News outlets scrambled to find the right words to describe Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress this week. CNN: "unapologetic." Politico: "raucous." New York Times: "rowdy." The Hill: "campaign rally-like."

All of which are true. But I think The Bulwark summed it up better: "childish, silly, and unimpressive." To which I would add: disgusting, embarrassing, insulting, demented, disrespectful, offensive, provocative, perverse, mocking, mean-spirited, unwatchable, egomaniacal, packed with lies, and far, far too long. 100 minutes. 9,888 words.

Only a madman would begin a speech to Congress by bragging that it has been "stated by many" that his first month in office was "the most successful in the history of our nation." Stated by whom? Name one person! He didn't. He can't. But Trump didn't stop there. If he had the most successful month ever, that makes him the greatest president ever. "And what makes it even more impressive," Trump continued, "is that you know who No. 2 is? George Washington!"

The next morning, with exquisite timing, NOTUS - the great news outlet recently launched by the Allbritton Journalism Institute - gathered a group of journalists to discuss how to cover Trump 2.0. The general consensus was that, no matter how challenging covering this president is, it's important that reporters simply do their job: ask tough questions, tell the people what's going on and speak truth to power.

It's in speaking "truth to power" that I expose, out of hundreds of lies Trump told Tuesday night, a few of the biggest whoppers.

Mandate. "The presidential election of Nov. 5 was a mandate like has not been seen in many decades." False. It's no mandate. Not even close. Trump's margin over Kamala Harris was 1.5 points, the fifth smallest margin of 32 presidential races since 1900. He didn't win most of the popular vote, either: 50.2% of Americans voted for someone else.

Economy. His first term, Trump again claimed, gave us "the most successful economy in the history of our country." No, not true. According to FactCheck.Org, here are the economic numbers: We lost 2.7 million jobs. Unemployment climbed to 6.4%. Home prices rose 27.5%. And the federal debt soared from $14.4 trillion to $21.6 trillion.

Free speech. "I've stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America." No way. Just the opposite. Trump initiated government censorship by banning AP reporters from White House press events because they won't say "Gulf of America," and decreed that from now on, he alone, not the White House Correspondents Association, will decide which reporters get to cover him. Vladimir Putin did the same thing.

Price of eggs. "Joe Biden especially let the price of eggs get out of control." Ha! Yes, the price of eggs did soar last year. But only because the Agriculture Department required poultry farmers to destroy millions of egg-laying hens to prevent an outbreak of bird flu. With the continuing threat of bird flu, USDA projects egg prices will increase this year by 41.1%.

Social Security. As an example of "waste and fraud," Trump cited "1,039 people between the ages of 220 and 229" on Social Security and "one person listed at 360 years of age." Ridiculous. Officials quickly pointed out these were merely people for whom there is no known date of death. They're not still getting checks.

Inflation. Under Biden, Trump claimed, "we suffered the worst inflation in 48 years. Perhaps even in the history of our country, they're not sure." Not true. And they are sure. Inflation soared to 9.1% in June 2022. It was 23.75% in 1920. When Biden left office, inflation had cooled to 2.9%. Under Trump, it's now 3%.

Bureaucracy. "The days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over." LOL. Maybe Trump's biggest lie of all, because everybody knows that an unelected, unconfirmed bureaucrat from South Africa is now actually running the government!

Of course, those are only a few of Trump's cascade of lies. Which is only important if you think lying is wrong. Sadly, most people today don't seem to care. They may still teach their kids to tell the truth, but they don't care if the biggest liar of all time is in the White House.

How far we've come from the wisdom of French philosopher Michel de Montaigne: "Lying is an accursed vice. It is only our words which bind us together and make us human. If we realized the horror and weight of lying, we would see that it is more worthy of the stake than other crimes."

(C)2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Who's in charge? It's not Donald Trump

No wonder the American people are confused. At first, it's hard to know who's actually running the country these days, the elected President Donald Trump or the unelected, unconfirmed "Shadow" President Elon Musk.

