Search for backbone in Washington comes up empty

History can be cruel. Charles Sumner, the great abolitionist senator from Massachusetts, is remembered only for being beaten on the Senate floor with a gold-topped walking stick by South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks in 1856, after Sumner had delivered an impassioned anti-slavery speech.

But a new biography of Sumner by Zaakir Tameez - "Charles Sumner, Conscience of a Nation" - argues he should be remembered for much more. As early as 1849, he argued for "equality before the law" and desegregation of public schools. He pushed President Lincoln to sign an emancipation proclamation even before Fort Sumter. And, after the Civil War, he sponsored a civil rights bill that would have gone even further than the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Sumner also set an example for politicians that too few, then and now, followed. There are only three things to look for in a politician, Sumner famously said: "The first is backbone, the second is backbone, and the third is backbone."

Sadly, backbone was the main missing ingredient in the debate over Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill."

Let's remember, first, what this bill does. It offers no new tax breaks for the middle class, but extends those 2017 tax cuts which benefit mainly the top 1 percent of American families. According to the Congressional Budget Office, because of cuts to Medicaid, it means 10.8 million Americans will lose their health care. Another 3.3 million will lose access to food stamps. It ends almost all funding for renewable energy projects already underway, many in red states. It shovels billions into Trump's border wall and mass deportation roundups. And, again according to the CBO, it will swell the national debt by at least $4.3 trillion and raises the debt ceiling by a staggering $5 trillion.

It is, according to many congressional experts, perhaps the most bloated, most expensive, most regressive and most destructive piece of legislation ever passed by Congress. In one phrase, it rewards the wealthy and sticks it to the middle class. And it contradicts everything the Republican Party once stood for: smaller government, balanced budget and fiscal conservatism.

So, what did so-called fiscal conservative Republicans do? They put loyalty to Orange Man over principle. Under the flimsiest of excuses, they voted for it.

You won't find any backbone in Josh Hawley (R-Mo). For weeks, he was the most outspoken opponent of the BBB because it contained massive cuts in Medicaid in order to pay for Trump's tax cuts. "We cannot be a working-class party if you are taking away health care for working-class people," he piously warned. That was before Trump put the hammer on him. Then Hawley caved, voted for the bill and - ready for this? - promised to spend the next two years restoring cuts to Medicaid. Yes, he actually promised to work against the bill he'd just voted for.

No backbone in Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, either. Until the 11th-plus hour, she was a confirmed NO vote. Then she, too, caved. "Do I like this bill? No," she told reporters. "There are Americans that are not going to be advantaged by this bill." But she ended up voting for it anyway, she said, because it contained tax breaks for a handful of Alaskan whaling captains. Really?

And, worst of all, no backbone in the biggest phony fiscal conservative loudmouth, Chip Roy of Texas, Policy Chair of the House Freedom Caucus. cNever, never, never would they vote to increase the debt ceiling or add one penny to the national debt, members of the Freedom Caucus crowed. Yet, after being summoned to the White House by Trump, they all caved. Now they might as well disband the Freedom Caucus. Nobody takes it seriously anymore.

For the record, there was one member of Congress who did show some spine: Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Tillis knew this was a bad bill. He knew millions of Americans would suffer. He knew it was the opposite of what Republicans had always campaigned on. But, despite Trump's threat of a primary opponent, he couldn't in good conscience vote for the bill. So he told Trump to take his job and shove it. How rare. Good for him.

In the end, the ones who benefit most from the "big, beautiful bill" may be the Democrats, who have been struggling to find a winning message for 2026. Now they've got one: With the help of congressional Republicans, Trump betrayed the middle-class Americans who voted for him. If Democrats can't use that message to win big in the midterms, they don't deserve to win.

(C)2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
 

Freedom of the press: great while it lasted

There was a time, not so long ago, when we celebrated the press for doing its job of holding elected officials accountable and telling the truth, no matter how much government pressure they encountered.

In 1971, for example, we hailed the New York Times and the Washington Post for defying the Nixon administration by publishing the Pentagon Papers and exposing the lies told about the Vietnam War by Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. The Supreme Court upheld the papers' right to publish because, as Justice Hugo Black wrote for the majority: "Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government."

