*** “We must never forget that international friendship is achieved through rumors ignored, propaganda challenged and exposed, through patient loyalty to those who have proved themselves worthy of it; through help freely given, where help is needed and merited…Peace is more a product of our day-to-day living than of a spectacular program, intermittently executed.” [ Dwight D. Eisenhower; Republican; 34th U.S. President ]
This post BEGINS to discuss the consequences, the DAMAGE, the DANGER, the STUPIDITY, the Cruelty – of Donald Trump’s cuts to American foreign aid around the world. Begin with a partial list of aid cooperation programs America started, has joined: Agency for International Development, Alliance for Progress, Asian Development Bank, Developing Country, Food and Agriculture Organization, International Development Association, Marshall Plan, Peace Corps, UNESCO, World Health Organization.
WHY did America do this, and much more? Partly for humanitarian reasons; partly because it was in OUR self-interest to help others. – thus maintaining peace, often creating markets for American products. Intelligent people knew American “soft power” was a key to American prosperity. People respected America for being generous. – they looked upon America favorably…..
Because of GREED, selfishness, not taxing the rich, and whatever else percolates in Donald Trump’s mind – and possibly “Project 2025” mandates. – his DICTATORSHIP’s policies will COST AMERICA MUCH, in many ways…
Presented below are SOME costs from Trump’s international Stupidity and Ignorance:
A]. “When Trump and Musk slashed aid they left us vulnerable, too”. [Nicholas Kristof; New York Times; 6/8/26 ]:
1] “After Elon Musk “spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chopper,”…he and President Donald Trump ridiculed American humanitarian aid as, in effect, woke nonsense. Yet in reality American humanitarian aid not only saved one life every 10 seconds but was also safeguarding the world from epidemics.”
2]. “..in three ways, Trump’s assault on global health has left us in a worse position to combat Ebola…The first failing was the destruction of USAID…..The second failing ..was its hostility to the World Health Organization….The third failing is simply the administration’s disregard for public health and lack of preparation.”
***. “Whoever has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need, and has no pity on him, how dwells the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love merely in word, neither in speech, but in deed and truth.” [ I John 3: 17-18 ]
3]. “I don’t think there is any way that this outbreak would have been missed for so long if all those programs were still at full strength and the USAID mission team was still there.”
4]. “With Ebola, time is lives,” Dr. Tom Frieden..”
5]. “Trump not only withdrew the United States from the WHO, but his administration also reportedly barred some U.S. health officials even from communicating with counterparts there.” [ So – ignorance is going to keep America healthy?}
***. “In public affairs, stupidity is more dangerous than knavery.” [ Woodrow Wilson; 28th U.S. President ]
6] “The Trump administration also left positions for disease preparedness vacant. It cut funding for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which is helping develop a vaccine for this strain of Ebola.”
7] “The fecklessness of Washington officials, recklessly cutting programs they don’t understand, contrasts with the raw courage of doctors, nurses, aid workers and burial teams in places like Congo who are risking their lives and making do without adequate supplies to stop this outbreak.”
8] “The USAID cuts were lethal: I’ve documented how we let children die from malaria for want of $2 mosquito bed nets or from starvation because we couldn’t be bothered to provide 50-cent packets of peanut paste. A Boston University researcher estimates that the aid cuts have already cost more than 750,000 lives worldwide.”
*** “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you.” [ John 13: 34 ]
B] “Cuts to Foreign Aid Are Trump’s Most Lethal Policy”. [ Nicholas Kristof; New York Times; 9/20/25 ]:
1] “..the shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development will cost taxpayers $6.4 billion over two years…the subject of earlier reporting by Bloomberg Government, said the money is necessary to manage “litigation, claims, residual payments and closeout activities. That’s enough money to save more than one million children’s lives.”
2]. “..the Trump administration is sitting on huge stockpiles of R.U.T.F. purchased under the Biden administration…300,000 cases in warehouses of Mana Nutrition…and 185,535 more cases sit in the warehouse of another manufacturer, Edesia Nutrition, in Rhode Island, where we pay to store it….storage costs that amount to more than $600,000 so far…rather than rush it to children like Fred who may die for want of it..”
*** “WE may well be unable to afford to be the world’s policeman, but neither can we afford to fail to live up to the responsibilities that the accidents of a bountiful land and a beneficient fate have placed upon us.”
[ General William Westmoreland ]
C] “Trump’s Aid Cuts Kill More Christians Than Jihadists Do” [ Nicholas Kristof; New York Times; 11/9/25 ]:
1] “A radical theme of Jesus’ teachings, as the scholar Bart Ehrman notes in..”Love Thy Stranger,” was his emphasis on empathy for all people, including strangers outside one’s circle.”
***. “Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.” [ Fredrich von Schiller ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXXXVII – “How the A.I. Oligarchy Devoured America”
***. “The term oligarchy traditionally has been seen as the rule of a selfish few over a whole community.”
[ World Book Encyclopedia ]
Technology can be “good”, or it can be “bad,” depending on how it is used, and, WHO controls it. This post presents excerpts from. “Empire Builders”. [ Tim Murphy; Mother Jones; May-June, 2026 ]:
3] “The AI boom has ushered oligarchy onto a new plane by uniting the monopolistic ambitions of the world’s richest men with the nationalist ambitions of their political champions. In the process, it has sparked a reckoning..across the political spectrum, over the demand for resources and tax dollars and over what kind of future we might build….The data centers have, in a sense, transformed opaque structures of inequality and power into literal ones. Oligarchy is now more than an idea; it is a place. Across the country, the empire builders of AI have sold themselves as the gateway to the future you’ve always dreamed of, and the solution to the problems they helped bring about.”
10] “The amount of power needed to keep the data center boom going is astounding. An analysis by Accenture projected that by 2030, energy demand for data centers would be equivalent to that of the entire country of Canada, and trhe industry’s share of global emissions could jump elevenfold. Another study projected that data center use would account for roughly 12 percent of all U.S. energy consumption in that same time frame, up threefold from the start of the boom.”