But take a closer look and there's no doubt about it. Who stood alongside the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office last week taking questions from reporters for half an hour? Not Donald Trump, but Elon Musk. Who ordered 2.3 million federal workers to tell him five things they'd done the previous week or be fired? Not Donald Trump, but Elon Musk. And who was standing up, dominating Donald Trump's first second-term Cabinet meeting, giving orders to Cabinet secretaries? Not Donald Trump, but Elon Musk.

No, that mad man from South Africa, unvetted and unelected to anything, is not the shadow president, he's the acting president. Another big Trump lie. He said he was going to be a dictator for one day. He didn't tell us he was going to make Elon Musk a dictator for four years. When does Musk move into the Lincoln Bedroom?

No doubt about it, Musk is running the show, taking a chainsaw to the federal government, already destroying the lives of many American families with his mass firings, and handicapping the ability of government agencies to provide important services.

What's striking is not only how much harm Musk has done in just one month, but also, despite his reputation as a genius, how badly he's screwed things up. He fired 300 employees of the National Nuclear Security Agency without realizing they were responsible for guarding America's nuclear arsenal - and had to hire them back. He fired a group of workers at the Department of Agriculture without realizing they were coordinating the government's response to bird flu - and had to hire them back. While the nation's still dealing with the impact of two deadly air crashes, Musk fired FAA employees without realizing they were providing backup to air traffic controllers - and had to rehire them. On DOGE's website, Musk bragged about saving $8 billion by canceling a diversity program at ICE - only to admit later that the total cost of the program was $8 million, not $8 billion and, in two and a half years, only $2.5 million of it had been spent.

Wait! It gets worse. Under Musk's orders, VA Secretary Doug Collins proudly announced he was cutting 875 government contracts for a savings of $2 billion. Two days later - after the Washington Post reported those contracts covered such essential services as basic medical care, cancer treatment, recruiting new doctors at the VA's 170 hospitals, and paying costs of burial services for veterans' families - Musk and Collins reversed course and renewed all 875 contracts.

But, of course, that didn't spare veterans from the Musk/Trump massacre. Thanks to a program begun by First Lady Michelle Obama, which requires federal agencies to give veterans priority status in new hires, 30 percent of federal employees today are veterans. Which means that almost one-third of all workers fired by Trump and Musk so far are veterans, one group that Republicans promised never to abandon - until Elon Musk and Donald Trump came along. Thanks for your service, indeed.

And Musk is just getting started. He's already given federal agencies a mid-April deadline for submitting plans to move their operations out of Washington. He's targeted cutting the work force at the Social Security Administration in half, cutting EPA by 65 percent, firing 7,000 employees at IRS, gutting the National Park Service, and cutting the Equal Opportunity staff at the Department of Labor by 90 percent.

Here's what's really galling: While Musk sells himself as the champion against waste and fraud, he himself has pocketed more than $38 billion in federal loans, contracts and subsidies over the years. He wouldn't be the business success he is today without the federal government. He's not only cruel, he's a phony.

Two things for sure. One, you can't take such a meat ax approach to government without its blowing up in your face. Two, when it does, Trump will try to blame it all on Elon Musk. But don't be fooled. Trump gave Musk the power. And rather than try to rein him in, Trump has encouraged Musk to be even more "aggressive." Donald Trump is Elon Musk.

In the meantime, this is the only time I've ever agreed with Steve Bannon, who's called Musk "truly evil." We don't need any dude from South Africa wrecking our government, while telling us what democracy is all about.

(C)2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Put on your marching shoes! Time to hit the streets!

As bad as it is, there are parts of the country where the damage already done by Donald Trump has not yet sunk in. But, as I discovered, Washington, D.C., is not one of them.

On Presidents' Day, walking down the Capitol Mall, I came across a huge crowd, out in freezing weather, protesting the firing of federal employees. On the Metro a couple of days later, a young woman boarded the train and sat alongside me, carrying a sign "NIH Research Saves Lives." Curious, I paused the book I was listening to and asked her what was going on.

She told me she'd just been summarily fired as a scientist at the National Institute of Health. After working for four years as a contractor, she'd been invited to become a federal employee and was serving her first year of probation at NIH, during which she'd personally received five awards for outstanding research on mental health. Then, out of the blue, she and her entire team received a pro-forma email from Musk's DOGE telling them they were fired because their work was not important. Yet, as she pointed out, there's no government work more important for public health than ongoing research by scientists at NIH and CDC on chronic diseases and possible cures. We were only able to produce a COVID vaccine so quickly, for example, because of the years of research previously done at NIH.

