The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/22/25

It's unknown whether Trump ordered Speaker Mike Johnson to shut down the US House for the August recess two weeks early, or if it was Johnson's idea, to avoid a growing resentment within his own party to Trump's dodging of the ever louder Epstein files scandal, but the Republicans ran silently screaming away from Washington DC in a desperate hope that the demands for the Epstein Files, and what exactly is the undeniable connection to Trump, dies down like Epstein in his cell, by September.

It's frustrating that a lot of people are acting like this scandal is a new thing. Democrats (yours included) have been screaming for years that Trump is a pedophile, and the national news media outright ignored the obvious connections which were right in front of their faces.

It was only when Elon Musk said that Trump was on the Epstein List that suddenly the national news media finally felt like the potential of the President being a Pedophile is actually a newsworthy story.

I find it funny that the same MAGA trolls who have been screaming that every Democrat is a "pedophile" for the last 5 years, now faced with the reality that Trump is likely the King Pedophile, suddenly insist that either they never would accuse anyone of such behavior (so you should stop saying that about Trump, RIGHT NOW!!!) or that sexually assaulting minors is suddenly not a big deal. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/21/25

There is a long history in this country of minority farmers being discriminated against to the point where they were driven out of the farming business.  After the Civil War, nationwide, it was common to prevent Black and minority farmers from being able to sell their products in white commercial or wholesale markets.  The racists, frustrated by the Black farmer's freedom from slavery specifically, vowed to never help the Black farmer.  When times came where there wasn't enough white farmer crops for the white masses, whites would refuse to pay the same rates for the Black farmers' crops, insisting they were inferior because they came from Black farmers.  Sometimes they would just raid Black farms and steal their crops/animals. 

Like I said, this wasn't a policy just limited to the former slave states. This anti-minority farmer policy became a nationwide policy, and it went a long way to limit the Black and minority farmers of today.  In the US, 38.5% of the population is either Black, Hispanic, Asian, or Native American, but only 4% of farms in the USA are owned by people of color. 

And make no mistake, there is A LOT of racism in the farming industry today, going out of its way to discourage and limit the opportunities for minority farmers.  It was so bad that the Farm Bill in 1990 installed a policy which specifically tried to help minority farmers who had been discriminated against.  

Not anymore. 

The Trump White House and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins are specifically removing the term "Socially disadvantaged" from the law, basically making racism against minority farmers legal again, removing race and sex based considerations in the decision-making process for their USDA programs. They claim they are taking a race-neutral stance, but what they're really doing is intentionally ignoring the racism in the system, and saying minority farmers have always had the same opportunities and chances as white farmers, a laughable argument.

These changes in Ag, as well as other areas, have a designed purpose: to incubate racism by insisting no racism exists. The people complaining about the racism are the real problem, and until they learn to shut up and accept the racism, the victims of racism are the real racists.

A bigot's fever dream. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/20/25

The entire Sunday was a day for Trump to desperately try to get the Epstein scandal off the front page.  First, he had Tulsi Gabbard make up a fake President Obama scandal so he could say, "I'm attacking the Black Man." Then came another threat to undo Rosie O'Donnell's citizenship, something he can't do ("I'm getting the liberal woman!") but then he just let the racism fly. 

Trump vowed to halt the new Washington Commanders' NFL Football stadium unless they return the team to the racist name the team finally got rid of in 2020.  They also said the Cleveland Guardians needed to return to their racist name they recently retired.

It's not clear what Trump could actually force.  The Washington team and the NFL seem to have ZERO interest in bringing the horrifically racist name back.  

This is just racism.  This is Trump knowing that one of his MAGA base's main tentpoles is racism.  MAGA is either racist or completely fine with racists, so this is Trump begging MAGA to forget about Epstein, and he will be the biggest racist he can be for them.

He really is a piece of S#!t. And he raped young girls.  No amount of pandering will ever take that away. 

    

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/19/25

How do you say "Trump is DEFINITELY in the Epstein files" without saying "Trump is DEFINITELY in the Epstein files"? 

