Adam Lynch

Lauren Boebert says Trump just 'retaliated' against her for her Epstein vote

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) is accusing President Donald Trump of blocking a non-controversial water project affecting her district after the lawmaker challenged Trump to force the release of the Epstein files in November.

“… Trump decided to veto … a bipartisan bill that passed both the House and Senate unanimously. Why? Because nothing says ‘America First’ like denying clean drinking water to 50,000 people in Southeast Colorado, many of whom enthusiastically voted for him in all three elections,” Boebert said, according to Colorado news reporter Kyle Clark. “… I sincerely hope this veto has nothing to do with political retaliation for calling out corruption and demanding accountability. Americans deserve leadership that puts people over politics.”

“I thought the [Trump] campaign was about lowering costs and cutting red tape,” Boebert added.

More specifically, Trump vetoed a bill to fund a pipeline project to bring clean drinking water to communities on the Eastern Plains between Colorado’s Pueblo and Lamar cities, according to 9 News. The president’s veto of the “Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit (AVC) Act,” which passed unanimously in the House and Senate, is Trump’s first veto of his second term.

In his veto letter, Trump wrote: "My Administration is committed to preventing American taxpayers from funding expensive and unreliable policies. Ending the massive cost of taxpayer handouts and restoring fiscal sanity is vital to economic growth and the fiscal health of the Nation."

But Colorado Democrats joined Boebert in accusing Trump of vetoing the project over petty grievance and vengeance, with Clark reporting Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) accused the president of “playing partisan games and punishing Colorado by making rural communities suffer without clean drinking water."

Clark also reported U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) saying “This is payback because Colorado won't bend to his corruption. It's weak, it's dangerous, and it's un-American."

Social media on X blasted Boebert for not seeing the alleged betrayal coming, with one X user writing: “Another person who blindly supported the face-eating leopard is ranting now that the leopard’s eaten her face.”

“That feeling when you realize you were dating a bully,” posted another commenter on X.

Having passed unanimously, Congress could potentially override Trump’s veto should Trump’s Republican Party find the strength to defy him.

Read the 9 News report at this link.

'Dangerous combo': Conservative says Trump's 'verbal incontinence' a sign of mental fading

New Yorker Columnist Susan Glasser warned that President Donald Trump’s poisonous combo of strength obsession and failing health was likely going to push him to more and more extreme behavior as he rages against his fading vigor.

Speaking with former Bulwark editor-in-chief Charlie Sykes on his Saturday year-in-review podcast, Glasser said the signs are already showing and we’re not even out of Trump’s first year of his second term.

“You have a president pushing 80 who’s clearly less able to project physical strength than he was before,” Glasser said. “ … ‘Strong’ was his favorite word in the vocabulary, so the weaker and older he becomes the more unhinged he will be as a result.”

“That was always the risk of electing a man at his age at the time of his election,” Glasser added. “That is inherently a destabilizing factor in the Trump second term, because we’ve seen that Trump is an escalator. He goes more and more over the top, and as he ages the less able he will be to restrain himself.”

Sykes pointed out that Trump appeared to be most visibly unraveling since his shrill December Speech to the Nation, which Sykes described “as just a complete cluster----”

“The evidence is right before your eyes,” Glasser agreed. “Go look at a clip of Donald Trump speaking at a rally in 2016 vs speaking at rallies in 2024 and 2025. He’s much older. He’s much less structured and disciplined. This is a man who no longer even pretends to find a noun or a verb in his sentences. And the amount of time he was speaking doubled between his 2016 campaign and 2024.”

“He went back on the road recently to try to persuade Americans there an affordability ‘hoax’, and he spoke at the rally for 97 minutes. This is a sign of where we’re headed with him: Verbal incontinence,” Glasser said.

Glasser also made note of Trump’s more perceptible warning signs of mental wandering during his less lucid public appearances.

“He’s talked at various points about going to heaven and how he might not get in … when you‘ve got an almost 80 year old talking like that while knocking down the East wing of the White House and slapping his name on the US Institute of Peace and the John F. Kennedy Center, this is a dangerous combination of aging and narcissism that’s only going to become a more salient aspect of the Trump administration over the next few years.”

