LETHAL LUNACY – The Death Toll of Donald Trump’s Madness

There are many ways one might measure Donald J. Trump’s performance as President of the United States of America: Campaign promises kept versus broken. Percentage of documented truths versus lies told. Health and growth of the economy. Standard of living for average Americans. Number of indictments and convictions. Number of staffers and cabinet members facing criminal charges. Billions added to the national debt. I could go on…

But there is another measure, one not yet cited by the media, but which the judgement of history will surely employ, of this beastly little man. 

The death toll.

With the threat of full-blown fascism looming on our own soil, we simply cannot afford to wait for that reckoning. 

ILLUSTRATION – Stable Diffusion

Trump has already inflicted a malignancy on our country and the world. One which, for want of early, aggressive treatment, is strangling freedom and relegating this once-noble nation quite rapidly to third-world status. 

The urgency, the gravity, of the threat facing our precious Democracy—and our essential humanity— demands our immediate attention. One can only pray it’s not too late.

The gravity of the threat facing our precious Democracy—and our essential humanity— demands our immediate attention. 

COVID? WHAT COVID?
Death tolls can be difficult to determine. Just ask any public official trying to assess the impact of a natural disaster or epidemic. Seldom is there a simple stack of bodies to count. Not everyone succumbs at the same time. Some suspected victims may have died from unrelated causes. Some are collateral damage, dying months or years later from complications of the original horror. Some victims are never found.

So for Trump’s reckoning let’s start with one of the easier tallies, that of deaths attributed to his regime’s utter failure to manage the original COVID pandemic. In the U.S. alone the estimates vary from around 100,000 “unnecessary deaths” to 400,000 and more.* One thing’s certain: it’s a big number.

Then there’s the wider, global impact of the Crimbecile’s ham-fisted stabs at public health crisis management. His denials of COVID 19’s very existence. His ridiculing of vaccines. His withdrawal from the WHO and cessation of funding for USAID. His purging—just yesterday—of CDC Director, Susan Monarez, who dared stand up for the truth about vaccines. 

These blunders will eventually kill millions of human beings—starting, as all such affronts seem to, with the poorest.

THE KILLING FIELDS
So, that’s just the count for one front in this moron’s deadly assaults on Democracy and decency. The Trump death toll is already mounting in nearly every sphere of the human condition. 

There are just so many failings that tracking them is exhausting (part of the guy’s M.O., by the way). But here’s my—this non-statistician’s—bullet-point outline of the killing, both current and projected.

~ THE ENVIRONMENT
Trump wasted no time abdicating the US’s already-timid environmental-science leadership, dropping out, in his first term, of the Paris Climate Agreement, the world’s best hope for progress in combatting climate change.

Meanwhile, of more than 600 reported extreme weather events in 2024, 148 were classified as “unprecedented,” displacing 824,000 people and killing about 1,700.

PHOTO – Jesse Winter, Reuters

His long-asserted denials of human-caused climate change, his scuttling of institutions charged with monitoring and regulating environmental impacts, and his alignment with corporations and the billionaire buddies who finance him are already killing people—thousands and thousands of them—through natural disasters, polluted air and water, and unsafe working conditions. 

According to Google’s AI overview of vast amounts of data, global deaths attributable to extreme weather events average 40,000 to 50,000 people per year. So, a rough estimate for the years since 2017, when Trump decided climate change wasn’t sexy enough for him, totals roughly 315,000 deaths.

I’ll leave it to you to approximate how many of those lives could have been spared if Trump had exerted any leadership whatsoever. Whatever the tally, it will surely climb precipitously, as global climate change surges past the tipping point long forewarned by climate scientists.

       His deep-seated appetite for flattery represents 
       a green light to our enemies’ ambitions. 

~ FOREIGN POLICY

Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Trump’s fawning support of Russian and Israeli warmonger tyrants is nothing short of evil. Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine War death toll is nearing half a million—some 13,500 of those innocent civilians. In Gaza, over 60,000 Palestinians have been killed to date. Countless more deaths from starvation and disease are on the horizon as Netanyahu, with Trump’s complicity, pursues his thinly-veiled genocidal goal.

What’s more, Trump’s defunding of the Agency for International Development (USAID) and disengagement from the World Health Organization (WHO) are invitations for further aggression around the world, amounting to a virtual death sentence for countless victims. 

