As lawsuits, indictments, and ballot challenges mount, a defiant Donald Trump tells America: he'll be here all week
Narrated by Jared Moore
Art by Daniel Medina
Text published 01/08/24:
Donald Trump, America's Comic
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SIOUX CENTER, IA — You know Donald Trump is feeling good when he moves into Triumph the Insult Comic President mode, early in a speech. In Iowa Friday, ten days before Americans officially start voting for the man, Trump was a violin short of Henny Youngman. He had everything working.
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Matt, you don’t seem to get a whole part of Trump’s story and appeal and that’s the gravitas that’s always been there alongside the somewhat shlocky Queens promoter you mock, however cleverly. Just as you don’t seem to see the same seriousness and perhaps even strength in so many of his followers. Is he a flawed and perhaps unlikely hero? Sure. That doesn’t mean he isn’t rising to the occasion and fighting a very important fight for America though. I’ve grown to love the guy just for that. Yeah, he’s a bit of a clown. Noted. But kind of so what? He’s also brave and committed to a battle that must be won or that’s it for the country. I think you know that.
Trump represents the pragmatists... the 70% of the country that are NOT the over-educated, elite snobs, vulnerable narcissists, social cynics & malcontents, economic looters and rent-seekers, political charlatans and general psychotherapy needing people. He is funny because he targets this other 30% are a hot mess of childish bad behavior and idiotic luxury beliefs. He goes too far at a times... pulling some political opponents that are more of the pragmatist cohort into the opposition hive, but he generally get’s it right. I hear quite often from some of the 70% that they wish we would have a more bipartisan candidate. Well I have lived with and debated that 30% for several decades, and I support the Trump approach for the simple reason that the 30% are generally fucking insane and have the power... and those two things together have proven too dangerous for playing nice.
Nicely said 👍
I am going to stay in the Trump Cult. He is the anti-war president.
Well, sort of. More the less pro war choice.
Well he didn't start any wars & there was peace in the Middle East for a short time. When he did have to do something, he got it done. He didn't stretch out for years. He wouldn't have encouraged Ukraine to fight a battle they can't win..
Ayn Rand really nailed it. Producers, looters and moochers. The Republican party has become the party of the producers (people that invent, develop, build, make, grow and fix real tangible things); the Democrat party is of the looters (elites that make their fortune skimming off the economics of production) and moochers (those demanding government benefits).
The strength of a country is directly related to its value and focus on producers vs the other two. The reason that the US is in such dramatic decline is that we have, in a relatively short number of years, completely shifted from that value and focus to the opposite. Wall Street tycoons produce nothing of value… then just skim off the existing economy of producers… yet they occupy the positions of high wealth and status in our society today. Jeff Bezos skims off traditional bricks and mortar retail and is celebrated as brilliant and accomplished; while Elon Musk… an entrepreneur that creates brand new products that never existed before… he is demonized and deemed “lucky”.
Take stock… the Democrats are run by the looters… Wall Street, lawyers, government employees… all people that generally don’t produce anything by their own efforts, but get their lives funded by schemes to take from the general productive economy.
Trump is the candidate of the producers. His personality is flawed with respect to what we expect in a President; but his platform, position and ideas are for the producing men and women of the country, and against the looters and moochers that would extract every penny from the system and leave it a destructed empty shell.
But why do so many establishment Republicans work behind the scenes against him?? Mitch McConnell, PAUL RYAN, and of course , the very angry Liz Cheney??
Great question. They are part of the old political establishment that are looters. They have never started, operated and grown any real business. They are charlatans that skim off the existing economy. We allowed them to multiply because the economy was strong and the average American and Brit could get along well enough. But they screwed it all up... giving away most of our working class economic opportunity for the wealth Wall Street directed to them.
Liz Cheney was worth 6 million when she won her House seat. 6 years later after Trump dumped her she is worth 46 million.
Trump is Brexit. He represents the reset after the unsustainable post-Bretton Woods Global Order. This is the money-making sandbox for our managerial and ruling class. They are desperate to keep the US involved in wars, debt spending and continued erosion of our own industrial base so they can offer it to other countries and the other counties will reward them with market access and other benefits that are convertible to cash.
Almost all of the Democrat leadership are establishment charlatans. About 30% of the old GOP still remain them too.
The parties flipped. The Democrats are the old Republicans but with the radical left. The Republicans are the old working class Democrat party. Minorities are figuring this out. However, the GOP is still stuck with these old establishment types that give the Democrats ammunition to keep deflecting the truth... that THEY are the establishment party in bed with the corporations and Wall Street.
In the upside-down world where Trump is Hitler, we almost lost America because the capital was attacked by flagpoles, every MAGA guy is a secret white supremacist, democracy must be saved by jailing political opponents and removing them from the ballot, war is back in business, the border is chaos and the economy sucks, Trump the Insult Comedy President is not only the most entertaining choice, by a landslide, he is also the most rational and moral one.
