Step right up! Get it while it lasts!

I asked ChatGPT, 'I know about sneakers, guitars, watches; what else has Trump offered for sale?" Here's the response:

"

Yes — beyond sneakers, guitars, and watches, Donald Trump (and the various organizations selling items under his name or brand) has offered a surprisingly wide array of products for sale over the years. Many of these leverage his political brand and appeal to supporters or collectors. Forbes+1

🛍️ Merchandise & Products Trump Has Sold or Licensed

🪙 Collectibles & Branded Goods

• Silver and Gold Coins / Medallions – collectible coins featuring Trump’s likeness or presidential symbols. X (formerly Twitter)

• NFT Trading Cards & Digital Collectibles – digital cards and NFTs sold around his campaigns. Forbes

• Autographed Memorabilia – signed guitars, mugs, photos, and other items. Forbes

• Books – royalty income from books, including Save America (illustrated coffee-table type editions). New York Post

📖 Books & Religious Items

• “God Bless the U.S.A.” Bible – branded editions of the Bible, some themed (e.g., “Veteran” editions) and even limited signature versions. Wikipedia

👕 Apparel & Campaign Swag

• Hats and T-shirts with slogans like Make America Great Again and Trump 2028 gear (hats, shirts, coolers). Business Insider

• Flags, Stickers, and Home Decor – MAGA flags, wall art, magnets, and similar items available from official stores. Trump Official Store

☕️ Everyday Items & Accessories

• Coffee Mugs and Travel Cups — sometimes signed or tied to specific events. Forbes

• Tote Bags, Wallets, Bobbleheads, Teddy Bears, License Plate Frames, Puzzles — various branded accessories and collectibles available through the “Donald Trump Store.” The Donald Trump Store

📱 Tech & Telecom (Recent and Upcoming)

• Trump Mobile & T1 Smartphone — a gold-colored smartphone with MAGA-style branding and a Trump-branded mobile plan, although the launch has faced delays. The Guardian

💄 Fragrances

• Cologne & Perfume Lines — branded fragrances such as Victory 47 and Fight Fight Fight scents. The Times

🧨 Notes on These Products

• Many items are sold via licensing deals — Trump often licenses his name to other companies rather than manufacturing the products himself. Wikipedia

• A number of the products tie directly to his political identity, presidential terms (e.g., 45, 47), or campaign messaging. X (formerly Twitter)

• Trump has pursued legal action against unauthorized sellers of “Trump merchandise” (e.g., counterfeit MAGA shirts and mugs).

 

Bernie on AI

While Hillary would have been light years better than Trump, maybe Bernie would have been even better -- if a self-described socialist could ever be elected president. I don't know what the effects of AI are going to turn out to be, but I damn sure don't want the development to be run by the oligarchs and tech bros without regulation.

Heather Cox Richardson's wrap-up of 2025

Click here for HCR's diary entry on December 30, 2025.

I just learned that Trump has declared nine different national emergencies (none of which was a true emergency), which allows him to take unilateral action. It's useful, of course, in the case of actual emergencies, allowing the president to take rapid action in response without having to go through a fractured congress; but it's not useful in the case of bogus emergencies, declared so that he can bomb boats off the coast of Venezuela or harass immigrants (e.g. renditioning people to the CECOT prison in El Salvador where they will be tortured.

I knew this had happened, but what I didn't know is that if the president declares an emergency and takes action, he can only proceed for 15 days; after that, the action must stop unless validated by congress. For instance, as HCR says, in April, Trump declared some kind of national emergency that allowed him to impose a broad, sweeping system of harsh tariffs. After the 15-day period, Democrats would definitely challenge the tariffs, since the imposition of tariffs is a right granted strictly to congress. Such a challenge would almost certainly succeed. However -- and he is allowed by House rules to do this -- Speaker Johnson declared that for the narrow purpose of the emergency actions, the remainder of the legislative session -- until the next election -- to be considered as one day. One day! Thus the 15-day mark could never be reached, and no one can challenge Trump's bogus emergencies. Preposterous. 

