A man who has a language consequently possesses the world expressed and implied by that language.

― Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks

Donald Trump often doesn’t know what he’s talking about and no one else does either. But when he talks, people still listen, trying to make sense out of streams of nonsense. Like Homer’s sirens, it’s impossible to tune him out. He lures you, sentence fragment by sentence fragment,  into his maelstrom of mystification.

The words go round and round. But they often don’t connect to each other in any coherent sequence. Sometimes the verbs are missing and subject collides against object, creating a cascading wreck of run-on sentences.

To exacerbate the confusion, the words Trump uses don’t necessarily mean the same thing to him, they do to you. Thus, what he says is often not precisely what he means. Trump has a gift for imprecision.

He contradicts himself compulsively, week to week, day to day, hour to hour, sometimes in the same breath. Donald Trump operates inside his own negative dialectic.

Sometimes Trump abandons words altogether and emits only grunts, growls, hisses and snorts, his only real connection to the Animal Kingdom.

So how does one detect the truth of what he says?

He’s easily triggered. He speaks on impulse. But where are the triggers? What are the impulses? Do the warps and perversions of Trump’s crude patois erupt from his subconscious? Or has Trump’s subconscious completely floated to the surface now and we are hearing directly from the fractured idiom of his Id? A terrible thought to be sure.

But not everyone is confused, even when Trump’s ramblings are at their most bewildering. Somehow, the message gets through to those who are attuned, even if the real message lurks beneath the stream of words he is speaking. With Trump, the messenger is the message and regardless of the subject, the message, flashing like a metronome from the chthonic depths, always asserts the same subliminal themes of power, grievance, retribution, whiteness, and superiority.

Trump isn’t speaking in code so much as he is connecting at an instinctual level to a network of cultural affinities, prejudices and insecurities that exist beyond grammar and etymology and without which Trump and his followers would be lost.

As it stands, though, it is we who are lost, trapped in language and rationality, unable to interpret the dark currents that Trump’s otherwise abstruse asseverations send coursing into some of the more reactionary precincts of the Republic.

Here then is a sampler of some of Trump’s most perplexing pronouncements over the last year. Good luck mining the meaning from the madness. – JSC

January 2025

+++

“A gas heater is much less expensive, the heat is much better, it’s a much better heat. As the expression goes, you don’t itch. Does anybody have a heater where you go and you’re scratching? That’s what they want you to have. They don’t want you to have gas.”

+++

+++

“Just a few months ago, in that beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin’s bullet ripped through my ear. But I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.”

+++

“Many people thought it was impossible for me to stage such a historic political comeback. But as you see today, here I am.”

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“A short time from now, we’ll be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. And we will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, to where it should be and where it belongs.”

+++

“The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation, one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons. And we will pursue our Manifest Destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”

+++

Trump told Sean Hannity this week that he can tell if immigrants are bad based on how they “look”: “You can look at them and say ‘could be trouble’.”

+++

+++

“Canada is subsidized to the tune of about $200 billion a year, plus other things. And they don’t essentially have a military. They have a very small military. They rely on our military. It’s all fine, but you know they gotta pay for that.”

+++

“I’ll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA or maybe getting rid of FEMA. I think, frankly, FEMA is not good. I think when you have a problem like this, I think you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time calling FEMA … I think we’re gonna recommend that FEMA go away.”

+++

“We have 30,000 beds in Guantánamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people. Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them, because we don’t want them coming back, so we’re going to send them out to Guantánamo.”

+++

+++

“We’ll be doing pharmaceuticals. Importantly, in drugs and medicines, etc. All forms of medicine and pharmaceuticals. And we’ll be doing steel very importantly, and we’ll also be doing chips. And things associated with chips.”

+++

“We’re bringing back religion in a big way.”

February

Reporter: “Would Palestinians have the right to return to Gaza, if they left during the rebuilding?”

Trump: “It would be my hope that we could do something really nice, really good, where they wouldn’t want to return, the place has been hell.”

A reporter yells: “It’s their home, sir!”

Reporter: You are talking tonight about the US taking over a sovereign territory. What authority would allow you to do that? Are you talking about a permanent occupation?

Trump: “I do see a long-term ownership position of Gaza after Palestinians are moved elsewhere. This is not a decision made lightly. Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land.”

+++

“We can build a really good quality town, like someplace where they could live and not die because Gaza is a guarantee that they’re gonna die, the same thing is gonna happen again. Who would wanna go back? They’ve experienced nothing but death and destruction.”

+++

“Palestinians have no alternative but to leave Gaza.”

+++

Reporter: Wouldn’t it take an act of Congress to do away with USAID?

Trump: “I don’t know, I don’t think so. Not when it comes to fraud. These people are lunatics, and if it comes to fraud, you wouldn’t have an act of Congress. I’m not sure you would anyway.”

+++

“We had a good talk with Trudeau. But we are treated unfairly. We don’t need anything they’ve got. We don’t need Canadian cars, lumber, agriculture.”

+++

“We will find you, and we will kill you!”

+++

“As far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12 o’clock – I think it’s an appropriate time – I would say, cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out.

