Donald Trump is not presidential while he wastes time grumbling sitting in a 1941 built criminal court

Echo Opinion by Dana Milbank published in The Washinton Post
Trump might not go to jail, but this trial is a close second.

People wait to enter the courtroom after the lunch break in former president Donald Trump's hush money trial in New York on Tuesday. (Mary Altaffer/AP)

“Yes, your honor,” Defense Attorney Blanche replied.😊😁

NEW YORK (Manhattan)— My friend and former colleague Benjamin Wittes, editor in chief of Lawfare, has provided indispensable legal analysis during Donald Trump’s hush money trial. But his most important insight into the trial is the need for cushioning.

When I arrived at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse early Monday morning for a few days of Trump trial tourism, I found Wittes in line holding not one but two pillows: an orthopedic doughnut to sit on and a padded, wraparound lap desk. If I didn’t do the same, he warned, “you’ll come away with injuries.”

He was vindicated within an hour of my arrival in the courthouse.

The courthouse, completed in 1941, apparently has not been updated much since then, nor even maintained. Its seats are hard, wooden pews with curved backs that accentuate the customary journalist slouch as we hunch over our laptops.

Posters warning of asbestos abatement 😵😲😱hang in the lobby. The bathrooms have malfunctioning taps, missing toilet paper holders and what looks like years of grime on the floor. The courtrooms have almost no electrical power or internet connectivity, forcing those covering the Trump trial to lug backpacks full of enormous batteries, cables and hotspots. Temperatures fluctuate madly (a source of much irritation to the defendant). The hallways are dark and green, and the fluorescent-lit courtrooms have names such as “Part 59” and “Part 75.” The elevators groan and creak; on the 15th floor, where the Trump trial is held, two of us had to manually push an elevator’s doors closed to get the carriage moving down to the lobby.

Mar-a-Lago it isn’t. This place, built on the site of a 19th-century prison and gallows complex called “the Tombs,” may be as close as Trump gets to prison — and it’s a reasonable facsimile. Attendees get colored “hall passes” that allow them to go to the restroom. Dozens of police guards bark orders (“We’re locking it down!”) and impose byzantine rules: No eating in the rooms, and no loitering in the halls unless you are eating. Multiple layers of security make it so difficult to reenter the building that reporters pack their lunches and eat on benches, or any other space they can claim, on unused floors of the building.

Those wishing to attend the proceedings start to line up around 6 a.m. for the 9:30 a.m. trial, in the middle of a media bivouac of satellite trucks, stand-up platforms and acres of police barriers. 

Those admitted to the courtroom (one reporter per outlet) and the overflow room (where video and audio are piped in) can’t watch Trump’s rants in the hallway, just steps away, and those in the “pool” to watch Trump’s rants can’t watch the trial.

Still, there are small pleasures: On the TV screens in the overflow room, right under the video feed of Trump at the defense table, is a chyron displaying the words “New York County Supreme Criminal.”

I expected to spend much of my year covering Trump this way, watching his trials in New York, D.C., Georgia and Florida. But suddenly, this trial — the least important of the four — looks like it will be the only one to get underway before the election.

Meanwhile in Florida, Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee and a thorough Trump partisan, postponed indefinitely his trial in the classified documents case. In Georgia on Wednesday, an appeals court agreed to hear an appeal from Trump that will almost certainly block the racketeering trial there from occurring this year. 

A Trump-friendly majority on the Supreme Court signaled that it would handle Trump’s sweeping immunity claims in such a way that will likely postpone his trial i

In the January 6, 2021, case until after the election.

For a candidate who moans nonstop about a “rigged” justice system, it looks more as though the deck is stacked in his favor. 

Yet, Trump may be sorry when his time in court comes to an end in a couple of weeks. He will no longer be able to claim that his obligations in court keep him from the campaign trail (he tends to play golf on his days away from the trial anyway), and he won’t be able to complain about how he’s being persecuted by prosecutors and judges.

In the hush money trial, he’s practically begging to be jailed for contempt of court. Justice Juan Merchan, finding Trump in contempt for a 10th time on Monday for violating a gag order preventing Trump from attacking witnesses, pleaded: “Mr. Trump, it’s important to understand that the last thing I want to do is to put you in jail. You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next president, as well. There are many reasons why incarceration is truly a last resort for me.”

Yet 48 hours later, before Stormy Daniels’s testimony, Trump toyed with the judge some more. He posted and then deleted a message on his Truth Social platform about the “CROOKED” judge “threatening me with JAIL,” while also claiming the judge left “no time for lawyers to prepare” for Daniels. (Her name had been on the witness list for months❗)

I came to New York expecting to see Trump doze off during his trial. Instead, I was struggling to stay awake myself.

Prosecutors don’t announce the order of witnesses, as a precaution to keep Trump from attacking them. 

So after waiting for three hours Monday morning to secure a seat, I learned that I was in for a day of accounting testimony — important to the case, but deadly tedious.

• “Is this another MDS voucher?”
• “What’s the voucher number?”
• “What account is this coming from?”
• “And the invoice amount?”
• “Is there a check number on the stub?”
• “What is it?”

Over, and over, and over again. The only relief Monday was provided by Trump’s lawyers, who complained about everything, no matter how picayune, and without regard to whether their complaint had any truth. Trump lawyer Todd Blanche complained at length that the defense had not been provided with the name of one of the witnesses; her name was on the list of witnesses publicly disclosed during jury selection. Blanche argued that having the witness recalled to provide additional testimony would prejudice the jury against the defense. The testimony in question? The witness was going to read three of Trump’s tweets.

