Hal Brown's Substack (fomerly Hal Brown's Blog)

September 15, 2025

Trump keeps trying to convince people that radical flag burning leftists are the danger to the country. He's beating a horse that doesn't exist. By Hal M. Brown

Yesterday Trump told the White House pool reporters the following:

“If you look at the problem, the problem is on the left. It's not on the right, like some people like to share the right, the problem we have is on the left. And when you look at the agitator, you look at the scum that speaks so badly of our country, the American flag burning all over the place, that's the left. That's not the right.”

I was struck by his bringing up flag burning. “Who the holy hell is burning the flag?” I asked myself.

When I read his remark I thought of the aphorism about the futility of beating a dead horse. This means to continue discussing or trying to pursue a topic or issue that has already been decided or is pointless to revisit. It implies wasting time and effort on something that cannot be changed or resolved (From AI).

I thought I could use this in my title, but then I realized that the particular horse he’s beating, blaming the left for behavior like flag burning just isn’t happening. In fact, flag burning hasn’t been a common form of protest recently, at least not to the extent it was years ago.

Trump has tried to make this an issue before. In August he signed an excutive order mandating prosecution of those who burn the American flag (here).

I found the following about whether this order had any validity:

David Cole, a professor at Georgetown Law who has represented flag burners in several high-profile cases, said people can legally use the American flag as they see fit….
Cole also said the provision of the executive order threatening to deny or revoke visas and other immigration benefits to non-citizens who burn flags fails to recognize that the First Amendment protects everyone in the U.S.
“Just as you cannot throw someone in jail for burning an American flag, you can’t deport someone for burning an American flag,” he said. “So, at the end of the day, this executive order is symbolism and theater. It is not a realistic attempt to respond to any real world problem.” Reference: “Flag burning has a long history in the U.S. — and legal protections from the Supreme Court.”

I haven’t seen any photos of people burning flags in protest of Trump. What I do see is photos of people flying flags upside-down as a sign of a nation in distress. Below is one of my protest signs:

I have a flag (below) which I fly upside-down at protests above a Pride flag:

You can bet that if there was one photo or video of someone burning an American flag at an anti-Trump protest Trump would be showing it and it would be all over the right-wing media.

I doubt Trump will address using the flag upside-down. It just isn’t dramatic enough and doing so would open a discussion about why people are saying that because of Trump the nation, democracy itself, is in distress.

Still, Trump being Trump, or Stephen Miller being Stephen Miller, we may see an executive order banning flying the upside-down flag.

Trump won’t let this radical left lunatic narrative go whether referring to the murder of Charlie Kirk or anyone who dares to protest against what he is doing.

He has to be salivating over the prospect of revelations coming out about Tyler Robinson being the bloodthirsty radical left lunatic he wants him to be. So far the only good news coming out about him is that his motivations are nuanced and complex and don’t fit neatly into the MAGA narrative.

Kash Patel is saying (above) that there is an email Robinson sent to a friend saying he was going to target Kirk because he hated what he stood for.

So far there’s no explanation as to just what it is he hated about what Kirk stood for. Considering that Robinson’s partner was a male transitioning to female (see article) this could be what he hated.

For all we know he admired everything about Trump with the exception of his demonization of trans people. On the other hand he could be like any young person who defies their parents politics and/or religion, as a way to rebel.

We don’t know anything about how Robinson grew up except that he had Mormon parents who were conservative. We don’t know how strict they were. Adolsecents and young people often rebel against overly strict parents.

At present there is a great deal we don’t know about why Robinson did what he did. I can offer very tentative speculation which is hopefully well-grounded in my being a mental health professional, but I am not the president. Trump should keep his mouth shut. If Trump had a better angel this is what they’d be telling him. But Trump doesn’t even have an angel trying to compete with the Devil when he considers what to do.

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September 14, 2025

Now it looks like I was engaging in wishful thinking that Gov. Cox was a GOP good guy. It looks like Cox has jumped on the Trump train calling Kirk's killer a leftist. He called for calm and reason and then used the L-Word.

Wishful thinking bit me in the butt. After I praised Gov. Spencer Cox in my early morning Substack I began to read news reports like this:

Here’s more:

From the subscription Washington Post:

Cox is saying that Robinson had a “leftist ideology.” He has taken it on himself to promote the Trump and MAGA propaganda that he was a radical-left lunatic without using the words radical and lunatic. He’s only paying lip service to the ambiguity of what we know so far about him.

MAGA lives in a wastland where no nuance is allowed:

Everything must be dumbed down. Complexity confuses.

The fact is that the exact motive for the shooting of Charlie Kirk has not yet been confirmed. In fact the exact motive may never be confirmed. Even if Robinson eventually states what his motive was this may be either fabricated or what he wants to believe it was. What he says may be a combination of the two.

His motivation lies within his psychology. To make a reasonably educated guess would require him to be assessed in person by mental health professionals who are adept at dealing with patients who may be in denial.

For all we know Robinson may have a serious psychiatric disorder.

I can only surmise that Gov. Cox was under pressure to jump on the Trump train which he succumbed to by describing Robinson as having leftist ideology.

Here’s my morning Substack:

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"You know the type of person." Donald Trump's comment about killer of Charlie Kirk says a lot about the president. Cox's words say a lot about the governor. Utah's Gov. Cox isn't self-centered like Trump, in fact he's presidentially governorial.

“You know, the type of person who would do something like that to Charlie Kirk would love to do it to us,” Utah Gov. Cox said Trump told him when he called him after his press conference a short time after the news that Tyler Robinson had been apprehended.

