Worse Than We Thought Possible

While the Trump administration keeps denying the Russian connections, the evidence that keeps mounting tells a different story. Talk in the US intelligence community is leaking out: two grand juries are nearing their verdicts and we may very soon see criminal charges being brought against several people close to the President, and in due time even the President himself. The charges will concern collusion with Russia to cheat in the election, but also Russian money laundering connecting to large loans from Deutsche Bank to the Trump Organization.

As with Al Capone, the immediate issue that brings Donald Trump down might be his financial crimes, and the sooner he is gone, the better. However, the Russia story is a lot bigger and uglier than anyone thought, and involves dozens of people in and around the White House. The United States will be reeling from the shock for years to come. Hopefully, people will learn something from it. Not Donald Trump, he is way beyond help, but at least some of the people who voted for Trump might learn not to trust a compulsive liar.

Wanted: Stupid People

Donald Trump chose not to attend the White House correspondents' dinner. Instead, he organized a rally in Harrisburg. Despite his struggles with popularity and a growing number of supporters abandoning him, he drew a decent crowd of nitwits who were still prepared to put up with his narcissist self-promotion. However, as usual, he chose to exaggerate the crowd size by telling obvious lies, saying that there were lots of people outside waiting to get in (there were none), and hat he broke the attendance record for the arena (he did not, as there were entire sections of empty seats).

He then went on to attacking "fake media" for not acknowledging his achievements, which are few and small, and focusing on his failures, which are large and plentiful. He also claimed that he is fulfilling his campaign promises, when in reality he has done just the opposite. As usual, his lies were transparent, predictable and utterly ridiculous.

And yet, the audience cheered.

Obviously, there is a crowd in the US who have a low enough intelligence to be persuaded by this total opposite of the truth. People who stick with Donald Trump must also be lazy enough not to check facts, and so small minded that they believe that the entire mainstream media is somehow conspiring against an innocent victim when they write about the train wreck that is Donald Trump's presidency.

Fortunately, it appears as if there aren't enough stupid people even in the United States. Donald Trump is failing bigly on all fronts, and people are noticing.

Easy Peasy

In a recent interview, President* Trump made the personal reflection that before he took office, he thought his job in the White House "would be easier" compared to his old job.

Let that sink in for a moment. He actually thought that being the President of the United States, by account from any of his predecessors the most stressful and difficult job in the world, was going to be easier than managing his failing family business, promoting himself and occasionally appearing in TV.

Donald Trump is a fool. He had no idea what he signed up for, he doesn't have a clue to what he is doing, and he has neither a plan nor the ability to learn to do the job. He has absolutely no business being the President.

Blame Canada!

In his failure to understand basic economics, President* Trump just made a mess of the US relations to Canada, it's closest neighbour and a long time ally and trade partner. The healthy co-dependence between the two nations is based on free trade across their long common border, but Donald Trump said that Canada has "been very rough on" and "outsmarted" the US over the years, so much so that customs tariffs are in order to put "America First". (Canada is in America, but with "America", Trump obviously means "USA".) Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister who is Trump's opposite in most respects, might need to explain to the uneducated 45th President of the United States that trade, contrary to what seems to be the zero-sum world view according to Trump, can benefit both parties to a deal, and that the free trade with Canada, their sensible cousin to the north, helps create many jobs and prosperity in the US.

For a supposedly successful businessman, Donald Trump sure doesn't know a lot of economics. Or of anyting else, for that matter.

The Walls Are Crumbling

Congress has refused to provide initial funding to start the construction of Trump's stupid symbolic project: the border wall against Mexico. Not even his own party members are willing to spend billions on a project that is not going to have any positive effects.

Trump's firewalls are failing as well: the stooges who were supposed to provide protection for him in the various congressional committees are either resigning, recusing themselves or suddenly deciding to actually do their jobs and investigate the many strange and suspicious activities of the Trump administration. House Intelligence chair Devin Nunes has recused himself, House Oversight chair Jason Chaffetz is resigning and chair Richard Burr of the Senate Intelligence committee is suddenly redoubling his efforts to get the Trump-Russia investigation up to speed.

At the same time, Donald Trump's business is under investigation for suspected financial crimes. It's likely that his empire will not survive the public scrutiny that comes with being the President of the United States.

