TWGB: Pimping the White House

 

One man's idea of luxury is another man's idea of flypaper tacky; in rather the same way one man's idea of a distinctive hairstyle is another man's notion of a molded drain clog fastened to a moldering skull, but if I squint a bit, I can see what the tastemaker at the White House is going for with his gilded style complete with dance hall:

It's an homage to the Gold Rush brothel keeper who founded the family fortune. You know, a little something of l'esprit de bordel. You or I might cringe at it, but Trump is not one to turn his nose up at wherever his money has come from and has always had a soft spot for pimps. Professional courtesy? Or perhaps what passes for respect.

Some people of course simply note that this glitz is reminiscent of Mar-a-Lago, where former friend Jeffrey Epstein poached pubescents. People do say all kinds of things. For example, when I saw that Trump had the Rose Garden paved over, I might have wondered if there was anyone under the cement, in rather the way a troublesome witness might be deposited underground at one's golf course, but with less fanfare.

I also say all kinds of things, though. 

But then I saw the umbrellas and really understood:

The entrepreneurial vision of the man.

Pure and Simple Disgust

 

RAMAPHOSA: I am sorry I don't have a plane to give you

TRUMP: I wish you did. I'd take it. If your country offered the US Air Force a plane, I would take it

RAMAPHOSA: Okay pic.twitter.com/TgvODTok9P

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 21, 2025

I took a bit of a vacation from political blogging because every time I look at Trump and company, all I can feel is pure and simple disgust. I can barely scrape it together to rhetorically fluff the corruption and assholery into something mildly amusing, anymore. In the clip above, the president of South Africa has been subjected to an ambush of white genocide claptrap by a senile racist lunatic, and levels Trump with a quip about his obvious corruption--and Trump, unknowingly sells it: of course he would take a plane from anyone. He's a taker, a crook. 

And everyone knows it. 

Of course, this is about the "free plane" from Qatar, which has now been accepted by the Department of Defense. There is no such thing as a free plane. It will need to be hardened for use as a base f operations for the US C-i-C, and it should be inspected minutely for any surveillance devices.  And the funny old thing is--Trump asked for it. 

A Little TrumpWorld Idolatry for Your Sunday Services

This feels unhealthy to me, but of course, it's parked right there at Trump International Golf Course now, because why not? It's a Trump property, and if he wants to decorate with assorted artworks promoting the man, the myth, the legend, I guess that's his business. It's just that when he does stuff like this,

it's hard not to feel like he's sending a very political message:

The White House moved the official portrait of former President Barack Obama to a new location in the building’s Grand Foyer, replacing it with a painting of President Donald Trump with his fist raised in the air right after last year’s assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The portrait appears to be based on a photo of then-candidate Trump, bloodied and surrounded by Secret Service agents, still onstage after being shot at the campaign event. That image, along with Trump’s words to “fight, fight, fight,” became a hallmark of Trump’s bid for a second term.

"Appears to be"? Of course it is.  Trump didn't just suddenly find himself like a martyr, you know. His cult believes that what didn't kill him made him stronger. 

Yes, He is Weird--and Corrupt

 

Donald Trump and Adin Ross dancing is just weird!

Seriously, does someone tell him this is good for his poll numbers? pic.twitter.com/RBYvRVFmev

— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) August 5, 2024

I don't know a whole lot about Adin Ross, the streamer who gifted Trump a Rolex and a Cybertruck with a wrap of his attempted assassination pose, but I think it's interesting that Trump just thinks his weird dancing, the tackiness of this display, and openly praising Kim Jong-Un and Venezuela's Maduro to a seat-sniffer are somehow not weird.

Like the choice of JD Vance for running mate, this is a thing his sons encouraged.  I do not know if gifts were a factor in his decision to do the stream, but I do know he doesn't seem opposed to them.

We still only know so much about what looks like a "gift" (or bribe) from his favorite dictator, Al-Sisi, because he had AG Bill Barr shut that investigation down. We know he does love himself some dictators, though. .And he loves billionaires. And what government can do for himself. 

I will never understand the people who want to believe this weirdo is a "man of the people" who will do anything for them. That he even says such things in the midst of this circus is the line a would-be dictator would feed people. But at bottom, he is just about selling access. 

And he is very weird. 

