President What’s-His-Name, who used to be on TV, now cavorts with Communists

Commentary on the news from a tropical perspective

By J.C. Bruce

Tropic Press

Remember Donald Trump?

He used to be on TV a lot, first as a pretend business genius on The Apprentice, then later as the pretend stable genius in the Oval Office.

We used to see him preening from behind the Resolute Desk, soon to be renamed the Donald Desk, with all those TV cameras pointed at him while he used his Sharpie to sign his latest executive orders—284 and counting as of this morning. Pretty much a repeat of The Apprentice, only with more gold tchotchkes on the walls.

But the TV cameras aren’t there right now.

And why is that?

Because in one of the weirdest and most self-defeating things he’s done since being elected to his second term—and that’s saying a lot—he ran them out of the room.

Oh, he didn’t run them ALL out, just the ones he impulsively was annoyed with the other day when he banned CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House and confiscated their press passes.

Why was this stupid?

Besides being illegal, if he knew anything about reporters—and they are, admittedly, a rowdy lot—they have a history of showing surprising solidarity about things like censorship.

So, because of his ignorance, Trump didn’t count on all the other major TV networks joining hands with their colleague-competitors and announcing that they, too, would leave the room.

Leaving Trump without the audience he craves, the daily attention his muddled, narcissistic mind needs, and, frankly, what his entire career has been based on.

After all, his first and best role in life has always been as a “celebrity,” not an actor, certainly—apparently he was a nightmare to work with on the set of The Apprentice—just someone strutting around craving attention, kind of like an obese Kardashian but with bad makeup.

So, this week, with the cameras turned off at the White House, he really was at a loss. So, he traipsed over to New York for a quick photo op with the mayor—Zohran Mamdani, a notorious Democratic Socialist, or, as Republicans are calling all Democrats these days, a Communist.

This friendly meeting has G.O.P. heads exploding, but the real eruption will be this week when Trump hosts a genuine, actual Communist in the East Room of the White House: Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.

Sadly, Trump’s new ballroom/bomb shelter won’t be ready in time for this celebration.

The timing for this glitzy gala is a little off, some Republicans are griping.

While Americans are struggling with the rising cost of gasoline, medical bills, rent, and fretting over Trump’s undeclared war in the Middle East, he’s playing footsie with a Communist?

“I don't think people really want to see you toasting the Chinese premier,” one Republican close to the White House told The Daily Beast.

Well, it remains to be seen if anyone will see it with the cameras turned off.

The Republicans’ fixation with Communists is their last-ditch, desperate effort to find something—anything—to campaign on in the midterm elections.

They’ve crawled back into their 1950s shell—you know, better times when America was run by rich white men, and women and minorities knew their places.

Now they’re seeing Communists under the bed and want all of us to be as scared as they pretend to be.

Here in Florida, our appointed U.S. Senator, Ashley Moody, has decried her opponent, State Rep. Angie Nixon, as stealing all her moves from the “Communist Manifesto.” So far, Byron Donalds, the Republican nominee for governor, hasn’t pulled the Red Menace card on his Democratic opponent, David Jolly, but it may only be a matter of time.

Although, as noted in my previous newsletter, it apparently won’t be at a debate, as Jolly has said he can’t “debate a liar.”

Which most readers of this newsletter seem to feel is a mistake, based on the comments I’ve gotten so far today on that post.

What do you think?

But back to the TV-less Trump:

To be clear, what the networks have done, in showing their solidarity with CNN et. al., is to refuse to be part of the “pool” report. The networks rotate this duty among themselves because there simply isn’t enough room in the Oval Office or Air Force One for all their cameras, so they share their video feeds with one another.

This is the way it has worked since the time of FDR, so Trump should have at least given some small thought to the notion that these people, despite being competitors, know how to cooperate with one another.

But, hey, nobody besides Trump has ever said he was smart.

That seems to include the Brit-turned-American Mark Burnett, the creator of The Apprentice, who has distanced himself from his former star and who, most likely, regrets hiring him in the first place.

His quote:

"Given all of the false media reports, I feel compelled to clarify a few points. I am not now and have never been a supporter of Donald Trump's candidacy. I am NOT ‘Pro-Trump.’ Further, my wife and I reject the hatred, division and misogyny that has been a very unfortunate part of his campaign."

If anyone ever invents a time machine, my bet is Burnett will be first in line to go back and have a do-over with his Apprentice casting.

Note to readers:

Ordinarily I try to restrict my scribbling to one post a day out of respect for everyone’s cluttered inboxes. This morning, I emailed a post to subscribers about Jolly declining to debate Donalds, but I just felt compelled to say something about Trump’s attempt to muzzle the press, and I didn’t want to wait another day to send it. Thanks for your understanding, and I really will try to control these impulses — I promise.

J.C.B.

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J.C. Bruce