The Katie Johnson (Jane Doe) Interview

What follows is the transcript (auto generated) of the interview with Katie Johnson regarding Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. It has not been edited except to remove the time stamps. Because of auto-generation of captions, there may be some small discrepancies between the text and what was actually said.

The video is here: https://youtu.be/TRZa_cVshcI Katie Johnson’s Full Testimony of 2 11 16

Edit: There is no conclusive evidence proving the video is real or that the woman depicted is genuinely “Katie Johnson” from the lawsuit. The testimony matches the language in a now-dismissed legal complaint but has not been independently authenticated by credible news outlets, fact-checkers, or investigators. The veracity of both the accuser’s identity and her allegations against Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein remains unproven and highly disputed. This transcript and the link to the video are presented here as a part of the whole.

I came to this interview on my free will
no there was nothing promised to me for
doing this interview excellent yes
everything that I say at this interview
will be the truth um I met Donald Trump
um at some parties I attend um that I
was working um for Mr Jeffrey
Epstein um there was about three or four
times that I um had encounters with
Donald Trump I was 13
the first time that I met Donald Trump
uh was at uh a party at Jeffrey
Epstein's um
Mansion uh we
were he was there was a um an orgy going
on and he
was kind of watching off in the distance
um
and and he basically asked
um if I could come over
and give him um give him a hand job and
at first I wasn't very comfortable with
it this was like my first you know first
party and I I didn't you know I didn't
think that that was my
responsibility uh but my recruiter told
me that I needed to do it um so I agreed
to and um then he you know I said I
began to sorry this is um a little
difficult but um
before I gave him a hand job he kind of
slapped my hand away and said um you
need to use a glove and the recruiter
ran over and handed me a glove and said
no one touches Mr Trump's penis without
a glove so I needed to use a glove I um
gave him a hand job and then um
immediately after you know he had an
orgasm he left and I didn't see him
again at that party Jeffrey Epstein um
is a billionaire friend of Donald
Trump's that um was responsible for
throwing the sex parties um there was um
I originally um came to New York trying
to be a model and um in my travels I met
a girl named Tiffany there um who um was
very interested in me and said that you
know she that's what she did is that she
helped girls you know get what they
wanted and and and she could help me get
get into modeling that she knew a lot of
um people that were that were higher ups
and that it would be no problem um and
so that's why you know she but I would
just basically have to come model um at
a couple of events and meet some people
there would be no sweat so um of course
I went you know that sounded like no big
deal um and she was recruiting the girls
to come to these
parties um and and they all looked I
mean most of them were you know my age
there was you know maybe a couple girls
that were maybe 14 or 15 but it seemed
to me like we were all very young so
okay um Jeffrey Epstein knew that I was
um 13 years old uh when he interviewed
me um he asked me to get um down to my
BR my just my panties and I thought that
was weird but I mean modeling maybe it
was something about my figure um and he
asked that I give him a massage so
he then he asked me my age he asked me
and I told him you know told him that I
was 13 I told him why I was there um and
and he basically said well you'll do you
know I'm sure that you'll you'll fit
pretty nicely here and then he he tried
to uh basically um slip himself inside
of me and I I pushed him away and I said
you know I'm I'm cuz at that point in
time I still believed that there was
models and then there was the girls that
did that like I thought there was a sep
ation so um I I told him that I wasn't
interested in that but he said that I
would do um and as far as Donald Trump
um he knew that I was 13 and I believe
that Tiffany told him he seemed to take
a liking to me because I was a I was so
young um and um I was also a virgin so I
don't know he's it seemed like he wasn't
really into having um having girls that
that were liked by the other guys he
kind of you know the whole glove he kind
of liked things to be his first you know
that for lack of you know a better term
but he was the one who
wanted to um get to get to a girl before
everyone else did Donald Trump knew that
I was 13 um because the first the first
night that I was there uh Tiffany
actually suggested that and she had a
whole bunch of different wigs and I
express interest in them you know I
always told her that I would love to
walk around with blue hair and so I
tried some on and um there was a blonde
wig that that that she said that looked
great on me so I wore that wig um and
Donald Trump had specifically asked
about me because I remind him of his
daughter and she said well she's 13 as
well so he knew the first time that he
saw me but he took a liking to me
because I look like his daughter
the reason I'm coming out now um is when
it happened originally I just wanted to
forget about the whole incident uh and
when I saw that he was running for
president um I felt it was my
responsibility to come out and tell our
country um what kind of man this person
is um I don't think that he should even
be the dog catcher let alone running uh
the greatest country in the world after
I met Tiffany at the bus station um
she took me to basically went to her
house her apartment and got ready um I
put on a blonde wig because it seemed
fun to pretend to be someone different
but uh we went to the party that that I
was basically inter interviewing for um
and Jeffrey Epstein was the one that was
running the party um he had a quick
meeting with everyone that was um
employed there and then um he had um a
private interview with me the first time
that I met Jeffrey Epstein um he did try
to force
himself um inside of me without getting
to go ahead or anything um and then um
on the it
was probably about the third or fourth
party is when um he basically
um uh forced was it was another massage
and it was basically like it wasn't sex
um but it was there was penetration and
I told him that I didn't want that but
um he kind of got a little irritated so
I don't know there was something about
him that
um I guess I kind of um held him like I
held a lot of resentment towards him by
that time that that happened I I kind of
already started catching on that maybe I
wasn't there for modeling and maybe I
was just getting used for things and I
felt that kind of held him
responsible um I did receive money to go
to these parties after every um party um
I was paid by Mr Mr
Epstein there
wasn't out of all the girls that were
there with me I never I've most of them
were 13 14 I think the oldest one might
have
been 16 just but just turned 16 um and
she'd been there for a
while um it was actually it was Tiffany
um he
was it he was he he liked to watch other
people have sex I I I it was must and he
he's a germ doesn't like germs so he
rather than partaking he just watches so
um and Tiffany had informed him that I
was the Virgin um and
so he was I was
basically um
sorry I I I so it was Tiffany who
introduced us
okay second time that I saw Mr Trump um
was same scenario he was uh on looking
some at an orgy and uh Tiffany came over
to me and said that Donald Donald Trump
had requested that I perform oral sex on
him um and and never I'd never done
something like that with anybody so I
was a little nervous um so I walked up
to him uh and and he was standing
sitting there very proud like and I just
kind of moved in that direction and he
kind of slapped me away and said what
are you doing you know you need to put a
condom on like I was some like dirty
filter or something without a condom and
Tiffany ran over um and handed him a you
know me a condom and apologized you know
profusely and said that would never
happen again um that that and she looked
at me and and scolded me basically like
a child and said that that's not how you
know Donald Trump always you know any
time you touch his penis it needs to
have a condom on or glove you know you
owe and especially when it comes
performing oral sex so um I apologized
and then um I performed oral sex on him
and once again once he was done he
hopped up and that's the last I saw of
him at that party it's like once he's
done out so okay okay sometimes before
the I some of the things that I noticed
that were weird with him was sometimes
before the parties he would come over um
and him Jeffrey Epstein and himself
would kind of banter back and forth and
he was very uh Donald Trump was very
racist he said a lot of racist things
like there was uh there was a lot of
comments um towards Mr Epstein about you
know being Jewish um and you called him
a Jew bastard you know so that he was
Chap and there was some words I didn't
even understand something about um his
his P you know the shape of his penis um
being directly related to his mole or I
mean I'm I'm not too familiar with the
Jew you know the Jewish tradition so but
I'm pretty sure that whatever he was
saying wasn't very nice um also referred
to you know people of Hispanic or you
know Hispanic n they called him spicks
um was that was around the first time
that the World Trade Center had gotten
the bombed in the in the '90s um and he
was you know talking about the towel
heads and how you know we would just be
better off if we you know uh didn't let
him in or you know basically got rid of
everyone every single one that was
already here and I thought I just that
it made me really uncomfortable really
really uncomfortable he also loved to to
call black people um
[ __ ] and he um Arabic people he
called sand
[ __ ] um the only time that um that he
tried to give me some money was the last
our last encounter
together um where he acted out of rape
fantasy um it just
um I was forced to I was forced to give
that money back because
uh Jeffrey Epstein paid us um after the
party so but he just gave me the money I
I don't even know why he gave it to me
maybe to make me feel more cheap but it
was um it was a pretty I it was a rap
fantasy to him but I I wasn't playing so
there was those there was those two
times um and then there was after the
next the next thing that was that
Tiffany approaching with was that he had
a fantasy where he walked in on his maid
um Maids basically making out and that
he it was some type of fantasy for him
so she asked I mean I was at that point
I was like I don't want to be involved
with anything that has to do with him
but she's like you were just basically
the the other one so there's nothing
that you will have to do just don't you
know just he wants he's requesting you
to be involved so um I
reluctantly I mean I don't I I felt like
I didn't have a choice there but
um it was basically he's walking in his
two Maids I was one of the maids I was
the white maid and there was um a
Spanish girl U Maria who was the
Hispanic maid and we were making out and
he walks in and he gets really angry and
threatens to send call Immigration on
Maria if she doesn't come over and make
things right and give him a
[ __ ] so
while she is over there giving him a
[ __ ] I am just look trying to you
know I'm supposed to look scared like oh
oh no you know and you cleaning try to
cleaning up things and pretending like
I'm trying to go back to my job as a
maid um and then he he's being so rude
to Maria I felt so bad for her um even
though I guess it just didn't seem like
a fantasy it didn't it didn't seem like
it it's the weirdest fantasy
as far as that you know he was
threatening he was threatening to call
Immigration on her you know so that she
didn't know how to you know she went to
she wasn't even near going down to give
him um perform oral sex on him before he
slapped her away and said you know what
are you doing you know you need to put a
condom on and and she's trying to M you
know I'm so sorry and he's like you
can't even can't even understand what
you're saying you know just you speak
English you know called her derogatory
um comments um and then he's like you
know what you don't know what you're
doing have her come over and show you
how it's done and
so I
again I said that I didn't you know I
had to go over there or else he was
going to call Immigration on Maria I
didn't know if it was true or not but I
felt that you know he said that if I
wasn't if I didn't show her how to
perform oral sex on him then he was
going to
um call Immigration on her and then get
rid of us
both you know it was anything that was
in relation to him getting off or being
satisfied or happy had to do with him
being in power but extreme power and
it's it's very
um it's very hard to even it was it was
always intimidating when he was like
that it was always you didn't really
know if it is true or I mean like if you
refuse to play along would he really
call Immigration on Maria would he
really get rid of us both and I didn't
even want to know what that meant you
know I always didn't it wasn't a
game it just felt like it wasn't a game
yeah the one night that I had the blonde
wig on um he mentioned that I looked
like you know I looked like to you know
that I reminded him of his daughter um
and actually the the the maid
fantasy I didn't have a blonde wig on I
was trying to stay away from blonde wigs
since the time but he actually requested
told Tiffany that that's what he wanted
me to wear like he wanted it and he's
and anytime I put it on anytime I had it
on and he'd see me he would say oh man
you look just and it wasn't like a oh
you remind me of my daughter it was this
sick evil like H you remind me of my
daughter it was just this weird pleasure
sick smile like I I don't even want to
know what he was thinking about I I
could imagine what he was thinking about
after the parties would end uh we were
to report to Mr Epstein and basically
tell him everything that happened uh
with who um what they liked what they
disliked if there was any requests if
there was any um talk about anything uh
that's what you know we told Mr abstein
everything and then he paid us and then
we got to go home and most with me you
know I would either you know I normally
got
taken taken to the airport you know so
to go back home the fact that Trump has
a chance to be the next president makes
me feel disgusting inside I've always
been proud to be an American I think we
live in a beautiful
country but I just see him ruining
everything he's a horrible what he
portrays on the outside isn't even that
great but people don't even know the
half of how evil how sick and twisted
that man is I have a friend that's been
my
friend ever since the school year that I
stopped going you know the the eighth
grade I confided her and she knows all
about it she knows everything I mean I I
destroyed everything of like you know
any planes to I didn't I couldn't risk
my my dad finding out um and now I think
I'm old enough to
where I think I don't think you I at
that point I didn't want to not be his
little girl you know I
didn't want to lose my dad basically I I
any I would never uh as far as keeping
proof of any of the trips um the only
person I never told my parents you know
I there would be no happy you know there
would be no good outcome of telling my
parents you know they would have
grounded me
um I would have never been allowed of
the house you know my my father would
have come unglued um I did tell a friend
my best she's still my best friend of
this day she knows everything she knows
it all I'm prepared to do whatever it
takes to
save the country that I believe that we
have I know what he does behind P like
closed doors like if it if that's all
I'm willing to sacrifice my life to put
our country back to in the right like
going maybe in some type of positive
direction not even there's no right or
wrong but a positive direction this
guy's not going to take us anywhere
positive you know as far as um my life
changing by coming out with this
information I've thought long and hard
about um whether or not I should uh and
I've gone back and forth um but I think
that I I can't I think that the American
people need to know what kind of man
this person is
um and if my life changes because of
that then so be it but the American
people need to know what they're dealing
with if I had the chance to talk to
Donald Trump I would run the other way
I'm scared of him like I've never been
scared of any anything else in my entire
life I I I can't I can't explain it to
you but I just the fear of him even
being in the Next Room
make I have a panic I would have I have
a panic
attack um the last encounter that I had
with Donald Trump um Tiffany approached
me about um a rape scene that was
supposed to be played out and
I didn't like I didn't like the sound of
that at all but um Tiffany prom ured me
that it wasn't going to be if I if it
was anything I wasn't comfortable with
we could stop um that she would be right
there and that um it would it wouldn't
get out of it wouldn't get out of hand
and that um it was just it was a fantasy
like it wasn't really going to happen um
and so she I told her that I would uh
she she basically I mean Tiffany was
always nice to me she wasn't that I felt
I trusted her else I you know and I
wouldn't always trusted her or done what
she asked me to but um she was there
and uh he came in and I was basically
tied to a bed um with panty
hose uh
and he tied him there were so tied I
could it hurt to even like lay there and
I tried to you know triy to say
something and it was like you know he's
just you know shut up you shut up [ __ ]
you know this is was basically like he
was he was being really really rough and
and I understand I don't I mean just
didn't seem like a fantasy um and I
started to get scared and and he was you
know basically like ripping my clothes
off and and I was actually really I
started I got freaked out and um I told
him that I didn't want to do this I was
you know I screamed over for Tiffany you
she was like Mr Trump she's only you
know she's not she's this is scaring her
and he's like oh you shut up too he just
turned into this animal it was like a
completely
different um completely compl different
person um it was like everyone in the
room was scared of him and uh I was um
it was like I
uh I couldn't do anything about
it
and he ripped off all my clothes
and
he started to basically have sex with me
and I screaming cuz I'd never had sex
before it was my first time and Tiffany
was yelling at him too she she was
saying I was a virgin and he told us to
just shut the [ __ ] up and just
basically took my virginity while I was
crying and telling him to stop and
that's basically begging for him to just
stop
uh and I don't I Tiffany
was didn't know what else to do either
she no one was there to help us or
me
um and
[Music]
so so after the fact he he he basically
finishes it you know didn't it didn't
take that long um at all I mean it but
it was just it felt like it was like 5
and 1 half hours like it was a eternity
like I don't even know how long it was
but um he was done and I was crying and
Tiffany was Consulting me and she was
you know apologizing she told me that
she would never she
didn't she just never put me in that
situation again but uh he comes over mad
because I was crying and so that I
should be thankful that someone like
Donald Trump took my virginity but he
basically didn't say took my virginity
he said I should be glad that someone
like Donald Trump popped my cherry and
not some pimply little
14-year-old and I just was like What if
I I I said what if I get pregnant not
even talking to him I didn't want to
talk to him I was talking to Tiffany and
he said well you'll get an abortion then
[ __ ] and then just walked away
um and I I I asked I I I went I told
Tiffany I needed to go home I never went
back again
I guess
um I guess it's for you to decide you
know I mean if I don't have any kids
myself um because I'm afraid to have
kids because I who knows what kind of
damage they can get into but if you have
a 13-year-old daughter and you're I mean
would you be okay with the person person
who's running our country doing that to
your little
girl and I
just I don't know I just want people to
know I think that I I have I have a
faith in our in our society that we'll
make the right
choice he seemed to be taking uh great
pleasure and like dominance and control
and and just the more I screamed the
more I got scared the more he was
enraged and like
power enraged with power and and it was
like he was just charged with it it was
scary my experience um with Donald Trump
and has made it to where um
I
I can't be in a healthy relationship
much less I can't be in a relationship
without um without myself sabotaging it
I don't um I don't do
well I I mean I I've I've been in I've
been in a couple of relationships I mean
they never of interest to me normally
but one in particular that was a a
wonderful he was a wonderful man and I
completely knowing I I I I had like
subconsciously it I couldn't even
control myself it was like I had to get
him out of my life because you know I
don't I don't know why it was like
anytime anyone loves me I don't feel
worth it or you know um
I've I mean
i' I don't even know how to explain it
like I can't friends I can have
acquaintance that guys that are
acquaintances but I just you know
anytime it's maybe someone express any
else besides that I
can't I take some type of pleasure not
some type of I don't take pleasure in it
but
subconsciously whether I mean to or not
sometimes I've meant to it's like i' i'
I've purposely hurt their feelings um
just so they'll never talk to me again
like I make sure that it's not ever a
possibility and Donald Trump Donald
Trump destroyed my feeling of selfworth
and my self-esteem when it was still
like when it was when it just bloomed it
hadn't even had a chance to experience
anything
um I have I have only spoken to to one
therapist about this just recently
actually
um I for the long time I just really
just tried to forget about it just tried
very hard but um I've been to counseling
for other things um and I went to
counseling for a previous the previous
relationship that I was sabotaging and
my counselor said something has happened
to you that where you were just you need
to deal with that that's actually what
kind of was like hm he knew that there
was something that had happened where I
was self self Saab you know sabotaging
these
relationships but you know he said that
it was my responsibility to deal with it
of
course uh this the situation with Donald
Trump has has left it destroyed my
self-esteem and and it's made it to
where I feel like it's destroyed part of
my life um I haven't the only he healthy
relationship I've completely
demolished um and I love to choose the
dysfunctional ones that I know I can
just push away uh
he after what happened with him
I can't trust a man ever
again
I thinking about it just makes
me sick to my
stomach someone when something so
traumatic happens to someone that's so
young you never ever really get over it