One year later, it was the Washington Post again - led by reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward and Executive Editor Ben Bradlee - which first reported on the involvement of the White House in the Watergate break-in, leading to Nixon's resignation. In 2002, as documented in the film "Spotlight," the Boston Globe exposed the widespread sexual abuse by Catholic priests and the shameful response by Catholic bishops.

But that was then, this is now. Today, instead of doing their job and standing up to government pressure, media executives are caving in right and left, like they all failed to show up when God was giving out backbones. It started even before Trump was re- elected, when Washington Post publisher Jeff Bezos and Los Angeles Times publisher Patrick Soon-Shiong, afraid of how Trump might retaliate were he to win the election, both killed editorials endorsing Kamala Harris for president. Bezos and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg followed up by both donating $1 million to Trump's inauguration committee - after dining with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

Next to bend the knee was Disney, owner of ABC News, against which Trump filed a bogus lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos' use of the word "rape" in discussing Trump's conviction for sexual abuse. Since Stephanopoulos had, in effect, only quoted the judge's closing comments, legal experts said Disney had zero chance of losing the case. But, in January, rather than defend the media's right to tell the truth and fight Trump in court, Disney decided to settle the case and pay him $16 million.

Many warned that the ABC settlement would set a dangerous precedent, and this week we saw how spot-on those warnings were when Paramount, owner of CBS News, greased Trump's palm with another $16 million to settle a frivolous lawsuit he'd filed against CBS, claiming he'd been damaged by how "60 Minutes" edited an interview with Kamala Harris.

Which is ridiculous on the face of it. Consider the facts. In that October 2024 interview, host Bill Whitaker asked Harris more than 40 questions. It was a tough interview, which CBS ran in its entirety. It didn't cover up anything. Trump's objection was about the editing of her lengthy answer to only one of the 40-plus questions, about Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netayahu. Her answer was so long that CBS chopped it in half, using one part in a tease for the show, the second part in the actual broadcast.

And that was it! No change in meaning. No harm to anyone. No impact on the outcome of the election. Yet Trump ludicrously claimed it was "election interference" and sued for $20 billion in damages. Anybody else would have fought that case - and won easily. But Paramount has a problem. It's in the middle of a merger with Skydance, which requires FCC approval. So, rather than anger Trump and endanger their Skydance deal, Paramount decided to buy him off with $16 million.

Paramount's surrender is a total disgrace. As Mother Jones' David Corn noted, it amounts to nothing less than a "mob-like shakedown." And it's an insult to Edward R. Murrow, Eric Sevareid, Walter Cronkite and other media greats who built CBS.

Of course, the more media executives fold, the more Trump will demand their loyalty. He's still pursuing a ridiculous lawsuit against the Des Moines Register for publishing results of a poll he didn't like. And this week he threatened to sue CNN for reporting on the existence of an app which allows people to track movements of ICE agents.

Thomas Jefferson famously said, "Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost." Today, sadly, we are at risk of losing our freedom of the press - not because Trump or the Congress are shutting it down, but because cowardly media executives are giving it away. And, once lost, we'll never get it back.

(C)2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
 

Bill Press: Israel should finish what it started - without our help

It's the old Catholic in me, I guess. But I can't resist. "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. I had breakfast with Steve Bannon."

Well, kind of, sort of. I was one of some 30 journalists who showed up this week for a breakfast with Bannon sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. And, to my total surprise, I actually ended up agreeing with Bannon on one very important and timely issue.

Of course, I bristled when he talked about the "invasion" of "ten million illegal alien invaders." I bit my tongue when he complained about the "Deep State" actually running the government. And I gagged when he bragged about how well the economy's doing under Trump Two. But, when it came to Iran, I wanted to stand up and applaud.

"I'm a big supporter of Israel, and always have been," Bannon declared. But when it came to Israel's attacks on Iran, Bannon said he'd told President Trump what he believed was the best course: "Israel has to finish what they started." Israel having started this war, Bannon argued, it was not our job to ride in now, like a Wild West cavalry, to finish the job with a big, bunker-buster bomb. Israel started this war, let them finish it.