In the courtroom that morning, Trump’s lawyers tried to delay the day’s proceedings so they could raise more objections to the judge; outside the courtroom in the afternoon, Trump complained that the trial was taking too long.

But Tuesday brought blessed relief from the tedium. A witness from the publisher of “Trump: How to Get Rich” testified.

• “What’s depicted in the cover photo?”
• Donald J. Trump.”
• “And what’s the largest word on the cover?”
• “And what percentage of the cover is the word ‘Trump’?”
• “It looks about roughly 30 percent to me.”
• The prosecutor then had the witness read passages from the book, such as: “For many years I’ve said that if someone screws you, screw them back. When somebody hurts you, just go after them as viciously and as violently as you can.”
• In cross examination, Blanche tried to suggest Trump’s “ghostwriter” was behind such sentiments — and moments later denied to the judge that he had done any such thing.

Then came the storm.

The content of Daniels’s testimony wasn’t new — she had written or said most of it before — but hearing the prurient account in open court, with Trump at the defense table, was still stunning. It stunned Trump, for the judge had to admonish him, through his lawyers, for “cursing audibly.”

• “Mr. Blanche, did you speak to your client?” Judge Merchan asked after a break?
• “Yes, your honor,” Blanche replied.

After watching Daniels testify on Tuesday, I abandoned my trial tourism. When Daniels returned to the stand for continued cross-examination Thursday morning, I “watched” it through the eyes of my Post colleagues (who report the action in live updates) and those of Lawfare’s Tyler McBrien (who live-tweets so fast it’s like a transcript). The attacks on the adult-film star were ferocious, but Daniels didn’t lose her poise.

Trump lawyer Susan Necheles invoked Daniels’s 2018 “Make America Horny Again” tour, and she displayed the products Daniels has sold, including a “Stormy, Saint of Indictments” candle. “That was you selling your merchandise, right?” Necheles asked.

“That is me doing my job,” answered Daniels, who noted that her own crass commercializing was “not unlike Mr. Trump.”

Necheles, who asserted that Daniels has “a lot of experience making phony stories about sex appear to be real,” asked her: “And now you have a story you have been telling about having sex with President Trump; right?”

Replied Daniels: “And if that story was untrue, I would have written it to be a lot better.”

Necheles was skeptical that Daniels, after acting in “over 200 porn movies,” would really become lightheaded, as Daniels claimed, after seeing Trump on a bed in a T-shirt and boxer shorts.

“Yes,” Daniels rejoined. “When you are not expecting a man twice your age to be in their underwear.”

The Trump lawyer asked Daniels if she knew what was in the indictment against Trump.

“There was a lot of indictments,” Daniels responded, to laughter.

Necheles mentioned a Daniels tweet saying she was “the best person to flush the orange turd down,” then asked: “You said you were going to ‘flush’ President Trump?”

“I didn’t say ‘President Trump,’” Daniels shot back. “It says ‘orange turd.’ So, if that’s what’s interpreted by you …”

There was more laughter in the courtroom. Or so I’m told. By this time, I was sitting at home in an ergonomic office chair with plenty of memory foam.

Maine Writer: And the moral of this echo essay is this.....the former guy in boxer shorty is a creepy old man. Ugh!😝

Donald Trump's failed oath of office but is dangerous and wants to try again

(By the way- Stormy Daniels unfavorably compares Trump to ‘real men’ after hush-money trial testimony!)

This echo essay was published in the Storm Lake Times-Pilot newspaper, in Iowa. 

The Donald Trump's fake oath of office:.....Because some voters will believe anything I tell them, no questions asked, I, Donald Trump…

• …promised voters “Mexico will pay for” my wall. (But you did — and swallowed all my promises hook-line-sinker.)
• …told voters I’d “completed” that wall. (I didn’t — not even close. Most of our 1,900-mile border is still unwalled.)
• …insisted I’d release my taxes. (I then did all I could to keep them hidden. Ah, the old “Bait ‘n’ Switch.” Classic!)
• …told voters early Covid was “totally under control” on my watch. (It wasn’t. It soon killed over 1,000,000 of us).
• …claimed crime was at “record” levels with Obama. (It wasn’t — but falsely smearing Obama boosted my image).
• …promised voters I wouldn’t “have time to play golf” in office. (I found time to golf — lots and lots and lots of golf).
• …accused mail-in voting of being rife with “fraud.” (But it isn’t. In fact, I’ve voted by mail myself, more than once).…
• trashed Hillary Clinton, Biden and others for sloppy secrets-handling. (But I freely took box after box to Florida).
• …attacked the very idea of “defund the police.” (But then I urged my party to “defund” the FBI and even the DOJ).
• …vowed to staff my team with “only the best people.” (But I didn’t. I prefer the corrupt and the easily corruptible)
• ...claimed my poll numbers topped Lincoln’s. (So scientific, tech-driven polling didn’t exist then. Details, details).
• …promised to “drain the swamp.” (Instead, I just restocked D.C. with my own dishonest, cagey swamp-cronies).
• …said I didn’t know about a Stormy Daniels payout. (But I did. I even signed a check reimbursing my lawyer for it).
• …decried “fake news.” (But by “fake,” I mean “uncomplimentary.” I love “fake news” if it’s a pro-Trump rave).
• …blasted judges for “bias.” (But by “biased,” I mean “free-thinking.” I admire any judge with a pro-Trump agenda).
• …scared ailing voters into thinking Biden would end pre-existing illness protection. (It wasn’t true – but so what?)
• …claimed January 6 rioters were “hugging and kissing” Capitol police. (“Shoot him with his own gun!” = words of love).
• …boasted I’d brought crisis/death numbers from opioids “way down.” (Actually, they were up. Again — so what?)
• …labeled people who “Take the Fifth” as crooked. (But I’ve used it myself — again and again and again and again).
• …said too much vote-handling time enables “cheating.” (But if it’ll enable me, drag out those recounts for months).
• …bashed Biden relatives for “cashing in” on influence. (But Jared’s Saudi deal, Ivanka’s China trademarks? Fine).
• …denounced opportunists who profit off the “Trump” name. (But I’ll use a Bible as a “prop” in a staged photo-op).
• …accused Dems of “phony” tales of refugee despair. (But I “play-act” hugs/kisses on a U.S. flag for a P.R. stunt).
• …said a Capitol door-crasher was shot “for no reason.” (Now, if she’d crawled through my door, to harm me…)
• …claimed Jan. 6 rioters were “hugging and kissing” Capitol police. (“Shoot him with his own gun!” = words of love).
• 
• …treated “Lock her up!”/“Lock ‘em up! as good fun. (But “lock Trump up?” No, my crimes must go unpunished).
• …bragged that I have “much more” money “than I’ll ever need.” (Yet, I chase nonstop donations from the gullible poor).
• …assured roughnecks I’d “pay the legal fees.” (But I won’t. In fact, I want them to give me money to pay for mine).
• …said I’d pivot and “become so presidential” you’d be amazed. (I never pivoted. I just behaved worse than ever).