A couple of stops later, she got off the subway, headed to another protest in front of the Health and Human Services Agency, now under the helm of vaccine-denier Robert F. Kennedy Jr. I regret I didn't get off the train with her.

And I've been wondering ever since: What's it going to take for the rest of us to get off the couch and take to the streets in protest against Donald Trump? After only one month, it's clear that he's more dangerous than we feared. He makes no bones about his intentions to destroy democracy. This week, he tweeted: "Long Live the King!" And he's not kidding.

Consider first: Trump assembled the most unqualified gaggle of misfits possible to form his Cabinet, every one of them pledged to destroy the very agencies they're supposed to lead. And over all of them he empowered Elon Musk, an unelected madman, to gut the federal government.

Musk may be the wealthiest man on the planet, he's also the dumbest. He fired hundreds of employees at the Department of Energy without realizing their job was to protect our nuclear weapons stockpile - and then had to hire them back. He fired dozens of employees at the Department of Agriculture, only to learn they'd been working on bird flu - and had to rehire them, too. In the wake of three recent plane crashes, he fired hundreds of critical workers at the FAA. He bragged about saving $8 billion by shutting down a diversity office at ICE, but later admitted the program was actually funded for $8 million, not $8 billion. And he promised to eliminate FEMA - which might be fine, until the next hurricane hits. Musk himself should be fired for incompetence.

Meanwhile, Trump swings his own wrecking ball. He ordered an end to birthright citizenship, guaranteed in the Constitution. In violation of federal law, he fired 17 inspectors general and the watchdog head of the Office of Special Counsel. He took over the Kennedy Center, started rounding up undocumented workers and sending them to Guantanamo Bay, started a new trade war with Mexico and China, and banned the AP from White House briefings because they won't call the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America."

On foreign policy, Trump upended 80 years of American support for democracy by embracing Vladimir Putin, spouting Kremlin propaganda and blaming Ukraine, not Russia, for starting the war.

And the list of outrages grows every day. What more evidence do we need? Trump must be stopped now.

How? One thing for sure: spineless Republicans in Congress won't do it. Neither will Trump's flunkies on the Supreme Court. Massive public protests are the only answer. In 1968, demonstrations by millions of Americans stopped the war in Vietnam. More recently, crowds stopped Bibi Netanyahu from gutting the Israeli Supreme Court and drove Syria's Bashar al-Assad from power.

Americans must hit the streets now to stop Donald Trump while we still have any democracy worth saving. I don't know who will step up to organize such mass protests, but once the call comes - I'm ready to march.

(C)2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Have you hugged a bureaucrat yet today?

Call me a contrarian, but today I'm going to do something unpopular: I'm going to stand up for federal employees - and, while I'm at it, for city, county and state employees, too. You know, all those people Elon Musk and Donald Trump snidely dismiss as "bureaucrats."

Unlike most presidents, who take office promising to create new jobs, Donald Trump's doing just the opposite: rushing to kill jobs. He's given unelected Anti-Jobs Czar Elon Musk authority to fire tens of thousands of federal workers - in order to get the money he needs to give billionaires like Musk another tax cut.

First, let's stipulate that there's always fat to cut in government: a lot of overlap and too many programs that no longer serve any purpose kept needlessly alive. But there's a right way and a wrong way to do it.

In 1978, California Governor Jerry Brown did it the right way. Forced to slash state spending across-the-board after passage of Proposition 13, he formed a task force to look for places to cut. There were three of us: Finance Director Roy Bell, Chief of Staff Dick Silberman, and me, director of the Office of Planning and Research. We met with every cabinet secretary and department head. We asked them to justify every dollar and asked them where cuts might be made. We then presented our recommendations to the governor, who made the final decisions.

Give Brown credit. It was a painful process, but it was handled with planning, investigation, intelligence, evidence, care and compassion - the exact opposite of the meat-axe approach Elon Musk is taking today, with Donald Trump's blessing. In fact, the only surprise this week when Trump signed yet another executive order giving yet more power to Musk was that the world's richest man was standing alongside the Resolute desk, not sitting behind it.

