'That's a self-own': Trump skewered for 'embarrassing' set of losses he brought on himself
U.S. President Donald Trump attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
December 19, 2025
Donald Trump is mired in a bad streak that began with a poorly received rally in a Pennsylvania casino, then came his universally condemned attack on murdered Hollywood producer Rob Reiner, his chief of staff creating a firestorm, a ranting national address and then the outrage over adding his name to the Kennedy Center.
According to MS NOW’s Joe Scarborough, this past week has been a long slog of embarrassments for the president who can’t seem to seem to help himself.
As the “Morning Joe” host explained on Friday morning, the president keeps trying to “own the libs” and instead it keeps blowing up in his face.
Starting with a clip from late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel showing the president dozing through another press conference, Scarborough told co-host Jonathan Lemire, “You continue to go through the week, his speech where a lot of Republicans were saying, ‘Wait, why is he shouting?' You have members of the MAGA base saying that was the most meaningless presidential speech I've ever seen. Why is he doing it again? Not really talking about affordability. You look at the walk of shame that he did outside the White House again, just like — it's not, that's not owning the libs.”
“I will say post-Gavin Newsom mockery, where the mockery of the shtick that worked for Elvis, like in his concerts from 2015 that's over,” he added. “So now when you do something like that, you're not owning the libs, you're not owning Joe Biden, you're not owning Barack Obama. And I say this, trying to be helpful — I have such a big heart, I want to help everybody — but when you do something like that, that's a self-own, that's an own-goal, that's embarrassing.”
“The same thing when, to me yesterday, you texted me and said, ‘Oh my god, look what he's doing to the Kennedy Center,'” he recalled and then laughed, “I was like, ‘Oh, stop embarrassing yourself!”
“That's the thing, this is, we're so far past owning the libs, all of this stuff, this is all about him owning himself,” he added.