And that’s just some of the deceptive and disingenuous promises, claims and boasts Donald Trump has made in recent years. How many more deliberate falsehoods could we add here? Dozens? Scores? Hundreds? Even if “evangelical” voters can somehow overlook all of Trump’s mean-spirited insults and name-calling, should they be actively supporting this level of insincerity and deceit? Would they ever tolerate this much blatant dishonesty in any other politician?

Trump never criticized the "hang Mike Pence" chant

• I swore an oath to defend and uphold the U.S. Constitution…(…but then proposed we “terminate” that Constitution to declare me President)!
• I repeatedly promised I’d “rebuild the infrastructure of our country”…(but Infrastructure Week always fizzled. I just left it all to Biden to tackle)!
• I decried befriending the white supremacists who hang on my every word…(but then alerted them to “stand back and stand by” until further instructions!)

…and so on… and so on… and so on… and so on…

“Religious” voters argue that backing this man can somehow “save the soul” of America. But is his spiteful fury bringing out the best in us — or just making us angrier, crueler, harsher, meaner? Can we trust the promises he makes, the claims he asserts, the “wins” he takes credit for — or is he just pushing falsehood and rage and grievance? “Evangelicals” say none of that matters. But shouldn’t it?

From Brad Trom in Blooming Prairie, Minnesota 

Trump's dangerous narcissistic personality disorder is unqualified to be elected to any office

A person with narcissistic personality disorder could destroy democracy if elected president. Echo opinion by Richard C. 'Dick' Hall*, a guest opinion columnist, published in the Oklahoman newspaper.

A democracy begins with a strong sense of purpose, often rooted in spiritual or religious beliefs. People work together, united by common values and a shared vision. As the democracy grows, it faces challenges and threats. During this phase, courage and determination emerge. People come together and fight for their independence while often giving their lives pursuing it.

The struggle pays off with liberty when freedom for all is achieved. Individual rights are respected while institutions are established to protect them. With freedom comes prosperity. The economy flourishes, and people enjoy material abundance while innovation and creativity thrive.

Citizens' complacency spreads over time. People are more focused on their own interests, neglecting society's common good. Corruption and selfishness increase. The population becomes complacent and takes its liberties for granted. People lose interest in public affairs such as voting. Democracy becomes distrusted by many citizens. Apathy sets in and people become indifferent to their civic responsibilities. They rely on others to solve society’s problems. Congressional leadership becomes dysfunctional. As apathy deepens, dependence on government grows. 

Democracy at risk of being undermined in 2024:  Vote Blue!

New generations take on their attitudes about government from the current population. They live their lives without realizing their freedoms are fragile and can easily be taken away. Many citizens become victims of their own apathy and complacency. They want someone to solve all their problems. They look toward an authoritarian figure for the solution. This moves democracy away from its original purpose.

When a democracy reaches this stage, a person often emerges promising to solve all problems. They blame the current government as the problem. This person’s condemning statements drive wedges deeper between citizens and their government that amplifies the unrest. They present their self as saving the nation. Actually, they are feeding their own narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) with the intentions of replacing a democracy with an authoritarian type government. This authority approach is perceived by many citizens as a solution. They are unaware what changes may be dictated.

America’s democracy has reached this point.

Clinical psychologists describe a person with narcissistic personality disorder as having an unreasonably high sense of self-importance and requiring constant admiration. They feel they deserve privileges and special treatment. They demand to be recognized as superior. They belittle other people to make themselves appear superior. They are authoritarian by nature and falsely state their achievements while denying any responsibility for a failure. They are preoccupied with fantasies about success, power and recognition. People with this disorder have trouble handling comments they view as negative criticism. They react with rage when criticized or accused of a failure. They have difficulty managing their emotions and behavior. Under the veneer of leadership they dehumanize people who oppose them. They demean, enslave and exterminate those who oppose them. They take a cruel approach and cast the government as causing the problems in the current democracy.