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The Old Wolf has spoken, but Katie has spoken more loudly, and her words need to reverberate around the world until these child rapists are brought to justice.

Mitch McConnell is retiring. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Moira Donegan

Shared from The Guardian for wider exposure. Original link: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/24/mitch-mcconnell-is-retiring-from-us-politics-good-riddance

Whenever you see a horror of anti-democratic rule, remember Mitch McConnell. You have him to thank

You would think that this is exactly what Mitch McConnell wanted. McConnell, the 83-year-old Kentucky senator – who announced last week that he will retire in 2026 and not seek an eighth term – is one of the most influential Republicans in the history of the party. But he has in recent weeks expressed dissent and discontent with the direction of the Republican party. He voted against some of Donald Trump’s cabinet appointees, refusing, for example, to cast a vote for the confirmation of the anti-diversity campaigner and alleged rapist and drunk Pete Hegseth.

He has also voiced some tepid and belated opposition to Republicans’ extremist agenda, citing his own experience as a survivor of childhood polio as a reason for his opposition to Republican attacks on vaccines. But the Republican party that McConnell is now shaking his head at is the one that he created. He has no one but himself to blame.

Over his 40 years in the US Senate, with almost two decades as the Republican leader in the chamber, McConnell has become one of the most influential senators in the nation’s history, radically reshaping Congress, and his party, in the process. Few have done more to erode the conditions of representative democracy in America, and few have done more to enable the rise of oligarchy, autocracy and reactionary, minoritarian governance that is insulated from electoral check. McConnell remade America in his own image. It’s an ugly sight.

In the end, McConnell will be remembered for one thing only: his enabling of Trump. In 2021, after Trump refused to respect the results of the 2020 election and sent a violent mob of his supporters to the Capitol to stop the certification of the election results by violent force, McConnell had an opportunity to put a stop to Trump’s authoritarian attacks on the constitutional order.

McConnell never liked Trump, and by that point, he didn’t even need him: he had already won what would be his last term. He could have voted to convict Trump at his second impeachment; if he had, it’s likely that other Republican senators would have been willing to do so, too, and that Trump could have been convicted and prevented from returning to power. He didn’t. McConnell voted to acquit, and to allow Trump to rise again. If the next four years of Trump’s restoration are anything like the first 30 days have been, then that will turn out to have been the singularly significant decision of McConnell’s career.

