DCUM Weblog

When Zohran Mamdani, Mikie Sherrill, and Abigail Spanberger led a wave of Democratic victories in November by campaigning on affordability, the administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump got the message. Something needed to be done about rising prices. After all, one of Trump's primary campaign issues had been the price of eggs. However, consumers were finding that under the Trump administration, almost everything was more expensive. This created a dilemma for the Trump officials. One of the main causes of rising prices was Trump's signature tariff policy. The quickest way to contain prices would be to abandon Trump's tariffs, but that was something that Trump would not consider. The administration did eventually reverse tariffs on coffee, tea, bananas, beef, and a few other food items, but tariffs remained a key policy. In the absence of acceptable options for lowering, or even stabilizing prices, the Trump administration decided that they would address affordability through messaging. Briefly, administration officials took to the airwaves to assure Americans that they felt their pain and were working night and day to confront the problem of affordability. This message was undercut by their boss. Trump, instead of focusing on affordability in the U.S., bailed out Argentina and, in the process, provided assistance to Argentinian soybean farmers and cattle ranchers while harming the interests of U.S. farmers. Ultimately, Trump would drive a spike through the heart of the administration's message by declaring that affordability was a "hoax." The administration then settled on a new message: It's all the fault of former President Joe Biden.

Thanks to cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump, Republican elected officials are increasingly emulating Sergeant Schultz, the aimable German prison camp guard in the Hogan's Heroes sitcom. Schultz was famous for ignoring the prisoners' illicit activities, claiming that "I see nothing" or "I know nothing." Faced with Trump's increasingly controversial or hard-to-defend actions, Republicans are often claiming that they know nothing about them. This is an easy way to avoid either criticizing Trump or standing behind his latest move. Elected officials of all stripes are generally very image-conscious and reluctant to reveal any faults. Yet Republican after Republican will happily portray themselves as ignorant of current events rather than being forced to choose between either of the less desirable alternatives. These Republicans, of course, are not being forthright and, if they were, it would be reasonable to ask how such uninformed individuals can adequately perform the jobs for which they were elected. But for today's Republicans, ignorance is truly bliss.

Is cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump a racist? It is hard to know what thoughts are lurking around inside the head of someone, especially one whose brain has turned to mush as has Trump's. A fairer, and easier to answer, question is whether Trump engages in racism. To that, I think the answer is unequivocally "yes". To be fair, Trump's racism is often mixed with xenophobia and it can be difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins, but Trump's xenophobia is heavily influenced by race. For instance, Trump is very opposed to immigration, especially from what he calls "third world" countries whose inhabitants are likely to be non-white. However, he welcomes white South Africans. Trump's embrace of racism has been most obvious recently in his preoccupation with Somali immigrants, especially those living in Minnesota.

Back on November 11, I wrote a blog post titled, "Trump's Truth Social Insanity" in which I described the insanities that cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump regularly posts on Truth Social, his social media network. In that post, I suggested that Trump's Truth Social feed might become a recurring topic. Today is my second contribution to that series. I am motivated to return to this topic due to Trump's overnight activity beginning Monday evening. Within a few hours’ time period, Trump managed to either "truth" or "retruth" at least 160 times. The craziness has to be seen to be believed, but while I have seen some mentions by the corporate media of Trump's slew of posts, none of them have captured the reality of what really occurred. I will attempt to do that today.

Yesterday I wrote about the attacks being launched by the United States military against alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. I specifically focused on new reporting about the first of the attacks, which occurred on September 2. The new accounts claimed that after the initial strike, which severely damaged the boat and killed most of the 11 occupants of the craft, a second missile strike was launched in order to kill two survivors who were seen clinging to the wreckage. Killing survivors in this manner is almost universally considered to be a war crime, and such an example is included in the Department of Defense's "Law of War" manual in order to illustrate an illegal order that military personnel have a duty to refuse. After publishing the article, I added an update due to remarks by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Leavitt confirmed that there indeed had been multiple strikes but denied that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had given an order to kill the survivors. In light of Leavitt's remarks and other developments yesterday, I think it is worth continuing to consider this topic.