And on top of all that, Donald Trump himself has severe problems hiding his mental instability. Despite the attempts from his closest aides to manage him and shield him, it is becoming clear to everyone that there is something seriously wrong with his brain.

The walls are coming down on President Trump, all at once.

Trump Salad

The transcript of the Times interview with Donald Trump was bad. You know, the one where the editor apparently gave up on trying to make sense of the words that came from the President's mouth and just printed it verbatim. Well, that was just topped by a recent one-on-one interview by AP. They, too, printed the transcript, but in sixteen places they had to write "unintelligible", because the President did not just fail to make sense, he failed to utter proper words which other humans can understand. The interview wasn't even a proper one-on-one sitting, because an unnamed aide was present, supposedly to try to keep Trump from saying too many crazy things. This didn't stop statements like this from coming out of his muddled, disorganised and quite possibly demented mind:

[Describing a meeting with Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.)]

“Well he said, you’ll be the greatest president in the history of, but you know what, I’ll take that also, but that you could be. But he said, will be the greatest president but I would also accept the other. In other words, if you do your job, but I accept that. Then I watched him interviewed and it was like he never even was here. It’s incredible. I watched him interviewed a week later and it’s like he was never in my office. And you can even say that.”

First, this is not what Cummings said, and he has been very clear about that since Trump quoted him wrong the first time. Therefore, this is another example of Trump repeating a lie long after it has been debunked.  Second, reading his literal words, this is a word salad bordering on being unintelligible. You can sort of make out part of what he tries to say, but the sentences are tripping over themselves, and words and entire phrases are just missing. This is not the flow of a normal conversation. It's an incoherent rant from a person who is obviously not in good mental health.

And we thought it was bad before. Does it have to get worse still before we can be rid of this president?

Pigs fly!

The Pope has declared that evolution and the Big Bang are sound theories, and that they don't clash with Catholic Christian belief. Because of the office he holds, he went as far as saying that they "require" a creator, but that's taking it too far.

The main point is that religion is finally considered separate and independent of science by the Catholic Church, and that is great news for science as well as for religion.

Now, if only the "evangelical Christians" trying to reshape the United States into a bible-toting, science denying theocracy could take the same stance instead of making Americans stupid.

Lame Duck Walking

"If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck", the saying goes. President* Trump is a quack, and as of late he has done nothing but duck the questions about his suspected corrupt finances and his alleged collusion with Russia. He is now reportedly starting to lose the support even of the Republican representatives in Congress. The House resisted his push to take a vote on his failed health care bill in the last minute before his first 100 days as president are over, and his desperate attempts at making Democrats support a budget for his border wall is being ridiculed. He has not managed to pass any significant legislation yet, and he has failed to deliver on almost every promise made during his campaign. His prospects for the future aren't exactly looking good either.

The President is a lame duck. For now, he keeps quacking, but what he says makes less sense than ever. If he weren't in charge of the US armed forces, we could stop caring about him right now. However, a lame, sitting duck may be an easy target, but if that duck is deranged and has nukes, you would be well advised to keep watching it closely.

Party Crashing

The Republican Party, the venerable party of Abraham Lincoln, has gotten lost. Tricked into making a demented clown their presidential candidate, played by Russia to run Putin's errands, taken in by greed and lust for power to the point where they resorted to cheating to win an election, it's doubtful whether the GOP will ever be able to recover after the FBI investigation has run to completion and brought to justice all the people who were involved in the scandals surrounding the 2016 presidential election. The rot runs deep, and after the gangrenous limbs have been cut off, there might not be much of value left. That which is still untouched by corruption, treason, fanatism and general ineptitude might never be able to get out from under the heavy shadow of what happened in 2016 and 2017.

Donald Trump took the Republicans for a spin and drove them into the ditch. Their party may be over.

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

In the words of William Shakespeare:

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.

 — Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, excerpt)

April March for Science

On Earth Day, a massive amount of people in the United States took to the streets to show their support for science and their disdain for the Trump administration's hostile attitude towards facts, objective truth and scientific evidence. Marches and gatherings were held in 500 places across the country, and in the larger cities the crowds amounted to tens of thousands of people. Taken together, hundreds of thousands of Americans marched for science and against climate change denial.

In the face of all this, President* Trump couldn't credibly claim that all these people were paid protesters, so instead he ignored the demonstrations.