A democracy is on its “death bed” when a person afflicted with narcissistic personality disorder becomes its leader. Combined with significant resources that include financial and dissident followers the person creates a power platform from which they foster hate against the existing government. They support homegrown terrorist and hate organizations to assist them in overthrowing the current government. Narcissistic rage occurs on a continuum which may range from passive-aggressive aloofness and expressions of irritation or annoyance to serious outbursts including extreme antisocial behavior. Narcissistic rage is the uncontrollable anger that results from a threat to a narcissist's self-esteem. The impact of false, emotional statements by the narcissistic individual become weapons against a democracy.

Throughout history, people afflicted with this disorder who have gained positions of power tended to be precisely the kind of people who should not be entrusted with it. The strongest desire for power is pursued by the most ruthless individuals lacking in compassion and humanitarian skills.

A person who appears to be afflicted with narcissistic personality disorder has been nominated as a U.S. presidential candidate. Those who visibly oppose America’s democracy are following him. If elected, all events leading to democracy failing will have been met. When a democracy fails, individual freedoms and civic governing laws go with it.

Every American must continue the fight to keep our democracy alive and working while making it even stronger. The tools to save America are citizens becoming active, understanding what is at stake and voting to keep our democracy.

*Richard C. "Dick" Hall, of Norman, is an Army veteran who served 30 years in federal civil service.

Go Stormy Go! She describes her experience under oath and now it is Trump's turn

Echo to the editor of the Los Angeles Times

For the umpteenth, criminal defendant Donald Trump’s trial in New York is not a hush money trial. It’s an election interference trial. (“Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump in occasionally graphic testimony,” May 7)

Rich men pay off their mistresses all the time to keep them quiet. They don’t do it to help themselves get elected to public office.

From Will Powers, in San Luis Obispo

❓Will Donald Trump testify under oath to support his false claim that Stormy Daniels is lying about their sexual encounter?  #IDTS 

#StormyStrong

Trump donors forced to hear rambling accusations during deranged Mar-a-Lago speech

Republican National Committee and the #TrumptiDumpti campaign co-hosted a private retreat for big GOP donors at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend. Reported in the New York Intelligencer by Chas Danner. "It’s not clear if the framed Billboard acknowledgement, presumably regarding the song’s previous No. 1 status, is in fact a real award."

(Ya'think❓) The Wildest Things Trump Said at His Private Mar-a-Lago Fundraiser

In case you didn’t contribute at least 💲40,000, the amount necessary to attend on Saturday, you missed Donald Trump saying a number of wild things to the audience of hundreds of donors at the event, according to attendee accounts and an audio recording of his speech, which was shared with the New York Times and others.

Below are the most notable comments he reportedly made.

Trump compared the Biden administration to the Nazi secret police.

“These people are running a Gestapo administration,” Trump said of his successor’s administration, while complaining about the many indictments he faces. “And it’s the only thing they have. And it’s the only way they’re going to win, in their opinion, and it’s actually killing them. But it doesn’t bother me.”

He alleged Democrats use welfare to buy votes. Per the New York Times:

Trump’s comments about welfare to wealthy donors at the event called to mind remarks caught on tape by Mitt Romney during his 2012, presidential run, when he dismissed 47 percent of voters as off-limits because they did not pay taxes.

“When you are Democrat, you start off essentially at 40 percent because you have civil service, you have the unions and you have welfare,” Trump said on Saturday. “And don’t underestimate welfare. They get welfare to vote, and then they cheat on top of that — they cheat.”

Trump offered the mic to anyone who pledged 💲1 million, but had just two takers. At one point during the event, Trump announced an incentive for the gathered donors — “as if he were at an auction,” reports the Washington Post. “Anyone who makes a 💲1 million donation right now to the Republican Party,” Trump said, “I will let you come up and speak.” Only two donors accepted. One used his time onstage to declare that “Donald J. Trump is the person that God has chosen.”

He also complained about donors (to the donors).

This probably isn’t a good idea when you’re reportedly having trouble with fundraising. Per the Post:

At another point, [Trump] complained about having to take so many pictures with donors and told people in the crowd that if they didn’t get a picture, it was because they didn’t give enough 💰money❗

He also claimed that a wedding at the property got preference over the donors because the wedding was paying more per person to be there.

Trump insisted everyone was ‘begging’ to be his VP.
Trump also spoke his search for someone to be his running mate, bragging that there was a desperate clamor for the job via one of his trademark, made-up “sir” stories. 

According to Trump: It’s funny when I listen to the fake news, they all say, “Well, you know, he’s going to have a hard time getting people in his administration because he’s very tough and I’m not sure he can get anybody to be vice president of the United States.”
I’ve got 50 people calling me, begging me … “I’ll cut off my right arm, sir. Please, I want to be the vice president.” These are ambitious politicians.

He crudely attacked Jack Smith and Fani Willis.

Per the audio recording of his speech, Trump called special council Jack Smith a “fucking asshole,” an “evil thug,” and “deranged.” He also referred to Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis as a “real beauty” and “Mrs. Wade” — a reference to her controversial relationship with former special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she hired to work on the case.

And he bragged about having a bigger hit record than Taylor Swift.

