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As promised, here it is. If you thought my criticism of the Democrats was scathing, this is probably going to ruffle a few more feathers. Let’s keep in mind, this guy is the duly-elected President of the United States of America. Customarily, the President starts off every year by giving a rousing speech detailing the “state of the union” and their “achievements” and outlining their plans to Congress. It’s a very political event, one that pundits assign outside importance to, but it is still an official Presidential address to essentially the entire U.S. government and population. Unlike an Oval Office address, this is given from the floor of the House of Representatives, and pretty much everyone in Congress is (invited) to attend, with guests ranging from random Make-a-Wish kids to all nine justices of the Supreme Court. It’s kind of a ‘big deal’.

**Disclaimer: successfully completing a State of the Union speech does not connote competence, success or popularity and will not reverse overwhelming popular opinions or preconceptions, regardless of one’s prior speech achievements or charisma.**

So, with that, let’s start looking at this speech. I’ll be going through it section by section and giving my well-informed analysis. I’m copy-pasting the transcript from the official White House transcript. No punditry, no interpretation, this is what the President of the United States of America said. My comments will be inserted and marked. 

(March 4, 2025)

  THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you very much.  Thank you very much.  It’s a great honor.  Thank you very much. 

Speaker Johnson, Vice President Vance, the first lady of the United States — (applause) — members of the United States Congress, thank you very much.  

And to my fellow citizens, America is back.  (Applause.)

-Didn’t know we were gone, but ok…

AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA! 

-U.S.A.! Sure why not some rousing patriotism? I do find it informative that so many Republicans refused to cheer a bit for Obama or Biden, and that no Democrats were willing to join in, but then again playing like sullen tweens is the new hotness in national politics. Democrats look like angsty little bitches.

THE PRESIDENT:  “Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this Capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the golden age of America.  From that moment on, it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country. 

We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years or eight years, and we are just getting started.  (Applause.)  Thank you. 

I return to this chamber tonight to report that America’s momentum is back, our spirit is back, our pride is back, our confidence is back, and the American dream is surging bigger and better than ever before.  (Applause.)  The American dream is unstoppable, and our country is on the verge of a comeback, the likes of which the world has never witnessed and perhaps will never witness again.  There’s never been anything like it.  (Applause.)”

Preamble, but sure, I guess. “Golden Age of America” is a remarkably mercurial statement, though, and is very very variable. I’d reckon that the Golden Age of America is different for different people…the Roaring (19)20’s kinda sucked for black people and Mexicans; the Boomer years of the 1950s were a terrible time to be black, the whole Sexual Revolution and hippy Wonder Years of the 1960s-1970s sucked if you were a military-age male without money, etc….but sure, yeah, I mean we survived COVID and stores have food and most Americans are pretty acclimated / OK with their situations…

“The presidential election of November 5th was a mandate like has not been seen in many decades.  We won all seven swing states, giving us an electoral college victory of 312 votes.  (Applause.)  We won the popular vote —”

REPRESENTATIVE GREEN:  (Inaudible.)

Trump is 100% right. Democrats might complain and point out technicalities like “well it’s not a supermajority” but the apportionment of congressional seats and electoral votes is so broken that this is the closest thing you can get to a complete collapse. What’s worse, even if the Republicans don’t enjoy wholesome support, the American people don’t give a shit about what party the elected people are from. We expect results. The Democrats did not offer a single shred of anything different than the Biden Gap Years- just more of the same.

Al Green (D-TX [Houston]) make a bit of a ruckus by waving his cane and feebly screeching that Trump doesn’t have a mandate. Considering Team D just got blown out by a failed reality-TV star and defeated President, that’s kind of like hearing someone from arena football criticizing Jalen Hurts. Let’s continue. 

THE PRESIDENT:  — by big numbers and won counties in our country —

AUDIENCE:  Booo — Democrats

AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA! Republicans

REPRESENTATIVE GREEN:  You are — you have no right to cut Medicaid.

-slight interruption. Technically correct. The President has no statutory authority to cut Congressionally-authorized spending, only to implement it. Medicaid is a federal cost-sharing scheme between the federal government and the states. Funding is administered by CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services), a component of the Department of Health and Human Services. Federal spending, in combination with state spending, funds Medicaid. Changing Medicaid funding requires Congressional action to even start the process, cooperation with the executive, and then coordination with the states. However, this is a speech to the public. Not the time to engage in an arcane policy debate. Plus, Al….this is a dude who is actively engaged in dismantling the Federal government, melting down the economy, subverting the law-enforcement and defense establishments and who is recreationally musing about abrogating the Constitution for the purposes of consolidating his power. Is health care for poor people really the first fight you want to pick?- 

AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA! 

THE PRESIDENT:  — and won counties in our country 2,700 to 525 on a map that reads almost completely red for Republican.  (Applause.) 

–Ah, yes, the teeming cities of Northeastern Nevada, the Texas Panhandle, the Train Station from “Yellowstone” and Oklahoma. Completely a mandate. Still, Democrats lost critical votes in all seven swing states and suffered horrific casualties on the state and local level. 

“Now, for the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction.  In fact, it’s an astonishing record: 27-point swing, the most ever.  (Applause.)”

-gotta give Trump credit, he pulled a Lazarus. In a political culture defined by win-or-die, that’s super-impressive. He worked hard for that win. 

Likewise, small-business optimism saw its single largest one-month gain ever recorded. 

SPEAKER JOHNSON:  Mr. President —

THE PRESIDENT:  A 41-point jump.

(Speaker Johnson strikes the gavel.) 

Did you know that Zach Wilson is the only active NFL quarterback to ever go undefeated against the Philadelphia Eagles when they’re led by Jalen Hurts? Statistic!

SPEAKER JOHNSON:  Members are directed to uphold and maintain decorum in the House and to cease any further disruptions.  That’s your warning.

REPRESENTATIVE GREEN:  He has no mandate to cut Medicaid.

-bro, let it go.

SPEAKER JOHNSON:  Members are engaging in willful and continuing breach of decorum, and the chair is prepared to direct the sergeant at arms to restore order to the joint session.  (Applause.)

Mr. Green, take your seat.  Take your seat, sir. 

REPRESENTATIVE GREEN:  He has no mandate to cut Medicaid.

SPEAKER JOHNSON:  Take your seat.

(Cross-talk.) 

Finding that members continue to engage in willful and concerted disruption of proper decorum, the chair now directs the sergeant at arms to restore order.  (Applause.)  Remove this gentleman from the chamber.  (Applause.)

REPRESENTATIVE GREEN:  Shame on all of you.

(Members of the audience sing “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye.”)

(Cross-talk.)

You have no mandate.

SPEAKER JOHNSON:  Members are directed to uphold and maintain decorum in the House.

Mr. President, you can continue.

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.

NO MANDAAAATTTEEE!!!!!!! Maybe we just couldn’t hear him without a Fuschia Blazer. 

Over the past six weeks, I have signed nearly 100 executive orders and taken more than 400 executive actions — a record — to restore common sense, safety, optimism, and wealth all across our wonderful land.  The people elected me to do the job, and I’m doing it.  (Applause.)

-Sure, I guess. Signing things sounds cool. Slight flaw, though. Even under the Republican compliant unitary-executive theory, executive orders are inherently transient and limited and can be unwound just as promptly as they were installed. Additionally, there’s something uniquely bold about defining your administration by executive orders. Cool when you’re making the Gulf of America for the memes, less cool when hundreds of thousands of your supporters in swing states are unemployed and poor with your name on their termination letters…

“In fact, it has been stated by many that the first month of our presidency — it’s our presidency — (applause) — is the most successful in the history of our nation by many.  (Applause.)  And what makes it even more impressive is that — do you know who number two is?  George Washington.  How about that?  (Laughter and applause.)  How about that?  I don’t know about that list, but we’ll take it.” 

-Eh, GW wasn’t really concerned about metrics. More like figuring out how to make federal payroll, feed the nascent US Navy, not die of disease, etc. I kinda feel like he was more concerned about things like the Whiskey Rebellion than renaming water…also, who is “many?”

“Within hours of taking the oath of office, I declared a national emergency on our southern border — (applause) — and I deployed the U.S. military and Border Patrol to repel the invasion of our country.  And what a job they’ve done. 

As a result, illegal border crossings last month were, by far, the lowest ever recorded. Ever.  (Applause.)  They heard my words, and they chose not to come.  Much easier that way.”

-Fair enough, and popular (although somewhat futile in absolute terms).-

In comparison, under Joe Biden, the worst president in American history — (applause) — there were hundreds of thousands of illegal crossings a month, and virtually all of them, including murderers, drug dealers, gang members, and people from mental institutions and insane asylums, were released into our country.  Who would want to do that?

-Somewhere, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, Herbert Hoover, William Henry Harrison and Woodrow Wilson are slamming beers and heartily thanking Joe Biden, for being such a shitty President that he could lose to this guy. Joe is asleep and covered in spilled beer.-

This is my fifth such speech to Congress, and, once again, I look at the Democrats in front of me, and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud.  Nothing I can do.  I could find a cure to the most devastating disease — a disease that would wipe out entire nations, or announce the answers to the greatest economy in history or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever recorded, and these people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand, and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements.  They won’t do it no matter what.

Five times I’ve been up here.  It’s very sad, and it just shouldn’t be this way.  (Applause.)

So, Democrats sitting before me, for just this one night, why not join us in celebrating so many incredible wins for America?  For the good of our nation, let’s work together and let’s truly make America great again.  (Applause.)

-Mixed. First, Donald…these aren’t your achievements. You’re not President Lex Luthor or Jean Luc Picard or Teddy Roosevelt. You’ve clearly never learned the first lesson of leadership, which is that successes are team successes and not your personal successes. Second, Democrats, you don’t have to be so anti-America all the time.-

“Every day, my administration is fighting to deliver the change America needs, to bring a future that America deserves, and we’re doing it.  This is a time for big dreams and bold action. 

Upon taking office, I imposed an immediate freeze on all federal hiring, a freeze on all new federal regulations, and a freeze on all foreign aid.”  (Applause.) 

-All are within his remit. Not necessarily smart, but this is all legal. When Democrats complain and argue to the contrary, I refer them to the Constitution. However, any intellectually-honest person and every competent politician should be capable of recognizing the significant potential for unintended consequences resulting from these decisions. Be it increased Chinese influence in the Third World, vacant critical Federal jobs going undone (say, federal firefighters while rural red towns burn) or just run-of-the-mill disasters caused by lacking Federal regulation; Trump has grabbed the reins.

“I terminated the ridiculous Green New Scam.  I withdrew from the unfair Paris Climate Accord, which was costing us trillions of dollars that other countries were not paying.  (Applause.)  I withdrew from the corrupt World Health Organization.  (Applause.)  And I also withdrew from the anti-American U.N. Human Rights Council.  (Applause.)”

-Fair enough; see above. A lot of the Green New Deal stuff is controversial though insofar as it applies to Congressionally-approved spending on infrastructure that has already been programmed.

“We ended all of Biden’s environmental restrictions that were making our country far less safe and totally unaffordable.  And importantly, we ended the last administration’s insane electric vehicle mandate, saving our autoworkers and companies from economic destruction.  (Applause.)”

• Fair enough, the Biden mandates didn’t go very far or make much sense anyways, and government mandates were never going to be the driving force behind renewable energy adoption. That’s going to take market forces, government failures and expensive fuel.- 

To unshackle our economy, I have directed that for every 1 new regulation, 10 old regulations must be eliminated, just like I did in my very successful first term.  (Applause.)  And in that first term, we set records on ending unnecessary rules and regulations like no other president had done before. 

-Intriguing. I’m curious as to how this works. Certainly a lot of federal regulations are ‘unnecessary’ from a certain point of view, but who is doing the deciding, and what is the mechanism to address mistakes in this process? For example, it’s a federal regulation that a credentialed inspector independent of the manufacturer inspect completed airplanes prior to them being placed in commercial service. Is the bolt-checker regulation one of the ones up for cutting? What about food inspectors, NTSB, etc? Additionally, wouldn’t cutting federal regulations inhibit Republican abilities to implement their agenda?

We ordered all federal workers to return to the office.  They will either show up for work in person or be removed from their job.  (Applause.)  

-aaannd there’s where we start getting Stupid. Work-from-home is a powerful tool that allows managers to optimize their teams and workflow to get work done. The place that work is occurring from doesn’t really matter. Those federal offices that could function well with people working remotely did their jobs just as well, securely and at a lower cost to the taxpayer than offices that required commuting, and gave unprecedented employment opportunities and the flexibility to start families to many federal employees. This shouldn’t be a federal issue for the President, it should be a case-by-case basis decided by individual managers in accordance with their particular policies. From a political perspective, Trump just handed Dems another great tool- disgruntled Federal workers who were used to being able to telecommute or have rewarding, accommodating careers that synergised with their lives won’t have that option thanks to DJT. That’s a few hundred thousand people at a minimum, largely concentrated in swing states like Virginia, and whom mostly enjoyed an upper-middle-class standard of living…

“And we have ended weaponized government, where, as an example, a sitting president is allowed to viciously prosecute his political opponent, like me.  How did that work out? (Laughter.)  Not too good.  (Applause.)  Not too good.”

–as the Trump Administration engages in unprecedented purges of the non-partisan civil service and military leadership, threatens state governors, and directly threatens American citizens engaged in lawful expressions of free speech…

And I have stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America.  It’s back.  (Applause.) 

And two days ago, I signed an order making English the official language of the United States of America.  (Applause.)  

I renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.  (Applause.) 

And, likewise, I renamed — for a great president, William McKinley — Mount McKinley again.  (Applause.)  Beautiful Alaska.  We love Alaska.

-Grandiose false claims and petty bullshit “achievements”. Renaming inanimate water and rock (and insisting that every map is now wrong) is just fucking stupid, expecially given that the GoM predates the United States by a century-plus. Denali was a recognition of the Native cultures of Alaska that us white folks exploited pretty aggressively for a really long time, kinda feels like punching down to name a sacred landmark after a dead white guy (who had nothing to do with the mountain at all) again.