The White House sent out an official statement about how they were dedicated to science and wanted to protect the environment, a text so full of blatant, bald-faced lies that it was shameful.

Donald Trump personally kept himself busy tweeting nonsense, lies and distractions while watching Fox News.

Keeping Up Appearances

President* Trump is going down. Any day now, the slow but thorough investigation by the FBI will reach the stage where big names are going to be arrested. Waiting for that bomb to drop must be very distracting for everyone who knows they are a potential target, so it's no wonder that the White House is more or less paralyzed right now.

Approaching 100 days in charge, Donald Trump has failed to deliver on any of his campaign promises, and has passed no significant legislation. He is by far the most ineffective US president in modern history. His desperate claims to the contrary ring hollow and only serve to demonstrate how far detached he is from reality. His state of mind seems to be deteriorating rapidly, and it's painful to watch.

The President is keeping up appearances, or at least trying to, but in reality, he is no longer in control of the situation and will probably accomplish nothing of significance during whatever remains of his presidency. Developments during his first 100 days indicate that he might not last another 100 days on the job.

Small Minds Think Alike

Following the Turkish referendum to basically disable the democracy of the troubled nation by granting permanent authoritarian powers to their president, US President Donald Trump chose to call his Turkish counterpart, president Recep Tayyip Erogan, to congratulate him on his victory.

Heads of state from other countries showed better restraint. Congratulations were received from a few other countries like Qatar, Guinea, Djibouti and Saudi Arabia, but EU and NATO members were notably absent from the short list.

International observers have called the procedures of the referendum into question. The vote was very close, despite alleged voter fraud enabled by shenanigans introduced in the last minute, wide-spread suppression of information and outright silencing of opponents in the debate leading up to the vote. In Turkey, protesters are taking to the streets, going as far as accusing president Erdogan for being a thief and a murderer.

At that point, Donald Trump picked up the phone and offered Erdogan his congratulations. Not a good call. One can't help but wonder whether Donald Trump considers himself to be a kindred spirit to Erdogan, like he has expressed his admiration for president Putin of Russia. It would certainly make Trump's life easier if he, just like Erdogan, could arrest bothersome journalists and political opponents and use force to silence protests against him.

If Trump would get things his way, the US could be in for a presidential power grab like the one happening in Turkey right now. Fortunately, lots of checks and balances were put in place to prevent that, and at least some of them are still working. Of particular importance right now is the continued existence of a free press.

Out Of His Mind?

President Trump's episodes of confusion, erratic behavior (even for him) and apparent loss of mental focus (and I use the term "focus" very loosely) seem to become more frequent under stress. It's the same pattern I saw with a friend of the family who suffers from early onset frontal lobe dementia. I notice other troubling similarities as well: incoherent speech with lots of repetitions, a shrinking vocabulary, and frequent failure to remember specific nouns and people's names. He further shows an inability to let things go, uncontrollable emotional outbursts, paranoia, projection (noting in others the problems you have yourself, often falsely accusing others of it) and "reverse projection" (taking strong influence from others and being easily persuaded because your own mind is weak).

I don't know how much if this is typical for the disease, but it's a very close fit with the one case I have experienced up close and personal. If President* Trump is losing his mind while also trying to hide it, we may be in even deeper trouble than we thought. Phrases like "he is out of his mind" or "he doesn't know what he is doing" may be true in a very literal sense. It wouldn't excuse anything, but it would explain a lot, and it would shift a lot more of the blame onto his inner circle for providing cover and being his enablers.

Occam's Razor

Let's look at what would be the most simple explanations for the behavior of President* Trump. These are not accusations or allegations, they're merely assertions for the sake of argument.

What if the reason he is not releasing his tax returns is that he has huge loans which can be traced back to laundered money from Russian oligarchs and/or the Mafia?

What if the reason he does not divest from his business is that he is in the red, i.e. his debt is larger than the total value of his assets, and he is effectively bankrupt?

What if the enormous amounts of smoke surrounding the issues of Russia and Putin are because there is fire behind it?

What if he is actually stupid enough, and deluded enough, to think that he could get away with all this?

Wouldn't everything suddenly make a whole lot more sense? It would mean that there is a huge criminal case to be brought against an illegitimate president and a number of his associates, but the alternative is to believe in an increasingly implausible and ever expanding set of remarkable coincidences, and putting faith in the innocence of people who are looking more guilty with each passing day.