*** “If Republican leaders are willing to enable Trump’s autocratic enthusiasms in return for oligarchy, American democracy will die.” [ Heather Cox Richardson ]
7] “..the conversations that AI proponents are having in public right now tell a simpler and less idealistic story: The people who claim to be building the future traded the dream of democratic abundance for a strongman who will make them money In September, a few dozen tech luminaries gathered at the White House to promote first lady Melania Trump’s initiative to encourage children to use AI. The ulterior motive for the summit came into focus…when the president called on the AI moguls one by one to say a few words about their work.
“I just wanted to say thank you, said OpenAI President Greg Brockman, for the administration’s “optimism.” “Thank you for being such a pro-business, pro-innovation president – it’s a very refreshing change,” said Altman…..Bill Gates…..Microsoft’s Satya Nadella…..Apple’s Tim Cook…..a lesser autocrat might have kept off camera but that Trump found value in showing the world. The AI executives offered him ballroom donations, settlement checks, and legitimacy. He offered them deals, deregulation, and deference. It was important that everyone understand the arrangement.”
11] “A study by two Harvard Law School researchers found that consumers would end up paying billions to underwrite tech companies’ power infrastructure – to say nothing of billions of dollars in tax breaks. A CNBC analyst found 16 states doled out $6 billion worth of tax breaks over the last five years. In New Jersey, the AI expansion drove a 22 percent hike in electric rates year over year.”
***. “When economic power became concentrated in a few hands, then political power flowed to those possessors and away from the citizens, ultimately resulting in an oligarchy or tyranny.”
[ John Adams; Founding Father; 2nd U.S. President ]
1] “But the thing about building a data center this big you cannot simply build a data center – you must build a whole world to go with it. You need three new power plants and transmission lines to connect them to the grid. You need hundreds of millions of gallons of water and miles of pipes. You must pave roads and build new ones, clear fields and build ponds. You need a port to bring in gravel and dirt from wherever you can get it. You need stoplights and sheriff’s deputies and laundromats. You need thousands of workers and places to house them – executive lodging, cheap motels, and man camps with movie theaters and gyms.”
2]. “If the economic story of the last two decades was the consolidation of wealth and power in Silicon Valley, the story of the last few years is what tech billionaires want to do with it. Since the summer of 2024, America’s richest men have been on a building spree with few precedents in recent history. The scale of the investment…is so vast that proponents have turned to previous eras of reckless extraction and technological advancement to describe it. Energy Secretary Chris Wright called it “Manhattan Project 2.”
4]. “But at one Google site in The Dalles..an offer of $260 million in incentives and a third of the city’s 2024 water supply had resulted in just 200 full-time jobs – many of them off site. The same narratives pop up again and again. Communities are essentially given a choice: Approve it fast or watch some other town reap the rewards – and miss out on future investments..”
***. “..if the U.S. had remained as equitable as it was in 1975 for the next forty-three years therough 2018, the bottom 90 percent of Americans would have earned an extra $47 trillion. Instead that money went to people already at the top, who use that money, among other things, to influence the political system and to hoard real estate.”
[ Alec Karakatsanis ]. [NOTE – think on this. THIS is part of the THEFT the top 15 has done. ]
5] “The rise of the American oligarchy happened slowly and then all at once…you’d see a steady upward slope from Clinton-era deregulation to bush-era tax cuts to Obama-era techno-optimism and on through Trump’s first term. Then it spiked. Between 2000 and 2020, as tech monopolies consolidated power, the share of the nation’s wealth held by the top 0.00001 percent roughly doubled. By the end of 2025, it had nearly doubled again. it is no longer novel or even particularly accurate to note that the richest Americans control a greater share of resources than theydid during the Gilded Age..”
6] “The American oligarchy is an AI oligarchy. The world’s six richest men as of early March were all actively involved in AI development…There are 10 trillion-dollar companies, and nine of them are in AI.”
8]. “The implicit promise of the AI revolution is that all the things made worse by AI will eventually be fixed by AI. Some oligarchs are even pitching AI as a solution to the problems oligarchy has helped bring about.”
*** “To bring about government by oligarchy, masquerading as democracy, it is fundamentally essential that practically all authority and control be centralized in our Federal government…The individual sovereignty of our states must first be destroyed.” [ Franklin D. Roosevelt; 32nd U.S. President ]
9] “Whereas Russia’s kleptocrats started off in extractive mineral industries and then branched out into tech and finance, American’s oligarchs made their fortunes online before pivoting to natural resources.”
12] “All this dirty energy means that, as with public health, oligarchy is slowing our progress on climate…[Trump’s]..agencies are rolling back clean air regulations…the increased power use by the AI industry would produce about $20 billion in public health damages by 2028.”
13]. “The Colossus of Memphis sends a signal about what the oligarchy is that all the whirring servers of the world can’t drown out – shimmering hot air, a reckless consolidation of power, a new extractive machine built on the foundations of old ones.”
*** “Oligarchies, throughout history, have always thought more of their own advantage than that of the rest of the community. It was revolt against the selfishness of past political oligarchies that produced the liberal movement in favor of democracy, and it was the revolt against economic oligarchies that produced socialism.”
[ Bertrand Russell ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXXXVI. – Trump’s Ideological Tests for YOUR Government’s Grants
*** “In private speeches delivered in 2023 and 2024, Russell Vought..described his work crafting legal justifications so military leaders or government lawyers would not stop Trump’s executive actions. He said the plans are a response to a “Marxist takeover” of the country… Another priority, according to Vought, was to “defund” certain independent federal agencies and demonize career civil servants..” [Molly Redden, Andy Kroll, ProPublica; Nick Surgey, Documented: “‘Put Them in Trauma’: Inside a key MAGA Leader’s Plans for a New Trump Agenda”; The Progressive Populist; December 1, 2024 ]
This post presents excerpts from. “Billions in grants could depend on political test….White House would block funding if plans don’t align with Trump”; Tony Romm; New York Times; 6/3/26 ]:
7] “The proposal was only the latest attempt by the Office of Management and Budget, led by Russell T. Vought, to exert power over federal funding. The preamble to its sprawling new blueprint reaffirmed Vought’s view that much of the government’s ledger is riddled with spending that is wasteful, “divisive” or “woke.”
