Category Archives: Trump Chronicles

The Trump Chronicles, Volume 176: Indicting Comey Again?

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President Trump famously does not like former FBI Director James Comey. Last September the Department of Justice indicted Mr. Comey, charging him with lying to Congress. During his testimony in 2020 Mr. Comey denied directing leaks on the FBI’s investigation of Russian interference. Since there’s no proof (or even indication) that he lied the indictment was laughable and the court dismissed the indictment in November.

Hard to imagine but the latest indictment is even more laughable. Last month he was indicted again for an Instagram post from May of 2025. He was walking on a beach and saw that someone had arranged sea shells to read “86 47;” he thought it was funny and posted it. He later removed it. We all know the term “86” as a slang term to discard or reject. Decades ago when I worked in a restaurant we would “86” a menu choice if we ran out of it.

Not to miss an opportunity the Justice department has once again indicted him. It is (and should be) a crime to threaten the President. The indictment claims that Mr. Comey was directing violence against the President and “86” meant to cause him harm.

This is just silly and hopefully this indictment will be denied soon. Mr. Trump, you need to 86 this vendetta.

The Trump Chronicles, Volume 174: Threaten, TACO, Repeat

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When President Trump returned to the White House last year he generated all sorts of chaos by promising dozens of tariffs on multiple countries and multiple products, only to walk them back after a day or two. Eventually someone came up with the acronym TACO meaning “Trump always chickens out.”

In late February he began a campaign against Iran and it appears he’s TACO’ing again. He’s been famously all over the map in what he hopes to achieve, but that’s grist for another day. Most of his bombing targets have been military facilities in Iran but earlier this week he promised a major escalation warning that a whole civilization will die tonight.

This was widely interpreted to mean that he would target civilians, a clear war crime. But the next day he walked it back announcing a two week cease fire.

He claimed this was the result of Iran agreeing to negotiate but Iran denies these negotiations are even happening. One of Trump’s conditions is the opening of the Strait of Hormuz; it’s a narrow sea passageway where 30% of the world’s oil passes. It’s still effectively closed.

So where do we go from here? Hard to say. Much like his actions around tariffs he may again threaten to escalate the war. This makes everything more difficult. Our allies are being told they need to step up and “retake” the strait. Trump also claims we don’t need the oil that passes through the strait.

All we really do know is that he’s unpredictable and therefore dangerous. By the way, while it’s true that we produce more oil than we consume, oil prices rise and fall globally. We’re paying more money for gasoline regardless of where the oil comes from.

Stay tuned.

The Trump Chronicles, Volume 173: Conduct Unbecoming

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President Trump famously texts and posts a great deal. I’m avoiding the word “writes” because most of what he pens is of little value and is meant only to build himself up. After he was banned from Twitter (now called X) he began his own social media platform and posts there. A few days ago on Easter he posted 14 times. In fairness six of them did mention Easter.

But one of them used an obscenity that I’ll let you click on. I’ve often noted that Trump lacks a basic respect for the office of Presidency and this is a good example. The words that a President speaks and writes matter. Not all Presidents have been brilliant or eloquent but they’ve all written words that should be read by future generations.

Now we have a President whose words cannot be reasonably shown to children and should offend people of all ages. When asked about it he defended his words by saying he was making a point.

People use profanity are, simply put, lazy. They use shock value instead of finding words that make their point. There’s an interesting article that shows Trump speaks on about a 4th Grade level.

We should expect more, America.

The Trump Chronicles, Volume 172: The Rules Don’t Apply To Me

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President Trump’s opposition to mail in voting has been nothing if not consistent. Last August he vowed to ban it and he calls it mail in cheating. Of course he’s never shown any evidence of voter fraud (though I have: see my last post).

Interestingly enough he’s registered to vote in Florida where he lists his primary residence as Mar A Lago. This past week there was a special election to fill a congressional seat and he voted…by (you guessed it) mail. When asked he claimed it was because he is the president and is busy. So we need to ignore the fact that he had been in Florida the previous weekend and could have voted in person.

But his claim that he was too busy to vote in person belies his belief that he is more important than the rest of us. Many a time I’ve voted on days when I’ve worked. It normally meant I had to wake up earlier and I’ve been blessed that polling places here in California open at 7AM. A democracy depends on the belief that everyone’s vote is important and holds the same weight. If mail in voting is cheating (and it’s not) it’s cheating for him too.

Finally I can’t help but point out that the victor in that congressional election was a Democrat: Emily Gregory and she is Trump’s representative in the House of Representatives. I wonder if he’ll write his congresswoman.

The Trump Chronicles, Volume 171: We Still Don’t Know How Low He Will Go

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President Trump is famous for his insults and he gives us tremendous insight into his fears by who he goes after. He’s famously intimidated by strong women: Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris. And smart people: James Comey and Chris Christie.

He also mocks people who live well with disabilities: reporter Serge Kovaleski who lives with a muscular disease called Arthrogryposis was mocked in 2015 after asking an uncomfortable question.

Now we learn about Trump’s next target: Dyslexia. California Governor Gavin Newsom has been public about his struggles with dyslexia. It makes reading and writing difficult. People who live with this are often termed dumb as children before diagnosis. Most of us have learned to have respect for the work it takes for dyslexics to do things that come easily to most of us.

Respect for others, alas, eludes our president. Trump suggested that since Governor Newsom is dyslexic he’s a brain dead moron.

Trump famously calls himself a genius and brags about passing a cognitive test that he claimed was an IQ test. It wasn’t. These tests are given to people who may not be able to care for themselves to see if they need help. I’ve seen these tests given to people who may be in early stages of dementia. Anyone else wonder why they gave this test to the president?

