I think Ms. Daniels' tweet back perfectly summed up the situation. Thanks for including it in your first rate column.
29
Every Dem running should run an ad featuring a pet, preferably a dog?
19
Where is the Christian right outrage? Disparaging of women? Oh wait .. she was a porn star .. therefore Christian compassion is non-existent .. Funny how Christ forgave Mary Magdalene .. but the GOP scorns Stormy..
17
"Unexpressed thoughts" is a an oxymoron for Trump. 1. Nothing goes unexpressed. 2. There are no thoughts, just random verbalizations. That's what a lot of people are saying. We'll see. But that's okay...
10
It's disconcerting enough that a mother who directs and stars in pornographic movies is smarter, stronger & a better parent than the president of the United States, by why does she have to be morally superior as well?
Ain't no justice, I guess.
19
A historical aside: LBJ might have chosen a different name had he known that Jumbo the Elephant, the star attraction of PT Barnum's circus, met an unfortunate end when he was struck by a train in St Thomas Ontario in 1885. Wince!
3
If we want to escalate the name calling, here is an idea. Someone recently posted on Facebook regarding Trump calling Elizabeth Warren "Pocahontas" that we should all start calling him "Pinocchio".
30
Why is our country tolerating an unqualified, inept individual who most importantly is a threat and danger to our country and the world at large?
11
How can anyone not see that there is something profoundly wrong with this man? Surely selective perception has its limits.
PS Ms. Daniels' "Game on, Tiny" might be the best comeback to Trump yet.
38
"Donald Trump will never measure up to Warren Harding." Or "Jerry." (wink)
11
The LEFT made all kinds of excuses for Bill Clinton having an affair with a subordinate in the Oval Office and then lying about it to the public. And now, the LEFT is beside themselves at how Donald Trump can use words like “horseface” in a tweet and get away with it. Unbelievable.
1
I have yet to see or hear a single Republican woman, politician, journalist, any, express any opinion about this horsey happening. Come on GOP femininity what gives. You voted for him, support him and now nothing about this ?
4
Ah, Gail, you’re better for mental health than whatever drugs there are for depression (I'm ignorant here).
I wonder—seriously—what’s REALLY going on. Wry writer/reader sophistication about the phoniness of political reality unwittingly serves the purposes that phoniness cloaks. Like a magic act, distraction allows for the subterfuge to do its thing.
What are the real (backstage) elements of current political theater?
Oligarchic capital in league across nations (“Wall Street” <--> Moscow | Wall Street <--> Saudi Arabia | etc.) buying popular acquiescence through intensely shrewd marketing; authoritarian front men who keep public attention distracted when they aren’t able to get away with murder.... What else?
I love the humor—my guilty pleasure with simulacrality.
But predatory Capital loves it, too—silently.
Then suddenly—whoops!—chaos gets out of control: Markets crash, wars start—Historians later make careers out of inquiring into why impeachment didn't happen soon enough.
10
“thousandaire.”! Genius.
21
Very sad. A popular sirius talk show host recently mentioned that, "The leader of the free world should not have the time to engage in these kinds of sophomoric antics." No citizen should condone these kinds of behaviours from any responsible adult much less the POTUS. History will look upon the display of syncopathy and utter allegiance to this appointed POTUS in much the same way we attempt to understand the citizenry of places like Italy and Germany in the 1930s. Yes, I am comparing Trump to an authoritarian fascist, with good cause. Just look at whom he admires, that will give much insight into Trumps narrow ideals. Look at some of his supporters sporting crudely made T Shirts that claim preference to being Russian then democrat. Yes, the most power wielding man on this planet should not have time for this nonsense, but, this is who he is.
9
How old would you say the boy is that calls a woman "horseface"? What do you think? Maybe 10, 11, 12 tops?
This is objectively coming from an adult over 70 years old. But it shows how psychopathology means arrested development among other things. The immaturity of such a remark is astonishing. When questioned about it the child in an adult body churlishly responded "take it any way you want." Such insolence again from what is supposed to be a grown, mature man.
The anti social hostility is always there, idling in the background, waiting for the next opportunity like a vicious poisonous stake to strike out. But in such a childish way. The man has no dignity. None.
And Republicans search for ways to rationalize this immature, vulgar behavior. Now that is disgraceful. Call a spade a spade. Pathologically immature and hateful. He only comes alive when he's fighting and hating and slashing and slurring.
And they make excuses for him and say they like him. have we ever sunk so low?
25
I don't speak like the President does, for my own reasons. But, liberals have been having there way with the English language since the Clintons. And, the weak kneed Republicans would wet their pants when accused of racism.
Trump, about 3 times a week now, reminds Americans, the Black and Hispanic households are in record territory when it comes to employment.
I have no problem with the President giving it back to liberals in Spades. Even more enjoyable, watching the liberals huff and puff when he tells the truth to their face.
I have yet to hear any liberal counter the Presidents claims about Black and Hispanic economic improvement. I'm just a regular Joe, I doubt I am the only voter to see this.
2
I would simplify Me. Collins's analysis by restating a known truth: Trump is a poorly-educated uncouth boor.
12
"I believe I speak for all of America when I say that having Donald Trump as president is bad enough without having to think about his genitals."
This is truly one of the great sentences in modern journalism. Gail rocks.
26
Forget the name calling.
What kind of president is not appalled and outraged by the gruesome dismemberment and murder of a US permanent resident by a foreign government in that own government's embassy? And then his lame defense of that very same government? The utterly amoral Don Trump.
17
I hope you saved that marked up column. I'd like to see it in print. :)
Thanks for the laughs Ms Collins.
7
Gail, you’re one of a kind. Spot-on in your remarks, but always so humorous. :)
8
Gail, we sit so comfortably here in the United States and can snark publicly all we'd like about sitting presidents. Given how DT responded to the Khashoggi murder, however, I'm not sure how much longer this will be possible. He's got multiple games 'on' and the horseface one isn't one of the more worrisome ones.
7
Does this man ever look into a mirror? If so, what does he see?
An unattractive, overweight man who possesses no charm, intellect, morals or wit etc.?
Which is what most other people would see when looking at him.
What is it with unattractive men that makes them feel entitled to criticize other people's looks, especially of women?
On the other hand, it feels like all he does, when he gets going on Twitter, is looking into a mirror. Everything he calls other people is fully applicable to himself: crooked, low IQ, lying, low life, fat etc. etc.
18
Trump is a national disgrace.
16
Well-known "thousandaire", a timeless classic.
Maybe, getting my prediction into The New York Times - could be my face-of-a-pig moment:
The well-known forty percenter maintained a full schedule of re-election rallies which soon became his administration's most-recognizable accomplishment. The 2018 mid-terms left little doubt about his place in history as a famous downvote leader. And the D-list celebrity hat? Many people say "It did endure".
2
Tiny , a good moniker considering his small mouth , hands , feet and mind . Using animals to describe people is an insult to all mammals , especially dogs and horses . People who insult others with name calling are ugly inside and out , the hair says it all ....delusional .
11
Thousandaire. Laugh aloud material right there.
10
Please don't repeat his epitaphs. Ever. It only gives them staying power, and him as well.
1
It could very well be, Gail, that the president slings animal-related insults to divert attention from the fresh crises he starts just to see where they'll go. But it doesn't take a lot of work to tie the insults to these crises. I'm no expert, but this latest round reminded me that the Arabians are famed for their race horses, and regarding the insults he sent you, the Arabians do not eat pork. And calling someone a "dog" in Arabic is, I understand, the worst insult you could sling at somebody. Stormy is right about him: he is incompetent; so incompetent he's always insulting the wrong people. Imagine him using "pig" or "dog" to describe the behavior of an Arab monarch who probably ordered a murder. He saves the best insults for his fellow Americans.
2
"He should not have said that", is about the only tiny, timid, critical voice we have heard on Trump from Speaker Ryan, who has otherwise allowed to Trump to govern unchecked. Retiring at 48, he will not be missed, nor have to witness impeachment proceedings or tax avoidance questions on the Hill. He can retire happily, knowing he called out the President on the one misdemeanour of using the word "Horseface". Instead of "he should not have said that", wouldn't it be more accurate -and moral- for Ryan to say : "He should not have DONE all that"?
15
Not only did I get a good chuckle from this piece. NYT commenters are the best. Some pretty darn witty people out here. I know people say we should stay away from the comments but they are as entertaining as Gail.
136
When is enough enough? The president is a psychologically flawed individual above all else. He's unreliable (remember that key word "temperment" prior to the election?) for reasons too numerous to list. I feel sorry for him (I guess, when I'm not feeling completely outraged by the news), but his inherent limitations should be a concern for every citizen, EVEN devoted Republicans who adore the likes of Mitch McConnell AND the "Freedom Caucus" in the House AND the poor guy who gave his Purple Heart to Trump during the 2016 campaign. I think I know what they want- small government and a strong military. Great, but a good general needs years of experience and a cool head, superb judgement, real leadership skills in MILITARY STRATEGY, not business (also questionable as relating to POTUS). You want someone who you can be proud of, look up to? What about what your kids in school think about all this? Trump needs a couch in a therapist's office somewhere, not sitting in a chair in the oval office, making jokes about half the population (by gender) and half the population by political affiliation. AND he hates the press, too. He acts like a "big man" and talks like a "big man". When in real life does someone need to walk around with this mental crutch? When are the real men in our country going to step up and choose a REAL leader? Like I said, when is enough enough??
11
There is not enough bleach in the world to clean my mind's eye if someone made me think about Donald Trump's genitalia.
11
This is both sadly hysterical and completely accurate. Remember the days when a single comment like "Horseface" would have ended your political career? Welcome to the New Normal. The A/B/C quiz part of this article is incredibly (again sadly) funny. He chose "C".
7
Gail, it's as if you required 2-3 Trump insults in every paragraph. Hilarious!
3
"A Thousandaire"! Ouch that must have got him where it hurts. Thanks Gail for making my day.
23
Maybe I'm one of the few, but I am still appalled daily not only at Trump's woman-hating comments, but his lies, complete lack of empathy, racism, fear-mongering, and absence of one iota of concern for human rights. I am numb, however, by the Republican party's complete lack of moral courage, but I will never stop being outraged by Trump. To go there would be to lose my humanity.
34
You are not alone. Same here, and hopefully many across the country who vote share your sentiments.
8
Thank you Gail. No one else would have given me the best line I've seen in ages about that hateful man: "Game on, Tiny!"
17
It's always struck me as curious that men who are loudest in criticizing a gay lifestyle are the ones that seem to have the greatest hatred of women. And they seem to spend a lot of energy proving their macho identity. I'm not saying that Trump likes boys, but he doesn't seem to like girls very much either.
And we learn that the president "grows anxious when he has unexpressed thoughts." This is, of course, a classic symptom of impaired pre-frontal development. Most of us recognize that some thoughts are best left "unexpressed."
Particularly as respects someone with access to nuclear codes, impulse control would be a good thing. There's a reason we don't elect teenagers to sensitive political office.
15
Wonderfully snarky. Thank you for quoting Stormy Daniels. After never having a twitter account, I might have to get one just so I can follow her brilliant responses to Trump's misogynistic idiocy.
15
Thank you, @gailcollins, for issuing the most damning assessment of Trump to date:
"Donald Trump will never measure up to Warren Harding."
If he knew history (lol!), he would welcome disparaging comments about his genitals ahead of that comparison.
20
Let's all just face it, the big problem is we have a 3rd grade, misogynist, conman, criminal who has a bad potty mouth and no morals as a president. I sincerely hope that women wake up and vote. Vote early, vote by absentee ballot, stand in line, do whatever you have to do so we can put a check on this man. If we don't, regardless of how the Dems may screw things up prior to the election, we will have more of the same with no checks and balances. The last 2 years should have been a lesson to everyone, it's time to turn it around and women could do it. Women right now have the power.
15
Enough with the carping and bellyaching. How many times do we have to bludgeon ourselves with facts, anecdotes, and examples of the worst administration ever? What good are these piled-on rants doing? I want to read/see/hear how we can get out of this mess. And don't tell me to vote. A fat lot of good my perfect record of civic duty has done our country. I have faith only in the system as it plays out at my municipal level; it deteriorates as it goes up through the state and federal elections. I don't even feel free to vote how I want -- out with the incumbents to make room for fresh ideas -- because I have to strategize and go with someone who knows how the games are played so s/he won't get bowled over by the Big Boys. I've always been sardonic in wit and worldview; now I'm a hardcore cynic. I've marched in protests large and small in my nearly 50 years as an adult, but won't anymore. What good are they except as momentary feel-good vibes for the participants? The targets are never affected. All I can hear now is Palin cackling "So ... how's that hopey-changey stuff working out for ya?" Gone, like my youth.