+++

+++

Trump, when asked if his drive to annex Canada was a real thing: “Yeah, it is. I think Canada would be much better off being a 51st state because we lose $250 billion a year with Canada, and I’m not gonna let that happen. It’s too much. Why are we paying $200 billion a year, essentially, in subsidies to Canada? Now if they’re a 51st state, I don’t mind doing it.”

+++

“I spoke to Governor [sic] Trudeau on numerous occasions and we’ll see what happens [Canada becoming the 51st US state], but it just sets up so good for them. Look the people would pay much less tax than they’re paying right now. They’d have perfect military protection. They don’t have any military protection, because they, essentially, because, um, and you take a look at what’s going on out there, you have Russian ships, you have China ships, you have Chinese ships, you have, uh, you have a lot of ships out there. You know people are in danger. It’s a different world today. It’s a different world that they need our protection.”

+++

“We want to raise defense spending. I think we have to have it.”

+++

“They [Ukraine] may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday. They have tremendously valuable land in terms of rare earth, oil, gas, and other things. I want our money secured. I told them I want the equivalent of $500 billion worth of rare earth, and they’ve essentially agreed. At least we don’t feel stupid—otherwise, we’re stupid. I said we have to get something; we can’t just keep giving money.”

+++

+++

“I’m committed to buying and owning Gaza…We may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it.”

+++

+++

“Nobody’s going to work from home. They’re going to be going out. They’re going to play tennis, they’re going to play golf, they’re going to do a lot of things. They’re not working. It’s a rare person that’s going to work.”

+++

“I heard O’Reilly last night say Donald Trump for the first four weeks is the greatest president ever in the history of our country. That was O’Reilly. Bill O’Reilly is alright. You know who he said second was? George Washington. That’s not bad. I beat George Washington. I love beating George Washington.”

+++

“This Rachel Maddow, what does she have? She’s got nothing. Nothing. She took—she took a sabbatical where she worked one day a week. They paid her a lot of money. She gets no ratings. I should go against her in the ratings because I’ll tell you, she gets no rate. All she does is to talk about Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, all different subjects. Trump this, Trump that. But these people are really—I mean, they lie. You—they shouldn’t be allowed to lie every night. They are really a vehicle of the Democrat party. They should be paying me!”

+++

“Elon is doing a great job. He’s doing a great job. We love Elon, don’t we? He’s like, I—he’s a character with his—with his son, X. We love X. He’s the only one kid get away. His son’s really named X. He’s the only one can get away with naming his son X. We haven’t—did it this day. You’re crazy. But he’s great. He’s doing a great job, and he doesn’t need this. He doesn’t need it, but he’s—he wants to see—you know, he’s a patriot. People said, well, what official position does he have? He said, patriot. Oh. They didn’t know. They said, that was good. He’s a patriot.”

+++

“The fraudsters, liars, cheaters, globalists, and deep state bureaucrats are being sent packing. The illegal alien criminals are being sent home. We’re draining the swamp, and we’re restoring government by the people, for the people. We have escorted the radical-left bureaucrats out of the building and have locked the doors behind them. We’ve gotten rid of thousands. We’re liberating our country right now. We’re doing all these things that you’re reading about. We’re liberating our country.”

+++

“If you don’t report to work, you know, that’s another scam. You know, who the hell—if I’m staying home, I’m going to—let’s see. My golf handicap would get down to a very low number. You—so you’d be shocked if I told you the real number, but I would be so good. I’d—I’d try and get on tour. I’d get—I would be so good. I’d call up. I’d say, listen. I’m really working here. Where are my gloves? Where are my gloves? Either that or, in many cases, they have second jobs while they’re getting paid by us. So one of the reasons they’re leaving is because they don’t want to have to show that, and, we’re demanding to see that information. How many jobs have you had? Who paid you while you were working for the government?”

+++

“Is somebody taking all of this money? So they have over one hundred to a hundred and nine, 4.7 million Social Security numbers, think of that, from people whose age is over one hundred….And we have one person listed at three hundred and sixty years of age, an all-time record, and our country’s two hundred and fifty years old. So that person’s substantially older than our country. No. It’s all a scam. The whole thing is a scam.”

+++

“Wouldn’t that be terrible if we open up this Fort Knox? It’s got—it’s just solid granite that’s five feet thick. The front door, you need six muscle men to open it up. I don’t even think they have windows. Wouldn’t that be terrible if we opened it up and there was no gold there? Like, so we’re going to open those doors. We’re going to take a look. And if there’s twenty-seven tons of gold, we’ll be very happy. I don’t know how the hell we’re going to measure it, but that’s okay. We want to see lots of nice, beautiful, shiny gold in Fort Knox. Don’t be totally surprised. We open the door. We’ll say, there’s nothing here. They sold this, too. Now we have a very corrupt group of people in this country, and we’re finding them out.”

+++

“If I weren’t elected president, there’d be nobody in Haiti anymore. They were pouring in at levels from other countries too, all over Africa, the Congo, all over South America. And they were coming in from prisons and mental institutions and insane asylums, jails, and gang members. And, you just have to see gang members, drug lords, people that are drug addicted.”