Trump then went on to recite statistics suggesting that the presidency was “one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet.” (From The Atlantic)

Cox has been praised for what he said when he addressed the nation after Kirk’s killer was taken into custody. It was what was needed. It came from a governor, but one could call it “presidential.”

I can only surmise that Trump thought he was talking to a kindred spirit because Cox is a Republican and would be more concerned with protecting his own life than with healing the nation.

Perhaps Trump wasn’t aware that Cox, who is considered a moderate, in the primary for his second term, beat a candidate to the right of him who bragged about how much he supported the president (read article).

According to The Times: “Though Mr. Trump did not weigh in on the governor’s race, Mr. Lyman emphasized his support for the former president throughout his campaign.”

There are 27 state governors so I can understand why Trump might not know whether all of them are firm supporters of him. He may assume that if they have an R after their name they are as self-centered as he is.

I doubt Trump listened to or read about what Gov. Cox said in his lengthy interview with Martha Raddatzof ABC News. Here are excerpts:

RADDATZ: And -- and, Governor, let’s go back to Friday and your very powerful words and advice. You said this was a watershed moment that could be a turning point in the history, depending on the collective actions.
What needs to happen for this to be a good turning point?
COX: Well, you know, right -- right now we’re -- we’re in a dark place. Everybody gets that, I think. And we -- we have choices. And we, in my political philosophy, in my -- in my religious philosophy, we believe in -- in agency. That every one of us gets to make our own decisions.
And -- and I think -- I -- I hate this idea that what, you know, what a governor says or what the president says, that’s what matters more than anything else. It -- it is not. And if we’re waiting for a -- a president or a governor of Utah or anywhere else to -- to get us out of this mess, that’s -- that’s just never going to happen.
And -- and so we -- every one of us has to make a decision. Are we going to hate our neighbor? Are we going to hate the other side? Are we going to return violence with violence? Or are we going to find a different path? Are we going to get out of those social media, those dark places of the internet where the conflict entrepreneurs reside, who are preying upon us, these -- these companies with trillion dollar market caps who are using dopamine, just like fentanyl, to addict us to our product and -- and lead us -- again, those algorithms lead us to more outrage? Can we put that aside? Can we go and -- and serve our -- our fellow human beings? Can we do some good in our neighborhood? Can we hug a family member? Can we talk to a neighbor that we disagree with? That’s -- that’s up to us. And that’s the only way out of this. There is nothing else we can do to -- to solve this -- this dark chapter in our history.

Cox went on to say:

RADDATZ: And -- and, Governor, let’s go back to Friday and your very powerful words and advice. You said this was a watershed moment that could be a turning point in the history, depending on the collective actions.
What needs to happen for this to be a good turning point?
COX: Well, you know, right -- right now we’re -- we’re in a dark place. Everybody gets that, I think. And we -- we have choices. And we, in my political philosophy, in my -- in my religious philosophy, we believe in -- in agency. That every one of us gets to make our own decisions.
And -- and I think -- I -- I hate this idea that what, you know, what a governor says or what the president says, that’s what matters more than anything else. It -- it is not. And if we’re waiting for a -- a president or a governor of Utah or anywhere else to -- to get us out of this mess, that’s -- that’s just never going to happen.
And -- and so we -- every one of us has to make a decision. Are we going to hate our neighbor? Are we going to hate the other side? Are we going to return violence with violence? Or are we going to find a different path? Are we going to get out of those social media, those dark places of the internet where the conflict entrepreneurs reside, who are preying upon us, these -- these companies with trillion dollar market caps who are using dopamine, just like fentanyl, to addict us to our product and -- and lead us -- again, those algorithms lead us to more outrage? Can we put that aside? Can we go and -- and serve our -- our fellow human beings? Can we do some good in our neighborhood? Can we hug a family member? Can we talk to a neighbor that we disagree with? That’s -- that’s up to us. And that’s the only way out of this. There is nothing else we can do to -- to solve this -- this dark chapter in our history

Then Raddatz asked him about his conversation with Trump.

RADDATZ: Did -- did he warn you that this type of violence could affect you?
COX: Yes. Yes, he did. He -- I mean this -- this is a -- a very dark conversation, but -- but he, of course, was almost assassinated. A fraction of an inch away from having this very thing happen to him. And that’s what we talked about. These are -- these are very dangerous jobs these days and -- and -- and so, it’s not lost on us.
We’re -- we’re human beings too. President Trump is a human being. Whether you love him or -- or you hate him, he’s -- he’s a -- he’s a human being and these are -- these are very tragic circumstances that impact all of us.
RADDATZ: And -- and, Governor, just -- just lastly, you immediately talked about Democrats who had already been targeted. President Trump said nothing about the political violence against Democrats. In fact, he blamed the radical left. What’s your reaction to that? Is that something you think he should be doing?
COX: Well, look, President Trump is -- is very angry. And Charlie is his close, personal friend. There is a lot of anger. A lot of anger on -- on the right, on -- on my side of the aisle. And I've certainly felt that. And in this case, it -- it does appear that that’s true. Again, more -- more information is coming, and we’ll learn more over time.

I am struck by Cox expressing empathy for the president even though we don’t know whether he was taken aback by how self-centered he was.

Read the transcript of the entire interview here.

There are two defintions of the word “presidential.” One is anything coming from a president, as in “a presidential proclamation.” The other is something said by a president which is dignified and worthy of someone leading a country.

Cox’s words have been presidential. There is such a word as “governorial” (see defintion) but it isn’t commonly used. We could call him presidentially governorial.