8
@Pearl-in-the-Woods
Sorry you feel so ineffectual.
Sorry you have to strategize and hold your nose on voting day.
Sorry it's not a perfect world.
Glad that actual voters, resilient enough to withstand the imperfect process, did the work to make sure cackling Palin never got elected.
4
Tump is a bully and a horrible excuse for a human being. That is a given, and it certainly troubles me. But what troubles me far more is the fact that he would not exist as president if not for the existence of a much deeper and wider malignancy in our nation. We might self-correct if electing him was a one-off error, but it's looking more and more like it was part of a trend. I hope I am wrong.
26
@John
The decades long effort by "conservatives" to take control of this nation from the people will take at least a decade to undo and that is only after we start on it.
I have said for a long time we need to rollback our government to the rules, regulations and controls we had in 1979 when Carter was still president then we could jail pretty much all of the republicans for what they have been doing as it was all illegal then.
Once we did that we could start fixing all they have destroyed for fun and profit.
7
@John While there are still many horrible excuses for human beings in this country, the majority are not. We must get rid of the electoral college to ensure we do not again have to suffer the loser, especially one whose life of abuse, both physical and financial, was well documented.
I hope we have learned that democracy can be a fragile system if we don't pay attention.
4
For such a thin-skinned man, Trump is all too willing to denigrate others. I am sick of him and his insults, just like so many others, but I laughed out loud at this column. Thanks, Gail Collins, for making Trump look like the tiny, tiny man he is.
15
Perhaps Ms. Daniels is a Windsor.
4
Victor Klemperer, a German professor of Language, in 1947 published his journal and analysis of how the Nazi propaganda had changed German language. (Title of the English translation is "Lingua tertii imperii".) One of his observations, well documented in this book, is not on Wikipedia (En). Hence I would like to mention, that Nazi propaganda often referred to political opponents as animals, rats, vermin.
This is your president. He talks about half the people of your country in a way, Nazis talked about Jews, their opponents.
27
In November and again in 2020, women will have the opportunity (and, IMHO, have a solemn duty) to say "Neigh!!!" to this thuggish hooligan and his red aiders and abettors. May we storm the polls with "numbers too big to ignore."
19
He's an idiot and a bully. It's mystifying that we got here. What's worse are the smart and seemingly competent people who surround and bolster him. They are merely opportunists. Looking forward to when this all comes crashing down.
9
Atta girl Gail!
8
I always think it odd that not only did Trump have the dalliance with a porn star/director (sans condom) but that he married his third wife who also started out in the porn world. We don't like to talk about it but the pictures are everywhere, not hard to find. And still I would not think badly of Melania until her recent craven interview and her truly un-FLOTUS behavior, her pith hat, her Indiana Jones outfit, her admitting that her 'I don't care' jacket really was a message after gaslighting all of us that there was no message (a formal statement from her office, chastising those, which was all of us, about the jacket meaning nothing).
So....I'd much rather have Stormy as FLOTUS. No question. She, at least, is honest and real. Trump's third wife is not.
16
Trump is a child who never had to grow up as Daddy took care of him. He is an immature, spoiled, uncaring person.
11
So, his alibi for getting out of serving in Vietnam was bone spurs. And his racehorse named Alibi had to have hoof amputation. Now he's calling Stormy Daniels "Horseface". Them there's a whole lot of horse apples to swallow!!!
7
He didn't think she was a "horseface" when he was getting his $130,000 dollar ride!!!!
20
This is yet another eye-poppingly-ludicrous, I can't-believe-he-said-that low moment in US presidential history. The people in the cities freak out, the people in the country shrug their shoulders. Since there isn't a whole lot of media-generation going on in the country, we who consume media think everyone else is freaking out, while the plague slowly spreads because "everybody says that stuff, he just tells it like it is."
Two points. No, not everyone says that stuff. And, second, you are never going to change the people who think everyone says this kind of stuff, or the senators that represent them. Forget about it.
Volker Ullrich's 2013 biography of A.H. is informative here, not because of the easy comparisons in mendacity and populist rhetoric between D.T. and A.H., but that it offers a glimpse how the NSDAP slowly came to power. People often forget that each year after Hitler got out of prison the NSDAP gained more and more power in Democratically controlled elections. In 1928 the NSDAP got 2.6% of the vote, in 1930 18.3%, in 1932 it was 37% and finally in 1933 it was 43.9%. Get out and vote, people, it is literally the only way to stop this kind of stuff.
10
Thousandaire had me laughing right out loud. Thanks, Gail. Needed that. :)
13
I'm sorry you have to be writing about this, Gail. All of it is so beneath you and all of us.
It is beyond engaging, it is beyond humor. It is a ruse, a massive and toxic pathology, and I wish somehow those of you in the media could step out of engaging it.
5
photoTrumpism: the orientation toward adulation or any spotlight of a certain unnamed political figure whose brain is in a vegetative
state. The Current Incumbent is Case #1 of this previously undocumented phenomenon. He will say anything of any degree of vileness or untruth that will cause focus to shift to him.
Cf: phototropism
5
Gail:
Perhaps you'll join me in instituting a "Trump Free Day" where our nation's shame's name is not mentioned once and his sneering orange face does not assault the eyeball. Just 24 hours of peace and rest is all I ask!
Also, all the other broadcast and cable news networks should give Fox News exclusive rights to the president's endless rallies. Why put perfectly good journalists at risk? Also, the other networks can simply refer to Fox about the rallies and we gain a few more minutes of decency and repose.
13
The NYT parade of Stormy as a feminist hero is a public disservice to real women.
3
@Charlie - I'm a real woman and I don't have a problem with her. I wouldn't necessarily call her a hero but I admire the way she lives life on her terms and stands up for herself.
12
What, oh Charlie, is a real woman to you ? Evidently chromosomes, a willingness to work hard and not taking crap from the Donald aren’t enough. Whatever she may be, Stormy is a real woman.
10
@Charlie
She's more of a woman than Trump is a man.
4
I hope Gail Collins donates all of her correspondence from Donald Trump, including the “face of a pig” remark to the Donald J Trump Presidential Library.
11
Kennedy thinks POTUS has 'thoughts'... I somehow doubt this... What comes out of his mouth obviously never visited any part off his brain other than the vocal centers... No filters applied...
8
Gail, thanks for today! You had me laughing out loud for several minutes. We need it desperately as the news tumbles from one nadir to another.
He may have gotten rid of his first wife's, but now he's both Putin's and the Prince's Poodle.
He picks his masters um, judiciously.
Yes, you did hurt him more than he hurt you.
Thousandaire. Bull's eye!
7
This is exactly the kind of thing that makes me laugh when people talk about Trump playing three-dimensional chess.
Marking up a column with infantile insults and mailing it back to a columnist is classic Trump. Someone should get him to stop eating paste or sniffing glue or smacking himself in the forehead with a brick or whatever the heck makes him behave this way.
The midterms are going to be his time out. And it's about time.
10
From now on I will refer to Donald Trump as the 'thousandaire.'
This demotion must be such a disturbing reference for 'him' and curdles the places where his heart and mind would usually be.
Anything that curdles Trump makes me happy, so many thanks to Ms. Collins for 'thousandaire.' Thanks too for the history of 'his' remarks to you - I'm not surprised but the 'man' is so vile. He's akin to the corner thug but a 'thousandaire' thug.
7
People keep saying things like, because of his bad manners, Trump isn't fit to eat with the pigs. Let me stand up for him and say that he is!
4
"Thousandaire." Gail, I love you!
11
From the column:
"I believe I speak for all of America when I say that having Donald Trump as president is bad enough without having to think about his genitals. Really, this is way, way worse than previous revelations that Lyndon Johnson called his “Jumbo” and Warren Harding’s was 'Jerry.'
"And after all, Johnson at least gave us Medicare. While Harding was a totally inept chief executive whose administration launched a thousand scandals, everyone always said he was privately a nice guy. Donald Trump will never measure up to Warren Harding."
Comment: Too bad they're not of a mind to … but, otherwise … I believe that Hatch and Grassley ('for two') are old enough that they could say ... " I served with Warren Harding. I knew Warren Harding. Warren Harding was a friend of mine. Mr. trump... you're no Warren Harding. And, by the way -- and most unlike LBJ, I hear tell you have little to no need of a jockstrap."
P.S. Dear Ms. Collins,
I love your columns, and would ever -- even if, contrary to the evidence, you did not have the face of an Irish angel.
6
Trump has thoughts?
9
Love the many LOL moments in this column, thank you.
6
Horses are beautiful animals with lovely faces. Unfortunately, the other end of the horse was elected in 2016.
22
@IJMA "appointed," not "elected." Let's not let him or his minions forget that.
5
Resenting women as weak goes to Trump's obsession with looking strong. Trump seems infatuated with the strongmen of the world especially those who jail,maim or kill their critics. Why can't he do that too ,sure he gives them grade school nicknames but nothing can be better than Kim's ability to get applause constantly. If they don't they are jailed or killed . Why can;t he have that power ,why doesn't Europe and Canada project his image all over their buildings like MSB did. Trump doesn't just want to be liked he wants to be worshiped as he forced his cabinet to do with the exception of Mattis. Mattis has been shown the door not so subtly by our insult comedian president perhaps Hannity will be our next Sec DEF. Insecure trump needs an adoring cabinet even if they are incompetent or corrupt. Atlantic article pointed out his act is based on cruelty and his base loves that about him , what a great image for the world to see our sadist house of horrors.
7
The real horror story is Trump and those who voted for him. I'm embarrassed by this man and that he thinks he represents the US. Can't we get rid of him? Now he is supporting the Saudis over their outrageous murder of the journalist. What is wrong with him? It's like he hates the flag and the Constitution.
6
What would Trump say about Jesus?
I can hear it now.
2
What would he say about Mary?
5
Chief Misogynist Trump does his hit-back twitter to Stormy because she gets under his skin and yet, his response as an adulterer seems absurd, considering he invited Stormy to his room to have an affair in the first place. Does he get that?
Trump fails to realize we can see how he hates it when a women gets the best of him like Stormy does. It's SO obvious he can't stand it because he has to win...winning is the only thing he cares about. Embarrassing himself and his wife doesn't seem to bother him.
Stormy is very pretty and photogenic. Her mug-shot from that set-up arrest with Trump supporters in Ohio is one of the best mugshots ever taken of anyone. Trump obviously believes Stormy is attractive because we all know he's advertized that he doesn't like women who don't measure up to some ridiculous standard in his head.
If someone read Trump's tweets who didn't know who he was...they'd judge him to be about 10 yrs old. His emotional growth is stunted! The scariest thing is having a 10 year old running the country or running it into the ground is more like it.
Trump seems to not care how this affects Melania either. I'm sure she'd advise him to 'Be Best' and keep his Twitter mouth shut so she doesn't have to be reminded how little he respects her because he cheated on her after she had a baby.
But then Trump needs to be Trump even if he looks like a buffoon tweeting about his scandal.
6
I associate Trump with another prominent horse feature.
9
Catlover from Steamboat Springs speculates about how 45 might respond to a "real emergency." If I recall correctly, Trump's stategic response to a deadly emergency was to throw paper towels at its victims. His proven ineptitude and failure as a leader in the face crises requires no imagination. Six bankruptcies and crass denials of hundreds of preventable deaths mark the entrance to the scandal filled rabbit hole that contains the tweets and taunts of D.J. Trump -- the petulant Twitter troll, not the injured stud who sired a filly named "A Date With Marla."
8
"I believe I speak for all of America when I say that having Donald Trump as president is bad enough without having to think about his genitals."
You don't speak for me. Regardless of some of his personal improprieties, Trump is doing a great job despite the adversity he faces every day from disgruntled Democrats like you.
What amazes me is how you prefer to take the side of a porn actress who, with the assistance of her opportunistic attorney Michael Avanatti, is shaking down the president of the United States.
BTW, tell me that you never, ever described a man in such unflattering words a "horse face"!
@MCHT Many men connect the other end of the horse with Trump.