After recounting the highlights -- there were many, many more examples of Trump acting in an authoritarian fashion -- HCR ends on an optimistic note that I don't entirely agree with:

As we reach the end of 2025, it appears the law is catching up to an administration that began the year by acting as if the law and the Constitution didn’t exist.

More than that, though, over the course of 2025, the administration’s refusal to recognize the tenets of American democracy has roused the American people to defend that democracy.

It appears that as we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, when British colonists on the North American continent took the radical step of rejecting the idea not just of King George III but of all kings, and launched the experiment of government based on the rule of law created by the people themselves, the American people are reclaiming that history.

 

Trump-Zelensky meeting at Mar-a-Lago, December 28, 2025

Click here for Heather Cox Richardson's "Letters from an American" diary entry on Monday, December 29. 

The article starts by saying that Trump said in a televised interview that the U.S. had hit Venezuelan docks that were loading facilities for drugs. But no U.S. organization -- State Department, CIA, DEA, U.S. Special Operations Command, etc. -- has verified Trump's statement. Neither has Venenzuela. So Americans find themselves in the situation of wondering whether it even happened, or is it something Trump has read or hears somewhere and he got it wrong. 

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo commented: “It’s a good commentary on 2025 that the US President announces a major military attack on a foreign country and even the straightest arrows think, 50% chance it’s an attack, 50% chance president is on another cognition bender.”

 Then she gets into Zelensky's meeting with Trump. While Trump had met Putin on the red carpet rolled out for him when he arrived to meet with Trump in Alaska in August, Zelensky's visit was treated a little differently: no U.S. government representative was there to greet Zelensky. The only official representative was Ukraine's ambassador to the U.S.

Trump had a 2-hour phone call with Putin immediately before the Mar-a-Lago meeting; Trump told reporters after the meeting that Putin had expressed a desire that Ukraine succeed (??!!). A news item from the day was that Russia reported that 90 drones had attacked Putin's home, a report that was immediately denied by Ukraine. It made Trump angry, however, and while there has been no proof that the attack took place, Trump said that Putin had told him on the phone call that the attack had taken place.

 Weird. 

"What's really going on with Europe now."

This is a post by Peter W. Kruger copied directly from Twitter:

My dear American friends, let me give you the clear picture of what’s really going on with Europe now.

 

For the last 80 years, Western European public opinion was essentially split in two. On one side, about half of us truly hated you: the hard Marxist-lefties, who, living in the Soviet paradise delusion, viewed you as the embodiment of imperialist capitalism; the extreme-right who resented you for defeating them and for kicking them out of power back in 1945. 

 

But, on the other side, mostly in the center (but not only), you had the rest of Western European public opinion that was enormously grateful for what you had done during World War 2 and after: for freeing Europe of nazi-fascist oppression, and even more for protecting us against the Soviet threat. 

 

I was part of the latter group and, boy, did we love you. We loved your pop culture, your consumer products, your innovation, the spirit of freedom, originality, and optimism that came from America. We defended you against our own cynics. And guess what? We were also among the loudest critics of Europe, accusing it of being too complacent, reliant on others, bogged down by bureaucracy, and failing to ensure its own security and freedoms. (Not that your protection didn’t come with massive returns for you in terms of market-access and the trillions of US treasuries that we bought to prop up your ridiculously gigantic public debt...). 

 

Here is the problem now. Over the past few years, and especially since you brought Mr Brain-Rot MAGA Uber-Moron in Command back to the White House, not to mention the whole gang of globally corrupt and Russian-fed tech-broligarcs from Silicon Valley, you’ve managed to really hard piss off even that part of Western public opinion that loved you and respected you. 