Walter Kirn’s breakdown of why Trump connects with “ the average bear” on your podcast yesterday was bang on. Sitting at my sewing machine, I kept saying “ that’s exactly it!” And the liberal media have their heads so far up their asses, they can’t “see” how they’re facilitating him.... Trump is a Youngman/Dangerfield combo!!
I'd prefer Hayley, but it is so important to get rid of the authoritarian-in-chief that I'm going to vote for whatever Republican is nominated. I never thought I would write those words.
Hailey is a Neocon. Shes just Biden without the woke virtue champagne lib crap. Its crazy to me how everyone seems to have A) forgotten the Bush years and how much of what is now being put in place began largely with the Neocons. B) the Neocons and the Dem Neolib clan agree on all the most destructive and devastating shit like endless war and mass surveillance from the State.
I'm sorry that you believe Haley would be a solution but she only represents the other arm of the same Establishment.
We have to think bigger than Democrats and Republicans. This is after all the most powerful forces in the world vying to get their way at our detrement. And that will not change just because the puppet president dons a red tie instead of a blue one.
That may be. We need to fire Joe before he leaves the country in ruins
I notice a glaring divide between people that profit from the status quo and the rest of society being crushed by this groups collective blindness. We can’t take decent care of vets or even the rich. Our food supply is often tainted. Our infrastructure old or worse (made from suspect materials by economic hostages off shore) The system has become so completely broken. The 4th estate has burned down as consolidation most of our history unthinkable and illegal has become the rule. We are left with false choices and open borders. God bless and protect us.
Sorry, Matt: as a comedian, he's not funny at all. As a politician, he's an embarrassment.
The point is, Trump is a comedian’s comedian. His genius being he’s exposed what incompetent fools most politicians are. Something “politicians” just don’t do.
Genius and Trump in the same sentence? I think we have all gone down the rabbit hole. I would be very, very surprised if his IQ was above 100.
So. How many businesses do you own and run? Why the insults?
I broke my own rule re engaging TDS sufferers. People can hate him all they want ( it seems to address some serious misplaced anger in their own lives ) but when people insist that he’s an IQ challenged moron, I’m supposed to just smh, not respond. I lived in Metro NYC NJ during Trump’s commercial real estate years... yeah, he wasn’t completely ethical... name a NY real estate developer who is. Congressional Rep.Jerry Nadler hates him strictly for a real estate deal that Nadler got screwed out of. Our country certainly fared better nationally and globally under Trump’s administration than the current President. I don’t think “principled” Trump haters understand that most Americans cannot AFFORD to make it “personal.” They were better off and now are not. And the longer the media and Democrats harangue the people with scare tactics and fascist fear mongering, the more they are perceived as intentionally deceitful. I would be kinder in my assessment if the DNC and media were covering RFK Jr with a modicum of fairness, but the fact that they are not and the DOJ will not grant him Secret Service Protection ( for which he qualifies) is testimony to their “ end” need to maintain power.
Right. Can you imagine Joe Biden ever starting, running and growing a private business empire anything close to what Trump has accomplished? And yet the elite like to claim Trump is the idiot and old Joe is the brainy one.
Well.... seeing as he and his son have amassed a moderate fortune through 20 some LLCs none of which actually provide a service or sell a product ... that actually is quite genius. Oh, my mistake, Hunter’s art is a product.... 😝😝😝
And how many of his businesses have failed? And you ask "why the insults?" of a man who can hardly speak a sentence without insulting someone.
And you clearly do not understand the versatility of the word “genius.”
You're right, if Trump is considered a genius in any context, I don't.
If you are responding to my saying "I would be very, very surprised if his IQ was above 100", it was with the understanding that the average IQ is 100. Trump may have an average IQ, not a genius IQ (140-145) which he and some of his supporters claim he has. About 25% of the population has an IQ of 110.
OK, I'll take back all of my numbers and accept all of yours. I guess I should have said I don't think Trump is very bright and certainly not as intelligent as he thinks he is: He uses his performance on a screening test for dementia as one indication of his "genius".
The choice of Trump or Biden at this particular historical moment is a disaster for our country. Both candidates are broken and corrupt to their core. The air of whimsy expressed by you and others in the alternative press regarding this disaster only makes it worse. Our electoral process is OBVIOUSLY flawed. I don’t know why this piece of Delaware shit is our President. I would prefer the members of the press to would focus on an analysis of how and why this came to pass rather than celebrating the crass absurdity of it all. The Chinese appear to reward competence and skill at public service, rather than hiring game show hosts and/or those most skilled at managing corruption (i.e. Pelosi, Schumer, McConnell). These flaws in our system are destroying lives here and abroad. This situation is no joke.