The United States has attacked over 20 boats in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, killing over 80 individuals. According to the administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump, the boats were carrying drugs destined for the United States, and those killed were drug traffickers and gang members. The administration has provided no evidence to support its allegations, and there is a strong debate over whether the attacks amount to extrajudicial killings. This dispute gained additional attention last week when the Washington Post published an article reporting that there were two survivors of the initial strike during the first boat attack on September 2. The two were subsequently killed by a follow-up strike. Killing survivors is one of the most widely acknowledged war crimes, and these attacks put U.S. personnel at risk of prosecution under both U.S. and international laws.

Cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump has completely lost it. If you were not already convinced of this, the last few days have provided enough evidence to persuade all but the most dedicated cultists. Almost any time Trump opens his mouth these days, he does a disservice to our country and damages our national interests. The media's tendency to "sanewash" what Trump says and, therefore, sugarcoat his words, and Trump's cultish followers' contention that Trump's insanities are nothing more than good fun, tend to hide the reality of what passes through Trump's lips on a regular basis.

Often the bizarre statements that Trump issues are harmless, if nonsensical. For instance, two days ago Trump, for no discernable reason, "truthed" on his Truth Social social media network that "There is a new word for a TRUMP REPUBLICAN, which is almost everyone (GREAT POLICY IS THE KEY!). It is, TEPUBLICAN??? Or, TPUBLICAN???" This is a man who has clearly run out of juice. Moreover, the much more recognizable, as well as pronounceable, "MAGA" already exists and is heavily used.

I'll start today's post with a question that should have a fairly simple answer: who is responsible for the United States’ foreign policy? In any other administration, the answer would almost certainly be the Secretary of State. But in the case of the administration of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump, the answer is much more complex. As best as can be determined, U.S. foreign policy is being controlled by a group of rivals who spend almost as much time attempting to sabotage each other as they do working to advance American goals.

No presidential administration has ever consisted of nothing but ideological clones of the president. There have always been differing views and multiple political factions among the top officials of any American government. But in the Trump administration, factionalism is magnified by Trump's leadership style. Trump, like many of his MAGA followers, has a deep distrust of government bureaucracy. Trump tends to reject expertise in general, preferring to rely on trusted individuals regardless of their lack of credentials or potential conflicts of interest. This is especially apparent when it comes to foreign policy.

One issue that I struggle with when writing this blog is whether or not to address topics that are well-covered elsewhere. If everyone else is already writing about a topic, generally much better than I can, is there any value in me also posting about it? Probably not much, to be honest. At the same time, I feel like I shouldn't just ignore important developments. Perhaps the best thing I could do is simply provide a list of links for those interested to follow. But that seems kind of boring. I'd rather write. So, with the caveat that I am going to be covering some pretty well-trodden ground today, I want to discuss the recent revelation that a number of major MAGA accounts on X are actually based overseas.

The background to this story is that last week X revealed a new feature that shows the country in which an account is based. The feature is not perfect; if a user is using a VPN, for instance, the information might be wrong. One example of that is the Planned Parenthood account which appears to be based in Germany because the organization uses a VPN. Nevertheless, when the feature was first released, a number of popular MAGA accounts were shown to be based overseas. In some cases, the account owners have fessed up and defended their posting. Presumably, in the future, those wishing to hide their true location might employ VPNs that show them to be in the United States. But, at least for a now, we have an interesting look at the foreign influence behind many MAGA accounts.

Last week I wrote a blog post about Representative Majorie Taylor Greene, reviewing her transition from a QAnon bomb thrower to an advocate of Charlie Kirk's style of polite debate and claiming to be the most authentic proponent of the America First positions that have been fundamental to the MAGA movement. On Friday evening, surprising nearly everyone, Greene announced that she would resign from Congress on January 5. In her resignation address, Greene listed a litany of complaints with both political parties. She said that she was looking forward to "seeing many of you again," but did not reveal her future plans.

The central theme of Greene's resignation announcement was that she has been a hardworking and loyal supporter of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump, the Republican Party, and the common American people. In return, she has been betrayed. More importantly, the American people have been betrayed. She began her speech by saying that she has "always represented the common American man and woman," which is why she has been "despised in Washington, D.C., and never fit in." She then went on to say that "Americans are used by the Political Industrial Complex of both political parties," who try to "convince Americans to hate the other side.” Regardless of which party wins, nothing ever gets better for "the common American man or woman."