So, let's review, shall we? Last weekend, seven million Americans took to the streets to protest Donald Trump, in the biggest political protest this country has ever seen. The theme of the protest was: "No Kings!" So this week, Trump responded by acting in what can only be described as kingly fashion, in as many ways as he could dream up -- including a rushed demolition of one-third of the White House, without consulting anyone or even attempting to get anyone's permission. He sent the demolition crews in, and within a few days the entire East Wing was nothing more than a pile of rubble. All because a royal decree had been issued.

Trump also demanded $230 million in personal tribute money, to be paid to him by the Department of Justice, using (of course) taxpayer dollars. The reason the public should hand him almost a quarter-billion dollars? Because his feelings were hurt when the justice system tried to hold him accountable for his many crimes. So now, according to the king, the public must pay fealty to him in a very tangible way.

Meanwhile, a U.S. aircraft carrier is heading to the Caribbean, so that Trump can kill whomever he wishes with more ease. Think that's an overstatement? Think only a king would do something like that? Here is Trump, after being asked whether he was going to ask Congress to approve of such actions: "I think we're just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK? We're going to kill them, you know? They're going to be like, dead."

Oh, and the Marines apparently shelled Interstate 5 in California, while putting on a big show for the vice president. Coincidence?

In trade news, Trump hit the ceiling when a Canadian politician dared to run an ad in America criticizing tariffs, using clips from an old speech by Ronald Reagan. So Trump immediately declared he had halted all trade negotiations with Canada.

That's all just from the past week, mind you. There are plenty of other examples of Trump's royal inclinations, but at least a few of these must have been spurred by the fact that seven million Americans took to the streets to protest what he is doing to our country. The best commentary that we read on the protests (and Trump's regal offenses) reached back to our own founding document, the Declaration of Independence. The document was, for the most part, a huge list of reasons why Americans had decided to break ties with their sovereign. It listed all the complaints we had, in very specific terms. And more than a few of them ring true today:

To return to the Saturday protests -- and to put them in slightly different terms -- roughly one in 50 Americans gathered under one slogan ("No Kings!") to protest against the president's authoritarian methods and monarchical aspirations. And while Trump's allies may feign ignorance with regard to claims that he's seeking arbitrary and unaccountable power -- hiding behind an accusation of "Trump derangement syndrome" -- it takes no time at all to write out a litany of offenses that threaten the republican foundations of American democracy.

To borrow language from one of the nation's founding documents, Trump has "erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance"; he has "kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures"; he has "affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power"; he has cut "off our Trade with all Parts of the World" and imposed "Taxes on us without our Consent." He has transported us "beyond the Seas to be tried for pretend Offences" and in deigning to spend tax dollars without congressional authorization -- to pay soldiers in the midst of a shutdown, in a move reminiscent of Stuart absolutism -- he has "invested" himself "with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever."

All this so that he might alter "fundamentally the Forms of our Governments," and remake the United States in his image as a personalist autocracy.

Not to mention destroying one-third of "The People's House" without any permission at all. With apologies to the rock band Sweet, this "ballroom blitz" took everyone by surprise ("It's, it's a ballroom blitz!"). Previously, Trump had sworn that his plans for a new ballroom would not even touch the existing White House structure. There would be no damage or changes to the building at all, he promised. This week, however, the demolition machines appeared without warning and starting ripping down the East Wing. At first, it was just reported that "the facade" would be torn down, but within days it was revealed that the entire East Wing had been completely destroyed -- reduced to a pile of rubble. Congress was not consulted, and neither were any of the groups who are supposed to approve changes to federal building or are interested in preservation of historic Washington architecture. Trump just decided to rip it down before anyone could stop him. He was obviously embarrassed about it, since the White House took pains to block any possible sightline to the destruction, to limit the scenes from appearing on the news.

Trump then announced that the pricetag for his palatial palace of tackiness had risen to $300 million, but (not to worry!) there had been plenty of people and companies willing to offer him tribute money to cover the costs. They even released a list of donors, which included some very familiar corporate names, including: Amazon, Apple, Comcast, Google, HP, Meta, Microsoft, T-Mobile, and even (for some reason) Hard Rock International. These are the corporate titans who are financing this destruction and desecration of the White House, folks.