The Director of National Intelligence and UNDENIABLE Russian asset, Tulsi Gabbard, started screaming about something to do with President Obama trying to undermine Trump.  She says that emails expose a years-long conspiracy against Trump.

Okay, I'll play the stupid game for a second. You mean Trump, who won the election in 2016, and who won again in 2024?  How exactly did this conspiracy hurt Trump? For something to be bad, shouldn't there have been consequences?

Also, didn't YOUR Supreme Court basically rule that anything a President does in office is legal?  Seriously, you just created a rule saying that Presidents can't be held accountable for what they did in office, so...

Putting aside the most racist Administration since before Lincoln is screaming "Arrest the Black Man(!!!)" to try to take the Epstein scandal off the front page, this is an insanely lame attempt at trying to change the national narrative to protect Trump.

Trump is definitely in the Epstein files.  Trump raped young girls and is desperate to avoid crashing in the game of chicken Trump decided to play with himself.  Remember, he knew he was in those files but yet kept bringing them up as some sort of smoking gun for others.  That is insanely stupid for someone, even if they never thought they'd be held accountable.

 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/18/25

I definitely could go with the defunding of Public Radio. The Right has been threatened by them for decades, considering that in many communities, they are the only non-Right-Wing filtered news option.  They are threatened by the one minute of news at the top of the hour at the classical station, so they are ruining another great element of America. 

Instead, I'll go with the price tag submitted for reopening Alcatraz. They are claiming it would be 2 billion dollars. I don't think they're even close to the right cost.

I traveled to Alcatraz last summer.  It's tiny.  It only held a few hundred prisoners, which means it would be grossly expensive to put prisoners back there, versus someplace like Guantanamo, where there is already a prison and plenty of space. 

The entire island would have to be completely rebuilt.  Pretty much most of the officers' housing was destroyed by fires years ago.  The entire island would have to be razed, and a completely new prison would have to be built. Everything would have to be torn down and shipped off the island, THEN they would have to take every bag of concrete, screw, and board back over to the island to build it. 

There is no way you could pull that off for only 2 billion. Apparently, that price tag came in so high that most of the Administration is not as enthused by this option anymore, but Trump loves the idea. 

The Friday Link for 7/18/25

Hi all!

I took a week off from the blog for some simple reasons.  I was tired, I was having a hard time with the mountain of bad news, I was falling behind in other aspects of my life, and I just wanted a break.

I will try to get back to the WTTD tomorrow.

We start the Friday Link with a shockingly therapeutic video.  It's a simple rendition of the speed of light in our own solar system, but I have enjoyed watching this video multiple times when I am stressed out. It starts at the sun, and for 45 minutes, you travel at the speed of light toward the solar system's gas giants.

It gives you a stunning perspective of the size of our solar system, as it takes all 45 minutes to get to Jupiter alone (we'd need another 35 minutes to get all the way to Saturn at the speed of light).  Also, you don't appreciate how far away from the Earth the moon is, or how far away from Jupiter Callisto is.  

This, along with MST3K and RiffTrax videos, is my go-to stress relief. 

Also tonight is a great commentary from Nick Offerman when he visited The Daily Show, sounding off about the threat Trump and his Administration present to the National Parks. Trust me, they would sell them off to the highest bidder if they could.  Offerman makes a lot of points, but his primary one is simple: National Parks are really cool, and we should treat them as the treasure they are.

Warning, this video does have some adult content.  You've been warned! 

Have a good weekend.

Please make sure you stay up to date on your vaccinations.

The Friday Link for 7/11/25

This week, we start off with an absolutely spectacular tourism ad from Canada. 

I want a Canadian hug! 

Disclaimer: You probably shouldn't just go randomly hug someone, but this ad makes me realize how far this country has fallen.  We used to be nice to each other.  Now we all get roundhouse kicks to the face and then are told we have to be grateful.  Sigh...

Next up this week is a frantic call to help out the Horseshoe Crab. When I was a kid, swimming at Wickford Town Beach in Rhode Island, we'd come across these little aqua-tanks all the time.  Pretty much harmless, but they look intimidating.