Watch the full podcast at this link.

'Never going to work': Conservative rips Trump's 'dumb' economic policies

Republican commenter S.E. Cupp warns the U.S. economy is likely going to drag down President Donald Trump and his Republican Party leading into the midterms.

“Looking back, if we're going to assess the health of this administration next year, come midterms, we'll be looking back at Liberation Day,” Cupp told the panel of CNN’s “Table for Five.” “I think the economy is going to be the main story as we head toward midterms and the economy is not great. … Now we have polling that shows voters — including Trump's own — blame him for the economy.”

Cupp said Trump’s next big project is to manage the messaging and policy of his economic failures before it sinks the party.

“I think the most disastrous part of this economy was his tariffs,” said Cupp. “They're dumb. They're economically bad. They were never going to work. They were always a tax on the consumer. They're always going to have trickle up and trickle-down impacts. And the impacts have been, innumerable.”

She added that Trump also personally “worsened our relationship with allies, and that foreign, businesses and foreign states no longer want to invest in the United States,” outside of “bribery” situations manhandled by Trump.

“We're so volatile. It has led to, higher operating costs for businesses. So they're hiring less. It's made things more expensive. And now, as we saw a few weeks ago, Trump's bailing out farmers using taxpayer money,” said Cupp.

“That's the point I was going to make is that there is actually a difference between the kind of foreign investment that happens because the United States is a great market and a great place to do business and what Trump is doing, which is basically saying, ‘we're going to hold a gun to your head.’”

- YouTube youtu.be

Inside the 'daunting challenges' Trump will face in 2026

When holiday celebrations are done President Donald Trump will be facing “daunting challenges in 2026,” said USA Today writer Bart Jansen.

The lingering impasse over government spending is brewing in the House and Senate and Jansen said Americans will be facing a health care cost spike in 2026 now that Republicans and Trump have let Obamacare subsidies expire.

“The political disputes about spending − and the possibility of another federal government shutdown − will play out while waiting for a Supreme Court decision that could overturn tariffs central to the president's economic agenda that are projected to generate more than $3.3 trillion over the next decade,” said Jansen.

Foreign affairs are also volatile for Trump next year, said Jansen with Trump shuffling toward a peace agreement in the Russian war with Ukraine that's heading into its fourth year. He’s also struggling to keep the ceasefire in Gaza alive amid isolated skirmishes and bloodshed between Israel and Hamas.

Add to this the Justice Department's maddening trickle of documents concerning the investigations into convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein , which is dominating the political debate.

Jansen said Trump’s thoroughly dominated Congress Republican Party only approved 61 laws in 2025, reflecting harsh party polarization. Generally, lawmakers approve more than 300 bills in each two-year Congress.

“[But] Republicans have little room to maneuver with majorities of 53-47 in the Senate and 220-213 in the House,” Jansen said. “The House margin will narrow when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, leaves Jan. 5. Two seats previously held by Democrats will be filled with special elections in Texas on Jan. 31 and in New Jersey on April 16.”

“And midterm elections — when the president's party traditionally loses seats — loom in November for the entire House and one-third of the Senate.”

Read the USA Today Report at this link.

'Too damn bad': Conservative rips 'thin-skinned whiner-in-chief' Trump

Former GOP Communications Director Tara Setmayer whacked President Donald Trump’s 2025 attack on comedians and entertainment as a sign of a weak man on MS NOW’s “The Weekend.”

“He's done [this] from day one,” said Setmayer. “He went after the media, calling them the ‘enemy of the people.’ which was straight out of the dictator playbook that we've seen from the 1930s and 40s with Mussolini and Hitler. This is exactly what strongmen do. And Donald Trump is the most thin-skinned, boring whiner. He is a whiner in chief. He whines constantly about anyone who dares to say anything negative about him, yet he tries to portray that he's this big, tough guy. Really? Because that doesn't sound like someone who is a well-adjusted adult who can handle criticism.”

