For his second term, Trump promised America the Golden Era, and what a golden era his first year has been.

On a tour of Arab states to drum up more grift in mid-May 2025, Hair Force One parked next to the discarded Boeing 747 of the Emir of Qatar.  He was smitten by the white and gold paint job and completely bowled over when he saw the interior dripping in gold.  He was sold.  Actually, he was bought (off) when the Emir grifted the plane to him. 

 

During his tour of the Far East in late October 2025, Korea gifted Trump a replica of the golden crown from their ancient Silla kingdom in an attempt to suck up to him.  They also awarded him the Grand Order of Mugunghwa, Korea’s highest decoration, a confection in gold, silver, ruby and amethyst.  This is serious gangsta bling.  It consists of an insignia worn around the neck on a thick chain, a badge affixed to sash worn over the shoulder and a star, with a ribbon and a lapel badge as necessary.  Trump’s response to the award was, “I wish I could wear it now!”

In December, FIFA also tried to pacify Trump when the hairless and toothless baby, Gianni Infantino, awarded Trump the inaugural golden FIFA Peace Prize.  After all Trump’s bewailing the injustice of the world, this was like giving a dummy to a baby to pacify it.  That night he probably gently cradled it in arms while slowly polishing it with a soft cloth, muttering, “My precious. I’m finally Lord of the Bling!”

On 15 January 2026 he finally got his Nobel Peace Prize via the back door when Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado, gave her Nobel Peace Prize medal to him in the ultimate suck up move.  What did she get from it?  Nada!  Trump declined to endorse her as Venezuela’s new leader, despite claiming victory in 2024’s elections.  In compensation, she left the White House with a Trump branded swag bag which seemed to just contain Trump merch – Bummer!  However, the Nobel committee has explicitly stated that the prize itself is not transferable – Bigly bummer!

Given Trump’s attraction to gold and his claim that his presidency is the start of America’s golden era, it’s a wonder that he hasn’t issued an executive order to the Fed Reserve ordering the words on the banknotes to be changed to, In Gold We Trust, and embossed in gold.

But in his mindless, childish and bully boy pursuit of glory and recognition, Trump has left a wake of chaos in America and the world.  The report card for his first year reveals that there was a spelling mistake: it’s the Golden ERROR, not ERA – Fail!  Will Trump see the error in his ways in his second year?  Unlikely.

An aside:  The words, In God We Trust, appear on the back of American banknotes.  Since more than 319 billion US banknotes have been printed over the last 40 years alone, the word, God, probably appears on them more than in any other published form.  So much for the separation of church and state in America.

Probably the most iconic image of Japan is the beautiful ice-capped Mount Fuji, an extinct volcano.  It was further immortalized by a series of landscape prints by the Japanese artist Hokusai produced c. 1830 and titled Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.  These are a series of woodcut prints depicting Mount Fuji from different locations and in various seasons and weather conditions.  The most famous is probably The Great Wave off Kanagawa.  They were so popular that another ten were produced.  Given that he produced these prints in his 70s, there’s hope for us pensioners yet.

Knock me down with a giant tsunami wave, but this iconic tourist touchstone has been supplanted by a modern consumer blight.  As Lilit Marcus writes in a recent CNN article, “A group of tourists follows their guide into the building, where he explains the history and context of what they’re seeing, translating signs from Japanese into English.  Wide-eyed in awe, the travellers politely ask if it’s OK to touch things and take pictures. Finally, they’re given free rein to wander around on their own, and they purchase gifts for loved ones back home.  This isn’t a Shinto temple. It’s a Japanese konbini, or convenience store, called FamilyMart.” 

Jesus, or more accurately, Hokusai wept.

The world is a dangerous place and Trump has singlehandedly taken on the Augean task of making it safer by bombing other countries, abducting their presidents, stealing tankers and their oil and threatening Greenland.  But he might get brain freeze (not that many people will notice) if he takes a bite on that icy country as it not only has 2 dogsleds to defend itself with but also a vast reserve of snowballs.

While Trump continues to party it up to the strains of Y M C A as a backing track at his rallies, he would desperately like to play hide-the-sausage with Melania, but she has been playing hide-the-crumpet for the last 20 years ever since he destroyed her trust with a Stormy tryst whilst she was birthing what turned out to be a 6’7” gormless Donald lookalike complete with a slicked back hairstyle from the 50s.  

Currently her hide-the-crumpet tactic is like the street shell game in which you’ve got to guess under which of the three cups the prize is hidden.  In her case, she could be at Mar-a-Lago, or Trump Towers in New York, or the White House.  That’s probably the reason why Trump trashed the East Wing which was the preserve of the First Lady and so cut down on her hidey holes.