At the event, RNC co-chair Lara Trump reportedly presented Trump with a “Billboard Music Award” for the song “Justice for All” — a rendition of the national anthem performed by a choir of imprisoned January 6th, mob members, overlaid with Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. USA Today reports that Trump was very happy to talk about the success of the song, which his campaign now plays at every event he attends:

The Trump campaign said in a readout of the meeting sent to reporters that Trump’s daughter-in-law and RNC co-chair Lara Trump “presented President Trump with a Billboard Music award for the No. 1 song ‘Justice for All” … In the picture shared with USA TODAY, the former president and Lara Trump are posing next to the framed Billboard acknowledgement Saturday.

“He said something to the effect that: I was approached about helping out, I did it as a favor, I didn’t think much about it, next thing I know, it’s top of the charts! I mean can you believe it? It was higher than Taylor Swift!” an individual at the luncheon told USA TODAY.

P.S. Maine Writer- Did I miss something or did Melania Trump miss this fundraiser❓

President Biden honors Holocaust Remembrance Day at the United States Capitol

President Biden delivered these remarks on Tuesday at the Capitol for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Days of Remembrance.

President Biden speaking at the Capitol

Transcript published in The New York Times:

Thank you, for that introduction, for your leadership of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. You’re a true scholar and statesman and a dear friend. Speaker Johnson, Leader Jeffries, members of Congress and especially the survivors of the Holocaust. If my mother were here, she’d look at you and say, “God love you all. God love you all.”

Remember those lost in the Holocaust (Yom HaShoah)

Abe Foxman and all of the survivors who embody absolute courage and dignity and grace are here as well. 

During these sacred days of remembrance, we grieve. We give voice to the six million Jews who were systematically targeted and murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II. We honor the memory of victims, the pain of survivors, the bravery of heroes who stood up to Hitler’s unspeakable evil. And we recommit to heading and heeding the lessons of one of the darkest chapters in human history, to revitalize and realize the responsibility of never again.
 
Never again, simply translated for me, means never forget. Never forget. Never forgetting means we must keep telling the story, must keep teaching the truth, must keep teaching our children and our grandchildren. The truth is, we are at risk of people not knowing the truth. That’s why growing up, my dad taught me and my siblings about the horrors of the Shoah at our family dinner table. That’s why I visited Yad Vashem with my family as a senator, as vice president, as president. And that’s why I took my grandchildren to Dachau, so they could see and bear witness to the perils of indifference, the complicity of silence, in the face of evil they knew was happening.

Germany 1933, Hitler and his Nazi Party’s rise to power by rekindling one of the oldest forms of prejudice and hate: antisemitism. His role didn’t begin with mass murder; it started slowly across economic, political, social and cultural life. Propaganda demonizing Jews. Boycotts of Jewish businesses. Synagogues defaced with swastikas. Harassment of Jews in the street and the schools, antisemitic demonstrations, pogroms, organized riots. With the indifference of the world, Hitler knew he could expand his reign of terror by eliminating Jews from Germany, to annihilate Jews across Europe through genocide, the Nazis called the final solution. Concentration camps, gas chambers, mass shootings. By the time the war ended, six million Jews — one of every three Jews in the entire world — were murdered.

Never Forget: Remembering the Holocaust

This ancient hatred of Jews didn’t begin with the Holocaust. It didn’t end with the Holocaust either. Or after — even after our victory in World War II. This hatred continues to lie deep in the hearts of too many people in the world and requires our continued vigilance and outspokenness. That hatred was brought to life on October 7th of 2023. On the sacred Jewish holiday, the terrorist group Hamas unleashed the deadliest day of the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Driven by ancient desire to wipe out the Jewish people off the face of the Earth, over 1,200 innocent people, babies, parents, grandparents, slaughtered in a kibbutz, massacred at a music festival, brutally raped, mutilated and sexually assaulted.

Thousands more carrying wounds, bullets and shrapnel from a memory of that terrible day they endured. Hundreds taken hostage, including survivors of the Shoah. Now here we are, not 75 years later, but just seven and half months later and people are already forgetting. They are already forgetting. That Hamas unleashed this terror. It was Hamas that brutalized Israelis. It was Hamas who took and continues to hold hostages. I have not forgotten nor have you. 

And we will not forget.

As Jews around the world still cope with the atrocity and the trauma of that day and its aftermath, we have seen a ferocious surge of antisemitism in America and around the world. Vicious propaganda on social media. Jews forced to keep their — hide their kippahs under baseball hats, tuck their Jewish stars into their shirts. On college campuses, Jewish students blocked, harassed, attacked while walking to class. Antisemitism, antisemitic posters, slogans, calling for the annihilation of Israel, the world’s only Jewish state.

Too many people denying, downplaying, rationalizing, ignoring the horrors of the Holocaust and October 7th, including Hamas’s appalling use of sexual violence to torture and terrorize Jews. It’s absolutely despicable, and it must stop. Silence and denial can hide much, but it can erase nothing. Some injustices are so heinous, so horrific, so grievous, they cannot be married — buried — no matter how hard people try.




In my view, a major lesson of the Holocaust is, as mentioned earlier, it is not — was not — inevitable. We know hate never goes away; it only hides. Given a little oxygen, it comes out from under the rocks. We also know what stops hate. One thing: All of us. The late Rabbi Jonathan Sachs described antisemitism as a virus that has survived and mutated over time. Together, we cannot continue to let that happen. We have to remember our basic principle as a nation.

We have an obligation, an obligation to learn the lessons of history so we don’t surrender our future to the horrors of the past. We must give hate no safe harbor against anyone. Anyone. From the very founding, our very founding, Jewish Americans represented only about 2 percent of the U.S. population and helped lead the cause of freedom for everyone in our nation. From that experience, we know scapegoating and demonizing any minority is a threat to every minority and the very foundation of our democracy.