We’ve ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and, indeed, the private sector and our military.  (Applause.)  And our country will be woke no longer.  (Applause.)

-So, here’s the thing. DEI was not the threat people think it is. DEI in excess is problematic (think getting the job because of their identity), but diversity initiatives are still necessary, because every woman or person of color in particular fields like military service, public service, first response, etc has had first-hand experiences with racism, misogyny and bigotry that have historically proven to be insurmountable obstacles to success. Particularly with demands like ending DEI initiatives in federal contractors, educational institutions, etc….Trump is really overplaying his hand here. And its not just a legal precept. If this precedent stands, what’s to stop a future Democrat president from demanding and requiring extreme DEI? I don’t think the Founders anticipated the President having the power to tell people who they (could) hire.

“We believe that whether you are a doctor, an accountant, a lawyer, or an air traffic controller, you should be hired and promoted based on skill and competence, not race or gender.  Very important.  (Applause.)  You should be hired based on merit.  And the Supreme Court, in a brave and very powerful decision, has allowed us to do so.”

-big words from the guy who wanted Pete “DUI Hire” Hegseth and “Decapitated Bear Brain Worm” RFK to critical roles in his government…

Thank you.  Thank you very much.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

We have removed the poison of critical race theory from our public schools.  And I signed an order making it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.  (Applause.) 

• Yes. Because we need the President to determine which genitals are acceptable. 

I also signed an executive order to ban men from playing in women’s sports.  (Applause.)
-Tenth Amendment here. Remember when powers were reserved for the people? I’m a solid 100% certain that when sports rules committees are considering things, they don’t go calling the President of the United States to ask about it. Quite simply, this is not a Federal issue. If a dude wants to play in women’s sports, it should be the decision of the governing body of that sport- league, commission, team, etc- to accept or deny that. And as long as we’re at it, is the official position of the Federal government now that women need to be segregated? It’s like these stupid Republican fucks have never watched The Sandlot or Air Bud or the Mighty Ducks. For that matter, what if girls want to play boy’s sports? 

“Three years ago, Payton McNabb was an all-star high school athlete — one of the best — preparing for a future in college sports.  But when her girls’ volleyball match was invaded by a male, he smashed the ball so hard in Payton’s face, causing traumatic brain injury, partially paralyzing her right side, and ending her athletic career.  It was a shot like she’s never seen before.  She’s never seen anything like it. 

Payton is here tonight in the gallery.  And, Payton, from now on, schools will kick the men off the girls’ team or they will lose all federal funding.  (Applause.) “

-Sounds like an unfortunate, tragic sports accident. But girls can hit volleyballs pretty hard too. Are we going to require volleyball helmets along with the bikinis? And let’s look at the federal funding threat- is a school going to lose all federal funding because a boy wants to dance on the dance team with the girls, or because a girl wants to play middle linebacker?

Here’s a bold fucking idea- let the individual schools, athletes and sports determine who can compete and play. THIS IS BULLSHIT FAR BENEATH THE PURVIEW OF THE PRESIDENCY. 

“And if you really want to see numbers, just take a look at what happened in the woman’s boxing, weightlifting, track and field, swimming, or cycling, where a male recently finished a long-distance race five hours and 14 minutes ahead of a woman for a new record by five hours.  Broke the record by five hours.”

-Holy shit! Maybe those girls should ride faster. Five hours is a huge gap not explained by biology. But here’s another step on this road…there’s always someone bigger, stronger and faster in athletics. Part of sports is learning to overcome those challenges. Today it’s trans athletes. Tomorrow it could be black men, or Polynesians, or someone “scary”. 

It’s demeaning for women, and it’s very bad for our country.  We’re not going to put up with it any longer.  (Applause.) “

-Once again, women don’t derive their self-worth from sports no one has ever heard of. 

What I have just described is only a small fraction of the commonsense revolution that is now, because of us, sweeping the entire world.  Common sense has become a common theme, and we will never go back.  Never.  Never going to let that happen.  (Applause.)

-Admittedly, the Biden Administration and those before it did allow some pretty silly sillinesses to happen. Still, not a federal government issue if Jeyne or Jazzmyne or whomever wants to be they/them.

On to the economy!

“Among my very highest priorities is to rescue our economy and get dramatic and immediate relief to working families.  As you know, we inherited from the last administration an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare.  Their policies drove up energy prices, pushed up grocery costs, and drove the necessities of life out of reach for millions and millions of Americans.  They’ve never had anything like it. 

We suffered the worst inflation in 48 years but perhaps even in the history of our country. They’re not sure.  As president, I’m fighting every day to reverse this damage and make America affordable again.  (Applause.)”

• Inflation ain’t fun, but let’s not pretend like the first Trump term was fantastic either…

Joe Biden especially let the price of eggs get out of control.

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE PRESIDENT:  The egg price is out of control, and we’re working hard to get it back down. 

-#birdflu has entered the chat. Weirdly, a viral pandemic that kills the critters that lay eggs affects the egg supply. 

Secretary, do a good job on that.  You inherited a total mess from the previous administration.  Do a good job.  (Applause.) 

A major focus of our fight to defeat inflation is rapidly reducing the cost of energy.  The previous administration cut the number of new oil and gas leases by 95 percent, slowed pipeline construction to a halt, and closed more than 100 power plants.  We are opening up many of those power plants right now.  (Applause.) 

• Energy costs aren’t the only drivers of inflation. I’d reckon it’s more the whole “heavy debts at all levels being carried”.

And, frankly, we have never seen anything like it.  That’s why, on my first day in office, I declared a national energy emergency.  (Applause.)  As you’ve heard me say many times, we have more liquid gold under our feet than any nation on Earth and by far.  And now I’ve fully authorized the most talented team ever assembled to go and get it.  It’s called drill, baby, drill.  (Applause.) 

• Like Bruce Willis in Armageddon! Ironically, the whole “American Energy Success Equals Wealth And Riches!” only works when fuel is expensive. 

My administration is also working on a gigantic natural gas pipeline in Alaska — among the largest in the world — where Japan, South Korea, and other nations want to be our partner with investments of trillions of dollars each.  There’s never been anything like that one.  It will be truly spectacular.  It’s all set to go.  The permitting is gotten.

And later this week, I will also take historic action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths here in the USA.  (Applause.)  

-Good. We should not depend on China for rare earths and critical minerals. This is a national security measure. 

“To further combat inflation, we will not only be reducing the cost of energy, but we’ll be ending the flagrant waste of taxpayer dollars.  (Applause.)  And to that end, I have created the brand-new Department of Government Efficiency – DOGE. (Applause.) Perhaps you’ve heard of it — perhaps — which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight.  (Applause.)”

-Every DoJ lawyer arguing that Elon is not the head of DOGE just facepalmed. In fact, multiple lawsuits challenging the legality of DOGE firings referenced this speech the morning after, because it was the Trump Administration’s position that he was merely an advisor and thus was not subject to regulations governing the operation and record-keeping of federal agencies. Whoops!

“Thank you, Elon.  He’s working very hard.  He didn’t need this.  (Laughs.)  He didn’t need this.  Thank you very much.  We appreciate it.  Everybody here, even this side, appreciates it, I believe.  (Applause.)  They just don’t want to admit that.

Just listen to some of the appalling waste we have already identified.”

-Have to give him credit here, he’s right. DOGE is going after low-hanging fruit and most people are broadly supportive of the idea. Why are we paying for this?

$22 billion from HHS to provide free housing and cars for illegal aliens. 

$45 million for diversity, equity, and inclusion scholarships in Burma.

$40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants.  Nobody knows what that is.  (Laughter.) 

$8 million to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of.  (Laughter.)

$60 million for Indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombian empowerment in Central America.  $60 million.

$8 million for making mice transgender.  (Laughter.)  This is real.

$32 million for a left-wing propaganda operation in Moldova.

$10 million for male circumcision in Mozambique.

$20 million for the Arab “Sesame Street” in the Middle East.  It’s a program.  $20 million for a program.

$1.9 billion to recently created decarbonization of homes committee, headed up — and we know she’s involved — just at the last moment, the money was passed over — by a woman named Stacey Abrams.  Have you ever heard of her?

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE PRESIDENT:  A $3.5 million consulting contract for lavish fish monitoring.

$1.5 million for voter confidence in Liberia.

$14 million for social cohesion in Mali.

$59 million for illegal alien hotel rooms in New York City. 

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE PRESIDENT:  He’s a real estate developer.  He’s done very well.

$250,000 to increase vegan local climate action innovation in Zambia.

$42 million for social and behavior change in Uganda.

$14 million for improving public procurement in Serbia.

$47 million for improving learning outcomes in Asia.  Asia is doing very well with learning.  (Laughter.)  Don’t know what we’re doing.  We should use it ourselves.

And $101 million for DEI contracts at the Department of Education, the most ever paid.  Nothing even like it.

-Here’s where I have to stand with President Donald J. Trump. Not only are these cherry-picked splinters of the federal budget wasteful and stupid, but they actively undermine American influence around the world. Take Lesotho, for example. It’s an impoverished South African nation wholly enclosed by South Africa, with very few resources and very little income. Does pouring millions of dollars into Lesotho make a difference in people’s lives? Sure. But why does it have to be predicated on advancing the homosexual agenda? Lesotho is also a deeply conservative culture that is historically intolerant of LGBTQIA stuff. Are we telling the people of Lesotho that only the gay kids get to eat? And then there’s the blatant corruption, like the Stacy Abrams connection Trump referenced. Even if she didn’t take a cent, this is still billions of dollars in taxpayer money getting wasted on frivolous, over-priced projects chosen by politicians for no societal gain. For reference, $1.9 billion is most of the way to the cost of a new Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, or a fighter squadron, or enough money to re-equip most Texas fire and EMS departments with all-new vehicles, etc. 

Under the Trump administration, all of these scams — and there are far worse, but I didn’t think it was appropriate to talk about them.  They’re so bad.  Many more have been found out and exposed and swiftly terminated by a group of very intelligent, mostly young people, headed up by Elon.  And we appreciate it.  We’ve found hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud.  (Applause.)

-Court fracas aside, the idea of DOGE is appealing. The execution is where we bog down though. Can the President trim Congressionally-approved spending unilaterally? No one gives a shit when it’s gay comic books, but what if a future president decides to do something like turn off the Defense spigots? (spoiler alert, it’s already been done before…reference Harry Truman after WW2. That’s why Congress installed budget controls.)

And we’ve taken back the money and reduced our debt to fight inflation and other things.  Taken back a lot of that money.  We got it just in time. 

AUDIENCE MEMBERS:  (Inaudible.)

THE PRESIDENT:  This is just the beginning.  The Government Accountability Office, a federal government office, has estimated annual fraud of over $500 billion in our nation, and we are working very hard to stop it.  We’re going to.

We’re also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors and that our seniors and people that we love rely on.  Believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security members from people aged 100 to 109 years old.

THE PRESIDENT:  It lists 3.6 million people from ages 110 to 119.  I don’t know any of them.  I know some people that are rather elderly, but not quite that elderly.  (Laughter.) 

3.47 million people from ages 120 to 129. 

3.9 million people from ages 130 to 139.

3.5 million people from ages 140 to 149.

And money is being paid to many of them, and we’re searching right now. 

In fact, Pam, good luck.  Good luck.  You’re going to find it.

But a lot of money is paid out to people because it just keeps getting paid and paid, and nobody does — and it really hurts Social Security and hurts our country.

1.3 million people from ages 150 to 159.  And over 130,000 people, according to the Social Security databases, are age over 160 years old.  

We have a healthier country than I thought, Bobby.  (Laughter and applause.)

Including, to finish, 1,039 people between the ages of 220 and 229; one person between the age of 240 and 249; and one person is listed at 360 years of age.

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Joe Biden!  (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: More than 100 years older than our country. 

But we’re going to find out where that money is going, and it’s not going to be pretty. 

-Context is needed here. Many of the older enrollees in Social Security have incomplete documentation, particularly death dates and notifications. Many others were entered with incomplete data. In those cases, the antiquated software Social Security uses assigns them a date in 1876. Why? Dunno. But to attribute typos or abnormalities in a data set immediately to fraud betrays a lack of understanding of the data. Trump also failed to mention that this funding is a drop in the bucket of federal expenditures and that these outliers are already not being paid, just reading as numbers in the system.

By slashing all of the fraud, waste, and theft we can find, we will defeat inflation, bring down mortgage rates, lower car payments and grocery prices, protect our seniors, and put more money in the pockets of American families.  (Applause.) 

-Nein. This is not enough savings to do all of those things.

And today, interest rates took a beautiful drop — big, beautiful drop.  It’s about time.

And in the near future, I want to do what has not been done in 24 years: balance the federal budget.  We’re going to balance it.  (Applause.) 

-Commence the holding of breath!-

With that goal in mind, we have developed in great detail what we are calling the gold card, which goes on sale very, very soon. For $5 million, we will allow the most successful, job-creating people from all over the world to buy a path to U.S. citizenship.  It’s like the green card but better and more sophisticated.  (Laughter.)  And these people will have to pay tax in our country.  They won’t have to pay tax from where they came.  The money that they’ve made, you wouldn’t want to do that, but they have to pay tax, create jobs.

They’ll also be taking people out of colleges and paying for them so that we can keep them in our country, instead of having them being forced out.  Number one at the top school, as an example, being forced out and not being allowed to stay and create tremendous numbers of jobs and great success for a company out there.

So, while we take out the criminals, killers, traffickers, and child predators who were allowed to enter our country under the open border policy of these people — the Democrats, the Biden administration — the open border, insane policies that you’ve allowed to destroy our country — we will now bring in brilliant, hardworking, job-creating people.  They’re going to pay a lot of money, and we’re going to reduce our debt with that money.  (Applause.)

-So just to confirm, American citizenship is directly for sale, for the low price of $5 million a head. Fair enough. Any of y’all Republicans ever consider what happens when a future Democrat president keeps the policy but just gives that number a downward nudge? Bold choice, Donald.-

Americans have given us a mandate for bold and profound change.  For nearly 100 years, the federal bureaucracy has grown until it has crushed our freedoms, ballooned our deficits, and held back America’s potential in every possible way.  The nation founded by pioneers and risk-takers now drowns under millions and millions of pages of regulations and debt. 