Bannon was especially critical of Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, basically accusing him of trying to trap the United States into joining his war. Bibi knew Trump was in negotiations with Iran to get them to drop their nuclear enrichment program. He knew Trump had expressed his hope that Israel would hold off, in order to give diplomacy a chance. But, defying the United States, Bib decided to launch his war anyway - and killed most of the Iranian officials the Trump administration had been talking to, making further negotiations pointless.

As Bannon pointed out, Netanyahu also knew that Israel did not have the military capacity to destroy Iran's nuclear capability, which is concentrated 300 feet under a mountain in the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant. Only a bunker-buster bomb could destroy that facility. Israel doesn't have one. Only the United States does. So Netanyahu deliberately set up Trump and tried to force his hand. Because, Bibi declared, Iran was only months, or weeks, away from developing a nuclear bomb - which, as several news organizations have documented, is a claim Bibi's been making every year since 1996!

Netanyahu wasn't the only target of Bannon's scorn. He directed much of his criticism against Fox News, which he condemned as a "pure propaganda network." He accused the network, led by Sean Hannity's nightly tirades, of beating the war drums for an American invasion of Iran, just like they did in the run-up to the war in Iraq. Based on what proved to be phony intelligence, they propelled America into one "forever" war in the Middle East - and today, Bannon says, based on phony intelligence, Fox News is trying to propel us into yet another one.

Whatever the final decision, Bannon repeatedly emphasized, Trump should not allow Bibi to set the timetable. The president must take the time to get the advice of military leaders, talk to other players in the Middle East, and consider what the American people want, before deciding whether or not to join forces with Israel. There's no hurry.

But here's where I strongly disagree with Bannon. Even though, at this point, the MAGA movement overwhelmingly opposes America's involvement in Iran, Bannon says that if Trump does decide to start a third war, and explains his decision, most MAGA followers will support him. Of course they will. Because they've drunk the Kool-Aid. The MAGA movement is a religious cult, blindly worshipping one man. It's not a serious political movement.

For now, we can only pray that Trump - with one eye on the Nobel Peace Prize - will make the right decision and stay out of Iran. Otherwise, the consequences are unthinkable: inferno in the Middle East, rupture with long-term allies, losses of American lives and resources, all bringing us to the brink, if not the reality, of World War III. The risk is too great. Making Bibi happy is not worth it.

One final point. Let's remember. Iran had once agreed to cease production of nuclear bombs in a pact negotiated by President Obama. We wouldn't be in this crisis today if Trump hadn't canceled that agreement in 2018. He made a huge mistake then. Let's hope he doesn't make another one now. Netanyahu is wrong. Diplomacy, not war, is the only answer.

(C)2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC. 

It's a story we've heard many times, but it's always worth repeating. In 1787, when Benjamin Franklin was walking out of the Constitutional Convention, a lady famously asked "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" "A republic," Franklin replied tartly, "if you can keep it."

Even Franklin might be surprised we did keep it for 238 years. But it's gone now. If 1787 marked the birth of our American democracy, 2025 marked the end of it. We no longer live in a democracy. We don't even live in a monarchy. We live in a dictatorship.

It's no democracy when a president can send his goons onto college campuses to round up people who've committed no crimes, deport them and confine them to prison in another country with no due process and no opportunity to defend themselves.

It's no democracy when a president can ban private universities from accepting foreign students, simply because he believes, with no evidence, they're a national security threat.

It's no democracy when a president can invent a national crisis, send Marines into the streets of Los Angeles, and threaten to deploy troops to any other city where Americans protest the gestapo-style tactics of ICE - who are only following Trump's orders to deport at least 3,000 a day.

First, let's be clear about one thing. Los Angeles is not burning. The City of Angels is not at risk. Take it from me. I lived in LA during the Rodney King and O.J. Simpson riots. I stood on the roof of KCOP-TV and watched a mob of looters storm up La Brea Boulevard, torching shops and restaurants. While hosting my radio talk show, I was warned by security guards to hide under my desk because snipers were firing shots at our building. I was covering the riots from First AME Church in South Central when the entire neighborhood went up in flames. A Black church member had me lie on the floor in the backseat of his car, threw a blanket over me and drove me through the violence-filled streets to my home in West Hollywood. By comparison, what's happening today in Los Angeles is a picnic in the park.