7
@MCH - Adversity? That's the funniest thing I've heard all week.
6
@MCH Thanks for the laugh! I would add that trump has cheated lots of non-porn folks his entire life. It is in his blood to take as much as he can no matter legality or ethics. He is without a doubt the most corrupt person to ever be appointed president by the electoral college.
3
See “Cyrano de Bergerac” for an apt response to insults. Rather than with defensive anger, Cyrano replies by listing more diverse, articulate expressions of the same insult, ending These, my dear sir, are things you might have said, had you some tinge of letters, or of wit to color your discourse. But wit, not so, you never had an atom, and of letters, you need but three to write you down, an Ass.
Trans. Brian Hooker
7
@Joyce Adams: Trump is as repetitious as his vocabulary is limited.
6
Oh no! It's happened! I'm so very depressed and angry about everything this misogynist says, does, tweets, that not even Gail's column can make me smile.
8
I find horses to have very pleasing faces. I have a difficult time characterizing 45's face which I find to be very disagreeable especially when he purses his lips together and gets all squinty-eyed. He does this when he is deep in thought (which only lasts a millisecond or so).
7
Trump may have met his match in Stormy Daniels. She's had a lot of experience dealing with creeps. And since Trump is so fond of nicknames, I sincerely hope "Tiny" catches on.
12
Well, after reading this column, I'm starting to feel like Trump might not be the wholesome Christian father that he appears to be...
19
Truth trumps Tacky, every time.
10
Hey, Warren Harding is perpetually in my good graces since he played the tuba!
7
What I don't get are the Trump supporters, many of whom (men and women) would undoubtedly be "horsefaced" in his eyes, or "Low-IQ" according to his brain scan, and yet don't ever see that when he insults the people they laugh at he's also insulting them.
16
I would be happy to spend time with "horseface" anywhere, anytime.
4
Yuck, I just snorted coffee out my nose!
1
"Donald Trump will never measure up to Warren Harding."
Nicely done.
24
Last time heard the term - horse face - was maybe 50 years ago. My mother mentioned it occasionally in a hushed voice referring to a woman who was - not so lovely. Looks were a high though generally understated priority in the family cosmology.
Horses have very beautiful faces.
Stormy was apparently - lovely enough - for "a quickie." at $130,000 and all the storm surrounding the whole thing, it seems like it was underpriced and undervalued.
tRump needs to look in the mirror before insulting anyone's looks.
What a SAD example he is setting. I'm not "used to it" and I'm not going to be. The more he talks the fewer women will be voting his way. Being a bully and insulting women has NOT and will NOT work for him.
I can hear the taunts on the playground now that he has unfortunately dusted off this term. Just another brick in the wall of incivility. We've had enough...
Melania - Where are you? Anti the bully, and remember to always " Be Best!
11
Gail
Thanks for reminding us how brave Paul Ryan is. Do the right thing when you know you're heading out the door. No consequences, no problem. No guts.
14
Please tell me I am not alone in wishing that Gail would publish an image of that column with Trump's handwritten insults on it. I suppose he would say it wasn't his handwriting--but it seems important to air everything that documents his awfulness, lest we allow ourselves to descend into numb acceptance of his ridiculous denials.
11
She has previously.
The first clue is his hatred of animals. Never trust a human who does not like dogs. And I am pretty sure the dogs return the favor. Dogs are very good at recognizing the ones to avoid.
19
Usually a dog that "“grows anxious when he has unexpressed thoughts.” piddles on the floor. I feel sorry for the WH cleaning and laundry staff.
10
One of these days, our "great" leader will realize that the WHOLE WORLD is laughing at his stupidity . Then he will start WW III, and there will be a "daisy chain" of obsequious Republicans elbowing their way to be first in line to praise him.
9
Whatever respect the Presidency garnered prior to Trump it has certainly been obliterated since Trump!
7
To Sen. Kennedy "We've all done something like that." Perhaps when we were five and not US presidents.
26
Social media should ban president Trump for inflammatory statements and spreading misinformation.
10
Not only will Donald Trump never measure up to Warren Harding, I believe Harding also had the good sense to know he was in over his head.
12
So, I'm in good company, with LBJ and Harding: Years ago, many years ago, I had a girlfriend who called mine Christopher, after the explorer.
3
The real tragedy is not what that man in the White House says about Stormy Daniels or anyone else: it is what he is doing to destroy the bases upon which democracy depends. Among these are the acceptance that opposition us not automatically treason, the realization that other people may have valid ideas, that bullying and intimidation are not the only ways to run a government and that there are some things that are not permissible even when in power.
Mr. Trump violates all of these principles and is not fit to be part of a democracy, much less a leader.
11
@Cassandra
Maxine Waters advocates harassment and violence against Republicans.
Diane Feinstein holds unsubstantiated allegations that even Democrats do not believe until Kavanaugh is days away from inevitable confirmation in order to abort or delay his confirmation.
Dark money finances pussy hat demonstrations against the duly elected president after threatening electors if the Electoral College votes to elect him.
A dark money donor comes into the sunlight spending $25 million to advocate for impeachment before Trump has had even the opportunity to commit an impeachable act.
The hatred expressed in the media prompts a Bernie supporter to attempt to assassinate Republican House members playing baseball.
Opposition is not necessarily treason. Advocating violence to overthrow a government is the definition of treason. Using fake news to undermine government is arguably too close to be acceptable.
The primary power of the presidency is the bully pulpit. That you do not like the policies of Trump doesn't make his use of the bully pulpit inappropriate.
The secondary power of the executive branch is to enforce the law. It is extremely distressing to Democrats that Obama's choices to ignore the law and enforce regulations not supported by legislative actions are being reversed, permanently. It is also distressing that Trump's decisions to enforce Obamacare and immigration law as written, although being resisted by activist judges, are moving us to the rule of law.
In middle school, students have rules when learning to debate. No insulting your opponent, stick to the issues, etc. Most would agree that this teaches sound reasoning and good citizenship.
In the adult world, there is a tradition of rough and tumble political debates. The assumption is that adults can distinguish showmanship and actual qualifications. So the question is: how in the world did candidate Trump move from the sidelines to center stage in the 2016 presidential debates? Some kind of broadcast survey? “Clicks”? This stamp of approval paved the way to the presidency.
Since children now run the country, we need rules for campaign debates. If a candidate calls an opponent (or anyone, for that matter) ridiculous, insulting names, just turn off their microphone. They should be immediately disqualified.
9
@Jane
Harry Reid claimed Romney hadn't paid taxes.
Hillary claimed that allegations her husband was having sex with an intern were the result of a vast right wing conspiracy. Obama asserted that his universal health insurance plan would not have an individual mandate. He was opposed to same sex marriage.
The NYT advanced the theory, unsubstantiated, that Trump did not pay income taxes for 20 years.
It has now released stolen records and asserts that Trump's son in law did not pay income taxes for seven out of eight years. From the small amount of data that was released, it is apparent that over the course of eight years, he had $3.8 million in taxable income and paid $1.3 million in income taxes. There are multiple factual errors in the article, including the assertion that depreciation is a "loophole" available only to investors in real estate. It was intentionally misleading to omit the annual income line from the report, but that would not support the fake narrative of the NYT.
If and when the NYT is honest in their reporting of facts, we can start concerning ourselves with name calling.
@ebmem - You seem to spend a lot of time on a publication you have so much disdain for. Why is that?
@DR
"Why is that?"
Clearly, ebmem is scouring NYT for evidence that Trump might be incompetent, corrupt and unfit for office, and will let us know what clues to this effect, if any, are discovered.
Talking of horses, don't forget that it was Mr. Ed who was the true stable genius.
21
It's an amusing comic relief to see someone engaging Donald in his childish game, but it is his game nonetheless. And both are profiting from it.
It's curious to me that while Mr Trump has a cornucopia of insults to hurl at his male "enemies", his go-to insult toward women who dare to challenge him is their looks. Horse-face indeed! Yet you went to bed with that same horse-face, Mr. President!
As far as the insults themselves, this reminds me of Richard Nixon's enemies list and how many reckoned it a great honor to have earned their place on it. Congratulations, Ms. Collins on being among the very first to earn this very high honor from Mr Trump little hands.
13
@John Arthur
Republicans considered themselves honored to be on the Clinton and Obama enemies lists.
A fundamental difference between being on Nixon's enemies list and being on the Clinton and Obama enemies lists, is that Nixon never got the executive branch agencies to target his enemies. The Clintons and Obamas did. Under Nixon, the FBI did not spy on political opponents and the IRS did not victimize political opponents.
Hillary paid to have a fake dossier prepared, including paying Russian government employees to fabricate titillating allegations about Trump. [Violating the FEC campaign finance rules by fraudulently claiming the millions in expenditures were legal fees.]
Next, they used a high ranking FBI official whose wife was gifted $700,000 in campaign contributions by a Clinton ally to introduce the fake dossier as evidence to open surveillance of Trump supporters. The FBI leaked to the press that Trump supporters were under investigation, with the focus on anyone who had even spoken with a Russian national, despite that not being evidence of anything even illegal.
Trump insults his enemies. Obama and the Clintons used the government to engage in illegal actions against their enemies.
My preference is the entertaining game of public insults to the hidden corruption of the dark state.
The mistreatment of Alibi by Trump and the complicit horse trainer should have been reported to the Humane Society or other appropriate authority immediately by anyone who knew about it. There's been a proven strong link between the way we treat non-human animals and the way we treat each other. Trump and his trophy hunting sons are certainly proof of that.
18
Nice piece, Ms Collins. I enjoy your subtle humor carrying the message of our national travail. Still, there are so many (all) of the moneyed class who support what he's doing to the country. Now the wholesale budget cut is being touted; a new distraction? Please keep reminding us of the history of this boob in the Whitehouse and how it applies to the present.
5
@Destravlr
Next time Forbes comes out with a listing of the richest Americans, print out the list and google each of the top 100 or so. The top 0.1% are overwhelmingly Democrat donors, on a 10:1 ratio. Soros funded a documentary broadcast on PBS that highlights Republican and libertarian mega wealthy donors, but doesn't mention that Soros spends ten times as much, alone, as all of the dark money Republicans.
Hillary spent four times as much money as Trump, with most of it being dark money, but was unable to buy the election, only missing by a hair.
Hillary was able to get the FEC to silence Citizens United. CU is an educational non-profit. Contributions are not tax deductible. It is organized under exactly the same IRS rules as the ABA, the American Boy Scouts, moveon.org, the lobbying arm of Planned Parenthood, ACORN, the ACLU, Media Matters and countless other organizations that engage in political discourse.
Try reading the CU SCOTUS ruling instead of accepting Obama's lie that it overturned a century of precedent. SCOTUS decided that if they agreed with the FEC ruling to silence CU, there were too many other citizens who would be denied their ability to voice opinions through non-profit organizations.
The moneyed class owns the Democrat Party leadership. They like to tout raising taxes on the rich, because Soros, Buffett, Gates, Steyer, Bezos et al know that they are not going to pay a dime of increased taxes.
Trump making fun of the way ANYONE looks is just incredible. He looks ridiculous with that piled up thing on his head, that’s lately square shaped. He’s overweight and bloated. His eye sockets are white from one too many bad tanning jobs. His skin is orange. The pot calls the kettle black. Supporters should start putting themselves in his bullied victims shoes. Evangelicals should wonder how this is behavior worthy of Jesus.
24
@RTC
Evangelicals were reliable Democrat voters until the Democrat Party demanded that supporters be pro-abortion. Rural, uneducated Evangelicals fit in well with the uneducated urban Democrats and their rejection of evolution and paleontology was ignored. They were made unwelcome in the Democrat Party and are unlikely to return under any circumstances.
Todays Evangelicals are likely to be educated, suburban and more likely to vote Republican. The Republican Party is an open tent Party. [Interestingly enough, the term "open tent" refers to revival events where all sinners are welcome.] Republicans have pro-abortion members as well as anti-abortion members. They embrace all classes and nationalities.
In order to attract Evangelicals, Democrats need to become more accepting of diversity and less governed by identity politics and litmus test standards that represent each policy decision as absolute, with a good v. evil polarity.
It is possible to oppose Obamacare and to think there is a better solution to address the needs of those with pre-existing conditions. It is possible to object to open borders and not hate illegal aliens but to want to direct more resources to low income Americans rather than to illegal aliens in the underground economy.
