Opinion

To the extent that the ubiquitous reports pointing to President Donald Trump holding a large poster-type document that reads "Kennedy Center Demolition" proves to be a plan of action in taking the first unequivocal steps to knock the gorgeous complex down, paired with Trump stating that he will withhold disaster relief from North Carolina if it doesn't vote in Michael Whatley for U.S. Senator, Trump is now playing a dangerous personal game at a level unseen since last January 6th, practically begging for the same sense of shock, violation, and need to step in to stop him.

The two new developments are a one-two punch that actually could break MAGA support over the course of two weeks, something otherwise seemingly impossible.

Today Donald Trump asked a seemingly rhetorical question to the UN General Assembly: Do I annihilate the Islamic Republic of Iran? Do I drive them into hell?

But if you’ve been watching Trump especially close lately, you should not categorize those as rhetorical.

It is utterly exhausting and it's tempting to write that no one can be blamed for turning away from it all in a combination of disgust and wonder. And yet, with stakes so high, it's critical to review this administration's insanity and racism.

Because while perhaps one can hit pause and vacation from politics for a few weeks, it's impossible to simply pick up where one left off. If there is one dependable characteristic of this administration, it's that it gets more extreme by the day.

The recent White House decision to bar CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the premises has produced the predictable mixture of outrage, legal analysis and hand-wringing. Our ‘Free Speech” president announced the ban on September 18, accusing the outlets of publishing what he called “FAKE NEWS.” By the following morning, reporters from all three organizations were being turned away and having their credentials disabled or confiscated.

But amid the noise, something unusual happened.

A new Economist/YouGov poll of registered voters that just came out this week found that the top two words that Americans across the board endorse to describe Donald Trump are “corrupt” (53%) and “dangerous” (51%). Not even half of registered Republican voters were willing to call him “honest.”

This is consistent with Gallup’s finding earlier this month that fully 89 percent of Americans now believe that corruption in our government is widespread, the highest number in the two decades the polling company has been asking, and a higher number than in any other advanced, industrialized democracy.

I’ve heard enough this past week about AI – or as Linda McMahon calls it, A1 — taking over the world and annihilating all human beings that it’s frankly left me kind of worried. I mean, how pathetic would it be if we were able to conquer fear, hate and disease, but we fell prey to software programs?

Pretty disappointing. And Trump's promise that the only guardrail AI needs is a "strong and smart (high IQ!) president" doesn't do much to allay fears.

I keep thinking about that haunting photograph of Donald Trump, framed in the window of his gilded new Air Force One, looking at poster boards prepared for him by the foolhardy lackey Bill Pulte and apparently unaware that he could be seen.

It's an unforgettable image because it captured something I can't stop noticing: every day now feels like looking through that window and watching something get demolished. Trump has unleashed total destruction on this country, and it's gotten to a point where it's too much to comprehend.

Trump has now repeatedly offered his voters $5,000 checks if Republicans hold onto the House and Senate this fall, calling it the “Trump dividend.” Last week, he told a rally that it’ll “happen 100 percent” if enough people turn out to vote GOP.

Since his own party controls both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court, he could now get an appropriation passed for the ~$1.2 trillion this will add to the national debt; the fact that he’s not doing this is pretty much proof that what’s really going on here is a good old-fashioned vote-buying scheme dressed up with some fancy language to make it seem less like the crime it is.

The New York Times described last week how foreign investors and allies are getting cold feet about the U.S. economy. Every other day, Trump imposes another nonsensical tariff, threatens the rule of law, lies about Iran, and remains clueless about how these actions affect the economy.

The Trumpapalooza midterm convention in Dallas, staged to spin the disastrous results of Trump 2.0 into ‘The Great American Comeback,’ confirmed Trump’s economic ineptitude. Speaker after speaker praised him so lavishly that the convention looked like his made-for-TV Cabinet meetings, as Trump used his podium time to strut his ignorance.

There are plenty of ways to exercise power in Washington. Pass legislation. Kill legislation. Twist arms. Control committees. Bury investigations. Force votes. Block votes.

And then there’s Mike Johnson’s preferred method:

A man with a third grader’s intellect says all we need to regulate AI is a smart president. The same guy who will bark ‘hoax! hoax! hoax!’ at climate change while Mar a Lago takes on water now insists that efforts to regulate AI are also a hoax.

If Americans listen to this barking clown instead of scientists, engineers, and AI developers, we truly have entered Idiocracy — and we will get the killer robots we deserve.

I heard once, not sure where, but it sticks in my head, that a junior writer asked legendary Chicago-based columnist Mike Royko how he was able to write a column every single day. He replied something to the effect of, “Write about what makes you angry.”

I think about that anecdote often — actually, all the time. It is damn hard sometimes to figure out not just what makes you mad, but what makes you the maddest, since there are so many things coming from the Trump administration that boil the blood.