Apparently, they've been having a rough time lately. ZeFrank has all the details in True Facts: Turtle Spiders of the Sea! 

Finally tonight, me.  I usually don't post clips from my show, but earlier this week I had a great visit with former Minnesota Vikings punter and Progressive activist Chris Kluwe.  We talked about many things, but mainly how to stay enganged, and the importance of recharging your batteries with non-political activities to help keep your sanity. 

That's it for this week.  Have a great weekend, and please make sure to stay up to date on all your vaccinations! Thanks! 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/10/25

After Trump admitted his harsh 50% tariffs on incoming Brazilian products (once again, NOT PAID BY BRAZIL!  It's a TAX that Americans are having to pay.) was due in part to Trump being upset about his buddy, the former President of Brazil, the MAGA-esque Jair Bolsonaro, being prosecuted for trying to overturn the election he lost in Brazil in 2022 (They prosecute people who break the law in Brazil. Thanks for nothing Merrick Garland), the markets shrugged. 

Here was Trump admitting that he was imposing stiff tariffs on another country not for economic reasons, but for petty personal ones. Congress and the Markets should have thrown a fit.  Maybe they think Trump will TACO out and bail on the tariff threats, AGAIN.  Maybe the markets are just broken and are being falsely inflated.  It's likely a bit of both. 

Trump then turned his attention to Canada, where he is threatening a 35% tariff on all Canadian goods.  Once again, Canada can still get American products without too much of a price increase, but Americans will suffer far more with their costs skyrocketing as the US NEEDS a lot of Canada's products.

Canadians are pretty unified in trying to cut as many US ties as possible, so this whole "Canada needs to be subservient to Trump" foreign policy platform has been a disaster.

And it should be noted that if Canada, one of our largest trading partners, does get into a retaliatory mode and decides, instead of retaliatory tariffs, to just stop sending certain products south of the border, that will dramatically damage the US economy.

Even in a perfect world, it would take the US YEARS to get American production ramped up to sufficient levels, to make up for the metals, precious metals, and other unique imports we NEED from Canada. And instead of investing billions into making products in America, most companies will wait to see what happens in the next elections, as it does a US company no good to spend a lot of money building a new facility only to see tariffs lifted by the next sane person in the White House, putting them at a massive competitive disadvantage. 

And we aren't even beginning to talk about the skilled workforce needed to get raw materials and turn them into a workable product.  That's not a 'week of training' sort of thing.

All the ingredients are there for a massive US economic collapse soon.  Trump will blame Fed Chairman Powell, but this will all be on his stupid, stupid head.

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/9/25

It took Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem 72 hours, THREE DAYS (!!!) to start sending needed help to Texas after the massive flooding there left over 100 dead, including many children.

In the past, FEMA was proactive and would have had teams on the ground when they knew bad weather was coming.  That all changed with ICE Barbie.  She demanded that any expense costing more than $100,000 be personally approved by her.  That's bad enough, but instead of heading into the office and scratching out a few signatures, Kristi wasn't in the office for three days.

One of the things that she was FAR MORE concerned with was appealing to her social media followers to help her determine which picture of her playing cowgirl would be best for her official South Dakota Governor portrait. 

Part of FEMA, which was NOT deployed, was the Urban Search and Rescue teams.  These teams are experts at getting into disaster areas and finding survivors in the wreckage. It took her THREE DAYS to get them to Texas, meaning there is a likely chance a victim might have died waiting for rescue as Noem played "which photo of me do you like best" on Instagram. 

It also should be mentioned that the head of FEMA himself, David Richardson, a man who had no idea there was such a thing as 'Hurricane Season,' is completely AWOL.  No one seems to know exactly where he is or what he's doing.

The Federal Government's inaction (or maybe this was by design) allowed for racist white supremacist groups to enter the area and present themselves to the victims as a needed resource...well, for the white victims only. Like I said, maybe this was the whole goal in the first place. 