~ NATIONAL SECURITY
Trump’s mishandling of classified documents, his politicization of intelligence and his purging of career officials he’s deemed disloyal have hobbled our national security endeavors. He’s methodically sabotaged time-honored alliances with even our closest friends and neighbors. 

His renouncement of America’s iconic generosity of spirit, his clumsy “America First” mantra, his embarrassing antics on the world stage, and his deep-seated appetite for flattery all represent green lights to our enemies’ ambitions. 

PHOTO: Getty Images

Debacles like this inevitably lead to wars…and countless more deaths.

~ DOMESTIC TERRORISM
Unconscionably, Trump has pardoned at least 1,500 members of his MAGA cult who'd been charged with deadly crimes during the January 6 insurrection. Projecting his persecution complex, the felon-in-chief has also pardoned at least five convicted murderers.**

PHOTO – Newsweek

He’s also granted clemency to many individual and corporate fraudsters, tax cheats, anti-abortion activists, corrupt politicians and elections officials—virtually anyone who’s committed crimes abetting his own personal and political crimes. 

By endorsing domestic terrorism perpetrated in his name, while at the same time clamping down on anyone—including peaceful demonstrators—who dare defy him, he sets the stage for more violence and death. 

     Trump’s assault on immigrants—many of them here 
     legally—has subjected families to unbelievable suffering.

~ AIRLINE SAFETY
Trump’s decimating of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) staffing and budgets, including DOGE’s dull-edge slashing of Air Traffic Control staffing, have already impacted the safety of flying, leading, some charge, to 67 fatalities in last January’s mid-air collision near Reagan National Airport. Many more deaths are inevitable.

~ IMMIGRATION

PHOTO - Genaro Molina, Los Angeles Times

Trump’s outrageous assault on immigrants—many of them here legally—has subjected families to unbelievable suffering. And those arrested—often by unidentified ICE goons in unmarked vehicles with no probable cause nor legal recourse for suspects—face abhorrent conditions whose 2025 death toll (14 so far) has already surpassed that of 2024. ***

Internment of those arrested in a rapidly-growing number of ICE prisons (like the already infamous Alligator Alcatraz), and deportations to Gulags in countries like Uganda, where defendants have no family or cultural ties amount to virtual “disappearances.” 

The death toll from abuse, neglect, murder and, most certainly, suicide, will be, by design, obscure.

~ GUN VIOLENCE 

PHOTO - The Telegraph

Donald Trump staunchly rejects any limits on the possession and use of firearms. (Interesting, since because he’s a convicted felon, Trump currently cannot legally possess a gun.) Even though he claims to have been targeted in two assassination attempts, he boasts to his gun-toting, Billy-Bob groupies that he’s “done nothing” about the national glut of weapons. 

Every day, 125 people in the United States are killed with guns and more than 200 are shot and wounded. ****

That’s approximately 45,000 Americans shot to death annually, including hundreds who are victims of mass shootings (the latest just yesterday here in Minneapolis). Though hard to quantify, a significant percentage of these deaths must be called what they are: collateral damage from Trump’s acquiescence to the powerful gun lobby.

~ CIVIL RIGHTS
Donald Trump is expropriating state and local policing authority at an alarming pace. It’s all under the very thin guise of public safety, but what it really is is building his regime’s ability to quickly quell protest. He just recently declared the deployments—in Washington DC, Los Angeles and Chicago so far—are to quash “civil disturbances.” 

PHOTO – David Swanson - Reuters

No one doubts what that means. I and all freedom-loving Americans must now realize that, as we take to the streets, we’re putting our very lives on the line ! There will be casualties.

        His infantile, Monopoly-game take on war 
        and diplomacy puts our military at great risk.

~ CONSUMER PROTECTION
Trump’s removal of Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and other consumer protection regulations, staffing and budgets will subject Americans once again to the very abuses those entities were established to rein in. 

The halfwit’s consistent siding with corporate interests—including his own—over those of consumers will cost lives, from both the public health and product safety effects.

~ VETERANS AFFAIRS
Veterans of the U.S. military are committing suicide at an alarming rate of over 1,600 annually—that’s 17 deaths per day in the United States.***** 

Trump—the confirmed draft-dodger—has consistently disparaged our county’s esteemed military veterans and their families. 