The new ballroom will occupy a stunning 90,000 square feet -- much bigger than the footprint of the White House itself. It will loom over the entire complex, and the interior is just as tasteless and kitschy and tacky as you would imagine, since Trump approved it all. Everything will be gold-plated, of course. So that Trump can hold parties for 999 of his closest friends.

Our initial reaction to this behemoth was to dearly hope that the next Democrat who runs for president makes a campaign promise to tear this palace of tastelessness down and to restore the East Wing to its previous sedate existence. Tear down the giant new flagpoles, too, while you're at it. And strip the walls of the Oval Office of all that gold bric-a-brac, since America was founded specifically against kings in palaces.

One can dream, right?

Getting back to the protest rallies and marches from last weekend, though. While the Republicans tried to smear the entire effort as "Hate America" rallies, there was no violence or disruption, and the people who attended were fiercely defending the America they saw being dismantled before their eyes. As Bernie Sanders said in a speech to the Washington rally, the attendees weren't there because they hated America, but because they love America.

Trump, true to form, responded by posting a disgustingly scatological fake video of him, wearing a crown (because why not?), flying a military jet, and bombing the protesters with crap. He has sunk to the level of basic primatology, because apes and monkeys will often express their displeasure by flinging their own poo in a blind rage. Which was literally what that video depicted -- the president of the United States of America taking a big ol' dump on citizens who had the temerity to protest him. Such is the world we now live in, folks.

On the world stage, Trump went through a bout of flip-floppiness that was so abrupt it caused whiplash. Last week, Trump mused about providing Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory, then Vladimir Putin called Trump up and talked him out of it, one day before he met with the Ukrainian leader (who was mightily hoping for those Tomahawks). Trump, acting on Putin's orders, denied the missiles to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, because Putin had dangled another summit meeting in front of Trump. This week, Putin bombed a preschool in Ukraine and informed the White House that he was simply not interested in the ceasefire proposal Trump was now pushing, so the summit plans fell apart. Trump then completely reversed course and instituted the first sanctions (on two of Russia's biggest oil companies) that he has in his entire nine months in office. But (alas!) Zelenskyy still didn't get any Tomahawks.

In other foreign policy news, Trump has now flown off to a tour of Asia, where the hope is he will meet with China's leader and somehow fend off the escalation in the trade war we're having with them. Trump has threatened a new 100 percent tariff on Chinese goods, but who knows whether he'll follow through on the threat or not?

One group of Americans who would like to see the trade war resolved (even partially) are soybean farmers. Democrats have a real opportunity here, because Trump seems to be going out of his way to annoy a whole bunch of people who faithfully voted for him. He bailed out Argentina to the tune of $20 billion, but so far has yet to bail out any American farmers. This is galling, since China is now refusing to buy any American soybeans, so Argentina lowered its own trade barriers so that China could buy up their entire crop of soybeans. This, understandably, has left some American farmers seriously annoyed. And now Trump has announced he will be massively increasing the importation of beef from Argentina, since beef prices have skyrocketed for American consumers. This is a slap in the face to all the ranchers who voted for Trump. As I said, this leaves a clear opening for Democrats out in rural America, if they are smart enough to take it.

Let's see... what else has been happening? The government shutdown continues with no end in sight, and the speaker of the House continues to refuse to allow his chamber to meet, even though there is no rule or law preventing them from doing so (they're all still getting paid, it bears mentioning).

Obamacare insurance premium price hikes are starting to be published, and if the Democrats don't win the shutdown battle and restore the expanded subsidies, millions of families are going to be priced out of the marketplace.

FEMA has quietly been refusing to provide aid to disaster-struck areas, including those with plenty of Trump voters (such as North Carolina and Western Maryland). This likely won't become big news until a major disaster hits America and FEMA completely falls down on the job, but the warning signs are there for anyone paying attention. Speaking of paying attention, even though the government stopped tracking the data (since according to Trump, it's not a problem) but climate change continues to threaten us all -- through the first six months of this year, disasters caused more than $100 billion damage, which is the most expensive start to any year on record.