It’s in moments like this we have to put these principles that we’re talking about into action. I understand people have strong beliefs and deep convictions about the world. In America, we respect and protect the fundamental right to free speech. To debate, disagree, to protest peacefully, make our voices heard. I understand, that’s America. But there is no place on any campus in America — any place in America — for antisemitism or hate speech or threats of violence of any kind. Whether against Jews or anyone else. Violent attacks, destroying property is not peaceful protest. It’s against the law. And we are not a lawless country. We’re a civil society. We uphold the rule of law, and no one should have to hide or be brave just to be themselves.

The Jewish community, I want you to know: I see your fear, your hurt, your pain. Let me reassure you, as your president, you’re not alone. You belong. You always have and you always will. And my commitment to the safety of the Jewish people, security of Israel, and its right to exist as an independent Jewish state is ironclad even when we disagree.

My administration is working around the clock to free remaining hostages. Just so we have freed hostages already. And we will not rest until we bring them all home. My administration, with our second gentleman’s leadership, has launched our nation’s first national strategy to counter antisemitism that’s mobilizing the full force of the federal government to protect Jewish community, but we know it’s not the work of government alone or Jews alone.

That’s why I’m calling on all Americans to stand united against antisemitism and hate in all its forms. My dear friend, he became a friend, the late Elie Wiesel said, quote: “One person of integrity can make a difference.” We have to remember that now more than ever. Here in the Emancipation Hall of the U.S. Capitol, among the towering statues of history, is a bronze bust of Raoul Wallenberg. Born in Sweden, as a Lutheran, he was a businessman and a diplomat. While stationed in Hungary during World War II, he used diplomatic cover to hide and rescue about 100,000 Jews over a six-month period.

Among them was a 16-year-old Jewish boy who escaped a Nazi labor camp. After the war ended, that boy received a scholarship from the Hillel Foundation to study in America. He came to New York City penniless but determined to turn his pain into purpose, along with his wife, also a Holocaust survivor. He became a renowned economist and foreign policy thinker, eventually making his way to this very Capitol on the staff of a first-term senator.

That Jewish refugee was Tom Lantos, and that senator was me. Tom and his wife, Annette, and their family became dear friends to me and my family. Tom would go on to become the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to Congress, where he became a leading voice on civil rights and human rights around the world. Tom never met Raoul, who was taken prisoner by the Soviets, never to be heard from again. But through Tom’s efforts, Raoul’s bust is here in the Capitol. He was also given honorary U.S. citizenship, only the second person ever after Winston Churchill.

The Holocaust Museum here in Washington is located on a roll — road — in Raoul’s name. The story of the power of a single person to put aside our differences, to see our common humanity, to stand up to hate and its ancient story of resilience from immense pain, persecution, to find hope, purpose and meaning in life we try to live and share with one another. That story endures.

Let me close with this. I know these days of remembrance fall on difficult times. We all do well to remember these days also fall during the month we celebrate Jewish American heritage. A heritage that stretches from our earliest days to enrich every single part of American life today. Great American — great Jewish American — Tom Lantos used the phrase the veneer of civilization is paper-thin. We are its guardians, and we can never rest.

My fellow Americans, we must, we must be those guardians. We must never rest. We must rise against hate, meet across the divide, see our common humanity. And God bless the victims and survivors of the Shoah. May the resilient hearts, courageous spirit and eternal flame of faith of the Jewish people shine their light on America and all around the world. Praise God. Thank you all.

Donald Trump brags about immigrant deportations regardless of causing humanitarian harm

Trump promises to deport all undocumented immigrants, resurrecting a 1950s strategy − but it didn’t work then and is less likely to do so now- reported in The Conversation by Katrina Burgess Professor of Political Economy, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University*. 

Illegal immigrants being escorted back across the border to Mexico. (Photo by Loomis Dean/Lif Picture 

In September 2023, Donald Trump made a sweeping promise that shocked many − even though, as recent memory serves, he made a nearly identical pledge the last time he ran for president.

“Following the Eisenhower model, we will carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” Trump said.

Forcibly rounding up and deporting the country’s approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants, including many who have lived here for decades and have children who are U.S. citizens, might sound dystopian. But a version of this plan already happened in the 1950s, when the Eisenhower administration launched the short-lived “Operation Wetback,” which forcibly deported about 100,000 people to Mexico.

Illegal immigrants

The Largest Mass Deportation in American History
As many as 1.3 million people may have been swept up in the Eisenhower-era campaign called 'Operation Wetback.'

While campaigning in Iowa last September, the former guy Donald Trump made a promise to voters if he were elected again: “Following the Eisenhower model, we will carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” he said. Trump, who made a similar pledge during his first presidential campaign, has recently repeated this promise at rallies across the country.

Trump was referring to Operation Wetback, a military-style campaign launched by the Eisenhower administration in the summer of 1954, to end undocumented immigration by deporting hundreds of thousands of Mexicans. “Wetback” was a widely used ethnic slur for Mexicans who illegally crossed the Rio Grande, the river dividing Mexico and the U.S.

Trump says that he can replicate Operation Wetback on a much grander scale by setting up temporary immigration detention centers and relying on local, state and federal authorities, including National Guard troops, to remove the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants now living in the U.S.