PHOTO - @GovCox / X

Adding to the insult, he continues to trivialize our national honor—not to mention putting our military at great risk—with his infantile, Monopoly-game take on war and diplomacy. Not to mention his obvious admiration of despots who are our country’s sworn enemies. 

The cost of such contempt, such weakness? Still more lives.

~ HEALTH
Starting with Trump’s foolhardy cuts at CDC, NIH, NSF and other public health programs and agencies, his regime appears determined to address America’s public health crises as it has other challenges: if not by denial, then by voodoo medicine.

As elsewhere in his administration, Trump has jettisoned all public health experience, competence and reason in favor of rank hacks whose only qualification is loyalty—like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his Secretary of Health Human Services, an avowed anti-vaxer and conspiracy-theorist wacko.

Discrediting proven, life-saving vaccines; scuttling health and wellness initiatives; promoting unproven folk remedies; wholesale cuts to HIV/AIDS research and prevention funding; systematic dismantling of the nation’s capacity for dealing with the inevitable next pandemic… 

While such reckless incompetence in confronting COVID alone killed hundreds of thousands, it’s no stretch to say the toll for the whole health-care calamity wrought by the Crimbecile on this and future generations could number in the millions.

          A kind assessment would call him an amoral 
          hyper-capitalist; a less charitable one, a fascist. 

~ POLITICS
Donald Trump is an insurrectionist, a traitor. He’s a bigot. A sexual predator. A pathological liar, manipulator and con man of the first order.

A kind assessment would rate him an amoral hyper-capitalist; a less charitable one, a fascist. 

It’s not just his own values and behavior that are deadly. His entire political identity rests on validating his MAGA base’s worst instincts. While they elected him to be their hit man on immigrants, minorities, women, GLBTQ folks and the poor, they’re emboldened to be his assassins too.

The victims: the Capitol Police officers who died from injuries and later suicides stemming from the Trump-instigated Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection; the peaceful protesters mowed down in Charlottesville by a white-supremacist neo-Nazi; the 22 innocents shot and killed by an aggrieved anti-immigration terrorist in El Paso; Melissa Hortman, the Minnesota legislator, and her husband assassinated by a pro-Trump, anti-abortion political extremist.

PHOTO - Ryan M. Kelly, The Daily Progress

Make no mistake, there will be more carnage from Trump’s implied consent of racist, anti-Democracy, neo-Nazi and religious-fanatic violence.

TIME WILL TELL
I’ll say it again. Calculating death tolls is hard, even for statisticians. So my wild reckonings here serve merely to account for general categories of causes and the rough scale of their effects. 

What is not difficult to assess is the extent of the responsibility Donald J. Trump must bear for whatever those effects. His willful ignorance, his emotional retardation, his megalomania, are killing people…lots of people. And only future historians—if any are still allowed to tell the truth—will quantify the carnage.

*  Michael Riordan – Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists - September 30, 2020 
    Lancet Commission on Public Policy - February 11, 2021

** Full List of Donald Trump Pardons During His Second Term - Newsweek - May 28, 2025

*** U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) website

**** “Gun Violence In America” - Everytown Research - November 7, 2024

***** Rand - May 22, 2025

OUCH! – Reaching Folks On the Fence About ConDon

On Memorial Day morning I joined a small—maybe 120 people—“NoKings” protest along the Ford Bridge here in Minneapolis/St. Paul. 

It felt good to be among like-hearted folks, and I was taken by the range of regime-change themes expressed on their mostly-hand-made signs: education, immigration, labor, Nature, veterans…

Most interesting, though, was the response of those driving by our little gathering. I’d say about 70 percent either honked their horns, gave thumbs up or at least waved cheerfully. Fewer than ten percent gave thumbs down or middle fingers up.

As encouraging as those numbers were, it’s the remaining 20 percent or so that really got me thinking. Those, I realized in a bolt of clarity, are the reason we’re out here. 

     The chances of them falling on our side of the knife 
     are looking better. We must make sure it's a soft landing.

IMAGE: FreePik

THE KNIFE’S EDGE
All those hand gestures, whether pro or con, were by 
people who already know where they stand. The crystal 
clarity of the Crimbecile’s depravity is a knife’s edge; 
you’re either on the side of competence and decency or 
you’re not. None these expressive types is going to 
change their mind.