Noem is now saying FEMA is ineffective, using HER ineptitude to argue FEMA should be dismantled completely. 

It worked just fine until Trump got back into office. This is about giving all the money that was supposed to go to save people's lives to the wealthy.

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/8/25

There are heartless, stupid, incompetent bags of soup in Trump's Cabinet, but there might be one lurking in the shadows who outshines them all, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

She's basically an incompetent fool who shouldn't be working at an Arby's, let alone at the Department of Agriculture.  She doesn't advocate at all for the American farmer, and so far her entire tenure has been to be someone whose goal is to be smiling like a mannequin, nodding in agreement in the background.

But yesterday she opened her mouth and said a DOOZY!

Saying nothing, as ICE Gestapo raids leave the American Agriculture sector in shambles, having run off the undocumented workers who were willing to do the backbreaking work for a substandard wage, with crops now rotting in the fields, and Agriculture processors and dairies struggling to find enough employees to operate, Babbling Brooke offered a suggestion to deal with the farm labor crisis.

She suggested that the people to do the back-breaking, hard manual labor for a pittance would be "34 million adults in the Medicaid program."  

That's right!  She's suggesting the disabled and seniors on Medicaid get out into the fields and work like a mule...a disabled, elderly mule. 

For the record, 64% of Medicaid recipients ALREADY WORK, so she clearly must not be talking about them.  If she were, she'd be advocating for forced labor(!!!). The other enrollees are either retired, attending school, managing an illness/disability, or are caregivers, so that must be who she is talking about!  Rollins must feel those people have it too easy.  It's bad enough to demand stringent work requirements for Medicaid recipients, but it's beyond cruel to suggest they go out into the fields to pick crops because the Administration ran off the people who were willing to do those jobs.

It'd be funny, if it was so damn terrifying. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/7/25

The idiot is trying once again to play tough guy with trade. 

Earlier this year, on April 2nd, when Trump placed his massive worldwide tariff scheme on pretty much every country, it took 10 hours for the White House to FRANTICALLY walk back that decision.  In the ten hours it was in place, most of the US's foundational economic markets (bond, currency, metals, housing, agriculture) were all cracked.  If they hadn't immediately walked back his disastrous tariffs, the country would have nosedived into a depression by that afternoon. 

Since then, Trump has waffled on tariffs, imposing them, then walking them back, earning a nickname from Wall Street traders, TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out).  Not only that, but Trump has repeatedly made knee-jerk handshake agreements (trade policy must be approved by Congress, NOT the White House), which are disastrous to the United States.

Tariffs on imported products are PAID BY AMERICANS! This means he is placing a tax on products Americans use, to be paid by Americans.  The hope he has is that American consumers will cease buying the foreign products, products which, in many cases, are not produced with any major capacity in the United States. As Trump keeps bragging about the amount of money the government is collecting from tariffs, he clearly doesn't seem to care that the money is coming from Americans.

Yesterday, Trump tried a relaunch of his previous disaster tariff policy, but this time he is trying to feel out how many tariffs he can impose without nosediving the markets.  He picked 14 countries (Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Laos, Myanmar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tunisia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Serbia, Cambodia, and Thailand) and placed tariffs ranging from 25 to 40% on most imported products, and implied even higher tariffs on certain goods.  If any country puts reciprocal tariffs on the US, he promised to double them.

Trump doesn't seem to understand a lot about the world and trade.  Most of the world HATES him, and so foreign leaders know it will be political suicide to work with him, or to bow down to his wishes.  The other problem is that most of the world doesn't want our products, and can't afford to pay for them.  If he thinks this will lead to a boon to US exports, he's an even bigger fool than he already is.

He swears he won't back down this time, but really, all the world has to do is stop taking our Ag products, and this country's economy will come crashing down fast. Already, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, and New Zealand have rushed in to supply the Ag product that the world depended on the US for.  

This will not end well.