 

Yeah, you may think that now you’ve made new friends in Europe. But don’t be fooled by the apparent Euro ultra-right enthusiasm for Trump, from the likes of Orban, Fico, Salvini etc.. They see you as instrumental in tearing down the EU edifice, but deep down, believe me, they hate you more than even the most radical euro-communist. Their ideology is pure "Blood and Soil." They will never forgive you for what you did to them 80 years ago (just as Putin will never forgive you for what you did to the Soviet Union 40 years ago). Plus, as true suprematist-racists, they believe that no society is more culturally and racially corrupt than the USA with all its racial and ethnic diversity. You’re the epitome of rot to them. They are using you to dismantle the European Union. Once that is done, you will find that their nationalism excludes you just as fiercely as it excludes everyone else. And good luck with selling them your junk food and products (you have no freaking idea how protectionist, conservative, and reactionary they are). You’ll discover it soon.

 

And don’t get me even started with Central-Eastern Europeans. Everyone loved you in Poland, Romania, the Baltics, etc. (even the communists, though they could never say so publicly). They know the cost of occupation. But they also know all too well the price of Western backstabbing (as when they were abandoned to Stalin by Roosevelt & co.). Now that you’ve decided to leave them totally exposed to resurgent Russian genocidal imperialism, you are converting their love into a profound sense of betrayal. 

 

Though, be reassured. No matter how difficult the situation may be for us, Europe is going nowhere. We’ve been here for the last 5000 years, since the first Indo-European nomads started roaming west from the steppe plains (yes, modern day Ukraine…). We survived multiple civilization collapses, plagues, invasions, religious civil wars, the wildest revolutions, an almost continuous state of war, including inflicting on ourselves the most devastating World Wars of all time. There's absolutely no place on earth that has gone through so much history as Europe has (forget the Sumerians and Egyptian pyramids). And yet, we’re still here. Going nowhere. It may take time (and a lot of suffering), but we’ll adapt also to your betrayal. 

 

In the meantime, good luck dealing with the New Imperial Global Multipolar Order that your current leadership is so enthusiastically willing to negotiate with the Putins, Modis, and Xi Jinpings of the world (on the spoils of “weak” Europe). You have no idea. As a society, you are even more fractured, polarized and weaker than Europe is. Putin, Modi, and Xi Jinping are just going to eat you up for breakfast. 

 

Oh, yeah. In the darkest moments, don’t come whining over the Atlantic. No matter what, no one trusts you anymore here. We may still help you, but it won't come free ad it will require a lot of forgiveness. After all, that’s the fate reserved to all traitors.

3:07 AM · Dec 26, 2025

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Gunfire at Nakatomi Plaza!

Anderson Cooper and Even Perez at CNN have more on the story:

LIVE CNN BREAKING NEWS UPDATE!
Shots Fired at Nakatomi Plaza, untold number of hostages. #NakatomiPlaza #YippeeKiYay #SwissCheese pic.twitter.com/9IMBBQcY9C

— CommodoreBlog (@CommodoreBlog) December 24, 2025

Trump's a very aesthetic person.

Click here for a 3D look inside the Trump Gold -- I mean White House.

Blatant Trump Corruption

"On Dec 5, FIFA handed Donald Trump a made-up honor called the “FIFA Peace Prize.” Four days later — Dec 9 — Trump’s DOJ moved to kill a major FIFA corruption case."

🚨 This is what corruption looks like in plain sight.

On Dec 5, FIFA handed Donald Trump a made-up honor called the “FIFA Peace Prize.”
Trump had wanted a Nobel. This was the consolation prize.

Four days later — Dec 9 — Trump’s DOJ moved to kill a major FIFA corruption case.… pic.twitter.com/PTraODmAGr

— MAGA Cult Slayer🦅🇺🇸 (@MAGACult2) December 22, 2025

Trump appoints a special envoy to Greenland.

Trump appointed the sitting governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, to fill a new post, special envoy to Greenland.

In his acceptance of the post, Landry stated: “It’s an honor to serve you in this volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the U.S.” 

