Last weekend, an estimated 7 million Americans — including thousands at 37 events in Maine — attended “No Kings” rallies meant to show their displeasure with the Trump administration. The rallies were peaceful, and the only reported arrests nationwide were of Trump supporters aiming to disrupt the protests.
The president’s response to this outpouring of frustration? He shared an AI-generated video of himself piloting a fighter jet and dumping excrement on crowds of rally goers.
Let that sink in: The president of the United States shared a video of himself, wearing a crown, dropping poop on his fellow citizens.
We understand that Americans are severely divided and that Donald Trump fuels those divisions by spreading false claims of stolen elections and witch hunts against him. However, it should not be acceptable in any universe, under any circumstances for a president to gleefully (and grossly) mock harming his countrymen and women. The president is elected to represent all Americans, even those he doesn’t like and those who don’t like him.
Millions of Americans have joined protests to let the world know they don’t approve of Trump and his actions. But, somehow Trump’s vindictive immaturity gets a pass from millions of Americans and from the leaders in Congress.
It is shameful and embarrassing that Trump is our representative on the world stage. It’s also dangerous as Trump is empowering his supporters to act on his behavior and to actually attack and harm people with differing views and backgrounds.
This isn’t some isolated satirical video. The president has threatened protesters, a violation of the First Amendment, and America’s long history of protest. America was founded on protests against a king. Boston Tea Party anyone?
He’s having people who have tried to hold him accountable, and even former associates who have criticized him, investigated and charged with trumped-up crimes. He’s deployed members of the U.S. military to attack U.S. citizens in American cities. Under his leadership, masked men are rounding up thousands of people, most of them with dark skin and no criminal record, and disappearing them to faraway countries.
He’s tearing down a portion of the White House as if it is his private palace. His administration is sending billions of dollars to Argentina, which is undercutting American farmers because of Trump’s tariffs, immigration raids and bad trade deals. The Department of Homeland Security is spending more than $170 million on two new luxury jets for Secretary Kristi Noem and other agency leaders.
Courts have ruled that many of these actions are illegal and unconstitutional. Trump doesn’t seem to care and continues to threaten violence and illegal actions against the American people.
At a memorial service last month for Charlie Kirk, Trump said he “hates” his opponents. Millions of Americans apparently are his opponents — enemies he wants to (excuse the language, but it’s appropriate) shit on.
He clearly is incapable of leading this country. It is long past time for Congress to do something about it.
Sadly, we can’t expect much from Republicans. This is the party that employs people who freely joke about gassing people, hating Jews and loving Hitler, who called Black Americans monkeys and threatened to rape their enemies. Vice President JD Vance tried to justify this behavior by suggesting that this is what “kids do.” These weren’t kids. Some of those sharing their reprehensible thoughts were in their 30s. Others were in their 20s. Two lost their jobs after their posts were made public.
These weren’t “edgy, offensive jokes,” as Vance called them. This is a pattern of racist, misogynistic, homophobic and hateful language by people who are being prepped to run the Republican Party.
We feared Trump would put America on a downward spiral. We knew hate and retribution would find a home in his White House. But, the extent of his administration’s depravity is far worse than expected.
When the vice president downplays vile racist, antisemitic, pro-Nazi rhetoric and the president relishes in the idea of dumping excrement on Americans, we are indeed in a very dark and dangerous place.
This is not leadership. This is not Christian. It certainly isn’t presidential.