Approvals that should take 10 days to get instead take 10 years, 15 years, and even 20 years before you’re rejected.  Meanwhile, we have hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have not been showing up to work. 

My administration will reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy, and we will restore true democracy to America again. (Applause.)  Any federal bureaucrat who resists this change will be removed from office immediately — (applause) — because we are draining the swamp.  It’s very simple.  And the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over.  (Applause.)

-Brief segue here. The Civil Service Act of 1883 (Pendleton Act) was installed precisely because we learned that a government entirely beholden to the whims of the President was a terrible idea, because it was simultaneously an exercise in figurative and literal fellatio and combat-backstabbing to secure as much of the public purse for oneself as possible. The ability of the government to function fairly, effectively and in accordance with the direction of the President is enhanced by having a bureaucracy unafraid of being terminated from their positions for disagreement. When there are disagreements, it’s generally because some aspect of the order is illegal or impractical. Real leaders would look at these objections and solve the root causes, perhaps with like a gigantic Sharpie or something. 

And the next phase of our plan to deliver the greatest economy in history is for this Congress to pass tax cuts for everybody.  They’re in there.  They’re waiting for you to vote.  (Applause.) 

And I’m sure that the people on my right — I don’t mean the Republican right, but my right right here — I’m sure you’re going to vote for those tax cuts, because, otherwise, I don’t believe the people will ever vote you into office.  So, I’m doing you a big favor by telling you that.  (Applause.)

But I know this group is going to be voting for the taxes.  (Applause.)

Thank you.  It’s a very, very big part of our plan.  We had tremendous success in our first term with it.  A very big part of our plan.  We’re seeking permanent income tax cuts all across the board.

-Fuck that budget balancing bullshit. Tax cuts! Not to say we should rely on taxes or aim for high ones, but I’m reminded of an old clip from the 1950s show The Rifleman, where notorious Communist liberal hippy Lucas McCain (played by Chuck Conners) reminds his fellow citizens that “taxes are the price we pay for civilization.” Gotta have some money coming in somewhere for all those Republican Weiner Police in girl’s sports, right?

“And to get urgently needed relief to Americans hit especially hard by inflation, I’m calling for no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security benefits for our great seniors.  (Applause.) 

-100% for this. People who depend on tips and Social Security benefits are already not doing well economically; targeting them for payroll taxes is a special sort of cruel. Same (kind of) with overtime, I’d personally benefit from this. 

“(Addressing Speaker Johnson.)  Good luck.

And I also want to make interest payments on car loans tax deductible but only if the car is made in America.  (Applause.)”

-How is this practicable? Does the IRS need to know exactly where my car is from now? Am I less American because I bought a foreign-branded car assembled here, or more American because I bought a domestically-headquartered brand that was assembled in a foreign country? What if it’s a foreign brand, with an American ownership interest, using parts made in America, primarily assembled in a Mexican plant, then shipped to an American plant for finishing work? Details, man!

And, by the way, we’re going to have growth in the auto industry like nobody has ever seen.  Plants are opening up all over the place.  Deals are being made.  Never seen. That’s a combination of the election win and tariffs. 

It’s a beautiful word, isn’t it? 

That, along with our other policies, will allow our auto industry to absolutely boom.  It’s going to boom.  Spoke to the majors today — all three — the top people, and they’re so excited.  In fact, already, numerous car companies have announced that they will be building massive automobile plants in America, with Honda just announcing a new plant in Indiana, one of the largest anywhere in the world.  (Applause.) 

-Tariffs, relocation of critical business and manufacturing infrastructure away from politically and militarily-volatile areas, tomato, tomato…I reckon long-term planning for these companies accommodates an assumption that American labor costs will decrease while the costs of their existing Asian plants increases or they become untenable as a result of Chinese antagonism, and these conglomerates want to be a part of the 21st Century in North America and Europe. Trump is benefiting from the American security dividend we lucked into with geography, and that most of the rest of the world’ leaders also suck. 

And this has taken place since our great victory on November 5th, a date which will hopefully go down as one of the most important in the history of our country.  (Applause.)  

In addition, as part of our tax cuts, we want to cut taxes on domestic production and all manufacturing.  And just as we did before, we will provide 100 percent expensing.  It will be retroactive to January 20th, 2025, and it was one of the main reasons why our tax cuts were so successful in our first term, giving us the most successful economy in the history of our country.  First term — we had a great first term.  (Applause.) 

If you don’t make your product in America, however, under the Trump administration, you will pay a tariff and, in some cases, a rather large one.  Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades, and now it’s our turn to start using them against those other countries.

On average, the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Mexico, and Canada — have you heard of them? — and countless other nations charge us tremendously higher tariffs than we charge them.  It’s very unfair.  India charges us auto tariffs higher than 100 percent.  China’s average tariff on our products is twice what we charge them.  And South Korea’s average tariff is four times higher.  Think of that: four times higher.  And we give so much help militarily and in so many other ways to South Korea, but that’s what happens.

-Full-bore protectionism. Herbert Hoover, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Harrison are proud AF. A single proud tear falls from a smiling William McKinley. Not even necessarily bad, but we as Americans should be aware that this will raise prices on may of the things we buy, disrupt supplies and result in significant changes in some sectors of the economy. The takeaway here is that tariffs need to be part of a concerted, long-term policy to bring manufacturing capacity here and keep it here, not just for political shenanigans at the whim of whomever is using LBJ’s shitter at the time. 

“This is happening by friend and foe.  This system is not fair to the United States and never was.  And so, on April 2nd — I wanted to make it April 1st, but I didn’t want to be accused of April Fool’s Day.  (Laughter.)  Just one day, which cost us a lot of money.  (Laughter.)  But we’re going to do it in April. I’m a very superstitious person. April 2nd, reciprocal tariffs kick in.  And whatever they tariff us — other countries — we will tariff them.  That’s reciprocal, back and forth.  (Applause.)  Whatever they tax us, we will tax them.”

-Tom Clancy referenced this when he made Jack Ryan the President in Executive Orders. It sounds like a great idea if you’re someone without a clue as to how economics works or a mall cop. In reality though, those tariffs are often offsetting some other critical need- for example, tariffs imposed by the EU protect their farmers from the worst of Asian and American factory farming, while preserving a measure of food independence. 

“If they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we will do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market.  There’s a lot of that too.  They don’t even allow us in their market.

We will take in trillions and trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before.  I did it with China, and I did it with others.  And the Biden administration couldn’t do anything about it because it was so much money.  They couldn’t do anything about it.

We have been ripped off for decades by nearly every country on Earth, and we will not let that happen any longer.  (Applause.)”

-Word salad of a sort, see commentary above. Worth noting that free trade agreements with the USA are basically worthless now. 

Much has been said over the last three months about Mexico and Canada, but we have very large deficits with both of them.  But even more importantly, they have allowed fentanyl to come into our country at levels never seen before, killing hundreds of thousands of our citizens and many very young, beautiful people — destroying families.  Nobody has ever seen anything like it. 

They are, in effect, receiving subsidies of hundreds of billions of dollars.  We pay subsidies to Canada and to Mexico of hundreds of billions of dollars.  And the United States will not be doing that any longer.  We’re not going to do it any longer.  (Applause.)

-Very short version: Trump renegotiated NAFTA into the USMCA free-trade agreement, which was “an incredible new deal; the best deal ever is what they’re saying.” Now that same 2018 agreement is a travesty and the guy who negotiated it should be impeached because he was a traitor and asleep and evil and probably a secret Democrat communist. If only there was a way to figure out who this person was.

Thanks to our America First policies we’re putting into place, we have had $1.7 trillion of new investment in America in just the past few weeks.  (Applause.)  The combination of the election and our economic policies — the people of SoftBank, one of the most brilliant anywhere in the world, announced a $200 billion investment.  OpenAI and Oracle — Larry Ellison — announced $500 billion investment, which they wouldn’t have done if Kamala had won.  (Applause.)

Apple announced $500 billion investment.  Tim Cook called me.  He said, “I cannot spend it fast enough.”  It’s going to be much higher than that, I believe.  They’ll be building their plants here, instead of in China. 

And just yesterday, Taiwan Semiconductor — the biggest in the world, most powerful in the world, has a tremendous amount — 97 percent of the market, announced a $165 billion investment to build the most powerful chips on Earth right here in the USA.  (Applause.) 

And we’re not giving them any money.  Your CHIPS Act is a horrible, horrible thing.  We give hundreds of billions of dollars, and it doesn’t mean a thing.  They take our money, and they don’t spend it.  All that meant to them — we’re giving them no money.  All that was important to them was they didn’t want to pay the tariffs, so they came and they’re building.  And many other companies are coming.  

We don’t have to give them money.  We just want to protect our businesses and our people.  And they will come because they won’t have to pay tariffs if they build in America.  And so, it’s very amazing.

-blatant falsehood, CHIPS money is being spent quickly, and for good reason. It’s also popular in red states. 

You should get rid of the CHIP Act.  And whatever is left over, Mr. Speaker, you should use it to reduce debt or any other reason you want to.  (Applause.) 

Our new trade policy will also be great for the American farmer — I love the farmer — (applause) — who will now be selling into our home market, the USA, because nobody is going to be able to compete with you.  Because those goods that come in from other countries and companies, they’re really, really in a bad position in so many different ways.  They’re uninspected.  They may be very dirty and disgusting, and they come in and they pour in, and they hurt our American farmers.

The tariffs will go on agricultural product coming into America.  And our farmers, starting on April 2nd — it may be a little bit of an adjustment period.  We had that before, when I made the deal with China.  Fifty billion dollars of purchases, and I said, “Just bear with me,” and they did.  They did.  Probably have to bear with me again, and this will be even better.  

That was great.  The problem with it was that Biden didn’t enforce it.  He didn’t enforce it.  Fifty billion dollars of purchases, and we were doing great, but Biden did not enforce it.  And it hurt our farmers, but our farmers are going to have a field day right now. So, to our farmers, have a lot of fun.  I love you too.  I love you too.  (Applause.)  It’s all going to happen.

-Random thought, but farmers are working in a well-defined and critical market that supplies the Earth’s human and domestic animal population with food; “disruption” is a bad word in farming. At the same time as the federal government is reneging on promised investments in farm infrastructure and nuking elaborate trade deals, can an American farmer (or farm corporation) really trust that noted agriculture economist and farmer DJT is looking out for their best interests?

And I have also imposed a 25 percent tariff on foreign aluminum, copper, lumber, and steel, because if we don’t have, as an example, steel and lots of other things, we don’t have a military and, frankly, we just won’t have a country very long.

Here today is a proud American steelworker, fantastic person from Decatur, Alabama. Jeff Denard has been working at the same steel plant for 27 years in a job that has allowed him to serve as the captain of his local volunteer fire department; raise seven children with his beautiful wife, Nicole; and over the years, provide a loving home for more than 40 foster children.  So great, Jeff.  (Applause.) 

Thank you, Jeff.  Thank you, Jeff.  (Applause.) Stories like Jeff’s remind us that tariffs are not just about protecting American jobs.  They’re about protecting the soul of our country.  Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again.  And it’s happening, and it will happen rather quickly.

There will be a little disturbance, but we’re okay with that.  It won’t be much. 

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  No, we’re not!

THE PRESIDENT:  No, you’re not.  Oh.  (Laughter.)

And look — and look where Biden took us.  Very low.  The lowest we’ve ever been.

Jeff, I want to thank you very much. (Great Depression: Do I mean nothing to you?)

And I also want to recognize another person who has devoted herself to foster care community.  She worked so hard on it.  A very loving person.  Our magnificent first lady of the United States.  (Applause.)

Melania’s work has yielded incredible results, helping prepare our nation’s future leaders as they enter the workforce.  

Our first lady is joined by two impressive young women — very impressive: Haley Ferguson, who benefited from the first lady’s Fostering the Future initiative and is poised to complete her education and become a teacher, and Elliston Berry, who became a victim of an illicit deepfake image produced by a peer.  With Elliston’s help, the Senate just passed the Take It Down Act — 

This is so important.  Thank you very much, John.  John Thune, thank you.  (Applause.)  Stand up, John.  Thank you, John.  (Applause.)  Thank you all very much.  Thank you.

And thank you to John Thune and the Senate.  A great job.

— to criminalize the publication of such images online.  This terrible, terrible thing.  And once it passes the House, I look forward to signing that bill into law.  Thank you.  

And I’m going to use that bill for myself too, if you don’t mind — (laughter) — because nobody gets treated worse than I do online.  Nobody.  (Laughter.) 

That’s great.  Thank you very much to the Senate.  Thank you.

-oh no, a politician complaining about being the butt of criticism! Jokes aside, this is literally what the 1st Amendment was explicitly written to protect.

But if we truly care about protecting America’s children, no step is more crucial than securing America’s borders.  Over the past four years, 21 million people poured into the United States.  Many of them were murderers, human traffickers, gang members, and other criminals from the streets of dangerous cities all throughout the world.  Because of Joe Biden’s insane and very dangerous open border policies, they are now strongly embedded in our country, but we are getting them out and getting them out fast.  (Applause.)

And I want to thank Tom Homan.  And, Kristi, I want to thank you.  And Paul of Border Patrol, I want to thank you.  What a job they’ve all done.  Everybody.  Border Patrol, ICE.  Law enforcement, in general, is incredible.  We have to take care of our law enforcement.  (Applause.)  We have to. 

Last year, a brilliant 22-year-old nursing student named Laken Riley — the best in her class, admired by everybody — went out for a jog on the campus of the University of Georgia.  That morning, Laken was viciously attacked, assaulted, beaten, brutalized, and horrifically murdered.  Laken was stolen from us by a savage illegal alien gang member who was arrested while trespassing across Biden’s open southern border and then set loose into the United States under the heartless policies of that failed administration.  It was indeed a failed administration.

He had then been arrested and released in a Democrat-run sanctuary city — a disaster — before ending the life of this beautiful young angel.