Those passersby who remained mute, well, we don’t know what they were thinking. Some, I’d like to think, are kind, generous, patriotic Democrats; others, kind, generous, patriotic Republicans. Either way, perhaps they’re just shy. 

Maybe, just maybe, a few of them are right on that knife’s edge. And I daresay, given ConDon’s increasingly unhinged behavior, the indisputable failure of his wild stabs at economic reform, and his slipping poll numbers, the chances of them falling on our side of the knife are looking better and better. We must make sure it's a soft landing.

That’s why we must keep showing our colors, speaking truth. 

      

YEARNING FOR RELIEF
Let’s understand: Feeling aggrieved, blaming the bleeding-heart liberals, hating and fearing what they’re being told they should hate and fear, realizing they’ve bet on a pitiful little con man as their champion…it’s all exhausting. I believe that these folks—the ones on the edge—are hurting and actually yearn for relief from having to be against everything. They’d prefer, once again, to be for something.

Our challenge is to craft the message, paint the image, of what that relief looks and feels like. 

Contact your elected representatives; write an opinion piece for your newspaper; share your views on social media. And, please, show up for one of the nationwide No Kings* protests near you—coming up on Saturday, June 14. See you there!

* For more information about the No Kings marches and main sponsor Indivisible, visit: INDIVISIBLE.ORG

OUTRAGE TO ACTION – Ten Acts of Resistance to the Dismantling of Democracy

Are you feeling as frustrated and powerless as I am over the absurdity, the absolute outrage, of another Donald Trump presidency? Below are ten simple acts of resistance you can use to turn that outrage to action against the soon-to be loose-cannon, megalomaniacal, reality-star-turned-president and his loyalist stooges.

Outrage, while understandable, will not be productive. In fact, it's exactly the response the MAGAts love to see: those liberal elites suffering the same grievance they've had to endure for the past four years without their God-given goon in White House giving voice to their worst instincts. Closing the borders, dismantling democratic institutions, encouraging our enemies, banning gays and transsexuals, and making fourteen-year-old rape victims have babies.

Don't allow yourself to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of bullshit spewing from the mouths of this pathological liar and his toadies. It's all part of the M.O. his father and other mentors of ruthlessness taught him since about the time he could walk. 

                We must refuse the ruse.

It's like one of those amazing swarms of starlings, called murmurations. The birds, when threatened by a falcon or hawk, gather into huge, undulating clouds so the predator, seeing only that overwhelming shape, can't focus on any one individual.

PHOTO: Australian Geographic

This is exactly what Trump and other seasoned con men do with their lies and outrageous behavior. They inundate us with so much bullshit that we lose focus. There's even a name for it: the Gish Gallop.*

As my good friend Todd suggests, though, we must refuse the ruse. Hard as it is, we must choose one issue and concentrate our defiance—our volunteering, our marching, our calls and letter-writing, our creativity and our financial support—on that target. And leave the rest of it for another time.

So, with that discipline in mind, here, ranging from the purely symbolic to nuts and bolts, are some specific tactics for The Resistance:

1. Refuse to capitalize the title of president in front of the man’s name. A small gesture of defiance.

2. Write or call your congressional representatives—whichever side of the aisle they call home—and call out Trump’s self-serving, fear-mongering policies for the affront they are to the time-honored American Values you believe in, and for which so many of our countrymen have fought and died.

         The UnT takes the faux tycoon's precious brand
         and turns it on its head.

3. Get out and make a statement with your presence. Make a sign and stand on a busy street corner or overpass. (Recruit others to join you.) Attend one of the inauguration day (and next-day) marches—in Washington DC or one of many other cities throughout the U.S. and around the world.

4. Display the UnT (⊥), the new symbol of The Resistance—a design that takes the faux tycoon's precious brand and turns it on its head.
Enlarge the image below to print out your own simple signs. Take it to a printer for bumper stickers, lawn signs. protest placards or t-shirts, and then hand them out to friends. Or make your own simple flag or banner with paint, markers, appliques or even duct tape—with the big, bold, upside-down “T” on it.**
Don't forget to take photos of your displays and post them on social media!

5. Hold the media's feet to the fire. Follow daily news reports of Trump’s outrageous decisions, actions and comments. (Choose sources known for some degree of journalistic integrity.) Then call them out for any editorial decisions that fall for the man's well-documented lying and media manipulation. Or for well-intentioned efforts by some to normalize or "sane-wash" his irrational words and deeds.