4] “The government could not issue grants to projects or groups that…”promote anti-American values”..”
9] “.. the administration has stalled or blocked aid for child care, disaster preparedness, green energy, education, food stamps, foreign assistance, mental health, public broadcasting, research and transportation infrastructure….In cases that date back to the early, disruptive days of the Department of Government Efficiency, judges have found that many of Trump’s actions have violated the law.”
***. “In papers and legal memos, Vought and his associates have articulated a vast array of dubious maneuvers to remake American democracy…Their plans to remove checks and balances and challenge long-established constraints on executive overreach, if realized, would unleash a Trump presidency battle-tested to turn gripe into policy.” [Isabella Dias: “The Architect…Trump wants to be King, Russ Vought has a Plan to Make It Happen”; Mother Jones; November-December, 2024 ]
1] “The White House is seeking to exert more control over billions of dollars in annual government grants, aiming to restrict a vast swath of funding – in health, housing, science and transportation. – so that it primarily serves the purposes and organizations politically aligned with President Donald Trump.”
2]. “..its proposal amounts to a major escalation in its attempt to reimagine the nation’s spending, even as Congress and the courts continue to rebuke the president for abusing such powers.”
3]. “If finalized, it would require all federal grants to be approved by the president’s political appointees, who must ensure that the money would “demonstrably advance the president’s policy priorities.”
***. “.. Vought nurtures a far more expansive. – and alarming. – ambition: to institute a new governing paradigm predicated on unrestrained presidential authority. With Vought as the architect, Trump could take his “dictator” on “day one” aspirations beyond words..” [Isabella Dias: “The Architect”; Mother Jones; November-December, 2024]
5]. “Restrictions echo the string of executive orders that Trump signed shortly after returning to office, many of which have been challenged or blocked in court. This time, however, the White House has pursued its restrictions by proposing a regulation…The result could be applied far more broadly, and perhaps in ways that are harder to fight legally or undo later..”
6]. “In exchange for federal assistance, researchers would face limits on the subjects that they can explore, the foreign labs with which they collaborate and even the conferences at which they can appear.”
8]. “Trump has frequently disregarded the instructions of Congress anyway..”
*** “During the first five months of the 2016 GOP primaries, the New York Times was so struck by Trump’s demagogic rhetoric they gathered and analyzed “every public utterance” by him, some 95,000 words. They retained historians, psychologists, and political scientists to review the material, and the experts concluded it echoed “some of the [worst] demagogues of the past century.” [ John W. Dean, bob Altemeyer: “Authoritarian Nightmare… Trump and His Followers” ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXXXV. – “Trump Keeps Pushing Plans People Dislike”
***. “..the last forty-four presidents all pursued policies that they believed would make for a better America tomorrow. The Trump presidency is about Trump. Period. Full stop. He says so himself all the time..”
[ Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “It’s Even Worse Than You Think” ]
This post presents excerpts from. “Trump Keeps Pushing Plans People Dislike”. [ Luke Broadwater; New York Times; 5/24/26 ]:
7] “Mr. Trump has seemed unconcerned about whether these ideas are popular with voters, and has lamented openly that Democrats are likely to gain ground in the midterm elections. He has been most animated when discussing how he exacts vengeance on Republicans who criticize him.”
8] “Ms. Binder said she took Mr. Trump at his word when he argued last year that he had little further use for Congress, a suggestion that he could enact most of his agenda by circumventing lawmakers…..”He’s focused on the arch. I think he’s focused on his own personal legacy. He’s focused on vengeance,” she said.”
*** “According to Malkin, political leaders such as Hitler, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong-un exhibit malignant narcissism. As Robert Jay Lifton notes in “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” such narcissism in a leader can lead to “malignant normality”…people can come to accept aberrant and even pathological behavior as a new norm, especially when it is exhibited by an authority figure. He applies this to Trump.” [ Steven Hassan: “The Cult of Trump”]
1] “…his grip over Republican lawmakers began slipping after he proposed a pair of deeply unpopular spending items, prompting an unusual revolt from the Senate. When faced with such a backlash ahead of midterm elections, many politicians would pivot, redirecting their focus ti issues they are on stronger footing with. But Mr. Trump has decided to double down, presenting himself as all-powerful even in the face of indications that he is not.”
2] “Over the years, Mr. Trump has often appeared to have an air of invincibility…He has successfully exacted retribution on many a perceived enemy. Now, with less than three years left in office, he seems comfortable burning whatever political capital he has in order to leave his legacy, even if it drags his party down in the process.”
3] “Rather than abandon his plan for a $1.8 billion fund to reward allies who claim they were persecuted by Democrats, mr. Trump has defended the proposal, suggesting he could have used the taxpayer money to enrich himself…..”Instead, I am helping others, who were so badly abused by an evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden administration..”
***. “Tell a lie loud enough and long enough and people will believe it.” [ Adolf Hitler ]
4] “The meeting went so poorly for Mr. Blanche that party leaders scrapped planned votes on another of Mr. Trump’s top priorities: a $72 billion immigration crackdown measure lawmakers had planned to muscle through before memorial Day.”
5] “Mr. Trump was also undeterred when another unpopular policy position – using taxpayer money to help fund security for his $400 million luxury ballroom on White House grounds – was met with backlash on Capitol Hill.”
6]. “Another dynamic at play in the Trump White House is a lack of dissenting voices to some of the president’s most extreme ideas. In mr. Trump’s first term, some of the president’s radical ideas were checked by aides like John F. Kelly..Jim Mattis..Gary Cohn… But these men are long gone, and their positions have been filled mostly by people who are true believers.”
