Trump burns down the United States

When my dad was a small child, gas stoves were standard but lacked igniters. Thus, every family in every home in my dad’s neighborhood sported a book of wooden matches to get the job done.

Two doors down from him lived a young kid, let’s call him Denny, who liked to take his mother’s box of matches and start fires. He’d start one out in the yard. He’d burn his toys. He torched his sister’s dolls. Then he sprayed them with water and sought praise from his poor mother for putting out the fires. Nobody knew where Denny’s dad was. And everyone in the neighborhood tried to help that poor single mother. It was the 40s. People cared, I guess.

One day, Denny started a fire that only ended when the city fire department showed up. Shortly thereafter Denny and his mother had to move. It never pays to live in a burned out building. Dad said he never knew what happened to Denny, but I wonder if he moved to New York and changed his last name to Trump.

Donald Trump burned down the United States Tuesday and we’re stuck with the cleanup. Although the U.S. helped start the United Nations, Tuesday night Trump announced the U.S. has again withdrawn from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). “The United States will not participate in the UNHRC and will not seek election to that body.” At the same time, he wants to review our participation in the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Trump says terrorists have taken over UNHRC and are suspected of infiltrating UNESCO. Rather than, as a charter member of the UN, purging or fighting against what he believes to be interests contrary to those of the United States and world peace and stability, Trump is merely willing to burn it all down and walk away. If you built the house, why won’t you defend it? After all, you can’t live in a burned out building. Just ask Denny.

Trump also announced in a press conference with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday that the U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and “own it.” He did not rule out sending American troops to the area to take it over, though his press secretary tried to walk that back Wednesday afternoon during a briefing.  Trump urged all Palestinians to move out — suggesting the struggling survivors who have nothing left should move to Jordan or Egypt. I guess he thinks they all have the means and energy to move to their second homes in those countries. If it sounds a little like ethnic cleansing to you, then you’re among the millions who think so. Trump merely says living in Gaza “Is Hell.” He also said every Palestinian should move out. Bibi? He just grinned and said, “You know, when Israel and the United States work together, and President Trump and I work together, the chances (for success) go up a lot.” 

A short time later Trump was asked whether he should get the Nobel peace prize. “They will never give me a Nobel Peace Prize. It’s too bad. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me.” Reporters with the president say he wasn’t joking.

Like my dad’s young neighbor, the arsonist wants to get credit for being the firefighter.

That would also explain why Trump started a fire by issuing tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods (two of our largest trading partners) only to pull them back less than a day after issuing them. He said he did it because both China and Mexico capitulated to his demands — but in fact they just committed to actions to which they’ve already agreed.

He then gloated while starting another fire, announcing his aims to shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). He claims the USAID project is run by gypsies, tramps and thieves (apologies to Cher). President John F. Kennedy established the agency during the Cold War to counter the influence of the Soviet Union.  Today, supporters of USAID argue that U.S. assistance in many Third World countries counters Russian and Chinese influence. China also has a foreign aid program operating in many countries that the U.S. wants as partners. Republicans think the USAIDS project promotes a liberal agenda — which I guess includes clean water, vaccines and food.

It has been reported that sub-Saharan Africa could suffer greatly from this move. The U.S. gave the region more than $6.5 billion in humanitarian assistance last year. This week HIV patients in Africa arriving at clinics funded by an acclaimed U.S. program that helped rein in the global AIDS epidemic of the 1980s found locked doors.

Trump called all the angst about shuttering USAIDS a “hoax” and defended it with a statement from his communications office that sounded as smarmy as a Trump Truth Social post. “Ending U.S. taxpayer funding of transgender comic books in Peru, DEI in Serbia, and transgender operas (whatever those are) in Colombia is not akin to a ‘dictatorship’ — it’s holding unelected bureaucrats accountable for their spending decisions.”

Actually, all he had to do was end the parts of the program he didn’t like. That’s normal. But cutting your nose to spite your face is not only a staple of the Trump regime but one of the principal reasons his fans are attracted to him – they worship grotesque mutants leading the American Kakistocracy. On Wednesday, one-time Trump foe Marco Rubio, now America’s top diplomat, announced he was boycotting the upcoming G20 summit in South Africa, seemingly due to Trump’s baseless complaints about DEI.