Here is the text of an open letter from the Prime Minister of Greenland (an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark):

Dear fellow citizens, 

 

Once again, we have woken up to a new statement from the American president, who has now appointed a special envoy to Greenland. It may sound significant, but it does not change anything for us here at home. We decide our own future. Greenland is our country. We have our own democracy, our own decisions, and a strong community that stands firm. Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people, and territorial integrity must be respected. We are happy to cooperate with other countries, including the United States, but this must always be done with respect for us and for our values and wishes. There is no reason for concern. We stand together, and we stand firm.

 

Take good care of one another as we approach Christmas.

 

In other words, don't pay any attention to Trump; it's just more hot air. 

King Donald I

Click here for an excellent article in The New York Times by Peter Baker, entitled "Trump Takes America's 'Imperial Presidency' to a New Level," subtitled "In his first year back in the White House, President Trump has greatly expanded executive power while embracing the trappings of royalty in ways not seen in the modern era."

When President Trump hosted the crown prince of Saudi Arabia last month, he pulled out all the stops. To the traditional pomp of a formal White House visit, he added a few even fancier touches: a stirring military flyover, a procession of black horses and long, regal tables for the lavish dinner in the East Room instead of the typical round tables.

For surprised White House veterans who were paying attention, the unusual flourishes looked a little familiar. Just two months earlier, King Charles III of Britain welcomed Mr. Trump for a state visit that included, yes, a stirring military flyover, a procession of black horses and a long, regal table for the lavish dinner in St. George’s Hall at Windsor Palace.

In his first year back in office, Mr. Trump has unabashedly adopted the trappings of royalty just as he has asserted virtually unbridled power to transform American government and society to his liking. In both pageantry and policy, Mr. Trump has established a new, more audacious version of the imperial presidency that goes far beyond even the one associated with Richard M. Nixon, for whom the term was popularized half a century ago.

What do Americans think of their new monarch?

To his supporters, Mr. Trump’s assertion of vast power is invigorating, not disturbing. In a country they see in decline, a strong hand is the only way to dislodge a liberal, “woke” deep state that in their view has suffocated everyday Americans to the advantage of unwelcome immigrants, street criminals, globalist tycoons, underqualified minorities and out-of-touch elites. Voters struggling to maintain their standards of living or make sense of a society changing rapidly around them have twice given Mr. Trump a chance to make good on his promise to blow up politics as usual and address their concerns.

To his critics, Mr. Trump is narcissistic, uncouth, corrupt and a danger to American democracy. He has used the office to enrich himself and his family, sullied the image of the United States around the world, sought to erase the true history of Black Americans and pursued policies that harm the very people he purports to represent.

Will Trump be successful in his attempts?

Russell Riley, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, acknowledged the nation’s long history of expanding presidential authority. But, he added, “we have an equally robust history of cramming the presidency back into its constitutional box once war or economic crisis has passed.” 

 

 

Of all the things that didn't happen, this didn't happen the most.

Tucker Carlson's problems are worse than I thought.

we don't make fun of these people nearly enough https://t.co/xH1AnvL1gN

— Keith Edwards (@keithedwards) December 21, 2025

Krugman on Social Media

Click here for a Substack article by Paul Krugman entitled "America Has Become A Digital Narco-State."

He compares social media, with the potential and actual harm it does, to the narcotics industry. 

Yesterday I wrote about how hostility to Europe is a central theme of the Trump administration’s recently released National Security Strategy. The main driver of that hostility appears to be MAGA fury at the nations of Europe for being excessively protective of civil liberties and insufficiently racist.

A secondary source of anti-Europe sentiment, however, is the tech broligarchy’s fury at the European Union’s Digital Services Act. The Act obliges large platforms to self-police a variety of potential injurious effects ranging from “dissemination of illegal content” to “negative consequences” for “physical and mental well-being.”