Home Depot – big Trump donor

6. Put your money where your mouth is—by donating or volunteering with Planned Parenthood, an environmental protection group, a refugee aid program or any organization you believe in which Trump has threatened to gut.
Or don’t put your money where his mouth is, by boycotting Trump-backing businesses and sponsors of his media content. There’s even an App for that.

 Pray that this embarrassment to our great nation will soon be brought down—as have so many tyrants before him—by his own excesses.

7. Sound off through whatever means at your disposal—conversations, social media, blogs, etc. Keep in mind my admonition not to be distracted by the sheer volume of Trump's bullshit, and pick one or two especially egregious offenses—for example, his refusal to release his tax returns or school academic records—and go for depth and repetition rather than breadth.) Use the #UnT (see tip 4 above), or #UnTSymbolOfTheResistance hashtags.

8. Double down on kindness. Keep greeting folks you pass on the street. Keep looking for ways to lend a hand...or just a smile. Not just to those who look like you, but to everyone. Think of each smile, each cheerful word, each act of generosity as your personal declaration of defiance against the divisiveness that defines Trump's misguided empire.

9. Add a mention and link to this post or the QR code to the right as a Signature to appear automatically at the end of every email you send. Or a feature like “Latest Trump Embarrassment," with the previous day’s biggest presidential blunder or blather. Keep it brief and up to date.

10. Pray. Pray that this embarrassment to our great nation will soon come to ruin—as have so many tyrants before him—perhaps by his own excesses or a mutiny of appointees or congressional republicans he assumed were loyalists. 

* The Gish Gallop involves rapidly throwing out a large number of false claims or misleading arguments, making it nearly impossible for those opposed to address each one individually, often leaving others confused or doubting the opponents' ability to respond effectively.

** The up tack or falsum (⊥, \bot in LaTeX, U+22A5 in Unicode) is a symbol used in the field of logic to denote a proposition that is always false. (It's also called an "absurdum.")

 

KNOCKED TO MY SENSES – A Mugger, An Umbrella and Tough Love

Sharon Salzberg, author of Loving Kindness – The Revolutionary Art of Happiness, tells of having once been assaulted by a stranger while riding in a pedicab in Calcutta. As the man tried to wrestle her out, the driver intervened and they were able to escape unharmed. Later, when she told her venerable meditation teacher about the incident, he exclaimed, “Oh, Sharon, you should have hit the man over the head with your umbrella…with loving kindness.”

With the astounding results of the just-decided U.S. presidential election, I feel as though I'm the pedicab passenger. That modest little rickshaw has been my conveyance toward a simpler, more peaceful, loving and generous life, a future of hope and continuing intellectual and spiritual evolution. The assailant, a vulgar narcissist who's proven to be nothing but the con man of our lifetimes.

IMAGE: The Washington Post

I had believed, by 2016, that I lived in a nation that, after the decade and a half of profound national insecurity since 9/11, was at last on a course back to sanity—one that valued diplomacy over war, openness over isolationism, inclusion over paranoia, individual freedom over narrowly-defined “morality,” opportunity over prohibition, abundance and generosity over scarcity, vision over hindsight, and hope over fear. This had been a direction I felt was true not only to my own values, but to the time-honored values of my country.

But I, and all those standards I hold so dear, were suddenly assaulted, hijacked by a dimwitted, avaricious, kissy-lips reality TV star who, counting on the grievances and gullibility of Joe Sixpack, saw a chance to indulge his enormous appetite for attention.

And now, after just four years of a decent, sensible, well-grounded man working to restore honor and dignity to this country's persona, the dimwit is back. And this time he's promised to be a dictator and that we'll never have to vote again.

           Folks hang their heads and murmur,
           If only we’d known and done something.

A CITIZEN OF ALL CREATION
And thus my dilemma: Do I assume the mindset I believe derives from the core of my being, one of tranquility, kindness and emotional detachment from outcomes? Or do I allow myself to fully appreciate and be moved by the reality that, once again, my homeland is at the beck and call of a monumentally insecure, irrational, ill-prepared charlatan who has promised—and whose admirers expect—that he will dismantle the very framework of values I embrace, and that so many of our ancestors have fought and died for?

As if that weren’t enough, the president-elect’s aggressive denial of most climate scientists’ and world leaders’ calls for urgent action on human-abetted global climate change threatens not just my country, but our planet and every human being on it.