***. “Lincoln never forgot that in a democracy the leader’s strength ultimately depends on the strength of his bond with the people. In the mornings he set aside several hours to hear the needs of the ordinary people lined up outside his office, his time of “public opinion baths.” Kindness, empathy, humor, passion, and ambition all marked him from the start.” [ Pulitzer Prize winner Doris Kearns Goodwin: “Leadership” ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXXXIV. – “Dumb and dumber, Republican-style”
***. “corruption as commonly understood is back to Gilded Age levels..Never since the scandal-ridden administration of Ulysses S. Grant has there been an executive branch as nakedly given over to self-dealing as that of Donald Trump. To describe even a few of the dynamics not yet mentioned would take pages.” [Sarah Chayes: “On Corruption In America”]
This post presents excerpts from George Will’s. “Dumb and dumber, Republican-style” [St. Paul Pioneer Press; 5/24/26]:
1]. “In this past week, the Republican Party has accomplished something difficult: It made itself stupider. It subtracted from its already shallow reservoir of intelligence by moving to purge two fine senators. And its embodiment authored a novel grift.”
6] “There is a sort of artistry, akin to the shenanigans used to cook Enron’d books, in Trump’s attempt to fleece taxpayers for a $1.776 billion [get it? this is patriotic] slush fund to be doled out by his friends to his accomplices. The doling will be done by a board appointed by the attorney general, who serves at the president’s pleasure. Trump can fire the board members for any reason. And the fund will disappear immediately after the 2028 election.” [!!!!!!!!!!!!]
*** “There’s an honest graft, and I’m an example of how it works. I might sum up the whole thing by sayin”: “I seen my opportunities and I took ’em.” [ Tammany Hall ward boss, George Washington Plunkitt, in: “Plunkitt of Tammany Hall”, by William L. Riordon ]
2]. “..the two senators will be replaced on this autumn’s ballots by persons who, if elected…can be counted on to be exactly what no senator should be: another of the president’s congressional sock puppets, promising, as a high principle, not to think independently.”
3] “His scarlet sin was to have believed that Donald Trump’s urging a mob to stop Congress from certifying the results of a presidential election constituted an impeachable offense. Cassidy’s departure will subtract most of the Senate membership interested in responding to the approaching crisis of Social Security funding.”
4]. “Cassidy’s genuine sin – casting the decisive vote that put an amateur quack [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] at the pinnacle of the public health system. – probably pleased the yahoos who wanted Cassidy gone. He will be replaced by a Republican whose identity does not matter: He or she will be a cipher, vigorously subservient to Trump.”
***. “as president – Trump’s ignorance of science…many of them had no qualifications whatsoever…The Trump administration deposited political termites throughout the structure of our government.” [ Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “It’s Even Worse Than You Think” ]
5] “..Trump surely, correctly, sees in Paxton a kindred spirit…He is a pinup of religious “conservatives” who disregard his lurid personal life.”
7} “In January, Trump sued the IRS [the head of which serves at the pleasure of the president] for $10 billion. this was a prelude to this week’s ‘compromise.” Trump – essentially negotiating with himself, sitting on both sides of the table – agreed to drop this suit. In exchange, the Justice Department [its head serves at Trump’s pleasure] agreed to create a $1.776 billion fund to compensate government “lawfare” victims”. [NOTE – but the fund will NOT compensate any person, any city, any state victimized the the Trump DICTATORSHIP’s persecution or prosecution !!!!!!!!!!!!]
8]. “Purging senators while complaining about “lawfare” but punishing law firms he dislikes…Sophists devoted to obfuscating the obvious will insist that Trump, not the Republican Party, is doing all this. But sentient people know it is a distinction without a difference.”
***. “Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.” [ Henry Clay; U.S. Senator; 1829 ]
***. “The point is you can’t be too greedy.” [ Donald John Trump: “The Art of the Deal” ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXXXIII – Trump Votes By Mail !!!!!!!!!!
***. “There is not in human nature a more odious disposition than a proneness to contempt, which is a mixture of pride, and ill-nature. – It is the truest symptom of a base and bad heart.” [ Henry Fielding ]
1]. “Trump votes by mail after calling it ‘cheating'” [ Erica Green; New York Times; 3/25/26 ] IN YOUR FACE AMERICA!!! I, Donald John Trump can do whatever I want – you can’t !!!!!!! Because I make the rules!!!
this post will BEGIN to look at the FRAUD. of Trump’s various FALSE claims on cheating in American elections. – a reflection of his massive, fragile ego. “entailed by his belief that it is theoretically impossible for him to lose at anything.” [ George Will: “Trump’s ‘stolen election’ obsession”; Washington Post Weekly; 2/22/26 ]
NOTHING better illustrates Trump’s CONTEMPT for YOU and all other ordinary Americans than him voting by mail when he says it’s “crooked.” NOTHING better illustrates Trump’s LYING than falsely claiming there is massive cheating in American elections. – when ALL studies reveal this a COMPLETE LIE. NOTHING better illustrates Trump’s intent to continue the TRUMP DICTATORSHIP than his numerous attempts to rig the 2026 elections. – to prevent a REAL. Congress that would check his authoritarian “Project 2025” efforts. – as the Founders intended.
2]. “The president’s rationale for this dangerous proposal is even more alarming. He cited the opinion of Russian President Vladimir Putin to support his position..” [ Mary Hartnett: “Reject Trump’s attempt to undermine absentee and mail-in voting”; Minnesota Star Tribune; 8/25/25 ]
3] “Out of 49.5 million voter registrations that have been checked, the department referred around 10,000 cases to Homeland Security Investigations for further investigation of noncitizenship, or roughly 0.02%..” [ Alexandra Berzon, Nick Corasaniti: new York Times; 1/15/26 ]
4]. “Republicans could keep millions from voting SAVE Act, Trump order present array of hurdles” [ Janet Moore; Minnesota Star Tribune; 5/10/25 ]. Among the issues which could prevent people from voting: 69 million women changed their last names after marriage; 5% of men took. their wife’s last name; men who hyphenated their last name after marriage; rural college students; members of the military; millions don’t have a passport; 140 million Real IDs can’t be used as proof of citizenship; people who recently moved. Do YOU have your birth certificate???