Musk began by asking all 2.3 million civilian federal employees to resign by early February, in return for a questionable "promise" to pay them through September 30. That grace period having ended, he's now begun firing scores of employees, starting at the Department of Education, the Small Business Administration and the United States Agency for International Development, whose ranks he's shrunk from 14,000 to about 200.

In some cases, these mass firings are being done against the law. In every case, they're carried out with no public hearings and no consideration of how key these jobs are, how they've been performed, or what happens to the important work done by federal agencies after most employees are gone.

In the Oval Office, Musk told reporters it's a war of the bureaucracy v. democracy. Which just shows how clueless and heartless he is. Bureaucrats aren't the enemy of democracy. Bureaucrats are the ones who deliver the benefits of democracy to millions who depend on them.

Bureaucrats are, first of all, middle-class Americans who could probably be making a lot more in the private sector, but who chose a life of public service. They're people who live paycheck to paycheck, with families to support, kids to put through school, and bills to pay at the end of the month - something Musk knows nothing about.

Federal employees are not, as Trump claims, the "deep state." For the most part, they don't take sides. In fact, they're prohibited by law from engaging in politics. They just do their job, regardless of who's in the White House.

And federal employees are not, as Musk claims, corrupt. He insists that many bureaucrats are on the take - using federal funds to line their own pockets - without giving ONE example. Besides, if there were any employees breaking the law, Congress provided the solution: an inspector general to police every federal agency. But, of course, inspectors general can't do that any longer - because Trump fired them all!

Federal employees are not the enemy. They're people we count on: to deliver the mail; inspect food production facilities; develop and approve safe, new prescription drugs; provide security at our airports; maintain our federal highways; issue our Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid checks; staff our embassies around the world; oversee our great national parks and forests; issue passports; deliver clean air and clean water; keep America competitive in trade and energy, and so much more, including cracking down on criminals who break the law (but not politicians, unless they, too, break the law).

Public employees deserve our respect and thanks and maybe a hug. They keep America in business. America would grind to a halt without them.

(C)2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
 

You can't say he didn't warn us. In three weeks, Donald Trump has taken a wrecking ball to our democratic institutions, trying to deliver on every wild campaign promise he made.

The scope of his lawless actions even stunned some of his supporters. Oh, he won't pardon all January criminals, they assured us, just those who'd not engaged in violence. Wrong! Oh, he won't round up all undocumented persons, just those with a criminal record. Wrong! Oh, he's not going to eliminate the Department of Education, just reform it. Wrong again!

Trump and his unelected co-president, Elon Musk, are determined to tear it all down and, so far, there seems no way to stop them. Clearly, cowardly Senate Republicans won't do it. Neither will puppy dog Speaker Mike Johnson. Nor Trump's rubber stamp Supreme Court, which has already practically given him total immunity.

In just three weeks, there have been so many mind-blowing executive actions - all of them ignoring the role of Congress, expanding the powers of an imperial presidency and violating or undermining existing law - it's hard to decide which is worst. Here are a few of the more outrageous examples. You decide.

January 6. In one fell swoop, Trump pardoned all those charged with following his orders and storming the U.S. Capitol, including some 200 guilty of assaulting police officers.

Justice Department. On Trump orders, the acting attorney general fired dozens of career DOJ prosecutors, merely for working with Special Counsel Jack Smith in his case against the former president for his role in the insurrection.

FBI. The deputy acting attorney general fired eight senior officials for assisting Smith and warned that anyone else in the bureau who worked with Smith could also be fired. A president sends an armed mob to attack the Congress. You help investigate him for it? You're fired! For doing your job!

Treasury Department. Last weekend, Elon Musk sent his thugs into the Treasury Department to seize all records of the government's centralized payment system, including highly sensitive private information on every federal employee.

Birthright Citizenship. Defying the U.S. Constitution, Trump declared that birthright citizenship, enshrined in the 14th Amendment, no longer exists. Why? Because he says so.

Inspectors General. Ignoring the legal requirement that he give Congress 30 days notice and a detailed report before doing so, Trump fired 17 inspectors general, some of whom he'd appointed himself.