SCOTUS and the Conclusions

 

It's really not hard to draw an obvious and unpleasant conclusion regarding the conservative justices' rulings regarding effectively legalizing bribery and privileging the opinions of courts over subject matter experts in government agencies with respects to regulatory matters, and to keep this blog post terribly brief, let me just sum it up this way:

The Republican-appointed justices have shown us what they are, and all that's left is billionaires haggling over the price. I'm sure putting it this way would offend Sam Alito and his missus, so to also keep this blog post brief, I will refrain from suggesting what else they can run up a flagpole if they don't like it.

I really shudder at conservative justices using their slapdash "textural" approach to the law as a "public service" to overrule agency decisions based on science. What this means for climate change, curbing pollution, food and drug regulation....

Flagpole Sitta

 

Samuel Alito—who wrote the opinion overturning Roe v. Wade—says his wife “makes her own decisions, and I have always respected her right to do so.” pic.twitter.com/r52Yjf35ih

— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) May 29, 2024

Far be it for me to question how the Alitos manage their affairs at home--although Justice Alito certainly questions how American women and their families make other important decisions, for example, regarding their reproductive health care--but I love the idea that because the Mrs. is a property owner, he (also an owner of the same property) could not abrogate her important first amendment flag-raising choices by taking the thing down himself. 

Well, one hears of such things. A man can be, for example, top dog in his place of work, but be barely able to raise a peep, let alone lower a flag, in his own home. It appears, based on the report of the Alitos' neighbors, he might well have reason to fear her temper. 

She might have left him hardly able to comfortably sit on a bench, is what I'm getting at. Having foregone that particular conflict, however, he sees himself as still eminently qualified to rule from the highest bench in the country.

It's a matter of judgment. 

Texas-Sized Corruption

 

NEW: Ken Paxton’s far-right backers are promising swift retribution for those who supported his impeachment — namely House Speaker Dade Phelan — as the Texas GOP’s long-running civil war continues to escalate. #txlege #PaxtonTrial https://t.co/9ByJBI1qQe

— Robert Downen (@RobertDownen_) September 17, 2023

I have very little surprise reserved in the tank for Ken Paxton's acquittal: long story short, how can Texas Republicans even hold someone accountable for acting in his self-interest and doing the bidding of his big donors when it isn't in their self-interest and sends the wrong message to their big donors? But it's more than that:

“You and your band of RINOs are now on notice,” Defend Texas Liberty PAC leader Jonathan Stickland tweeted at Phelan on Saturday, as voting continued in the Texas Senate. “You will be held accountable for this entire sham. We will never stop. Retire now.”

Paxton’s impeachment trial was the latest — and among the most consequential — battle in an ongoing civil war between the Texas GOP’s establishment members and a well-funded right wing that has for years claimed the party is insufficiently conservative.

Being even somewhat opposed to Paxton's corruption is simply not conservative and you are not a real Republican if you bring it up.  He may even be corrupt, but he's the right kind of Republican so long as he's right-wing enough. 

I think the party refers to this ethos as: Values!

The GOP on George Santos

 

Every single House Republican voted to protect George Santos from expulsion. pic.twitter.com/VKnldKhCrd

— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) May 17, 2023

George Santos has been indicted, so the Ethics Committee (which was investigating Santos) is not doing shit.  AFAIK they defer to DOJ. So this was a "pass" on the GOP admitting that corruption offends them, which is obvious, because they support Justice Thomas being the beneficiary of billionaire support and Donald Trump despite his several indictments and potential indictments and civil trials.

There is nothing new here. The GOP decided a long time ago that the problem with Watergate was anyone ever admitting there was a problem and not all staying hush. Bill Barr organized a mass pardon for all the Iran-Contra folks. Intelligence failures and other problems that lead us into the Iraq War post-9/11 and little details like our treatment of prisoners at Gitmo, Bahram Air Base, Abu Ghraib, were swept away.  Tapes were burned, investigations quashed. 

It's been my whole life I don't trust Republicans, and frankly, I never will. For frauds and corruption little and big. Even the "good" ones lack the gunas to be great ones and try to fix their stupid, corrupt, amoral specter-infested White/Christian Nationalist ridden bullshit party. 

They can't even toss out a freshman congressman who pled guilty to stealing a checkbook in Brazil just a minute ago. 

They hype the nothingburger of a Durham report and conveniently forget everything that was in the Senate Intelligence several-volumes report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. 