But McConnell had been working against American democracy long before Trump sent the mob to ransack the Senate chamber and smear feces on the walls. It was McConnell, after all, who is most responsible for the current campaign finance regime, which has allowed unlimited amounts of dark money spending to infiltrate politics – making elections more influenceable, and politicians’ favor more purchasable, in ways that tilt public policy away from the people’s interests and towards those of the billionaire patron class.

Such arrangements of funding and favors are not consistent with democracy; they change politicians’ loyalties, diminish the influence of voters, diminish constituents and their needs to a mere afterthought or communications problem in the minds of elected representatives. This was by design, and it is how McConnell liked it. In Washington, he operated at the center of a vast funding network, moving millions and millions of dollars towards those Republicans who did his bidding, and away from those who bucked his authority.

It was partly his control over this spiderlike web of wealthy funders that allowed McConnell to exert such control over his caucus. It is hard to remember these days, when Republicans pick so many fights with each other, that the party was once feared for their discipline. McConnell was able to snuff out any meaningful dissent and policy difference in public among Republican senators with the threat of his deep-pocketed friends, always ready to fund a primary challenger. The lockstep from Republicans allowed McConnell to pursue what he viewed as his twin goals: stopping any Democratic agenda in Congress, and furthering the conservative capture of the federal courts.

As Senate Republican leader during the Obama years, McConnell pursued a strategy of maximal procedural obstructionism. His mandate was that no Republican in the Senate would vote for any Obama agenda item – that there would be no compromise, no negotiation, no horse trading, no debate, but only a stonewalled total rejection of all Democratic initiatives. This has become the singular way that Republicans operate in the Senate; it was McConnell who made it that way.

The underlying assumption of McConnell’s strategy of total opposition and refusal was that Democrats, even when they win elections, do not have a legitimate right to govern. In practice, the authorities of the presidency or congressional majorities expand and contract based on which party is in power: Republicans can achieve a great deal more in the White House, or with control of Congress, than Democrats can.

In part this is because of McConnell’s procedural approach, which posits bending the rules to suit Republican interests when they are in power, and enforcing the rules to the point of functionally arresting legislative business when Democrats take the majority. This, too, is antithetical to democracy: constitutional powers can’t be limited for one party, and expanded for another, so that voters are only fully represented if they vote one way. The strategy of obstructionism functionally ended Congress as a legislative body in all but the most extreme of circumstances. What was once the most representative, electorally responsive, and important branch of the federal government has receded to the status of a bit player, and policymaking power has been abdicated to the executive and the courts. That’s McConnell’s doing, too.

Maybe it was part of McConnell’s indifference to the integrity of democracy meant that he refused, during the Obama era, to confirm any of the president’s judicial nominees. Vacancies on the federal courts accumulated, with seats sitting empty and cases piling up for the overworked judges who remained. But McConnell’s seizure of the judicial appointment power from the executive was only in effect when the president was a Democrat; when Republicans were in power, he jammed the courts full of far-right judges.

When Antonin Scalia died in 2016, under Obama, McConnell held the US supreme court seat open for almost a year, hoping that Trump would win the 2016 election and get the chance to appoint a right-wing replacement. When Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, just a few weeks before the 2020 election, McConnell jammed through the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett. His tendencies, then, were always authoritarian: power, in his view, did not belong to those the people elected to represent them. It belonged, always, to Republicans – no matter what the voters had to say about it.

Mitch McConnell is an old man. In 2026, when he finally leaves office, he will be 84. He will not have to live in the world that he made, the one where what was left of American democracy is finally snatched away. But we will. Whenever you see a horror of anti-democratic rule – whenever cronyism is rewarded over competence, whenever cruelty is inflicted over dignity, whenever the constitution is flouted, mocked or treated as a mere annoyance to be ignored by men with no respect for the law or for you – remember Mitch McConnell. You have him to thank.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

WHY SOME TRUMP SUPPORTERS WILL GO DOWN WITH THE SHIP

Re-blogging this because it’s a good read – clear, cogent, and accurate.

“There are two kinds of people who voted for Donald J. Trump in 2024. The first group was conned—they bought the sales pitch, got burned, and are just now starting to realize they were used. Veterans who lost their jobs, farmers who went bankrupt, blue-collar workers whose towns never saw the economic boom Trump promised—they’re pissed off, and rightfully so.

But then there’s the second group.

The ones who will never wake up. The ones who, no matter how many times Trump lies, betrays, fails, or humiliates them, will stand by him until the bitter end. They will make excuses, twist logic into knots, ignore reality, and cling to their delusions with both hands—because admitting the truth would break them.

These people aren’t victims of Trump anymore. They’re willing participants in their own destruction.”

Read the full post at Closer to the Edge on Substack.

The Old Wolf has recommended

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Elon Musk Launches Into American Politics

This is a transcript of a New York Times podcast from December 13, 2024. All rights belong to the originator and owner.

The world’s richest man may now be the single most influential figure in the emerging White House of Donald Trump.

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email transcripts@nytimes.com with any questions.

rachel abrams
From “The New York Times,” I’m Rachel Abrams, and this is “The Daily.”

[THEME MUSIC]

After single-handedly remaking the auto industry, social media, and the global space race, Elon Musk is now turning his attention and personal fortune to politics. Over the past few months, he became the single most influential figure in the race for president and now the emerging White House of Donald Trump. Today, my colleagues Kirsten Grind and Eric Lipton on what exactly Musk wants from the new president and why he’s so well-poised to get it.

It’s Wednesday, November 13.

Kirsten, we spent the last few months watching as Elon Musk really became kind of the face of Donald Trump’s campaign for president. And in the days since he won, Musk has only increased his proximity to President-elect Trump. And last night, of course, Trump announced that Musk would lead a new government agency. What will Musk’s specific role in the Trump administration be?

kristen grind
Late Tuesday evening, Donald Trump announced a bunch of new appointments to his new administration. And included in that was this role for Elon Musk. And what Donald Trump said is that Elon Musk will be leading up this completely new government department focused on efficiency. Efficiency is something that Elon Musk has been obsessed with for years. And basically, it’s just showing how much power Elon Musk is going to have in this administration and how much Donald Trump respects his opinion.

rachel abrams
Kirsten, you’ve covered Musk for years. Did any of this surprise you?

kristen grind
So I’m an investigative reporter who has written a lot about Elon Musk. And I have to say, I could have never predicted this political transformation that has happened over the last year. For him to become so involved in politics after really staying out of it for most of his life and career and being in the room with Donald Trump on election night is a metamorphosis I definitely was not prepared for.

rachel abrams
How did we get from a guy you would never have expected to get into politics to someone who’s about to potentially serve the White House?

kristen grind
The thing to understand about Elon Musk is that he really believes his goal in life and his mission is to save humanity. He has made it his focus and the focus of all of his companies to save the world. For example, he started SpaceX more than two decades ago with the goal of getting humanity to Mars in case something happened to Earth. He was an early investor in Tesla and became its CEO because he was worried about fossil fuels.

rachel abrams
And he’s become the world’s richest man by doing all of these ventures. But how do we go from that and from him wanting to save humanity, possibly by colonizing Mars, to basically becoming a key supporter and really a surrogate for Trump?

kristen grind
It’s a very unusual and unconventional transformation. For most of his early career, he had leaned Democratic, but really he just wasn’t into politics at all. And for the most part, he stayed out of it. But there’s a few things that happened in the last four years that really started to shift his outlook.

[QUIRKY MUSIC]

So let’s start in 2020, the pandemic.

archived recording 1
All of California this morning now under a shelter-in-place order.

archived recording 2
Governor Newsom’s order, an unprecedented action, calls for —

kristen grind
California had tons of stay-at-home restrictions on residents and businesses. And most of Elon Musk’s company operations were in California. And Musk speaks out against what’s happening.

archived recording (elon musk)
Is it right to infringe upon people’s rights, as what is happening right now?

kristen grind
He is extremely antiregulation, hates to have the government or really anyone tell him what to do.

archived recording (elon musk)
This is fascist.

kritsten grind
And so the fact that he was going to have to close his Tesla factories because of the pandemic made him so angry.

archived recording (elon musk)
This is not freedom. Give people back their goddamn freedom.

kristen grind
And finally, he threatened and then ultimately did move factories out of the state.

rachel abrams
Wow, so this really pushed him over the edge what happened in California.

kristen grind
It really did. But then something happened the next year in 2021 that was even more angering to him, and which seems like a small thing, but has been something that he’s like never been able to get over.

[APPLAUSE]

archived recording (joe biden)
Please, everybody sit down. Please, please, please.

kristen grind
The Biden administration held this electric vehicle summit.

archived recording (joe biden)
And I also want to thank the leaders of the big three companies for being here today.

kristen grind
And they invited all the big carmakers from all over the country to go.

archived recording (joe biden)
— when they make the first electric Corvette, I get to drive it.

[chuckles]
Right, Mary?

kristen grind
Except for Tesla and Elon Musk.

archived recording (elon musk)
Biden held this EV summit.

kristen grind
Elon was furious.

archived recording (elon musk)
He didn’t mention Tesla once and praised GM and Ford for leading the EV revolution.

archived recording 3
So you were a pissed.

archived recording (elon musk)
Does this is sound maybe a little biased?

kristen grind
And he has never been able to let this go, the snub from the Biden administration.

archived recording (elon musk)
It’s not the friendliest administration.

It seems to be controlled by the unions, as far as I can tell.

kristen grind
And basically, it created so much tension between Tesla and the administration that that also kind of set him on his political journey.

rachel abrams
So it sounds like the Biden administration is on notice at this point that Musk is really upset. And it’s not just for business reasons. It’s really becoming kind of personal.

kristen grind
That’s right. But it also becomes ideological, too, because remember, around 2022, he buys Twitter, renames it X. And he basically says he buys it to make it a free speech platform. He especially thinks that conservatives had been censored on Twitter. Remember, at this point, Donald Trump had been kicked off Twitter and other conservative voices.