As my wife repeatedly tells me, white women put Trump in office and only they can take him out. Not the cute ones, of course, they will remain loyal.
7
@Padfoot
The majority of voters with a college degree voted for Trump. The majority of voters who lack a high school diploma voted for Hillary.
@ebmem
Huh? You got that backwards, my friend.
Per Pew Research Center exit polls: "In the 2016 election, a wide gap in presidential preferences emerged between those with and without a college degree. College graduates backed Clinton by a 9-point margin (52%-43%), while those without a college degree backed Trump 52%-44%."
Per FiveThirtyEight: "Clinton collapsed in the 50 least-educated counties...(minimum population of 50,000)."
Since we all know that Donald Trump slept with Ms. Daniels and now calls her "horseface", it is apparent that among his other virtues, President Trump has a penchant for farm animals. Who knew?
19
“thousandaire.”?
Touche!
28
A pathetic old man gloating over a small win that really doesn't matter, he couldn't just let it go because tweeting insults is what Trump enjoys the most. I suspect he's a dead ringer for the 400 pound guy in his mom's basement, a people-hating solipsist who never misses a chance to elevate himself by taking down others. After his "win" re: Kavanaugh, he mocked and insulted Dr Blasey Ford, and he's on a roll now. Calling Daniels "horseface" only shows how small and ugly he is, how utterly unfit to be president.
26
@trump basher
But unctuous Trayvon-coulda-been-my-son Obama was okay?
@Alice's Restaurant - Yes. President Obama a man with intellect, empathy, compassion, wit and intelligence was more than okay.
@DR
Make a good neighbor to have over for a BBQ but was hardly a president with any leadership abilities--hired Hillary to extort money, Rice to spy on US citizens, Comey to move "the matter" and "There's no there, there" for Hillary, destroyed the DNC Politburo--the list goes on.
C) Launch a tweet vowing to “go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer.” Gail you make the rocking world go round. And you made Medicare funny which is really worrying me nowadays. Medicare is the price system the rest of the private sector bases medical cost.
Stormy is an awesome person. Avenatti has given me renewed faith in the good fight for democratic principals. Yes, I believe in our justice system based on evidence furthered by substantiated argument. The foundations of our country. Without that we are lost.
I believe in the democratic system. I don't believe that mob rule ie dancing for the stars formula would work as a way to make policy. As Thomas Jefferson wrote that the Congress is like cooling the tea before we drink it. Although, sad I am thinking Jefferson is an inspiration at this moment.
Stormy sleeping with Trump likely with plenty of hotel video that has been bought off. And local video as well. Is a fact that we can all agree on. When Stormy gets to court and gives some DNA evidence of some sort. A la the blue dress.
It will be a big national meh moment.
What is most important now is that the taxes have been reduced for the rich. There is likelihood of Trump and Congress reducing Medicare and Social Security when the entire generation has zero retirement savings due to no pensions anymore. The big crisis in the next 20 years is that this entire generation is without a livable pension.
Stormy wont have a pension. None of us will.
8
@Elise
Taxes have been reduced for 80% of people who file taxes. Individuals at the bottom of the income scale are getting far greater percentage benefits than people at the 80th percentile.
A big chunk of the tax cut is going to corporations. It was a windfall for Walmart, which is allocating one third to increased wages, one third to stockholders and one third to reducing consumer prices.
Obama advocated for a corporate income tax, but his corporate donors were not in favor of the loopholes that would be closed. Checkout the financial statements for tech firms. Under the Republican tax cut, they got reduced tax rates but their ability to offshore profits by transferring intellectual property off shore while concentrating tax deductions in the US was severely constrained, so they are either going to pay higher taxes over the next five years or are getting a tiny tax break.
Democrats defunded Medicare to the tune of $0.8 trillion dollars, which is why retirees are seeing their COLA consumed by higher Medicare premiums and an increase in their out of pocket 20% with no out-of-pocket maximum.
If Congress does nothing, in 2034, Social Security and Disability benefits will be cut by 20% across the board. If you examine Republican proposals to set Social Security on a sustainable path, each of them increases payments to low income retirees and pares back benefits from high income retirees. Buffet and Trump get zero, people getting $1500/month get more.
The president "grows anxious when he has unexpressed thoughts." And there you have his problem in a nutshell.
We all have a little motor in our heads trying to regulate which of our thoughts we should actually stay out loud. Some of our motors work better than others, and we've all said dumb or hurtful stuff we're regretted.
Except President Trump's motor is flat-out busted. Anything that pops into his head he must say, no matter how stupid, evil, or hurtful.
And he's not only blurting these things out, he's putting them into writing and dispatching them, mostly via his beloved tweets. So you'd think in this process he'd enjoy a second chance to reconsider—guess not.
Part of this is he's so mentally ill he doesn't even realize this is a problem. If he did, he'd enlist his communications staff to help him, and say, "Guys, before I send a tweet, I'll run it by you, and please tell me if it's too ill-tempered." But no, he apparently just fires these off directly from his own phone. And again, he's so into himself he can't acknowledge the damage he's doing. Kind of like the drunk at the end of the bar who's not yet in a position to accept how his alcoholism is hurting him.
I think there may be a huge wake-up call for the Republicans in this fall's elections, when they see the damage their leader has done to their brand. It should be interesting to see if they have the guts to start plotting to cut their ties to him, or if they will continue to go down with his ship.
8
@Jerry S.
Correct me if I’m wrong but won’t all these tweets eventually be archived by the US government as part of the Presidential Archive? They are all on his “Office” twitter account not his personal one.
5
@Jerry S.
Although Trump's tweets can be annoying, they also are endearing. You always know what Trump is thinking. He does change his opinions. Although he doesn't, generally, apologize for offensive comments, individuals and other entities move in and out of favored and unfavored status. Sometimes they get fired, other times they don't. You have to admit that Trump's administration has been the most transparent ever.
Hillary. The motor in her brain was in perfect control. She had public opinions and private opinions. She never made a statement unless it was calculated to enhance her power or political objectives. It was rarely truthful. Her statements were phrased to be politically correct, but failed to convey her opinions, unless the statement were poll or focus group tested. Since losing the election, the motor has lost some of its control, allowing her to make hateful comments demonstrating her denial of reality and to blame everyone except herself for her loss.
Ditto Obama. When he was running for office, he was opposed to same sex marriage. He was going to unite the country with transparency. His health insurance proposals was going to reduce medical costs and would not have an individual mandate.
He was elected with a Congress majority. He did nothing on the environment or immigration, O'Care had a mandate and added $1.5 trillion to debt. His staff met with lobbyists so they wouldn't show up on the White House log.
Candor is refreshing.
@Alison Cartwright
In comparison, Hillary purged all of her government communications that would have demonstrated her opinions. What she learned from her involvement in Nixon's travails was that if he had purged all of his recordings, he'd have served out his term.
Thanks again, Ms Collins... for making my day...
7
Dear Gail, please inject your hilarious “thousandaire” comment into as many future columns as you can, especially as there has been no mention of Seamus recently. I doubt there is anything else in the news today that will make me smile.
20
He shouldn't have renamed that horse. He may need an Alibi.
11
This presidential joke was well known to be a liar, cheat and fool well before the 2016 election. He got the office because he channels the nastiness, sexism and bigotry of the American people. Good job of exposing your real character America...laughing stock of the world.
15
Trump is a disgrace.
Too bad he will get a second term because the Democratic Party is addiction to illegal immigrants.
We can think of the children of illegal immigrants or we can think of our own children. The Democrats have made their choice.
1
@WillT26
Most decent people can think of both. I don’t think the man from Palestine preached love for one’s fellow humans as a zero sum game
8
@WillT26
Sorry, but you are so uninformed to think immigrants are our biggest problem, or frankly, anywhere near a problem.
8
I am currently in Stockholm where everyone speaks English. The streets are clean, I can walk down the street without fear of being shot by liberal haters with a concealed carry permit or people off their meds encouraged by the current political climate. But I am ashamed that our evangelical supported president is allowed, even cheered on with calling people names. Horseface, really? Do you know how that sounds? Stormy is a pretty woman, besides looks are something you're born with. What about character, empathy, education, being a good father and husband? What about moral leadership? Other Presidents have been MY president. You are the President of your base. It is embarrassing to see POTUS incapable of controlling himself, POTUS making excuses for the murder and dismemberment of a U.S. resident. POTUS constantly lying and yet still supported by the so called born agains. Moral decay is not coming from those supporting freedom to CHOOSE or supporters of Gay marriage. Moral decay is coming from POTUS and those who refuse to hold him to standards of common decency.
28
Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! As I am reading this column, I also have my NPR station on and the topic is the very same. My eyes and ears are in pain.
This was all known by some for years. Why was attention not paid, when he started his campaign? Where was all of this during the election?
5
"Tiny" Trump. Love it. Our president is apparently compensating for something. It is bad enough that the NYTimes has deflated his "self made man" image, and has shown that pretty much everything he has been given, including three marriages, have ended up badly (separate bedrooms for Melania and the chief is my prediction of eventual disaster). Now he has become embarrassed on the international stage supporting assassination and on top of that, maybe extortion or worse. Where will this end? One thing for sure, Gail Collins will be on it, and find some humor to assuage the assault on the senses. You go, girl!
15
Again Ms. Collins provides a look at the far side of sTRUMPY which is something we all need. Just 18 days until we have a chance to perhaps wake-up from this nightmare. I am in the habit of sending postcards to people, family, friends, neighbors, whomever - no rhyme or reason, I just think it is a nice things to open your mailbox to a surprise. I recently sent two to my brother-in-law's (Republican, Georgia resident and solid Trump voter) two college-age daughters going to school in Trump Country: North Carolina and the western and rural part of Virginia. I was hokey and told them fun stuff. But ended with this: "I hope you will be voting for candidates that respect women." A very simple message and I hope a lot of other people do the same thing. Please, let's all start to act like adults and wake up from this nightmare.
9
In middle school, students follow rules when learning how to debate. Rules like no insulting your opponent. Stick to the issues, etc. Most would agree that these are valuable lessons in sound reasoning and good citizenship.
In the adult world, there is s tradition of rough and tumble political debates. The assumption is that adults can distinguish between showmanship and actual qualifications. The question is: how in the world did candidate Trump move from the sidelines to center stage in the 2016 presidential debates? Some kind of broadcast rating survey? “Clicks”? This stamp of approval paved his way to the presidency.
Since children now run the country, we need rules for campaign debates. If candidates call their opponents (or anyone, for that matter) ridiculous, insulting names, just turn off their microphone. They should be immediately disqualified.
5
Love Stormy's comebacks- Trump will never match this women's wit, intelligence and he knows it- this time he was playing to the audience of Melania, who still retains her only bedroom and is moot as to whether she would ever want to vacation with him anyway - Thank you Gail for another excellent insight
5
Gail's been riding a horse named Trump for decades. Her trite comments should surprise no one.
Stormy Daniels got her 15 mins of fame and will be poll dancing for quite some time to pay off Trump's legal bills.
3
Gail, definitely one of Your best pieces and funny but how true. In my life I have usually tried to be a kind human being and when I was given constructive criticism I tried to use it to improve. And when I did get idiotic criticism like devious name calling such as You described here I would appreciate the fact that I was not hurling the insult because the person doing it I found was usually quite mentally unstable. Thank You.
3
@George Does “George” know the difference between a ‘poll’ and a ‘pole’? Apparently not.
The only ‘poll dancing’ going on ‘round these parts is Republican gerrymandering, voter suppression and disinformation propaganda campaigning.
You can leave the ‘pole dancing’ to Stormy, and the rest of the women who credibly claim to have performed the mystery dance for Fearless Leader.
5
Really don’t have a name for a person like Stormy that can be used in polite society.
We all know why she went after Trump’s genitalia, violated her NSA, faked an intimidation threat, hired a shyster lawyer, and claimed defamation...$$$$
Hope her book covers her court expenses that she owe...but I will not be buying it.
3
That’s funny. Thinking about another name for Trump reminds me of the old Python sketch about the show for racists, competing to come up with a new racial slur against Belgians.
The winner is, “Belgians,” because the writer can’t think of anything worse to call them.
8
@Charlie
"she went after Trump’s genitalia". And, pray tell, how did she get access to said genitalia? Why are you giving Trump a pass for the same act that you are shaming Stormy for?
6
@Charlie
I think Jesus would have a different take on the matter.