Setmayer spoke directly to Trump’s Christmas Eve threat to terminate the broadcast licenses of networks featuring comedians who are “negative to President Donald J. Trump.”

“He doesn't care about the Constitution. He doesn't care about the freedoms that we enjoy. Here he is carrying out his dictator fantasies because he's surrounded by people who are a bunch of yes men and women who are letting him do whatever the hell he wants,” ranted Setmayer. “They come for the arts. That's one of the things that strongmen and authoritarian governments do. They come for the arts and comedy because it's a freedom of expression. And they want to control all of that.”

She also blasted Trump as “a failed wannabe Broadway producer … living his fantasies out with the Kennedy center desecration.”

“And now with the late-night [comedy] hosts and the fact that they are able to make fun of him — we all know that him being mocked is one of the worst things ever, which is why we continue to do it. So, keep mocking him. And too damn bad if he doesn't like it,” Setmayer said.

- YouTube youtu.be

'A very small man': Conservative lays waste to Trump's 'immense insecurity'

Republican pundit S.E. Cupp ragged President Donald Trump’s constant need for adulation and compliments.

“There were some big tests [in Washington — one of them, loyalty,” reported “Table for Five” host Abby Phillip, before playing a montage of toe-kissing from President Donald Trump’s administrators at cabinet meetings.

The cut-scene contained a flood of “thank yous” and “greatest president evers,” as well as a “Thank you for letting us get up every day and have a purpose,”—all of which caused a raft of cringing amid the “Tabel for Five” panel.

“Just another day in the United States of North Korea,” quipped Phillip.

“This is the worst trend in the history of America,” said journalist and “Real Patriotism” Substack author Terry Moran. “It’s grotesque, and I don't understand how grown people — you look around that table and there are people of significant achievement, right? There're governors. There's people who've done things in life, and they grovel.”

“But do they have to tell you they love you? Do they have to call you Your Excellency?” demanded broadcaster and fellow panelist Cari Champion. “Do they have to tell you how great you are?”

“It’s immense, immense insecurity and that everyone knows this is what he needs and requires and that this is the way to his heart and get what you want,” said Cupp. “It's just really sad. He's a very small man.”

- YouTube youtu.be

Trump’s legacy may trigger the 'political collapse' of the GOP: report

The Guardian reports President Donald Trump is struggling to remain conscious at public events while opinion polls suggest Americans are turning against their president and Republicans make for the exits ahead of bleak congressional mid-terms next November.

“… [T]his is a guy whose legacy may well be the political collapse of Republicans in this era,” said Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. “Put another way, rather than asking who is going to be the inheritor of the Trump mantle and the so-called MAGA movement, we may be talking in a year or so about which candidates can escape the odious distinction of having been connected with Trump.”

Trump “hit the ground running” after his 2024 win, said the Guardian. “On his first day in office he pardoned nearly everyone involved in the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol and launched a radical expansion of executive power, a systematic retribution campaign against perceived adversaries, and a sweeping overhaul of domestic and foreign policy.”

But a government-wide restructuring under DOGE led to mass federal layoffs and the dismantling of popular agencies such as USAID before DOGE flamed out. And Trump’s immigration crackdown is failing at the polls, despite it being one of his higher polling issues.

Meanwhile, Brown University political scientist Wendy Schiller said Trump’s tariffs are “the greatest self-inflicted wound that the president has brought on himself and Republicans.”

“In this administration they are so much broader and more sweeping and it’s showing in supply chains, in consumer purchasing, in pricing, in every corner of people’s lives. Whether it’s a supermarket or it’s holiday gifting or whatever it is, they’re feeling it.”

Additionally, the American people are pushing back against Trump’s numerous infringements on free speech, with nearly 500 lawsuits filed in federal court over the course of his administration’s first 11 months. And the administration is losing in courts with judges appointed by Republicans and even President Trump himself.

“For months Trump appeared unassailable as the opposition Democratic party struggled to find its feet and protests appeared muted compared with his first term,” the Guardian reports, but Democrats then “appeared to regain their mojo.”

