By Paul Wallis
March 15, 2025
DIGITAL JOURNAL
Trump boards Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport in Florida. — © AFP ROBERTO SCHMIDT
In a tangled speech, Trump has said that opposition and negative media should be illegal. It seems that everyone is corrupt scum, and that it’s not nice.
According to Politico, the speech was a series of mood shifts ranging from gloating to defamatory to blatantly accusing the DOJ of doing its job.
He also called himself the “chief law enforcement officer” of the USA.
Nobody else had noticed that.
The rest of the speech seems to have involved treading on as many DOJ toes as possible. From the language usage, it seems he spends a lot of time catching up on old Bilderberg commentary and Breitbart articles from about 10 years ago.
As an example of democratic, judicial, and legal illiteracy, it was pretty comprehensive. It also looks pretty smug for a guy with his vast library of ongoing statutory and civil legal issues. Does he really think people will let millions of dollars go based on a speech to the DOJ?
He’s misreading his audience badly and perhaps fatally in this case. When he stops being “president,” he’ll notice that. The Countdown to Goodbye Forever Donald is counting down, and he’s not scoring points with anyone anywhere.
People care about their own interests in the future, not about him in the next four years. He’s a lame duck this term, he’s on the way out, and everyone but him knows it.
The negative media comments are never any sort of surprise. The guy reacts so badly to criticism of any kind. The media mainly just reports what’s happening, with a few pitiful exceptions.
Many of the negative headlines are mainly about Musk and DOGE. What’s not to criticize? It’s a miserable attempt at management on any level. Even the White House has monotonously had to contradict Musk’s actions.
Just to update from 1776:
The First Amendment allows criticism and it’s not going anywhere.
There are no laws, as in precisely none, against political opposition.
For a guy totally dependent on the theory of immunity, he just stuck his neck out a long way. There is no such thing as immunity from the law by statute. The Supreme Court gave an opinion, not a ruling. There’s a big difference.
Meanwhile, back in that unfashionable thing called reality and somewhat more importantly:
The world has been saying nothing but an unequivocal “No!” to Trump for two months on an increasingly turgid range of critical subjects. Negotiations don’t deserve the name and have gone nowhere.
America’s future finances aren’t looking at all healthy. Destroying trade didn’t do much for Brexit, and it won’t do America any good.
The projected US Federal budget isn’t impressing anyone at all. Cuts vs spending look utterly absurd.
Opposition to Trump’s every move comes from a very broad bandwidth of parties within America. You’d have to deport the whole population to stop negative commentary.
This constant defensive monologue from Trump isn’t a good look.
“The strong man” is now making himself look very much like “the wrong man.”
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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.
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