I live in a suburb of Portland, one of the three cities that takes pride in claiming to be the weirdest city in the United States. Here’s a not atypical resident:
Like most of the residents of the city proper and its nearby communities, I find it to be wonderfully weird in the sense of the word as highlighted below:
Trump, in stark contrast, fits the part of the definition which is almost the opposite of the first.
If you dispassionately analyze what, at first blush, may seem to be Trump’s very strange and bizarre behavior, you can see that there is method in what seems to be his madness. For example, in the news since the Epstein file offshore tremor seemed to threaten to develop into an earthquake leading to a tsunami, we have what could be called inexplicable Trump weirdness on steroids unless you look more closely.
Just the most recent examples today are the reports that the administration is releasing 200,000 previously sealed Martiin Luther King FBI investigation files (see BBC article). We also learned that The Department of Justice is requesting a meeting with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell (see article).
In his press conference today Trump was asked about this, he claimed he didn’t know anything about the planned Maxwell DOJ meeting about it. He did say he thought it was appropriate. (This seems to contradict the claim he didn’t know anything about it.)
All this is accurately being reported by the non-Trump media as being an attempt to distract from the Epstein matter, which some publications like this one, summarizing how the story developed, are calling Epsteingate.
Portland, Austin, and Ashville are weird for a reason. Most of their residents are proud of living in them because of their being weird, weird in a decidely good way.
Whether you like pot, tattoos, or strip clubs, if you are a Portlander you are proud that you can’t drive more than a few blocks without seeing one or more of these businesses. Portland just had its Pride Parade (article) and is known for its Naked Bike Ride (article).
Trump, who just called Jerome Powell a numbskull during a press conference while meeting with the president of the Philippines, is weird. Of course, measured against all his weirdness, this is small potatoes.
I am not about to make a top ten list of Trump’s most motely, often malevolent, manifestations of weirdness, but for those of you who listened to his remarks during the meeting this morning, where he ranted about the evils of Hillary Clinton, “Barack Hussein Obama,” and the “rigged election” you would be justified in saying that this man could be considered the prototype of bad weirdness, not merely bad, but demented, deranged, and downright dangerous to democracy weirdness.
Just now on MSNBC as I finish this Substack the panel is talking about how Trump is trying desperately to talk about anything but Epstein.
Boil all this down and what it amounts to is that Trump is the fucken weirdest president the United States has ever had. As far as the world goes, historically, he makes leaders like Caligula look normal.
You can’t have a list of crazy leaders without including the king of them all – Emperor Caligula. Caligula was known for his sadism and his odd behavior. Once, he had his army build a two-mile floating bridge so that he could ride his horse on it.
Another time, he had his troops “plunder the sea” by gathering sea shells. Caligula also built a lavish house for his horse, but he didn’t love all animals. He hated goats and banned anyone mentioning goats in his presence. (Reference: 30 Most Unhinged Leaders in History)
What is most appalling is that there are millions of Americans who find Trump’s weirdness endearing.
Update:
'Irrefutable proof!' Trump makes wild claims that Obama tried to 'lead a coup' in RawStory
Excerpt:
During an Oval Office meeting with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday, President Donald Trump kept circling back to attack former President Barack Obama, regardless of the reporters' questions.
Even when asked about information Trump has received on the man who tried to assassinate him in Butler, PA, before the 2024 election, Trump ended up accusing Obama of staging a "coup" against him.
"You know, they went into him very, you know, in great detail," Trump began saying about would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks. "And I spoke with the FBI — the new FBI. I spoke to the FBI. If it was the old FBI, I wouldn't have believed a thing they said because the old FBI under Comey was crooked as hell."