She might have been happy to stay out of the limelight, but she was probably jealous of all the money the grifting Trump grime family was squeezing out of the presidency.  Light bulb moment – make a movie about herself and get Donald to lean on his billionaire supporters to fund.  And fund it, Jeff Bezos of Amazon did. The movie cost $40m ($28m to Melania) to make and a further $35m to hype.

You would be very wrong if you thought that this movie would lift the veil of secrecy on her enigmatic past (and present); how a poor little girl from backward Slovenia managed to catch Donald’s roving eye and hold on to it; or that she was an illegal immigrant using the H-1B ‘Einstein’ visa for exceptionally gifted people; and that she falsely claimed to have an Architectural degree.  It only looks at 0.1% of her life, the 20 days leading up to Trump the Stump’s Inauguration – Melania, Twenty Days to His Story (oops, I mean History).  What a pretentious movie.  It seems that my preconceptions were not misplaced as one critic remarked that it had more costume changes than The Devil Wears Prada.  How out-of-touch since Trump’s main focus when rallying the MAGA faithful, apart from insulting all and sundry, is affordability.

To hype her movie premiere (and it seems to need all the help it can get), Melania was interviewed by the Fox Newshounds, or should I say News lapdogs.  Since Trump’s favourite song that he does an old man’s dance to is Y M C A, they asked her what her favourite song was?  Somewhat confusingly she answered in her guttural Slavic accent, “It ees also, Y ‘iM Say I.”

No more nookie for the crookie!

For many people in the world, 2025 was confusing, just like a solar eclipse is to the animal kingdom – the world was turned upside down, day became night and east became west.  Political alliances were suddenly uncertain and global trade agreements were unilaterally (quite literally) upended. 

It was all due to one man, Donald J Trump, who was somehow allowed out to cosplay again as leader of the most powerful country in the world.  Apart from a rotting brain full of petty grievances, retribution and a simplistic world view he has pursued bewildering policies with the compliant help from Conservatives who control all levers of power.  All his bizarre actions ultimately have one goal – to see his name writ large. 

And he has succeeded so far. He is definitely the most talked about person in the world.  However, his orange tan addled brain does not realise that he will not be celebrated in fame, but infamy.

Most of the changes that he sought will be largely undone.  The creative destruction that his MAGAlites wanted might yield some lasting changes like woke policies becoming a bit more rational and an end to unfettered migration.  But the scars in terms of world trade, geopolitical relationships and alliances will fundamentally change.  The US has shown that its peculiar form of horse-trading democracy cannot be trusted and its guardrails are insufficient to prevent quasi-dictatorships or worse from developing in America.  Western democracies will not lightly accept American leadership in future world affairs again. Trump’s main legacy is to irrevocably hasten the end of American hegemony and Pax America and future domination by China will be brought forward by a decade or more.

History will also denote 2025 as the year that AI stopped lurking in the shadows, so together with ongoing climate change, the world will face many challenges.  However, these along with most of Trump’s outcomes will little affect the world in 2026 beyond that which have already occurred.  Hence, 2026 will be a year of upsetting and threatening actions but largely empty rhetoric and bluster while China continues to eat America’s lunch.

Braggadocio refers to empty, arrogant boasting or proud, exaggerated talk about one’s achievements, courage, or importance, often masking insecurity. It’s characterized by showboating, swagger, and self-importance. Sounds like a perfect description of Trump on a good day.

His thing with Marilyn Monroe aside, John F Kennedy was an inspirational President for America and, as such, Congress voted after his assassination that the Performing Art Center, completed in 1958, be named in his honour – The John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. In any case, just being assassinated while in office normally ensures immortality, but he deserved it. As opposed to Trump, he actually fought in a vicious war, WWII, and did not use fictitious bone spurs to get out of it. He commanded a small motor torpedo boat in the ‘slot’ of the Solomon Islands and was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his heroic actions over a period of six days in saving his crew when his boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer.

Fast forward to his presidency. His impact on geopolitics and American self-belief was significant. On January 20, 1961, he delivered his inaugural address with the conclusion that inspired a generation with the words, “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country. …” He never boasted about his crowd size nor did he insult his predecessors or talk about himself. Rather he was unifying and focussed on the future of America and its leadership role in the world.

After the erection of the infamous Berlin Wall, he visited West Berlin to reassure them of US support by declaring “Ich bin ein Berliner” (I am a Berliner). Although lagging behind the USSR in the space race, in 1963 he committed America to landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade which they did with five months to spare.

But his biggest achievement was staring down the Soviet Union. The nuclear arms race was becoming deadly serious when US intelligence picked up in late October 1962 that Russia intended placing nuclear missiles close offshore in Cuba. Kennedy decided on a naval blockade of Cuba and although nuclear tensions ratcheted up, he stood firm until Russia backed down. This is diametrically opposite to Trump’s craven sucking up to Russia for personal enrichment in the post-war reconstruction.