They know the truth, but they can't even come clean, fix their house, expel the troublemakers. They stay loyal despite knowing they stand for shit that is dumb and wrong. Too afraid to admit the dumb wrongness. Like Nikki Haley, unable to call out Trump's sexual assault or note the challenges his various scandals pose for him. This is no way for her to challenge an opponent in a primary. Or any other creature of the GOP. Pence. DeSantis. They can't come for open corruption directly. They swim in those waters too much themselves. 

Their corruption is without bottom--and it should all be considered viable election material. What are they going to do--sue for defamation? Against the truly real things--no. They would not. 

Trump Does Some Truthing on Truth Social

 

Trump would really like it if other presidential type people were in the same boat he's in, even though they are not, because they didn't try to Ocean's Eleven shit out of the White House to their own actual homes for reasons that could be truly nefarious indeed. 

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, George Bush--they all need to be raided like he was just to make things fair. Why didn't they get raided? Why was he singled out? How weird, right? Oh, he did take the documents--but is it fair that only he gets looked at?

This is a complaint worthy of a fussy baby. 

Why was he singled out? Why are they treating him like a traitor after he raised an insurrection attempt? Why are folks so mean to TRUMP? Why aren't they kissing his hand for the good things?

Long story short--he did steal docs and they were top secret and so on, and he wasn't even that good at being a president. 

He even raised an insurrection while lying about whether the votes were fair and correct. Maybe he earned extra scrutiny, right? 

Also, he doesn't get that there is a limitation to privilege. Such as one's immunity to civil suits. Or even one's ability to try and have things both ways: retaining (stealing) docs as being because of personal use or executive privilege: whatever works. 

Anyway, Trump acknowledges he took stuff and isn't that kind of like a confession?  And he's attacking the special counsel's family, too, so. That's greeeeeaaaaat. 

This Comment is Going To Bug Me

 

According to Michael Wolff's new book, Landslide, about the end of Trump's presidency, there's a quote from Trump that is going to buuuuuuggggg me: 

“Where would he be without me? I saved his life,” Trump said in an interview with Woolf. “He wouldn't even be in a law firm. Who would have had him? Nobody. Totally disgraced. Only I saved him.” The ex-president raged on: “I can’t even believe what’s happening. I’m very disappointed in Kavanaugh... In retrospect, he just hasn’t had the courage you need to be a great justice. I’m basing this on more than just the election.”

Okay, then. Brett Kavanaugh was a DC district court judge, so even if he wasn't appointed to the Supreme Court, he would have had a job, right? He wasn't knocking on the doors of law firms looking for something a little more certain in case this whole lifetime appointment to a federal court bench thing didn't work out, unless I'm seriously, as the kids say, tripping. And, you know, Trump talks trash about people all the damn time whether it makes sense or not. Unless....

You see, although a lower court has to dismiss 83 ethics complaints against a sitting member of SCOTUS, mentally, I can't.  I can't quite drop the idea that there was something shady about his appointment. Especially about how Kavanaugh's debts got paid.  

Sure, it could be nothing, but my axiom regarding TrumpWorld is, "If it looks bad, it is bad."  I mean, Stephen Calk was just found guilty of bribing very criminal but very pardoned Trump former campaign manager Paul Manafort with risky bank loans to obtain a role in the Trump Administration. That's the kind of people that were around Trump and a certain way of doing business.

The difference here is, Republicans got very damn cutthroat about judicial appointments, didn't they? They clearly did not seem to give a single solitary shit about any kind of ethics or moral complaint about Kavanaugh's appointment. They were going to by God have this guy on the bench. 

A federal judge serves "on good behavior" It takes a shit-ton to get a federal judge impeached. But when Trump says something like "I saved his life" or "I'm basing this on more than just the election", it really makes me think. 

It just really does.

I am Feeling Confident

 

EXCLUSIVE: The Daily Beast has obtained a confession letter that Joel Greenberg wrote while working with Roger Stone to obtain a pardon… and it directly implicates Matt Gaetz https://t.co/hJNkkmnudq

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) April 30, 2021

But you know, go ahead and wire me $250, 000 and send a detailed letter of all the nasty stuff you did. Because no one gets a pardon from Trump unless he understands what you did (I mean, whoever heard of a very open-ended broad pardon from a US president?) and be sure to throw in a lot of stuff about your loyalty.

Is loyalty rewarded? Uh, sure. I am confident. 

I am sure in Roger Stone's mind all of this was hilarious except the dude was taking screenshots. Because this is TrumpWorld. 