+++

“Just this week, I officially designated bloodthirsty cartels and murderers gangs as foreign terrorist organizations, something which Biden didn’t want to do and nobody wanted to do. It’s true. The full might and power of the federal government will now be dedicated to eradicating MS-13, Tren de Aragua. That’s the Venezuelan prison gangs. These are very nice fellows. The only thing good about them is they make our criminals look like nice people. It’s true. Remember when they used to say, people that come in from foreign countries are nice people. These are wonderful people. These are good people. They’re not murderers. They’re not terrible. They’re—these people make us look like babies. Okay? You know the Hells Angels? They’re among the nicest people on earth when you compare them to these thugs. And the Hells Angels actually love our country, if you can believe that. They actually do.”

March

Reporter: “Do you think you have the authority, the power, to round up people and deport them, and then you’re under no obligation to a court to show the evidence against them?”

Trump: “That is what the law says [sic], and that’s what our country needs.”

+++

“I’ve written them [Iran] a letter saying, I hope you’re going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing for them.”

+++

“There’s a big ocean between the US and Russia.”

+++

“I don’t know anything about it [“it” being Hegseth’s leaking of the Iran bombing attack].”

+++

“I may give a lot of countries breaks on tariffs.”

+++

“The Democrats want that [a government shutdown]. They want to destroy the country. So, I can’t tell you, but it could happen. It shouldn’t have happened, and it probably won’t,”

+++

“What a difference a rigged and crooked election had on our country. And the people who did this to us should go to jail. They should go to jail.”

+++

Trump on why he sent Operation Usha to Greenland: “To let them know that we need Greenland for international safety and security. We have to convince them, and we have to have that land.”

“I’ll take Greenland. One way or another.”

+++

“A lot of people want me to do it [Run for a third term]. But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration. There are methods which you could do it.”

+++

“Well, you’ve [Ukraine] been there for three years. You {Zelenksy] should have ended it. … You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”You’ve allowed yourself to be in a very bad position. You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards.”

+++

“Tariffs are the greatest thing we’ve done as a country.”

April

“I’ve always gotten along with him [him being Andrew Cuomo].”

+++

+++

“Oh, that’s what I need. I need some guy telling me how to negotiate.”

+++

Reporter: Did the bond market persuade you to reverse [his tariffs on China]?

Trump: I was watching the bond market. It’s very tricky. If you look at it now, it’s beautiful. The bond market right now is beautiful. But I saw last night where people were getting a little queasy.

+++

“I had no idea who this guy [Miles Taylor] was. I saw him on CNN a lot. He’d be on all the time, saying, ‘The president this. The president that.’ I had no idea. In this office, you have a lot of young people. And they’re here. I’ll see them for two minutes. I assume he was in the office, but I barely remember. Terrible guy.”

+++

“I don’t know that I’ve met him [Chris Krebs]. I’m sure I met him. But I wouldn’t know him. And he came out right after the election, which was a rigged election. Badly rigged election. We did phenomenally in that election. Look what happened to our country because of it: open borders, millions of people coming into our country. Russia and Ukraine, that would have never happened. October 7th would have never happened. Afghanistan, the way that they withdrew, Thirteen dead, but so many killed. So many were killed outside of the 13 soldiers. Hundreds of people were killed. And maybe, uh, it’s never mentioned, but I mention it…42 or 43 people so badly injured, the legs, the arms blown off, the face. And, uh, it was all because of an incompetent group of people that preceded us, and that would have never happened, and this guy Krebs was saying, uh, ‘Oh, the election was great.’ It’s been proven that it was not only not great, but when you look at all these lawyers and law firms that are giving us hundreds of millions of dollars. It was proven in so many different ways in so many different forms, from the legislatures not approving to the 51 intelligence agents…from all of the different scamming operations. It was a very corrupt election. They used Covid to cheat. And we’re going to find out about this guy, too, because this guy’s a wise guy. He said, ‘This was the most secure election in the history of our country.’ No, this was a disaster.”

+++

“Adam Schifty Schiff. Can you believe this guy? He’s got the smallest neck I’ve ever seen. And the biggest head. We call him Watermelon Head. How can that big fat face stand on a neck that looked like this finger? … How we can allow people like that to run for office is a shame.” 

+++

CNN’s Kaitlyn Collins: “You said if the Supreme Court ruled that someone needed to be returned, you would abide by that.”

Trump Almighty: “Why don’t you just say, isn’t it wonderful that we’re keeping criminals out of our country? That’s why nobody watches you.”

+++

+++

“Everybody wants to be a part of what we’re doing.”

+++

Trump to Bukele on deporting US citizens to El Salvadoran prisons: “The homegrowns are next, the homegrowns. You’ve got to build about five more places.”

+++

May

“They [China] made a trillion dollars with Biden selling us stuff. Much of it we don’t need. Somebody said, ‘Oh, the shelves are gonna be open.’ Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more.”

+++

“Look who’s called in the last hour: Musk, Zuckerberg and Bezos. He’s 100 percent. He’s been great. Zuckerberg’s been great. Billionaires like them hold me in a higher level of respect.”

+++

“I said a number of times, tariff is the most beautiful word in the world. I got absolutely decimated by the fake news. They said what about love? What about your wife? What about your parents?”

+++

“The US did more than any other Country, by far, in producing a victorious result on World War II.