And he wants it to be this sort of place for free speech of all kinds. And around this time, he really start to see a shift in what he is posting about on X. And it becomes way more focused on what he’s called the woke mind virus. What this basically means is, for example, diversity, equity, and inclusion measures, transgender rights, pronoun use, all of that seems to be angering Elon Musk significantly on X. And he starts posting about it more and more.

[TENSE MUSIC]

archived recording (elon musk)
So it’s very possible for adults to manipulate children who are having a natural identity crisis into believing that they are the wrong gender.

kristen grind
And I want to bring up this other thing that, to me, really shows how far down this rabbit hole he had gone —

archived recording 4
Why are you willing to make this an issue, do you think?

archived recording (elon musk)
Well, it’s happened to one of my —

kristen grind
— which is that his daughter, Vivian, who’s one of his older children, had come out as transgender.

archived recording (elon musk)
I was essentially tricked into signing documents.

kristen grind
And Musk claimed in an interview that he was tricked into signing these medical forms for Vivian and allowing her to do her transition when she was 16.

archived recording (elon musk)
This is before I had really any understanding of what was going on. And we had COVID going on. And so there was a lot of confusion.

kristen grind
That he had not been aware of this basically.

archived recording (elon musk)
They call it “deadnaming” for a reason.

archived recording 4
Yeah.

kristen grind
And he said in this interview that she had been killed.

archived recording (elon musk)
Killed by the woke mind virus. So I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after that. And we’re making some progress.

kristen grind
She had some choice words back to him and also said that he was not tricked into signing those forms. But the whole incident just really showed how his thinking has changed and been radicalized over these last few years.

Another example of his ideological transformation is immigration. And that’s kind of ironic because Elon Musk, himself, is from South Africa. But over the last couple years, he starts really focusing on illegal immigrants. And he keeps talking about how he feels the Democratic Party is allowing in these illegal immigrants so that they can get a majority and win the election.

rachel abrams
So he’s just espousing this conspiratorial rhetoric right out in the open on his own platform.

kristen grind
That’s right. And it’s really this ideology that is so different from what you saw from him even just a couple years earlier.

rachel abrams
OK, so all of that helps me understand how by 2024, Musk is increasingly aligned with right-wing ideology. But when do he and Donald Trump actually get together in some meaningful way?

kristen grind
So it’s a little hard to tell because Musk’s world is very insular. But you can kind see why, at this point, he and Trump are so aligned. So the two people are so similar.

rachel abrams
Really? Like how?

kristen grind
I mean, they both have immense wealth and power, but they both act like outsiders and victims. I think this one is maybe the most important, which is that they both think the system is broken and they both really think that they are the ones to fix it and they kind of refuse to stick with the status quo.

And so we know at one point earlier this year, Musk met with some billionaire friends his, one of whom was encouraging him to get involved in the campaign and to donate, which would be pretty normal for someone of his stature and wealth. And then we know at some point earlier this year, he did also meet with Trump. And then by June, he had established a super PAC ready to invest in Trump’s campaign.

rachel abrams
So can you just break down for a second? What does that support actually look like?

kristen grind
It is above and beyond what a normal donor would do, that’s for sure. So his Super PAC has donated more than a hundred million. That would be kind of normal for a billionaire or another donor, perhaps. But what has been unusual is the Super PAC, which is called America PAC, was in Pennsylvania knocking on doors. They knocked on 11 million doors in battleground states. [CHEERING]

archived recording (donald trump)
Come on up here, Elon.

kristen grind
But the most amazing thing to me has been watching him at these rallies.

archived recording (elon musk)
The energy in this room is incredible.

kristen grind
Right up on stage, he was with Trump.

archived recording (elon musk)
America is just not not going to be great, America is going to reach heights that it has never seen before. The future is going to be amazing!

[CHEERING]

kristen grind
He was just right out there with him, almost like he was running for president.

[crowd chanting, “elon”]
archived recording (elon musk)
You guys are awesome. Honestly, this is like ah. Wow.

rachel abrams
But wasn’t this man trying to run like six companies and colonize Mars? How did he have time for all of this?

kristen grind
[LAUGHS]: Yes, well, that’s a very good question. He has a lot of good people running his companies. But meanwhile, to take it back to his whole life’s goal, which is to save humanity, that’s actually exactly what he thinks he is doing here. And, in fact, he has said recently that he still really did not want to get into politics, but that he had to because civilization was on the line. So that, again, is why he is out there.

And on election night, there’s this big family photo with Trump, and Melania, their kids, their grandkids, and there’s Elon Musk just right beside them. And in the few days since the election, he’s basically been camped out at Mar-a-Lago.

He was reportedly on this phone call with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump. He’s been advising Trump on cabinet positions. And then, as we know on Tuesday night, he got his own position appointed.

[INQUISITIVE MUSIC]

And we’ve just never seen anything like this, this super billionaire, Elon Musk, suddenly with all this potential power in the federal government.

rachel abrams
After the break, I talked to my colleague Eric Lipton about what Musk stands to gain from a Trump White House.

So, Eric, we just heard from our colleague Kirsten Grind that it has not taken Elon Musk very long to insert himself into this emerging Trump presidency in a way that feels without precedent, frankly. And you’ve been looking into exactly what Musk could stand to gain from access to a Trump White House. But first, can you just remind us, what is Elon Musk’s current relationship with the federal government?

eric lipton
I think it’s underappreciated the extent to which Elon Musk has relied on the federal government to help build his own wealth and the size of his companies. He has at least a hundred different contracts pending with the federal government with 17 different agencies. The majority of that work is with SpaceX, which has really owed its existence, largely, to the federal government. NASA kicked it off by giving SpaceX the money that it needed to build the Falcon 9 rocket, which now puts almost all of the world’s cargo into orbit each year. More than every other nation in the world combined.

rachel abrams
Oh, wow.

eric lipton
And SpaceX alone has gotten $10 billion worth of contracts from the federal government over the last five years to deliver stuff to space. That includes cargo to the Space Station, astronauts to the Space Station, spy satellites, missile defense systems, and dozens of other items for the federal government. And it’s unlike any other commercial space company in the history of the United States, in terms of the extent of its dominance and the money that’s going to it to provide those services to the federal government.

rachel abrams
So government contracts really made Musk in a way. Like, he’s clearly been very successful under the status quo. So that sort of begs the question of, what more is there for him to gain?

eric lipton
I mean, since Musk created SpaceX back in 2002, he’s been completely fixated with getting humans to Mars. And one of the things that incredibly frustrates him is when he encounters paperwork requirements and regulatory slowdowns. He often comments about how he can build his rockets faster than federal bureaucrats can move paper from one side of their desk to the other. It just totally burns him up.

And that’s, in part, what has motivated him to get more involved in politics. He thinks it might give him the power to help defang them, and to limit their power, and to reduce what he considers to be redundant or ridiculous requirements to help wipe away some of this slowness that really frustrates him. And Musk was clear during the presidential campaign that he wanted to be named to a position in the future Trump government that would give him the power to help oversee significantly cutting back on federal regulations, federal employees, and federal spending.

He liked to jokingly call this the “Department of Government Efficiency,” nicknamed DOGE, which is the same name of one of his favorite crypto coins. Musk has a tendency to love little names like that he can repeat that are insider jokes. And he would be this superpowered czar overseeing the reach of federal government operations and looking for ways to eliminate what he considers redundant federal regulations and cutting as much as $2 trillion in federal spending, which is a crazy and really unachievable goal, but that’s what he says he wants to do.

rachel abrams
Which is basically the position that Trump just announced for him with this new government department that’s in charge of making all kinds of cuts across the government, kind of spiritually similar to what Musk did with Twitter.

eric lipton
Yeah, Trump likes to tell Musk that he’s super impressed with what Musk was able to do at Twitter. He jokingly calls him Cutter In Chief. He sees Musk as having an incredible capacity to find ways to reduce costs and get rid of waste. And, in fact, at Twitter, when he bought it, Musk, of course, cut something like 2/3 of its staff. And it’s a bit bumpy, but X does function without more than 2/3 of the people that it had when he purchased the company. So Trump has confidence that Musk is the guy that he needs to actually really significantly cut federal regulations and spending.

rachel abrams
But a tech company works a lot differently, obviously, than a government agency. Like it doesn’t really seem feasible that he could just go in, slash a bunch of jobs overnight, like what he did with Twitter, and have that work the same way.

eric lipton
Yeah, and a level of reduction in spending and regulations, that has never been achieved before in the history of the United States. And when it comes to actually cutting federal regulations, and laying off federal employees, and cutting federal spending, this is a process that obviously Congress participates in and it is a very hard thing to do. There’s a constituency for every little agency out there. And so it is a lot harder than simply announcing one day they are laying off thousands of people at a private company that you own.

rachel abrams
How do you think all of this is actually going to play out?

eric lipton
We don’t know what Elon Musk’s first targets would be. But there’s a couple of examples that frustrate him in terms of conflicts that he’s had with federal regulators. Probably the best example is with SpaceX and what he’s trying to do down in Boca Chica, Texas, near the Mexican border, where they’re testing out the Starship rocket.

And they have repeatedly caused some environmental damage in that area. And it’s right on the edge of a national wildlife refuge and a state park. And as they were developing the rocket, they were repeatedly disregarding what the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Interior Department said was the limits on their operations.

rachel abrams
What exactly were those limits?

eric lipton
I mean, for example, recently on one of their launches, there’s so much power that comes out of these rockets, it sent sand and rocks flying into the nearby state park, and it destroyed a bunch of nesting areas for the local bird population, and ripped open the eggs and destroyed the nests of the birds that were there.

I saw that right after the launch. I walked out into the area once they’d cleared it for the public. And the egg yolk was there staining the ground. And that’s another matter that’s being investigated by Fish and Wildlife Service for potentially harming migratory birds. It’s something that frustrates him. And he thought that our coverage of it was so offensive, he said he would restrain from having omelets for several days.

rachel abrams
Oh, my god.

eric lipton
He thought it was so ridiculous that we were even worried about these nests that were destroyed by his launch.

rachel abrams
So you can imagine that the EPA would be the first target on his efficiency to-do list.

eric lipton
I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s one of the first places that he goes and he looks to try to roll back some of the regulatory powers that it has. But that certainly would not be the only agency that he would go after. I mean, all you have to do is look at Tesla.