As a migration scholar, I find Trump’s proposal to be both disturbing and misleading. Besides playing to unfounded and dehumanizing fears of an immigrant invasion, it misrepresents the context and impact of Eisenhower’s policy while ignoring the vastly changed landscape of U.S. immigration today.

Katrina Burgess, a scholar of political economy, migration and diaspora at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, brings readers back to a dark few months in American history, from May 1954 through January 1955. She explains why Trump’s potential plan is likely to be even less successful than the failed Operation Wetback once was.

"As a migration scholar, I find Trump’s proposal to be both disturbing and misleading."

“If he were to win the presidency again, Trump would have the legal authority to deport undocumented immigrants, but the logistical, political and legal obstacles to doing so quickly and massively are even greater today than they were in the 1950s,” Burgess writes.

While campaigning in Iowa last September, former guy Donald Trump made a promise to voters if he were elected again: “Following the Eisenhower model, we will carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” he said. Trump, who made a similar pledge during his first presidential campaign, has recently repeated this promise at rallies across the country.

Trump was referring to Operation Wetback, a military-style campaign launched by the Eisenhower administration in the summer of 1954, to end undocumented immigration by deporting hundreds of thousands of Mexicans. “Wetback” was a widely used ethnic slur for Mexicans who illegally crossed the Rio Grande, the river dividing Mexico and the U.S.

Trump says that he can replicate Operation Wetback on a much grander scale by setting up temporary immigration detention centers and relying on local, state and federal authorities, including National Guard troops, to remove the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants now living in the U.S.

As a migration scholar, I find Trump’s proposal to be both disturbing and misleading. Besides playing to unfounded and dehumanizing fears of an immigrant invasion, it misrepresents the context and impact of Eisenhower’s policy while ignoring the vastly changed landscape of U.S. immigration today.

Operation Wetback: In May 1954, U.S. Attorney General Harold Brownell appointed Joseph Swing, a retired general, to lead the Immigration and Naturalization Service, or INS, in a “special program to apprehend and deport aliens illegally in this country from areas along the southern border.” Until 2003, the INS was responsible for immigration and border control, now handled by multiple federal agencies, including Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Swing ramped up a decade-long practice of using special task forces composed of INS agents who could be rapidly deployed where needed in order to locate and deport undocumented workers. The operation began in California and then spread to Arizona and Texas. INS agents set up roadblocks and raided fields, factories, neighborhoods and saloons where immigrants were working or socializing. The INS also built a vast wire-fenced security camp, according to the Los Angeles Times, in order to detain apprehended immigrants in Los Angeles before sending them to the border.

Captured immigrants were put on hot, overcrowded buses or rickety boats and sent to designated border crossings in Arizona and Texas, where they were forced to cross back into Mexico. Some found themselves stranded in the Mexican desert just over the border. In one incident, 88 migrants died of sunstroke before the Red Cross arrived with water and medical attention. Others were delivered to Mexican authorities, who loaded them onto trains headed deeper into Mexico.

By mid-August, INS agents had deported more than 100,000 immigrants across the U.S. Southwest. Fearing apprehension, thousands more reportedly fled back to Mexico on their own. Most of these immigrants were young Mexican men, but the INS also targeted families, removing nearly 9,000 family members, including children, from the Rio Grande Valley in August. There is also evidence of U.S. citizens getting caught up in the INS sweeps.

Operation Wetback wound down its operations a few months later, and Swing declared in January 1955 that “the day of the wetback is over.” The INS disbanded its special mobile task forces, and the deportation of undocumented immigrants plummeted over the next decade.

Not just about deportation: Operation Wetback made the headlines and disrupted countless lives, but it was more show than substance when it came to deportation.

The government’s claim to have deported more than 1 million Mexicans during the summer of 1954 does not stand up to scrutiny. The 1.1 million figure was for the entire fiscal year, which ended in June 1954, and a sizable share of these apprehensions were repeat arrests, sometimes in a single day. Moreover, over 97% of these deportations occurred without a formal order of removal. Instead, migrants agreed, or were coerced, to leave the country after being apprehended.

Despite Trump-like rhetoric decrying a “wetback invasion” across the U.S.-Mexico border, Operation Wetback’s main objective was not to remove Mexican immigrants but rather to frighten U.S. farmers, especially in Texas, into hiring them legally.

This tactic largely worked. A crucial but often overlooked detail about Operation Wetback is that it happened at the same time as the Bracero Program, a massive guest-worker program between the U.S. and Mexico. Between 1942 and 1964, U.S. employers issued over 4.6 million short-term contracts to more than 400,000 Mexican farm workers. Nearly three-quarters of these contracts were issued between 1955 and 1964 – after the INS carried out Operation Wetback.

Operation Wetback is unlikely to have led to a dramatic decline in undocumented immigration had Mexican workers not had a legal option for entering the United States. As one immigrant caught up in Operation Wetback commented, “I will come back – legally, if possible. If not, I’ll just walk across again.”

The INS explicitly recognized the connection between the Bracero Program and the decline in undocumented immigration in a 1958 report, stating that “should … a restriction be placed on the number of braceros allowed to enter the United States, we can look forward to a large increase in the number of illegal alien entrants into the United States.”

It is no coincidence that the lull in migrants illegally crossing the U.S-Mexico border after Operation Wetback did not last once the Bracero Program ended in 1964. Mexicans still had strong incentives to migrate, but now they had to do so without visas or work contracts, contributing to a steady increase in border arrests after 1965, that surpassed 1 million in 1976, and reached nearly 2 million in 2000.