***. “It’s not the people who vote that count. It’s the people who count the votes.” [ Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin ]
5]. “But as Trump has escalated efforts to involve the administration in election and voting matters while also eliminating programs designed to fortify these systems against attacks, secretaries of state and other top state officials, including some Republican ones, have begun to sound alarms.” [Nick Corasaniti: “alarms sound on Trump’s voting call”; New York Times; 2/8/26 ]
6] “A documentary proof-of-citizenship requirement for voting…is being pushed by America First Legal, a conservative group co-founded by Stephen Miller, the Republican president’s deputy chief of staff.” [ Julie Carr Smyth; “Barriers To Voting Pushed; Associated Press; 10/26/25 ]
7]. “Trump is basically destroying the federal statistical system,” said Margo Anderson, a professor emerita at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who has written extensively on the history of the census. “He wants numbers that support his political accomplishments, such as he sees them.” [ Josh Boak, Mike Schneider, Joey Cappelletti: “Trump” Census to exclude migrants in U.S. illegally”; Associated Press; 8/8/25 ]
8]. “Trump often shouts fraud before an election that he fears losing, but this year he has intensified his drumbeat of threats, warnings and false claims about voting.” [ Shane Goldmacher, Nick Corasaniti: “Trump’s election efforts spur fears”; New York Times; 2/27/26 ]
***. “Beginning on his first day in office and continuing the past year in plain view of the American people, Donald Trump has orchestrated and led a sweeping federal government effort to subvert the mid-term elections,” said J. Michael Luttig, a conservative retired federal appeals court judge..” [ Goldmacher, Corasaniti – #8 above ]
9]. “Today, an all-out gerrymandering war, sparked by President Trump, has erupted nation-wide…to redraw congressional maps in hopes of maximizing their arty’s chances of controlling the House of Representatives after the 2026 midterm elections.” [ Richard Fausset, Nick Corasaniti: “Gerrymandering War Spreading Across u.S. is A Crisis, Experts Say”; new York Times; 11/9/25 ]
10] “..Trump called for GOP officials to “take over” voting procedures in 15 states…”The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over,'” he said. “We should take over the voting…The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.” [ Reid Epstein, Nick Corasaniti: “Trump, in an escalation, calls for GOP to ‘nationalize’ elections”; new York Times; 2/4/26]
11]. “The U.s. Department of Justice has filed lawsuits in 23 states and the District of Columbia seeking access to detailed voter information for the purpose of building a national database. The department’s request sets a dangerous precedent and could expose millions of Americans to fraud, abuse and other nefarious activities.” [ Barbara McQuade: “The DOJ suing for voter data is dangerous on many levels”; St. Paul Pioneer Press; 1/15/26 ]
12]. “President Donald Trump is engaged in an unprecedented attempt to manipulate the midterm elections. Not only has he demanded that Texas redraw its congressional districts, he’s now got Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice embarking on another insidious strategy: Building a dossier of private information on every voter that Trump can use for political advantage.” {Mary Ellen Klass: “DOJ’s push to collect data is a fishing expedition”; St. Paul Pioneer Press; 8/10/25 ]
13] “That order embodies the right’s lie that elections have been ‘stolen,’ and it is a clear example of how Project 2025 has made prosecuting so-called election fraud a policy objective. Trump’s latest, a missive on mail-in voting, is just moving that same ball forward. Whether the executive order ever materializes or is enacted, it matters that when the president reaches for a strategic distraction, he chooses one that matches Project 2025’s goals.” [ Tressie McMillan Cotton: “Trump’s Voting Rights Chaos is A Pattern”; New York Times; 8/24/25 ]
***. “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” [ Lord Acton ]
[NOTE: Trump and his Republican allies have done much to corrupt American elections, this post is only #1. Other’s include: “Project 2026. Trump’s Plan to Hijack the Next Election”; “The Coming Election Mayhem”; “Antidemocratic…Inside the Far Right’s 50-Year Plot to control American Elections”. Dictatorships don’t die willingly.]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXXXII. – Trump Destroys American Government
*** “No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump…He is the most dangerous person ever…I talked to you about his mental decline..now I realize he’s a total fascist…A fascist to the core.” General Mark Miley – in Pulitzer Prize winner Bob Woodward”s “War’ ] [NOTE: take so time… mull this over. Look at WHO said these words. Ask YOURSELF. – WHY – What events led General Miley to say this???]
This post presents excerpts from. “The Purged… Donald Trump’s Destruction Of The Civil Service Is A Tragedy Not Just For The Roughly 300,000 Workers Who Have Been Discarded, But For An Entire Nation.” [Franklin Foer; The Atlantic; February, 2026. Read the mini biographies of 50 former U.S. government experts to understand partially. WHY Trump’s destruction of. YOUR. government will take years, if not decades, to rebuild and repair. Trump and Musk fired people who’s job was to protect America and make America run efficiently for. YOU. 80% of U.S. government employees work outside Washington. YOUR community and YOUR. state will most likely not work as well or efficiently. THIS is one of THE most STUPID things Trump has done. “The damage will ripple through every national park, every veteran’s hospital, every city and town.”
2] “For all its flaws, the American state was a source of national greatness and power: It ushered in an age of prosperity and discovery; it made everyday existence safer and fairer.”
7] “Until the purges of the past year, the U.S. government housed an unmatched collection of experts, capable of some of the greatest feats in human existence…the Manhattan Project, Apollo, the Human Genome Project.”
10]. “What’s been lost isn’t just a sense of purpose, but a body of knowledge – a way of making the machinery of the state function….By wiping out many of the bureaucracy’s most experienced practitioners, Trump has severed the chain that allowed one generation of civil servants to pass on the habits of effective government to the next.” [NOTE: again, re-read these words. This is SABOTAGE. WHY would a loyal American patriot sabotage his own government???]