CIA. As part of his plan to gut the entire federal government - with no consideration for the expertise lost or who would replace them - Trump asked 2.3 million civilian federal employees and every agent of the CIA to consider resigning by Sept. 30. With the promise of a "buy-out" he has no authority to deliver.

Gaza. Then, of course, styling himself after Alexander the Great, there's Trump's plan for seizing Greenland, Panama and Gaza and making Canada the 51st state. You can't make this stuff up!

But for me, the worst Musk/Trump outrage is dismantling the US Agency for International Development, or USAID. All worldwide USAID missions have been shut down. And all USAID workers have been ordered home by this weekend.

What a disaster. USAID was created by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, in the middle of the Cold War, to provide a humane presence, not a military presence, for the United States throughout the world. Since then, under both Republican and Democratic presidents, it has saved millions of lives, providing food, health care, housing and security for the poorest people in the poorest countries of the world. USAID is credited with preventing a 2014 Ebola outbreak in Guinea and, through George W. Bush's anti-AIDS PEPFAR program, saving 26 million lives so far. Until last weekend, it was engaged in fighting malaria in Uganda. So many lives saved, at so low a cost: less than 1 percent of the federal budget.

But now, suddenly, all of that goodwill built up over 60 years is gone. No doubt, as a result, millions will suffer and die of disease. Because Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet, decided to wage war on the poorest people on the planet. He called it a "criminal organization" and, with Trump's full support, shut it down.

Nothing could be more short-sighted, more heartless or counter to centuries of civilized behavior, as spelled out in Matthew 25/40: "Today, I tell you, whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." Trump should have read it, and shown it to Elon Musk, before killing USAID.

(C)2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC. 

Would you buy a new or used car from this man?

We've survived two turbulent weeks of Trump Two. And, amid all the chaos, there's no doubt who's in charge. He's the man of the hour. He's everywhere: giving orders, making demands, blasting what he doesn't like, and seizing the role of spokesman for the United States around the world. And, of course, I'm talking about - not Donald Trump, but - Elon Musk.

Musk, you must admit, is the most controversial man on the planet today. He's possibly the most talented. He's maybe the most dangerous, more so than Donald Trump. And he's definitely the most difficult to define.

On the one hand, TESLA alone earns Musk recognition as one of history's most brilliant innovators and businessmen. When nobody was taking electric cars seriously, Musk launched the first successful EV, designed the most beautiful car on the road, captured the market, and spurred production of a host of rival EV's by American car manufacturers.

In 2002, Musk also created SpaceX, which quickly excelled in rocket propulsion, reusable launch vehicles, and human spaceflight. Today, SpaceX stands as the world's dominant space launch provider, surpassing all other private companies, NASA, and the Chinese space agency.

That's the good Musk. If only he'd stopped there, he'd be a hero. Instead, he started going crazy. In 2018, he launched a line of $800 blow torches, which served no useful purpose other than, maybe, roasting marshmallows. At the same time, he created the Boring Company, whose stated goal is still to relieve traffic on I-95 by building an underground transit tunnel linking New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. To date, not one shovel of dirt has been turned, and AMTRAK, not Elon, provides the link between New York and Washington for all those who don't want to drive.

Then Elon Musk discovered politics. And that's where he really went nuts. First, by buying Twitter, the world's biggest social network, with 330 million followers, and quickly destroying it: renaming it "X," welcoming Donald Trump back on the platform, and removing any guidelines for truthful content. Today, "X" is nothing but an extreme right-wing, MAGA, Trump propaganda platform. It's the home of zany conspiracies, most of them spread by its owner. People looking for an honest exchange of views are flocking to BlueSky and other alternative sites.

Musk not only converted Twitter into a Trump tabloid, he pumped at least $277 million (chump change for the richest man on the planet) into Trump's 2024 campaign - for which he's been richly rewarded. Ever worshipful of people who, unlike him, have "real" money, Trump embraced Musk as his new BFF, made him a top adviser, and has now created a whole new government agency just for him. Musk, in return, seldom leaves Trump's side. It's hard to get a photo of Trump without Elon leering over his shoulder. Musk flew into Washington for Trump's Inaugural and hasn't left since.