+++

Trump’s National Prayer Day message on his gut everything but military spending budget: “If it doesn’t pass, your taxes will go up 68%. This is a religious ceremony to me, but that’s part of the religion. If your taxes go up 68%, you might give up your religion.”

+++

“Nobody’s done more for religion than me.”

Reporter: “Some Catholics are not so happy about the image of you looking like the Pope.”

Trump: “Oh, I see. You mean they can’t take a joke. You don’t mean the Catholics, you mean the fake news media. The Catholics loved it. I had nothing to do with it. Somebody made up a picture of me dressed up as the Pope. I have no idea where it came from. Maybe it was AI. But I know nothing about it. I just saw it last evening. Actually, my wife thought it was cute.”

[The image was shared on both Trump’s personal social media account and the White House’s official account.]

+++

KRISTEN WELKER: Your secretary of state says everyone who’s here, citizens and non-citizens, deserves due process. Do you agree?

TRUMP: I don’t know. I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know.

WELKER: Don’t you need to uphold the Constitution?

TRUMP: I don’t know.

+++

“We were losing hundreds of billions of dollars with China. Now we’re essentially not doing business with China. Therefore, we’re saving hundreds of billions of dollars. It’s very simple.”

+++

“Everyone says when, when, when are you going to sign deals? We don’t have to sign deals. We could sign 25 deals right now … if we wanted to. We don’t have to sign deals. They have to sign deals with us. They want our market. We don’t want a piece of their market. We don’t care about their market.”

+++

“I don’t think a beautiful baby girl that’s 11 years old needs to have 30 dolls. I think they can have three dolls or four dolls … they don’t need to have 250 pencils. They can have five.” (Do 11-year-olds like being called “babies”?

+++

“I think the good parts are the Trump economy and the bad parts are the Biden economy.”

+++

“You know, we hit them [the Houthis] very hard. They had a great capacity to withstand punishment. They took tremendous punishment. You can say there’s a lot of bravery there. It was amazing what they took. But we honor their commitment and their word.”

+++

Trump to Trevor Milton, the Arizona trucking magnate, who contributed $1.7 million to Trump’s 2024 campaign in a successful bid to secure a pardon for his wire fraud conviction:  “It’s signed. You’re cleaner than a baby’s bottom, you’re cleaner than I am, Trevor.”

+++

+ Reporter: How did you decide to reopen Alcatraz?

+ Trump: “I was supposed to be a movie maker… Nobody ever escaped. One person almost got there, but they found his clothing rather badly ripped up, a lot of shark bites.” (He watched Don Siegel’s Escape From Alcatraz the night before.)

+++

REPORTER: Why are you creating an expedited path into the country for Afrikaners but not others?

TRUMP: Because they’re being killed. And we don’t want to see people be killed … it’s a genocide that’s taking place. Farmers are being killed. They happen to be white.

+++

REPORTER: What do you say to people who view that luxury jet as a personal gift to you?

TRUMP: You’re ABC fake news, right? Let me tell you — you should be embarrassed asking that question. They’re giving us a free jet. When they give you a putt, you pick it up and walk to the next hole.

+++

“A friend of mine who is a businessman. Very, very, very top guy. Most of you would’ve heard of him. Highly neurotic. Brilliant businessman. Seriously overweight. And he takes the fat shot drug. And he called me up and says, ‘Mr. President,’ he calls me…uh…he used to call me ‘Donald,’ now he calls me ‘President.’ So that’s nice respect. But he’s a rough guy, smart guy. Very successful. Very rich. I wouldn’t even know how we would know this, but because he’s got comments. Mr. President, can I ask you a question’ What? ‘I’m in London and I just paid for this damn fat drug, I take.’ I said, It’s not working.”

+++

“[Muhammad ] Julani is a young, attractive guy with a very strong past.”

+++

+++

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

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

RAMAPHOSA: Okay.

REPORTER: What will it take for you to be convinced there is no white genocide in South Africa?

RAMAPHOSA: I can take that. It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans.

TRUMP *scowling*: We have thousands of stories talking about it…

RAMAPHOSA: I would say if there was Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you these three gentlemen (including his white Secretary of Agriculture) would not be here..

TRUMP: We have thousands of stories talking about it. We have documentaries. We have news stories.

+++

Trump on the DOJ’s charges against Rep. McIver, for trying to inspect an ICE detention jail in Newark: “Oh, give me a break. Did you see her? She was out of control…The days of woke are over…She was shoving federal agents. She was out of control. The days of that crap are over in this country. We are going to have law and order.”

+++

Reporter: Why would you not want the best and the brightest from around the world to come to Harvard?

Trump: I do but a lot of the people need remedial math. How can someone who can’t add get into Harvard and then you see those same people picketing and screaming at the US. We don’t want troublemakers here.

+++

Donald Trump, oncologist, on Biden’s cancer diagnosis:

I think it’s very sad, actually. I’m surprised that it wasn’t—you know—the public wasn’t notified a long time ago, because to get to stage 9, that’s a long time. I just had my physical. You saw that. You saw the results of that particular test. I think that test is standard to pretty much anybody getting a physical—a good physical. We had the doctors at the White House and over at Walter Reed, which is a fantastic hospital, do it. I did a very complete physical, including a cognitive test. I’m proud to announce I aced it. I got them all right. You proud of me? Your husband would be proud of me for getting them all right. It’s a little risk. If I didn’t get them all right, these people would be after me. It would be not a good situation.