And the US dollar had its worst start to a year since 1973 and the oil crisis. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/6/25

Yesterday was a cavalcade of demented arguments as Trump sent Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House Economic Advisor Kevin Hassett out to defend not only his Big Beautiful Disgrace, but also his tariff disaster and the impacts from his ICE raids.

On various Sunday shows, the two clowns claimed:

• Bessent admitted that tariffs were indeed price increases (but tried to claim it was a one-time thing)
• Bessent said that Trump never promised he'd make trade deals, and then claimed that many of the countries never tried to contact them (YES THEY DID! It's something I wrote about in yesterday's WTTD)
• Bessent stated that most people getting Medicaid were able-bodied and would easily be able to find a job that pays for health care.
• Bessent (THE TREASURY SECRETARY) said the Democrats were responsible for blowing out the deficit in 2020, the last year Trump was in office.
• To avoid admitting how many people were going to lose health care under Trump's plan, Hassett insisted that all the people who do lose their insurance should just go get a job.
• Bessent, when challenged about Trump breaking his promises and changing Medicaid by adding a work requirement to it, insisted Trump never said that, only that he wouldn't change the benefits.  He did say he wouldn't change Medicaid, and he has also changed benefits.
• Bessent argues that 57% of Americans who understand that tariffs hurt the economy are all suffering from Tariff Derangement Syndrome. The Treasury Secretary doesn't understand that tariffs do actually hurt your economy.
• Hassett had a weird one.  When confronted about the multiple analyses that say the Trump bill will add at least 3 trillion to the deficit, Hassett responded, "Remember that Science is not a Democracy. Truth is not a Democracy." He then went on to say that all of these reports came from flawed groups and that only the White House is correct.
• When asked about the Yale Budget Lab stating the wealthiest Americans will see their income rise by 2% while the lowest income Americans will see their incomes drop, Bessent attacked the Yale group as "all ex-Biden officials and that we can ignore everything they say."
• Bessent then made the preposterous statement suggesting that Americans will be willing to work the jobs that immigrant labor has been doing.  He then said the jobs would likely have to pay more, and then completely pivoted to talk about new jobs coming back to America...so I guess no one is going to do the jobs the immigrants were doing.

Even these two dolts couldn't sell this crap sandwich.

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/5/25

A White House insider has revealed that the Trump trade war is not real at all.  Trump is apparently doing this for attention, to create content for his social media, and to be an agent of chaos. 

The story from Politco highlights that as we approach the 90 day self induced Trump dealline for countries to secure trade deals with the US, the rest of the world is convinced that TACO Trump plans on having to extend out his ultimatum deadline again as so far there doesn't seem to be a cohesive negotiating unit. 

Trump apparently has placed three people, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, as his crack team to negotiate all the deals, but no one seems to understand the basic process of negotiating a trade deal, and it's not clear how much communication is occuring between his three appointees.  Foreign countries are sending agents to negotiate, and those agents are not even able to get face time with Trump's three clowns.

The foreign trade representatives who have managed to get meetings with the trio of idiots walk away confused, as even the Trump team doesn't seem to know what exactly they are looking for in trade deals. Some countries have come to actually play Trump's game and give him a lot of concessions, but then Trump bashes them on social media, undoing any negotiations that might have happened.  The Insider's theory is that Trump likes the chaos more than actual results.

It's clear Trump's promise of 90 deals in 90 days will not happen.  And the few deals he has made are horrifically bad for Americans.

Then again, Trump Always Chickens Out...

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/4/25

Yesterday, Trump signed the disastrous piece of legislation, his 'Big Beautiful Bill,' which will end up killing millions of Americans, to make sure billionaires get more free government money. 

Trump at a rally afterwards bashed the Democrats for not voting for his bill. "They wouldn't vote only because they hate Trump (talking about himself in the third person. Okay, James Joyce.), but I hate them too, you know that? I really do.  I hate them. I cannot stand them, because I really believe they hate our country..."

This is the first time since the Civil War that a President has spoken out against a large portion of the population, and Lincoln was far more congenial in his references to the Southerners fighting against the United States. Trump is the first President to aggressively fight against a UNITED country, not hiding his disdain for the people he is elected to serve, including the ones who did not vote for him. 

