Where do I start, to discuss how awful, horrible, no-good, unqualified, and completely unfit Donald Trump is to be President?
That’s a big part of the problem: there’s so much to criticize him for that we’re worn out before we’ve barely begun to list his many faults, crimes, and failures.
There’s his lying and backtracking on promises, for instance. A recent obvious example is his huge, gaudy, unnecessary ballroom, the one that required Trump’s destruction (without authorization from Congress or anyone) of the entire East Wing of our treasured White House.
The ballroom that “everybody wants,” he says. As far as I can tell, NOBODY wants a ballroom except Trump himself.
Remember when the taxpayer wouldn’t have to pay for it, because private donors would fork over its full cost? And that was when it was only going to cost $200 million. (Let that sink in: ONLY $200 million.)
Then its projected price gradually grew: $300 million, plus, plus, and somehow the projection reached $100 billion including security enhancements (that’s “billion” with a “b”). And by that time, private donors were no longer bearing the burden of its very high price.
In fact, the cost is now to be borne by the taxpayers! No more privatedonor involvement.
Then there’s the war. And yes, no matter what euphemism Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth employ to try to con us, whenever people are dying in battle and we’re using up our stockpile of munitions, that’s a war.
Remember Trump’s promise when he ran the last time? NO NEW WARS. He can’t even settle on a believable explanation now for why he tore up the Iran deal that had worked well for years, preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
His real reason for tearing up that deal, as far as I can tell, is that it had been negotiated under Obama. Like a small child, Trump can’t stand knowing that someone else can do something better than he can.
And he certainly hasn’t come up with an adequate explanation for why he started this war with Iran. He keeps trying out various reasons for our going to war, but none of them makes much sense.
Trump was also going to lower prices “on day one.” Remember that?
So more than 1 ½ years after he took office, “day one” of his administration apparently hasn’t come yet. Thanks to his stupid war, and Iran’s resulting decision to shut off traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the prices for oil and anything oil-related (such as fertilizer needed by farmers) are soaring.
As for Trump’s cabinet, it would be great if we could point to at least one or two appointees who are eminently qualified for the jobs they’re in. If you can find such appointees, you’re a better sleuth than I am.
Bobby Kennedy as Secretary of Health and Human Services? Please. Kash Patel as FBI director? Gag. Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense? Ugh.
Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security and Pam Bondi as Attorney General? Even Trump got enough of those two and sacked them.
But one of the most galling types of behavior we’re watching day-today is the way Trump and members of his family constantly violate the U.S. Constitution’s Emoluments Clauses. The President is only supposed to receive a fixed salary. No gifts or “extra compensation” from anyone (foreign governments or anyone else) to pad that salary. Period.
But no. He and his family members have “side hustles” in cryptocurrency, branded merchandise, defense and tech investments (including drone manufacturing), etc., etc., etc.
And there’s the airplane he has accepted as a gift from the Qatari government, which will cost around $400 million to retrofit as Air Force One (at taxpayer expense, of course). And Trump plans to keep the plane when he leaves government in 2029 (“Money in Politics Roundup,” www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ research-reports/money-politicsroundup- february-2026).
Think that’s an exhaustive list of the ways Trump and his family have disobeyed or ignored laws, norms, and the U.S. Constitution? It’s barely a real beginning.
If the Republicans in Congress had one spine among them, they could stop him from enriching himself and his family in violation of the Constitution. They could also shut down his illegal war, stop his wrecking of the White House, and so on.
If you believe they’re ever going to do any of that, let me show you a lovely bridge over the Hudson River that I’m willing to sell you at a bargain price.