Exactly Mike. Opening with Walter having to begin with the fistula thing so we could be reminded he was on Maher. Podcasts past few months are a joke. I’m starting to believe they are part of a psyop or basking in a faux celebrity. Both literally look different and Matt with his childish red blanket behind him. 9/11; Great Recession & Covid et al and they are taking seriously candidates (they all lie & do the opposite.
The number of subscribers now whom think Trump is anti war is mind numbing
Agree, accept on the basis of 4 years of positive evidence Trump is the man.
Pray tell why is Trump a disaster for the country?
The R’s need to be remade as a party
The D’s need to go away, absolutely corrupt, racist, treasonous, anti- scientific, and fascist (government oppression through private companies)
Ex RINOs can start a new party, so we resurrect a 2 party system
Trump is corrupt. He doesn’t respect the law or any rules or regulations. He’s easily manipulated by powerful people. And he’s an asshole. Biden is also very corrupt and demented, and an asshole. The oil corporations are scared of the Climate Crisis and are making a huge move to own all governments. Both Biden and Trump are owned by oil, and others.
The whole establishment is against this guy: from corrupt Soros funded DAs, to the FBI CIA NSA , State Department, infiltrated by BHO bots DOD HH, DNC, half the RNC, the formerly free press, the oligarchs, big tech, Hollywood, academia, and a few that I forgot. And yet in over 8 years they have got nothing on him that they can get to stick, even after corrupting every significant institution in the country (& many in the world--that weren’t already corrupted.
Help me out here and give me examples of broken laws, real crimes (that his accusers aren’t 10--100 x more guilty of), not fake crimes like what they convicted him of even though banks and the purchaser came out more than whole.
Is he a hard bargainer, rough around the edges, fights fire with fire, hell yeah.
Rules & regulations made up by the deep state beyond reasonable interpretation of laws (that the SCOTUS is going to blow away when they do to Chevron what they did to R v W), IDK, but he’s still walking around a free man.
Now talk to me about the Biden & Clinton crime families, or the home wrecking whore & slut that is prosecuting him in Fulton County, GA
Your Trump is a con man. So is Biden. The US is an oligarchy. By the way your Trump is a total whore and slut. Always has been. Oligarchies, and reality, suck.
Mike Rube Nilhist, no that is not exactly right. Mark Rube Holier than thou.
I asked you for some objective data to support your opinion. All I get is more ad hominem.
I get that the US is an oligarchy (as are all countries that I can think of (I would be happy for an example of an exception.)
If Trump is a con man, it sure seems like he has conned the oligarchs into being very afraid of him. So much so that they have literally taken apart our whole legal and social structure to keep him a) off the ballot and b) from getting elected again -- and they aren't sure that they can do that, which is why they are working so hard under a).
Do you vote? If so, why? And why do you bother commenting here?
The contradictions are incredible. Trump is antiestablishment and Biden is pro. And yet Trump gets plenary of exposure while progressives get zero. Meanwhile we really are an oligarchy. For real! And yet for some reason the Democrats are running the absolute worst candidate they could run! Worse than Hillary! Wow! There are many Democrats they could run, Newsom for one, yet they’re running an 80 year old dementia victim. What a wacky world. I’ve been thru the Bernie, Hillary, Obama, and Trump, etc. Bernie never had a chance. In the end he was too lame anyway. It’s likely Trump will win, because it’s a set-up. Oligarchies create puppets not leaders. Goldman Sachs will be standing by his side, just like before. And the corporations will win again.
Well Mike, thanks for your response to my query/challenge.
TPTB are shooting themselves in the foot IMHO. You say Trump gets plenty of exposure, but is is all genitive and they try as much as they can to talk up his opponents to no avail. Why because most of us on the right feel like he was cheated out of a second term, that everything that is going to hell in a hand basket in this country and the world would not be happening if Trump and his policies were in place. TPTB in DNC & Barry Sotero and Soros et al, don't want any competition on the left for Biden, as he couldn't stand up to it (and for him to shift further to the left would make him way too toxic for any sane Democrat, much less the independents and even the Never Trumper RINOs.
My take on it is that Biden is standing in for Bathhouse Barry Sotero, in other words he is a puppet whose doing the bidding of BHO (or the people behind BHO), a defacto illegal 3rd Obama term, but what the hell, they installed Biden through a totally corrupted election with Big Tech, MSM (hell, the NYT news editor told his writers that it was OK to lie in Trump stories to make him look bad--not that they needed a hell of a lot of encouragement, the whole federal bureaucracy (suppression of the Hunter laptop story changed enough votes to deny Trump re-election, the state and federal court systems in significant key states allowing unprecedented legal and illegal changes in voting procedures, vote counting irregularities vote harvesting irregularities (2000 Mules); What did JR Biden say, they had the most extensive voter fraud operation ever, or words to that effect, and no one said anything --'oh that is just crazy old Joe ... And then when documentation of those irregularities, documented opportunities for fraud were presented to the courts they were all denied a hearing for 'lack of standing or some such thing--Hell, if voters don't have standing to challenge an election outcome who does?