But I think, frankly, anybody running for president should take a cognitive test. They say it’s unconstitutional, but I would say in that particular case, having a cognitive test wouldn’t be so bad.

But when you take tests—medical, as a male—that test is very standard. I don’t know if it’s given to everybody, but it’s given just about. And it takes a long time to get to that situation… to get to a stage 9. I think that if you take a look, it’s the same doctor that said that Joe was cognitively fine, there was nothing wrong with him. If it’s the same doctor, he said there was nothing wrong there. That’s been proven to be a sad situation.

And the autopen is becoming a very big deal. You know, the autopen is becoming a big deal because it seems that maybe it was the president—whoever operated the autopen. But when they say that was not good, they also—you have to look and you have to say that the test was not so good either. In other words, there are things going on that the public wasn’t informed [about], and I think somebody is going to have to speak to his doctor—if it’s the same or even if it’s two separate doctors.

Why wasn’t the cognitive ability—why wasn’t that discussed? And I think the doctor said he’s just fine, and it’s turned out that’s not so. It’s very dangerous… this is dangerous for our country. Look at the mess we are in.

You talk about all these questions on Ukraine and Russia. That would’ve never happened, as an example, if I were president. It would’ve never happened. The other thing—you have to say: Why did it take so long? I mean, this takes a long time. It can take years to get to this level of danger. It’s a very, very sad situation. I feel very badly about it. And I think people should try and find out what happened.

Because I’ll tell you, I don’t know if it had anything to do with the hospital. Walter Reed is really good. They’re some of the best doctors I’ve ever seen. I don’t even know if they were involved. But a doctor was involved in each case. Maybe it was the same doctor. And somebody is not telling the facts. That’s a big problem.

+++

“The drug companies are very worried that they’re going to fight, and that’s ok. If they fight, we’ll just say, that’s ok, we’re not going to let you sell anymore cars into the US…or wine, liquor, alcohol, or something that’s much more important to them than the drugs.”

+++

Trump after Musk denounced his “big, beautiful bill…”

+++

MERZ: Tomorrow is the D Day anniversary, when the Americans ended a war in Europe.

TRUMP: That was not a pleasant day for you? This is not a great day.

MERZ: This was the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship.

+++

Mirror, mirro on the wall…

+++

+ Maybe Trump’s finally on to something! “There is no Joe Biden – executed in 2020. Biden clones, doubles, and robotic, engineered, soulless, mindless entities are what you see.”

+ Best line of the week: “I wish Biden were alive to see this.” – Gianmarco Soresi

+++

After saying he would arrest California Governor Gavin Newsome, Trump was asked what crime he’d committed: “What crime did Newsom commit? He ran for governor.”

+++

“We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy, and that’s what they are. These are animals, but they proudly carry the flags of other countries, but they don’t carry the American flag. We will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean and safe again.”

+++

“People that burn the American flag should go to jail for one year … we’re working with some of your senators.”

+++

“For a little breaking news, we are going to be restoring the names to Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk, Fort A.P. Hill, and Fort Robert E. Lee…We won a lot of battles out of those forts. It’s no time to change. And I’m superstitious, you know? I like to keep it going. I’m very superstitious.”

+++

“I think Israel has enough problems without kidnapping Greta Thunberg.”

+++

“We of course support Israel, obviously, and supported it like nobody has ever supported it. Iran should have listened to me when I said — you know, I gave them, I don’t know if you know but I gave them a 60-day warning and today is day 61. They should now come to the table to make a deal before it’s too late. It will be too late for them. You know, the people I was dealing with are dead, the hardliners.”

+++

+++

“I think Iran was a few weeks away from a nuclear weapon… I believe Iran would use a nuclear weapon if they had one. We’re long beyond [a] ceasefire” with Iran, “We’re looking for a total complete victory…You may have to fight. And maybe it’ll end. And maybe it’ll end very quickly. There’s no way you can allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon because the entire world would blow up.”

REPORTER: Tulsi Gabbard testified in March that the intelligence community said Iran wasn’t building a nuclear weapon.

TRUMP: I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having one.

+++

In his Juneteenth message, Trump declared that Americans should go to work on more “holidays”…(No wonder they’re re-naming military bases after Confederate generals.)

July

“Some missiles were shot at us the other day. They were very nice. They gave us a warning. They said, ‘Is 1 o’clock ok?’ I said, ‘It’s fine.’ Everybody was lifted off the base, so they wouldn’t get hurt. Except the gunners. They call them the gunners.”

“I don’t want to use an example of Hiroshima. I don’t want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing. That ended that war; this ended the war.”

+++

“Israel has been fighting Iran so hard and for so long that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing, do you understand that?”

+++

+++

“Nobody expected it [the Texas floods]. Nobody saw it.”

+++

Reporter: Several of the families are upset because they say the warnings didn’t go out on time. They also say that people could have been saved. What do you say to those families?