1
Trump interrogated at St Peter's gate about why he should be admitted--will say--
"Well my critics were horse and pig faced."
St Peter--who had encountered this type before--will reply,
Well Mr Trunpster, that others look like Disney persons, does NOT affect YOUR eligibility; that's a well know abusive ad hominem.
Trump will reply Who cares! BTW it's TRUMP not Trumpster.
St Peter--I care; the issue is were their criticisms true? (Sorry--about Trumpster--it just rhymes with a fitting receptacle for your arguments.)
Trump-- how could their criticisms be true? I am Trump, they are Dog and Horse faced.
St Peter--I am afraid Mr Trumpster, you have just disqualified yourself--not unlike Kavanaugh.
We admit only those who think all men (and women) were created with equal political rights--at least in an ideal polity--tho we're still working on that.
Trump--What are you some kind of Democrat? Like Mattis?
St Peter--Party affiliation is NOT an entrance requirement here.
Trump--Well who needs you? I have friends who will get me in.
St Peter--I'm afraid Mr Trumpster, your friends will indeed get you in; but that is elsewhere
Dog and Horse face are here, tho.
9
@Michael Kubara
Weak but more hackneyed--though not as bad as Avenatti's dog and pony show.
Mr. Trump suffers from a puny vocabulary and poor education. He's similar to people educated in the South suffering from a public school syndrome. Horse-face is (contextually), a very big use of the language as his private schooling was bought and paid for without a performance clause. His father purchased his high school and college sheepskins. Thus, he is as dumb as a stump and can barely carry on an educated conversation except with his equally ignorant wife.
11
There are no pig women or horse faces except on the GOP farm. Poor Donald, standing in the corn field like a scarecrow with his cornsilk hair and porcine features, Lord let him scare away the voters as well as the ravens from this year's crop of democracy.
13
The NY Times would have never published the news that the suit was dismissed or that the woman has to pay Mr Trump ‘s legal costs if he hadn’t called her horseface.
2
False. The Times published the news that the suit was dismissed BEFORE Trump posted his insult.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/admin/stormy-daniels-lawsuit-dismisse...
10
Of course the nyt would have reported it, charlyp. You a first time reader? This isn't fox news.
5
@FWS
They really believe the NYT is fake news. Don't bother.
OMG Gail! You might have just released a monster, albeit a little one. Trump will have to respond to you since you're a writer with the Failing New York Times. And certainly, he'll come up with another moniker for Ms Daniels.
He's got to do battle now to prove Ms. Daniels wrong and a liar. Are we about to see a letter from Trump's physician certifying the President's 99 percentile manhood. Or, will there be testimony from past lovers...um, probably not a good idea. Perhaps a wooden ruler using photo shop and equestrian photos combined? Banish the image, please. Or perhaps a carefully rolled pair of socks placed in his pants leg from now on.
See, nothing will work because we know that Trump is an insecure narcissist who must strike out at others from behind a thin shield of fake strength and bravado. He's a bully. He is a sissy.
Trump is a cruel individual who takes great pleasure in hurting others, putting others down,especially women. He's a real "tough guy."
No, Trump is lacking decency, compassion, honesty and true manhood!
16
Another hilarious column from Gail Collins. The quote from Senator Kennedy that Trump "grows anxious when he has unexpressed thoughts" is priceless. It sounds like he suffers from cerebral incontinence......Hmmm, maybe there is something to the Big Baby moniker.
9
And once again the current occupant of the WH wins by manipulating the topic of conversation. If this modern day Barnum has one area of competence it is his ability to distract and monopolize print space and airtime to bamboozle an all-too-willing, distractible public. Meanwhile, the crucial issues go unheeded or, at best, distorted by the sociopath in the Oval Office.
5
"I have to admit, I’ve always enjoyed writing about the face-of-a-pig message he sent me."
Trump looks in the mirror and doesn't like what he sees. He projects his hatred onto the rest of us, incessantly. That's the method he has found to assert himself, to cope with the horror of what he is. He lays down his burdens on others. He is a coward, and he always will be.
The best weapon for neutralizing a name-calling wretch like Trump is the truth.
What has someone like him said or done to you? Tell people about it. Do not suffer in silence. Fight. You'll be doing everyone a service.
"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." (Maya Angelou)
10
I recall hearing a t.v. commentator or guest say that the back of Trump's head looked like the north end of a southbound ostrich. And, by golly, it does! If the two side components of the comb-over blow to the side, the essentially hairless middle is exposed. It is, indeed, similar to the way an ostrich's rear looks when the bird holds its wings to the side.
Why would the president, whose looks really are laughable in some ways, make fun of the appearance of anyone else?
Robert Burns got right: "Oh, would some power the gift give us, to see ourselves as others see us!"
10
And evangelical Trump supporter lovingly respond:
"Our President certainly has a way with words."
4
"...I referred to him in a column as a well-known 'thousandaire.'"
Thanks to Times' investigative report on Trump's finances, Gail, you can now add, whatever money he has came from pappy's allowances to his baby and from cheating the government.
10
If one were to add up his assets and subtract his debts, even with Russian and Saudi help, he'd probably be lucky to be a thousandaire.
5
Clearly, comparing women to animals is not a bad plan after all. Trump supporters love, love, LOVE every one of his insults. He is the proxy for every lame-brained, unhappy man, woman and anxious teenager in the good ol' USA. The more he piles it on, the more they cheer him on. He, at least, knows how to play to the rubes, even if the rest of the more decorous citizenry is appalled. He's no dummy!
Civility is not going to prevail until even the snarling masses that swoon to Trump's perfect pitch quit enjoying the anarchist-in-chief's antics.
Is there a tall, bombastic, obnoxious Democrat with shameless bellicosity emerging through the mist on the horizon? That's the only path through the pikes.
2
Trump is a polluter-he pollutes the national discourse with every word out of his mouth.It is jarring to hear such language, but to hear it from the Oval Office is unthinkable.It feels as though this assault on civility and decency will never end.This self centered and cruel insulter needs to be called out and voted out!
13
Gail, I loved it! You really know how to skewer someone without being nasty. Thank you.
6
I love this column!
6
Trump’s conduct is merely an amalgamation of every seventh grade bully who ever made snide comments.
I literally expect him to say to the press corp one day, “I’m rubber, you’re glue; what you say bounces off me and sticks to you!!”
13
I hear some people saying trump should be impeached or that he would just die.i disagree with both of these options.we would just get Rev. Pence and it is never right to wish someone dead.rather I wish he would get voted out of office.but if that fails to happen then it would be pure karma if he would have a stroke one that would leave him unable to speak and unable to do anything except flap his hands like that poor handicapped man he mocked at a rally.i want his mind to remain functioning so he is aware that he is no longer able to insult anyone,that he is dependent on the goodwill of others to wipe the drool of his face and keep him clean.i don't know of anything else that would humble this man
7
Gail,
You say you would have thought that after the first 3 or 12 times of comparing women to animals, Trump would have figured out it was a “bad plan.”
Plan for what, a comedy show?
I would have thought that you would have figured out what it means about who Donald Trump actually is. He is a sadist. That is, a person who derives pleasure (not necessarily sexual pleasure) from inflicting pain, suffering and humiliation on others. The pleasure Trump derives from his insults lies not in the belief that he has told a good joke. If he thought they were jokes, he would laugh or smile. What you see is the face of a man who’s pleasure is entirely internal gratification at causing pain. He’s not looking for laughs. He’s looking for agreement. His pleasure lies purely in imagining the other person’s pain. Pleasure and humor are not the same thing. Just because good food or good sex or good music can cause pleasure doesn’t make them funny. At his rallies, Trump is not telling jokes, trying to be funny or trying to make people laugh. He is luxuriating in the thought there are other people like him who are drawn to his deviance. He keeps going back to the same people because he knows sadism is an aberration not shared by the wider population. He knows it is a deviant compulsion and a form of psychological dysfunction. That’s why he can’t stop.
18
What you should do is watch a few of Clifford's videos. A horse she is not based on her performance(s). There is nothing that this woman has not done. She does not rate the status of a horse, rather another kind of barnyard animal.
Folks really now.. I happy to love watching Secretariat race videos; far classer than Ms. Clifford's videos and beautiful rather than disgusting.
1
Funny, her performances did not seem to bother Trump.
5
Ridiculing everyone is Trump's pursuit of happiness.
7
Which is why you should never miss a chance to inform Trump that he is a lousy golfer. He cheats, likely does not even know when he is cheating because he has no demonstrated capacity to read a document as complicated as “The Rules of Golf” by the USGA, and his swing is pathetic. Any decent golfer would clean him out in an actual match.
Which makes his constant presence on the golf course all the more pathetic.
8
A question for women who support Trump: how would he describe you?
19
Perfect, Ms. Collins!
3
Elizabeth Warren gets denigrated. Trump gets promoted.
America is mediocre.
5
So how is it that we have allowed this baby monster to remain as President of the United States?
Help!
8
Trump is a bully, nothing more and nothing less. That’s all he’s got.
What does it say about a party that couldn’t find a candidate among its own to keep him from getting the nomination?
What does it say about the press that excuses his flaws and amplifies his bullying?
What does it say about an election process that put him in the White House despite losing the popular vote? What does it say, that he’s still there.
5
The irony is that everyone can see with their own eyes that Stormy is attractive and that Trump is fat and ugly. Objective, not subjective fact. As Western standards of beauty go, these two speak for themselves. If this Emperor wore no clothes, the kingdom would need the use of the vomitoriums.
29
When's the last time Donald Trump looked in the mirror?
8
This guy is such fodder for your keen observations and wonderful sense of humor. A good morning laugh (although we suffer the fool that provokes it).
9
now that the barbarians are no longer at the gate, but are milling around among us, in fact heading our government - we have to pause and think . Who are we now? I keep remembering what my mother would say about potty-mouthed perpetrators.
She'd say, "they were brought up in a barn, " in utter disgust. Our president leads the pack of this type of lower , badly brought up dude - the type you discount , discredit and ignore. The puzzle is how he got elected and who still likes him. Those "fans" at his
rallies blow my mind - the bottom rung of humanity who appear to
accept the awful things Trump says and does. I keep wondering why and who taught them such nasty ways to accept and extol.
I guess fascism was like that under Hitler - evil, nasty thoughts
became part of the culture then - loyalty, faith to a negative, destructive reality was de rigeur. It appears to be infecting us now.
There is no respect for truth any more - as we descend , and the
warning signs are there for us. Birtherism was the start, and this
loyalty to party over country is with us in congress. It is all too frightening , all too prescient in our lives today. Where are our guard rails? Who can help America now.....
7
Gail:
Could you please write a column every day - maybe even several times a day? I swear you are the only way I can get through this!
8
We all know what a horrible human being this man is. Can we just stop writing about him already? Ignore him and maybe he will go away.
Total Trump Fatigue
5
I love your columns! Thank you
5
Little fingers, little man!
7
I for one don't doubt that all Republican politicians have done something equivalent to calling a woman "Horseface" at some point. It's probably the main reason millions of no-class white guys steadfastly support them. When you're a loser put-downs are about all you've got.
8
The misogynist and unhinged man in the Oval Office obviously suffers not only from projection defense mechanism, but also mommy-issues.
Where is Dr. Freud when we need him?
10
While I understand the impulse to compare Trump's penchant for insulting people to the behavior of a 3rd grader, I would like to remind everyone that calling someone "Horseface" would be inappropriate and unacceptable from an actual 3rd grader. They know better.
10
Clearly his insults to women are lifelong sexism, and not just some political tactic to get votes from fired up old white men. He is truly like this, as it seems are the republicans. So how could they get upset at Trump? How could they turn against their own nature? Thanks Gail for reminding us how long and imbedded these insults are: dating back to birth and inception. His bigotry and misogyny are who he is, and a fabric of the GOWP (Grand Old White Party). I still like Stormy’s insults of fighting fire with fire. Don’t take it lying down (no pun intended Stormy).
5
In the 1944 film Wilson, about our 28th president, there was a scene where someone said to the president, "You, sir, are no gentleman."
And Wilson replied, "And you are no judge."
That seems to be where we are with Donald. He really hasn't the perspicacity to discern.
1
Has anyone ever interviewed Trump's sister? How doesn't she feel about a brother who calls women names and.....oh, lots of other things.
7
We make fun of Trump and he deserves it. We are disgusted with Trump and he has earned it. We detest Trump but his supporters adore him. They are his lovers.