Can you imagine the reaction of all the Republicans, the national news media, and even a lot of Democrats if President Obama, President Biden, or VP Harris had said, "I hate MAGA. I cannot stand them."? They'd be going crazy for a year! But the failure of our leaders and institutions to call out this atrocious behavior is inexcusable. 

It will take a generation for the damage this man has done to go away.  My guess is that only when the majority of his supporters pass away over time will Trumpism move back into the shadows, to the barbed wire-surrounded compounds in Montana and Michigan.

The Friday Link for 7/4/25

I will alwasy start a Friday Link on the 4th of July with the Muppets. WEIRDOS! 

Fantastic as always, but considering how things are going in this country today, maybe Stars and Stripes Forever should be replaced with The Talking Heads' Psycho Killer.  This modern video for the song features Saoirse Ronan.  Things aren't going great in America right now.

Then again, maybe we should replace it with A Pitch Perfect Riff Off.  Frankly, these parts are consistently the best part of those movies. And for the record, I could go with a lot more of Das Sound Machine in my life. 

Finally, this week, a more science-y video. Most of the time, when they identify a new dinosaur, they do so with like three bones and a tooth. Have you ever asked how exactly they do that?  The YouTuber channel Howtown, which has some style, asked that question with a class of dinosaurs called Pterosaurs. It is remarkable to see them figure that all out. And I've been to Chicago and seen the HUGE model they feature in this piece at their Natural History Museum (a must-visit!).

That's it for this week.  Happy Independence Day.  May we be free of these dark times soon.

Please make sure you stay up to date on your vaccinations. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/3/25

This is the Worst Thing Trump and his Administration did, and although he will sign the bill later on Independence Day, yesterday the House GOP were the villains on that one, so...

I think we have to go to Trump's victory rally in Des Moines, Iowa, last night. 

We'll start with his desire to have a UFC fight on the White House lawn. If you are not aware, the UFC is a barbaric, drunken bar fight labeled as a sport.  Whereas boxing is a technical enterprise of weakening your opponent, UFC is two people pummeling each other, where blood and injuries are cheered. I have no patience for it.  It's making a sport out of fights between fans in the stands at a minor league hockey game. 

And now Trump wants to put an official UFC fight on the White House lawn. It's beyond parody at this point. As someone pointed out, "Trump has UFC fight on the White House lawn" sounds more like an Onion headline from 2017.  

Trump then went on to use a notorious anti-Semitic term.  Talking to a Des Moines crowd that CLEARLY LOVES Trump for his racism, bigotry and anti-Semitism, Trump said: "No going to the banks and borrowing from, in some cases, a fine banker, and in some cases shylocks and bad people."  Shylock is the name of the Jewish character from Merchant of Venice, a Shakespearean play where anti-Semetic rhetoric and tropes were displayed.

Over the last 50 years, more and more anti-Semitic people have used the phrase.  Even Joe Biden said the phrase while VP, something the media lambasted him for, and something he apologized for after it was called out by the Anti-Defamation League. 

Don't hold your breath on the news media holding Trump to the same standard, or Trump having an epiphany. 

But it's the rally itself I want to point out. This rally was planned WELL IN ADVANCE! When people were saying the Republicans would show some level of restraint, fighting Trump on his most obnoxious proposals in his 'Big Beautiful' bill, I laughed.  The only time you see a Republican show a spine is when, AFTER political polling tells them they are on the way out, they announce their retirement and suddenly insist they've never fully agreed with the Trump agenda...that they freely voted for.  They're all cowards, but that's what makes them Republicans.  They're there for their willingness to acquiesce.

Trump knew this bill was going to pass.  Any Republican dissent was for show only. The Democrats sure as hell weren't going to do anything to stop it.  They had this all scheduled out.  No drama.  No fuss. 

And now everyone but the billionaires are screwed. 

The Sadness that is America

Instead of doing a Worst Thing, here are pictures of flowers I took while on vacation in northern Minnesota.