Trump: Only a bad person would ask a question like that, to be honest with you. I don’t know who you are but only a very evil person would ask a question like that.

+++

Trump on Netanyahu: “The greatest man in the world.”

+++

When asked at the Alligator Auschwitz press conference on July 1, if there was an expected timeline for how long detainees would be kept in the concentration camp in the swamp, “would it be days, weeks, months?” Trump rambled on incoherently about how long he will stay in Florida:

In Florida? I’m going to spend a lot in my home state. I love it. I love your government.I love all of the people around.These are all friends of mine. They know them very well. I’m not surprised that they do so well. These are great people. Ron has been a friend of mine for a long time. I feel very comfortable in the state. I will spend a lot of time here. I want to, you know, for four years I’ve got to be in Washington. And I’m okay with it because I love the White House. I even fixed up the little Oval Office. I think it’s like a diamond. It’s beautiful. So beautiful. Wasn’t maintained properly. I will tell you that. But even when it wasn’t, it’s still the Oval Office, so it meant a lot.But I’ll spend as much time as I can. You know, my vacation is generally here because it’s convenient. I live in Palm Beach. It’s my home. And I have a very nice little place with a nice little cottage to stay. All right? But we have a lot of fun. And I’m a big contributor to Florida and pay a lot of tax. And a lot of people move from New York and I don’t what New York is going to do. A lot of people move to Florida from New York, and it’s for a lot of reasons, but one of them is taxes. The taxes are so high in New York, they’ll leave. I don’t know what New York is going to do about that, because some of the biggest and wealthiest people, and some of the people who pay the most taxes of any people in the world, for that matter. They’re moving to Florida and other places. So we’re going to have to help some of these states out, I think. But thank you very much! I’ll be here as much as I can. Very nice question.

+++

“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years. You’re asking…We have Texas, we have this…we have all of these things. Are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable. You want to waste the time?”

“I call it the Epstein hoax. They’re talking about a guy who died 3-4 years ago. They want to talk about the Epstein hoax and the sad part, it is people that are doing Democrats work. They are stupid people.”

+++

Trump on Jerome Powell: “He’s a terrible, a terrible Fed chair. I was surprised he was appointed. I was surprised frankly that Biden put him in and extended him.” [Powell was appointed in 2018 by Trump.]

+++

“Think of that: No death tax. No estate tax. No going to the banks and borrowing from, in some cases, a fine banker – and in some cases, Shylocks and bad people.”

+++

“My uncle was at MIT, one of the great professors. Longest-serving professor in the history of M.I.T., 51 years whatever…Three degrees in nuclear, chemical and math. Kaczynski was one of his students. Seriously good. Do you know who that is? There is very little difference between a mad man and a genius.” [Trump’s uncle wasn’t the longest service professor at MIT. He held a Phd in electrical engineering (none in chemical, nuclear or math), his uncle couldn’t have told Trump all about his prodigal student because John Trump died 11 years before Kaczynski became a household name and, more definitively, Ted Kaczynski didn’t study under Trump’s uncle. The Unabomber, like so many other famous bombers, went to Harvard.]

+++

“We have a stupid person [Jerome Powell], frankly, at the Fed. He probably won’t cut today…Maybe I should go to the Fed. Am I allowed to appoint myself at the Fed?”

August

REPORTER: Should Israel be doing more to allow food into Gaza?

TRUMP: Say it, again?

REPORTER: Should Israel be doing more to allow food into Gaza?

TRUMP: What is she saying?

SOMEONE ELSE: Should Israel be doing more to allow food in Gaza?

TRUMP: We gave $60 million two weeks ago and no one even acknowledged it for food. And it’s terrible, you really at least want to have somebody say thank you. We gave $60 million two weeks ago for food for Gaza. And nobody acknowledged it. Nobody talks about it. It makes you feel bad when you do that and you have other countries not giving anything. None of the European countries, by the way, gave…nobody gave but us. And nobody said, Gee, thank you very much. It would be nice to have at least a thank you. And I took a lot of heat. You know, when I do that, a lot of people aren’t happy about that because they say, Well, why are we doing it and nobody else. But I think we had a, uh, humanitarian reason for doing it. What’s going to happen, I don’t know. I can tell you that Hamas, as I said, would happen at the end. You know we’ve gotten back a lot of hostages, a tremendous number of hostages. Most of them. Now we have dead hostages and the mothers want them back.”

+++

Trump on the Israeli (no one ever mentions the 3350 Palestinian hostages held by Israel) hostages: “Not one person said there was any love from anybody. In other words, you have hundreds of people, and you see it in the movies where somebody is a prisoner and somebody is helping. You even see it with Germany, where people would be led into a house and live in an attic in secret. I said Did you see anything like did they wink at you, say Don’t worry, you’ll be okay?”

+++

“And the other thing I say to Europe: we will not allow a windmill to be built in the United States. They’re killing us. They’re killing the beauty of our scenery. Our beautiful plains. I’m not talking about airplanes… they won’t let you bury the propellers.”