Earth to Trump: People Just Don't Like You

Following the public protests of April 15 where large crowds gathered to demand that President* Trump release his tax returns for public scrutiny, like every other presidential candidate since Nixon has done, Trump took to Twitter to claim that the "small rallies" (25,000 people gathered in Washington DC, and 20,000 in NYC) must have been "paid for". Then he went further into crazy territory by asking "someone" to look into who footed the bill. Of course, he offered no evidence to support his claim.

Apparently, it is unfathomable to Donald Trump, a person living in his own narcissist version of reality, that people find it highly suspect that he refuses to show his tax returns, and that his continued refusal only makes it look like he has something to hide. Polls show that even a substantial portion of his own supporters would like him to release them.

It appears to be impossible for Donald Trump to realize that he is simply not very well liked, despite being elected with a very narrow margin, losing the popular vote and getting approval ratings which are historically low for a new president. For anyone but him, it's pretty obvious why a person who is ignorant, dishonest, vindictive, small-minded, mean-spirited, egomaniacal, unprincipled, sexist and, quite frankly, stupid, might not be the most admirable person on the planet.

The Smoking Gun?

Rumors which deserve to be taken seriously, in the form of as yet uncorroborated information from Louise Mensch, a decidedly non-fake and usually trustworthy source with deep personal contacts in US and UK intelligence services, say that there is a smoking gun in the FBI investigation into Donald Trump's ties to Russia. The story reads like a spy novel:

Article by Louise Mensch

Carter Page, Paul Manafort and Boris Epshteyn, a gang of three traitors in Trump's campaign, including an actual FSB spy (Epshteyn) who is the son of two old school Soviet sleeper agents. A tape recording of Trump offering to make political concessions to Russia in exchange for Russian help by hacking the election. Clandestine meetings with Russian intelligence to set things up - meetings that were intercepted by US and UK counterintelligence. The incriminating recording of Trump being in the hands of US investigators. All this according to a source quoted by Louise Mensch.

If this is true, it's a scandal that justifies putting USA under bipartisan emergency management and doing a retake of the entire election. It remains to be seen how deep the connections reach inside the Republican party, but the GOP is very clearly in serious trouble. This kind of scheme doesn't get executed without key players in the political organization being complicit and at least partly in the know.

Трамп и Россия

The Russian clouds are gathering around President* Trump. Over the past few days, it has become clear that the FBI investigation has turned up a lot more dirt on a lot more people than James Comey would admit to in the congressional hearing in March, and that some big revelations may be imminent. There is talk of arrests happening as early as next week. Hopefully, Donald Trump will be stopped before he gets the world into war in his desperate attempts to bury this scandal. Fortunately, the FBI is not as easily distracted as the media or the general public.

A vernacular that stands out in the reports is that the FBI is allegedly aiming to "take down this entire three-ring circus". It's clearly a big spectacle with many culprits. Interesting times ahead. Interesting times indeed.

Repeal and replace

As is apparent for everyone not in denial over the present condition of the United States government, there is absolutely no chance of President* Trump ever rising to the challenge and becoming good at his job. There are so many things wrong with him that the only thing that might have helped would have been if he had appointed skilled and experienced people for his cabinet, employed good advisors and listened to their advice, and stayed away from making stupid and rash comments on complicated subjects where he has absolutely no clue. Instead, he hired people who are inexperienced, bad at their job, stupid, dishonest, corrupt, criminal, working for a hostile power or downright evil, most even having a combination of those traits. The few people appointed by Donald Trump who are not a disaster at their jobs are being drowned out by a gang of deplorables.

The problem can't be fixed easily. What would be needed is a repeal and replace, not of Obamacare for which the term was coined, but of the entire Trump administration. Seeing how many of them are now being caught in the mess with Russia, there is a real chance of this happening. The question is: how much damage will be done before this freak presidency can be put to an end?

Antidisestablishmentarianism

I never thought I would find any use for the word in the headline, but it applies to the current trend in the palace intrigues of the White House. From the look of it, it appears that Steve Bannon is being sidelined by the Trump clan, and his disestablishmentarian agenda to "deconstruct the administrative state" which he has been whispering in the President's ear is now being opposed by more moderate and, to a certain extent, more reasonable voices like those of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. The obvious problems with nepotism aside, they tend to have a calming influence on the mentally unstable, clueless, impulsive and vindictive fool who is the current US President, and he trusts them. President* Trump is still dangerous, but he seems to be less of a loose cannon with his family members around him.