***. “Our Constitution is not written to handle someone like Trump,” the political scientist Jason Johnson told me. “That is the greatest danger and greatest harm he is to our country… the Framers “envisioned presidents who might be dishonest, who might not have consistent ethical values, but they never envisioned a self-involved dictatorial capitalist, so we don’t have a government designed to restrain someone who doesn’t care about any of the norms.”
[ Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “It’s Even Worse Than You Think” ]
1]. ‘..the administration showed little interest in understanding the organizations it was eviscerating. Any sincere attempt to reform the government would have protected its top. experts and most skilled practitioners. In fact, such workers account for a disproportionate share of the Trump-era exodus.”
3]. “In the late 19th century, as the American government took on its modern form, a single word captured the spirit of the enterprise: disinterestedness. The duties of civil servants..were supposed to transcend patronage and partisanship. Their professional obligation was to present facts and judgments that reflected objective reality – not to flatter the preferences of the administration in power.”
*** “Can’t you just shoot them?” President Trump asked Defense Secretary Esper on June 1, 2020, about the protesters in Washington, D.C. “Just shoot them in the legs or something?” { Bob Woodward: “War” ]
4] “…regulators also prevented immense human suffering. Before the advent of the modern state, the economy convulsed with financial panics roughly every 20 years. After the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation were created in the 1930s, confidence replaced chaos. Generations passed without bank runs. American markets became the safest bet on the planet.”
5]. “At the dawn of the 20th century, American medicines were often laced with alcohol, opiates, or narcotics. Thanks to the FDA, those potions were gradually replaced by pharmaceuticals tested for safety – snake oil gave way to science.”
6]. “..the surprising thing, really, was how many preeminent experts – scientists, intelligence analysts, economists, even lawyers – stayed in their government job for the entire arc of their career.”
*** “He is a transgressive personality, so he likes to attack and destrroy and unsettle people,” Wehner said. If he sees an institution that he thinks is not doing his bidding, not protecting him like he wants or is a threat to him, he’ll go after it….intelligence community…Justice Department…North Atlantic Treaty organization…The press is ‘the enemy of the people.’…doesn’t have any regard for institutions, the role they play, why there’re important…delights in tearing them down.” [ Pulitzer Prize winners Philip Rucker, Carol Leonnig: “A Very Stable Genius” ]
8] “Under Trump, the expertise capable of such achievements has begun to vanish… What took generations to build is being dismantled in months, and with it goes not just expertise but what remains of the shared American faith in expertise itself.”
9]. “a generation of bureaucrats, now in the prime of their career, entered government after September 11…They felt an obligation to serve. Donald Trump has betrayed those workers. by describing them as a hostile force, he’s questioned their patriotism – and robbed the sense of mission from their work.”
11] “The toll of the purge will become clear only gradually…Government, too, is part of a delicate American ecosystem – as it erodes, crises that lay bare its indispensability will multiply.”
*** “Tillerson was never told why he was fired. The president did not give him a reason. It had earlier leaked out that Tillerson had called Trump a “fucking moron”. at a July 20, 2017, Tank meeting. Probably nothing could have triggered Trump’s insecurities more.” [ Bob Woodward; “Rage’ ]
12]. Listed below are some of the critical employees no longer in. YOUR. government:
A] Micaela White: “She was America’s fixer of choice….her improvisational skills were legendary.”
B] Eric Green: ‘..became the head of the American genomics effort.”
C] Wren Elhai: ” helped build the State Department’s new cyberspace and digital policy bureau.”
D]. Jeff Cohen: “became adept at improvising programs that burnished America’s prestige.”
E]. Peter Marks: ‘was a driving force behind Operation Warp Speed.”
F] Mamta Patel Nagaraja: ‘She trained astronauts.”
G] Michael Feinberg: “becoming the FBI’s top Chinese counterintelligence invetigator.”
H]. David Boucher: Infectious disease preparedness and response expert.
I]. Susan Miller: “she led the CIA’s counterintelligence unit”
J]. Mike Gordon: “He became the department’s closer.”
K]. Michael Missal; “his office issued 2,500 reports and 10,000 recommendations, saving billions of dollars.”
***. “Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results.” [ Margaret Atwood ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXXXI. – “Our leaders are out of touch on income inequality”
***. “..the single most powerful and least-understood threat to democracy today: the attempt by..billionaire-backed radical right to undo democratic governance.. a stealth bid to reverse-engineer all of America..back to the political economy of oligarchic governance of mid-century Virginia..” [Nancy MacLean: “Democracy in Chains”]
This post presents excerpts from economist Edward Lotterman from. “Our leaders are out of touch on income inequality”. [St. Paul Pioneer Press; 3/22/26]:
7]. “..it seems clear that we are at the most unequal levels since the Gilded Age of ostentatious spending ended prior to World War I.”
3] “Navarro’s boneheaded assumption is that goods affected by tariffs make up the same fraction of total spending fro rich people as they do for lower income ones. You don’t need a Ph.D. in econ to know that isn’t true. A far greater fraction of the incomes of poor people go for basic necessities than for rich people.”
4] “..items on which import tariffs are levied make up a far higher fraction of household spending for low-and middle-income people than for higher-income ones. Rich people may pay more for tariffs in absolute number of dollars, but much less relative to income. Tariffs really are ‘regressive”. in the strict public-finance definition of taxing a higher percentage of total income for the poor than for the rich.”
*** “The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy, that is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” [ John Kenneth Galbraith ]
1]. “International studies of educational outcomes often show that U.S. students’ critical thinking skills lag those of their peers in many European and Asian countries. It is not just kids; when administration officials open their mouths, it is clear that the problem goes right to the top, especially in dealing with income distribution. Start with President Donald Trump’s trade whisperer, Peter Navarro.”
2] “Responding to assertions that working-class U.S. households would bare the brunt of the administration’s tariffs, Navarro argued that was wrong. The reason? Well, the highest-earning 10% of U.S. households account for 50% of all consumer spending. Therefore, that small group also would pay 50% of all tariffs according to Navarro..”