With us this evening are Laken’s beloved mother, Allyson, and her sister, Lauren.  (Applause.) Last year, I told Laken’s grieving parents that we would ensure their daughter would not have died in vain.  That’s why the very first bill I signed into law as your 47th president mandates the detention of all dangerous criminal aliens who threaten public safety.  It’s a very strong, powerful act.  (Applause.)  It’s called the Laken Riley Act.  (Applause.) So, Allyson and Lauren, America will never, ever forget our beautiful Laken Hope Riley.  (Applause.) Thank you very much.

Since taking office, my administration has launched the most sweeping border and immigration crackdown in American history, and we quickly achieved the lowest numbers of illegal border crossers ever recorded.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation.  “We must have legislation to secure the border.”  But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president.  (Applause.) 

AUDIENCE:  Trump!  Trump!  Trump!

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.

Joe Biden didn’t just open our borders.  He flew illegal aliens over them to overwhelm our schools, hospitals, and communities throughout the country.  Entire towns, like Aurora, Colorado, and Springfield, Ohio, buckled under the weight of the migrant occupation and corruption like nobody has ever seen before.  Beautiful towns destroyed.

Now, just as I promised in my Inaugural Address, we are achieving the great liberation of America.  (Applause.)

But there still is much work to be done. 

Here tonight is a woman I have gotten to know: Alexis Nungaray from Houston.  Wonderful woman.  Last June, Alexis’s 12-year-old daughter, her precious Jocelyn, walked to a nearby convenience store.  She was kidnapped, tied up, assaulted for two hours under a bridge, and horrifically murdered.  Arrested and charged with this heinous crime are two illegal alien monsters from Venezuela, released into America by the last administration through their ridiculous open border.

The death of this beautiful 12-year-old girl and the agony of her mother and family touched our entire nation greatly. 

Alexis, I promised that we would always remember your daughter — your magnificent daughter.  And earlier tonight, I signed an order keeping my word to you.  

One thing I have learned about Jocelyn is that she loved animals so much.  She loved nature.  Across Galveston Bay from where Jocelyn lived in Houston, you will find a magnificent national wildlife refuge. A pristine, peaceful, 34,000-acre sanctuary for all of God’s creatures on the edge of the Gulf of America.

Alexis, moments ago, I formally renamed that refuge in loving memory of your beautiful daughter, Jocelyn.

So, Mr. Vice President, if you would, may I have the order?  (Applause.)

(The president holds up the executive order.)

Thank you very much. 

All three savages charged with Jocelyn and Laken’s murders were members of the Venezuelan prison gang — the toughest gang, they say, in the world — known as Tren de Aragua.  Two weeks ago, I officially designated this gang, along with MS-13 and the bloodthirsty Mexican drug cartels, as foreign terrorist organizations.  (Applause.)  They are now officially in the same category as ISIS, and that’s not good for them. 

Countless thousands of these terrorists were welcomed into the U.S. by the Biden administration, but now every last one will be rounded up and forcibly removed from our country, or, if they’re too dangerous, put in jails, standing trial in this country, because we don’t want them to come back ever.

With us this evening is a warrior on the front lines of that battle, Border Patrol agent Roberto Ortiz.  Great guy.  (Applause.)  

In January, Roberto and another agent were patrolling by the Rio Grande, near an area known as Cartel Island — doesn’t sound too nice to me — when heavily armed gunmen started shooting at them.  Roberto saw that his partner was totally exposed, in great danger, and he leapt into action, returning fire and providing crucial seconds for his fellow agent to seek safety, and just barely.  I have some of the prints of that event, and it was not good. 

Agent Ortiz, we salute you for your great courage and for your line of fire that you took and for the bravery that you showed.  We honor you, and we will always honor you.  Thank you, Roberto, very much.  (Applause.)  Thank you, Roberto. 

And I actually got to know him on my many calls to the border.  He’s a great, great gentleman. The territory to the immediate south of our border is now dominated entirely by criminal cartels that murder, rape, torture, and exercise total control — they have total control over a whole nation — posing a grave threat to our national security.  The cartels are waging war in America, and it’s time for America to wage war on the cartels, which we are doing.  (Applause.) Five nights ago, Mexican authorities, because of our tariff policies being imposed on them — think of this — handed over to us 29 of the biggest cartel leaders in their country.  That has never happened before.  They want to make us happy.  (Applause.)  First time ever.

But we need Mexico and Canada to do much more than they’ve done, and they have to stop the fentanyl and drugs pouring into the USA.  They’re going to stop it.  

I have sent Congress a detailed funding request laying out exactly how we will eliminate these threats to protect our homeland and complete the largest deportation operation in American history, larger even than current record holder, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a moderate man but someone who believed very strongly in borders.  Americans expect Congress to send me this funding without delay so I can sign it into law. 

• He’s talking about “Operation Wetback”, a program that deported thousands of Americans to Mexico illegally and was so ineffective even at the time it was defunded and mostly forgotten. Weird model for his promised illegal-free America but hey…

“So, Mr. Speaker, John Thune, both of you, I hope you’re going to be able to do that.  Mr. Speaker, thank you.  Mr. Leader, thank you.  Thank you very much.  And let’s get it to me.  I’ll sign it so fast, you won’t even believe it.  (Applause.)

And as we reclaim our sovereignty, we must also bring back law and order to our cities and towns.  (Applause.)  In recent years, our justice system has been turned upside down by radical-left lunatics.  Many jurisdictions virtually ceased enforcing the law against dangerous repeat offenders while weaponizing law enforcement against political opponents like me.”

–stares hard at Portland, Oregon and their perpetual riots.- Fair enough. Kind of a weird flex to pardon the craziest J6ers but a promise is a promise…

My administration has acted swiftly and decisively to restore fair, equal, and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law, starting at the FBI and the DOJ.  

Pam, good luck.  Kash, wherever you may be, good luck.  (Applause.)  Good luck.  Pam Bondi, good luck.  So important.  Going to do a great job.  (Applause.)  

Kash, thank you.  Thank you, Kash.  (Applause.)

They have already started very strong.  They’re going to do a fantastic job.  You’re going to be very proud of them. 

We’re also, once again, giving our police officers the support, protection, and respect they so dearly deserve.  They have to get it.  They have such a hard, dangerous job, but we’re going to make it less dangerous.  The problem is the bad guys don’t respect the law, but they’re starting to respect it, and they soon will respect it. (because I said so! I will solve crime!)

(Cross-talk.)

This also includes our great fire departments throughout the country.  Our firemen and women are unbelievable people, and I will never forget them.  And besides that, they voted for me in record numbers, so I have no choice.  (Applause.)

-Fair enough here. Ironically, although we in public safety and first response fully understand that federal and state governments don’t care about us, we also see the consequences of Democrat liberal welfare and social corrosion on a daily basis, and it’s arguably worse. Most first responders are conservative-leaning because the traits that one needs to be successful in our industries are typically not cultivated in liberal squishy communities.- “One year ago this month, 31-year-old New York police officer Jonathan Diller — unbelievably wonderful person and a great officer — was gunned down at a traffic stop on Long Island.  I went to his funeral.  The vicious criminal charged with his murder had 21 prior arrests, and they were rough arrests too.  He was a real bad one. The thug in the seat next to him had 14 prior arrests and went by the name of “Killer.”  He was Killer.  He killed other people.  They say a lot of them. I attended Officer Diller’s service, and when I met his wife and one-year-old son, Ryan, it was very inspirational, actually.  His widow’s name is Stephanie, and she is here tonight.  Stephanie, thank you very much, Stephanie.  Thank you very much.  (Applause.)

Stephanie, we’re going to make sure that Ryan knows his dad was a true hero — New York’s Finest.  And we’re going to get these cold-blooded killers and repeat offenders off our streets, and we’re going to do it fast.  Got to stop it. 

They get out with 28 arrests.  They push people into subway trains.  They hit people over the back of the head with baseball bats.  We got to get them out of here. 

I’ve already signed an executive order requiring a mandatory death penalty for anyone who murders a police officer.  And, tonight, I’m asking Congress to pass that policy into permanent law.  (Applause.)

-Sounds good. But wait, what’s that? Government overreach? But wait? Rocketmedic! How can you support killing cops? That’s horrible! Yes. But remember, our nation was built on rebellion, and what DJT just executive-ordered is not just a blanket declaration that killing cops is bad. It’s a segue to being able to declare martial law- with a mandatory death penalty– for anyone deemed to have committed violence against an agent of the State. Sounds a little tyrannical, doesn’t it? Hypothetically, wouldn’t this require the federal government to bring all of its resources to bear against someone like Randy Weaver? Is the Trumpian precedent we really want to set for a future President one that renders agents of the state immune? And yes, I’m taking this to extremes. I’m not shedding any tears about feeding conscious cop-killing felons into wood chippers feet-first. But I am pointing out that federal laws and executive orders written over-broadly have some unpredictable consequences.

“I’m also asking for a new crime bill, getting tough on repeat offenders while enhancing protections for America’s police officers so they can do their jobs without fear of their lives being totally destroyed.  They don’t want to be killed.  We’re not going to let them be killed. Joining us in the gallery tonight is a young man who truly loves our police.  His name is D.J. Daniel.  He is 13 years old, and he has always dreamed of becoming a police officer.  (Applause.) But in 2018, D.J. was diagnosed with brain cancer.  The doctors gave him five months at most to live.  That was more than six years ago.  (Applause.) Since that time, D.J. and his dad have been on a quest to make his dream come true, and D.J. has been sworn in as an honorary law enforcement officer, actually, a number of times.  Pec- — the police love him.  The police departments love him. And tonight, D.J., we’re going to do you the biggest honor of them all.  I am asking our new Secret Service director, Sean Curran, to officially make you an agent of the United States Secret Service.  (Applause.)

(Director Curran presents Mr. Daniel with a Secret Service Agent credential.)

AUDIENCE:  D.J.!  D.J.!  D.J.!

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, D.J. 

D.J.’s doctors believe his cancer likely came from a chemical he was exposed to when he was younger.  Since 1975, rates of child cancer have increased by more than 40 percent.  Reversing this trend is one of the top priorities for our new presidential commission to make America healthy again, chaired by our new secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  (Applause.) 

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  MAHA, baby! THE PRESIDENT:  With the name “Kennedy,” you would have thought everybody over here would have been cheering.  (Laughter.)  How quickly they forget. Our goal is to get toxins out of our environment, poisons out of our food supply, and keep our children healthy and strong. As an example, not long ago — you can’t even believe these numbers — 1 in 10,000 children had autism. 1 in 10,000.  And now it’s 1 in 36.  There’s something wrong.  One in 36.  Think of that. So, we’re going to find out what it is, and there’s nobody better than Bobby and all of the people that are working with you — you have the best — to figure out what is going on.  Okay, Bobby?  Good luck.  It’s a very important job.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you.  Thank you.

• Make a Wish moment and a segue into microplastics and toxins. Will Trump have the 1% plastic balls to stand up against Big Plastic and Big Oil and Big Pharma and Big Ag to get toxins out of the food and air? Can they do it with gutted enforcement bodies and no regulations? We’ll find out!

“My administration is also working to protect our children from toxic ideologies in our schools. A few years ago, January Littlejohn and her husband discovered that their daughter’s school had secretly socially transitioned their 13-year-old little girl.  Teachers and administrators conspired to deceive January and her husband, while encouraging her daughter to use a new name and pronouns — “they/them” pronouns, actually — all without telling January, who is here tonight and is now a courageous advocate against this form of child abuse.  January, thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you very much.  (Applause.)  Thank you.  Thank you. Stories like this are why, shortly after taking office, I signed an executive order banning public schools from indoctrinating our children with transgender ideology.  (Applause.) I also signed an order to cut off all taxpayer funding to any institution that engages in the sexual mutilation of our youth.  (Applause.)  And now I want Congress to pass a bill permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children and forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body.  This is a big lie.  (Applause.) And our message to every child in America is that you are perfect exactly the way God made you.  (Applause.) /- this, from the king of unannounced dressing room visits to teenage girls. Just a thought from a grown-assed man; it’s creepy wandering in on naked people in general, children in particular. For a dude with Epstein photos though it’s probably normal. In all fairness though, Democrats and libs have stretched FERPA far beyond its intended limits in terms of parent involvement in student performance and behavior, with negative results. The federal government should not be in the business of prescribing what schools can tell parents; likewise, the parents should not be outsourcing childrearing to the schools or the government or anyone else. Sounds like that family needs group counseling and maybe some old-fashioned talking. I can’t even begin to imagine my school not telling my parents about big things like this- I got told on for taking drama in a failed bid to avoid a foreign language class! 