And he didn't waste any time showing who was in charge. Late last year, when Speaker Mike Johnson made a deal to keep the government running, it was Musk, not Trump, who spoke out and killed the deal. Last week, the day after Trump announced a $500 billion-dollar private-sector partnership to build infrastructure for AI, Musk, not Trump, trashed it. And this week, without consulting top White House aides, Musk, not Trump, sent out an email to 2.3 million federal employees - with no regard for what their jobs were or how well they were performing - encouraging them to resign en masse by September 30.

Musk has also enthusiastically endorsed Trump's plan to deport millions of people who entered the country illegally, even though, as the Washington Post reported, Musk himself violated the law as an immigrant from South Africa by enrolling as a student and never attending any classes - a violation for which he himself would have been deported under Trump's new plan.

Most alarmingly, Musk - again, a top adviser to the president of the United States - addressed a rally of Germany's anti-semitic, right-wing political party, the Alternative for Germany, whose co-founder has dismissed the Holocaust as nothing but "a speck of bird poop" in the history of Germany. Musk, in turn, encouraged Germans to "get over" the Holocaust and forget about any "past guilt."

Elon Musk's exalted status in the Trump White House should concern anyone who loves democracy. The oligarchy is here. We're not only stuck with a president totally unfit for office, we're saddled with a powerful co-president who wasn't elected to anything.

(C)2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

One thing Donald Trump can never be accused of: getting off to a slow start. After the most divisive inaugural address in history - delivered on the "scene of the crime" - he hurried to sign 26 executive orders, 12 memos and four proclamations which, among other abuses of power, revoked 78 of former President Biden's executive actions and, most shockingly, issued "full, complete, and unconditional pardons" to some 1,500 MAGA supporters who, at his urging, had rampaged through that same Capitol Rotunda four years ago.

Of course, Trump had made his promise to pardon the Jan. 6 criminals, whom he called "patriots," a central plank of his campaign. Yet nobody (but Trump) expected it to be so wholesale. Just eight days before the inauguration, vice president-elect J.D. Vance told Fox News that nobody who assaulted police officers would get clemency. "If you committed violence that day, obviously you shouldn't be pardoned," he said. In her confirmation hearing, attorney general nominee Pam Bondi assured senators she'd consider Jan. 6 pardons on a "case by case" basis, vowing no tolerance for anyone guilty of "violence on any law enforcement officer."

But Trump made no such distinction. "F-k it, release 'em all," he ordered, as one adviser reported to Axios. And, on Jan. 20, in one of the most shameful moments ever seen in American politics, cowardly Republican Senators lustily applauded Trump as he announced pardons for the armed thugs who sent them running for their lives just four years ago. There's not one backbone in the whole bunch.

Now, here's the problem. It's the same problem reporters had a hard time dealing with in 2017. We call it the "fire-hose" problem. Trump tells so many lies and does so many crazy things at the same time, it's impossible to track them all and report on them in depth. No matter how outrageous his Jan. 6 pardons, for example, they were quickly buried by news, the next day, that he was sending American troops to the southern border.

But, this time around, the media needs to slow down and give each outrage the attention it deserves - starting with the wholesale Jan. 6 pardons. Just saying "Trump pardoned 1,500 people" doesn't do the job. To tell the whole story, you have to look into who they are and what they were charged with. Here are just four examples.

David Dempsey. California. According to prosecutors, he assaulted police officers by "swinging pole-like weapons more than 20 times, spraying chemical agents at least three times, hurling objects at officers at least 10 times, stomping on the heads of police officers as he perched above them five times, attempting to steal a riot shield and baton, and incessantly hurling threats and insults at police while rallying other rioters to join his onslaught." Sentenced to prison for 20 years.

Shane Jenkins. Texas. Charged with using a metal tomahawk to shatter a Capitol window and, once inside, hurling "nine different objects at police, including a solid wooden desk drawer, a flagpole, a metal walking stick and a broken wooden pole with a spear-like point, which he launched like a javelin." Sentenced to seven years.

Julian Khater. Pennsylvania. Pleaded guilty to assaulting police with a deadly weapon and aiming pepper spray at several officers, including Brian Sicknick, who suffered a stroke and died the next day. Sentenced to 80 months.

