"It's inconceivable to me that any president would pick a fight with the Pope, indeed, pick a fight with the entire Catholic Church. The Pope is speaking in favor of peace which he has been doing throughout. But this is as blunt an attack on the Vatican as has ever been done by an American administration."` - Father Sam Sawyer, S.J. interviewed on MS Now, yesterday morning
"The post was exactly what Trump wanted: to show himself as omnipotent. Left up 12hours to show the Iranian leadership he's all-powerful. Trump has no regrets. What is regrettable is Christian religious leaders thinking they influence or advise Trump on religious matters. ISN'T IT EVIDENT TRUMP USES CHRISTIANITY AS A PROPAGANDA TOOL?" WaPo comment
In the Weekend (April 11-12, p. A13) Wall Street Journal, columnist Peggy Noonan clearly described the orange traitor occupying the White House for the deranged imp he is. This was after his explosive Tuesday Trash Social post, i.e.
"Open the fucking Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in hell. JUST WATCH! A whole civilization will die tonight never to be brought back again." etc.
Noonan wrote:
"The post left his friends and foes slackjawed. They constituted hitting a new bottom, a new and infernal, face-lit-by -flames bottom, in world communications."
But still missing the obvious signal that the words are being spewed by a totally deranged madman who has no business being anywhere near the nuclear codes. A basket case, senile asshole who ought to have been removed from power months ago. Anyway, Ms. Noonan continues:
"The posts weren't showbiz they were sinister. You destabilize the world when, as the American president, you say such things. You rob your own nation of a claim to moral seriousness in the military action in which it is engaged."
A point I'd made in an earlier post regarding the basis for launching the reckless attack on Iran, which had no justified moral or military basis behind it, i.e.
Aspects Connecting Practical Reason, Morality, Law and Whether Actual Human Evil Exists
The attack was done on the fly (and with Netanyahu's urging) to feed this monster's ego, despite the critical Strait of Hormuz already being open. But Trump didn't care how it would hurl the globe into fuel and food insufficiency and misery. He believed he could knock off Iran as easily as he did Venezuela - and now also fancies doing to Cuba.
Noonan goes on, making clear just how despicable the post was:
"You are saying we're not trying to protect life but plan to attack it, and in the attacking kill noncombatants who are members of the targeted civilization."
And bear in mind these are the same people (Iranians) he was earlier begging to "rise up" and overthrow the regime. So he would incinerate those whose cooperation he'd earlier sought. This again shows the man has lost all reasoning power as well as any moral conscience. In truth, it is having a madman at the reins of power.
Noonan again, driving her points home further:
"The moral high ground is relinquished. You lower the bar for all potential response. You encourage violent action by trumpeting your readiness for it."
But again, this echoes admonitions from assorted WSJ editorials and op-ed where Trump is simply being advised to not be so bombastic. To adopt a more 'presidential' and sober demeanor. It fails to recognize you are trying to reason with a madman who is detached from any semblance of balance, proportion or moral insight.
Despite this, she writes on:
"It bolsters the position of your enemies - their animus is justified, their commitment deepened. It's even ineffective as a threat. The reason the 'madman theory' worked for Richard Nixon - if it did -was that the world leaders knew he wasn't crazy but might be tripped into extreme behavior by an adversary's intransigence. Donald Trump plays the part of a madman every day. His head fake would be sanity."
Here she comes closest to the main point but backs away - perhaps out of fear of inviting an editor's intrusion. It's not that Trump 'plays the part of a madman every day' he IS a madman. A malignant narcissistic sociopath and psychopath. This is what too many are not processing! Noonan near the end at least notes his posts "even shocked his followers", writing:
"This (Easter Sunday) post is not the diction of the common man but the language of sociopathy. That isn't how his supporters want the world to see him."
Acknowledging at last, despite his supporters delusions, he is no 'common man' simply gone off the rails temporarily. No. We have a madman sitting next to the nuclear codes and too few in the media acknowledge it, acknowledge this psycho ought to be removed NOW under the 25th amendment. Peggy Noonan writes his "head fake" would be sanity, and this is so - except for a true madman no such head fake is possible.