And he is being currently or recently investigated or sued by really an acronym soup of federal agencies — the Equal Opportunity Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the Securities Exchange Commission, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Department of Justice, of course, the EPA. All of them are looking at Tesla and suggesting that it has overstepped the law. I mean, most importantly, there’s concern about the autonomous driving tools on his cars and whether or not they’ve been involved in fatal accidents.

But everything having to do with disrupting union activities, who he hires at his auto factories and whether or not he’s properly treating refugees and people who have asylum. I mean, he is the subject of so many different simultaneous investigations. It really frustrates him. And that’s another part of the reason that he’s active with Trump is he wants to crush those investigations. And it’s likely that many of them will now be shut down.

rachel abrams
So everything you’ve laid out so far, Eric, it helps us understand why Musk’s own personal business interests could benefit from the regulatory environment that he’s potentially going to be reshaping. But is this all legal? It seems to me that what you’ve outlined could be a major conflict of interest.

eric lipton
It’s going to create a conflict of interest that really has few precedents in American history. Here’s a guy who has $10 billion or more of ongoing federal contracts. He has a couple dozen pending federal investigations and lawsuits that he’s targeted in. And, of course, there are federal conflict of interest laws that prohibit just this kind of mixing of duties, and violating them could be a federal offense.

So how is it possible that Elon Musk could simultaneously play the role of trying to cut back on federal regulations if he is, himself, being regulated? And the announcement we saw from Trump on Tuesday night actually sort of hints that they recognize that there’s this clash. And they’re attempting to sidestep it by suggesting that Musk would somehow be the leader of this new federal department of government efficiency, but he would do it while remaining, quote, “outside of the government.”

rachel abrams
So basically, he can have the ear of the president, but not have the formal government position and all the conflict-of-interest headaches that come with it.

eric lipton
Yeah, it’s a lot more attractive. But this is a very murky arrangement. And all of this assumes that Trump and Musk are going to stay on good terms. There are two personalities that have a history of exploding with people that they’ve been close with, with business partners, and even some of their most trusted employees. And so they’re guys that also hold grudges and are a bit impulsive. So there’s no guarantee that this is a relationship that’s going to last.

rachel abrams
So after all of this, your investigation and how it revealed the various ways that Musk’s potential reshaping of the government could benefit him, what is your big takeaway?

eric lipton
I think the thing that’s really fascinating and that we, at “The New York Times” are going to be watching closely, is the extent to which this new administration is one that’s going to be defined by the desires of billionaires. And the first Trump administration was really more focused on things like the oil and gas industry and the Christian right wanting to see more appointments to the Supreme Court.

But the array of economic interests being pushed by billionaire donors to Trump in this second term is much broader and their buddy-buddy relationship with Trump is much tighter. I mean, it’s the crypto industry. It’s artificial intelligence. It’s the tech industry and the antitrust approach that the government has to the tech industry.

[TENSE MUSIC]

There’s a bunch of players that have surrounded Trump, and Elon Musk is at the center of this crew. Many of these folks are friends of Musk. And he is the ringleader of the whole group. And I think that they are going to have much more influence in what happens in the White House and across the federal government in the next four years.

rachel abrams
Right. I mean, billionaires have always had some sort of influence in government, but we just haven’t really seen the proximity that you’ve outlined between this incredibly rich and powerful man, the world’s richest man, and the president of the United States.

eric lipton
Yeah, I think that it’s just a different set of players at the table this time around, who have such vested interest in so many sectors of the economy that reach really across the playing field. “Oligarchs” is too strong of a word. But we are entering a period where people with immense wealth are interacting with a president, who is known and has a history of being extremely transactional. And these are folks that now helped Trump get a second term and are expecting to see a return on that investment.

rachel abrams
Eric, thank you very much.

eric lipton
Thank you.

rachel abrams
We’ll be right back.

Here’s what else you need to know today. President-elect Donald Trump has nominated military veteran and FOX News host, Pete Hegseth, as his defense secretary, but his lack of relevant experience has already generated pushback. Hegseth is one of several political appointees Trump has picked in recent days, including South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem for secretary of Homeland Security and House Representative Elise Stefanik for ambassador to the United Nations. Trump is expected to meet with President Biden at the White House later today. It’s part of a long-standing tradition of the outgoing president greeting the new one.

[THEME MUSIC]

Today’s episode was produced by Rikki Novetsky, Olivia Natt, Rob Szypko and Luke Vander Ploeg. It was edited by MJ Davis Lin, Brendan Klinkenberg, with help from Chris Haxel. It contains original music by Dan Powell and Rowan Niemisto, and was engineered by Chris Wood. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Rachel Abrams. See you tomorrow.

A brutal summary of Trump’s Presidency

A tweet from Ethical American (@AmericanEthical) which deserves to be read and shared widely.

Edit: A comment made me aware that Ethical American is not the original author, but: Redditor u/techsinger posted it because the original author encouraged people to share it widely. Redditor u/GaterMachetteSr then posted it to r/copypasta. Hence Ethical American was reposting with implicit permission, rather than stealing it. I’m still trying to track down the OP for attribution.

Edit 2: The earliest instance of this that I’ve found was by user paddyC at the politics.ie forum, dated 16 Feb 2021. Still trying to determine if sir or madam is the original author.

Only slightly bowdlerized for a family-friendly audience.

Click to view the original thread.

For what it’s worth, every one of the items listed here has been documented with painful clarity. This isn’t “fake news.” This is the real deal.


I owe my Trump-supporting friends an apology.  I’ve been critical of the Trump presidency these last four years and am still exhausted from the experience. But to be fair President Trump wasn’t that bad, other than when he:

