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Imagine, for a moment, that Barack Obama was still the president. Now imagine President Obama published and promoted on official White House channels an AI-generated image of himself as the pope, dressed in the papal vestments, a few days before a papal conclave was set to begin—and during the mourning period for the pope who had just died. Imagine the reaction on Fox News. But Donald Trump does it and everyone’s just like, “Hey lib, stop crying, he’s just joking.” What’s the joke, exactly? This might be controversial to say out loud, but whatever: Catholicism is the only religion for which it is still socially acceptable to denigrate and openly mock in public, whether it’s the Olympic Opening Ceremony or the president of the United States. Sometimes I’m thankful my devout late grandmother isn’t around anymore to see what a decadent and depraved society we’ve become.
As a general rule, after 10 years of covering him, I try not to put much weight into what Trump publishes on social media. After a while, it becomes clear the point of most of it is to deflect attention from something he is doing elsewhere. But it’s also hard to ignore what amounts to a real-time stream of consciousness beamed directly from the brain of the most powerful man in the world. The Pope Trump image was followed by a couple other humdingers over the weekend, including a new plan to reopen Alcatraz (?). Was the Nic Cage-Sean Connery 90s classic “The Rock” playing on Air Force One or something? I can’t think of how else such a weird idea would manifest itself in the head of the POTUS.
They closed Alcatraz 60 years ago because it was prohibitively expensive to run. Aren’t we in cost-cutting mode? That one was followed up last night with a new idea to tariff foreign films (??). Not sure where to even begin there, so let’s just assume that was a joke. If we start expanding the trade war to the service economy, that’s going to create an entirely new set of problems since services (ie. entertainment) are pretty much the only thing we export anymore. I digress.
President Trump also continued with his new war on Christmas, repeating his line from last week about “the children” having too many dolls, not once but twice, on Meet the Press and then to reporters again last night: “A young lady, a 10-year-old girl, doesn’t need 37 dolls, OK? “She could be very happy with two or three or four or five.” OK, Chairman Mao! If the Dems can’t turn that into a winning political message next year, they should just pack it in.
Trump had another revealing exchange in his MTP interview, which I transcribed for posterity: “We were losing hundreds of billions of dollars with China. Now we’re essentially not doing business with China. Therefore, we’re saving hundreds of billions of dollars. It’s very simple.” This is, frankly, an insane way of thinking about the economy. This idea that you, as a buyer of a good or service, are being “ripped off” by the seller is … wild. You got the good or service you wanted in exchange! If I buy a $500 television that was made in China, I didn’t “lose” $500 to China. I traded it for a TV, which I now have!
The White House is teasing some big trade deals to be announced as soon as this week, so hopefully that will go some way toward stabilizing the markets a bit. But small businesses are already starting to get hammered in this trade war, and if you listen to what the guys who run the big ports on the West Coast are saying, consumers are a couple weeks away from seeing empty shelves and product shortages, a la Spring 2020.
But hey, at least we’re bringing back Alcatraz.
Trump Dismisses Price Increases—’That’s Peanuts’
President Donald Trump dismissed price increases on common items purchased by consumers in a Sunday interview with NBC News’ Meet the Press, saying “that’s peanuts” compared to energy. Read the story.
- Musk weighs in on eventful year: Elon Musk has given a wide-ranging interview as he prepares to step away from the Department of Government Efficiency. “It’s not been boring, that’s for sure—an eventful year to say the least. At least I didn’t get shot, you know. Look on the bright side,” he said in a Fox News interview with Lara Trump. Read more.
- POTUS rails against judges: President Donald Trump launched a political attack on judges overseeing cases against his administration, just days after Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson warned of such an onslaught “undermining the rule of law.” The president said judges are blocking the deportation of violent criminals and warning that America is “finished” if such decisions continue. Read more.
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