Trumps lovers overlook his shortcomings. Since Stormy has pointed out just how tiny Trump is, we can better understand how his supporters can overlook his shortcomings. Perhaps too difficult for the morally blind to see with the human eye.
In the end, Trump will have his many lovers. They are bedded to him and we are told we mustn't call them names or look down on them. They are just frustrated lovers, looking for love in all the wrong places. They are blind lovers...unable to read a moral compass, unable to find tiny Trump no matter how vigorously they grope.
5
Speaking of game of thrones, perhaps mr trump is a thrones junkie and binge watcher. The man has been compared to many people and things not the least is the back of a horse but I wonder what historians make of and how they rank him. Let historians handicap mr trump. I’ll bet he is close to Napoleon. Then figure out which of the various missteps, to choose from, will be his Waterloo. Perhaps the pop group abba would permit the democrats to use the song. Like a Bobby fisher/Boris Spassky chess psych-out.
2
How can you claim Trump doesn't like owning a pet - he's had three, thus far.
Include his daughter Ivanka, and it's 3.5.
And counting.
7
Enough with the excuses, Republicans! “We all make say things we shouldn’t.” “Boys will be boys!”
Watch Leslie Stahl’s interview on 60 Minutes, and tell me you do not know the character and the incompetence of Donald Trump. He can’t engage, he can’t answer the simplest question without flipping it around, and he sure can’t take criticism.
Own him, Republicans — own his pettiness, his cruelty, his inability to think and speak clearly, his payoffs to women not his wife, his bullying, his unreleased taxes, the ease with which he can be distracted, his poor judgment about our enemies and our friends! He’s your boy, and he defines your party now!
9
I wrote in my High School Yearbook, "Wants to become a journalist." I did not.
Sadly, apparently it is a concept as dormant as Print.
Of an entire Universe to perceive, this is sawdust;
Choose Stardust.
Yes, it is bad for the president to call a woman a "horse face." But it is worse for a president to issue a personal insult based on someone's looks or behavior, period.
This man is a particularly obnoxious pre-teen. Aren't we worried about the other sorts of erratic, destructive behavior that such kids manifest?
3
Dissecting jokes to analyze what makes them funny is sometimes difficult, but it’s not impossible. After reading your comment, I thought for a long time, trying to figure out why calling a woman “horseface” would be funny. I couldn’t. I even had a hard time following your analysis of what makes it funny. According to your comment, it is because “in our society we are not allowed to say such things.” Seriously? Doing things you aren’t supposed to do makes for humor? Go rob a bank and see how many laughs you get. Totally hilarious. Or is it just SAYING things you aren’t supposed to say that makes them funny? Here’s one you are really going to love: “That Khashoggi guy was so fat, he deserved to be carved into smaller pieces.” What kind of person are you?
1
How did we get here?
How?
11
Yes, Trump is appalling, and the most appalling aspect is his attitude towards women. But let’s not go to the barricades for an optimistic porn “star” who was likely paid for sex with Trump (couldn’t have been for love) and who knew, or was wilfully blind that he was married.
2
Thanks, Gail. Love to read your column. You’re one beautiful person.
11
If it came down to a Presidential election choice between a savvy and intelligent businesswoman adult movie star and a functionally illiterate psychopath, I'd pick Stormy every time.
Strange world.
8
The mushroom can insult Stormy all he wants, she owned him.
4
@S
So true. When he wouldn't stop talking about himself, she told told him to drop 'em for a spanking with his rolled-up magazine. Cover boy complied.
Hope the magazine was red-bagged as a biohazard.
Something new to honor Trump: tiny. He's got to love the exchange of insults and name calling. Too many Democratic candidates are humorless this season. For heaven's sake, start referring to him as "tiny Trump." It won't take much to prompt a response and for the time being at least, the response will be verbal, non-violent.
Winston Churchill cleverly ridiculed Hitler relentlessly on BBC broadcasts during WW II. The mad dictator is reported to have monitored them and would often become even more unraveled.
6
"A well known thousandaire" must have cut Trump big deeply, with his obsession about lying about how rich he is.
Well played, Gail!
10
You go, Gail! Hoping your take on Trump here may wake up some of the women who would otherwise -- inexplicably -- vote for him. OMG!
4
"Donald Trump will never measure up with Warren Harding." What a great line.
4
I take great exception to Donald Trump insulting horses, in particular, and dogs. These are two of the finest creatures in existence. That, however, cannot be said about this guy.
Having experienced more than my share of cruel, mean and demeaning insults, those were extremely painful and horrible moments and periods of my life. But I got revenge. I refused to allow those cheap and tawdry words to control how I saw and felt about myself. I became stronger and more adamant about succeeding in every endeavor I chose. At the end of each day, I always feel better about myself than when I woke up. I also find something to compliment someone about every day.
People who state and shout such hatred and meanness about others are deflecting their own negativity, insecurity and dark aspects of their own soul and heart (if they even possess one). Most people like that I eventually feel sorry for. But this guy? I don't think so. At least not in MY life time.
12
Washington has become a sewer. Trump, a loudmouth, uncouth brute, has badly tarnished the institution of the presidency together with his enablers, McConnel, Ryan and Nunez . Do the Democrats really have to be down at their level to win? I'm a Democrat and voted for Hillary and Elizabeth Warren puts me off - herself caustic and a bit intemperate. Engaging in this little contest to prove that she has a few drops of Native American blood in her veins was a childish exercise. With such scenes in our country's politics, prior dead presidents would turn over in their graves. We need another candidate with the smooth, classy approach of a Kennedy to rout these Republican neanderthals. We have none.
Please, Gail, share the "thousandaire" column again. All of us are feeling nostalgic for the good old days when T was not in the White House.
9
Gail: I suggest that you and all other women who have been the subject of Trump's sexism should proudly post your pictures together with Trump's misogynistic and juvenile insults. Call it the Horsefacebook Page.
11
Should we learn from Trump? How about a national campaign to come up with an appropriate nickname for him? "Tiny" wouldn't be bad (Thank you, Stormy). "Fatso" is also good. For those who say that it's disrespectful to treat a president this way, let's acknowledge that he has repeatedly tarnished the office.
8
You go Gail! He is on the way to being a thousandaire again when his tax evasions come home to roost!
5
"woman [...] decidedly hard to insult," "thousandaire," "never measure up to Warren Harding." Now, that's devastating.
Gail, you provide the only laughs I get out of this administration. Long may you wave.
9
Stormy may be a horseface—it’s all in the eye of the beholder, but Trump clearly does not have any anatomical part which can be compared to a horse. Except maybe his breath.
9
That face my friend, might be the face of your doom...
4
What is worse than Trump's words?
His actions. Just the most recent is denying a journalist's brutal murder because there's money to be made from the murderers.
5
Wow, lots of projection in that pig-dog-liar note. And I think the horse should have insisted on retaining the name Alibi out of family loyalty.
What I find fascinating is that all you journalists and Native Americans are now attacking Elizabeth Warren not the man who demeaned her. Just as you gave life to the birther movement. I had to laugh when Melania pouted when she said she was cyber bullied! She - the faithful supporter of hubby’s paranoia.
4
I hope all women that for whatever reason support Trump take a good hard look in the mirror. If you are not a 9 or 10 would you appreciate what disgusting things he would say about your looks? To normal people looks don't matter only personality,intelligence and decency do.
4
Call me old school (without the misogyny), but calling people anything (excluding if they are a liar) is beneath any political office. (or beneath anyone really)
The English language is vast, and perhaps (again) I miss yesteryear when politicians used the full extent of it to come up with imaginative ways to take their opponents down a few notches.
I find this President nothing but vulgar. There is no better apt descriptive for him, but then again, I could use:
boorish,
coarse,
crude,
disgusting,
filthy,
impolite,
indecent,
nasty,
naughty,
obscene,
off-color,
profane,
tasteless,
tawdry,
cheap,
common,
contemptible,
dishonorable,
fractious,
gross,
ignoble,
improper,
indecorous,
indelicate,
inferior,
low,
malicious,
odious,
raw,
repulsive, and come to the same conclusion.
(feel free to add)
5
You are the best, Ms. Collins! That's all..
4
Love the thousandaire thing! In light of his refusal to show his tax returns, please revisit the term!
2
Tiny Trump. I like it. Thanks, Stormy.
4
Thanks for giving me a good laugh......we all need it.
4
Dear Gail, you’ve made me cry I was laughing so hard. We all need a day-brightener like this column today.
2
Clearly Gail you have a way with words and DJT writes and communicates at about a sixth grade level. I have grown very suspicious of Wharton.
4
@Steve
He was an undergrad only. You thought he got the coveted Wharton MBA? Nope.
Not surprised DJT would be drawn to purchase a horse named Alibi. That should be his security code name. Definitely not surprised that he would refuse to pay for it - under any circumstances. His “Horse face” routine is part of a tired act. He puts the bore in boorish.
2
Trump bought a race horse named Alibi? Wow. A loser with a built-in excuse.
Trump's obnoxious, immature behavior just continues to astonish. I have to think that congressional Republicans believe that they have all sold their souls to the devil. The mid-terms could easily sweep many of them out of office. They can take their tax cut and hop on their get-away wagons hitched to Trump, who rides his Alibi into the sunset.
3
I found myself laughing out load in public as I read this column. I have to admit that it conveyed a series of misadventures that reminded me of the better comedies that I’ve read or have seen in the cinema. Bravo!
1
Trump's insults of women are graphic and offensive. But Trump insults anybody he cares to insult using whatever offensive language that comes to his mind. Bob Woodward wrote of the many insults Trump directs at his male advisers, including calling Reince Priebus "a little rat", saying H.R. McMaster "dressed in cheap suits like a beer salesman," telling Wilbur Ross he was past his prime, and attacking Jeff Sessions' manhood, and stating that he was mentally retarded and a dumb Southerner.
Woodward included many more examples and concluded that "Few in Trump’s orbit were protected from the president’s insults." And Trump saved the most offensive of his insults for a disabled Times reporter."
Trump is an equal opportunity insulter, and he often goes for the jugular. While he often insults women in ways that relate to their appearances, his insults of men are no less offensive. I think the better view is that Trump insults just about everybody and consistently attacks perceived vulnerabilities. The insult is second nature to Trump and his attacks on men are plenty cruel. Whether he is more cruel of offensive toward women is up for debate.
2
From Marilyn Monroe to Stormy Daniels. The presidency sure ain't what it used to be.
And while we're on the subject, can we get up a crowd fund or something to get senator Kennedy to change his name? It's jarring to someone of my generation when he spouts some ignorant right wing nonsense.
5
"I believe I speak for all of America"
You do not. Thanks for the thought.
It's probably good that Trump doesn't like dogs as I would not want to have any dog in the same room or house with Trump. Wonder if he has ever even petted a dog?
He doesn't have the smarts to realize what dogs do for people.
2
Horses and genitals-if the conversation on Trump’s presidency were limited to these two topics, it would be elevated a thousandaire fold.
3
That was a fun article to read, Ms. Collins, thanks!
One item that scared me (I'm shocked to find I have room to get more scared re:Trump) Kennedy GOP-Splainin: "the president gets anxious when he has unexpressed thoughts."
If there's one sentence I've heard that illustrates this man should never be around heavy machinery, or running a country, this is it. You're saying he's like a pre-teen child that can't control their impulses. Or perhaps a person with a crippling mental health issue that requires lots of medication. Hey GOP! Wake Up! This is your guy.
This is HIS party explaining away why it's not a problem the president is incapable of adult behavior. This is openly twisted. If a democrat would've said the same thing, Tucker Carlson would get so squinched eyebrows, he'd only be eating at drive-throughs the rest of his life.
CONGRESS! WAKE UP and put the COUNTRY FIRST!!
3
Trump never grew out of his high school mean girl phase. He’s always felt entittled to flex his self appointed top dog status and put people down at every opportunity. Depending on your political persuasion, it’s either a feature or a major flaw. But one thing for sure, absent dementia, he’s never going to outgrow it.
Republicans thought they needed to court more minority voters after Obama wiped the floor with them in 2008. After Trump they’ll need to mend fences with minorities AND women. But somehow I think they’ll instead double down on propaganda ($$$) and voter suppression. That’s why seating Brett Kavanaugh was an urgent priority. The founders weren’t strong on the right’s of the same folks denigrated by the modern Republican Party.