• incited an insurrection against the government
• mismanaged a pandemic that killed nearly half a million Americans
• separated children from their families
• lost those children in the bureaucracy
• tear-gassed peaceful protesters on Lafayette Square so he could hold a photo op holding a Bible in front of a church
• tried to block all Muslims from entering the country
• got impeached
• got impeached again
• had the worst jobs record of any president in modern history
• pressured Ukraine to dig dirt on Joe Biden
• fired the FBI director for investigating his ties to Russia
• bragged about firing the FBI director on TV
• took Vladimir Putin’s word over the US intelligence community
• diverted military funding to build his wall
• caused the longest government shutdown in US history
• called Black Lives Matter a “symbol of hate”
• lied over 30,000 times
• banned transgender people from serving in the military
• ejected reporters from the White House briefing room who asked tough questions
• vetoed the defense funding bill because it renamed military bases named for Confederate soldiers
• refused to release his tax returns
• increased the national debt by nearly $8 trillion
• had three of the highest annual trade deficits in U.S. history
• called veterans and soldiers who died in combat losers and suckers
• coddled the leader of Saudi Arabia after he ordered the execution and dismembering of a US-based journalist
• refused to concede the 2020 election
• hired his unqualified daughter and son-in-law to work in the White House
• walked out of an interview with Lesley Stahl
• called neo-Nazis “very fine people”
• suggested that people should inject bleach into their bodies to fight COVID
• abandoned our allies the Kurds to Turkey
• pushed through massive tax cuts for the wealthiest but balked at helping working Americans
• incited anti-lockdown protestors in several states at the height of the pandemic
• withdrew the US from the Paris climate accords
• withdrew the US from the Iranian nuclear deal
• withdrew the US from the Trans Pacific Partnership which was designed to block China’s advances
• insulted his own Cabinet members on Twitter
• pushed the leader of Montenegro out of the way during a photo op
• failed to reiterate US commitment to defending NATO allies
• called Haiti and African nations “shithole” countries
• called the city of Baltimore the “worst in the nation”
• claimed that he single handedly brought back the phrase “Merry Christmas” even though it hadn’t gone anywhere
• forced his Cabinet members to praise him publicly like some cult leader
• believed he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
• berated and belittled his hand-picked Attorney General when he recused himself from the Russia probe
• suggested the US should buy Greenland
• colluded with Mitch McConnell to push through federal judges and two Supreme Court
• justices after supporting efforts to prevent his predecessor from appointing judges
• repeatedly called the media “enemies of the people”
• claimed that if we tested fewer people for COVID we’d have fewer cases
• violated the emoluments clause
• thought that Nambia was a country
• told Bob Woodward in private that the coronavirus was a big deal but then downplayed it in public
• called his exceedingly faithful vice president a “pussy” for following the Constitution
• nearly got us into a war with Iran after threatening them by tweet
• nominated a corrupt head of the EPA
• nominated a corrupt head of HHS
• nominated a corrupt head of the Interior Department
• nominated a corrupt head of the USDA
• praised dictators and authoritarians around the world while criticizing allies
• refused to allow the presidential transition to begin
• insulted war hero John McCain – even after his death
• spent an obscene amount of time playing golf after criticizing Barack Obama for playing (far less) golf while president
• falsely claimed that he won the 2016 popular vote
• called the Muslim mayor of London a “stone cold loser”
• falsely claimed that he turned down being Time’s Man of the Year
• considered firing special counsel Robert Mueller on several occasions
• mocked wearing face masks to guard against transmitting COVID
• locked Congress out of its constitutional duty to confirm Cabinet officials by hiring acting ones
• used a racist dog whistle by calling COVID the “China virus”
• hired and associated with numerous shady figures that were eventually convicted
• of federal offenses including his campaign manager and national security adviser
• pardoned several of his shady associates
• gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to two congressman who amplified his [ ] crazy conspiracy theories
• got into telephone fight with the leader of Australia
• had a Secretary of State who called him a moron
• forced his press secretary to claim without merit that his was the largest inauguration crowd in history
• botched the COVID vaccine rollout
• tweeted so much dangerous propaganda that Twitter eventually banned him
• charged the Secret Service jacked-up rates at his properties
• constantly interrupted Joe Biden in their first presidential debate
• claimed that COVID would “magically” disappear
• called a U.S. Senator “Pocahontas”
• used his Twitter account to blast Nordstrom when it stopped selling Ivanka’s merchandise
• opened up millions of pristine federal lands to development and drilling
• got into a losing tariff war with China that forced US taxpayers to bail out farmers
• claimed that his losing tariff war was a win for the US
• ignored or didn’t even take part in daily intelligence briefings
• blew off honoring American war dead in France because it was raining
• redesigned Air Force One to look like the Trump Shuttle
• got played by Kim Jong Un and his “love letters”
• threatened to go after social media companies in clear violation of the Constitution
• botched the response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico
• threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans when he finally visited them
• pressured the governor and secretary of state of Georgia to “find” him votes
• thought that the Virgin islands had a President
• drew on a map with a Sharpie to justify his inaccurate tweet that Alabama was threatened by a hurricane
• allowed White House staff to use personal email accounts for official businesses after blasting Hillary Clinton for doing the same thing
• rolled back regulations that protected the public from mercury and asbestos
• pushed regulators to waste time studying snake-oil remedies for COVID
• rolled back regulations that stopped coal companies from dumping waste into rivers
• held blatant campaign rallies at the White House
• tried to take away millions of Americans’ health insurance because the law was named for a Black man
• refused to attend his successors’ inauguration
• nominated the worst Education Secretary in history
• threatened judges who didn’t do what he wanted
• attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci
• promised that Mexico would pay for the wall (it didn’t)
• allowed political hacks to overrule government scientists on major reports on climate change and other issues
• struggled navigating a ramp after claiming his opponent was feeble
• called an African-American Congresswoman “low IQ”
• threatened to withhold federal aid from states and cities with Democratic leaders
• went ahead with rallies filled with maskless supporters in the middle of a
• pandemic
• claimed that legitimate investigations of his wrongdoing were “witch hunts”
• seemed to demonstrate a belief that there were airports during the American Revolution
• demanded “total loyalty” from the FBI director
• praised a conspiracy theory that Democrats are Satanic pedophiles
• completely gutted the Voice of America
• placed a political hack in charge of the Postal Service
• claimed without evidence that the Obama administration bugged Trump Tower
• suggested that the US should allow more people from places like Norway into the country
• suggested that COVID wasn’t that bad because he recovered with the help of top government doctors and treatments not available to the public
• overturned energy conservation standards that even industry supported
• reduced the number of refugees the US accepts
• insulted various members of Congress and the media with infantile nicknames
• gave Rush Limbaugh a Presidential medal of Freedom at the State of the Union address
• named as head of federal personnel a 29-year old who’d previously been fired from the White House for allegations of financial improprieties
• eliminated the White House office of pandemic response
• used soldiers as campaign props
• fired any advisor who made the mistake of disagreeing with him
• demanded the Pentagon throw him a Soviet-style military parade
• hired a [] ton of white nationalists
• politicized the civil service
• did absolutely nothing after Russia hacked US
• falsely said the Boy Scouts called him to say his bizarre Jamboree speech was the best speech ever given to the Scouts
• claimed that Black people would overrun the suburbs if Biden won
• insulted reporters of color
• insulted women reporters
• insulted women reporters of color
• suggested he was fine with China’s oppression of the Uighurs
• attacked the Supreme Court when it ruled against him
• summoned Pennsylvania state legislative leaders to the White House to pressure them to overturn the election
• spent countless hours every day watching Fox News
• refused to allow his administration to comply with Congressional subpoenas
• hired Rudy Giuliani as his lawyer
• tried to punish Amazon because the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post wrote negative stories about him
• acted as if the Attorney General of the United States was his personal attorney
• attempted to get the federal government to defend him in a libel lawsuit from a women who accused him of sexual assault
• held private meetings with Vladimir Putin without staff present
• didn’t disclose his private meetings with Vladimir Putin so that the US had to find out via Russian media
• stopped holding press briefings for months at a time
• “ordered” US companies to leave China even though he has no such power
• led a political party that couldn’t even be bothered to draft a policy platform
• claimed preposterously that Article II of the Constitution gave him absolute powers
• tried to pressure the U.K. to hold the British Open at his golf course
• suggested that the government nuke hurricanes
• suggested that wind turbines cause cancer
• said that he had a special aptitude for science
• fired the head of election cyber security after he said that the 2020 election was secure
• blurted out classified information to Russian officials
• tried to force the G7 to hold their meeting at his failing golf resort in Florida
• fired the acting attorney general when she refused to go along with his unconstitutional Muslim travel ban
• hired Stephen Miller
• openly discussed national security issues in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago where everyone could hear them
• interfered with plans to relocate the FBI because a new development there might compete with his hotel
• abandoned Iraqi refugees who’d helped the U.S. during the war
• tried to get Russia back into the G7
• held a COVID super spreader event in the Rose Garden
• seemed to believe that Frederick Douglass is still alive
• lost 60 election fraud cases in court including before judges he had nominated
• falsely claimed that factories were reopening when they weren’t
• shamelessly exploited terror attacks in Europe to justify his anti-immigrant policies
• still hasn’t come up with a healthcare plan
• still hasn’t come up with an infrastructure plan despite repeated “Infrastructure”
• forced Secret Service agents to drive him around Walter Reed while contagious with COVID
• told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by”
• [botched] the Census
• withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic
• did so few of his duties that his press staff were forced to state on his daily schedule “President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings”
• allowed his staff to repeatedly violate the Hatch Act
• seemed not to know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican
• stood before sacred CIA wall of heroes and bragged about his election win
• constantly claimed he was treated worse than any president which presumably includes four that were assassinated and his predecessor
• whose legitimacy and birthplace were challenged by a racist reality TV show star named Donald Trump
• claimed Andrew Jackson could’ve stopped the Civil War even though he died 16 years before it happened
• said that any opinion poll showing him behind was fake
• claimed that other countries laughed at us before he became president when several world leaders were literally laughing at him
• claimed that the military was out of ammunition before he became President
• created a commission to whitewash American history
• retweeted anti-Islam videos from one of the most racist people in Britain
• claimed ludicrously that the Pulse nightclub shooting wouldn’t have happened if someone there had a gun even though there was an armed security guard there
• hired a senior staffer who cited the non-existent Bowling Green Massacre as a reason to ban Muslims
• had a press secretary who claimed that Nazi Germany never used chemical weapons even though every sane human being knows they used gas to kill millions of Jews and others
• bilked the Secret Service for higher than market rates when they had to stay at Trump properties
• apparently sold pardons on his way out of the White House
• stripped protective status from 59,000 Haitians
• falsely claimed Biden wanted to defund the police
• said that the head of the CDC didn’t know what he was talking about
• tried to rescind protection from DREAMers
• gave himself an A+ for his handling of the pandemic
• tried to start a boycott of Goodyear tires due to an Internet hoax
• said U.S. rates of COVID would be lower if you didn’t count blue states
• deported U.S. veterans who served their country but were undocumented
• claimed he did more for African Americans than any president since Lincoln
• touted a “super-duper” secret “hydrosonic” missile which may or may not be a new “hypersonic” missile or may not exist at all
• retweeted a gif calling Biden a pedophile
• forced through security clearances for his family
• suggested that police officers should rough up suspects
• suggested that Biden was on performance-enhancing drugs
• tried to stop transgender students from being able to use school bathrooms in line with their gender
• suggested the US not accept COVID patients from  a cruise ship because it would make US numbers look higher
• nominated a climate change sceptic to chair the committee advising the White House on environmental policy
• retweeted a video doctored to look like Biden had played a song called “[F] tha Police” at a campaign event
• hugged a disturbingly large number of U.S. flags
• accused Democrats of “treason” for not applauding his State of the Union address
• claimed that the FBI failed to capture the Parkland school shooter because they were “spending too much time” on Russia
• mocked the testimony of Dr Christine Blasey Ford when she accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault
• obsessed over low-flow toilets
• ordered the rerelease of more COVID vaccines when there weren’t any to release
• called for the construction of a bizarre garden of heroes with statutes of famous dead Americans as well as at least one Canadian (Alex Trebek)
• hijacked Washington’s July 4th celebrations to give a partisan speech
• took advice from the MyPillow guy
• claimed that migrants seeking a better life in the US were dangerous caravans of drug dealers and rapists
• said nothing when Vladimir Putin poisoned a leading opposition
• never seemed to heed the advice of his wife’s “Be Best” campaign
• falsely claimed that mail-in voting is fraudulent
• announced a precipitous withdrawal of troops from Syria which not only handed Russia and ISIS a win but also prompted his defense secretary
• to resign in protest
• insulted the leader of Canada
• insulted the leader of France
• insulted the leader of Britain
• insulted the leader of Germany
• insulted the leader of Sweden
• falsely claimed credit for getting NATO members to increase their share of dues
• blew off two Asia summits even though they were held virtually
• continued lying about spending lots of time at Ground Zero with 9/11 responders
• said that the Japanese would sit back and watch their “Sony televisions” if the US were ever attacked
• left a NATO summit early in a huff
• stared directly into an eclipse even though everyone over the age of 5 knows not to do that
• called himself a very stable genius despite significant evidence to the contrary
• refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power and kept his promise
• and a whole bunch of other things I can’t remember at the moment.

• But other than that…

If there is any justice in the world, they will be.

Oh, and don’t forget when he

• evilly mocked a disabled reporter¹
• told America that if he didn’t win in 2020 the election was rigged
• insisted that he won the 2020 election (The Big Lie)
• incited a mob of followers to attack the Capitol on January 6th, and promised that he would be there with them (he wasn’t)
• watched with glee as the events of January 6th unfolded
• continues to this date to insist that the election was stolen and that he is the legitimate president of the United States

The Old Wolf has spoken


Footnotes

¹ Of all the horrors that The Thermonuclear Bowel Evacuation Formerly Disgracing the Oval Office perpetrated upon America, this is the one which early on showed me that he is nothing but a cruel, pathologically-motivated third-grade schoolyard bully from a terminally-corrupt family, one who should never have been allowed within 10,000 miles of any seat of government or power or influence.

How the Confederacy Survived the Civil War

This is a Twitter thread from Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) on June 11, 2020, condensed here for easier reading and without all the responses – many of which are simply ignorant and do nothing to improve the conversation. You can visit the original thread here.

Jared Yates Sexton

All right. Let’s talk about how the Confederacy survived the Civil War, was absorbed into our culture, laws, and politics, and remains an everpresent threat we must destroy. I didn’t know any of this until I started researching American Rule.

First things first, the Confederacy is hardly dealt with in our history or curricula. There’s a reason the Civil War is reduced to a history of battles and military maneuvers. To look any deeper would mean an actual reckoning with white supremacy and power in America.

The truth is that the Confederacy considered itself the true ancestor of America and that the North had betrayed America’s founding and purpose as a white supremacist state. It wasn’t a different country. It was America interpreted as a white supremacist nation.

There’s a reason why George Washington is all over Confederate iconography. Why Jefferson Davis was inaugurated in the shadow of a Washington statue. The Confederacy was battling over the United States of America, not creating a separate nation.

