How many times does Trump need to suggest in public that he has no intention of leaving the White House before we take him seriously? Here’s your roundup of the nonsense coming out of Trumpworld that you need to know about
Donald Trump is too corrupt to impeach, a senior Democrat suggested last night – as America struggles to come to terms with just how egregious his ‘slush fund’ scandal is.
Robert Garcia, a Democrat from California, was asked at an event whether he’d be up for trying to impeach Trump again if his party retake the House in November’s midterm elections. “You can’t take it off the table,” Garcia said. “But the reality [is] Trump does an impeachable offence every week. And so we could spend an enormous amount of time going through that process, or we could try to do everything we can to stop and slow the Trump regime.”
It’s worth stopping to think about that for a second, because it’s not just – as Garcia later suggested – that “impeachment” isn’t a vote winner, and isn’t a good use of time. It’s that Donald Trump is so defiantly just doing whatever he wants that America and the world is either numb to it, or doesn’t know how to process it. That may be about to change – the ‘slush fund’ scandal seems to be getting what we in the fake news media like to call “cut through”. But even so, it’s a pretty sorry state of affairs for the World’s Greatest Democracy.
Meanwhile, in Trumpworld
- Trump is totally going to invade Cuba
- And he sounds like he’s going to give Taiwan to China
- He did not seem at all well
- But still keeps telling people he might still be President in 2032
- He defended his slush fund
- And claimed he could run for Prime Minister in Israel. He can’t, for a number of reasons – one of which you might not expect
Here’s everything you need to know
1. Oh Trump is totally going to invade Cuba
Todd Blanche announced this evening that the US government had secured indictments against Raul Castro, the former President of Cuba and brother of the late Fidel Castro. The indictment accuses Castro and five co-defendants of murder over the downing of two planes and the deaths of four people in 1996. It comes after a lengthy pressure campaign against Cuba, including an energy blockade which has left its infrastructure on the brink of total collapse. Trump said he doesn’t plan an “escalation” in Cuba, because “I don’t think there needs to be.” But Blanche, who is having a big week, said of Castro – who is 94 years old: “We expect he will show up here [in the United States] by his will, or another way”
2. And he’s totally going to give Taiwan to China
Trump was unusually coy on the way back from China about what he and President Xi Jinping discussed with regard to Taiwan. But you know he can’t keep a secret. Giving a commencement address to the Coastguard academy in Connecticut, Trump started rambling about the “chip industry”.
“Right now we have none, practically,” he said. “It was taken by other places. It was taken by Taiwan. I’m not knocking them, I’m saying if they can get away with it. But if you’d had the right President that would have never happened.”
Remember, the most powerful person in the world is the person Donald Trump most recently spoke to. And for now that person is Xi Jinping.
3. He did not seem at all well today
Trump, who turns 80 next month, has appeared tired and slurring more than usual whenever he’s spoken in public today. More so than usual. His speech to Coastguard cadets was more rambling and nonsensical than ever – not to mention totally inappropriate for a commencement speech. And he slurred his words heavily during the address.
If you don’t believe me, watch this clip of him being asked on the tarmac on his way to Connecticut about people who weren’t loyal to him still being employed by the Justice Department.
4. But he reckons he’s still going to be President in 2032
“I’m gonna be here in ’28,” he said during his commencement speech. “Maybe I’ll be here in ’32 too. I don’t know. Maybe I will.”
I don’t know how many times Trump has to tell us that he’s not going to leave the White House at the end of his term before we believe him.
5. Trump defends his slush fund
Before boarding Air Force One after his commencement speech, Trump was asked for his response to people who are “critical” of his IRS settlement. The one that’s been branded “one of the single most corrupt acts in American history.”
Trump claimed he had nothing to do with the settlement. Then suddenly had some very strong feelings about it. He described the prosecution and punishment of people who beat police officers and ransacked the Capitol building as they tried to overthrow the government “the most violent thing I’ve ever seen in politics”.
He repeatedly called for sympathy for the insurrectionists, saying their lives had been “ruined” by the punishment for their crimes – not mentioning the possibility that their lives had been ruined by their own decision to commit said crimes.
And he moaned that whenever he tries to undermine the independence of the justice system and target his personal enemies for persecution, people complain about it. “If I say, ‘let’s look at this one,’ they say, ‘Weaponization! Weaponization!,” he said.
6. But whaddayaknow, Mike Johnson hasn’t seen it
Regular readers will know that Mike Johnson is the least observant man ever to serve as Speaker Of the House Of Representatives. It’s so weird, he gives loads of press conferences, but whenever he’s asked about something indefensible that Donald Trump has done – no matter how many newspapers its been on the front of – he miraculously hasn’t seen it. Today, he claimed he doesn’t “know any of the details” of Trump’s slush fund settlement, which displays the kind of studied incuriosity normally only displayed by Mob wives.
7. He suggested (again) that he could run for Prime Minister of Israel. He can’t …for a surprising reason
Trump suggested – as he has previously – that he’s so popular in Israel that he could run to be Prime Minister. “Maybe after I do this, I’ll go to Israel and run for Prime Minister.”
A number of things would stand in Trump’s way if he really did decide to run for PM of Israel. For a start you have to be chosen by the President from the Knesset. And to be elected to the Knesset, you have to be an Israeli citizen and resident. Not being Jewish, the Law of Return is not open to Trump, so he’d have to go through the ordinary naturalisation process, which requires several years of residency in Israel, some knowledge of Hebrew and usually renouncing his citizenship of the US. He’d then have to join or found a party, get on a candidate list, win a seat through proportional representation and build a coalition that could stand a chance of forming a stable government.
There is one other problem. To be eligible for election to the Knesset…you have to have a clean criminal record for the last seven years. Trump was convicted on multiple felony counts in New York in 2024.