History tells us quite eloquently that despots do exactly what this man is doing. And that, once the true ravages of their misguided power see the light of day, it is most often too late. Decent folks hang their heads and murmur, If only we’d known and done something when we could. And those he's fooled—not once but twice—say What dictatorship? Give the poor man a chance.

Is it not my sacred duty to act on the moral outrage that drives heroes to say something, do something?

IMAGE: Wikipedia

        I aspire to being able to read the sad story
       that’s unfolding before our nation’s eyes,
       and yet...not let it define who I am. 

DOORS OF OPPORTUNITY
So back to the pedicab-and-umbrella metaphor. In the case of our current national crisis, how can I resolve my dilemma? What does smashing the mugger over the head with loving kindness even look like?

That, I’ve decided—after being unable to think about anything else at all since election day—is what I must reconcile. How can I honor both my responsibility as an intelligent, aware—and patriotic—citizen to defend the values upon which my country was founded and has prospered for two and a half centuries, and my duty to all of Creation to inhabit a place of peace and love?

The answer? All I can say right now is that I’m working on it. I aspire to being able to read the sad story that’s unfolding before our nation’s eyes, and yet not become the story, not let it define who I am. 

Still, as Salzberg’s guru suggested, it will serve no one if we fail to deter a thieving bully. So, while being as patient with myself and others as I can, I will be eagerly watching for doors of opportunity to appear.

Whether it's my venting here on Pop This Boil, bumper stickers, lawn signs or joining protest demonstrations, I trust I will find the certainty to take whatever action I am called to pursue. But I must do so only when I’ve also found the generosity of spirit not to act in fear or anger, but in hope and love.

And then I will swing away.

THE UN-T – New Symbol For the American Resistance

As a graphics designer and sloganeer by trade, I’ve been looking for ways to employ the power of symbols in my resistance against this ridiculous little man and his loyalists who're about to take their second shot at desecrating my country.

Political resistance needs a powerful symbol. Think the Don’t Tread On Me snake, the clenched black fist or that time-honored posterized likeness of Che Guevara.

Our Resistance to Donald Trump’s second anti-democracy regime deserves such an icon. And here it is: a big, bold, brown upside-down “T” (⊥). I'm calling it the Un-T.

        It’s logic's symbol for a proposition that is always false.

There’s more to this graphic than just turning the guy’s precious brand on its head. It’s actually the symbol used in the mathematical field of logic for a proposition that is always false (often called a "falsum" or "absurdum”).

False. Absurd. Isn't that just perfect? What better battle standard for the Resistance! Let’s make the Un-T (⊥) go viral! Will you help?

We must spread the word—or should I say letter. Share it on social media and in our correspondence. And display the graphic on signs, bumper stickers, t-shirts…whatever.

It’s simple—easy to do and not necessarily expensive. Above is a piece of reproducible artwork if you need it for print applications. But even just a couple of strips of duct tape or some bold swaths of paint or marker on a t-shirt or banner will do.

        Maybe we could get a few NBA or NFL stars to
        feature the Dump-T on their shoes.

OUTBRANDING THE BRANDER
After saturating the social media we get it on people’s shirts and caps, on banners draped from porches and freeway overpasses, on placards for protest marchers, then on billboards and transit. (Any litho or screen printers out there willing to help develop Un-T merch?)

One effective way to get the movement moving is simply to set an example. If I display a nice-looking lawn sign or bumper sticker we hope folks will ask or scan the QR code for how to get their own.

Thinking a bit bigger, why not go even further underground with graffiti strategically painted along the routes of the presidential limousine. (Banksy, you in?) And maybe crop symbols placed in sight of the flight path of Air Force One. Hell, maybe we could even get a few NBA or NFL stars to feature it on their shoes. 

ILLUSTRATION*

The Un-T is a simple, powerful, instantly recognizable statement. Imagine our little orange Putin wannabe assaulted with it every-
where he turns. And the best part? By out-branding that egomaniac with our bold stamp of disapproval, it’ll unify and empower us goody-goody liberal elites…and drive him (even more) nuts. You in?

        C'mon folks, let's do this!

I'd love to have your input! Do you know of ways to get a lot of exposure quickly for a subversive brand? Politicians or celebrities we might recruit as allies? Printers who might volunteer their services?