When Bannon goes, his close allies Sebastian Gorka and Stephen Miller with probably leave the administration as well. Good riddance. It never made any sense having either of them in the White House. Of course, getting them out won't make the Trump administration any better - they will still be incompetent and clueless. However, without Steve Bannon pulling the strings, the situation will be slightly less scary.

Exit Trump, and Curtain

No, we're not at the end of the Trump-Russia debacle yet. But we're getting there.

Lots of people in media are currently being distracted by side tracks, created by the White House by telling tall tales that grow more dramatic and strange as they and the Republican party grow increasingly desperate to conceal the truth. Meanwhile, however, the FBI investigation into the Russian election hacking and the suspected coordination with the Trump campaign is continuing behind the scenes, undisturbed by the constant distractions.

The first arrests were made recently. Several Russian hackers have been caught by surprise and arrested in routine European border controls on request of the FBI. The most recent, and the one that drew the most attention from media, was a Russian spam-lord called "Peter Severa" (Pjotr Levashov), who has also been using spambots and botnets to spread disinformation to rig the Russian presidential election in Putin's favor. He was arrested in Spain, and an extradition request is expected. Spain, like many other European countries, has a deal to arrest and detain criminals on behalf of the US and to send them to the US for trial. The FBI doesn't say what they arrested Levashov for, but his wife claims that the arrest was related to online covert actions by her husband, allegedly aimed at influencing the US election in Trump's favor. Russian state propaganda is throwing him under the bus and makes a point of dissociating him from Kremlin.

Donald Trump's and his associates' dealings with Russia in connection with the Russian hacking of the 2016 election are the main story. We have no way of knowing in advance what comes out of the FBI investigation into that matter, but it's becoming increasingly clear that it will shake up a lot of things, quite likely have quite a few people resign from the White House, and maybe even take a few Republican legislators down with them. We need to keep our eyes on that ball, or at least not lose sight of it because we are confused by other reports. Democracy dies by distraction. Stay focused.

Oooh, look! A squirrel!

Right. Russia. OK. Sorry. Focusing.

Cost: $90M. Value: zero.

A few days after the supposedly decisive and forceful US retaliation against an air field near Homs in Syria, the controversies and the questions surrounding the attack only seem to create more headache for President* Trump. There are strong indications that this was all an event coordinated with Russia to put on a show, in order to give Trump a credible example of standing up against Russian interests.

The 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles that were launched cost $90 million, but had no real effect. The air field was left operational on purpose, and its runways were used the very next day to launch Syrian and Russian fighters. President Assad seems as intent as ever to wipe out every single civilian in his population who opposes him, Russia and Iran are still backing Assad and, quite amazingly, the military action by Trump did absolutely nothing to improve his ratings. He still hovers around a troublesome 40 percent approval, which is historically low for a new President.

The show was a huge waste of money, and it had no effect. If anything, it added to the dark cloud of alleged Russian influence hanging over the Trump presidency. The strange coincidences are too many, and the cover-ups around the strong and numerous connections and ties to Putin are becoming more obvious each day.

When a US president can't catch a break even by military action abroad, he is in deep trouble.

USA, Inc.

Donald Trump and Jared Kushner are trying to run the US as a family business. That's all they know how to do, even though it could be argued that Donald Trump himself isn't very good even at that.

The corporate analogy doesn't make sense. A company that is not even public listed is a poor model for the incredibly complex social and economic structure of the United States - so poor that it simply doesn't work.

The US is not a company. It is a country, and it's about time the current administration in the White House started treating it like one. While it still is.

Dead Horse

Right-wing press and the Trump administration have a habit of teaming up around distractions and bounce them back and forth, to avoid talking about the elephant in the room: the Russia scandal. The distractions have changed over time: blame Obama, blame Hillary, find the leakers, it's the Deep State, millions of people voted illegally, we totally have a health care bill, and other lies. However, that Russian elephant is becoming harder to ignore for each day of revelations, and they need big distractions. Their latest frenzy has been a misguided attempt at defending the indefensible accusation by Donald Trump that "President Obama had Trump Tower wire tapped during the election campaign".

