UPDATE 9/9/26: The Trump dance, the mean tweets and trolling: inspired hilarity emanating from this most unusual Chief Executive whose solid accomplishments are unrivaled despite every effort to thwart his every move. If there is such an instrument to measure it, note off-the-chart TDS readings, directly proportional to the invincible entertainment talents of this outrageous character.
UPDATE 8/27/26: Dear Donald, regarding the Kennedy Center: allow it to remain just The KENNEDY Center, a tribute to John and Jackie’s notable legacy championing the best in the performing arts; AND, leave your part in it just the current Board’s wisely suggested postscript “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.”
The building hosted some glorious early events when the artists honored were themselves beloved national/international monuments. Initially the intention was to recognize exclusively AMERICAN citizens, then as the pickings became a bit slim, international personalities such as foreign-born opera and rock stars like Pavarotti and McCartney were included. Note: the first honorees were Fred Astaire, Richard Rodgers, George Balanchine, Marian Anderson and Artur Rubinstein. WOW! For roughly the next 30 years, politics did not play a part in the choice of honorees, everyone proudly united in appreciation of great art, great artists and America. Consider the instance of Hollywood’s annoying La Pasionaria Barbra Streisand being kissed by George W. Bush and, cornered into reluctant graciousness, returning the kiss. For the moment, politics could be forgotten and forgiven. For the moment. No longer when Obama came in and through the subsequent first Trump and Biden years, partisan/virtue-signaling politics has been a big wet blanket on the proceedings, Linda Ronstadt providing just one ugly sample of the Left’s abandonment of any class or sense of American camaraderie.
Now that Trump is boss again, it’s become necessary to choose individuals who have the dignity to accept the honors without making them a political pulpit. Sorry to say (and doing my best to avoid cultural snobbery), the best in the arts ain’t what it used to be. This last year’s “safe” honorees allowed Trump himself to appear as host without an embarrassing incident: George Straight, Sly Stallone, Gloria Gaynor, Michael Crawford, and rock band Kiss. All are indisputably accomplished and celebrated in their respective fields, but they most definitely lack the Olympian stature of their predecessors. The long-established view of “a great artist” has changed dramatically in the half century since the Honors began. So it goes, and one can only hope we are not a doomed culture in permanent decline. Trump’s insistence upon putting his name above Kennedy’s on the building is not helpful.
Aaah. It’s pre-Obama, 2006, and there’s Smokey from Motown, Andrew from the West End/Broadway, Dolly from Nashville, the Bushes, Steve from Hollywood and Zubin from Lincoln Center. No politics, just gratitude all around for making good in America.
UPDATE 8/27/26: For all the justified criticism a mercurial personality like Trump elicits, he’s still The One willing to address the big issues and not continue to kick the can down the road. Meanwhile, even his most steadfast supporters hold their collective breath and hope for the necessary miracle(S) to get us through the turbulence.
UPDATE 8/17/26: Lost in the choking fog of TDS hysteria and the open-ended vagaries of Iran are those achievements that promise to be part of a great. lasting legacy for DJT. Among them are the financial windfall of his tariffs that have generated nearly enough cash to offset all tax revenue collected from those making less than $100K annually.
Coupling that remarkable fiscal reality with the hard fact of the top 1% of earners paying nearly 40 % of all tax revenue should silence those dissembling DEMagogues routinely riling up the envious rabble with the Big Lie about the rich “not paying their fair share.”
UPDATE 8/22/26: Whatever he’s for, we’re against it! For the moment, the Supreme Court has ruled that Trump can build a ballroom worthy of America’s First Dwelling, the People’s House.
UPDATE 8/15/26: Doubts grow about Vance’s potential as Trump’s ideal successor, mostly thanks to his disturbing, Tuckeresque ambivalence about Israel.
UPDATE 8/7/26: It’s distinctly unpleasant to criticize Trump, the best thing to come along for American conservatism since Reagan. However, he’s handing his tireless detractors ammo in fussing about the reflecting pool problems and blaming high gas prices on greedy, gouging oil companies, making him sound like Bernie, AOC or Pocahontas.
Regarding Iran: making a deal isn’t going to cut it. These are nihilistic Islamists, not amenable to “negotiation” when consuming every human on earth is their entire reason for living…and dying. Harsh, cold, objective reality dictates that there is no substitute for complete conquest as was the case on two fronts in WWII. Trump and the entire free world are in a trap, the only choice being to finish the job with whatever force is necessary.
The crucial midterms approach, and, even without an Iranian miracle, continued majorities in both houses could provide an unfettered, triumphant finish to what is already an historic Presidency.
UPDATE 7/5/26: Quel surprise! The NY Times thinks Trump’s Mt. Rushmore speech a bit gauche. Goodness, he used the word “communist” in a rather negative fashion multiple times. Oh my. So Archie Bunker. The rest of us in touch with what communism means now and has meant to those countless millions of enslaved, murdered souls over the last century consider such truth-telling a gift.
UPDATE 6/28/26: Fortunately, we have a POTUS firmly dedicated to American principles and fully aware of the Red plague that continues to pose the greatest threat to our way of life. Thanks to the Democratic Party now fully embracing that plague, we cannot take for granted this healthy, hopeful vision of America, coming from the top. Given power again, we can expect quite the opposite from the Left.
UPDATE 6/15/26: Never a bore and, with all his obvious flaws, the best thing to come along for America in decades, we celebrate the rise, fall, return and dauntless, ongoing American Spirit of one Donald J. Trump on his 80th birthday. As it turns out, a landmark day full of encouraging news for him and us.
UPDATE 6/12/26: One wishes he would at least eat better. Then again, he may outlive us all despite a diet of Big Macs, Coke and fries.
UPDATE 4/17/26: Uh-oh! Watch out for exploding heads! Breaking news! We didn’t vote for a humble, shy, humorless, accommodating, unfocused, half-serious fighter in the high stakes game of international AND domestic politics.
Isn’t it reasonable to state that Trump is animated by the same Spirit that animates any and all mortal Judeo-Christians who have pursued what’s good and right in this world? That includes Moses and Jesus. Tell us again: who’s on the right side of history?
UPDATE 4/11/26: Brutal realism in political matters has produced a totally unorthodox figure like Trump who doesn’t pretend life is inherently easy, kind or fair. Think “the big stick” which goes very far to explain severe TDS in so many. Luckily, at least half of the electorate knows that that big stick is a prerequisite to solving the very real, very thorny problems of life. Those of the rose-tinted persuasion need not apply.
UPDATE 4/5/26: Apparently, it’s been on his mind for a while.
UPDATE 3/7/26: Trump’s unmatched endurance and stubborn aversion to losing any game he plays is providing us with a rare opportunity to reverse America’s decline and the rest of the world with it. As America goes, so goes the rest of those nations that identify freedom as the cornerstone of their respective existences. His bold, unwavering approach to the Iranian curse looming over humanity for half a century is an opportunity that will not come again. We and he must count ourselves particularly lucky to have crisis-tested Netanyahu’s equally unshakeable dedication in the mix, sharing the task of carrying out this historic mission.
UPDATE 3/4/26: Lest we forget Trump 1.0 and the remarkable legacy already carved out, he continues to be the most consequential public figure on the planet and is still only a quarter way through the additional time granted him.
ORIGINAL POST 3/1/26: Trump and MAGA are currently the soul and main source of the American Spirit thread, but this is a personality so outlandish and consequential that there needs to be an exclusively TRUMP space.
An appropriate first post for this TRUMP thread is Joe & Megyn pinpointing the core source of the Left’s TDS…which also explains why conservatives consider him a gift.