4
Having Trump in the WH is like a watching a long drawn out third rate horror film replete with chainsaws, creaking doors and evil clowns.
6
My father gave me this advice.
"Never trust a man who doesn't like dogs."
Wise man my father.
5
Oh Gail, if only he had just remained that delusional and annoying thousandaire. I long for the days when only New Yorkers knew how really awful this man is. It sure is hard to even muster up a chuckle lately, so thanks for your valiant efforts. Maybe someday after this nightmare ends we might all look back and be able to have a long, rueful laugh at this farce. Maybe.
5
'Kennedy unhelpfully added that he believes the president “grows anxious when he has unexpressed thoughts."'
With all of Trump's explosive verbal diarrhea at his rallies, on Fox News, and in his tweets, there's actually MORE?
4
Maybe the worst part is that he’s been waiting for this case to be thrown out for ages, looping in his mind how he was would finally bite back. His killer smack down was likely months in the making. So, he finally gets unleashed and all of that venom results in “horseface.”
Not only does it have the class of someone who would sleep with a stripper while their wife was recovering from childbirth, it has the sharp wit of a humiliated first-grader’s playground comeback.
4
Trump is cruel. The idea of him anywhere near an innocent creature terrifies me.
How is he not in jail?
5
That horse story, if true, is so much worse than Mittens strapping his dog to the top of the car.
This story must be repeated incessantly until Alibi is avenged by D.J. Trump's impeachment (or more likely, his loss in 2020 considering these ineffectual morally compromised clowns in the Senate.)
Cruelty to animals is disqualifying for a President. That's why all horsefaces and dogs will kick and bite DJT until he's out of the White House.
4
Would it be possible for you to tell us when & where you referred to Trump as a "thousandaire"?
OR reprint part of the column some slow news day?
A classy put-down of a guy who has none.
4
Whenever Trump says something derogatory, I try (and fail) to imagine his words emanating from the mouth of one of his predecessors. Seriously, can anyone envision Presidents Obama, Bush 41 or 43, Clinton, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy or Eisenhower (just to name the POTUSes of my own lifetime) calling a woman a "horseface"? I can't -- not even LBJ, who could be crude.
I can't wait for the day Donald Trump can no longer inflict his damaged psyche on the rest of humanity.
12
“Bad plan”? Not at all. The people who are offended by his statements were not going to vote for him anyway. Plus it keeps his supporters excited ... he’s sticking it to those so-and-sos again.
I can not recall ever seeing him at a campaign rally saying “Hi Cutie, thanks for supporting me, you’re a cow”...
It seems to me that he’s sticking to a script that worked amazingly well for him and his fellow travelers 2 years ago...
2
Once again, Gail Collins provides a breath of fresh air blowing through the cesspool created by "President" Trump and the GOP.
It’s laughable how someone who looks and behaves like the frumpy and boorish Donald Trump has the gall to comment negatively on anyone's looks. Aside from the fact that Trump has thousands of dollars why would anyone be attracted to him on any level?
His dislike of and cruelty toward members of the Animal Kingdom --besides his disdain of most humans (people of color, foreigners, women, the disabled, LGBT people, poor people, people who do not openly adore and obey him) -- is just one more reason to find him objectionable. (Oddly, this is one area in which Trump differs from his alleged role model, murderous tyrant Adolf Hitler, who reportedly loved dog and all animals.)
But then Trump has his own substitute for dogs --staff members, Republicans in Congress, his Cabinet – that grovel at his feet, but with far less dignity, integrity or loyalty than the average canine demonstrates to its human companions.
In the end, it will likely be women who do Donald Trump in, whether it's media correspondents, women such as Stormy Daniels with whom he has personally tangled (so to speak) or women across America who are fed up and will cast their votes to block or banish him, and to show both him and his GOP that they've been all this time barking up the wrong tree.
5
I love you Gail Collins! You are preserving what remaining sense of humor I have!!!
6
1) Gail Collins has the face of a smart, kind, capable and beautiful woman
2) Stormy Daniel's response to Trump on Twitter has nearly twice the likes as his pathetic tweet calling her horseface
and
3 )Ladies, let's get out there and vote like the quality of our life depends upon it! Because...it does.
15
Oh Gail - Thank you!
I remember that column. From now on I'll always think of POTUS as "Tiny Thouandaire Trump" (Except when he is being military, then "Corporal Bone Spurs" takes precedence.)
8
''Trump once sent me a marked-up copy of a column I’d written about him, with an arrow pointing to my picture and the inscription “face of a pig.” There was also a note about my being “a dog and a liar.”
I wonder as they say on "Antiques Roadshow" what the auction estimate of the piece would be?
7
When I thought it just couldn't get any worse with covering up the murder of journalists, massive conflicts of interest, caging children and much, much, more, along comes Gail and says "...I’ve always enjoyed writing about the face-of-a-pig message he sent me. At the time Trump was in serious financial difficulties, I referred to him in a column as a well-known “thousandaire.”
Just desserts. Please vote and end the national nightmare.
11
So, I just have to say: love “thousandaire.” Well done, Ms. Collins!
5
Of course you did Gail. Your insights into DJT were cogent, true and funny. He's just flailing his short arms around trying to be noticed. He's ineffectual and dull-witted. No competition for you really.
His act is getting old. Hard to believe it will have the same effect on voters - they liked thumbing their noses at the powers that be last time - and boy did they hate Hilary. Mid-terms? I think the all politics is local will combine with disgust for crass, brutish, hateful greediness for a decent Blue showing. We'll see.
5
Trump knows better. He does not care. He thinks he is winning. He will go down in history as a very mean bully. He is no good.
5
Yes, Gail's pig story is amusing, but the story of Donald J. Trump and his most unfortunate horse should be enough to end his influence and his presidency.
5
Just another reminder that our POTUS has the emotional maturity of a 3 year old. Sad!
6
Thanks, Gail. I needed that laugh.
3
One has to wonder if Donald Trump has looked in the mirror lately.
7
Hooray!! One of Ms. Collins's Greatest Hits--calling Trump a "thousandaire"--has reappeared in today's column! Back in the day this highly accurate jab drove Trump crazy, it was absolutely delightful. Here's to the continued use of "thousandaire" going forward.
7
“We’ve all done something like that before.” To which Kennedy unhelpfully added that he believes the president “grows anxious when he has unexpressed thoughts.”
Wow! What an amazing excuse Kennedy offered for Trump's disgusting behavior.
For the sake of history, maybe the New York Times, as the newspaper of record, should keep track and keep us informed occasionally of the many creative ways Republican politicians find to excuse and explain away Trump's bad behavior.
Maybe like all those same old tired talking points GOP politicians pull out on just about any crucial issue, they have somewhere in the basement of the Capitol a list of ready-made excuses for Trump that can be accessed at a moment's notice to explain what stupid thing Trump said or did now.
Trump: Making American history one terrible insult or cruel act at a time.
6
People seem to have trouble figuring out Donald Trump. Until this whole joke discussion cane up, it never occurred to me that the things that come out of Trump’s mouth were actually jokes and the only question was whether they were good jokes or bad jokes. I thought they were just . . . well . . . insults. Maybe it is because this country has not truly identified what Trump really is. I have heard “narcissist”, “incompetent”, “ignorant”, and quite a few other things. But, as far as I know, not one person has ever accurately described what he is . . . a sadist. All this stuff about liking him or voting for him because he’s not PC is eyewash. If you like him and you vote for him and you think he is funny, it is because there is something about sadism that appeals to you.
10
Clearly the time has come for the President to enjoy the privilege of a injudicious nickname. It’s tempting to go creative, but I would advocate a more schoolkids-in-the-playground classic. “Fatty” or “Tubby” would be my suggestion. Doesn’t sound so terrible? Trust me; he’ll hate it.
3
@Conn Nugent I think he coined the best nickname the other night on CBS.
Baby Don.
John
1
"I believe I speak for all of America when I say that having Donald Trump as president is bad enough without having to think about his genitals. Really, this is way, way worse than previous revelations that Lyndon Johnson called his 'Jumbo' and Warren Harding’s was 'Jerry.'"
It is just after 4:00 in the morning in Norfolk, Virginia, and I am sitting in my comfortable chair AGAIN, having just read the paragraph above, and laughing so hard I had to get up and splash some water on my face. That first sentence did me in.
What Ms. Collins does for my day is to give mr a brief moment in which I can experience the good, healthy belly laugh that was possible before this presidency, before all those appointments that began--in case we forget--with Steve Bannon, before the children who are still out there in tents somewhere, forgotten, before withdrawal from the Paris Accord and the Iran nuclear deal, before a journalist was tortured and murdered and chopped into pieces, the architects of his murder defended by our president.
Nothing is right in this world we have all contributed to creating, and a laugh like this can heal the soul.
As for Ms. Daniels, let me just say 'Thank You' --if for nothing else, your wonderful words to Donald Trump (and I hope to all the Donald Trumps out there): "Game on, Tiny."
Hurray Gail and Stormy.
12
Did Trump ever tell SD that she looked like Ivanka? Now what? More "unexpressed thoughts"?
4
I look at all those cheering crowds at a Trump rally---cheering insult after insult and lie after lie...I just don't feel a part of this country anymore. It is one thing to disagree with an administration's policy and quite another to be morally repulsed by blatant racism and a thuggists behavior. What disturbs me most is not Trump, but all those slavish Republicans who clearly have sold their soul to the devil.
34
Those crowds are cherry picked and represent a fraction of the people. They are not the country. You are.
5
Great column on the sexist 3rd grader who constantly causes offensive odors.
He clearly doesn't have the IQ of a horse or pig or poodle.
Not sure where he is on the scale of evolution, seems he's below a scallop.
And why doesn't he provide an image from an electron microscope to settle the other debate once and for all.
Hope Stormy continues to play a role in bringing the buffoon down. The rest of us need to do our part too of course.
6
You got me at “he hates dogs”... My grandma, may she Rest In Peace, told me never to trust anybody who doesn’t like dogs. She was right! Thanks, grandma.
18
I find it fascinating that a man with so many physical and psychological "shortcomings", continually seeks abuse. I know he likes the fight involved in his comments, but he is also a coward who can easily retreat into, "I didn't say that." D Trump has an undeveloped mind; he is an immature school yard bully. Unfortunately, he is also the President of the United States. Sad.
7
Tiny, the well-known thousandaire.
7
Unpardonnable sin to be unkind to defenseless animals, so Ms. Collins is to be thanked for the revelation re the poor horse and the poodle. But,"tel pere tel fils,"since both sons revel in canned hunting in east Africa, where lions are within an enclosure and shot at mercilessly by Eric and Donald Jr..Reminds 1 of EH's "The Short Happy Life of Francis McComber " but at least the protagonist did risk his own life at the end to prove his "courage" to his wife.I am first to admit that in many respects the Trumps r a disappointment:" Degoutant, tout a fait degoutant!"
2
Men that cheat, almost always demean the type of women they cheat with, as it elevates their own sense of superiority they need to absolve them of all the despicable behavior they engage in. Live in a small town long enough, and it makes both Washington, and New York, look like saintly cities, and it is only because those in small towns also believe they are full of salvation. At least in Washington or New York, when they fall with a time of two, or three, or four of adultery, they know they have been had, by themselves, and they have no one to blame but their own selfishness, and stupidity. I think that Stormy Daniels is a very attractive person, which is probably why she did so well in her line of work. She has a beautiful and unique look, unlike our President who should forgo the sun tan bed, and the orange racoon eyes. Trump's stress of bad business deals, and sexually predatory behavior, probably made him over eat so much bad food, that he is nothing to look at, but his motor mouth is what is sinking him fast.
7
I have never been able to forget the inadvertent piece of feedback provided by someone from another country regarding our esteemed narcissist. This person wondered about our new leader with the orange skin and white circles around his eyes and his strange hair. Have we grown so used to this clown makeup that we don't appreciate how the rest of the world sees his appearance? And he has the gall to make comments about the appearance of others???
14
he has a penchant for horses? he once told Stormy that she reminded him of his daughter... so does he call Ivanka "My Little Pony"?
16
Trump the great deal maker should just make a bargain with Stormy. He seems to be pretty clumsy with under the table cash, but maybe she'd like a well paying public job in the administration? I hear that Nicky Haley is leaving as ambassador to the UN.
3
Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana said, “We’ve all done something like that before.” And during the Kavanaugh hearings we heard this same ridiculous assertion bandied about as if it were a fact--when of course it's not.