And, by the way, the National Guard were also on the scene in both riots. But they were there the way it's supposed to work: summoned by the governor of California, at the request of the mayor of Los Angeles, and used to guard the perimeter and enforce the curfew. Local law enforcement did a good job of dealing with the protesters, just like they're doing again today.

The truth is, there is no national crisis. There is no Los Angeles crisis. There is no California crisis. There is only a crisis in democracy, stirred up deliberately by Donald Trump to expand his presidential power and paint Democrats as soft on crime and immigration.

Yes, there were peaceful protests against ICE, with some scattered violence, which the LAPD was more than capable of taking care of - until Trump, without consulting local or state officials, sent in the National Guard and the Marines. Donald Trump didn't fix this "crisis." He created it.

He's only doing this "to defend law and order," Trump insists, adding: we won't allow protesters "to spit on our police." Unbelievable! This shameless boast from the protester-in-chief who gave a presidential pardon to men convicted of killing police officers on January 6.

What's happening in LA is the same mad power play Trump tried to unleash during the George Floyd protests, when he summoned the military to Lafayette Square and threatened to send troops into every big city. The difference is, then there were Justice Department and Pentagon officials who stopped Trump in his tracks and refused to consider martial law. This time around, Pam Bondi and Pete Hegseth will let Trump do whatever he wants.

We're seen this playbook before: sow disinformation, silence your critics, muzzle the media, condemn the courts, stoke violence and unleash the military to seize more power. It was the playbook of Stalin, Hitler and Putin yesterday. It's Donald Trump's playbook today.

So what can we do? Our only hope is to roadblock Trump by taking back the House and Senate in 2026. Then we can look Ben Franklin in the eye and say: "Sorry, we really messed up. We let our republic fall for two years - but we worked hard - and finally got it back." It's up to us.

(C)2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
 

Good-bye, good-riddance to Elon Musk

History will not be kind to Elon Musk, nor should it be. True, he is one of the most brilliant and successful business leaders ever. But he's also one of the most demented, destructive, ineffective and heartless men who ever walked the planet. Nero only played the fiddle while Rome burned. Musk set the fires.

First, to his credit, when everybody considered EV's a joke, he created TESLA, the most beautiful and most dependable electric car on the road. In 2002, when NASA was floundering and the United States was losing our edge in space, Musk created SpaceX - which is now the world's dominant space launch provider, eclipsing all other private and national programs. In 2019, SpaceX launched Starlink, expanding internet access to the most remote areas of the globe and providing Ukraine the network its military still depends on.

He did all that good stuff. He became the wealthiest person on earth. Then, maybe, the drugs kicked in. Whatever happened, then Elon Musk went nuts.

It started with Twitter. Remember when Twitter was everybody's home online? With its friendly little blue bird logo, more than 100 million users, and 240 million "tweets" a day, it was the safest, quickest way to engage on issues of the day. Then, in 2022, Musk bought it, renamed it and destroyed it, turning Twitter into a total right-wing, conspiratorial cesspool - on which the wackiest, most conspiratorial voice, popping up dozens of times a day, is Musk himself.

Then, with 2024 looming, Elon discovered politics. He could have supported the president who made the manufacture of EV's a national priority and showered billions of dollars on the electric car industry. Instead, he cynically decided to support the number one enemy of electric cars, the man who calls EV's a "Marxist hoax." Why? Because he figured Donald Trump was for sale and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were not.

Musk got that right. After shoveling $250 million into Trump's 2024 presidential campaign (by far the biggest campaign contribution ever, but still chump change for Musk), Elon quickly became Trump's BFF: dinners at Mar-a-Lago, rides on Air Force One, meetings with foreign leaders. And then the big pay-off: a new government agency, the Department of Government Efficiency, or "DOGE" - with Musk the head of it for what will be remembered as "130 days from Hell."

By any measure, Musk's 130-day DOGE tenure was both a total failure and a total disaster.