* Crybaby Trump illustration – I spent nearly an hour searching for the artist of this wonderful image, with no results. It's signed: GR '11. Anyone know who did it? I'd like to note proper credit.

LOSER

I'm not proud of it, but I fantasize about ways to weaponize shame in some way that might penetrate the Orange Turd's seemingly impenetrable defenses. I mean a way that leaves him with nothing but a deep, heart-and-soul realization of what a worthless POS he is.

One such fantasy sees him shackled to a chair in a sound-proof room. No cameras, no microphone, no lawyers. He can't cover his ears, but a large, silvery X of heavy-duty duct tape covers that stupid, kissy-lips little mouth.

And then I play this for him—not quite loud enough to injure his ear drums—on a continuous loop. Over and over...and over again until he says the magic wordl

Donny Boy, you laughable little twerp, here's why—despite your obsession since childhood with winning; despite your lying, cheating, boasting, bullying, lawyering up and doubling down—you are what you are:

FAMILY LIFE
It's about as dysfunctional as it gets, isn't it? No signs of love here. You're condemned to the same relationship with your sons that you had with your father, one based solely on business...and fear. You've failed at all three of your marriages. You've repeatedly cheated on your wives—and bragged about it. It's quite obvious Melania's nothing but a showpiece to you. She hates you and sees you for the impotent crybaby you are. If she weren't legally obligated to stay with you, she'd leave you for a real man in an instant. You're so afraid your family will turn on you that you've made them all sign NDAs.
What does this say about you? It says you're a LOSER.

PERSONAL LIFE
You have no friends. Not one. Those who have to interact with you fear you and know very well the relationship hell they're in: Do your bidding, they're in; cross you once and you destroy them. You have no interest in music, art, ideas...hell, you don't even read. With your insatiable craving for attention, the only happiness you're capable of comes from the folks forced to lie about your fake accomplishments.
What does this mean? It means you're a LOSER.

BUSINESS
Born with the proverbial silver spoon in your mouth, you've failed at most of your own business ventures. You've routinely lied to get regulatory passes and financial backing. You stick it to suppliers and assault employees with your chaotic, egomaniacal management style. And still you fail. You're worth a fraction of what you claim, having filed for bankruptcy six times and refusing to disclose your tax returns—as nearly all U.S. presidents have. And you've been convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
What does this prove about you? It proves you're a LOSER.

     You lack any trace of the key elements of intelligence.

POLITICS
Like every other aspect of your life, you've achieved nothing without lying, cheating and intimidation. Your obvious envy of despots like Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin proves your weakness. You quickly turned the White House and much of the federal government to chaos. You soiled the reputation of our country, dissing our allies and making us the laughing stock of the world. Obsessed with crowd sizes, hogging the stage and demanding a place in history, you're the poster boy for insecurity. You're one of just 12 U.S. presidents to fail at getting reelected.
What does this indicate? It indicates you're a LOSER.

INTELLECT
Once again, if you're constantly crowing about how smart you are, you're probably not that smart. You were, by all accounts, a very poor student. Otherwise, why would you have gone to such great lengths to keep your school transcripts under wraps? You lack any trace of the key elements of intelligence: curiosity, creativity or discipline. And you have the attention span of a toddler.  
What does this show about you? It shows you're a LOSER.

SPIRITUAL LIFE
Despite an occasional Bible-totin' pose for the Christian right suckers who follow you, you're about as Christian as Attila the Hun. You exhibit not one quality espoused by Jesus Christ. Hard to acknowledge a higher power, isn't it, when you're convinced there is none higher than yourself. You're a pitiful, spiritually empty little man doomed to suffer your own private hell.
What does this mean? It means you're a LOSER.

        Hey, you know what they say about small hands.

PATRIOTISM
You're a draft-dodging coward. You called true American hero John McCain a loser for his five-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war. You've debased other veterans and the very idea of military service. You've consistently expressed admiration for our country's—for Democracy's—most brazen enemies. You've sought to undermine America's democratic institutions and instigated a deadly, armed insurrection in your failed attempt to overturn your election loss.
What does this reveal about you? It reveals you're a LOSER.

MASCULINITY
You exhibit classic behavior of someone who's extremely insecure about his manhood: bragging,  degrading women, obsessing over symbols of masculinity: big cars, too-long neckties and that oversized, over-bold signature that any shrink will tell you is just a long row of tiny erections. Beneath all your desperate efforts to compensate, you're a shriveled, impotent wuss. Hey, you know what they say about small hands.
What does this tell us? It tells us you're a LOSER.

