Neil

Well, I mean, he is, but.

“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after his early executive orders and budget-slashing work with Elon Musk’s questionably legal Department of Government Efficiency were called into court by a host of lawsuits. 

Every extremist with a gun who’s ever thought about committing violence for his political beliefs has just been given a Get Out of Jail Free card. That’s the intended audience.

Or if it’s not, then he’s a reckless idiot who should have thought about what he was saying.

The President’s ADHD alighted on the penny after the Super Bowl. He posted on social media that he had directed the Secretary of the Treasury to stop minting pennies, because they cost too much to make.

Like many things Trump does, this is something that’s none of his business. The United States Mint derives its authority from Congress. If we’re to stop making pennies, Congress has to say so. In 2017, a bill was co-sponsored by John McCain that would have frozen penny minting for ten years while the Government Accountability Office studied whether the freeze should be made permanent. The bill failed to pass. Congress has considered getting rid of the penny and has declined to do so.

There are good reasons to keep making pennies. They do cost 3.69 cents to make, but if you get rid of them, you’ll need more nickels, and those cost 13.78 cents to make. Eliminate the penny, and everything will get rounded up to the next nickel. While that might not affect you much, poorer Americans use cash more often than you do. And won’t someone spare a thought for Abe Lincoln?

If he’s going to try to accomplish by fiat what Congress should be taking care of, how about a decree giving us daylight savings time permanently? Read the room, man.

I’ve posted a couple times about video games, because I don’t know where to start with the political stuff. It’s the 37th worst thing happening in the news right now, but how about Trump’s plan to fire most of the Kennedy Center board and install himself as chairman, huh? Petty and self-aggrandizing, in other words, essential Trump.

Does anybody think this isn’t a precursor to renaming the Center? If he doesn’t try to do it himself, Congress will almost certainly do it. They’ve tried to put Trump’s face on a $500 bill and name U.S. coastal waters after him. They’re currently trying to put his face on Mt. Rushmore (where it would be a perfect fit, abomination that the monument is) and rename Dulles airport after him.

Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., introduced a constitutional amendment to allow Trump to serve a third term. I would think the administration would want to rein that effort in. There is no doubt in my mind that the plan is to get the Supreme Court to say that the 22nd Amendment means no one can be elected more than two times in a row. Trying to amend the constitution could be seen as tacit admission that one would be needed.