“Because we’re getting wokeness out of our schools and out of our military, and it’s already out, and it’s out of our society.  We don’t want it.  Wokeness is trouble.  Wokeness is bad.  It’s gone.  It’s gone.  And we feel so much better for it, don’t we?  Don’t we feel better?  (Applause.)  Our service members won’t be activists and ideologues.  They will be fighters and warriors.  They will fight for our country. And, Pete, congratulations.  Secretary of Defense, congratulations.  (Applause) And he’s not big into the woke movement, I can tell you.  (Laughter.)  I know him well. I am pleased to report that, in January, the U.S. Army had its single best recruiting month in 15 years and that all armed services are having among the best recruiting results ever in the history of our services.  (Applause.)  What a difference. And you know it was just a few months ago where the results were exactly the opposite.  We couldn’t recruit anywhere.  We couldn’t recruit.  Now we’re having the best results, just about, that we’ve ever had.  What a tremendous turnaround.  It’s really a beautiful thing to see.  People love our country again.  It’s very simple.  They love our country, and they love being in our military again.  So, it’s a great thing.  And thank you very much.  Great job.  Thank you.  (Applause.) / significant question here: what is wokeness? Is it promoting people based on their identity, or is it the recognition that someone’s skills, abilities, talents, etc are not necessarily dictated by their identity? Both can be problematic, but historically, the military has been dominated by cisgender heterosexual white men. As a cis/het/white man, I’m pretty average. But even in my time in (2008-2014) I saw episodes of racism, misogyny and bigotry first-hand. I myself was dismissive when a female junior enlisted soldier set lofty goals, and I was ashamed of my lack of support or confidence in her when she achieved them anyways, because I had written her off based on her gender and appearance. The experience gets way more negative when one considers the extremes of era, age and service and the ways people interact. The military is quite literally a place where someone who grew up in the Klan can be partnered with a Crip, covering someone who grew up working stooped over in a California field, who is calling in support from a gay black person doing math so that a 140-pound mother of three from a Michigan trailer park can accurately place a shell on-target. All races, creeds, both genders and myriad expressions thereof, and all sorts of other ‘identifiers’ are present, but somehow, acknowledging that made us weak? Once again, as a hetero white guy, my ego is plenty fluffed, but for people who are historically under-represented in the legacy of the American armed forces, those “DEI woke policies” might just be the thing that keeps them going. Little things like a base name, a ship, etc don’t really matter to me, but to someone whose family was literally enslaved (by) the people a base is named for, seeing a “woke” renaming is a welcome acknowledgement that the arc of history is slowly bending towards justice. Incidentally, renaming posts like Fort Moore back to the old Fort Benning (allegedly different) is a literal slap in the face of every minority and loyal American service member and a hand-job to every white supremacist neo-Confederate out there. Pete Hegseth is pretty obviously That Guy, a white supremacist and overall douche whom cannot be trusted. I reckon it’s only a matter of time before he demands the Doris Miller carrier under construction gets renamed because he was a black hero of the Navy.
“We’re joined tonight by a young man, Jason Hartley, who knows the weight of that call of duty.  Jason’s father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all wore the uniform. Jason tragically lost his dad, who was also a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, when he was just a boy, and now he wants to carry on the family legacy of service.  Jason is a senior in high school, a six-letter varsity athlete — a really good athlete, they say — a brilliant student, with a 4.46 — that’s good — GPA.  (Laughter.)  And his greatest dream is to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.  (Applause.) And, Jason, that’s a very big deal getting in.  That’s a hard one to get into.  But I’m pleased to inform you that your application has been accepted.  You will soon be joining the Corps of Cadets.  (Applause.) Thank you.  Jason, you’re going to be on the Long Gray Line, Jason. / As commander in chief, my focus is on building the most powerful military of the future.  As a first step, I’m asking Congress to fund a state-of-the-art Golden Dome missile defense shield to protect our homeland, all made in the USA.  (Applause.) And Ronald Reagan wanted to do it long ago, but the technology just wasn’t there, not even close.  But now we have the technology.  It’s incredible, actually.  And other places, they have it: Israel has it.  Other places have it.  And the United States should have it too.  Right, Tim?  Right?  (Applause.)  They should have it too.  So, I want to thank you. But it’s a very important.  This is a very dangerous world.  We should have it.  We want to be protected.  And we’re going to protect our citizens like never before.

/-interesting. Star Wars wasn’t a bad plan, and I’m generally for anything that promotes domestic defense from the potential of my death via missile. More important, this would help anchor more critical defense and related manufacturing infrastructure and supply chains in the Americas. Any future war against China that relies on large-scale import of raw materials or intermediate parts from foreign nations- particularly Asian ones- is likely to see American ammunition supplies dry up fast.

“To boost our defense industrial base, we are also going to resurrect the American shipbuilding industry, including commercial shipbuilding and military shipbuilding.  (Applause.) And for that purpose, I am announcing tonight that we will create a new Office of Shipbuilding in the White House and offer special tax incentives to bring this industry home to America, where it belongs. We used to make so many ships.  We don’t make them anymore very much, but we’re going to make them very fast, very soon.  It will have a huge impact.” /- 125% good idea; the commercialization and divestment from American shipbuilding has hurt us both militarily and commercially and contributed immensely to the hollowing-out of American industry. Democrats from Massachusetts, California, Washington, New York, Pennsylvania, et al should be lining up to enthusiastically fellate DJT for this proposal and ram it through Congress at warp speed before he realizes it’ll help them win Big and Blue.
   
To further enhance our national security, my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we’ve already started doing it.  (Applause.) Just today, a large American company announced they are buying both ports around the Panama Canal and lots of other things having to do with the Panama Canal and a couple of other canals. The Panama Canal was built by Americans for Americans, not for others, but others could use it.  But it was built at tremendous cost of American blood and treasure.  Thirty-eight thousand workers died building the Panama Canal.  They died of malaria.  They died of snake bites and mosquitoes.  Not a nice place to work.  They paid them very highly to go there, knowing there was a 25 percent chance that they would die.  The most expensive project, also, that was ever built in our country’s history, if you bring it up to modern-day costs.It was given away by the Carter administration for $1, but that agreement has been violated very severely.  We didn’t give it to China.  We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.  (Applause.) And we have Marco Rubio in charge.  Good luck, Marco.  (Laughter and applause.)  Now we know who to blame if anything goes wrong.  (Laughter.) No, Marco has been amazing, and he’s going to do a great job.  Think of it.  He got a hundred votes.  (Applause.)  You know, he was approved with, actually, 99, but the 100th was this gentleman, and I feel very certain — so, let’s assume he got 100 votes.  And I’m either very, very happy about that or I’m very concerned about it.  (Laughter.) But he’s already proven — I mean, he’s a great gentleman.  He’s respected by everybody.  And we appreciate you voting for Marco.  He’s going to do a fantastic job.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you.  He’s doing a great job.  Great job. /-Why is this a national-security imperative? Most of the critical combatants of the Navy are too big to sail through the Canal; and it’s not like Panama was ever going to say no when we’re going to transit it, alleged Chinese ownership interests or not. Carter’s fundamental decency is why we gave it back in the first place; it helps support the Panamanian people and has lost importance with the advent of containerization and Ro/Ro shipping too large to use it. Weird foreign policy fight here…

“And I also have a message tonight for the incredible people of Greenland.  (Laughter.)  We strongly support your right to determine your own future, and, if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America. We need Greenland for national security and even international security, and we’re working with everybody involved to try and get it.  But we need it, really, for international world security.  And I think we’re going to get it.  One way or the other, we’re going to get it.  We will keep you safe.  We will make you rich.  And together, we will take Greenland to heights like you have never thought possible before. It’s a very small population but very, very large piece of land and very, very important for military security.” /- WTF, Donald? Not only has Denmark and the population of Greenland welcomed us, they’ve welcomed an American presence since World War II without restrictions. The single largest airfield on the island is a U.S. air force base. We’ve staged combat planes through there, lost nukes on the ice shelf and hunted Nazis in the frozen edges. Demanding Greenland be annexed into the USA does nothing to further our security and alienates our European allies (who fought and died alongside us in Afghanistan after we pulled Article V).

America is once again standing strong against the forces of radical Islamic terrorism. Three and a half years ago, ISIS terrorists killed 13 American service members and countless others in the Abbey Gate bombing during the disastrous and incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan — not that they were withdrawing; it was the way they withdrew.  Perhaps the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country.  -agreed, I wonder who was responsible for setting the conditions for such a disorganized and hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan in the first place. “Tonight, I am pleased to announce that we have just apprehended the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity, and he is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice.  (Applause.) And I want to thank, especially, the government of Pakistan for helping arrest this monster. This was a very momentous day for those 13 families, who I actually got to know very well, most of them, whose children were murdered, and the many people that were so badly — over 42 people — so badly injured on that fateful day in Afghanistan.  What a horrible day.  Such incompetence was shown that when Putin saw what happened, I guess he said, “Wow, maybe this is my chance.”  That’s how bad it was.  Should have never happened.  Grossly incompetent people.” /- hate to sound like an asshole, but that’s war. The enemy gets a vote, and the way that the AFG pullout was handled guaranteed there would be opportunities to take a shot. Poor choices at senior leadership levels across at least two administrations and in Washington and in Kabul generated that opportunity, accountability should start at the political level.

“I spoke to many of the parents and loved ones, and they’re all in our hearts tonight.  Just spoke to them on the phone.  We had a big call.  Every one of them called, and everybody was on the line, and they did nothing but cry with happiness.  They were very happy — as happy as you can be under those circumstances.  Their child, brother, sister, son, daughter was killed for no reason whatsoever. In the Middle East, we’re bringing back our hostages from Gaza.  In my first term, we achieved one of the most groundbreaking peace agreements in generations: the Abraham Accords. /- ignores the Israeli conquest of the West Bank and his Gaza plan, along with the whole question of how much support should America be giving to what is increasingly a racist ethnostate working in opposition to American interests… / (Applause.) “And now we’re going to build on that foundation to create a more peaceful and prosperous future for the entire region.  A lot of things are happening in the Middle East.  People haven’t been talking about that so much lately with everything going on with Ukraine and Russia, but a lot of things are happening in the Middle East.  It’s a rough neighborhood, actually.” Understatement of the year…

“I’m also working tirelessly to end the savage conflict in Ukraine.  Millions of Ukrainians and Russians have been needlessly killed or wounded in this horrific and brutal conflict with no end in sight. The United States has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to support Ukraine’s defense with no security, with no anything.  (Applause.) Do you want to keep it going for another five years?”
SENATOR WARREN:  Yes!
THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah.  Yeah, you would say — Pocahontas says, “Yes.”  (Laughter.)
AUDIENCE MEMBERS:  Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: “ Two thousand people are being killed every single week — more than that.  They’re Russian young people.  They’re Ukrainian young people.  They’re not Americans.  But I want it to stop. Meanwhile, Europe has sadly spent more money buying Russian oil and gas than they have spent on defending Ukraine, by far.  Think of that.  They’ve spent more buying Russian oil and gas than they have defending.  And we’ve spent, perhaps, $350 billion.  Like taking candy from a baby, that’s what happened.  And they’ve spent $100 billion.  What a difference that is.  And we have an ocean separating us, and they don’t. But we’re getting along very well with them, and lots of good things are happening. Biden has authorized more money in this fight than Europe has spent by billions and billions of dollars.  It’s hard to believe that they wouldn’t have stopped it and said, at some point, “Come on.  Let’s equalize.  You got to be equal to us.”  But that didn’t happen. Earlier today, I received an important letter from President Zelenskyy of Ukraine.  The letter reads, “Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer.”  “Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians,” he said.  (Applause.)  “My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.  We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence.  Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it at any time that is convenient for you.” I appreciate that he sent this letter.  Just got it a little while ago. Simultaneously, we’ve had serious discussions with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace.  Wouldn’t that be beautiful?  Wouldn’t that be beautiful?  (Applause.)  Wouldn’t that be beautiful? It’s time to stop this madness.  It’s time to halt the killing.  It’s time to end this senseless war.  If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides.”/- I don’t know whether to be impressed that he’s ultimately right or horrified that he started this whole dumb chain of events when he started sending lethal aid to Ukraine in 2017. Trump may have learned from Vietnam, which showed us that flooding a war with weapons and money isn’t necessarily a ticket to victory, and since they clearly have not won, maybe we should cut the flow off. At the end of the day, propping up Ukraine only harmed our long-term security interests, and absent a Ukrainian victory that has not manifested, there was no benefit in the first place for us. Antagonizing one of the only other powers and leaders on Earth who could hypothetically condemn hundreds of millions of Americans to a rapid, painful death is a bad plan when it’s being done for the sake of a war on the other side of the planet.

“Nearly four years ago, amid rising tensions, a history teacher named Marc Fogel was detained in Russia and sentenced to 14 years in a penal colony.  Rough stuff. The previous administration barely lifted a finger to help him.  They knew he was innocent, but they had no idea where to begin.  But last summer, I promised his 95-year-old mother, Malphine, that we would bring her boy safely back home. After 22 days in office, I did just that, and they are here tonight.  (Applause.) To Marc and his great mom, we are delighted to have you safe and sound and with us. As fate would have it, Marc Fogel was born in a small, rural town — in Butler, Pennsylvania — have you heard of it? — where his mother has lived for the past 78 years.”

“I just happened to go there last July 13th for a rally. That was not pleasant.  (Laughter.)  And that is where I met his beautiful mom, right before I walked onto that stage.  And I told her I would not forget what she said about her son.  And I never did, did I?  Never forgot.  Less than 10 minutes later, at that same rally, gunfire rang out, and a sick and deranged assassin unloaded eight bullets from his sniper’s perch into a crowd of many thousands of people. My life was saved by a fraction of an inch, but some were not so lucky.  Corey Comperatore was a firefighter, a veteran, a Christian, a husband, a devoted father, and, above all, a protector. When the sound of gunshots pierced the air — it was a horrible sound — Corey knew instantly what it was and what to do.  He threw himself on top of his wife and daughters and shielded them from the bullets with his own body. Corey was hit really hard.  You know the story from there.  He sacrificed his life to save theirs. Two others — very fine people — were also seriously hit.  But thankfully, with the help of two great country doctors, we thought they were gone, and they were saved.  So, those doctors had great talent. We’re joined by Corey’s wife, Helen, who was his high school sweetheart, and their two beloved daughters, Allyson and Kaylee.  Thank you.  (Applause.) To Helen, Allyson, and Kaylee, Corey is looking down on his three beautiful ladies right now, and he is cheering you on.  He loves you.  He is cheering you on. Corey was taken from us much too soon, but his destiny was to leave us all with a shining example of the selfless devotion of a true American patriot.  It was love like Corey’s that built our country, and it’s love like Corey’s that is going to make our country more majestic than ever before.”