PHYSICAL CONDITION
You're a pale, flabby dough ball. Despite your constant posturing, you're a weakling with no self-awareness or discipline. Your much-parodied diet is that of someone who, deep down, hates himself. Your idea of fitness is having the help drive you around a golf course (where you kick your ball out of trouble so often that your playing partners call you Pele). No wonder you refuse to release the results of your physicals.
What does this disclose about you? It discloses that you're a LOSER.

      You're a textbook narcissist, a pathological liar.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
You have the temperament of a spoiled-rotten four-year old. You lack four of the five components of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. Beyond your flaccid ego's constant need for affirmation—and your rage at those who know you don't warrant it—you're utterly incapable of emotion.
What does this say about you? It says you're a LOSER.

PERSONALITY
You're a textbook narcissist, a pathological liar. You possess not one iota of curiosity, empathy or honor. You've never had a real friend. That's because a) you care only about yourself; b) you can't stand anyone else getting the slightest attention; c) you're a user; and d) you have absolutely nothing to offer a friend. No intelligence, no wisdom, no kindness, no generosity...hell, there's nothing at all even interesting about you.
What does this mean? It means you're a LOSER.

(... and REPEAT) 

So, little Donny, we can keep doing this all day. All you have to do is complete this sentence: I, Donald J. Trump, am and always have been a total and absolute__________. Need a hint? Okay, let's roll it again...

What do you think? Should we add a visual element to the verbal shock treatment? Maybe some images of his gross, doughy body? His face without makeup? Some powerful people mocking him? Thoughts from people he's ruined? Testimonials from women who've witnessed his inadequacy? Other ideas?

CUT HIM OFF – Breaking the Media’s Trump Addiction

Here's a piece I recently submitted to the Opinions Editor of the Minnesota Star Tribune:

Donald Trump is a con man the likes of whom we’ve not met in my generation.

Among his many tricks, he knows that outrageousness, no matter how sordid, sells. And the media—including the Star Tribune—have been all too eager to buy.

It’s no merit whatsoever that’s earned him his notoriety; it’s simply the media’s weakness for his fools-gold patina of fame, his winners-and-losers style, his lies, boasts and grievances. That is the only thing that’s elevated Trump to his role as a cult leader and, preposterously, to his recent status as one of the most powerful people in the world.

As the next presidential election looms, it cannot be overstated how vital it is for the future of our embattled Democracy that, this time around, you in the media reclaim your discipline, your journalistic integrity, in the way you cover this simpleton.

PRESIDENT BUTTHEAD?
If Trump should somehow manage to win the 2024 election, of course you’ll have to keep reporting on him, even if he presides over nothing but chaos. (Hell, you’d have to cover the presidency even if the post were held by Beavis or Butthead.)

(That said, you must avoid normalizing—“sane-washing,” many are calling it—Trump’s absurd comments and behavior as many of your media counterparts have in their efforts to be even-handed. Let your readers see and read exactly how unstable the man is.)

But if he loses—again—I urge you to take a hard look at how—and why—you might want to continue covering Donald Trump. Consider letting his second defeat be the end of your love-hate addiction to this charlatan. Do a reset, work the Twelve Steps and leave this silly, shallow little man alone to the fate he most fears and has always deserved: oblivion. 

PHOTO: The Atlantic

BACK TO REALITY
All it will take is what it would have taken back in 2015: honest, principled journalism, not the yellow kind. Guarding the distinction between news and sensation. Realizing that covering the ravings of a narcissist and pathological liar is no more news than is the reality-show world that begot him.

Yes, we know Trump’s MO for failure: deny, play the victim, accuse others, double down; he will simply not accept defeat. And we know he’ll rally his MAGA base to once again attack the officials and democratic institutions he blames for his short- comings. This will be hard to resist. Maybe you’ll need to wean yourselves gradually.

If, for fear of losing a few readers, you just can’t resist the bait, at least put this trivia in Faces, your page-two entertainment column, or in the Variety section. Just not with the hard news.

Better yet, bite the bullet. Let Donald J. Trump end up where he belongs, back on reality TV. Please!  Just let him go.

PHOTO: Pool / Getty