Krugman says:

Under the auspices of its Digital Services Act, the European Commission imposed its first fine last week — 120 million euros, basically a tiny slap on the wrist — on Musk’s X. The Commission’s case is straightforward:

· X’s “Blue checks” are a fraud. X claims that a blue check means that the poster’s identity has been verified. But in fact X sells them without making any effort to verify that posters are who they say they are.

· X does not provide enough information on advertisements for outsiders to determine whether or not they are scams

· X refuses to make its public data available to researchers

These are clear violations of European law, and the fine, as I said, was little more than a slap on the wrist. Yet Musk went berserk, declaring that the EU should be abolished and threatening personal retribution against the “woke Stasi commissars” responsible for the fine.

And he finishes:

The key point is that if you think of unregulated social media as dangerous drugs, as you should, then we’ve become a nation in which drug lords control much of government policy. Social media billionaires have enough power to prevent us from protecting our own children. They have enough power to dictate U.S. foreign policy, punishing our erstwhile allies for daring to limit their ability to push their product.

America has, in practice, become a digital narco-state.

 

 

 

An alarming American proclamation

Click here for Heather Cox Richardson's entry in her diary, Letters from an American, for December 5, 2025, where she talks about the quiet release of the United States' 2025 National Security Strategy.

"The Trump administration’s NSS announces a dramatic reworking of the foreign policy the U.S. has embraced since World War II." 

The NSS is intended to be published annually, though some years have been missed, particularly under Clinton's administration. 

The document reorients the U.S. away from traditional European allies toward Russia. The authors reject Europe’s current course, suggesting that Europe is in danger of “civilizational erasure” and calling for the U.S. to “help Europe correct its current trajectory” by “restoring Europe’s civilizational self-confidence and Western identity.” Allowing continued migration will render Europe “unrecognizable” within twenty years, the authors say, and they back away from NATO by suggesting that as they become more multicultural, Europe’s societies might have a different relationship to NATO than “those who signed the NATO charter.”

In contrast to their complaints about the liberal democracies in Europe, the document’s authors do not suggest that Russia is a country of concern to the U.S., a dramatic change from past NSS documents. Instead, they complain that “European officials…hold unrealistic expectations” for an end to Russia’s war against Ukraine, and that European governments are suppressing far-right political parties. They bow to Russian demands by calling for “[e]nding the perception, and preventing the reality, of NATO as a perpetually expanding alliance.”

Furthermore:

Walking away from the U.S.-led international systems that reinforce the principles of national self-determination and have kept the world relatively safe since World War II, the Trump administration is embracing the old idea of spheres of influence in which less powerful countries are controlled by great powers, a system in place before World War II and favored now by Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, among others.

National security specialist Anne Applebaum wrote: “The new National Security Strategy is a propaganda document, designed to be widely read. It is also a performative suicide. Hard to think of another great power ever abdicating its influence so quickly and so publicly.”

European Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow Ulrike Franke commented: “The transatlantic relationship as we know it is over. Yes, we kinda knew this. But this is now official US White House policy. Not a speech, not a statement. The West as it used to be no longer exists.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We need Cam on the Fever!

Paul Krugman on Trump's treatment of disaster victims

Click here for Paul Krugman's Substack article on December 3, 2025, entitled "Trump to Disaster Victims: Drop Dead."

 The cruelty of Trump and his crew is a feature, not a bug. 

Pete Hegseth, 2016, on war crimes and following unlawful orders

Here’s Pete Hegseth in 2016 saying there should be consequences for people who commit war crimes—that members of the military shouldn’t follow illegal orders from the President: “If you’re doing something that is just completely unlawful and ruthless, then there is a consequence… pic.twitter.com/znDGDC7MvQ

— Mike Nellis (@MikeNellis) December 2, 2025

Trump corruption

Click here for the Heather Cox Richardson entry in her diary, Letters from an American, for November 30, 2025. It details some of Trump's and his family's corruption -- but it's just the tip of the iceberg. There's so much more.