“I believe that my life was saved that day in Butler for a very good reason.  I was saved by God to make America great again.  I believe that.  (Applause.)  Thank you. Thank you.  Thank you very much.” =/ I think this is the key difference between Trump 1 and Trump 2. T1 was out of his depth, making do with the advice of expert politicians and the GOP. T2 doesn’t give a single shit about propriety or politics or processes. He wants his legacy built and burnished, his visions implemented and his memory cherished. God chose him for it…thus, those who oppose him oppose God’s will.
[SNIP]
“From the patriots of Lexington and Concord to the heroes of Gettysburg and Normandy, from the warriors who crossed the Delaware to the trailblazers who climbed the Rockies, and from the legends who soared at Kitty Hawk to the astronauts who touched the Moon, Americans have always been the people who defied all odds, transcended all dangers, made the most extraordinary sacrifices, and did whatever it took to defend our children, our country, and our freedom. And as we have seen in this chamber tonight, that same strength, faith, love, and spirit is still alive and thriving in the hearts of the American people.  Despite the best efforts of those who would try to censor us, silence us, break us, destroy us, Americans are today a proud, free, sovereign, and independent nation that will always be free, and we will fight for it till death. We will never let anything happen to our beloved country, because we are a country of doers, dreamers, fighters, and survivors. Our ancestors crossed a vast ocean, strode into the unknown wilderness, and carved their fortunes from the rock and soil of a perilous and very dangerous frontier.  They chased our destiny across a boundless continent.  They built the railroads, laid the highways, and graced the world with American marvels, like the Empire State Building, the mighty Hoover Dam, and the towering Golden Gate Bridge. They lit the world with electricity, broke free of the force of gravity, fired up the engines of American industry, vanquished the communists, fascists, and Marxists all over the world, and gave us countless modern wonders sculpted out of iron, glass, and steel. We stand on the shoulders of these pioneers who won and built the modern age, these workers who poured their sweat into the skylines of our cities, these warriors who shed their blood on fields of battle and gave everything they had for our rights and for our freedom. Now it is our time to take up the righteous cause of American liberty, and it is our turn to take America’s destiny into our own hands and begin the most thrilling days in the history of our country. This will be our greatest era. With God’s help, over the next four years, we are going to lead this nation even higher, and we are going to forge the freest, most advanced, most dynamic, and most dominant civilization ever to exist on the face of this Earth. We are going to create the highest quality of life, build the safest and wealthiest and healthiest and most vital communities anywhere in the world. We are going to conquer the vast frontiers of science, and we are going to lead humanity into space and plant the American flag on the planet Mars and even far beyond.  (Applause.) And, through it all, we are going to rediscover the unstoppable power of the American spirit, and we are going to renew unlimited promise of the American dream. Every single day, we will stand up and we will fight, fight, fight for the country our citizens believe in and for the country our people deserve. (Applause.)  Thank you.  Thank you.

AUDIENCE MEMBERS:  Fight!  Fight!  Fight!

THE PRESIDENT:  My fellow Americans, get ready for an incredible future, because the golden age of America has only just begun.  It will be like nothing that has ever been seen before. Thank you.  God bless you.  And God bless America.  (Applause.) Thank you.  Thank you, everybody.  Thank you.  Thank you very much.

                        END            11:00 P.M. EST

[/SNIP]

-/and that’s why Kamala Harris and the Democrats lost. Donald Trump, for all his many many many many failures and the authoritarian leanings and the whole “burning down the government” thing, at least has a realistic, articulated vision for America’s future. Kamala and the Democrats (see my last blog post) simply don’t. They have a bitch list and some fear-mongering that demotes us all to victims of circumstances. At the end of the day, that vision for the future matters more than all the dumb policy proposals, half-truths and petty “accomplishments” do. 

Long ago, Republican acolyte and political strategist extraordinaire Lee Atwater (one of the people responsible for the Nixon and Reagan Administrations) allegedly stated that “perception was reality” in terms of how the American public viewed politics. He was entirely correct, and under his guidance the Republican Party successfully framed Jimmy Carter as a weak, fearful, indecisive man afraid of his own shadow, contrasted with the Ronald Reagan who would wrestle bears and outshoot John Wayne while seducing starlets and crushing Communism. It was a lie, of course, but it was good enough to win three presidential elections in a row and define the Republican Party forever.

There’s a lot to say about Donald Trump’s 3/5/25 speech to Congress and the nation. That’s the subject of a future post, but in all honesty, it’s not important. Donald Trump is an authoritarian narcissist who wants to use the powers of the presidency to cause harm to his enemies, enrich himself and his family, and guide the nation to his whims in pursuit of his goals. In millennial terms, he’s a griefer- the kind of player on an MMO game who is entertained by the chaos that he causes. Sucks, but that’s an entirely different topic. Short version: Trump is actually taking on important, broad challenges, is broadly popular for now, and is squandering his unprecedented political strength by starting a trade war that will be economically ruinous right around the time of the 2026 midterms.

What I’m talking about today is the Democrats. And how they totally suck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_AdOzZ9bq0

Notice a theme here? It’s impotence. It’s weakness. It’s fear.

Donald J. Trump is perhaps the least surprising president we have ever had. Steven Smith was exactly right- the man literally announces exactly what he is going to do, how and when he is going to do it, and even why he is going to do it. To the world, on social media, and without filters or Obama-esque subterfuge or coding. Everything he does is telegraphed, anticipated and publicized to a massive extent, to include leaks that I’m sure he would rather not come out. We, as Americans, have known about that for a decade, since his ride down the escalator and his first term. We literally had an entire four-year trial run of Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, to figure out who is he is as a man, a leader and a person. That is perhaps the most intensive interview ever. And the Democrats took copious notes, beat him in 2020, and probably kept disaster at bay for a few years before they forgot how to read those notes. So, on Tuesday night when he stepped up to that podium and began to spew inaccurate facts, lies, bullshit and bold new policy proposals ranging from the scarily plausible to the fantastical, there were no actual surprises from him. Instead, the (expected) surprises came from the Democrats.

Al Green was the most vibrant resistance the Dems could muster. An old, deeply-corrupt Houston Democrat shaking his cane. Wooooooooooo.

Look at these idiots. What the fuck is going on? This isn’t even cohesive. What are they protesting? Is the most effective way to protest this farce of government to wear fuschia, hold crappy little ping-pong paddle signs and pick the top twenty focus-group issues to bitch about (and that’s what it is, because bitching is defined as complaining when there is no viable alternative plan. If the plan was to present an alternative to Republican leadership, this wasn’t it. This was a petulant temper tantrum from the Degrassi drama squad, for the cameras, neatly packed in an episode.

What else would you expect from the team that picked Hakeem Jefferies to set the message and puts Chuck Schumer on the podium to tell Americans what we want? Fuckin’ A, bros. These dudes are literally falling asleep themselves, kept awake only by their reflexive resistance masturbation about how “effective” their “restrained” resistance was and their assurance that “Americans are noticing” and that they’ll eventually do something, or that the Republican caucus will collapse, or that Trump will experience the consequences of his decisions. All of these things are true. But that’s ignoring the point. Americans are noticing because we have no choice and because the Democratic Party has nothing that it seems willing to do in order to forestall these destructive changes. Letters demanding information, protests in front of the Treasury Building, and some screeching on MSNBC? Color me impressed /sarcasm. There are plenty of maneuvers the Democrats could be employing. Filibusters, coordinated messaging, careful coordination of votes, pressure on Republicans at all levels, and a focus on good government in contrast to Republican chaos are starters.

We saw that exact same strategy used by the Republicans back in 2010 when they were the minority party and still managed to slow Obama’s agenda. Remember that? Mitch McConnell used a far smaller minority than the Democrats are stuck with and still routinely won power games. But he got there by picking intelligent fights, by ruthlessly enforcing the party’s agenda and staying on-task and on-message and coordinated with friendly media and the population that matters at the ballot box. Those successes cultivated the strength that let the Republicans stymie Barack, elect Trump, neuter Sleepy Joe and re-elect Donald Trump. Every win generated more perceived strength, which brought more wins.

Does anyone see the current Democrats willing to do this? Anyone at all?

https://www.opb.org/article/2025/03/04/oregon-democrats-trump-join-address-speech/ They can’t even be bothered to sit through an opponent’s victory lap. And yes, I know they were trying to show that it’s inherently non-serious, or invalid, or a crock of shit. That would be a great reason for a boycott, and it’s why one of the few Democrats with a spine didn’t show up and instead chose to live-stream her reactions. She sent an effective message- the speech was bullshit and she wasn’t going to waste her time sitting in silent support, but she was going to analyze it and present a plan for her supporters and constituents who are being directly affected by Trump’s idiotic policies and executive orders. That’s goddamned leadership.

Instead, we get fuschia wuss blazers and protest paddles and ActBlue demand emails. Weakness emanates from every pore of this bullshittery.

Worse than the crappy messaging though is the Democrat’s continued focus on culture war loser bullshit (https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/07/newsom-trans-bills-00217527, and yes, Democrats are already criticizing Gavin Newsom, notorious super-liberal, for daring to weakly point out that some of their hobby agenda is somewhat unpopular) and pointless fear-mongering (like in Rhode Island, where Democrats are trying to pass a firearms ban https://governor.ri.gov/press-releases/governor-mckee-general-officers-state-legislators-gun-safety-advocates-call-action / https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/11/assault-weapons-ban-proposed-again-for-ri-does-it-have-support-to-pass/78414868007/). Local and state Democrats argue that these pity parties are vital to keep the Democratic voter base content, but this is the same party and voter base that just lost everything on a national level and is bleeding voters everywhere precisely because of their focus on fear and weakness. There’s a way to peddle fear as a motivator, and the Republicans perfected it with right-wing media. It’s aimed squarely at high-propensity voters and puts the onus on them to act.

Democrat fear-mongering, on the other hand, postulates that people are hapless victims of tragedy, and that only government action can mitigate that. In Democrat-world, they are the answer to fear, which means that the person is weak. Beautiful, unique, valid, equitable…and weak. So fragile that a government policy is needed to protect them and their interests and their identity. So beautiful that their most fringe interests and desires are validated and propagated, and so equitable that everyone needs to know everything about them (but not the scary, violent Others, that would be threatening!)

Why am I picking on the LGBTQ pictures? Because it’s the neatest encapsulation of the whole Democrat ethos in 2025…and most Democrats would be offended by cowboys, football, America, etc.

Anyone remember 2005? Katrina was George Bush’s fault, every health care failure is BC/BS’s fault, Trump caused the fentanyl crisis, January 6th, mass shootings, etc. That’s the party line, and the response is always more government oversight, more regulations, more bans, etc. All the Democrat needs to do is keep voting blue. But notice something? That bullshit approach does not work. Democrats lost in 2014, and 2016, and 2022, and bigly in 2024, and when they did win small victories, it was on the backs of people who were fucking enraged and terrified by the Trump Administration and voted accordingly, on their own, for the lesser of two evils. And what did they do with those victories? Squandered them, of course, on “humane” open borders and social equity and virtue signaling to make the current crop of Dems look like the prettiest princesses at the purity ball. Worse, they managed to stain their seats with fear piss and weakness, so that even when a Democrat grows a spine and takes a reasonably centrist path, the party’s odor of fear clings to them like homeless guy pee. (Same problem as sane Republicans have, for what that’s worth).

Republicans have a lot of flaws, but they look united and strong, and the Atwater Observation holds even truer today- the perception of strength becomes strength, and the perception of weakness begets weakness. Until Democrats shower off the odor of piss, they will not win another election on a scale grand enough to matter.

This isn’t to say that the Democrats are doomed. Trump’s agenda is wildly dangerous from an economic perspective, and even if the wildest fantasies of the Republican Party and Muskovites come true, systemic flaws in the economy and American society are going to start hitting hard in the Trump term as the consequences of Trump 1, the Biden Gap Years and Trump 2 all hit at once along with the earnest start of the Boomer Die-Off and whatever foreign policy debacles pop up. Republicans with their unified control of the government own those results and cannot run from it as long as Trump holds them thralls; voters have already shown that they will punish incumbents for poor results, particularly economically. A centrist, sane Democrat movement / leader could very easily capture many of the Independents and probably more than a few disaffected Republicans who pushed Trump over the top in 2024. Whether that leader will be allowed to emerge from the Democratic anxiety is an open question.

So, with that pointed out, how exactly can the Democrats wash the piss and fear out of their panties?

First and foremost, they need a complete reset of their (perceived) national and state leadership. This doesn’t need to be a total teardown, but it does need to be a break from the past. Kamala, Gavin Newsom, Kathleen Hochul, Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, etc. have driven the party that Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama build and flown it straight into irrelevance for most Americans. And this has nothing to do with their personal attributes- they were the leaders in charge of the greatest mass losses in modern political history. The perception of weakness has latched onto them as national figures. They can remain party statesmen, power brokers, etc…but they lost, and lost bigly (thanks, Donald!) With this reset, the leaders of the future need to be sane, adult, moderate, centrist or even conservative leaders who are willing to prioritize good governance over flashy bullshit. I’d suggest people like Tammy Duckworth, Henry Cuellar, Katie Hobbs and AOC to take the reigns of leadership in this New Democrat Party. This needs to be mirrored on state levels and some local levels too- mayors like Karen Bass and Eric Adams have national audiences and their actions reflect on the party as a whole; they cannot be immune from the consequences of defeat.

Second, the Dems need to pick an agenda people care about and stick to it with unified messaging and complimentary policies. Time, money and public attention are not infinite, and if there’s anything to learn from Kamala’s multi-billion-dollar extravaganza, it’s that no amount of swing-state celebrity flythroughs and paid TikTok influencers are going to compel conservative-leaning independents to vote for Democrats if their self-image and economics are at threat. The horrible truth of the 2020s is that those LGBTQ+ community members, homeless people and voters-with-illegal-family-members who can be bothered to vote will almost always already vote Democrat and their numbers are not outcome-determinative in the Presidential election in terms of distribution, but pursuing those votes alienates significantly more likely voters and motivates them to show up for the Red Team. Donald Trump successfully made 2024 a referendum on changes in American society; Democrats need to make 2026 and 2028 referendums on Republican actions. They’ll likely have ample opportunities with economic dysfunction and Trump’s enablement of the worst Republican excesses.

Third, Democrats need to avoid diversion on all levels into cesspools. What’s a cesspool, you ask? It’s a topic that drinks every bit of time and every resource and every bit of energy spent on it without actual gains and usually paints those who tend to it with shit. January 6th was a gigantic cesspool; one that defined the Biden DOJ as an organization dedicated to political lawfare. Abortion, gun control and “democracy” are the perennial cries of the pissy Democrat; and they’re all cesspools- they yield minimal (if any) hypothetical benefits, no tangible benefits and paint the party with the stench of futility and weakness. Worse, they’re the things that many of the most reliably active political communities are built to suck dollars into- Planned Parenthood, Anytown for Gun Safety / March for Our Lives, civil rights advocacy organizations, aid, etc. As commendable as some goals may be in the abstract or in local settings, they are fatal for the broader ambitions of the party, particularly in high-stakes elections. Passing something like a small state gun-control act won’t protect a single person any more than any other law, but it will reinforce the impression of those critical swing-state voters that their Democrats are on the same wavelength. That perception forces the Dems to either fracture the party by disavowing the broader agenda (thus likely guaranteeing a Republican win) or to try and win in the face of the cesspool, which is once again unlikely, because they’re covered in shit from said cesspool. Notice how big drains like the economy and foreign policy are not necessarily cesspools, because good policies and effective politicians can and do make real differences in those fields that reflects positively on them.