5] “.. Navarro’s camp..miss a loophole the size of a bypass tunnel at Hoover Dam. The top income tier of U. S. households travel abroad many. times more frequently. They can buy their luxury goods…and wear them on the plane back or pack in their luggage…what U.S. customs agent will demand they open their suitcases and explain the provenance of every item?”
***. “Wooden-headedness consists of assessing a situation in terms of perceived, fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting to wish while not allowing oneself to be confused by the facts.”
[ Barbara Tuchman ]
6] “The other facet of Navarro’s sad song about the plight of the rich is his acknowledgement that 10 percent of households do make half of all household spending. The distribution of income in the U.S., which had gotten slowly more equal for four decades after World War II, reversed as the 20th century ended. it is now getting steadily more unequal, especially over the last 20 years.”
8] “Similar tone deafness was evident in statements made by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and by Trump himself about the effects of oil prices. These are being pushed sharply higher by Trump’s “war of choice, not of necessity” against Iran.”
*** “Being ignorant is not so much Shame, as being unwilling to learn.” [ Benjamin Franklin ]
9] “If you want to see those hit hard by high gas prices, think of a single parent who drives a clapped-out F-150 pickup to their job at the Dollar General store in some rust-belt town. Or the beginning farmer…Or consider the over-the-road owner-operator who still has a monthly truck payment…When oil prices go up, such Americans do not “make a lot of money.”
10] ‘..for a final example of willful blindness about financial realities, consider the situation of National Guard or other reservists who once again face having their lives turned upside down by a call to active duty.”
11] “The ways in which both government taxing and spending policies contribute to shamefully increasing income inequality between Americans should” be one of the top issues of our age. Numbskull thinking on the part of officials who should know better makes the problem worse, not better.”
***. “We Americans live in the most unequal advanced country…When compared with similar societies, ours has the greatest inequities in the distribution of income and wealth, the provision of basic health care, the relationship between CEO salaries and average wages…This didn’t happen overnight. It’s the direct result of twenty-five years of public policy that has favored wealth, rewarded property, and encouraged the concentration of both.”
[ John Ehrenberg: “Servants Of Wealth. The Right’s Assault On Economic Justice” ]
*** {NOTE: if in doubt, consider: “The typical CEO compensation package rose nearly 6% in 2025 to $17.7 million….at Coca-Cola, its CEO earned nearly. 1,739 times the median pay of $17,947 for its workers.” [“Median CEO pay up nearly 6% in ’25”; Associated Press; 5/28/26]. Read “The Spirit Level.” ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXXX. – “Trump’s China Policy Has Weakened America”
***. “No punishment, in my opinion, is too great for the man who can build his greatness upon his country’s ruin.”
[ George Washington ]
This post presents excerpts from. “Trump’s China Policy Has Weakened America” [ New York Times editorial; 5/17/26 ]: Read this VERY carefully – pause, think on what they say…..
8]. “The competition between the United States and China matters to the entire world. China wants to dominate Asia and expand its global influence. It wants to discredit democracy and downgrade the importance of human rights and political equality. It wants a world where ethnic and religious oppression is accepted. China is the most important ally of several brutal dictatorships, including Russia, North Korea and Iran. Anybody who believes in pluralism, freedom, and other liberal values should be rooting against a world where Mr. Xi and the Chinese Communist party have more sway.”
***. “The damage the president has done to our security is a consequence of his terrible foreign policy choices, an area where Trump’s instincts are so backward that we will devote an entire chapter addressing them.”
[ Anonymous: “A Warning” ]. {Note: Anonymous was a senior Trump. administration official}
4] “For a time, Mr. Trump seemed to have started a bipartisan era of realpolitik toward a country that seeks to diminish American power. As is so often the case, though, Mr. Trump showed little strategic discipline, and he prioritized his personal and political interests over the nation’s.” [read this again – SLOWLY …]
1] “Last week’s summit in Beijing between President Trump and President Xi Jinping ended with few concrete accomplishments, but Americans should be relieved about that. The most likely alternative was a setback for the United States.”
2] “In both his terms..he has weakened the United States relative to China…His failed tariffs have been a central example, setting off a humbling chain of events. The tariffs proved ineffective at intimidating China…China restricted U.S. access to valuable rare-earth metals – and learned just how much leverage it has. To regains access to the minerals, Mr. Trump agreed to allow China to buy advanced American semiconductors that power artificial intelligence.” [read this again – it shows YOU Trump’s rigid Stupidity, China’s long-term thinking]
3]. “He has also diluted instruments of American power that have long been crucial to constraining foreign adversaries. he has alienated partners that can help counter China…He has cut funding for scientific research, diminishing American prowess in A.I., green energy and other realms.” [Trump’s rigid Stupidity weakens America]
***. “No government could give us tranquility and happiness at home, which did not possess sufficient stability and strength to make us respectable abroad.” [ Alexander Hamilton; 6/29/1787]
5] “..America’s inability to defeat Iran’s much smaller military has raised questions about whether it could help defend Taiwan from a mainland invasion.” [ China is watching and waiting… ]
6] “The biggest risk of the summit was that Mr. Trump would trade short-term American gains, such as exporting more soybeans and other agricultural goods, for long-term Chinese advantages.” [ !!!!! read this again – SLOWLY – they are saying Trump would even consider trading soybeans for high-value technical knowledge, or, let China invader Taiwan unopposed. Are you kidding me????? ]
7]. “Taiwan manufactures many of the semiconductors that American companies use. China..remains significantly behind the United States in the race to develop the most advanced A.I…..Mr. Xi very much wants the restrictions removed, and Mr. Trump has begun to loosen them. China now has permission to purchase Nvidia’s high-end H200 chips, but is still blocked from buying the company’s top-line chips, known as Blackwell. If Mr. Trump ever lifts that restriction, he will hand mr. Xi a huge victory.” [can YOU conceive Churchill giving Hitler anything that would help him??? Can YOU conceive ANY American president, 1945-1991, giving the Soviets ANYTHING that would help them?}
***. “I asked about his strategy for dealing with Chinese President Xi Jinping…”Well, first of all, his personality is incredible,’ Trump said. “His strength, his mental and physical strength is great. he’s very, very smart. He’s very cunning. I get along with him fantastically well.” [ Pulitzer Prize winner Bob Woodward: “Rage” ]
[NOTE: YOU tell me – where’s the strategy?????? Is it Trump is awed by this dictator? He gets along with him “fantastically well”??? …..]