Thomas Webster. Retired New York police officer. Convicted of assaulting a DC police officer with a metal flagpole, then throwing him to the ground and attempting to rip off his gas mask as other rioters kicked the downed officer. Sentenced to 10 years in prison.

More than 150 police officers were injured on Jan. 6. Six died shortly thereafter. But, thanks to Donald Trump, nobody will ever be held accountable. Today all four of the above, along with 596 others charged with "assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement" - 200 of whom were additionally charged with using a "deadly or dangerous weapon" against police officers - are free. Why? Because Donald Trump believes that he and his supporters are above the law.

The message Trump's J6 pardons send could not be more clear. The Republican Party's creed is now: Political violence, as long as it's done by our side, is good. It's even OK to assault police officers. In the future, don't hesitate to destroy, burn, attack, or kill - because we've got your back.

That's Donald Trump's America. But that's not the America I believe in. I don't think most Americans believe in it, either.

(C)2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC. 

One of the great joys of living in Washington is access to the great Smithsonian museums, all free to the public. But no matter where you go in Washington, you can't escape politics. As I realized again this week, visiting one of the greatest art exhibitions I've ever seen, "The Impressionist Moment," at the National Gallery.

Over five years, the National Gallery, under the leadership of Curator Mary Morton, assembled an amazing selection of paintings first shown at two competing art shows in Paris in 1874: classical, established artists at the government-sponsored Salon de Paris; and younger, renegade artists at the first gathering of Impressionists.

A longtime fan of Impressionism, it was nevertheless a painting from the Salon that caught my attention: "The Good Samaritan" by Jean-Jacques Henner. Yet, while admiring that powerful portrayal of a passer-by stopping to help the victim of a robbery left lying beaten and half-dead by the side of the road, I couldn't help but wonder: What if that had been Donald Trump, just passing by?

No doubt how Trump would have handled it. Before offering any assistance, his first question would have been: not "How can I help?" but "Whom did you vote for in the last election?" Which is exactly how Trump is treating victims of the Los Angeles wildfires.

This is nothing new for Trump. In his first term, he turned disaster relief upside down. He showed no empathy for victims of earthquakes, floods, or fires. For him, every natural disaster was simply one more opportunity for him to play politics by telling lies, attacking state and local leaders and withholding aid from parts of the country that didn't vote for him.

As reported by The Guardian, former Trump administration officials admit that the former president initially refused to release federal disaster aid for wildfires in California in 2018, withheld wildfire assistance for Washington state in 2020, and severely restricted emergency relief to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017 - only because he felt these places were not sufficiently supportive of him. But months later, according to Gov. Ron DeSanti s' memoir, Trump promised to pay 100 percent of Florida's costs after Hurricane Michael because "They love me in the Panhandle."

Last October, in the wake of Hurricane Helene, Trump falsely accused the Biden administration of withholding relief from Republican areas of North Carolina and, again falsely, accused FEMA of redirecting its funds to help undocumented immigrants.

That same pattern's now playing out in the deadly Los Angeles wildfires. While outgoing president Joe Biden pledged to pay all costs of relocating victims and cleaning up debris for 180 days, incoming president Donald Trump - ignoring the evidence of record 100-mph winds and near-zero rainfall in Southern California since last summer - is using the wildfires as an opportunity for political payback. He smeared Gov. Gavin Newsom as "Newscum." He blamed Newsom for causing the wildfires. "This is all his fault," he declared on Truth Social - for not signing a "water restoration document" in 2019 - a document state officials say simply did not exist. He accused Californians of "not maintaining" their forests.

True to form, Trump has also renewed his threat to withhold any additional disaster assistance to Southern California. Demanding that Newsom send more water south (Has he ever heard of the California Water Project?). Trump told a rally in Coachella, California, last fall: "Gavin, if you don't do it, we're not giving you any of that money that we send you all the time for the fire, forest fires, you have."

And now, ever-ready to bend the knee, House Speaker "Maga Mike" Johnson has vowed that any congressional relief to California will only come with "strings attached," demanding changes in the state's water policy and management of natural resources - conditions notably lacking in aid Trump sent to GOP-controlled states hammered by hurricanes.