If they do this, and with a bit of luck, the Democrats can probably win in ’26 and beyond. But I’m not holding my breath.

Elon Musk is a wealthy, powerful man who has bought his way into the Oval Office, the U.S. Government and the Republican and Democratic Parties. He is a venture capitalist, an investor and has some understanding of engineering and software. One thing he is not is a historian.

In the aftermath of World War II, one of the greatest concerns of both the Soviet Union and the Allied powers was how to maintain the uneasy peace resulting from the defeat of the fascist powers. The Western allies boasted the immense logistical and manpower resources of the United States, but the British and Commonwealth powers had been horrifically mauled by the war, and the Continental powers liberated in 1944 and 1945 were literally recovering from starvation, infrastructure devastation and impoverishment. Entire economies needed to be rebuilt, new workers needed to be raised and massive debts needed to be paid. A fringe few recognized the imminent struggles of the Cold War and advocated turning the forces massed to defeat the nascent Soviet threat (famously, General Patton advocated this view) but their voices were drowned out by those more sensible and more war-weary. Whether the Allied Forces of 1945 could have beaten the Red Army is uncertain, but the human toll on all sides would have been catastrophic. Opposite them, the Soviet Union and its captive Warsaw Pact proxies faced similar problems. Twice in the space of 25 years, they had been savaged by German invaders, and even with the creation of a “willing” Communist client state block of ablative armor, the Russians did not feel secure, only protected by their massive military investments. Neither side could sustain their 1945 levels of military spending. In both cases, the answer needed to cover multiple aspects- it needed to provide military security, military/industrial continuity and ongoing function, and do it at a cost point that would allow for economies of scale, rebuilding and eventually prosperity to return.

Going it alone was a non-starter for both the Russians and the United States.

The American military was technologically advanced, but after four years of war, it was primarily dependent on draftees and funded largely by war bonds, even as the same advanced technologies of the late-War era became quickly obsolete. Domestic political pressures would not permit the maintenance of large forces in general, and there was no political appetite for ongoing war-like sacrifices to maintain the broad resource supremacy that the American military had come to expect in both theaters. Additionally, there was the practical issue of where those battles would happen. In World War I, the AEF had come late to the war, haphazardly, and paid dearly for its lack of readiness (a great reference is “Sons of Freedom”, by Geoffrey Wawro, and “The Western Front” by Nick Lloyd). That war had been a slowly-burning stalemate, and even then, it had taken 18 months for a functional American army devoid of its own advanced weaponry, training or doctrine to even come into being, much less be fielded. The same feat in World War II had taken nearly two years to start (arguably, late 1942-mid 1943 with the local invasions of North Africa and Sicily, and a task not completed until 1944), and required comprehensive integration with the British military force – and massive distractions by the Russians- to come into being. For the men who had planned Overlord and executed the invasion and destruction of the Nazi regime, it was obvious that a future war would not give America the luxury of time. On the Soviet side, the Red Army was a colossally unsustainable force. Millions of men at arms were active, but again, the time and effort required to raise them and forge them into a conquering, victorious force had cost the Soviet Union dearly. Stalin and his successors had far fewer worries about the cost of a future victory or about the civil rights of conscripts, but the traumas of two catastrophic wars had taught the Russians that they would far rather fight the next war on someone else’s land, and that they would benefit from legions of expendable fighters.

Alliances were the natural answer. American and Russian forces could remain forward-deployed on the likely battlefields of Germany, with a war-ready posture, and they could demand (and receive) local supplemental contingents from their European allies, whom were naturally compelled to cooperate both due to economic incentives and the obvious risk of being isolated in a Europe that was ruthless about devouring isolated powers. The tragedies that Yugoslavia and the other Eastern European nations faced immediately after the end of the war were illustrative- failure to join NATO would result in upheaval, violence and a disappearance behind the Iron Curtain. Conversely, membership in the Warsaw Pact was more of a pragmatic expression of reality, in that it was the only way to align with the Russian occupiers who were politely informing the local governments who was in command. Only Finland and Sweden, both fairly inhospitable targets with relatively robust militaries and limited strategic value, were able to avoid being swept up in the alliances. Costs were shared, both monetary and social. The profession of arms did not deteriorate catastrophically, even though drawdowns certainly harmed readiness and performance. Most critically (for NATO especially), the permanence of the organization and development of shared doctrine allowed work together to become more than a sum of its parts. NATO allowed for Americans and Europeans to get to know each other- and this significantly improved relations. Thanks to NATO and the cooperation that it fostered, Western and Central Europe are far more integrated socially, culturally, politically and even economically; in that the European Union likely would not exist without the underlying predicate of NATO. The Warsaw Pact never really had this opportunity, but this is mostly due to the way that the Soviets used their power to stifle dissent. Neither structure was explicitly offensive in purpose, but with hair-trigger readiness and the doctrine, structure, infrastructure, equipment and resources to fight a total war until destruction on both sides, the difference between offense and defense was really just which direction the tank’s driver took it.

Additional benefits were obvious: standardized weapons and doctrine were on-ramps for larger group purchases and economies of scale, particularly for complex weapons systems. Gradually, political pressures and cost savings extinguished marginal competitors in high-technology, high-cost fields, while forcing survivors to integrate to provide higher-tech, high-cost equipment that nevertheless outperformed domestic products (this trend was visible as early as the 1970s with the development of the F-16 and Tornado). This strengthened large companies, particularly American ones, and spread defense dollars both nationally and internationally. Eventually, the NATO alliance was able to outspend the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union collapsed; this would not have happened if the Soviets were only spending against the United States or Europe. Reagan’s grand strategy to erode the Soviets was only possible due to cooperation.

NATO, like any defensive alliance, is not perfect. It was not designed for expeditionary wars, nor was it designed for long, bloody, controversial insurgencies. Its funding mechanisms are easily susceptible to political manipulations and there is no solid, forceful guarantee that a member would join in a war that did not directly threaten its national survival. Luckily, the Soviet assumption that war would lead to American and Western European total war forestalled World War III.

The flaws in NATO can and should be corrected. In some ways, Trump is doing good work with regards to forcing NATO’s European members to spend more, to take their militaries more seriously and to prompt discussions within NATO regarding the future. But that isn’t the calamity that would be full American withdrawal.

Here is where we leave the land of well-reasoned policy and go full Republican. Both elected Republican legislators and Republican celebrities like Charlie Kirk (https://x.com/charliekirk11/status/1895523816958460398) , Elon Musk (https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-publicly-supports-call-084016959.html) and Marjorie Taylor Greene/Lauren Boebert/Thomas Massie/Mike Lee et al (https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-republicans-voted-defund-nato-1908334 ; https://www.foxnews.com/politics/thomas-massie-mike-lee-advocate-us-dump-nato ) have spent years, plenty of keystrokes and many many words criticizing NATO, to the point of advocating its dissolution or at least American conditions on participation. Some of these politicians are simply making cynical plays towards their base; trying to gather clicks and eyeballs and dollars (Mike Lee, Lindsey Graham) because they know that their individual words as senators are relatively meaningless when their lengthy careers are founded on lies and denials. Some of these opinions are coming from people with ideological beliefs, like Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene. These people are not necessarily led by cynicism and political calculus, and that makes it even sillier, because they are coming from a place of honest belief. And some of these people, like Elon Musk, are simply accelerationists who take a trendy position as a way to generate public attention. And because they have the microphone, people assign them a sense of credibility and let their opinions drive their opinions.

Elon Musk, Marjorie Taylor-Greene and Charlie Kirk are not students of history. They are functionally illiterate as to the pertinent history. Elon Musk grew up rich, made the right friends and investments in college, and got a lot richer. MJT dick-rode Obama-era dissatisfaction and local notoriety into Congress, where her ill-informed bleats are well-received by people who think ‘Murica would have won in Vietnam if it wasn’t for Democrats and that they totally could have been Green Beret SEAL Ranger PJ Marines if it wasn’t for their being too bad-ass for basic training. Charlie Kirk just fellates that crowd openly, because the easiest and most glorious role in society is ‘conservative’ political pundit.

They have never considered the implications of a United States that is not integrally committed to the security of Europe and our allies. In their crazy world, American withdrawal has no consequences and only benefits. It’s a world that speaks to MAGA, a world where America is elite, alone and unbothered by problems in Poland or stresses in South Korea or politics in the UK. They have never considered a world where an independent Europe operates for their own benefit, not America’s lackey. They have never considered a world in which attacks on America’s economy, finances or even military might not necessarily be met with catastrophic allied action. They have never considered a world in which America could lose. And loss is something that is extremely plausible, particularly going it alone. We should know- we’re 1-2-1 in the last 80 years, and the only “win” we had (Korean War, 1950-1953) was largely the result of allies helping us at critical moments.

But then again, these people are also unaware of the difficulties faced when Americans have ignored our history. They are adults and they aren’t going to learn, change or engage, because that’s not in their best interests. So the answer is simple…cut them out. Don’t let them keep driving the train, because they are stupid.

Today, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky visited the Oval Office for a photo op and meeting with President Trump, Vice-President Vance and the greater American political caste. As usual, the American President was completely untethered from reality and historical connection.

Trump and Zelensky have interacted before (Zelensky was elected in 2019 and was famously the other party in Donald’s “perfect phone call” that led to his first impeachment). Zelensky has spent his entire term as President at war, given that the Russians invaded the Crimea and Donbass regions in 2014 (https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9476/), prompting a simmering war. On entering office, Zelensky promptly embarked on a campaign to secure a ceasefire agreement and peace, which culminated in the Minsk agreements of 2019 . These were famously unsuccessful, as the Russians simply ignored them and the Ukrainians kept defending themselves. American aid was limited to humanitarian supplies by a wary Obama, who correctly foresaw the stalemate and realized that our 1993 nuclear-disarmament treaty with Ukraine was not enforceable. Trump sent a trickle of lethal aid, Biden a torrent, but the war did not change.

Today, Trump was bloviating for the cameras, announcing how he would secure a cease-fire, and then peace. His syncophants (J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio, et al) were well-represented. But one man wasn’t trying to kiss the golden ring. President Zelensky came with a serious face and a serious mission. His country depends on Western financial and military support to remain in the fight against the Russian onslaught- to keep his people fed, this soldiers fighting and the lights on. For Zelensky, ensuring continued support is his primary goal- everything else, even the long-sought peace, is secondary to that. For whatever reason though, he forgot that Trump is a narcissist playing to his own agenda and crowd. He dared to correct him on his point that his plans had been tried before.

It’s objectively accurate to point out that the Russians and Vladimir Putin have been diplomatically engaged many times, and have not acted in good faith with the agreements they have made. Putin’s primary agenda is his own achievement as expressed by the reconstruction of the Soviet Union; snuffing out a nascent pro-Western Ukrainian democracy on his border is a strategic imperative of his. It’s also strongly implied that Trump and Putin have come to an understanding of sorts whereby Trump chooses Putin’s interests over those of other countries and leaders in exchange for Russian ‘cooperation’ in areas of mutual conflict. I’m not crazy about this, but I can see the rationality of it, and to some extent, it is simply the 21st century application of realpolitik that saw Presidents Truman and Eisenhower cede Eastern Europe to Russian dominance. Put bluntly, regardless of the politics, Americans have no appetite for fighting someone else’s war on the other side of the planet, and with the degree of support that America and the Western Europeans were able to provide, the Ukrainians were not able to win. Instead, they have deteriorated into a stalemate that has torn the heart out of the Russian armed forces, restored trench warfare with static defenses and introduced a terrifying variety of new weapons and tactics to warfare. Trump, for all of his many problems, is well aware that American military support in the quantities and quality he is willing to accept will not meaningfully change this status quo; it will only result in more casualties on both sides. The only way to end the war in Ukraine is for someone to lose, because Russia will not give up and Ukraine cannot give up. The lessons of Vietnam are up and rearing their ugly head- we cannot win a war we are unwilling to fight for ourselves, and if the support we are willing to give isn’t enough to win it, it won’t be won by our proxies. Ukraine has fought well and bloodied the Russians badly enough that a potential peace plan will leave their nation mostly intact, for now, with an opportunity to rearm. That is a tangible benefit they have earned by resisting. But we need to realize that broader Ukrainian goals like the return of conquered territory or reparations are impossible. Force of arms has failed; there will be no grand diplomatic victory or triumph of justice. Trump and Vance realize that and have crafted their policies and political movement to accommodate it, consequences be damned. Trump’s attempted extortion of Ukrainian rare-earths would not have mattered a bit; nor would Democrat outrage or Republican jitters. The only ‘acceptable’ answer for Trump is Ukrainian surrender. Given Trump’s evident other goal of retracting American membership from NATO, Ukraine was never going to get more than token future support, regardless of promises.

Zelensky had little to lose in real terms. Ukraine’s stream of American aid would falter; the primary future source of Ukrainian aid will have to be European. In a way, melting down American relations serves him better than ineffectual and halfhearted promises America has already shown it is unwilling to live up to. At the end of the day, I think this was the best possible outcome for Ukraine and Europe in the long term.

So, it’s been nearly a decade since I last used this platform, so please bear with me. Today, I’m sitting on the edge of entering middle age, and I’m quite a bit wiser than I was when I used to write screeds on Facebook. 

A lot has changed in the last decade. Not so much in terms of technology or even politics or big affairs, but in terms of how I view the world and my family and people, and realizing how their views and actions have shaped both their lives and mine. And a lot of this has to be viewed through the lens of maturing into a stable adult, of the world around us, and of challenging our preconceptions of our parents and family. 