Real lessons

If he were to win the presidency again, Trump would have the legal authority to deport undocumented immigrants, but the logistical, political and legal obstacles to doing so quickly and massively are even greater today than they were in the 1950s.

First, most undocumented immigrants now live in cities, where immigrant sweeps are more difficult to carry out. The INS learned this lesson when Operation Wetback shifted from the largely rural Southwest to urban areas in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest in September 1954. Despite transferring hundreds of agents to these locations and using similar tactics, INS agents produced far fewer apprehensions as they struggled to find and detain immigrants.

Second, the U.S. undocumented population is much more dispersed and diverse than in the 1950s. Today, Mexicans are no longer in the majority, and nearly half of undocumented immigrants live outside the six major hubs for immigrants – California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey and Illinois.

Third, most undocumented immigrants in the U.S. did not sneak across the border. An estimated 42% entered the country legally but overstayed a visa illegally. Another 17% requested and received a short-term legal status that protects them from immediate deportation.

Finally, mass deportations are likely to spark a more broad-based resistance today than happened in the 1950s. Once staunchly opposed to undocumented immigration, most labor unions and Mexican-American organizations are now in the pro-immigrant camp. Likewise, the Mexican government, which helped with Operation Wetback, is unlikely to allow massive numbers of non-Mexicans to be deported to its territory without the proper documentation.

Trump has not supported a way to provide undocumented immigrants with a legal alternative, which means that migrants will keep finding ways to cross illegally.

*We believe in the free flow of information. Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

Christian Evangelical voters are sold a "pig in a poke" when they join the Trump cult

"...Christian nationalism a la Trump makes Trump the god..."

Donald Trump and Uses and Misuses of the Bible

Echo opinion essay published by Nicole Russell in the Las Vegas Sun: Trump has poisioned Christian Evangelicals

Many (wrongminded😓😡) evangelical Christians ✝️ have convinced themselves that voting for Donald Trump is the best way to win over the culture war, get prayer back in schools and restore the United States to its theocratic roots.  (Wrong❗🆇)

This is prominent in evangelical strains across the U.S., but especially in the South, in the Southern Baptist Convention and, of course, in Texas.

People Question Trump's Biblical Literacy After He Touts Bible Classes

Evangelicals, particularly, lean on the call of Jesus to his own disciples to bring good news to all and tell them of the hope that faith in Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection offers. By spreading the good news evangelicals hope to return the U.S. to a more conservative, God-honoring state.

Christian nationalists take this a big step further and, as Christianity Today defines it, “believe American identity is inextricable from Christianity,” and it is their duty to restore this via policy and politicians.

Religious influence has always existed in American politics. Today’s modern evangelical convergence into politics started with Ronald Reagan and heightened with George W. Bush. His candidacy galvanized millions of social conservatives, Christians who voted on just a handful or sometimes even one topic: abortion. Evangelicals found hope in a born-again Texan’s leadership, which seemed faith-based yet tangible, strong yet compassionate.

But still the country has continued to shift away from any kind of faith-based values. While some continued to pour their lives into mission work, charitable organizations or churches, more and more looked to politics to be their earthly religion, and Republican leaders to be their god.

Enter 2016, Trump. After eight years of Barack Obama, Trump seemed to be the leader to change America’s course. Even though almost nothing about his personal life demonstrated that he held true faith in God, or anything but himself. Even though he didn’t seem to even try to live in a way that demonstrated upward values, Trump was charismatic, promised conservative victories and courted Christians who were easily manipulated. This year, Trump is doing the same thing with the same results.

At the end of 2023, according to the Pew Research Center, 55% of white evangelical Republican voters said they would vote for Trump. Now that he has clinched the Republican nomination, that number has probably risen. At the grassroots level, this means that in churches across Texas, pastors will endorse Trump from the pulpit, and other Republican candidates down-ballot, violating tax law. Organizations such as NEXUS Mountain Network, a Christian-based social network, will promote the idea that evangelicals have a right and a duty to be politically active and advocate for Christian nationalism.

The problem with all this isn’t that evangelicals are involved in politics — they should be. Heck, everyone, regardless of religion or creed, should show some interest in civics. It isn’t that evangelicals encourage their friends to vote or are pro-life, or even that they think America would lose its identity or freedom if we fail to preserve our cultural inheritance.

The biggest problem, mostly, is that evangelical Christians have decided political power is the way to usher America back to its roots and that Trump is not just the salve but the key, the leader through which to do this.

Trump’s candidacy has recognized and glorified Christian nationalism: Now, it’s more vocal, determined, and — ironically — more hypocritical than ever. Trump rarely espouses Christian values in his personal life, though he did champion religious liberty and claimed to be pro-life while in office. He lured populist voters and attracted fringe extremists — the kind of people who fly from Texas to the Capitol to participate in an insurrection, get arrested, and claim they were just restoring Christian values to their beloved democratic republic.

God did not call Christians to follow Trump or the American political system, or even to preserve America’s heritage above all. Christian nationalism a la Trump makes Trump the god and makes power the goal, rather than faith or even embracing the values Christ spoke of: loving him above all and our neighbors as we love ourselves. This isn’t right.

Nicole Russell is a columnist for the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram.

Pig in a poke is an English idiom which means a kind of deceptive trick. It is a blind bargain. A purchase which turns out not to be what the seller claimed it was

P.S. Maine Writer- In my opinion, Christian Evangelical voters are being duped into believing the oldest con game known. They are being sold a "pig in a poke".