“Like Joe Biden before them, Republicans’ insistence that the economy is strong does not tally with many people’s daily experience at the supermarket,” the Guardian reports. “The president’s efforts to dismiss affordability as a ‘con job’, ‘hoax’ and ‘scam’ by the Democrats have rung hollow as he plans a $400 million ballroom at the White House.”

And then there’s the “long shadow” of the Epstein files, which increasingly implicate Trump through his association with a convicted sex trafficker, while also making him look out of touch. Last month, a Gallup poll showed Trump’s job approval rating down to 36 percent, the lowest of his second term, and disapproval up to 60 percent.

“The omens for November 2026 are grim,” said the Guardian. “History shows the party that holds the White House always tends to suffer losses in midterm elections. Democrats appear galvanized and determined to curb Trump’s power. Some Republicans are already deserting what they may fear is a sinking ship.”

Patrick Gaspard, a former assistant to Barack Obama and director of the White House office of political affairs, tells the Guardian that “Trump has run out of runway on Joe Biden,” having been given the allowance to blame Biden for the first few months of his presidency.

“But now, by a margin of two to one, voters hold Trump rather than Biden responsible for the outcomes in the economy and that’s got to be pretty scary for [House speaker] Mike Johnson and company,” said Gaspard.

Read the full Guardian report at this link.

Republicans fretting over Trump 'acting like old people': analysis

David Drucker, senior correspondent for the conservative Washington Examiner, told an MS NOW panel that President Donald Trump’s ‘old people’ style is beginning to weigh down Republicans for the midterms.

Drucker delivered his opinion after a clip showing Trump ally podcaster Joe Rogan slamming the president for his hateful response to the murder of Hollywood director Rob Reiner.

“There’s a lot of things that doesn’t feel real,” Rogan told a guest, while discussing Trump’s advanced age. “The Rob Reiner thing didn’t seem real. That seemed so insane.”

“There's policy anxiety and behavior anxiety,” assured Drucker. “ … The majority of them, I'm sure are hoping that the Supreme Court strikes down his ability to wield tariffs unilaterally.”

“There is a concern about his behavior and his rhetoric,” Drucker continued, “but a lot of this has to do with policy and the fact that he seems to be on so many things other than what voters are focused on and that’s a huge problem for [Republicans.] It's a huge problem for him, but it's really a problem for them. He's not running again. And they are. That’s where their concerns are.”

Maybe this has to do with that fact that he’s acting like old people tend to act, which is ‘who cares. I’m gonna say what I want,” Drucker said.

- YouTube youtu.be

Trump admin's 'eerie' holiday posts 'may have violated the Constitution': analysis

New Republic Associate Writer Edith Olmstead argues President Donald Trump's administration violated the Constitution while it was haunting the internet with holiday images invoking Christian nationalism.

“The Department of Homeland Security’s tasteless holiday sh——posting may have just violated the United States Constitution,” Olmstead said, citing the federal agency’s official X account publishing multiple Thursday posts that appeared to violate the Establishment Clause, which prohibits government actions that favor one religion over another.

“Rejoice America, Christ is born!” read one post.

“Merry Christmas, America. We are blessed to share a nation and a Savior,” said another.

Olmstead said the second post was likely meant to evoke nostalgia, but mostly stirred nervousness with footage of President Donald Trump spliced into clips of popular holiday movies.

“It even included a photograph of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem holding a Christmas tree in Chicago, where she launched a deadly large-scale immigration operation, to really put the eerie in cheery,” said Olmstead, adding that the Trump administration now views the separation between church and state as a suggestion.

“It’s fitting that DHS would be the source of this blatant violation, as Noem’s ethnic cleansing approach to homeland security is transparently rooted in xenophobia and Christian nationalism. And the president has continually leaned into Christian nationalist rhetoric in order to please his conservative base,” Olmstead wrote.

Similarly, critics like Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, complain that the posts are “one more example of the Christian Nationalist rhetoric the Trump administration has disseminated since Day One in office.”