Trump used his pardon power to free two buddies this week, a crypto criminal and none other than George Santos -- because (as Trump explained) he always voted Republican. Trump commuted both the sentence Santos had been serving and any requirement to pay back the victims he scammed.

A Republican Vermont state senator finally resigned, after being caught on an extremely racist chat with a bunch of other Republicans. Even better news was that a Trump nominee had to withdraw from consideration because of his own racist "Nazi streak" (his words) and this proved to be too much for even the sycophantic Republican Senate to take.

In other "Republicans actually doing the right thing" news, Indiana will not be redistricting to gerrymander more Republican House seats because there aren't enough votes in the legislature to do so (despite it being overwhelmingly Republican).

But that's enough of a wrap-up for this week, instead let's move right along to the awards section of the program, shall we?

 

If we had an award for a "not very impressive" Democrat, this week House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries would have won it. He finally (finally!) gave his half-hearted endorsement to the Democratic nominee in the New York City mayor's race, Zohran Mamdani. But he waited until the absolute last minute to do so (just before early voting begins), and it wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement of Mamdani. Maybe it'll help him defeat Andrew Cuomo, but Mamdani looks on track to do that anyway. So we have nothing but an ironic slow-clap for Jeffries this week.

We do have a few Honorable Mention awards to hand out this week, though:

To California Governor Gavin Newsom, for his latest "get under Trump's skin" gimmick -- he says he's going to send signed kneepads to all the CEOs of corporations and leaders of prestigious universities who have "bent the knee" to Trump.

To the Virginia legislature's Democrats, for pushing a new measure to redistrict the state to provide more safe seats for Democrats, in response to all the redistricting red states are doing.

To both the attorney general of Arizona and to Representative-Elect Adelita Grijalva, who have filed a joint lawsuit against House Speaker Mike Johnson, to try to force him to swear her in and let her take her duly-elected seat. Johnson has refused to do so for over a month now, so Grijalva is suing to either force him to swear her in or allow her to be sworn in by any judge anywhere, so she can assume the office the voters in her district elected her to.

And to former President Barack Obama, who -- even though he has been fighting to make redistricting fairer and nonpartisan for years -- this week endorsed the Proposition 50 effort in California and cut an ad urging California voters to vote for it. Desperate times call for desperate measures is essentially Obama's message in the ad, and we couldn't agree more at this point.

But we have to give the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award to every single one of the seven million people who turned out last weekend to show their displeasure with King Donald. Never in the history of this country have more people taken to the streets in protest, or "to petition their government for redress of grievances."

It is heartening to know that so many Americans are not just outraged by what Trump has been doing but so outraged that they showed up to send the message in person. We have no doubt that these protests will continue (although probably not until the weather warms next spring), and they are an important indicator that Trump is a very unpopular president, no matter how much he deludes himself to the contrary.

The best thing about the events was that they were universally peaceful demonstrations. This is important, because Republicans tried to paint the whole thing as some sort of violent "hate America" uprising, but the reality was far different. As all of America could see. So to each and every person who made the effort and stood up for what they believed, please share this group Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award, with our gratitude.

 

Sadly, this one was an easy call.

A Democratic candidate (who is an ex-Marine) in the running to unseat Senator Susan Collins of Maine had to do some serious damage control this week, after it was revealed that he had a tattoo on his chest of an abhorrent Nazi image.

Here's the basic story, from Slate (note: emphasis in original):

Graham Platner, one of the Democrats gunning to oust Republican Susan Collins in Maine's contested senator slot in 2026, had become something of an up-and-coming star in the party for his gruff demeanor, oyster farming, and military background -- as well as a Bernie-esque communication style that has rankled some party elders. But over the course of the last week, and especially the past few days, he has been wrapped up in a truly unbelievable suite of scandals. I will now regale you. Strap in, it's about to get ugly.

. . .