Trump is holding victims of California's devastating wildfires hostage. He first spread disinformation about reservoirs being empty (they were not) and FEMA running out of money (it had not). Next he ignored the contributing factors of historic winds, months-long drought and climate change. Then, in effect, he told fire victims: "I don't care how badly you're suffering. If you don't change your policies and politics, you're not going to get any help from me."

It's a cruel and heartless perversion of disaster relief, which, as every first-responder knows, is first and foremost to help people in trouble. Period. Republican or Democrat. No questions asked, no politics involved. Somebody should tell Donald Trump.

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Two presidents in Washington: one welcome, one not

Here's how I'd sum up this week in Washington: I wouldn't walk across the street to say hello to Donald Trump. But I waited in line for two and a half hours, most of it outside in 29-degree cold and snow, to say goodbye to Jimmy Carter.

And I was hardly alone. Washington's dignitaries celebrated Carter's life on Tuesday afternoon. But then doors were open to the public. And Tuesday, Wednesday, and early Thursday morning, thousands braved the winter cold to walk by Carter's flag-draped casket in the Capitol Rotunda.

I must admit, I was blown away by the public response. Not only by the size of the crowd, but by its make-up. These were no big-shots, just average, working- class Americans of all stripes and sizes: older, younger, Black, white, Asian, families with kids, members of the military, current and former federal employees, a group of Dominican seminarians, many people who weren't even born yet when Jimmy Carter was president, some sporting "Carter/Mondale" campaign buttons, locals from the D.C. area and some who traveled from far away.

From those I talked to and conversations I overheard while standing in line, they were all there for one reason: out of respect and love for the man Jimmy Carter and the values he brought to the White House. "He was such an inspiration to me when I was just 17," one man told me. "He was what I thought every president should be like." "I don't understand this rap that he wasn't a good president," another man argued. "Look at all he got done in four years."

Capitol Hill reporters reflected comments shared by everyone they interviewed. They said they came to honor Jimmy Carter because he was "a humble man," "a leader," "a man of faith," "a fine person," "a good, decent man," "a man known for his civility and humility." Ironically, those same sentiments were echoed in eulogies delivered by Republican leaders of Congress. Speaker Mike Johnson praised Carter as "a man who modeled the virtues of service and citizenship." Senate Republican Leader John Thune noted that, unlike other politicians, in coming to Washington, Carter  "did not come to be served, but to serve."

One thing for sure: None of those phrases will ever be uttered to describe Donald Trump, dead or alive. The contrast between the revered former president and the disgraced president-elect could not be greater. Donald Trump is the antithesis of Jimmy Carter: a pathological liar, a convicted felon, a serial sexual abuser, an egomaniac and a man who cares about nobody but himself.

Which he proved once again this week. Trump was so furious that Carter was stealing all the media attention that, at the very moment President Carter's casket was arriving in the Capitol for the historic trip up Pennsylvania Avenue to the U.S. Capitol, he suddenly staged a news conference at Mar-a-Lago where he condemned Carter for making a historic treaty with Panama over control of the Panama Canal.

Then, the very next day, Trump had the audacity to show up in the Rotunda to walk by Carter's casket. And Thursday, uninvited by the family, he planted himself in the front pew for Carter's state funeral in the National Cathedral. For Trump, hypocrisy has no bounds. Just when you think he can sink no lower, he does.

But not even Trump's unwelcome presence in Washington this week could destroy the air of good feelings about Jimmy Carter. People turned out to honor Carter because he was a president they could relate to. As president, he often ate out at local restaurants (not only at the one restaurant that had his name on it). He sent his daughter to a local public school. He carried his own bags at the airport. He helped build houses on Benning Road in Southeast Washington, still lived in by low-income families. He joined First Baptist Church, just a couple of blocks from the White House, where he and Rosalyn attended services 70 times and where he taught Sunday School for four years as president.

It's comforting to believe, if only for this moment, that these are values the majority of Americans still believe in. Still the question remains: Why did so many Americans vote for just the opposite?

As I heard more than one person remark about Jimmy Carter, "He's the type of president we don't see anymore." No, and we won't see one like it for the next four years, either. Sigh!

(C)2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.