Most of the "usual suspects" have now jumped on the train to blame another old adversary: Susan Rice, former National Security Advisor to President Obama. She is accused of unmasking the names of people in the Trump transition team, for "political reasons", when they were caught in incidental surveillance of Russian intelligence agents. Nothing has been found that corroborates the apparently made-up wire tapping tweet by Donald Trump, but he and most of his party, along with their followers in the "actual fake" media (as opposed to the "allegedly fake" mainstream media) are staying on the train, realizing that it might be the last train to leave the station. The problem is that the train goes to Russia, where they really don't want to go at this point. They should have checked before boarding.

Finding themselves near the end of this line, and running out of side tracks to create distraction, a large number of people and organizations are now not only beating the same dead horse, they are actually betting their fortunes, their reputations and their jobs on that dead horse winning a race. They will probably keep insisting it has a chance of winning until a good while after the race is over, but eventually, the truth about the horse's demise will catch up to them. When that happens, they will lose everything.

Prince Jared

Over the course of the past few months, we have seen more and more power being invested in one person in the Trump administration: Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law. He has a downright silly amount of issues in his portfolio, and he doesn't seem to have any particular qualifications for any of them. That in itself is troubling, but now he is being caught up in the Russia scandal as well, having had an undisclosed meeting with the strongly Putin-aligned chairman of Vnesheconombank (VEB) in December 2016 and having taken a big and active part in setting up a database server, allegedly based on stolen Facebook data and US voter registration rolls from some 20 states provided by Russian intelligence. The database was used to "micro-target" US citizens with messages individually tailored to sway them in favor of Donald Trump in the election.

Jared Kushner, like many others in the Trump adminstration, appears to be a lot more than a bystander to the Russia scandal. In fact, as more of this Russia scandal is revealed, we might find that he has the dirtiest hands of the whole bunch. Having this person at the heart of the government, apparently running a large part of it single-handedly, should have us all worried.

Sad, Sad Donald

A tweet today from President* Trump:

Did Hillary Clinton ever apologize for receiving the answers to the debate? Just asking!

This is utterly sad, not because of its content as such, but because of its context.

In his small and clouded mind, consumed by bitterness, alone with his thoughts and unable to comprehend the situation, he remembers an old perceived mistreatment by a moderator in a town hall debate during the campaign. When his world is crumbling, when a scandal of devastating proportions is being uncovered around him and his administration, this is what he remembers and tweets about, somehow believing that anyone but him would think it still matters and stop looking where the real news is happening.

Reality no longer matters to Donald Trump. Cornered and facing defeat, he is reduced to a small, sad, trembling shadow of a person, and he has absolutely no idea what to do.

His presidency is coming to an end.

Agent Orange

Among the many things that President* Trump does badly is name calling. With the creativity and wit of a child of five, he attaches literal, unfunny descriptions to people's names and doesn't let go. During his campaign to become the Republican candidate, he referred to his opponents by first name only, and added slurs like "Lyin' Ted" (Cruz), "Little Marco" (Rubio) and "Crooked Hillary" (Clinton).

Considering how President* Trump himself is such an easy target for mockery, it's strange that he continues on this path. Calling Chuck Todd of MSNBC "Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd" in a tweet last night really did nothing to mock Chuck Todd, who is anything but asleep on his job. Thus, criticizing him for having sleepy eyes is not a witty insult, just a mean-spirited and small-minded random comment on his looks, which does little more than reflect badly on the accuser.

Mr. President*, if you are now going to resort to name calling, you should at least make the names funny and clever. That's how grown-ups do it, so please be more creative. For some examples regarding names for yourself, see below. Because we have heard you have no sense of humor, we added explanations.

Trumplethinskin, a play on the name of the evil and stupid gnome Rumplestiltskin from fairy tales, with an allusion to your sensitivity to any form of criticism.
Toddler-in-chief, painting the scary image of an immature child with the power to launch a nuclear strike during a tantrum.

Fake President Trump, taking your preposterous accusations against mainstream media and throwing them back at you, accusing you of being an impostor and a fraud.

Agent Orange, because you use way too much bronzer, and you also happen to be investigated by the FBI over possible dealings with Russia. "Agent Orange" was also the infamous code name for a herbicide used in the Vietnam war, adding a dark undertone of associations to Nixon and a dark time for the nation.