A total failure. Musk initially vowed to cut $2 trillion in "wasteful" spending. He later cut that goal to $1 trillion. However, after 130 days, DOGE itself could only claim $160 billion in cuts, and independent observers question even that amount. Of its $160 billion, DOGE only itemized $61.5 billion and could provide documentation for only $32.5 billion. In other words, the whole thing was a scam. Using his own numbers, Musk was only able to achieve 12.5 percent of what he promised.

But those cuts add up to a total disaster. For no given reason, 120,000 federal employees were summarily fired and 120,000 families were forced to relocate or rebuild their lives. Services we depend on from FEMA, FAA, the National Weather Service, the National Park Service and the US Forest Service have been slashed. Critical research at NIH, FDA and most universities has been canceled, creating a brain drain of American scientists looking for job opportunities abroad.

Worse yet, no matter how much Musk and Trump deny it, many lives have been lost. According to Boston University, shutting down USAID and ending President Bush's PEPFAR program alone has already resulted in 40,000 adult HIV deaths and more than 4,000 infant HIV deaths. Those numbers are expected to reach 159,300 adults and 16,954 infants by the end of the year. As philanthropist Bill Gates noted, "The picture of the world's richest man killing the world's poorest children is not a pretty one."

Now, suddenly, Elon Musk has had an epiphany. He wants us to hail him as a voice of reason. No longer at Trump's side, he's turned on him, denounced his "one, big, beautiful, bill" as a "disgusting abomination" and urged Congress to kill it.

Forget about it. Yes, Musk's right about the bill, but remember: There would be no Donald Trump back in the White House, there would be no "one, big, beautiful, bill" without Elon's $250 million. He's as responsible for this abomination of a bill as Trump is.

It's a relief to have Elon Musk out of the White House. Now if he would only shut up and disappear forever.

(C)2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
 

It goes with the territory. As a political commentator, I read a pile of political books every year, some of them worthwhile, most not. But one of the best political books I read this year is "Pardon: The Politics of Presidential Mercy" by CNN's Jeff Toobin.

Citing the broad pardon power given the president in Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the Constitution - "He shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment" - Toobin notes this is the one and only place where, in effect, the president is a king. He has absolute power to pardon anybody he wants, anytime he wants, for any reason he chooses. Nobody, not even Congress, can stop him.

King Donald has made the presidential pardon his personal playground. While most presidents wait till the end of their term to grant a few pardons, usually to persons recommended by the Justice Department who've not received a fair trial, Trump's been issuing pardons from day one of his second term.

The pardon process used to be complicated. Hire a lawyer. Apply to the Justice Department. Lots of time and paperwork. But no longer. Trump's made the pardon process totally transactional and political. For him, it's the ultimate quid pro quo. Just say you're a victim like him and claim you were charged with a crime only because you were a Trump supporter - and you're free! It doesn't matter what you were charged with or how guilty you are, Trump's got a presidential "get out of jail free" card for you! He handed out many of them in the last few weeks. Of which, a few of the more outrageous.

Example one. Scott Jenkins, former sheriff of Culpeper County, Virginia. Jenkins was convicted by a jury of accepting $75,000 in bribes from local businessmen in return for making them auxiliary deputy sheriffs and sentenced to 10 years in prison. In his defense, Jenkins argued the district attorney only went after him because he was a big Trump supporter. That was enough for Trump. On Memorial Day, the day before reporting to prison, Jenkins received a presidential pardon.

Example two. Paul Walczak, a Florida nursing home executive, convicted of $10 million in tax fraud and sentenced to 18 months in prison. But even after pleading guilty, Walczak claimed he'd only been targeted because his mother, Elizabeth Fago, had held three fundraisers for Trump. Last month, Ms. Fago paid $1 million for a Trump fundraising dinner at Mar-a-Lago. Less than three weeks later, Trump signed a full and unconditional pardon for her son.

Example three. Brian Kelsey, former Tennessee state senator, who pleaded guilty in 2022 to illegally funneling money to his failed campaign for Congress. Once Trump was re-elected, Kelsey accused the Justice Department of coming after him only because he was a MAGA supporter. In February, he reported to prison for a 21-month sentence. Two weeks later, he received a Trump pardon.