Don't Stand So Close to Me

 

Bill Barr is said to have gotten several briefings about the investigation, at least partly to ensure that the then-attorney general didn’t inadvertently find himself standing next to Matt Gaetz at any public events https://t.co/03A5WDAYb8

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) April 2, 2021

Gaetz used cash apps allegedly to pay for the company of women and showed nudes of women he was with to his colleagues, even apparently on the House floor. So, long story short: he wasn't really going out of his way to cover up that he was skeevy, either. He also may have used campaign funds, because, why not make everything worse? 

I guess I'm saying it looks bad.

Where Does it All Go?

 

Trump: Four or five months ago when we started this whole thing because you know before the plague came in, I had it made. I wasn’t coming to Erie. I mean I have to be honest, there was no way I was coming. I didn’t have to.... pic.twitter.com/DeTV4jiLmS

— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) October 21, 2020

One of the things Trump fans are clinging to is the possibility that the businessman in Trump is going to pull all of this (gestures wildly at flaming mess) together and do smart things in a possible second term. I don't know why they think that, since he could have done smart things in his first term if he really wanted to. But I also don't know why they still believe that he was a great businessman after the details of, well everything about his business, have been floating around in the--

Oh, that's right. They think it's all "fake news". And I guess Lesley Stahl's interview with him will also be discounted as being somehow rigged against him, just like the debates have been, because Donald Trump is a special little snowflake. (But it really does seem to have gone badly based on White House reactions.) I wonder what could have triggered Trump's ire? I mean, she's a pro. 

It could be anything, but it's probably either COVID or his low polling numbers, I'd say. After all, the news that Trump had a hidden bank account (not mentioned on his financial statements) in China only just dropped, so that couldn't have been it. (Although, wow, that kind of undercuts his claims regarding Biden-related China corruption, in that Trump's fictional $1.5 billion claims are distinctly stupid. The real story is actually Hunter Biden can make his own damn money. Whether Trump can is probably more open to debate.) It also reminded folks on Twitter that a White House advisor claimed he got info on Biden via China, which is just precious because he didn't and it was the same thing Trump was being impeached for when he claimed it, and also Trump basically on the phone to Fox & Friends was trying to coax in public and out loud that Bill Barr should investigate/charge the Bidens with....something just Tuesday morning. (Can we impeach him again? Can we impeach Barr?)

And let's be really clear--it's the Trumps who are rampant with nepotism and grift, really. 

So Trump is apparently experiencing all kinds of flailing and shit-lossage right now. Which is an excellent time to bring up how his campaign money game is being run like a roulette table by a sweaty gambling addict who owes bad people big money and can't keep his shit sorted.

It's not that any campaign is bad with money--it's that Donald J. Trump, Super-Jenius' campaign is dumb with money. The burn rate is amazing, and so much is going to Trump properties and odd LLC's (sure). But Trump the Campaign is strapped, even though his convention was held at the White House (and yes, he's totally using the White House for campaign stuff, let's just admit it, and Hatch Act violations all over the damn place). And all the lawsuits. (Those will be an ongoing thing, for sure, win or lose.)

And maybe his campaign doesn't need anything but love, After all, remember 2016? But this is definitely not 2016. And he might be stiffing some of the wrong people this time. 

I dunno. There are obviously VIPs that could find a way to inject cash into the campaign, I wouldn't be surprised. And let's not forget those who contributed so lushly to his inaugural fund last time either. (Do be a love and follow the links for amusement and a shared theme.) My strong feeling though is that the cash shortage is nothing compared to the credibility deficit. What does he have to believe in?

 

Trump Cares About Corruption

Trump on commuting sentence for Blagojevich: "It was a prosecution by the same people -- Comey, Fitzpatrick -- the same group." pic.twitter.com/gXigT20Fdc

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 18, 2020

Trump is commuting the 14-yr sentence of former IL Gov. Rod Blagojevich even though Illinois Republicans have told him it sets a very bad precedent. Some folks might think Trump even encourages corruption. But I think we all know in our hearts that Trump cares deeply about corruption.

He just doesn't disapprove of it, is all. It all comes down to who is doing it.

Trump also says he’s pardoned Bernie Kerik, who appeared on Fox News last night.

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) February 18, 2020

It's who you know that matters, in his world. And he makes sure that the message is sent: guys like Comey and them? They are not the law. He is.

As he is defending AG Barr, Trump declares himself "the chief law enforcement officer of the United States." (Actually that's the attorney general)

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) February 18, 2020

UPDATE: And Michael Milken and David Safavian, too.