After what Republicans did to this country today, looking at flowers seems like a good option.

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/1/25

Trump continues to march down the road to fascism, as yesterday he visited what will be his new kennel for humans, the intentionally grotesquely named Alligator Alcatraz.

Basically, it's a flimsy prison tent city in the middle of the Florida swamps.  He wants to eliminate the middleman in his 'deport them to the gulag' system, so he's building a US gulag in the middle of Florida to send people. If you think about inhumane places to send people, Florida is high on that list! 

The people building it have claimed the facility will be hurricane-proof.  As they said this, a rainstorm (which was described as a very average rainstorm) immediately flooded a large portion of the prison complex.  I could point out this is hazardous, but this seems to be the point.  Trump and MAGA seem to want to have a MAGA gladiator stadium at the facility so they can watch the people whom they throw in there suffer.

He will likely start throwing anyone he doesn't like into this facility, including American citizens who have done nothing wrong.  This would be one of the reasons it's out in the middle of nowhere: to avoid scrutiny. 

Here is another weird thing about Trump.  One of the things he LOVES about the Alligator Alcatraz is that it's surrounded by alligators and snakes, which could kill someone who tries to escape. Considering how shoddy the place is built, I think there's a decent chance the animals will get in regardless, but Trump loves the idea of people he's deemed to be criminals being eaten and ripped to shreds by wild critters.

He then talked about restoring the original Alcatraz, an insane idea as that would require a complete rebuild of the facility.  One of the reasons he wants to open Alcatraz back up is that he says it's an island surrounded by sharks, once again relishing in people he's deemed to be criminals being eaten.

Trump seems to want to be a Bond villain.  

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 6/30/25

The extent of Trump's trade war disaster really came to light yesterday, as his promise of "90 deals in 90 days" is nowhere near fruition.

Trump's trade problems are multi-layer, starting with the obvious:  he applied a 10% tariff on all imports and then said FROM THAT POINT he'd negotiate.  The rest of the world is not willing to accept his 10% mulligan, and so every negotiation starts off with our trade partners already upset.

It gets worse from there.  Trump is basically wanting every concession he can get while offering zero concessions in return to the other countries. For some reason, he thinks he can force his will onto these other nations, and he doesn't seem to understand that these other countries are not about to sacrifice their own internal businesses and GDP to make Trump look like a good negotiator.  

When another country tries to install a retaliatory tariff, Trump screams and throws a tantrum, insisting there is no trade deal will occur.  Most of the time, this leads to the other country backing off, or offering Trump a trade bone, but regardless, to reverts all the trade discussion between the two countries back to square one.

And then there is the fact that Trump can't keep his mouth shut.  Trump has repeatedly bragged about being the chief negotiator in a conflict resolution between Pakistan and India.  Fun fact, he wasn't, but it hasn't stopped him from claiming to be the wheeler-dealer.  The problem is that this resolution between Pakistan and India seems pretty thin to begin with, and Pakistan is happily touting Trump's claims.  Pakistan knows the people of India are not fans of Trump, and if Indian Prime Minister Modi keeps making excuses for Trump and keeps trying to work with him, Modi looks pretty bad to his citizens.  Modi has, in pretty blunt terms, repeatedly said Trump had nothing to do with the resolution, but Trump's continued claims have made India move further away from a proposed trade deal. 

India was going to be Trump's first success story, but Trump's irrational need to be the hero of EVERY story has stalled this trade agreement, and there seems to be a real question on whether it will ever happen.

On top of that, there are demands from the Trump Administration that certain agricultural products from the USA that are banned in other countries because of health, chemical, GMO, or quality concerns be accepted. Foreign trade representatives have pointed out that most countries would need a legislative agreement to lift the protections they have in place, something which will not happen, but these obvious roadblocks are being ignored by Trump's team.  It sounds like at least three major trade deals would be on their way to ratification, but Trump doesn't want to be perceived as being the person conceding. 

In conclusion, Trump is an idiot, and his foolish trade war has been a disaster for the United States.