+++

Trump, the guy who redecorated the Oval Office furniture in gold lamé, went off on the new Federal Reserve HQ: “The new ceiling had no opulence to it, or they fixed the ceiling. But I would say that all I need is a good plaster and a can of paint, and they spent 3.9 billion, and I spent a lot of money, too. I would say 3.8 billion less, you know?”

+++

“For years, I wouldn’t talk to Jeffrey Epstein. Because he did something that was inappropriate. He hired help. And I said, Don’t ever do that again. He stole people that worked for me. I said, Don’t ever do that again. He did it again and I threw him out of the place. Persona non grata. I threw him out. And that was it. I’m glad I did, if you want to know the truth.”

+++

Reporter: I was just curious. Were some of the workers taken from you? Were some of them young women? 

Trump: Were some of them?

Reporter: Were some of them young women?

Trump: Uh, well, I don’t want to say, but, uh, everyone knows the people that were taken and, uh, it was the concept of taking people that work for me is bad. But that story’s been pretty well out there, and the answer is yes. Yes, they were young women.

Reporter: What did they do in the spa?  Jobs?

Trump: Yeah. And, uh, other people would come and complain, “This guy is taking people from the spa.” I didn’t know that. And then when I heard about it, I told him, I said, “Listen, we don’t want you taking our people, whether it was spa or not spa….And he was fine. And not too long after, he did it again. And I said outta here.”

Reporter: “Was one of the stolen people Virginia Giuffre?”

Trump: “I don’t know. I think she worked at the spa. I think so. I think that was one of the people. Yeah, he stole her.”

+++

Trump told CNBC’s Squawkbox that Mexican and Central American migrants are biologically programmed to be farm laborers: “These people do it naturally. I said to a farmer the other day, ‘What happens if they get a bad back?’ He said, ‘They don’t get a bad back, sir, because if they get a bad back, they die.’”

+++

For a manly-man, Trump spends a lot of time talking about decorating:

”Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening there, and in numerous other Countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian Population around the World!”

+++

Reporter: “What does that mean — ‘Send more than the National Guard?’”

Trump: “Well, if you had to send in the Army or the Marines, I’d do that in a heartbeat. We have a thing called the Insurrection Act. I could use that immediately and no judge can even challenge you on that. If I wanted to, I could.”

+++

“Israel attacked first. That attack was very, very powerful. I was very much in charge of that. When Israel attacked Iran first, that was a great day for Israel.”

+++

Trump threatened to intervene in Netanyahu’s criminal trial in Israel: “I don’t think they treat him very well. He’s under trial for some things. We’ll be involved in that to help him out a little bit because I think it’s very unfair.”

+++

Reporter: “Do you have a statement on Nancy Pelosi’s retirement?”

Trump: “I think she’s an evil woman. I’m glad she’s retiring. I think she, uh, did the country a great service by retiring.  She was a tremendous liability for the country. And I thought she was an evil woman who did a poor job to cost the country a lot of damages and in reputation. I thought she was terrible.”

+++

On not going to G20 Meeting in Johannesburg: “For generations, Miami has been a haven for those fleeing communist tyranny in South Africa. I mean, if you take a look at what’s going on in parts of South Africa. Look at South Africa, what’s going on. Look at South America, what’s going on. You know, I’m not going there. We have a G20 meeting in South Africa. South Africa shouldn’t even be in the Gs anymore. Because what’s happened there is bad. I’m not going.”

+++

Reporter: Changpeng Zhao pled guilty in 2023 to violating anti–money laundering laws. Why did you pardon him?

Trump: Okay, are you ready? I don’t know who he is.

+++

“Thank goodness for TiVo or something thereof. Right? TiVo. We love TiVo. We love TiVo. One of the greatest inventions in history.”

+++

Trump on his plan to replace ObamaCare subsidies by just giving people cash to buy their own insurance: Trump: “I want the money to go into an account for people where the people buy their own health insurance. It’s so good. The insurance will be better. It’ll cost less. Everybody is going to be happy. They’re going to feel like entrepreneurs. They will be able to go out and negotiate their own health insurance…Call it Trumpcare.”

+++

Laura Ingraham: Is a 50-year mortgage really a good idea? 

Trump: It’s not even a big deal. You go from 40 years to 50 

Ingraham: 30.

+++

Trump to America’s veterans: “If we die, we must die and we as men we die without complaining.”

+++

After he sprayed former Al-Qaeda commander, now Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa with cologne in the Oval Office, Trump asked: “How many wives do you have?”

Al-Sharaa: “One.”

Trump: “You never know.”

+++

Trump on Ilhan Omar: “I look at somebody who comes from Somalia, which has nothing but a lot of crime and she comes in and tells us how to run our country. ‘The Constitution says this, the Constitution says that.’ The whole thing is crazy.”

+++

Trump on Crown Prince Bone Saws: “We have an extremely respected man in the Oval Office today. And a friend of mine for a long time. A very good friend of mine. I’m very proud of the job he’s done. What he’s done is incredible in terms of human rights.”

+++

ABC News reporter, Mary Bruce: “Is it appropriate for your family to do business with Saudi Arabia while you’re president? And to you, your royal highness, the US intelligence agencies concluded you orchestrated the murder of a journalist…”

Trump: “Who are you with?”

Bruce: “ABC News.”