Compared to Trump, JFK was a giant yet Trump had the temerity to have his tacky name tacked onto the Memorial Center’s existing name. The only thing he has in common with JFK is the name of John. When asked about the change, he feigned surprise and pretended he had nothing to do with it. Pull the other one.

Shortly after taking office, Trump fired all the Center’s board members, and replaced them with stooges, who then voted to make him chairman of the board. He teased the name change and, although superficially nothing was happening, a lot was obviously going on behind the scenes. This is witnessed by the fact that after the Board voted for the change, the extra signage was immediately installed on 18 December 2025.

It remains to be seen whether it will remain so. The original name was conferred by an Act of Congress, hence a change to it would also need Congressional approval. In typical Trump style, thinking he is master of the universe, he acts faster than the system and then dares Congress or the legal system to overcome their inherent inertia to thwart him. Perhaps it is appropriate that Trump’s name has been attached to the Center for the Performing Arts after all, since both of Trump’s presidencies have been a gigantic over-the-top metaphorical cosplay dedicated to himself.

It is said that there are five stages of grief, but it seems as if one only needs three stages of shaming to reach the depths of one’s depravity if one is a narcissist.  This is the level Trump has reached in his latest bout of childish pettiness.  I’m talking about the Trump Arab chic touch to the colonnaded walkway that connects the White House proper to the West Wing.  It is a pleasant walk along the front face of the White House complex with Lafayette Square and the city beyond as a backdrop.  Many heads of State and other dignitaries walk along this connection.

Stage 1:  A brain fart in the ‘wee’ hours of the morning kicked off the process.  While ruminating on the state of the presidential prostate, Trump conceives a brilliant idea.  Since his brain is like a child’s that can’t abide a blank wall without scribbling on it, he decides that he will line the wall with portraits of every president mounted in his go to gold baroque frames.  Not a bad idea except that in his pathetically childish and churlish way he could not resist sticking up a picture of Biden’s autopen instead of his face.

Stage 2:  He stood back and admired his work, particularly those of himself, and felt like God after he had created Adam.  But there was something missing.  Hmm, some décor touches maybe?  This thought nagged at his wizened little brain.  In another early morning brain fart between rants on Truth Social while on the toilet waiting for his prostate to behave, it came to him.  Eureka, I have it he shrieked as he rushed into Melania’s room with his robe flapping around the Royal white bum, but Melania was hiding in her cupboard.  Undaunted, he woke up his staff and explained what was needed.  Just like the Oval Office when all the portraits had been put up, he had added his chintzy gold applique tat on spare wall space to complete his personal Garden of Eden. And so it was to be for the walkway particularly since he had some spare tat leftover from the Oval Office décor upgrade.

Stage 3:  He still was not satisfied.  Just like God who demanded that he be routinely praised and his foes demonized, He wasn’t going to wait for his MAGA flock.  He was going to take that onerous job on Himself.  He conceived putting gold lettered plaques below each portrait describing the respective Presidents.  He doubled up plaques for himself and the two that give him irritable bowel syndrome – Biden and Obama.  Naturally his eulogy of himself was straight out of some book of fables (actually his Truth Social posts of self praises and false claims).  For Biden, in particular, he hauled out all his campaign slurs like, “nicknamed ‘Sleepy’ and ‘Crooked’ Joe Biden …”  Of course, the only person who used that nickname was the petty petulant President Himself.  Amongst other false claims, he reiterated his claim that Biden was, “by far, the worst President in American History,” as well as the comprehensively debunked claims of the 2020 stolen election.

Most of us at one time or another have had an earworm apart from RFKjr, of course, who had a brain worm which soon died of indigestion.  For many this takes the form of a song.  Abba produced many ear worms which catch people of a certain age unawares.  Some even have to resort to therapy or psychedelics to get rid of them.  Mine tend to be The End by The Doors or something by Neil Young – but that’s me.  Trump’s musical ear worm is obviously YMCA (You Make Crap Again) which he dances to with gay abandon.  But he has another, more sinister ear worm.

It’s one he’s had since the early 2000s when Western banks started seeing the charlatan as a bad risk and he broke bread with Russian money men.  His peak interaction with them and probably their honey trap came in 2013 when he staged his Miss Universe contest in Moscow.  He’s had their back ever since then and they seem to have his balls in a jar in the Kremlin.  They probably term it Kremlin Brûlée, the ultimate honey trap.

