

Donald? 

Him, too. His name is slapped on those files almost as many time as he has lied to the American people, including his three wives.

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5/29/26: In Science News, we know that if a woman gets pregnant in 2026, she will have a much higher chance of catching measles. This year is the second worst since 2000, with 1,983 cases (as of yesterday) – and seven months left to go. 

If your child is under the age of five and gets infected, he or she will have a 10% chance of being hospitalized. 

Way to go RFK, Jr. 

Team Trump is responsible, in just the last sixteen months, for more cases, than have been diagnosed under the following presidents combined: George W. Bush (eight years), Barack Obama (eight years) and Joe Biden (four years). My math may be off a bit; but I am too lazy to double check. Those three presidents saw 2,877 cases in twenty years. Donald Dumpling and his Doctor Dopes have piled up almost 4,200 cases since they took charge again. If we add those to the 1,787 cases during his first term … 

Yeah, not good.

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5/31/26: May comes to an end. So, we’ll just have to pile up all the other reasons I don’t like Donald Trump, nor respect him, nor trust him, nor ever want to be invited to dine at Mar-a-Lago with his bimbo babe friends and their billionaire sugar daddies. And I don’t ever want to be within a thousand miles of White House aide Stephen Miller, a racist down to his warped core. 

We now know that Sarah Kellen, once one of Jeffrey Epstein’s key aides, testified that Philip Levine, Frederic Fekkai, and Patrick Demarchelier were among those clients to whom she was also trafficked. Levine, a Democrat, was the mayor of Miami Beach, from 2013 to 2017, adding to questions about the lax treatment of Epstein by the Florida justice system. Fekkai is a prominent hair stylist and entrepreneur. Demarchelier, now deceased, was a famous fashion photographer. 

It would be simplicity itself for the Department of Justice to start interviewing individuals like Levine and Fekkai, to see if a case could be built against them or any of the other alleged clients named in the Files.

 

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IT’S A FULL-TIME JOB to keep track of all the outright crooks and grifters in the Trump 2.0 administration. But honest individuals, some inside the government, others digging up dirt for the free press, keep exposing them. The New York Times had this to say about one of the grifters and/or crooks: 

For most of last year, Calley Means, a top aide to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was advising on changes to the American health system while running a rapidly growing wellness company poised to benefit from Trump administration health policies.

 

Records released to The New York Times by an ethics office at the Department of Health and Human Services show that Mr. Means held between $25 million and $50 million in stock in the company, Truemed, through November, as he continued to serve as its president. 

 

 

Until that time, Mr. Means worked as a “special government employee,” without pay, which allowed him to fly under the radar – and keep giving advice that could easily have boosted his company’s business by millions. 

In other grifter news, Clark Construction, the company tasked with building Donald Dumpling’s little ballroom got a sweet no-bid contract to refurbish fountains in Lafayette Park, across the road from the White House. The Biden administration had estimated the job would take $3.3 million. Clark Construction got a deal to do the work for $11.9 million. Then a few added perks (I mean: “tasks”) pushed the total to $17.4 million. The National Parks Service got around the requirement to call for bids by declaring the fountain repairs an “emergency” status.

 

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JEANINE PIRRO, the U.S. attorney in Washington has had (shall we say) an unusual change of mind. With Donald clamoring for her to launch a criminal investigation into the workings of Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, Pirro got the ball rolling. Then it turned out a Republican senator was going to block Trump’s nominee to replace Powell, if the Department of Justice kept pushing a questionable revenge indictment. 

So, Pirro dropped the case. 

Then Donald’s replacement, Kevin Marsh, got the votes he needed for confirmation. 

May Fools? Pirro now says she thinks that an indictment of Mr. Powell, whose real crime has been to resist the president’s demands to shape fiscal policy solely on what Donald wants done, may in fact be a wonderful idea. 

A grand jury already quashed a request for subpoenas in the case, mostly because there’s not enough evidence to indict even a ham sandwich. This is equivalent to a grand jury telling DOJ, “Fuck off.”

