Morale is not great
Back in 1968, President Lyndon Johnson discovered that he would be booed by antiwar protesters if he tried to speak anywhere except a military installation. Despite winning the New Hampshire primary, he announced on March 31 that he would not seek re-election.
No one would call LBJ thin-skinned but compared to him, Trump is transparent. Dissent drives him mad. When he addressed soldiers at Fort Bragg they were carefully chosen as props, willing to cheer for viciously partisan attacks on Gavin Newsom and the media. One order specified "no fat soldiers." It might as well have added "no black or female soldiers" because it was hard to spot any in the crowd. (Twenty-one percent of active-duty soldiers are black, although African Americans are 14% of the population.) A company selling Trump merch at the base reportedly did good business. In short, just another campaign rally.
"This has been a bad week for the Army for anyone who cares about us being a neutral institution," said a commander who insisted on anonymity. "This was shameful."
The troops on the front lines in Los Angeles seem to agree. Sarah Streyder of Secure Families Initiative, a group which represents military families and veterans, is hearing from people worried about their relatives' safety and what they are asked to do, in contrast with their deployment to fight fires and address other emergencies. Of course, they're not happy with the incompetence at the top, resulting in troops without basic necessities and even a structure for payment -- which is what happens when DOGE or Hegseth gets rid of people who know how to organize things. The violence in what Trump calls the "trash heap" of LA was brought under control when Mayor Bass simply imposed a curfew. Trump refers to all cities where people of color live (or even govern!) as "vermin-infested hellholes," so nobody takes him seriously anymore.
It's not reassuring to know that detained immigrants are treated as shabbily as Our Troops, often spending days in basements with little in the way of food and water. They tend to have children with them, too, but that's fine with the ICEstapo. America must be protected from the little invaders.
Without even being asked, Florida is sending troops to California to, uh, enforce the curfew, I guess. If you ever wondered what Ron DeSantis looks like on the verge of orgasm, here he is urging people to drive over ICE protesters if "a mob comes and surrounds your vehicle" (NSFW):
Our neo-Nazis are distinguished from the 1940s paleo-Nazis mostly by the delicacy of their feelings. Terry Moran was suspended and then fired from ABC News for making the obvious comment that Stephen Miller is a hateful sack of hate who feeds on hate. Now K$H Patel is suing MSNBC commentator Frank Figliuzzi for accusing him of spending more time in Vegas nightclubs than his FBI office. Considering that Patel was fired as acting head of the ATF because he never showed up, it doesn't sound like much of a reach. On the whole, though, we're probably better off if he's at the slots or watching Penn and Teller.
Of course, when it comes to sensitivity no one can match Trump, so the Gavin Newsom counterattack must be burrowing into him like a swarm of Siberian mosquitos. The governor told The Daily he talked to Trump on the phone and "he's not all there." He tried to discuss the Marines and Trump threatened to defund the state universities. "He is not the same person that I dealt with just four years ago. He's incapable now of even a train of thought. He's making things up and he's putting people's lives at risk." That jibes with the West Point speech that drifted into an account of William Levitt and his "trophy wife." Or his fascinated discovery of the word "groceries."
How demented is he? Last night at a sparsely populated opera house they laid out a red carpet for the opening of Les Miserables and Melania was flushed out of the canebrake to be with her husband. He declared, "There's no inflation. People are happy. People are wealthy. The country is getting back to strength again." That demented. That he appeared not to know the musical's plot was relatively minor. Audience members who booed the royal couple or shouted "Rapist! Felon!" were hustled out. Trump's stigmatization of drag queens did not extend to these ticket holders, but he probably didn't notice:
For those who longed to hear a real leader, or were just nostalgic for clear, concise spoken English, there was this:
You heard the man. Do not give in to him.
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