And for all of the lies about it being about state’s rights, it was explicitly about white supremacy, which Confederate vice-president Alexander Stephens made clear in so many words. Stephens, by the way, still has a statue in the Capitol.

Another reason we don’t talk about the Confederacy is because it was a twisted version of America, with its blatant white supremacy and its basis in white-identity Christianity. As the South lost battles, its leaders demanded humiliation, days of prayer, reckoning with God.

As I’ve mentioned before, Confederate preachers told Southerners that the Christian God was white supremacist, that he demanded white supremacy as the law of the land. The Confederacy saw itself as the real America and God’s chosen nation.

In addition to not understanding what the Confederacy was, the myth that it simply went away when it surrendered militarily has done massive damage. America re-absorbed the Confederacy and ingested its blatant white supremacy and continued its customs and laws.

To get into this properly and deal with our history, we must reckon with our myths, including the messiah-ization of Abraham Lincoln, who had troubling views on race and even tried to sell freed slaves to other countries to remove them from America.

There is a possibility Lincoln could have continued evolving had he not been assassinated, but we’ll never know. That murder, however, created a scenario wherein America could make its post-Civil War reality into a mythologized moment of redemption.

Instantly, Lincoln was turned into a martyr, his death a moment of redemption and a chance for spilled blood to scrub America’s sins clean. It was a Christianized myth that served to hide our history and the reality of race in America.

In this twisted marriage of national and Christian myth, Washington became the Father, Lincoln the Messiah Son, and Americanism the Holy Spirit. The narrative was that Lincoln had saved us from white supremacy and that America was now ready for an equal future.

What we don’t discuss much is Andrew Johnson, who took over following Lincoln’s death. Johnson was a toxic white supremacist who fought against Reconstruction and denied dignity and rights for freed slaves. This is what happened.

Johnson told black luminaries like Frederick Douglass that equal rights were an abomination and that blacks had conspired with Southern slave owners against poor whites. Johnson was disgusting and hindered the project of equality from the beginning.

Johnson installed white supremacists as governors in the south, including Florida’s William Marvin, who told freed slaves to still call their masters “master” and that they were not equal to white people and to never believe otherwise.

Meanwhile, white supremacists worked behind the scenes to create laws that could keep freed slaves as close “to the condition of slavery” as possible. The developing laws were meant to hide the insidiousness of blatant white supremacy behind laws and government.

As this was done, paramilitary groups like the KKK performed domestic terrorism, attacking African Americans using their new freedom, as well as the white allies who helped them. In this way, the Confederacy became an invisible empire enforced by law and violence.

US Grant, as president, fought against this continued Confederacy, empowering organizations and waging war on the KKK. But white voters grew tired of their taxes and his means of waging that war. They let down African Americans in a huge way.

Reconstruction was hindered by propaganda that claimed it was a means of helping lazy and inept African Americans, a conspiracy against white southerners. Meanwhile, the black community organized at record pace and was incredibly successful despite these setbacks.

The man who arguably killed Reconstruction before it was complete was Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th president. Hayes wasn’t even that interested in the presidency, but promised if supported he would return the South to white supremacist southerners.

To continue the story, for years the South worked with white supremacist laws. Eventually, academics like Woodrow Wilson would use their work to wash the Confederacy clean of its white supremacy and portray it as dignified, and the war as being over state’s rights.

Wilson was a disgusting racist whose work claimed Southern slave owners loved their slaves and that they were wrongly attacked. This “Lost Cause” mythology sought to protect white supremacy and changed history completely. Unfortunately, it was incredibly successful.

Wilson’s writings eventually inspired projects like Birth of a Nation, that completely revised Construction and the post-Civil War South, portraying the KKK as necessary heroes. This affected our collective history in terrifying ways.

It was around this time that so many of the Confederate statues we’re now tearing down were put in place to continue the revision of history and remind African Americans that the Confederacy survived the Civil War in our culture, laws, and politics.

Wilson used his revised history to scrub America cleans of its sins in preparation for World War I, where he used propaganda to portray this country as fair and righteous and to hide our white supremacy so we could be a world power that supposedly believed in equality.

Wilson’s propaganda changed the American story, so when the Civil Rights Movement began Americans didn’t believe there was any fight to be had, equality had been won. The fight was to challenge this narrative in order to finally realize a semblance of equality.

There’s a reason why the South turned to Confederate flags during desegregation and the Civil Rights Movement. The Confederacy had survived in our laws, culture, and politics. This was a clear symbol that it had simply been hiding the entire time.

Meanwhile, open white supremacists like George Wallace made the connection crystal clear. He supported the Confederacy and, like the CSA, believe white supremacy was under attack by a communist, anti-American conspiracy, because the CSA WAS America.

Just like we’re seeing now, protestors were abused, brutalized, all because white supremacists believed it was a conspiracy. Instead of Antifa, it was communists, anarchists, anyone who could fit the conspiratorial mold.

By now we’re all familiar with Nixon’s Southern Strategy, but it’s important to note that this took the Confederacy and white supremacy, and drove it further under the veneer of rhetorical dog whistle appeals. It was about hiding the Confederacy but still embracing it.

If you haven’t already, please see my work on the Cult of the Shining City and Jerry Falwell and Neo-Confederate preachers. The hiding of the Confederate God in white-identity Christianity was yet another illusion that maintained the Confederacy while hiding it.

The attempt to continue white supremacy and the Confederacy and our politics continued with Ronald Reagan, who took it another step forward and hid it behind tax rhetoric and “colorblindness,” or pushing the idea that America no longer had racial inequality.

Reagan claimed that America was finally equal and that the market and economy would determine winners and losers. But the market and economy were made explicitly with white supremacy in mind. It was a giant lie from the very, very beginning.

If you haven’t before, look up Reagan’s speech at the Neshoba County Fair in Mississippi, where white supremacist murders had taken place. Reagan took right off with Woodrow Wilson’s propaganda, promoting “state’s rights” and implicitly supporting the Confederacy.

Reagan’s dogwhistling and rhetorical appeals to white supremacy further legitimized white supremacy and the Confederacy, driving them further and further into American politics while giving them cover to operate without the ability to be scrutinized.

Following Reagan and HW Bush, the GOP and American Right began flirting openly with the New World Order conspiracy theory, which was a Neo-Confederate belief that white Americans were being threatened by evil outsiders and traitorous liberals.

We like to frame Timothy McVeigh as a lone nut, but he believed he was a soldier in the invisible war against the New World Order. There’s a reason he wore a shirt calling Lincoln a tyrant. This was the Confederacy declaring war, once again, on the United States.

The OKC Bombing was a battle in a fictitious war against the New World Order, or the Deep State, or the cabal, whatever you want to call it. American conspiracy theories are inherently white supremacist fantasies fueled by white supremacist paranoia and weakness.

McVeigh was inspired both by Right Wing appeals and Neo-Nazi literature that sought to return American to the Confederacy, which inspired the Third Reich in the first place. American domestic terrorists are seeking a return to the CSA and a racist dystopia.

There’s a reason Donald Trump is supported by these people. White supremacists see him as their warrior, a president who will explicitly stand up for them and continue hiding the Confederacy in culture while furthering its surviving goals.

He is a Confederate president.

You need to understand, the Confederacy wasn’t limited by geography or a moment in time. It was an ideology that was felt throughout the nation.

This is why the flags are everywhere, in the North, West, every part of the country.

It is a surviving worldview.

White supremacists and fascists and Confederates would much rather hide in plain sight, behind the American flag and the veneer of American equality.

That’s what they want.

But as we’re seeing now, they’re more than willing to show their true colors if necessary.

It’s no coincidence we’re having these debates now, that Trump is standing up for blatant white supremacy and the Confederacy. The movement is making actual inroads into dealing with our white supremacy, and they’ll seek comfort in the CSA just like Civil Rights opponents.

We need to relearn our history, see what actually happened, and how the Confederacy never went away. It was absorbed, hidden, empowered by its disguise. America is riddled with the Confederacy and if we want to avoid fascism, we have to rip it out by the root.

PS: As an educator, I have to say that any fight against white supremacy has to involve radical discussions about how to revise our curriculum to tell the honest story of America, because what we have now is propaganda designed explicitly to hide and empower white supremacy.

PPS: I’ve taken a ton of history classes and always considered myself really informed. Until I started on the new book so much of this was completely unknown. It’s all out there waiting to be discovered. It has to be discovered and it has to be told.

An Ode to Trump

This was originally an “Ode to Berlusconi,” written in Italian, which I published earlier. I think it deserves a bit of cultural appropriation; it’s brilliantly crafted. The English translation ©2020 by Old Wolf Enterprises, Inc.

Il Presidente Trump si puo’ definire un por-
tento di abilita’, oltre che un uomo politi-
co di prim’ordine. Meriterebbe di essere de-
cantato con rime sacre come ad altri è gia’
capitato. Meriterebbe un monumento di ster-
minata mole marmorea che fungesse da e-
co indistruttibile nei secoli, in modo che il fe-
lice e caro nome di questo grande comunica-
tore potesse tramandarsi in eterno. Stron-
catore di malgoverni e uomo tutto d’n pez-
zo come nessun altro, il cavaliere ci incu-
te rispetto e ammirazione. Di Trump si par-
la in lungo e in largo e ci condurrà fino alla mi-
tica era di benessere con la sua onesta faccia e
seria. Tutti noi cittadini dell’America unita scor-
giamo in lui l’uomo del destino e perciò lo sor-
reggeremo con tutte le nostre forze nel mu-
tevole clamore delle folle, alzando un applau-
so a Lui e al suo Governo!
President Trump can be defined as a marvel of ability, and in addition, a first-class politician.  As has been done for others in the past, he deserves to be extolled with sacred rhymes. He is worthy of a marble monument of immense size which would serve as an indestructible echo through the centuries, so that the beloved name of this great communicator might be known throughout eternity. A man who crushes misgovernment, a man of impeccable character like no other, this knight arouses within us feelings of respect and admiration. Trump is spoken of far and wide, and with his honest and serious face, he will lead us into that mythical era of prosperity.
All citizens of a united America see him as a man of destiny, and as a result we support him with all our energy amidst the ever-changing clamor of the crowds, raising plaudits to him and his government!