I don't really know how to say this, but Graham Platner has a giant totenkopf tattooed on his chest. As in, the skull-and-crossbones worn by the SS. Or, in other words, one of the most antisemitic symbols anyone could inflict upon their skin. It is murky how this story broke, exactly. But last night, the Pod Save America network posted an interview with Platner -- interspersed with the candidate gloriously drunk and shirtless at a wedding, with the totenkopf for all to see -- which at least appeared to be a coordinated attempt to control a looming narrative. (That is at least what his former political director alleges.) Platner's story is that he found himself in Croatia during one of his many combat tours, and, after wandering into a tattoo parlor, elected to get inked with a "terrifying-looking skull and crossbones." Platner claimed to be basically ignorant of the tattoo's greater historical context.

. . .

Earlier today, Jewish Insider published a story featuring a former acquaintance of Platner's who recalled the candidate referring to the blotchy skull on his chest as a "totenkopf" -- using the precise terminology for, again, one of the most recognizable insignias of Nazi terror. This allegedly happened all the way back in 2012, which, if true, would mean that for a very long time, Platner was aware he had a Nazi tattoo. The man now faces maybe the most damaging and invincible political question of all time, which is: Why did you not get the giant SS symbol on your chest covered up with literally anything else?

Good question. Platner has now done so -- he has altered the tattoo to now display a Celtic knot instead. But the tattoo wasn't the only scandal he faced this week, as several very questionable old internet postings were also released to the media.

We will see if the voters of Maine choose to accept his explanations and apologies, but for now at the very least Graham Palmer deserves this week's Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week award.

[Graham Platner is a private citizen, and it is our blanket policy not to link to campaign websites, so you'll have to seek our his contact information yourself if you'd like to let him know what you think of his actions.]

 

Volume 818 (10/24/25)

Before we begin, we have a quick program note. Next Friday is All Hallows' Eve.

Now, we can't actually promise that we're going to go out and carve pumpkins and write new tales of horror from right and left, but we do promise we will be celebrating Hallowe'en in some fashion or another, which will pre-empt next week's Talking Points column, just to warn everyone in advance.

 

   Where is the outrage?

Democrats don't quite have the equivalent of Fox News and the rightwing media echo chamber, but even so -- where is the outrage? Where are the Democrats who will express their anger authentically? Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries don't quite fill this bill, but you'd expect more from at least some Democrats.

"Let's just imagine for one tiny moment what the Republicans would have said if Barack Obama had -- without consulting anyone, without asking any permission at all -- just torn down one-third of the White House. Can you even imagine the apoplexy? Can you imagine the scathing language Republicans would have used to condemn Obama? So where is the outrage from Democrats over the travesty that just happened? Every Republican I have seen on the news has meekly approved of what Donald Trump just did to desecrate The People's House, but they need some serious pushback and they need it now. In fact, I would highly suggest that any Democrat who is now considering running for president in 2028 get out there and vent their anger to any news outlet they can find. Our party needs a new litmus test -- the 2028 candidate should have to pledge to tear down the Trump monstrosity and rebuild the East Wing back to something the people of America can be proud of. I don't know about you, but I'm not willing to vote for any candidate who doesn't make such a promise, personally."

 

   J'accuse!

Let's just make sure we also lay the blame squarely where it belongs.

"Trump says his ballroom will be entirely paid for by donors, and he even helpfully released a list of them. So if you are disgusted by this desecration of the White House, now you know precisely who is to blame. Consumers should make their disgust known by writing to the CEOs of these companies -- which include: Amazon, Apple, Comcast, Google, HP, Meta, Microsoft, and T-Mobile -- and let them know you do not appreciate them bending the knee to Trump and handing over millions upon millions of dollars so he could destroy one-third of the White House. Without such craven behavior by these corporations, this might not have even been possible for Trump to do. But because they all just threw money at Trump, there's a big ugly pile of rubble where the East Wing of the White House used to be. For shame!"

 

   Inflation heads up again

Don't forget to keep banging this drum, because it is what voters care about more than anything else.