In the meantime I have a new respect for Governor Newsome.

The Trump Chronicles, Volume 170: If You Voted For Trump Because Of His Promises On The Economy, Fasten Your Seatbelt (And Tighten Your Belt)

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In the run up to the 2024 elections Trump famously promised to fix the economy. Since returning to the White House he has blamed his predecessor Joe Biden for any bad news.

Each passing day diminishes his ability to sell this and he has bragged about lower gas prices which has steered much of the good news about overall inflation.

Many of us believed his claim of prosperity was ultimately unsustainable but with his recent invasion of Iran it’s going to be much, much harder. It’s been less than a week since the war began and already crude oil prices have risen dramatically and a barrel is now over $90.00. Oil prices are famously volatile but since the war is in the Middle East it’s hard to imagine a scenario where prices will return.

Additionally today we learned that the US economy lost 92,000 jobs last month after predictions of gains. This number may be adjusted but it’s hard to imagine it will get much better.

Over the past year consumers have noticed that grocery prices have increased and Trump has famously denied its truth. It’s a little like the guy whose wife catches him with another woman and he responded: “Who are going to believe: me or your lying eyes?”

Eyes don’t lie

The Trump Chronicles, Volume 169: More Sewage From The President

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On January 19th security cameras noticed that a sewage pipe began leaking raw sewage into the Potomac River. These spills are always a mess and since it’s on a river that separates Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia the clean up will require coordination among several agencies. President Trump, never one to pass an opportunity to blame others has shoehorned himself into the event to criticize everyone he can think of. He posted on social media this phrase: “If they [Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia] can’t do the job they have to call me and ask, politely, to get it fixed.”

Yes, America, you heard this right. They have to ask for help in a way that massages this man’s ego. I’ve said it before and will keep saying it: good leaders command respect and poor leaders crave approval. His words belie a profound lack of concern for the health and safety of the people near the spill and focus only on how people are supposed to treat him. For everyone who voted for him: I hope you’re happy.

By the way there is an excellent post from the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority. The pipe that is leading is 72 inches (6 feet) in diameter and was built in the 1960s. Drinking water is not affected as the intake for drinking water is upstream from the spill.

Again, and I can’t say this enough, local public servants are hard at work on this. They deserve our thanks and respect.

The Trump Chronicles, Volume 168: No, You Can’t Nationalize The Elections

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It’s no secret that President Trump obsesses over elections and vote counts, and for good reason. He lost the popular vote in the 2016 election and lost both the electoral and popular votes in 2020. Like any bully he refuses to admit defeat and continues to claim he really won but was cheated. In the last few days he’s floated the idea of the federal government take over running elections. He has claimed, all along without any evidence, that “everyone knows” these elections were corrupt. So what’s the problem with this? Why doesn’t the federal government run elections?

Well, there are a few problems. Let’s start with the Constitution: Article 1, Section 4 states that the “Times, places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each state.” It doesn’t get much clearer. States run the elections and this can only be changed by amending the Constitution. Not by Congress passing a law. Not by the President issuing an order. And because the states run elections it’s much more difficult to cheat. No one person, no one group, no one state controls all the ballots and no one group can create or eliminate enough ballots to change the result of an election.

This matters more than ever because it’s clear that that’s exactly what Trump wants to do. In 2020 when Georgia voters chose Joe Biden, Trump famously called Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on January 2, 2021 to demand that he find 11,000 votes and give Georgia to Trump. Had Trump been in charge the election he certainly could have done that. Only the Constitution prevented this by having the states run elections.

Joseph Stalin famously said that the people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything (I found that quote here). I hope nobody misses the irony that Trump claims the only way to avoid election corruption is to give him all the power.

We will go to the polls in 9 months to choose our legislators and Trump knows his only path to keeping the House (and perhaps the Senate) is to cheat and we cannot allow him to do that.

The Trump Chronicles, Volume 167: Our Racist In Chief

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We’ve known for along time that Trump is racist, despite his continual denials. Well, he’s done it again. February is Black History Month and we take this month to reflect not only on the history of slaver and Jim Crow (in the hopes that we’ve learned and won’t keep doing it) but also contributions the black population has given us. Think Katherine Johnson’s work with calculating trajectories in the early space program and George Washington Carver’s work as an agricultural chemist.

But Trump, who famously referred to Haiti and African countries as shithole countries whose people should not be allowed to come to the United States, is at it again. Yesterday he posted on his social media account a video that depicted former President Obama and his wife Michelle as apes. No, I’m not going to post a link and I hope you don’t either.

As you can imagine the reaction was swift. Even Republican Senator Tim Scott, who is black, condemned it and hoped it was fake. At first Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt tried to ridicule the outrage calling it “fake outrage.” The post was eventually taken down and Trump blamed a staffer for posting it, even though it was posted in the middle of the night when Trump often posts and most people who work for him are asleep.

He just doesn’t get it. But then neither do his supporters who don’t believe he’s racist.

The Trump Chronicles, Volume 166: Must It Always Be About You Don?

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This week many of us have followed the horrific news that Nancy Guthrie, mother of NBC journalist Savannah Guthrie, has gone missing and has likely been kidnapped. When asked, President Trump offered his support and said: “It’s a terrible thing. I always get along well with Savannah. Very unusual situation, but we’re going to find out.”

Even in his words of support he still has to make it about himself. It reminded me of his words when NPR journalist Cokie Roberts died in 2019. Cokie was a pioneering journalist and inspired countless girls and women to follow in her footsteps. Trumps response: “I never met her. She never treated me nicely.” Nothing about her work or her place.

I’m guessing I’m not the only one who tires of Trump making everything about himself.