Don't buy it? Then look at his attack on Pope Leo Sunday night, not long after the segment on 60 Minutes came on regarding Leo's opposition to Trump's war. Then look at his AI depiction of himself as Christ trying to upend Leo's role as "the Vicar of Christ on Earth'.
All this case after the interview of the three RC Cardinals by Nora O'Donnell - each of whom stated clearly Trump was in the wrong and this war of choice was not a just war. The Catholic Just War doctrine above all demands a judicious application of ethical oversight such that no war would be casually conducted by a random presidential edict, or pseudo-doctrine, i.e. in the guise of a brash social media POST as opposed to a formal announcement or authorization by congress.
In particular, there can be no just war when noncombatants are recklessly targeted, such as when Trump sent a Tomahawk cruise missile to blow up 176 children in an Iranian school. Little different from what the savage Israelis have been doing to Gaza and now doing in Lebanon again.
Bottom line, you cannot employ evil to take out or destroy evil. Unless that evil is of vastly greater magnitude than the version you inflict. (As in WW II) And despite all the Trumpers' yammering about Iran getting a nuclear weapon or trying to, this has not been proven. In fact, the blatant exaggeration that Iran was an "imminent threat" is what triggered the resignation of Joe Kent, the former Director of the National Counter Terrorism Center.
Back to the proof of a madman in the Oval. Not satisfied after attacking Pope Leo – following a Nora O’Donnell interview on 60 Minutes, Trump posted an AI-generated image, depicting himself as Jesus Christ, on his Trash Social Sunday night. This sparked immediate outrage from former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and other social media users.
“It’s more than blasphemy,” Greene remarked, “It’s an Antichrist spirit.”
Other would-be supporters of Trump seemed equally repulsed by the image, and the depths to which the orange maggot had sunk. But let's not fool ourselves this 'Trump godhood' trope is anything new . The New Apostolic Reformation, a White Christian Nationalist cult, has been pushing this crap for the past two years with assorted imagery of Trump's piety or "holiness", e.g.
And the bejabber really acquired jet fuel after Trump escaped an assassination attempt in July, 2024, as the 2024 election campaign was heating up. Way too many seemed to bite that his escape really did imply a "divine intervention" when it was merely luck - twisting his head at the right time.
Now, we are saddled with this demented, senile orange freak and no one knows how his latest insane move with Iran will end. Peggy Noonan had her description of this monster spot 0n, she just didn't go far enough: advocating for his immediate removal from office at the end of her column. Which the WSJ editors would likely have pulled and had her removed from her columnist job.
See Also:
by Robert Reich | April 14, 2026 - 5:34am | permalink
— from Robert Reich's Substack
Friends,
Late Sunday night, Trump posted on Truth Social the most grandiose depiction any U.S. president has ever made of himself.
I’ve reproduced it above. Take a look, and remember: It came from Trump.
What kind of a president would post this of himself?
Today, Trump told reporters that he posted it because he thought it depicted him as a physician. “I thought it was me as a doctor,” he said, adding that news organizations had misinterpreted the image. “It’s supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better, and I do make people better,” he said.
There’s something fundamentally wrong with the man.
And:
Trump’s Erratic Behavior and Extreme Comments Revive Mental Health Debate - The New York Times
Excerpt:
As the president threatens to wipe out Iran and attacks the
pope, even some former allies and advisers are questioning whether he has grown
increasingly unbalanced, describing him as “lunatic” and “clearly insane.”
A series of disjointed, hard-to-follow and sometimes-profane
statements capped by his “a
whole civilization will die tonight” threat to wipe Iran off the map
last week and his head-spinning attack on the “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy” pope
on Sunday night have left many with the impression of a deranged autocrat mad
with power.
It is not just a concern voiced by partisans on the left,
late-night comics or mental health professionals making long-distance
diagnoses. It can be heard now among retired generals, diplomats and foreign officials. And most strikingly, it can be heard
now on
the political right among onetime allies of the president.
Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer in Mr. Trump’s first term,
told the journalist Jim Acosta that the president is “a man who
is clearly insane” and that his recent string of belligerent,
middle-of-the-night social media posts “highlights the level of his insanity.”
