Icon versus Caricature

The Orange Felon has just become a cartoon of himself

You don’t have to look any further than to look at the money in your pocket to know the icons of American democracy — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant and Benjamin Franklin. The monuments too are iconic — the Statue of Liberty, the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial and of course the White House (the people’s house) where presidents past and present live. These physical monuments are historic treasures representing the legacy of our democratic republic, “If,” as Franklin said, “you can keep it.” That’s the challenge today.

Once again the Orange Felon is desecrating our republic and one of our iconic treasures, the White House, by taking a wrecking ball to the East Wing without any authorization to build a 900-seat ballroom now being called the Epstein Ballroom. And for what — more presidential grift parties to pad one of his political PACs or worse? He’s made a mockery of the American presidency and has turned both his terms in office into bad reality TV.

Every day comes a new outrage: the firing of thousands of government employees; the blowing up of fishing boats off Venezuela by American armed forces. Then there are the ever-changing tariffs, the government shutdown, kicking the press corps out of the Pentagon and his childish cartoon responding to the No Kings day demonstrations. He has become a cartoon of himself. What is the next animated show on Fox network: Orange Man? Or putting his face on the statue of Liberty?

Don’t give him too many ideas here because you never know what’s coming next. One thing is for certain, he’ll do whatever it takes to keep the Epstein files out of public view, maybe even starting a war or crashing the economy. What you can be sure of is he’s hiding something with all of the chaos and distractions.

Only Donald Trump could look at years of legitimate criminal investigations into his corruption, obstruction and espionage — and somehow decide he’s the victim who deserves a taxpayer-funded payday.

In an unprecedented and jaw-dropping move, he is demanding that the Department of Justice hand him $230 million in “compensation” for the investigations into his own wrongdoing. That’s right: the same man who was caught hoarding classified documents, tried to overturn an election, and spent years undermining the rule of law now wants the American people to cut him a check — for doing it.

For the fiscal year that ended in September, the federal deficit, or the difference between government spending and revenue, totaled $1.78 trillion, down slightly from the prior year. The total outstanding federal debt is now more than $30 trillion, roughly equal to 100% of annual GDP, and near the highest on record since World War II, as measured by share of GDP. The debt service on this is equal to the discretionary part of the federal budget! This is completely unsustainable and the only way out of this historically is to raise taxes on the rich and/ or reduce the defense budget.

The big tax bill that was signed on July 4 cut so much of the social safety net, alongside the damage caused by the Department of Government Efficiency gutting many agencies across the federal government. There’s still a $1.78 trillion deficit? All I can say is that we have the largest military budget in the history of the world, the best equipped soldiers and yet in my lifetime they have yet to outright win a war. Not Korea, Vietnam, Iraq War I and II nor Afghanistan. None of these were as decisive as World War II, the Civil War or the Revolutionary War. Those wars the soldiers knew what they were fighting for and against. Now I’m not sure the U.S. military and definitely not the generals and admirals know what the core mission is of their respective services, especially after the mandatory sit down (or was it a dressing down) by Pete Hegseth, another caricature, the new secretary of war. Except there is no declared war but for the Orange Felon’s threats against Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland and Washington, D.C., etc.

What we are witnessing is the total deconstruction of the federal government in alignment  with libertarian philosophy that the government’s only role should be to defend our borders and enforce the laws (except the ones they want to break).

The difference between being a true icon and a caricature is in the authenticity of the ideals you stand for. Things that will last beyond your own life that are baked into the culture and the psychology of a people. It comes from courage and struggle‚ not from bullying, bribery and fear.

 The next time you pull out your wallet, take a moment to reflect on what it took for the person on your money to be revered as an American icon—and compare that to what you see now. Just imagine how you’ll feel when his face appears on the national cryptocurrency. You’ll know exactly what it’s worth.