Example four. Michael Grimm, former member of Congress from Staten Island, indicted in 2014 for failing to report nearly $1 million in receipts and hundreds of thousands in employee wages from a restaurant he owned. After serving seven months in prison, he became a TV host on Newsmax, where he strongly defended Donald Trump. Bingo!

Example five. Reality TV stars Julie and Todd Chrisley, convicted three years ago of evading taxes and defrauding banks of more than $30 million to support their luxurious lifestyle. Their daughter Savannah, a big Trump supporter, spoke at last year's Republican National Convention and said the magic words: claiming her parents, like Trump, had been "persecuted by rogue prosecutors" because of their conservative political beliefs. They walked out of prison this week.

And then, of course, there's the worst pardon abuse of all: Trump's wholesale pardon of nearly 1,600 people who stormed the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Several were serving long sentences for assaulting police officers, including Daniel Rodriguez, whom a judge labeled "a one-man army of hate." But Trump called them all "patriots," insisted the Justice Department went after them only because they were Trump supporters, waved his magic wand, and their crimes disappeared.

For would-be criminals, the message could not be more clear. If you're even thinking about committing a crime, don't worry about the police. Just make sure you send a big check to Donald Trump first. If Charles Manson had thought of that, he might have been out of prison a long time ago.

(C)2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC. 

My new plane is bigger than yours!

It's official. In what is probably the most significant achievement of his first four months in office, Donald Trump has acquired a fancy new plane. For him, it's a personal triumph. For the rest of us, it's a national embarrassment.

His new plane is a luxury 747 worth $400 million called the "Flying Palace," which the government of Qatar has been trying to dump for years. But, since nobody makes 747's anymore and spare parts are practically non-existent, they had a hard time finding a willing buyer - until a sucker named Donald Trump came along.

It's no secret how badly Trump wants a new Air Force One and how frustrated he is that Boeing can't deliver one for another two years. So, as reported by CNN and the New York Times, once Trump was back in office the White House asked Qatar if its Flying Palace might still be for sale. You bet, said Qatar. We'll even fly it to West Palm Beach (at an estimated round- trip cost of $1 million) so Trump can inspect it himself.

Which he did, off the record, on Feb. 15. And for Trump, penis envy kicked in. Their plane was clearly bigger, flashier, fancier and gaudier than his. He had to have it. But why should he buy it, Trump asked. Why don't they just give it to me? Which Qatar - eager to get rid of the jet, and even more eager to be in Trump's debt - readily agreed to.

There's only one problem. The Constitution! Recognizing the peril of a president being influenced by expensive gifts from foreign countries, the Founding Fathers made sure that wouldn't happen. Article 1, Section 9, Clause 8: "No person, holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, or foreign State."

No translation needed. Without congressional approval, Donald Trump is forbidden by the Constitution from accepting a $400 million gift from Qatar. But the Constitution's never stopped Trump, who says he's not even sure he's bound by it. So the White House invented an end run around the Constitution. It's not a gift to Donald Trump, they argue, it's a gift to the United States government. And Trump will never use it after he leaves office, he'll turn it over to his presidential library.

All of which is total nonsense. If you believe that story, I've got a used 747 to sell you.

Of course, this "deal" may never happen. Before it can serve as a new, temporary Air Force One, the plane must be swept for hidden listening devices, equipped with the highest standards of security, and reconfigured to meet the needs of a presidential delegation, not a royal family. Experts say that could cost up to $1 billion, and might not even be finished before Trump leaves office.

But, repurposed as Air Force One or not, the Flying Palace will always stand as the symbol of what Donald Trump's presidency is all about: self-enrichment. For him and his greedy family, the biggest bunch of grifters who ever walked the face of the earth.

It wasn't the president alone who used last week's romp through the Middle East to line his pockets. Before he got there, sons Eric and Donald Jr. had been on a whirlwind tour, signing deals for a $1 billion, 80-story luxury hotel in Dubai; a second high-end residential tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; a new high-rise Trump hotel in Serbia; a new golf course and villa complex in Qatar; and a new, exclusive private club in Washington.