Now…
Read Every Other Line…

Presidente Trump si puo’ definire un por-
co di prim’ordine. Meriterebbe di essere de-
capitato. Meriterebbe un monumento di ster-
co indistruttibile nei secoli, in modo che il fe-
tore potesse tramandarsi in eterno. Stron-
zo come nessun altro, il cavaliere ci incu-
la in lungo e in largo e ci condurrà fino alla mi-
seria. Tutti noi cittadini dell’America unita scor-
reggeremo con tutte le nostre forze nel mu-
so a Lui e al suo Governo!
President Trump is a first-class pig. He deserves to be beheaded. He is worthy of a monument of dung, indestructible throughout the centuries, so his stench might be passed down through eternity. A turd like no other, he buggers us far and wide and will lead us into misery. With all our energy, we citizens of a united America will fart in the face of Trump and his government.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Satire: It’s legal, Madam.

Some folks have really, really thin skins.

Image may contain: 1 person, smiling, text

I suspect Ms. Parker, whoever, she is, has never been inside Barnes and Noble… or any bookstore for that matter. Peruse the shelves of any respectable bookseller, and you’ll find works from every point along the political spectrum, from Holy, Holy God, Thank You For Appointing Trump Emperor of the World (I’m sure something similar exists) to Bob Woodward’s Fear, and anything inbetween. ¹

The Humor section will be chock-full of collections of political cartoons from such geniuses as Pat Oliphant, who pilloried everyone that deserved it regardless of political affiliation.

If Ms. Parker’s train of thought were carried to its very illogical end-of-line, every bookstore in the world should be boycotted for carrying an item that someone happened to find offensive.

It’s called “The First Amendment.” Satire and Parody are Constitutionally protected speech.

But in one thing, Ms. Parker is right. This book is very disrespectful; comparing 45 to a pig is most unfair to the pigs of the world.

The Old Wolf has spoken.


¹ Someone needs to write this book:

The Hubris of Donald Trump

This collection of statements, lovingly documented, was put together by redditor u/iamlarrypotter. I share it here for the benefit of those who do not particpate over at reddit.

If you want a classic, textbook example of narcissistic personality disorder, look no farther than 45. And then remember that this man has access to our nuclear launch codes. Our nation has never been in a more precarious state of affairs, and the damage this uneducated buffoon has done both domestically and internationally will take generations to repair.


I’m much more humble than you would understand.”

I have the best temperament or certainly one of the best temperaments of anybody that’s ever run for the office of president. Ever.”

I’m the most successful person ever to run for the presidency, by far. Nobody’s ever been more successful than me.”

I’m the least racist person you have ever interviewed”

I’m the least racist person you’ll find anywhere in the world.”

“Number one, I am the least anti-Semitic person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life. Number two, racism. The least racist person”

I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to the Secret Service.”

I am the world’s greatest person that does not want to let people into the country.”

No one has done more for people with disabilities than me.”

Nobody in the history of this country has ever known so much about infrastructure as Donald Trump.”

There’s nobody who understands the horror of nuclear more than me.”

There’s nobody bigger or better at the military than I am.”

There’s nobody that feels stronger about the intelligence community and the CIA than Donald Trump,”

There’s nobody that’s done so much for equality as I have”

There’s nobody that has more respect for women than I do,”

“I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me”

“I am going to save Social Security without any cuts. I know where to get the money from. Nobody else does .”

Nobody respects women more than I do”

“And I was so furious at that story, because there’s nobody that respects women more than I do,”

Nobody respects women more than Donald Trump”

“She can’t talk about me because nobody respects women more than Donald Trump,”

Nobody has more respect for women than Donald Trump!”

Nobody has more respect for women than I do.”

Nobody has more respect for women than I do. Nobody.”

Nobody reads the Bible more than me.”

Nobody loves the Bible more than I do”

Nobody does self-deprecating humor better than I do. It’s not even close”

Nobody knows more about taxes than I do, maybe in the history of the world.”

Nobody knows more about trade than me”

Nobody knows the (visa) system better than me. I know the H1B. I know the H2B. Nobody knows it better than me.”

Nobody knows debt better than me.”

“I think nobody knows the system better than I do”

“I hope all workers demand that their @Teamsters reps endorse Donald J. Trump. Nobody knows jobs like I do! Don’t let them sell you out!”

I know more about renewables than any human being on earth.”

“I know more about ISIS than the generals do.”

I know more about contributions than anybody”

I know more about offense and defense than they will ever understand, believe me. Believe me. Than they will ever understand. Than they will ever understand.”

I know more about wedges than any human being that’s ever lived”

I know more about drones than anybody,”

I know more about Cory than he knows about himself.”

I know our complex tax laws better than anyone who has ever run for president”

I know tech better than anyone

I’m very highly educated. I know words; I have the best words.”

“I know some of you may think l’m tough and harsh but actually I’m a very compassionate person (with a very high IQ) with strong common sense”

“I watch these pundits on television and, you know, they call them intellectuals. They’re not intellectuals,” Trump told thousands of supporters in the swing state. “I’m much smarter than them. I think I have a much higher IQ. I think I went to a better college — better everything,”

“@ajodom60: @FoxNews and as far as that low-info voter base goes, I have an IQ of 132. So much for that theory. #MakeAmericaGreatAgain”

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

“He’s been quite critical of you as you know. He’s attacked you for being ignorant,” Piers Morgan said to Trump. “Let’s do an IQ test,” Trump interrupted

“We can’t let these people, these so called egg-heads–and by the way, I guarantee you my IQ is much higher than theirs, alright. Somebody said the other day, ‘Yes, well the intellectuals–‘ I said, ‘What intellectuals? I’m smarter than they are, many of people in this audience are smarter than they are.”

“You know, I’m, like, a smart person. I don’t have to be told the same thing in the same words every single day for the next eight years,” Trump told Fox News last December.

Trump says he has “one of the great memories of all time

Asked on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” who he talks with consistently about foreign policy, Trump responded, “I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things.”

” … I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius….and a very stable genius at that!”


In this Salon article, Yale psychiatrist Dr. Bandy Lee states that “Trump’s mental health is now a “national and global emergency.” My personal opinion is that The Thermonuclear Bowel Evacuation Currently Disgracing the Oval Office has brought us closer to global destruction than any other administration, Bush/Cheney included.

No, Senator Hatch, 45 is not a “very good man.”

Before he passed away, and feeling the rapid onset of eternity, Senator John McCain expressed that he didn’t want 45 at his funeral, opting instead for Vice President Mike Pence, according to family members close to the respected legislator.

Orrin Hatch (R-UT) told CNN,

“I think that’s ridiculous. He’s the President of the United States. He’s a very good man.”

Feeling the backlash of public opinion, Hatch later apologized, saying

“I felt badly, I had spoken out of turn,” Hatch said. “I shouldn’t have said what I said.”

Whether that was a sincere apology or political mush because he was caught out is only for him to know. But the “very good man” part of that first quote is what got my hackles up. Oh, it’s not that Hatch is a die-hard Republican, Congress is full of those. People like McConnell, Ryan, Cruz, and a whole host of other supporters of 45, as inexplicable as that is to me. No, it’s the fact that Senator Hatch claims to be a member of my own faith, specifically the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That, by definition, makes him a Christian.

So let’s start with the Bible. In 1 Timothy 3, we read Paul’s admonitions about ecclesiastical leaders:

A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

Note: many people in the world don’t put stock in the Bible, and that’s fine – it’s their privilege. But Hatch does – he claims to reverence this book and its teachings, so it’s very relevant to his statement about 45’s character. In an article dealing with Evangelicals’ relationship with 45, the Washington Post wrote,

“Many have acknowledged the awkwardness of being both self-proclaimed followers of Jesus and the No. 1 champions of a president whose character has been defined not just by alleged infidelity but accusations of sexual harassment, advancing conspiracy theories popular with white supremacists, using language that swaths of Americans find racist, routinely spreading falsehoods and an array of casual cruelties and immoderate behaviors that amount to a roll call of the seven deadly sins.”

The hand-wringing, self-justification and scripture-twisting that 45’s religious supporters have brought to the stage is literally breathtaking. Our current *president fails almost every one of Timothy’s admonitions, and while some might say, “Oh, he’s talking about leaders of the church,” for me these are qualities that ought to apply to leaders of peoples and nations as well. And I’m not just talking about Republican leaders, either – I was heartsick when William Jefferson Clinton disgraced the office of the presidency (and in the Oval Office itself!) and have always felt that despite whatever qualities he brought to the presidency, he should have immediately stepped down.

But as this cartoon by Pat Bagley from the 70s illustrates, many Americans seem to tolerate a lot from their elected officials if it happens to advance their own interests:

Bagley - 3 Bears

The more you look at 45’s public persona, and public behavior, and public business dealings, the less he seems to align with anything one finds in the teachings of either the biblical or the historical Jesus.

But then there’s the Book of Mormon, another scripture that Hatch claims to reverence, where we find the story of Korihor, the anti-Christ:

“And many more such things did he say unto them, telling them that there could be no atonement made for the sins of men, but every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime.”

And that has pretty much been 45’s game all along – to paraphrase what I see in his statements and his actions and his tweets, “I’m rich, I’m powerful, I’m President, I’m the best, I’m yuuuuge, I can do anything I want, and there’s nothing wrong with any of it.”

Senator Hatch, as you look at 45 and his history, the history of questionable business dealings, irresponsible behaviors, dishonesty with contractors, countless bankruptcies, the adulteries, the dalliances, the sexual harassment, the hate, the xenophobia, the racist attitudes, the arrogance, the intolerance, the public mockeries of those who disagree with him, the inexperience, the incompetence, the unleashed and uncontrolled and unsubstantiated tweets, the megalomania, all of it – 45 makes Richard M. Nixon look like Gandhi by comparison. These are not the qualities of a “very good man.” You, and every other Latter-day Saint who cast a ballot for 45 have effectively put Korihor into the White House, and now we’re all reaping the political and social whirlwind.

Now before anyone accuses me of hypocrisy, let me quote the relevant passage for you:

“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?  Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own ye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”

On a personal level, I leave all judgment to God, because I’m keenly aware of my own failings. But we’re talking politics here, and public service and honor and the common good, and I hold my leaders to the highest possible standards. If our chief executive and our legislators can’t be better than the rest of  us, they have no business leading us, because otherwise they can lead us nowhere but unto destruction.

The Old Wolf has spoken.