And:
Trump post appearing to depict him as Jesus removed amid backlash - The Washington Post
Excerpt:
Unlike the post criticizing Leo, whom Trump later said he
didn’t like and is too “liberal,” the image evoking Jesus drew swift criticism
from some evangelical Christians and conservative Catholics who have otherwise
expressed near constant support for Trump’s decisions.
“I don’t know if the President thought he was being funny or
if he is under the influence of some substance or what possible explanation he
could have for this OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy,” wrote Megan Basham, a prominent conservative Protestant
Christian writer and commentator. “But he needs to take this down immediately
and ask for forgiveness from the American people and then from God.”
Following the backlash and after appearing on the
president’s Truth Social account for more than 12 hours, the image was deleted
without explanation from Trump or the White House.
The president last year posted an image of him as pope that
appeared to be AI-generated.
And:
by Robert Reich | April 12, 2026 - 5:33am | permalink
— from Robert Reich's Substack
Friends,
The past terrifying week has caused me to wonder: How did America ever get to a point where one man, backed by the military might of the United States, could credibly threaten death to an entire civilization?
I’m also wondering how 19 super-rich American households could have added $1.8 trillion to their wealth in just the last 24 months — roughly the size of the economy of Australia — while the rate of child poverty in the U.S. has more than doubled, from a low of 5.2 percent in 2021 to over 13 percent now?
How have we come so perilously close to climate catastrophe, with spring temperatures in the Western United States already shattering records — and yet governments are spending over a trillion dollars a year subsidizing the fossil fuel industry and banks have channeled over $3 trillion to fossil fuel companies since the Paris Agreement, while there are almost no funds to protect living ecosystems?
And:
by Amanda Marcotte | April 11, 2026 - 5:18am | permalink
Donald Trump, a self-described Christian, issued a shockingly crude threat on Easter Sunday. Five weeks into his unnecessary war of choice with Iran, he ordered the country to “Open the F**kin’ Strait” of Hormuz to international oil tankers or he would bomb civilian infrastructure like power plants and bridges, a war crime that would have killed untold numbers of people. That the president’s intent was genocidal is indisputable, as he later threatened to destroy a “whole civilization.”
But just a few days before he invoked the mass murder of civilians, Trump hosted an Easter luncheon at the White House, where he enjoyed being compared to Jesus Christ by his friend Paula White, a popular evangelical minister who also heads the White House Faith Office. “Mr. President, no one has paid the price like you have paid the price. You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused,” she said, even though there is no evidence that Trump’s dozens of indictments were based on false allegations. “It’s a familiar pattern that our Lord and Savior showed us.”
There are moments when political language begins to sound like something older than politics.
A prayer inside the Pentagon recently asked God to bless the “overwhelming violence of action” and to ensure that “every round find its mark.” Scripture was woven into the cadence of military speech, as though divine presence could be made to converge with operational precision.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking within a worship context tied to military life, drew from the Psalms: “I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and did not turn back till they were consumed.” In that setting, the words do not remain safely in the past. They are re-entered as invocation, carried from ancient text into the present tense of state power.
by Harvey Wasserman | October 23, 2024 - 5:12am | permalink
And:
Excerpt:
Donald Trump claims to be a master of the “art of the deal”. But patient negotiations are not his style. After a weekend of failed peace talks with Iran, the US has decided to escalate again by announcing a blockade. This latest tactic is likely to backfire. Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused global energy prices to surge.
But an American blockade is
already causing oil and gas prices to go even higher. It also increases the
risk that Iran will counter-escalate by striking energy infrastructure in the
Gulf. The Iranians believe that time is on their side in this confrontation and
they are probably right. The longer the Strait of Hormuz is closed, the more the political and economic pressure on the U.S. will mount.
The loss of some twenty percent of the world's energy supplies has already been called 'the greatest global energy security threat in history.' The effects of the strait's closure are now really kicking in. The rise in the price of petrol at the pump is just the beginning.
A shortage of jet fuel will hit air travel, which will damage tourism just ahead of the crucial summer season. A lack of helium much of which is produced in Qatar - could stop production of semiconductors. Food production, damaged by fertiliser shortages, will lead to further inflation.
Negotiating an end to this war - and the energy crisis it's causing - will require strategic vision, patience and an ability to understand tradeoffs and build alliances. All qualities which Trump lacks. What a mess.