These ventures come on top of the meme coins Trump is hawking (top buyers get a private dinner with the president); the sneakers, Bibles, and trading cards he's still selling; and World Liberty Financial, the crypto firm Trump just launched with a $2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi. All of which benefit not just his sons, but Trump himself.

For Donald Trump, the presidency is nothing but a giant money-making scheme. Period. As world leaders now realize. When Trump, in their Oval Office meeting this week, accused South Africa of "genocide," President Cyril Ramaphosa fired back: "I'm sorry I don't have a plane to give you."

In all seriousness, Trump replied: "I wish you did. I would take it." In which case, of course, Ramaphosa would have been treated a lot better. Sad!

(C)2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC. 

Pope Francis: The down-to-earth pope

It's a lesson we all learned a long time ago: no matter what plans we make, unexpected events can pop up and change everything. It's a lesson I learned again this week. 

Here I am in Bologna, Italy, having decided to escape to Italy for a few weeks to study Italian and get as far away from politics as I could. Good plan. But, due to one big, unexpected event, I'm suddenly in the middle of another political campaign - a campaign for the next pope. Which is especially relevant for residents of Bologna, since Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the very popular archbishop of Bologna and close friend of Pope Francis, is considered one of the leading candidates, or "papabile," to succeed him.

Of course, this election has global, not just national, consequences. It's about a lot more than who will be the next pope. It's about what direction the Catholic Church - the world's largest Christian church, with 1.4 billion baptized Catholics as of 2024 - will take in the future. Will it continue the open-arms, progressive outreach of the church, preached and practiced by Pope Francis till his dying day? Or will it go backward toward the closed door, ultra-conservative policies of Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI?

In one respect, this campaign is different from any other political campaign. Since Catholics believe it's the Holy Spirit, not the cardinals themselves, who decides the next pope, it's considered inappropriate to openly seek the office or campaign for it. But, as last year's great film "Conclave" showed, that doesn't prevent a lot of wheeling and dealing in countless conversations, dinners or phone calls ahead of the conclave. And some cardinals make sure the media sees them as serious contenders.

The night Francis died, I watched an hour-long special about his papacy on Italian television, largely narrated by a cardinal I'd never heard of. Turns out he's another leading papabile, Luis Antonio Tagle from the Philippines, dubbed the "Asian Francis." The next morning, the aforementioned Cardinal Zuppi of Bologna had an op-ed in "La Repubblica," Italy's largest newspaper, praising the progressive policies of St. Francis and making the case for more of the same. They're off and running!

Given the worldwide importance of the election, it's surprising that it will be decided by only 135 voters - fewer than some Manhattan co-op boards. Once they're locked inside the Sistine Chapel, anything could happen. But chances are, despite the efforts of some extremely conservative American bishops to turn back the clock, the Vatican's not going to swing to the far right.

Consider the math. Out of a total 252 cardinals, only 135 are under 80 years of age and thereby eligible to vote - of whom Pope Francis elevated 108. In other words, four out of every five cardinals casting a ballot will be Francis-born. They're unlikely to repudiate the man they admire and owe their job to by choosing an ultra-conservative pope. Instead, they're more likely to choose a pope committed to carrying on Francis' legacy. But his shoes will, indeed, be hard to fill.

True, Pope Francis didn't go as far as progressive Catholics wanted him to go. He stubbornly refused to consider ordaining women as priests; he welcomed LGBTQ Catholics, but still treated them as second-class citizens. But he probably pushed the church as far as he could, and set a powerful example for public service.

Pope Francis was the real deal. He was not a pope on a pedestal, he was a pope on the streets. He didn't hang out with the high and mighty, he spent his time with the poor, with criminals and immigrants, with the "ultimi," the last of the last, those who needed help the most. He slept in a guest house on Vatican grounds rather than in the opulent Papal Palace, he was driven around in a little car, no limousine, and wore black loafers instead of Gucci papal red shoes. Italians called him "a pope like us."

He was the first pope to recognize the danger of climate change and make it a top priority. He opposed the war in Ukraine and Netanyahu's relentless bombing of Gaza. He championed the cause of immigrants and blasted politicians who exploit their plight for political gain.