Normally, Americans celebrate Thanksgiving by serving turkey to be ritually carved up by the head of the house for his guests.  This year, it is not Turkey but but that tough old bird, the Ukraine, that the head of the world, if not the universe, wishes to serve up to Russia with his demand that Zelensky surrenders by Thursday, 27 November – Thanksgiving Day.  On top of it all Trump demands that the turkey prostrates itself in gratitude for being carved up which he says they have never done.  Poor hard-done-by bully-boy Trump.

As usual, the gap between Trump’s statements of fact and the truth is wider than the Gulf of America (formerly known as Mexico).  Since the war began, Zelensky has expressed his gratitude to America and its leaders no less than 78 times.  40 of those have been on X (formerly known as Twitter) and many addressed to Trump (formerly known as accused number 1).

What transpired roughly a week ago was a unilateral announcement of a 28-point peace plan for the 3½ year Ukraine-Russian war with the simultaneous demand of the immediate surrender by Thanksgiving.  This shocked the world because this was ‘negotiated’ between Russia and Steven Witkoff, Trump’s real estate developer buddy, without input from NATO, the EU or the main victim of Russia’s aggression, the Ukraine!

However, it transpired that Witkoff was not acting as an unbiased intermediatory but actually an interlocuter for Putin as all the 28 points were just Putin’s talking points.  The deep concern expressed by the unconsulted Ukraine and EU led Trump to have to pivot.  Soon he was saying this was just the beginning of a consultative process, blah, blah, blah.  Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.

Trump doesn’t give a damn about the security guarantees that America signed or for the Ukrainian soldiers and citizens who have been brutalised and murdered by Russian soldiers.  He wants a deal on Putin’s terms because then Putin will welcome Trump Inc with all their ‘beautiful’ real estate developments and other deals into Russia. 

One must factor in Trump’s motivations into all his words and actions.  He does not have a scintilla of morality, conscience or sense of justice.  It’s like he was lobotomised at birth.   It’s all about ME.

Trump has brought his unique bully-boy, manchild character to Washington.  Along with this came his barely formed aesthetic – white and gold – and he is steadily changing the White House into a Washington version of his Mar-a-Laager private club crossed with his bankrupt Taj Mahal casino. Given his immature sense of style, he is probably somewhere on the autistic spectrum and suffers from ADADHD – Arrested Development, Attention Deficit, Hype-ing Disorder.

Continue reading

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies. – Groucho Marx.

Along with all his other factory defects, this saying describes Trump as a politician pretty well.  What it does not say about him is the insulting and threatening way he applies his wayward policies via executive orders, ‘Truth’ Social posts or demands on the stump.

Then of course, there is the reversal of his position, sometimes multiple times.  In a recent example, earlier in this term he stated that he would “aggressively revoke” Chinese student visas because they were stealing America’s technology.  This Monday, he did a complete volte-face, or is it a volte-farce, when he welcomed Chinese students but was ambivalent about the French just because he dislikes President Micron.  In fact, every time they meet, he gets into a pissing contest with an endless who-has-the-manliest handshake.

Throughout his life Trump has used his wealth and thick skin to exaggerate, lie and bully everyone he has had business dealings with.  In 2016 he suddenly found himself CEO of the biggest corporation in the world, USA Inc.  He created a shambles then but he still had his training wheels on.  After he lost to Biden, he spent four years having a pity party while marinating in his grievances and applying Mac sauce on his bone spurs.  All the while he was building up a head of steam and had the support of Project 2025 with their 1000-page manifesto of how to govern America outside of the legal system and every rule, regulation and norm that has restrained every President before him.  Basically his approach is, “I don’t give a F%$K!”  After all, his toadies in the Supreme Court had his back when they ruled that he had immunity as long as his actions had something vaguely to do with being President.

Having created a cabinet of unqualified dingleberries[1] prepared to do anything, he has attacked his political enemies, real or imaginary, bombed Iran’s nuclear program into oblivion, made enemies of America’s strongest ally, Canada,  alienated most western democracies, ignited a tariff war, sometimes for non-technical reasons, which is not his right under American or international law, pardoned Jan 6 insurrectionists and election officials trying to carry out his illegal wishes, gutted just about every Federal agency responsible for keeping America sane and safe – medically, environmentally, educationally, flying safely, predicting the weather correctly – and has sicced the Justice Department on everyone and everything he does not like, particularly immigrants.  All the while he dares all the courts up to the Supreme Court to rein him in.  He has halted all programs to provide clean energy while China adds more solar annually than what exists in America.  He has withheld grants from top universities which he dislikes and opines that he knows better than engineers that old-tech steam catapults are best.

He is a President without precedent.  All around him is chaos, dysfunction and mayhem. Yet he continues to live his King Midas dream while everything he touches proves to be fool’s gold.    

---

[1] Dingleberry – a small piece of dried faeces clinging to the hair around the anus of an animal or person.