“People of all religions and none should not have to sift through proselytizing messages to access government information,” said Laser. “It’s divisive and un-American.”

Read the New Republic report at this link.

'At least we haven't invaded': White House officials say Trump nearly launched war on Xmas

President Donald Trump spent the Christmas holiday bombing Nigeria with overpriced and scarce long-range Tomahawk missiles — between social media attacks on Somali immigrants, rationalizing his attempted 2020 election steal and reposting calls to jail his political opponents.

But Zeteo reports Department of Defense officials were originally worried Trump’s attacks on Nigeria were going to be more of a protracted war, or worse.

“Two Department of Defense officials, one current and one former, tell Zeteo that at this point, they felt relieved that Trump’s Christmas bombing ended up being more targeted than it could have been, given how the president had previously dangled the possibility of sending US ground troops to Nigeria,” wrote Zeteo political Asawin Suebsaeng and politics Editor Andrew Perez.

“At least we haven’t invaded yet,” the current DoD official told Zeteo.

“Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!” Trump announced on Truth Social.

“The bombing was conducted after he and his government spent weeks threatening military action – even possible invasion – in the African nation, claiming that the Nigerian government was failing to stop the mass murder of Christians,” Zeteo reports. “Nigerian officials and numerous others who have long monitored political violence in the country stress that the Trump administration is spreading misinformation, and that Christians actually make up a smaller percentage of the death tolls than Muslims.”

“But as the Trump administration and the MAGA movement enter an increasingly and openly Christian-nationalist phase,” reports Zeteo, “nuances and on-the-ground realities don’t necessarily matter much as Trump weighs what, where, or whom to bomb next.”

Zeteo reports Trump pitched himself as a “PEACE PRESIDENT” who would end “forever wars,” but this year alone Trump has launched airstrikes in Iran, Yemen, and Somalia, and his administration has carried out more than “two dozen illegal airstrikes against supposed drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, without providing evidence for such claims.”

Trump has also threatened to invade Venezuela in his bid to remove the regime of Nicolás Maduro.

Read the Zeteo report at this link.

'Definitely the actions of an innocent man': Trump mocked over Epstein files meltdown

Critics of President Donald Trump say he managed to slam the release of more Epstein files while simultaneously demanding his Department of Justice release even more files to embarrass Democrats.

“Now 1,000,000 more pages on Epstein are found,” Trump complained in a Friday post to Truth Social. “DOJ is being forced to spend all of its time on this Democrat inspired Hoax. When do they say NO MORE, and work on Election Fraud etc. The Dems are the ones who worked with Epstein, not the Republicans."

"Release all of their names, embarrass them, and get back to helping our Country!" he added, in his signature style of oddly placed capital letters. "The Radical Left doesn’t want people talking about TRUMP & REPUBLICAN SUCCESS, only a long ago dead Jeffrey Epstein - Just another Witch Hunt!!!”

Many critics on X shook their heads at the muddled directive.

“Trump to DOJ: Name Epstein-Linked Democrats to 'Embarrass' Them, But Stop All Further Releases,” posted one critic on X.

Brett Meiselas, who is the co-founder of liberal group MeidasTouch, cited Trump’s claim that “The Dems are the ones who worked with Epstein, not the Republicans,” pointing out on X that “This is a tough argument for him to keep making, being that he was a Democrat at the time.”

“It’s kind of incredible Trump has had such a 180 on the Epstein files,” said Daily Beast writer and author Molly Jong-Fast. Meanwhile, Politico Senior Affairs Reporter Kyle Cheney said Trump is getting “frustrated at [the] never-ending Epstein saga.”

PunchBowl News Founder Jake Sherman reminded readers that “The president signed the bill into law which set this into motion,” referring to the Epstein Files Transparency Act that Trump signed last month.

Other social media critics simply wrote off the president’s garbled message, describing the post as “definitely the actions of an innocent man.”