As Cardinal Zuppi wrote, Pope Francis saw his position of power, "not as an office, but as a service." In him, the world had a leader who used his power to unite, not to divide; and to serve others, not to enrich himself. We poor Americans got stuck with just the opposite.

Don't get me wrong. He's not only the wealthiest man on the planet, he's also the most obnoxious. If I had a Tesla, I would have dumped it long ago. Nonetheless, I think we owe a big thank you to South African-born, non-elected, non-confirmed, oft-married, father-many-times-over, genuine weirdo, and Shadow President Elon Musk. He made us smile again!

Democrats have been in a funk. And not only Democrats, but anybody with a soul, or any sense of what's really important in life. Because, in the first three months of the Trump Regime, we've seen everything we cared about targeted and destroyed by the Trump/Musk machine.

Chainsaw in hand, Trump and Musk have moved to gut or eliminate everything that once seemed worthwhile: the Department of Education; the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau; researchers and scientists at the National Institutes of Health; doctors and health care providers in the Veterans Administration; the US Agency for International Development, or USAID, the most important source of aid for the poorest people on the planet; and FEMA, the most important source of relief for Americans wiped out by tornadoes, hurricanes or wildfire.

Not only that, Trump and Musk have also moved to shut down our legendary cultural institutions. Musk has ordered an 80 percent reduction in staff of the National Endowment for the Humanities, created by Congress in 1965 and supported by every president since. Meanwhile, Trump's taken over the Kennedy Center. He's shut down the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which provides funding for libraries and museums in every state of the union. He put JD Vance in charge of totally revamping the Smithsonian Institution. He's demanded that slavery be portrayed more positively in the National Museum of African American History and Culture. And he's even announced plans to remake the National Zoo. Because, apparently, the pandas are too "woke."

Now add to those senseless, unnecessary and painful cuts Trump's bloated tariffs, which amount to the largest sales tax in history, and it's easy to see why kindred souls have been so downhearted. There's much to weep about and nothing to cheer about. Until this week! But now, thanks to Elon Musk, we all have something to cheer about: Wisconsin!

In a stunning setback for Trump and Musk, Wisconsin voters, by a 55 percent to 45 percent margin, chose progressive judge Susan Crawford as the next justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court over Trump and Musk's right-wing candidate Brad Schimel. This was much more than a statewide judicial contest. It was an election of huge national importance.

First, because it was the most expensive judicial campaign ever, with almost $100 million spent by both parties in what is, traditionally, a nonpartisan race. Second, because so many critical issues, including abortion and gerrymandering, are before the court. But, third, and most importantly, because Elon Musk made this a referendum on himself - and on the first three months of the Trump Regime. In a sign of what lies ahead for Republicans in 2026, Wisconsin voters soundly rejected both.

Despite a glaring conflict of interest - one issue before the Supreme Court is Musk's challenge to a Wisconsin law requiring car manufacturers to sell cars through local car dealers, and not directly to customers - Musk made this race his top priority. He gave Schimel a $21 million campaign donation. He offered $20 to anyone who volunteered to knock on doors, and $100 to anyone who signed a petition against "activist judges." He paid three individuals $1 million each, just for voting for Schimel.

Then he went to Wisconsin, doffed a cheesehead, personally handed out his checks and told a crowd of adoring MAGA supporters that this judicial election would "affect the entire destiny of humanity." Not only that, in pure Trumpian fashion he claimed that Schimel's loss would - wait for it! - mark "the end of Western civilization" as we know it. All because Tesla would have to sell cars in local dealerships. Please!

Musk spent more than $21 million trying to buy a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. But Wisconsin voters weren't buying it. They said loud and clear: "Wisconsin's not for sale."

Coming on top of winning two special legislative elections in Iowa and Pennsylvania, defeating four Republican-sponsored initiatives in Louisiana, a bold, history-making Senate speech by Cory Booker, and a triumphant victory in Wisconsin, Democrats suddenly have more bounce in their step.

And they may have found their silver bullet for 2026. As Pod Save America's Jon Favreau quipped, "Please send Elon Musk to all the close races!"

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