Donald Trump excels at being both an arsonist and a fireman on any issue except the real fires out in Los Angeles. There he only claimed to turn on the water spigot after he visited. He initially blamed the fires on California Governor Gavin Newsom (Newscum for those who forgot Trump’s favorite presidential nickname) until they met and hugged on the Tarmac in L.A.

Trump’s arsonist approach to politics has set off a series of blazes, aided and abetted by a foul and stiff wind called, not El Nino, but El-on Musk. He and his merry band of trouble-makers — computer hackers, some of them as young as 19 –  gained access to government computers and the private information of potentially everyone in the United States. While several news outlets broke that tidbit of info, including showing pictures of the young hackers Musk employed, Trump’s communication team also called that a hoax. Communications Director Steven Cheung said the reports were “FAKE NEWS. Not even remotely true at all,” while top DOGE advisor Katie Miller noted, “no classified material was accessed without proper security clearances.” In other words, classified material was taken with “proper” security clearances. Whatever that entails. Sounds a lot like Trump’s defense of keeping sensitive classified documents in his bathtub at Mar-A-Lago.

At the same time, Trump has burned down any mention of science, replacing it with promotions of himself on nearly every federal website. He doesn’t like the science of climate change, so it’s been scrubbed from federal websites. He’s also threatened to “weed out” scientists who believe in climate change.  At the same time some of the DOGE stooges, including Musk, were seen ravaging through National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) headquarters, scaring many into believing that the National Weather Service may be next on the hit parade. Many sites, including the USFS Climate Change Resource Center, the Climate Action Tracker and the National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change are gone. Trump has also ordered the removal of vaccine information from various websites. The CDC even ordered mass retraction and revision of submitted research across all science and medicine journals.

The official White House website now features a prominent picture and video of Trump, yet makes it incredibly difficult to find much else. “America is Back,” Trump declares on the landing page as he tries to convince people he’s putting out fires he started. Back from what? He doesn’t exactly say. But it’s clear where we are going. 

The USAID secures goodwill and peace across the globe. And our intelligence agencies ensure our domestic defense by keeping abreast of those who do not like the United States. 

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Well, that appears soon over with, too. Tuesday evening CNN reported that the entire CIA workforce was offered a buyout — or at least early retirement — if they want to leave. That will, according to both Republicans and Democrats knowledgeable of the situation, potentially clear out the most experienced in the agency and limit institutional knowledge. Recently-confirmed CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the move will “ensure the CIA workforce is responsive to the Administration’s national security priorities,” and is part of “a holistic strategy to infuse the Agency with renewed energy.”

By cutting your starters you may infuse your team with a lot of energy, but the results won’t be to your liking when you put in your backups — just ask the Democrats who cut Joe Biden how they feel now.

Today we are led by a man who believes the best thing to do to ensure world peace is to deny science, deny immigrants a chance at a decent life, quit investing in international health organizations, destroy the Palestinians while paving over Gaza and turn a deaf ear to international reactions to these policies by eliminating any ability to gather intelligence. He is sticking his head in the sand and plugging his ears to keep from finding out the consequences of his actions.

In less than three weeks into his second administration, Donald Trump has turned the shining light on the hill into a scorched dung heap by the roadside; a shallow money trench filled with all manner of bilge. Nearby, in a children’s lemonade stand, the president sells us baseball caps and t-shirts while his billionaire handlers bilk the national treasury for their own nefarious means.

The United States is run by cartoon villains, and their equally cartoonish fans and haters. Some see the titular head of the villainy as their personal savior. Some, like former vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, see Musk as the real power. “Elon Musk is a terrible President,” the Minnesota governor posted on X, warning that the richest man in the world is sitting at the Resolute Desk ready to defund public education. “Trump should stop him.” 

Walz and others are describing the smoke while the country burns. Trump’s fans think the smoke is the smell of success and the fire is the purifying fire of righteousness. 

With that said, Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas announced Wednesday that “the movement to impeach the president has begun.” He plans to file articles of impeachment against Trump for “dastardly deeds proposed and dastardly deeds done,” regarding the prospect of paving over Gaza and building a Trump Hotel and golf resort.

There are Democrats, like Green and Chuck Schumer, who chanted “We will win!” in front of a Treasury Department commandeered by Musk, who think that smells like victory. They are wrong. It’s just the smell of the ashes of a once-great nation.