President-reject, sounding like "president-elect", the title for a not yet sworn-in president, and implying that you are a disaster on the job.

See how this is so much more funny than something like "Bad Donald"?

If you still don't get it, ask your advisers for help. I'm sure they can do better than you.

Same Lame Blame Game

President* Trump has now reached the end of his playbook. It's a very short playbook, so it's not surprising. This was a Sunday tweet from him on April 2:

The real story turns out to be SURVEILLANCE and LEAKING! Find the leakers.

No, Mr. President*. The real story, as it has been for a while, is the story about you and Russia. You can claim anything you want, but you do not get to decide what we should focus on. Now, please get off the Internet. We need the bandwidth to watch the fascinating train wreck that is your presidency, and it's obvious that you have run out of things to say.

Sean Spicer, Propaganda Minister

Some people say they feel sorry for Sean Spicer when he gets hammered by journalists during his press briefings in the White House. That's ridiculous. He might have been taken by surprise on his first day, when he was ordered by President* Trump to tell obvious lies which were immediately exposed, but now he is doing it deliberately, willingly and seemingly without remorse.

In recent press conferences, he has insisted that the press should stop covering the investigation into the Russian interference with the election and the many apparent connections between the Trump administration and Russia, and told them to instead look at the unfounded claims that President Obama had Donald Trump illegally wire tapped for political purposes. With that, he is trying to deflect attention from what is probably the most dramatic story ever in US politics to a pathetic, unfounded accusation by Donald Trump, made on Twitter without quoting any sources either then or later.

Sean Spicer is now acting like a mindless mouthpiece and has lost all credibility. We should not pity him. He is not being held hostage by Donald Trump. He is choosing to do his job in this bizarre manner every day, and there is no excuse for it.

The honorable thing for him to do would be to announce his resignation, and to acknowledge that his job has been about lying from day one. It wouldn't excuse his despicable actions during the past couple of months, but it would restore some hope and faith in humanity. The United States needs a White House press secretary. It does not need a propaganda minister.

April Fool's Quiz

Ooh! It's April 1, and the President* tweeted a quiz question for us to answer. Let's have a look:

When will Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd and @NBCNews start talking about the Obama SURVEILLANCE SCANDAL and stop with the Fake Trump/Russia story?

Hmm. We need to split the question in two, because it's about two separate and different issues. (And, seriously, "Sleepy Eyes"? Calling names should be beneath you. More on that in a later post.)

When will Chuck Todd and NBC News start talking about the surveillance scandal?

Mr. President*, what a strange question. Chuck Todd and a number of other people at NBC, not to mention lots of other people at most other networks, talked about that quite a lot already, although perhaps not in the manner you would have liked him to. Did you miss it? He's still talking about it when you give him reason to, like after the recent failed attempt by the White House at taking control of the embarrassing story and bury your stupid tweet. Hilariously, you only made yourself look worse in the process, but it was definitely in the news. So, I guess the answer to "When will he start?" is "A good while ago".

When will Chuck Todd stop with the Fake Trump/Russia story?

I was tempted to write "Not until long after you are gone and we finally see the end of the investigations into everything you did to make a complete mess of your short presidency", but I see what you did there, Mr. President*. When will he stop with the "Fake" Trump/Russia story? Well, that's a false pretense, because the Trump/Russia story very clearly isn't "Fake". It's the subject of several ongoing investigations by Congress and the FBI, and they are finding enough to think it's worth to continue. The FBI has been investigating this for months, and they are still at it. Quite honestly, I think you should be worried. But back to the question. The answer to "When will he stop?" would be "He isn't doing it, and he never did".

There is no "Obama surveillance scandal", despite amateurish cloak-and-dagger attempts by the White House to inject some non-specific "evidence" into the House investigation through its gullible chairman. There is, however, a very real, very active and very interesting story about the Trump administration and the Russian interference with the election.

You really should stop watching TV, Mr. President*. It's obviously not good for you. And please stop tweeting, at least until you have something sensible to say. I would also like to ask you to get to work and do your job, but I really don't think you can. Perhaps there is a grown-up in the succession order who could do it for you if you resigned? Preferably one who isn't neck deep in secret deals with Russia, it that's not asking too much.