 

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NOT SERVING in the military is a Family Trump tradition and piling up money by relying on the family head to abuse his position is the latest chapter in a sad saga. 

First, Don Jr. invests in a startup company – sort of a corporate newborn – with the baby squalling for milk. (In this case: government largesse.) Second, a White House advisor, Peter Navarro, calls the Pentagon and makes it clear that a contract worth $620 million should be awarded to the baby company, Vulcan. 

Third, Don Jr. and other investors cash in big. 

Vulcan will work on expanding the search for rare earth materials, essential to many advanced weapons systems, in the United States. A noble goal – since China controls virtually all existing facilities to refine rare earth elements. 

The problem is Don Jr. getting preferential treatment. As one expert says of that $620 million, “This is our money they’re spending. This is corruption we pay for.”

 

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WE CAN ALSO REPORT that Sergey Brin – a Russian immigrant and co-founder of Google – has decided to spend some of his $273 billion to start pushing politicians and local, state and federal governments toward policy positions he favors. It’s kind of like when Big Tobacco paid doctors to appear in advertisements and tell smokers, “Don’t worry, these cigarettes are perfectly safe.” 

Or Big Coal saying, “Hey, our miners are paid well, and we care about their safety and who ever heard of ‘black lung?’” 

Or Big Pharma pushing the benefits of fentanyl as a pain killer. 

That worked out well. 

Brin has been pushing hard this month to block proposals in California to institute a “billionaire’s tax.” So far, he has put $57 million into that fight – because, let’s face it, no billionaire wants to lose even one of his or her many billions. 

Brin’s parents came to America as refugees, fleeing anti-Semitism and in the Soviet Union. And if it were up to him, this blogger would welcome anyone fleeing communist oppression, as Sergey’s parents did. Now his girlfriend, Gerelyn Gilbert-Soto, is “a Trump-loving gut-health influencer.” 

Brin went so far as to pull California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom aside at a party last December – given at the home of billionaire Chris Larsen – to make his opposition to that new tax proposal clear. 

That idea calls for a one-time 5% tax on billionaires – or, roughly, $13.65 billion in Mr. Brin’s case – reducing him to a paltry $259.35 billion. 

I’m not sure it helps a great deal to have another billionaire, Tom Steyer, running for governor on the Democratic ticket; but at least he favors the new tax proposal. 

Chris Larsen is a crypto dude; his personal wealth has nearly tripled since Trump took office for the second time. He’s now worth $9.2 billion. Steyer, who started his own hedge fund, is estimated to be worth $2.4 billion – which has allowed him to spend $192.4 million of his own on his race to be governor. 

I suspect that if you added up the personal wealth of all the people who have ever attended the same parties as you, that you would not get a combined worth of $1 billion.

 

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THE DOJ was humiliated again after charges were dropped against six protesters in Illinois. Those protesters, who had supposedly gone too far in blocking ICE agents and damaging a federal vehicle, were first hit with felony charges. Okay, those charges weren’t going to stick. So, prosecutors settled for misdemeanor charges. Then the judge in their case chastised prosecutors for misconduct related to the grand jury and those charges were also dropped. 

The U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Andrew S. Boutros, was reduced to defending prosecution missteps, promising, “No one acted with the intent to mislead your honor.”

 

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WITH DONALD TRUMP’S plans for a huge Freedom 250 concert collapsing, as artists pull out, the president has a creative new idea. Hey, what if he made himself the main attraction! Who’da thunk it! 

Trump would get up on a stage and talk about himself, about his greatness, the greatest president ever. It would be the perfect way to celebrate the United States of America. 

Right? 

 

FUN FACT: We must also report that a federal judge has told The Dumpling that he must remove his name from the Kennedy Center. The building was named by Congress and only Congress can change its name. 

Trump handled this development with all the maturity we love to see him display. With his name slapped on the façade, he was all-in on renovations and making the Trump-Kennedy Center great. 

Now, if his name isn’t going to be on it, he says he’s washing his hands of the mess, and the Democrats can have it and go f**k themselves.