Clear with tons of sunshine, though, the air is a bit on the chilly side this late-morning Tuesday here in California’s Central Valley — last hurrah for winter as we’re expected to be in the mid-80s temp-wise next week, so we better enjoy it while we can because it’ll be hotter than shit soon enough.
Enjoyment is not included in the psychotic shitshow of the T-Rump:
Journalists try to understand Trump’s behavior, but aren't considering the simple possibility it's not some grand strategy—just a madman with increasingly diminished mental faculties.“I’m going to say this at risk of my job, but what President Trump is doing is insane. It is absolutely insane…"
— The New Republic (@newrepublic.com) 2025-03-18T14:02:02.512Z
Ross Rosenfeld at The New Republic this morning on T-Rump being nuttier-than-a-fruitcake:
That seemed to be CNBC economic analyst Steve Liesman’s conclusion last week about President Donald Trump’s tariffs. “I’m going to say this at risk of my job,” Liesman said, “but what President Trump is doing is insane. It is absolutely insane … and now he’s saying he’s putting 50 percent tariffs on Canada unless they agree to become the fifty-first state. That is insane. There’s just no other way of describing it.” Host Kelly Evans countered with an attempt to make sense of Trump’s actions, suggesting the president might be motivated by Canada’s threat to tax electricity exports or that he might be employing “insanity as a strategy.” But Liesman wasn’t having it. “Insanity is not a strategy,” he retorted.
It’s not just Trump’s unpredictable tariff policy that appears insane. His entire administration is defined by madness—in both senses. On Friday, he went on another incoherent rant on social media, claiming once that the 2020 election was stolen from him and rewriting history to blame all of our current problems, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, on Joe Biden. In other Truth Social posts, he’s boasted about being a king and claimed that the “European Union was formed for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the United States.”
If these acts were merely confined to deranged posts, perhaps one could argue there’s “method in his madness.” After his rant on Friday, Trump gave a speech at the Justice Department wherein he kvetched about various imaginary enemies of the United States (which, coincidentally, are his personal enemies) and made clear that he expects the department to serve as an extension of his personal wrath. Similar delusions have led to the dismantling of USAID, a wasteful visit to Fort Knox to check if the gold had been stolen, and continual talk about annexing other countries.
Even his official portrait shows signs of delusion. He seems to have intentionally posed like Winston Churchill because, in his mind, he’s of the same mold and is saving the world. He’s promoted a book called Trump and Churchill, which might as well be called Trump and Mickey Mouse for all the supposed similarities.
Worse still, his delusions are echoing throughout his administration. His aides, advisers, Cabinet appointees, and other defenders are going to ridiculous lengths to invent methods for Trump’s madness. Asked last week about Trump’s tariff threats, his senior trade and manufacturing adviser, Peter Navarro, said, “Looks like the president is negotiating strategically. So stop with the rhetoric. OK? Just stop that crap.” When a reporter replied, “But he does seem to be changing his mind all the time,” Navarro snapped back, “Stop that crap!” Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, went even further that same day, claiming that “tariffs are a tax cut for the American people.” She added that the tariffs would make us “wealthy again,” as if we haven’t experienced any growth since the McKinley administration.
[…]
We are in a Shakespearean moment right now. Journalists are trying to understand Trump’s irrational behavior, and are generally unwilling to consider the possibility that it is not some grand strategy but just a sign of a madman with increasingly diminished mental faculties. Perhaps he’s not quite yet burying steaks to grow meat trees, like George III, but Trump’s delusions cause considerably more damage than that. Are we going to wait until he’s ranting about “drainage” like Daniel Plainview and beating someone to death with a bowling pin? Are we going to continue to bend over backward to pretend that this emperor isn’t naked?
Big question, however, is what the fuck can we do about it?
And over the cuckoo’s nest:
Trump on Putin's invasion of Ukraine: "Biden should have never let it happen."
Blabbering idiot, or not, yet here we are once again …
(Illustration out front: ‘President Trump,’ by Jonathan Bass, found here.)