'Um, not so fast': Trump admin accused of fudging figures on faltering economy

President Donald Trump and his helpers are cheering prematurely over some good economic numbers that came out this month, according to Los Angeles Times reporter Michael Hiltzik.

On Dec. 18, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that inflation had fallen to an annual rate of 2.7 percent in November, down from 3 percent in September. Then, on Tuesday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that real gross domestic product had gone up by a surprising 4.3 percent annual rate in the third quarter of 2025.

“Unsurprisingly, the Trump administration and its Republican acolytes seized on the figures to boast about Trump's economic policies,” Hiltzik writes in the Tribune National. “White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett proclaimed the inflation figure to be ‘an absolute blockbuster report,’ and described the GDP figure as ‘a great Christmas present for the American people.’

After being hounded by bad numbers for most of Trump’s first year, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) happily jumped aboard, announcing "America is winning again" after the GDP report. He even called it "the direct result” of congressional Republicans’ and President Trump’s policies.

“Um, not so fast,” said Hiltzik, pointing out that the 43-day government shutdown from Oct. 1 to Nov. 12 was the most important cause of gaps in the collected data for the consumer price index calculation.

“You've got to take it with a grain of salt," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG US, of the inflation report. "It's confusing and it doesn't quite square with prices that we've observed."

Swonk said Trump’s steep cutbacks at the BLS had already reduced the staff assigned to sampling prices by 25 percent. That prompted the agency to substitute "imputed" numbers in lieu of hard data.

"Those cases can show up as zeros in the percent change of the release," Swonk wrote, which lowers the bottom-line figure. In fact, a sampling scheduled for mid-October had to be canceled, so figures dating from August were used instead. This conceals any price increases in subsequent months.

“A major problem concerns housing costs, which account for about one-third of the data inputs for the (Consumer Price Index),” Hiltzik reports. “Because the BLS was unable to collect rental data for October, it implied that the monthly change in rents was 0 percent in October — further skewing the reported CPI lower. Experts say it will take at least six months to use newly collected data to provide a reliable estimate of housing inflation.”

The delay in sampling, Swonk said, means some seasonal price phenomena, such as airfares, also went unreported. The originally scheduled sampling would have incorporated a pre-Thanksgiving run-up in fares, but by the time the data were collected fares had returned to a non-holiday level.

On top of this, Hiltzik says economists are warning “that some economic factors haven't yet fully played out.”

“That includes Trump's tariffs, which in their execution have been lower than they appeared on the surface, and higher healthcare premiums, which have been forecast or announced but won't actually become effective until 2026.”

Read the full report at this Kansas City Star link.

'He doesn't care about you': Trump ripped for proposing marble armrests at Kennedy Center

After bolting his name over the name of the president for which it memorializes, President Donald Trump now plans to replace armrests at the Kennedy Center with slabs of rock, leading to mockery.

“Potential Marble armrests for the seating at The Trump Kennedy Center. Unlike anything ever done or seen before!” Trump announced on Truth Social on Friday.

In a December 18 post on X, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote that a board for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. "just voted unanimously to rename the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center, while critics say the name change is premature.

Social media reacted just as harshly to news of “rock seats” as the earlier name change, however.

“It will match the rocks in his head,” said one commenter on X.

“Americans are struggling to keep food on the table while Trump is spending your money on wasteful vanity projects,” posted Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.). “He doesn’t care about you.”

“While you're struggling to pay the bills, Trump is bragging about slapping marble armrests on chairs at the Kennedy Center,” echoed another critic. “Crickets from reporters of course.”

Other critics, like Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) chief of staff Mark McDevitt, used X to harp on Trump’s disconnectedness with ailing American voters. “Ah yes. The reason for the season. Marble armrests for him, no healthcare and higher grocery + utility costs for everyone else.”

“The man wants to be first-lady but instead finds himself constantly burdened by the responsibilities of governing as President,” said Chamber of Progress Economic Analysis Director Tahra Hoops on X.

GOP brutally mocked for claiming Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer 'definitely a Republican'

The official X account for the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee posted a Christmas Eve message declaring Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is “definitely a Republican.”