My grandfather died 18 months ago, and I wish I could talk with him about some of these new observations. We didn’t always agree on the details of everything, but I always respected his willingness to learn and consider cases, with all of their nuances and facts and details, and the implications of those decisions. He was always learning, developing his mindset, and he was always solid and calm and reliable with his advice. I always admired him for that- and I noticed how it defined both his life and the lives of his kids and now their progeny. Stable, firm and consistent…it was the exact opposite of how I grew up. Not to say I didn’t benefit from the semi-feral “figure it out” way I grew up, but I idolized him from afar. No real mystery as to where he and my uncle learned it- they learned it from my great-grandparents, who viewed stupidity as the unforgivable sin. 

My dad, on the other hand, has none of those attributes. I remember my Dad used to be considerate and nuanced and “smart”, beyond occupational experience. He would consider deeper implications, precedent, alternatives, and was able to project the consequences of actions with a reasonable degree of accuracy and credibility. He could communicate, analyze and teach us to do the same. It doesn’t seem like that can happen anymore. This isn’t to say that those abilities are gone, but they are severely limited now, and I can chart it to one particular moment in life … the emergency of Donald Trump as a national figure and our president. Since that ride down the golden escalator, I’ve watched his cognition deteriorate. First slowly, then with less effort, and now just shit-tilling in time with the “real news” he pulls off of interest-captured social media. He’s developed whataboutism, casual racism, a lack of ability to think clearly, and partisanship beyond all sanity. And that’s terrible, because it undermines everything family should be about. It’s also terrible because it’s something that we can’t defend.

For example, the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. Horrific (if predictable) event, but one that went essentially as predicted. Massive destruction, eventual containment, etc. Kind of a non-event, sort of like how we all expect a late-summer Gulf hurricane but don’t really ‘care’ about the people affected beyond the obligatory “___ strong”. But in the feverish DC dream of our newly (re)elected President, the LA wildfires were a direct result of California’s failures to “rake the forest” and “letting the water run out” and “DEI”. There’s plenty of things to criticize about California’s setup. (It’s objectively true that idiotic land-management choices made at the city and county levels rendered the city a tinderbox, and it’s objectively true that California’s state land management is challenged and over-regulated from the perspective of fire safety. However, this also ignores that a significant portion of California’s lands, to include its most fire-prone areas, are actually federal land and are subject to federal land-management policies.) It’s objectively true that local fire departments were undermanned, underprepared, poorly-led and underfunded so that large fires would be far harder to control. And it’s objectively true that there were immediate local water-supply issues (mostly stemming from the inability of municipal water systems to move enough water to suppress massive, widespread wildfires). So, a week later, when El Glorious Presidente ordered “water to be released and “sent south” and Central Californian dams opened, he of course blindly endorsed it. And here’s where I finally realized that my Dad is probably sliding towards the same mental and physical decrepitude that defines Joe Biden. 

We grew up in Southern California. We literally could see the aquaducts and piping and pumphouses stretching through the desert all the way to the parched, stolen headwaters of the Owens River Valley. We’d sometimes hiked the streams of the Sierra Nevada (infrequently, given our free-range upbringing), but I’d had plenty of outside time and familiarity with California’s streams and rivers to understand that we lived in a desert with a pretty tenuous water availability and that water wasn’t free or easy. Along with this, we all possessed basic geographic awareness and the fundamental understanding that water flows downhill, in readily-anticipated pathways, down the path of least resistance, to sea level. I think that, objectively, if you’d have asked any of my family if releasing water from Central Californian mountain lakes (Lake Kaweah and Lake Success) to the Tulare River basin would somehow affect water in the Los Angeles basin two hundred miles (and the upper High Desert, Tehatchapi mountain rim and coastal mountain ranges) apart, we all would have roundly laughed off the suggestion, even as children. Why? Because it’s stupid. 

But in 2025? Nope. Water released from the summer stocks of central Californian farmers into the Tulare River basin (a geographically-isolated swamp) is somehow going to flow uphill, across miles of solid rock (and then back in time), and magically fill reservoirs in the canyons of Los Angeles, because Donald John Trump commands it. And it’ll own the libs in the doing. It’s so blatantly fantastical that I don’t even have a cogent response. But my dad preaches it, because it’s Trump. And it “owns the libs”, because somehow the President commanding that water stores earmarked for summer farm irrigation be wasted into an inland delta washes the ineptitude out of LAFD. Dementia in action!

Part of me wants to make this a pithy comment, but people across the political spectrum have brain rot. It just happens to be a lot more noticeable in the Fox/OAN/Newsmax crowd, likely because they lack awareness and analysis capabilities. Where did they go? I have no idea on that, but now I’m stuck in the same boat as so many other people reevaluating their parents.

I can’t help but think back to my great-grandmother’s later years. I had concerns, and certainly there were moments to validate them, but my great grandmother in her eighties was sharp, mindful and was able to deliberate. She would not have entertained the concept that water could flow uphill and back in time. 

I wish that there was a reversal agent for this, but the Trumpian brain rot isn’t a cause, it’s a symptom of a greater cognitive feebleness that will not resolve. Whether the root cause is physical decay, intellectual laziness or mental decrepitude I do not know, but I’m squaring myself with the fact that it’ll never get better. Changes and setbacks and challenges will only roll into the wider conspiracy theory. At some point, it’ll be functionally identical to memory care, just with more autonomy and hopefully less falls. Except that these people still vote. 

I miss intelligence.  

Back in the 1990s, Donald Bellisario, a TV producer, was looking for his next great idea. After what I presume was an incredibly boring night of whatever old people did in the early 1990s, he came up with the idea of a show about military lawyers. Paramount bought it, ran it for ten seasons, and it actually wasn’t terrible. Terminally corny, and a lot ridiculous, but not terrible. Better than reality TV, anyways. Truth, justice, ejections from jet fighters, gunfights, and turn-of-the-century Catherine Bell in uniforms. Boomer AF, but not terrible. So why am I bringing this up in a political blog?

Given that most Americans aren’t familiar with the more arcane institutions of our military, I think referencing J.A.G. is probably the easiest way to explain what they do. In the show, in between fighting off airline hijackers and romancing blondes and solving murder plots, Harman Raab Jr. occasionally finds himself giving legal advice regarding the Laws of War, policy, rules of engagement and the Uniform Code of Military Justice to field officers so that they can do their jobs effectively. Contrary to popular belief, not all orders are legal orders, nor can every order be followed. It’s in the oath every service member swears- to follow lawful orders. The onus is on every level of the chain of command to ensure that those orders are legal, from the officers in command of the theatre to the field-grade officers to the individual unit leaders, noncommissioned officers and soldiers themselves. What’s more, those orders need to be conducted in accordance with the laws (of war and the UCMJ), the rules of engagement (as relevant to the situation) and within the ethical constraints of the situation. Bitter experience has shown us what can happen if the perspective of the law is not integral to the generation and execution of military operations, in peace and war. Massacres, killings of civilians, rape and torture and abuse, and ultimately terrible decisions that ruin entire war efforts are the result. 

Let’s take a trip back in time to 1890. Hundreds of people, members of the Lakota tribe, were returning to a reservation (where treatment was objectively poor, with hunger, humiliation, cultural destruction and deplorable living conditions the standard) on the threat of further military action against them. They were captured, detained and a search for “prohibited” weapons was initiated by a cavalry unit of the United States Army. Tragically, the situation was mismanaged, and American soldiers killed approximately 250 Native Americans, who had surrendered peacefully to the government. Key aspects of the encounter were more than just a few shots exchanged- they consisted of crew-served weapons firing into tipis full of women and children, cavalrymen running down panicked Lakota trying to escape the massacre by fleeing into the wilderness, and soldiers executing wounded noncombatants. It was reported that officers had “lost control of their men” and justified with claims that the cavalry was threatened with extinction by the sheer number of Native Americans/ It was largely explained as an expected result of a toxic stew of undertrained soldiers, racism, fears of Native American zealotry and poor communications. Even by the standards of the time, Wounded Knee was controversial, but it was rapidly forgotten and the world mostly moved on. Had there been any sort of legal awareness of the situation, it is entirely possible that the massacre would not have occurred, as even by the standards of the time, the Wounded Knee detention was poorly conducted. Still, at the time, the concept of a judge advocate was primarily associated with trials for misconduct. Wounded Knee, and incidents like it, would help steer the military into assigning lawyers to field commands for operational advice a half-century later. 

March 16, 1968, My Lai, Republic of South Vietnam: C Co 1/20 IN and B Co 4/3 IN of the Americal Division (Task Force Barker, operationally led  descended on the interconnected hamlets of Xom Lang, erroneously marked on American maps as My Lai. Over the course of the day, these American active-duty soldiers would murder at least 347 South Vietnamese civilians, with a reported Vietnamese total of 504 people, on the pretense of a “loss of control and command authority”, fears of ambush, and poor target identification. There were also rapes. The entire incident was a blatant war crime, no different than those conducted by the Japanese or the Nazis in their rampages. The massacre was then covered up, until it splashed into public consciousness in November 1969. The Army and the Nixon administration, now in full damage-control mode, would eventually court-martial 26 officers, with one conviction (William Calley), who was quietly pardoned after a token period of house arrest. This was definitely not the only massacre of the war; and one could argue that the entire American war effort in South Vietnam and Cambodia was largely unfettered throughout most of the war by minor concerns like “laws” and “rules” in that the functional American answer was to destroy the country in order to save it. My Lai, however, was the titular event that defined the American soldier to the Vietnamese and American population as a war criminal. Victory in Vietnam required trust and faith in Americans from the Vietnamese population; Americans who were actively slaughtering Vietnamese civilians, destroying villages and eradicating the Vietnamese way of life were hard to trust. Had there been a JAG officer involved in the Task Force Barker planning cell, perhaps crisis could have been averted. 

That is the historical context we need to consider when we think about why military legal representation and consultation is vital. Even in non-combat situations, such as the detention of suspected insurgents, the oversight of military law is vital. The Abu Ghraib scandal helped to supercharge the Iraqi insurgency, and it was directly enabled by a unit that lacked professional standards, was of poor discipline and did not have adequate internal controls over the performance and conduct of its members. Far from being hindered by military law, one could argue that a greater awareness of military law and stricter oversight of legal and operational aspects (particularly in a sensitive mission like detention of suspected insurgents) would have made this catastrophe significantly less likely to occur. 

This did more to undermine our Iraq occupation effort than the invasion did.

So, let’s bring it to 2025. The Senate-confirmed Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, relieved the JAGs of the Army, Air Force and Navy. The Navy’s JAG was already in the process of retirement and replacement; the Army and Air Force JAGs were fired. Per Hegseth, the incumbent JAGs (known as TJAGs for reasons unknown to me) were not up to the tasks expected. Now, as the appointed civilian leader of the Department of Defense, Hegseth is legally allowed to make these decisions. They stem from the power of the President as the Commander-in-Chief to manage the personnel assignments of the Armed Forces. However, these officers were not fired for cause. They were fired because of a vague assertion that they were “ill-suited” to provide advice. Don’t take my word for it, watch this Fox News interview with Secretary Hegseth himself. Listen carefully to the words he is saying. Pete Hegseth is looking for lawyers who will “offer sound Constitutional advice” and “they don’t exist to be roadblocks to anything that happens.” This is not the role of a JAG. There is nothing in the Constitution about prohibiting a noncommissioned officer from having a sexual relationship with a subordinate soldier (Abu Ghraib), nor is there anything in the Constitution about when and when not to shoot children (My Lai, Wounded Knee). In fact, the role of a JAG, particularly a senior JAG, especially the chief judge advocate general of a branch of the Armed Forces, is LITERALLY to be a roadblock to “anything that happens”. Their role would not be to defend someone at court martial, to provide advice in planning an operation or even to investigate or prosecute a crime directly. Their primary mission is to lead their department and to provide an overriding interpretation of a controversial order that was referred to them. Given their organization, those orders would be coming from the top down and would likely involve some extremely problematic situations. I repeat, their mission is to function as a road block for illegal orders. Even more chilling, we don’t know if there will be any floor to these reliefs, nor do we know the criteria for what a “capable” JAG is. When officers are being fired for the perceptions of the appointed civilian leadership, there is a massive problem.

 If, hypothetically, an American field officer was ordered to open fire on demonstrators protesting the President, it would be the responsibility of the JAG officer (along with everyone else hearing that order) to refuse it. The JAG officer would be obligated to provide sound legal counsel to that notional officer, regardless of partisan preferences or career consequences. They are literally circuit breakers for illegal orders. But in this Hegseth world ?

Would Harm be imprisoned for refusing to shoot down an airliner carrying a Democratic politician? Would Major McKenzie face homelessness if she refused to green-light sniping a troublesome judge? Do Bud and Harriett lose their house if they refuse to green-light using the military to beat protesters? 

Pete Hegseth goes on to claim that his changes are being made in service to the promotion of a “warrior ethos” that he feels is absent from the force. I can’t claim that he is wrong; the Biden-era wokeness and atrophy of the military has been profoundly problematic from the perspective of warfighting and changes are absolutely necessary if the force is to be successful in combat in the future. Perhaps relieving these officers is a necessary prerequisite for those changes. However, given the context these changes are happening in, the administration is burning credibility it doesn’t have, and the consequences could be dire. To quote Reddit  

“How do I keep faith in the service when it’s obvious if I disagree with the presidential administration I am unwelcome or considered expendable or otherwise replaceable?

Are our oaths to the constitution moot compared to loyalty to the president?”

This is just one response, from one service member, but it cuts to the core of the problem. Regardless of rank or role or identity, if the rule of law cannot be trusted over a politician’s whims, how can one be expected to serve by society? The United States Military has always been a non-partisan force subject to civilian control. If partisanship becomes a prerequisite for service, this can no longer hold true, and the military becomes a political instrument, one where the population is dependent on the individual whims and desires of the people who are “serving” to guarantee their behavior, not any command or force of law or professional ethics. This is what separates professional militaries from armed juntas. It is absolutely not what we want to see here.

But 2025 is young. We shall see.

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