Newsome would want to run his own show, and they didn't want that, TPTB wanted a corrupt, amoral, senile old guy that they could manipulate to do Soros, BHO's bidding--look at the Obama administration holdovers in Biden's administration.
They were confident, that having 'defeated' Trump in a crooked election, and framing him with the set up J6 charade with Fed agents peppered throughout the crowd (e.g., Ray Epps), Antifa and BLM dressed up as MAGA, selective editing of the videotapes and with Pelosi's hand picked RINOs on the committee, and then waiting to see if he still persisted to charge him with bogus federal and state cases in the run up to the 2024 election, that he would not survive all of that, they could get a conviction on something, but they were too clever by half, not clever enough and seem to be hoist on their own petard.
The lies and fallout from the 'Plandemic' have been found out by enough of the population that no one, well hardly anyone believes the MSM, the federal bureaucracy, the captured federal and state health agencies, huge chunks of the population no longer trust mainstream medicine, nor Big Pharma.
Trump will win (depending upon the amount of election cheating that they can pull off--but I think that it will be very hard--the lions are not asleep any more), but not because it is a set up, but because those of us on the right (and a lot in the center) now understand what went down in 2020 & 2022 and still today, and I think ol' Joe is going down.
Now, it may well be that they twist Pedo Joe's arm, or arrange for him to have an unfortunate accident, or see that he has a stroke or something and insert: Take your pick: Newsome, Big Mike (Michelle Obama), (Hillary would like a second shot, but I don't think TPTB would let her, she would lose badly. And perhaps they can get gruesome Newsome across the finish line, but I think he is toxic outside of California and a few very blue states.
You are right, Trump will likely win, not because it is a set up, but because they overplayed their hand and because Slo China Joe fucked up Ukraine, the Middle East, and the Far East, in spite of being on everybody's payroll under the table.
If I am wrong, you better brush up on your Mandarin, assuming that we aren't all nuclear waste by then.
Thanks for listening, and thanks for an interesting reply from someone who I perceive as being on the left, though I am not always astute about those inferences.
He’s about as funny as a broken leg.
TDS
Also when Elon Musk tried to get you to work at Twitter it might have been because Elon Musk realize he gotten you in trouble, that you were going to be blindsided by a mafia operated government. Maybe Elon Musk just wanted to get you and your family under the protection of his wealth and his lawyers.
I mean why Snowden and Greenwald are living in different countries now must have been lost on you Matt. I do think Elon Musk knew it, knew that you were up against a mob.
Why not? Every facet of our country has become a joke, including your profession.
Trump is certainly not the demon portrayed on the media but he also had 4 years as president. It's good to keep a strong independent mind throughout this process. Just as Matt doesn't owe any fealty or loyalty to the Virtue Boutique Left he owes no fealty to Trump either. It's evident that some of the commentors are butt hurt because they do not feel that Matt gave a Trump a wholly sufficient tongue bath. We are in a far larger battle than idealogues and presidential partisan pandering. We are going against some of the most powerful forces in the world and that is going to take all hands on deck.
I decided Trump's not the answer after I saw this documentary about the golf course he built in Scotland. https://youtu.be/k9RweR9EUSg?si=eiQaWr3Ay9ZhRa9E
A question -- how many independents and Democrat voters will vote in New Hampshire for -- Trump?
Out of their total disgust with DNC + state security cabal...
Another misguided ad hominem attack on President Trump.
Thank you, Matt, that was a beautifully crafted piece, I enjoyed every second of it.
Trump isn’t going back to Twitter, now X, because he is going after Elon Musk. Trump said the other day that Electric vehicle makers should “go to hell”, using his drill, baby drill, big oil supporters to go after free speech. Elon Musk didn’t do what theOligarchs wanted. Yes Elon Musk is strange eccentric, but he give Matt an incredible opportunity.
If the Democratic Party and their singing Nina Jakowicz couldn’t get Americans to give up free speech then those Oligarchs just switch the candidates around and put an R in front of the name, then the MAGA groupies are more thanhappy to make the adjustments.
I would not worry to much about not be able to vote for Trump in Colorado or Maine, it’s all part of the divide and conquer show pal.
When Trump wanted the deportation of foreign students who are pro-Palestine some Tump support in Vermont took his “make American great again” rifle and shot at three Palestinian students.
One of the three college students of Palestinian descent who were shot in Vermont last month is paralyzed from the chest down after a bullet lodged in his spine. So please Matt, and ask him how funny he thinks Donald Trump is.
So funny I forgot to laugh.