"Remember what Trump actually got elected promising to do? Because it sure wasn't 'bomb some boats in the Caribbean and destroy a major part of the White House.' While Trump distracts everyone, the official inflation rate went up to three percent. And that's if we can even trust such a number, after Trump got so petulant about economic numbers he didn't like that he fired the head of the bureau that produces them. I don't know about you, but it feels like prices have gone up a lot more than three percent this year -- after Trump took office and started a trade war with the rest of the planet. Have you bought beef recently? Or coffee? Or back-to-school supplies for your kids? Those prices are all up a whole lot more than three points, that's for sure. So whatever Trump is doing to distract us all, the real question that he needs to be asked is: 'When are you going to do something about inflation?' Personally, I don't think he's got an answer to that one."

 

   There is not enough money for you

This one's a two-fer. We found these quotes in an article up on HuffPost and couldn't decide which one we liked better, so we're just going to run both of them. They both link the bailout money to other issues quite well. The first one is from Senator Jeanne Shaheen:

President Trump seems to think it's more important to offer $20 billion to bail out Argentina than it is to make a bipartisan deal to prevent health insurance premiums from spiking for over 20 million Americans in a matter of days.

And the second one is from Senator Brian Schatz:

There is enough money to bail out Argentina with $20 billion. There is enough money to purchase a brand new aircraft for $173 million for the Homeland Security Secretary. There is enough money to renovate the White House ballroom. What there is not enough money for under this Republican government is you. There is not enough money for you.

 

   Is this what you voted for?

Or you could make a more direct case, to rural Trump supporters.

"Donald Trump is sending $20 billion to Argentina to bail out their struggling economy. Why? Because he's buddies with the leader of the country. He also allowed Argentina to drop all their tariffs and sell their entire soybean crop to China, because China is refusing to buy any American soybeans. Trump also just announced he'd be importing a whole lot of beef from Argentina as well. Is this really what American farmers and ranchers voted for? Trump hasn't lifted a finger to bail out any American farmers who are getting slammed by his tariffs and his global trade war. He hasn't provided $20 billion to farmers here at home. Is that really 'America first'? I mean, I know a lot of farmers, but not one of them is willing to say 'Yes, this is what I voted for -- to bankrupt American farmers while bailing out some foreign country who is a direct competitor to our farmers and ranchers.' Because this is not what they voted for, plain and simple."

 

   No dick-tators

This had to have been the most egregious arrest at any of the No Kings! rallies, which is why it deserves a mention.

"Three police officers in Alabama tackled a 61-year-old woman who was not being violent in any way but merely exercising her First Amendment rights to protest Donald Trump last weekend. Her crime, according to the police? 'Disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.' The video of it is worth watching, though, because it shows the real reason the cops took her down: she was dressed in a giant penis costume, and holding a sign that said 'No dick-tator.' According to the police, this was 'deemed obscene in a public setting.' That's amusing, since Donald Trump does things that are more obscene on a daily basis -- just take a look at his video response to the No Kings! protests. Seeing a giant dick on the side of the road is no worse than being subjected to one behind the desk of the Oval Office, as far as I am concerned."

 

   Couldn't have picked a better piece of music if I tried....

This one wasn't at the rallies, but rather stemmed from a one-man protest of the militarization of the streets of America.

"A man is suing the Ohio National Guard and D.C. police after he was handcuffed and detained for having the temerity to play a piece of music on his phone while walking behind some of the soldiers who now patrol Washington D.C. streets. The man pulled out his phone and set it to play 'The Imperial March' from the Star Wars franchise -- which is better known as 'Darth Vader's Theme.' The soldiers warned him to stop, which he refused to -- why should he, since he was merely exercising his First Amendment rights? He was then tightly handcuffed and detained, before being released. Even so, his constitutional rights were clearly violated and I hope he wins his court case. I would also hope that this becomes a meme and thousands of other people start playing exactly the same tune whenever they see soldiers on American city streets. Because for the life of me, I couldn't have picked a better piece of music if I had tried...."

-- Chris Weigant

 

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

Cross-posted at: Democratic Underground