The account for the committee, led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) then proceeded to tick down a list of qualities that it deemed specific to the Republican brand, including “Doubted by the elites,” “pulled himself up by his bootstraps,” “faced adversity” and “carried the team when others couldn’t.”

Social media quickly flushed the claim, with one X user pointing out that, “He wasn’t on Epstein’s island, [though].”

Philadelphia attorney Adam Bonin said on Bluesky that the GOP totally pegged the story wrong.

“‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ is a story about the need for inclusive hiring practices which recognize everyone's unique talents and refuse to see ‘difference’ as an automatic negative,” Bonin posted. “The Republicans in that story were the other reindeer who laughed at Rudolph and called him names.”

“Also, super gay, though nobody recognizes it. So, yeah, Republican,” added astrophysicist Robert Rutledge on X.

“When did he sell out to mega corporations and foreign governments?” demanded another X user.

“I thought the GOP was like the other reindeer because they all have brown noses,” quipped another Bluesky user.

Trump is 'declining noticeably' and could soon have a 'health event': ex-RNC spokesman

The staff at The Bulwark took inventory on predictions made as President Donald Trump muscled his way back into the White House last year. Some forecasts — such as Trump having the proper judgment to fire the worst of his bumbling staff — fell flat as Americans learned Trump’s mental state was a lower bar than predicted.

Others, however, panned out as expected.

“My dark horse prediction for 2025 is that Donald Trump has a health event,” said Bulwark podcaster Tim Miller. “And I think that this is inevitable based on the actuarial tables to happen during his presidency, because … Donald Trump's machismo and his strength is such an important part of his political brand.”

Bulwark columnist Mona Charen, acting as judge for Bulwark’s prediction, said Miller did not foresee the administration’s talent for covering up the president’s health, however.

“He's declining noticeably,” said Charen. “His health is declining. That's clear. He's got those things on his hands. He's stumbling a bit. He's falling asleep. But that's not a health event.”

Bulwark Managing Editor Sam Stein disagreed, however, pointing out that its not Miller’s fault the administration is a brick wall on the president’s failing vigor.

“I would give Tim at least one point,” said Stein. “I think with the hand stuff, there's something up there. And there's all this question about why he had an MRI. They're not really being forthcoming about it. We don't know. And because it's so clouded in uncertainty, I feel like that deserves at least one point. So, we have a little bit of a disagreement.”

Both “Judge” Stein and Charen ruled in favor of Bulwark writer Will Saletan, whose dark horse prediction for 2025 was that Donald Trump was going to pardon New York Mayor Eric Adams.

“Why would Donald Trump pardon a Democrat? The reason is Donald Trump is not fundamentally a Republican. Donald Trump is fundamentally a criminal,” said Saletan a year ago. “And so he loves white collar criminals like himself. … [H]e sympathizes with guys who have been convicted by law enforcement, by the justice system.”

Stein and Charen disagreed on the semantics of the pardon, however, seeing as how Trump did not pardon Adams but merely instructed his politicized DOJ to drop its corruption case against the mayor.”

The judges also awarded top points to Bulwark White House Correspondent Andrew Egger for correctly predicting “more MAGA infighting” in 2025.

“I actually had forgotten about Egger, so he also gets a five,” said Charen, referencing the current war underway between antisemitic and pro-Israel factions duking it out over the Heritage Foundation’s embrace of MAGA influencer and white nationalist Nick Fuentes and the people who give Fuentes a platform.

There’s also division in the MAGA ranks over Trump’s foot-dragging on the release of the files of convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, wherein Trump’s name is generously peppered. That division appears to be between young MAGA influencers and aging Fox News elites.

“Completely spot on,” agreed Stein. “I mean, not exactly the craziest prediction — he didn't really walk out [on a limb] with that one. But I think the actual magnitude of the infighting is much bigger than I actually expected. So, Egger gets five. And everyone knows I'm loathe to give Egger any credit whatsoever. So, this is a real five.”

Watch the Bulwark podcast at this link.