Trump: “ABC Fake news. I have nothing to do with the family business. You mentioned somebody extremely controversial—a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman [Khashoggi]. Whether you did or didn’t like him, things happen, but he [MBS] knew nothing about it. You don’t have to embarrass our guest.”

Then a few minutes later…

Bruce: “Mr. President, why wait for Congress to release the Epstein files? Why not just do it now?”

Trump: “It’s not the question that I mind. It’s your attitude. I think you are a terrible reporter. It’s the way you ask these questions. You start off with a man who is highly respected, asking him about a horrible, insubordinate, and just a terrible question. You could even ask that question nicely. But you’re all psyched. Somebody psyched you over at ABC. You’re a terrible person and a terrible reporter… You work for a crappy company. I think the license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake. So wrong. We have a great commissioner, a chairman who should look at that.”

+++

When Catherine Lucey, of Bloomberg News, asked Trump on Air Force One last whether he thought there was anything incriminating in the Epstein files, he jabbed his finger toward her face and sneered, “Quiet! Quiet, piggy!”

+++

Trump on his plan to replace ObamaCare subsidies by just giving people cash to buy their own insurance: “I want the money to go into an account for people where the people buy their own health insurance. It’s so good. The insurance will be better. It’ll cost less. Everybody is going to be happy. They’re going to feel like entrepreneurs. They will be able to go out and negotiate their own health insurance…Call it Trumpcare.”

+++

Laura Ingraham: Is a 50-year mortgage really a good idea? 

Trump: It’s not even a big deal. You go from 40 years to 50 

Ingraham: 30.

+++

Trump to America’s veterans: “If we die, we must die and we as men we die without complaining.”

+++

After he sprayed former Al-Qaeda commander, now Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa with cologne in the Oval Office, Trump asked: “How many wives do you have?”

Al-Sharaa: “One.”

Trump: “You never know.”

+++

Trump on Ilhan Omar: “I look at somebody who comes from Somalia, which has nothing but a lot of crime and she comes in and tells us how to run our country. ‘The Constitution says this, the Constitution says that.’ The whole thing is crazy.”

+++

Trump: “I only care about one thing: will we be number one in crypto?”

+++

“He [Hegseth] said he did not say that, and I believe him. I wouldn’t have wanted that. Not a second strike. The first strike was very lethal. It was fine, and if there were two people around, but Pete said that didn’t happen. I have great confidence.”

+++

“DC hasn’t had a murder in 6 months.”(There have been at least 55 homicides in DC since June…)

 

Given a few hours to reconsider his debased Truth Social post on the slaughter of the Reiners, Trump instead opted to double down on his bad bet and spew yet more corpse abuse: “He [Rob Reiner] was a deranged person…Trump derangement syndrome. I was not a fan. I thought he was very bad for our country.”

+++

Rachel Scott, ABC News, White House Correspondent, December 8:  Mr. President, you said you would have “no problem” releasing the full video of that strike on September 2nd off the coast of Venezuela. Secretary Hegseth said…

Trump: No, I didn’t say that. You said that. I didn’t say that. This is ABC Fake News.

Scott: You said you had no problem releasing the full video. Okay. Well, Secretary Hegseth says it’s now under review.

Trump: Whatever Hegseth wants to do is okay with me.

Scott: He now says it is under review. Are you now ordering the Secretary to release that video?

Trump: No. Whatever he decides to do is okay with me. So, every boat we knock out of the water. Every boat, we save 25,000 American lives. That was a boat loaded up with drugs–I saw the video–they were trying to turn that boat back to where it could float. And we didn’t want to see that because that boat was loaded up with drugs, just like everything else. Every boat we shoot down–and I don’t know if you know this, but we’re 92 to 94 percent down in drugs coming in by sea. And we’re trying to find the other six percent, because, I don’t know, people don’t like to drive boats right now loaded up with drugs. But think of that, on average, every drug boat we shoot down, we save 25,000 American lives.

Scott: But have you seen the full video?

Trump: Didn’t I just tell you that? You are one of the most obnoxious reporters in the whole place. Let me just tell you, you are an obnoxious…actually, a terrible reporter. And it’s always the same with you. I told you whatever Pete Hegseth wants to do is okay with me.

Let’ go to the tape from December 3rd, Don…

Weijia Jiang, CBS News White House Correspondent: You released the first video, but will you release the second video from that strike on September 2nd, so that the American people can see for themselves what happened?

Trump: I don’t know what they have, but whatever they have, we’d certainly release. No problem.

+++

+ Trump on Venezuela: “They took all of our oil and we want it back. They illegally took it.”

“We should have a meeting with the insurance companies, I would say that maybe with one talk they would be willing to cut their prices by 50%, 60%, or 70%.” Maybe if Luigi Mangione was your lead negotiator…

+++

Ilhan Omar should be sent out of our country, she should not be allowed to be a congresswoman. She married her brother… She made up a story. She said the police attacked her son. She’s a con person. She’s full of con. Get her the hell out of our country.

+++

Trump, still bragging about this as if he’d aced the MCATs: “I took cognitive tests. By the way, not easy. The first question is like what is this and they show a lion, giraffe, fish and a hippopotamus. And they say which is the giraffe.”

–30–

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