***. “…and foreign governments calculated that Trump could be won over relatively easily, with flattery and deference.” [ Pulitzer Prize winners Philip Rucker, Carol Leonnig: “A Very Stable Genius” ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXXIX. – INCOMPETENCE And Stupidity In Foreign Affairs
*** “Orthodoxy means not thinking – not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.”
[ George Orwell: “1984” ]
This post provides YOU with information from only a FEW of the many reports on the Trump DICTATORSHIP’s monumental record of rigid, often fact-free, INCOMPETENCE and Stupidity in dealing with the Middle East. By the time you read this post, things will likely have gotten worse. The possibility is substantial that Trump’s “war of choice” will devastate the WORLD economy. The origin of much of this INCOMPETENCE and Stupidity is Trump’s own ego and desire for revenge. Some excerpts from only a few reports follow:
A] “State Dept. cut jobs with expertise in Middle East”. {Byron Tau; Associated Press; 3/20/26:
3]. “These kinds of personnel and management choices – coupled with President Donald Trump’s moves to shrink government and confine decision-making to a tight circle – are limiting the ability of the United States to handle a global emergency..”
1]. “The Trump administration for a time put mora Namdar, a lawyer of Iranian descent with limited management experience in charge…One of her credentials was her contribution to Project 2025”..
2]. “Namdar’s last Senate-confirmed predecessor was a long-time middle East expert who had been with the department since 1984 an had served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.” [ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!///!!!!!!!!!!! ]
***. “Based on my reporting, Trump’s language and conduct has at times presented risks to national security – both during his presidency and afterward. Many of Trump’s former top cabinet officers and aides have said publicly that Trump should not be president again and should not even be on the ballot.” [ Bob Woodward: “War” ]
B] “War poses test for DOJ”. [ Alan Feuer, Glenn Thrush; New York Times; 3/8/26 ]:
2] “..hardball personnel and policy directives, often at the command of the Trump White House, has led to an exodus of experienced investigators and prosecutors…The priority placed on Trump’s directives has also diverted agents from national security matters to immigration enforcement or other ancillary tasks…” [NOTE: is this sabotage?]
1] “after a year of constant firings, resignations and other disruptive distractions, elite counterterrorism and counterintelligence units have been stretched thin and left short-handed..” [NOTE: sooo – catching the woman who babysits YOUR child is more important than catching a Chinese spy or a terrorist who’ll blow up YOUR kid’s school???]
3] “some of those let go included agents who worked on efforts to stem Iran’s ability to operate stealthily in the United States..” [ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????? ]
***. “All American presidents before Trump had, in varying degrees, modulated their remarks to avoid exacerbating the centuries-old rivalries within Islamic countries…to balance American interets among those contending factions. Abandoning that history of thoughtful diplomacy, Trump…” [Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “It’s Even Worse Than You Think” ]
c] “Depleted FBI, DOJ on guard for terror” [ Eric Tucker, Alanna Durkin Richer; Associated Press; 3/5/26 ]:
3] “The Justice Department’s National Security Division was established in 2006 to address threats of terrorism, espionage and other concerns. In the last year, lawyers in the division found themselves assigned to review the Jeffrey Epstein files…and elite sections dedicated to prosecuting terrorists and catching spies have endured turnover.”
4]. “This is not an exaggeration to say that the are not as capable as they were a year ago,” Matthew Olsen, who led the national Security Division…”they’ve lost, forced out, fired, the most capable, the most experienced FBI agents, FBI officials and DOJ prosecutors that were working on the Iran threat.” [Note: sabotage???]
1]. “The firings and resignations, along with the diversion of resources and personnel over the last year to meet the Trump administration priorities, have fueled concerns about the capability to head off a potential surge in threats.”
2] “So much experience has been decimated from the ranks,”…”The folks that were best positioned to get to the bottom of it before something really bad happened”. are in many cases no longer with the government..”
*** “Ive served the man for two years. [Trump’s]..a long-term and immediate danger to the country,” a senior national security official told us. Another senior administration official said, “The guy is completely crazy.”
{ Pulitzer Prize winners Philip Rucker, Carol Leonnig: “A Very Stable Genius” }
D]. “The U.S. desperately needs functional counterterrorism”. [ Jacob Ware, Colin Clarke: Los Angeles Times; 3/22/26]:
3] “..the Trump administration has repeatedly invoked Iran’s history of support for terrorist proxies to justify the conflict…But without a more defined strategy, America will likely struggle to mount an effective response.”
1] “Without a strategy that clearly lays out American priorities and responses, America’s counterterrorism defenses are divided, disorganized and under-resourced.”
2]. “The home-grown backlash to the Iran conflict began on March 1… The diversity of the attacks and the perpetrators makes matters worse..”
*** “Mattis, Tillerson and Coats are all conservatives or apolitical people who wanted to help him and the country…They concluded that Trump was an unstable threat to their country.”
Pulitzer Prize winner Bob Woodward: “Rage” ]
E] “Gulf allies say U.S. ignored their warnings on Iran”. [ Samy Magdy, Michelle Price, Aamer Madhanl; Associated Press; 3/7/26]: This title says it all!!! INCOMPETENCE and Stupidity. Plus not really caring what happened to these small ‘allies” of the U.S.. Read the article for specific quotes. Note their disappointment. Will they still be ‘allies” when this is over???
*** “when his performance as president is taken in its entirety, I can only reach one conclusion: Trump is the wrong man for the job.” [ Bob Woodward; “Rage” ]
With Justice For All 
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