And who's "we"? Speak for yourself, Mr. Kennedy--and anyone else who thinks that juvenile, boorish, and demeaning taunts can be so illogically justified. Go ahead and lump yourself in with the insecure louts guilty of doing "something like that." But, please, leave the rest of us out of it.
11
I have a few (unprintable) thoughts I'll leave unexpressed....
It says something about the state of our country that this man is tolerated, even venerated.
We are toast.
9
There are insults and there arre insults. Some are tasteless and unacceptable some are inocuous and intended as laugh lines. The latter are of the yo mama type. It is important to make the distinction.
Taking humor seriously marks you as a wet fish. Outrage at cruelty is standing up to what is unacceptable. If you make the distinction you win the exchange.
2
Why is it a "minor victory" when the judge throws out the case and requires the porn star and her legal team to pay the presidents legal fees. Sounds to me like she lost he won, unless you want to try to try explain it away & talk endlessly about how its not a really a victory. Fact: shes paying.
1
@sabcv
It is a minor victory because Stormy has another bigger lawsuit pending.
3
"I believe I speak for all of America when I say that having Donald Trump as president is bad enough without having to think about his genitals."
Well, we can laugh or cry. It's so easy to cry with everything Trump has done. So, I think I'll try laughing for a change...and thank Stormy Daniels for sticking it to Trump.
Here's hoping we can laugh the day after the election. If you want to laugh, then remember to
VOTE OUT ALL REPUBLICANS
8
Let's all just hope that Daniels' "Game on, Tiny." doesn't provoke him to provide evidence regarding the short form vs. the long form. We don't need to know.
Though the promised tax returns would be a nice revelation - you know: "Promises kept".
9
Given Trump’s unbelievable compulsion to blow up his own lawyers’ carefully crafted defenses made me not surprised at all to hear that he bought, then threw away, a perfect Alibi.
3
While your column is, of course, funny, what’s NOT amusing is that Trump has taken misogyny & made it, as well as numerous previous presidential protocols & Congressional rules, as the “new norm”. Do something, say something enough times, w a podium that reaches out thru the entire country (really, the entire world) & that type of speaking no longer has the same punch or outrage that it does the 1st time it happened. So the 100th or 1000th time Trump says/does something demeaning 2 a woman, the response NOW is “well that’s Trump.”
Except that as Pres of the country, Trump frequently speaks 4 all of America, & young kids &/or teens won’t make a distinction btn when he’s doing 1 or the other. So the young men of America (unless firmly told NO, u don’t speak that way!) can easily believe it’s ok 2 talk 2 girls in that manner. Basically, he’s making misogyny a “norm” 4 boys & it will take THAT MUCH MORE time & effort just 2 get them back 2 a baseline, let alone the idea that they should respect women & treat them as they would wish others treat their female family members.
It’s NOT OK that the leader of our country demeans not just women, but most ethic & minority groups as well, & that while speaking DOWN 2 all of those ppl, he states unequivocally how much he likes & admires all despots & authoritarians thruout the world.
There’s a disconnect bet. Trump & the ppl of America (except during rallies) & it’s truly frightening how much his speeches reflect those of Hitler, et al.
6
The amazing thing is that Trump never looks back. He seems to be a man without a conscious, always doubling down on the ridiculous statement he previous said. It is mystifying how this ignoramus is president. Clearly, the electoral college system needs to be removed. It was a pure embarrassment that George W. Bush, who was bullied by his own staff into starting wars, became president without winning the popular vote. Now, we have the massive loser of the popular vote: Trump. The US is the laughingstock of the free world due to Trump. He is a fraud that the GOP bows to in district after district. Unreal and insane. I feel like I live in an alternate universe.
5
You mean he wasn't praising her delicate equine features in the same breath that he promoted Avenatti two ranks?
1
I had never heard the horse story, which deepens my dislike of him (if this is possible) and my depression that such a vile individual can be president.
12
Wow! I knew he was not an animal-lover but trying to banish a Poodle? How low can one go? And this business with Alibi is just animal-cruelty for which he ought to have been arrested. I'd much prefer Stormy Daniels as president over that "pig-horse-face," "Tiny" Trump (which is an offense to pigs and horses but at least "Tiny" knows what it means.
4
First Lady Stormy, clearly the (Be) Best thing of this tail.
6
Call me sheltered.
I’ve been in the workforce a long time - decades. I have never had a CEO who would have gotten away with the lingo that Donald Trump gets away with. Truth is, those CEO’s had no desire to speak and behave the way he does.
But no one holds The Donald accountable. Hillary Clinton couldn’t. Billy Bush couldn’t. All the TV network interviewers try, to a certain extent, but to no avail. Sean Spicer couldn’t. John Kelly can’t. Melania takes off to Africa when the kitchen gets too hot, and Ivanka is part of the problem - allowing a dad to say he would date you? I mean.....
Then there are those that not only do not try to stop Trump’s grotesque remarks and behaviors, they promote it - the Republicans, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s cabinet, Kellyanne Conway, Steve Bannon, maybe even Jared, and more.
But the hardest promoters for me to wrap my head around are his supporters - you know the cheerers at the rallies. There are men and women who seem to want more, more, more of his classless, gross comments and name calling.
Women in the crowds, you need to know Donald Trump thinks you are crosses between horse faces and dogs too!
8
Love the “thousandaire” sobriquet. Also, don’t understand why Johnson didn’t just stick with “Johnson”?
7
"At the time Trump was in serious financial difficulties, I referred to him in a column as a well-known “thousandaire.”
Clearly I hurt him more than he did me."
I know it's not the best thing - but - schadenfreude!! Love it, Love it, Love it.
6
Trump gets a lot more attention from his eccentric responses to the challenges he faces than issues like global warming do. In twenty years we face severe climate problems that could be averted by acting decisively over the next ten to reduce the use of coal by 45%, but nearly no news coverage nor comments by officials in our government. What gets attention is the President’s school yard bickering over a sexual matter and his usual barrage of untruths and ill considered views distracting the news from more meaningful concerns. He’s trying to spin Saudi Arabia’s criminal act in murdering a journalist into a poorly considered act gone wrong, after too many facts are out for anyone to believe it. Everyone watches fully aware of what deception is being attempted and knowing that Trump will pretend that it’s true.
In this column his behaviors take on a different context of a man addressing the challenges of his life eccentrically with attempts to avoid them or to reframe them to suit his wishes and even creating bigger problems from smaller ones. I found myself laughing at a comedy worthy of a master comedian. A man going through a series of misadventures, where nothing really seems to go the way that he probably intends, but to not seem to be the foil of his own life’s strange path tries to represent it as the product of his genius. Meanwhile, those who observe see that he’s just not getting it.
Trump does not get it and never will because he does not take life seriously.
5
When I look at pictures of Stormy Daniels, I see an almost photogenic face - certainly not a "horse face."
I have a theory about Trump and his aversion to animals, particularly pet dogs. Narcissists are constitutionally unable to own pets. Pets require their owners-caretakers to be able to think about someone or something other than themselves. Pets require a bonding with them that demands you actually care for someone other than yourself. Trump is perhaps the most clinically pure narcissist in the world. Of course he would never own a pet. Thank god.
9
"Bad plan", Gail? What makes you think it's a bad plan?
So far, the bad planners are those who underestimate the appetite of this man's fans for his disgusting words, ideas, and actions.
Last week Steve Bannon was quoted saying that Donald Trump is a man of very high intelligence. That's frightening, because, what if he's right? But the real scary thing is that it makes no difference. Smart or stupid, a huge swath of Americans love him, and will follow him anywhere, even onto the Saudi Embassy, I imagine. Scary is just beginning, whether it's planned or not.
4
But it wasn't a bad plan. He called her Horseface once. The mainstream media repeated it a million times since. She will now take that nickname to her grave.
@PMN
No she won't. She already has perfect one: Stormy.
Tiny's plan was bad.
"thousandaire"
This made me laugh out loud. Gail, you made my day.
9
It's astonishing that Sen. John Kennedy, quoted here, was elected to such a formerly august body. He's a first-class clown. And I'm waiting for him to ask Trump if he believes in God, like he did Kavanaugh, and then ask him to swear before God that he always speaks the true. Finally, we can then rest easily that the man in the oval office is not a liar.
10
@Number23: If one never claims to know what any hypothetical "God" thinks and mocks those who do, one is not considered trustworthy in the US, because we are not subject to worries about what happens to us after death.
Paula Ryan is go gutless. 'He should not have said that'. Ryan is nearly an invisible presence, a man so banal and insignificant that he seems only good for making mildly disapproving statements about our bratty, overgrown child of a president. But behind the banality of the House Speaker and the gross rudeness of our Fearless Leader lies a murky underworld of such contempt and decay that it boggles the mind. It is truly frightening to watch our government falling apart.
8
@mikeo26 Fortunately, Ryan is retiring. Hopefully, he will find his loyalty to the country and become a trump critic now that he isn't seeking trump's approval.
2
Sorry, Stormy: Trump has no idea what "penchant" means. Nor does his base.
9
Poor Donald, such a tiny man who wants to be big. Poor us, Donald is in an office which makes him feel immeasurably bigger than he is or could ever be.
6
I feel like we’re living in a never ending episode of “The Man in the High Castle” - this CAN’T really be happening. . .but it is!
Trump is nothing more than a huckster charlatan, and the American people got taken. Plain and simple. He fooled us once - shame on him, but if he fools us twice, then I guess we get our just desserts.
5
Stormy is yesterday’s news. We know he hates women, except when he is being serviced by them. Got that.
At this point his approval of the Saudi murder and the complete loss of law and order should be setting off red alerts, even in people who support him. Finally some in the business community are waking up...after all it could happen to them if Bin Salman didn’t like their deal...Trump famously said he could commit murder on the streets of New York and no one would care. To ensure our saftety, we need Trump in jail.
9
“So, Donald Trump called Stormy Daniels “Horseface.” Truly, I thought that after the first two or three or 12 incidents of comparing women to animals, he’d have figured out it was a bad plan.”
It’s not a bad plan at all! This is the kind of stuff that Trump’s base eats up. They absolutely love it.
And therein lies the problem. The Deplorables.
7
Beats being the other end of the horse, dyed orange.
8
You wrote..."At the time Trump was in serious financial difficulties, I referred to him in a column as a well-known “thousandaire.”
The irony of these last two years is that American suckers bailed out a con artist who in deep financial debt to Russian oligarchs. Now, we're on the hook to provide a lifetime of secret service bodyguards for him and his grifter family. Thanks deplorables for sticking us with his bills.
5
On the subject of "Tiny", a Pakistani friend of mine reminded me last evening that Trump is in good company.
In a book written by his ex-wife, Gemima Goldsmith, there is a reference to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan as a "tall man with very small assets." Something like Mr Thousandaire?
The US President should cut himself loose from Mr. Bone Saw and send Jared Kushner to cultivate a famous cricketer who many of us truly admire - as a great cricketer - despite his allegedly small assets.
Doubtless we're never get into the "Tiny" game... or will we? You don't suppose that during the 2020 "debates" there might be an "unveiling"?
Oh, nooo....
1
Trump is nothing if not entertaining, but his performance art is a distraction. Trump and his minions have done immense damage to this country while all of us were mesmerized by his antics. I wish I could laugh with you, but I no longer find Trump funny. Not at all.
8
It starts with name-calling and progresses to authoritarian repression.
I believe that Trump's supporters are so drawn to him because he has no governor on his mind or mouth. He is like a circus clown who does the things the spectators never dare to do in real life, or like Mort Sahl or Lenny Bruce, whose potty mouth humor is hilarious because they say what the audience can't.
That the MAGA-heads get vicarious pleasure from Trump's misogyny and lies does not speak well for them, but he is the President, so even their guilty enjoyment can be excused in their minds because--well--if the President does it, everyone else has cover. Insult women? Trump does it, so everyone else can too. Attack African Americans in their own homes or public parks, no problem because Trump would approve. Call the cops on Latino citizens, because they are probably illegal and Trump would approve.
This is how fascism starts. The public starts to emulate the leader. and if the leader is a despot, part of the population will emulate that.
20
When I see that Gail has a column in the Times, I can't read anything else until I've read and reread her work. On the other hand, I've worn out three mute buttons on TV remotes to avoid listening to Trump.
8
@Ken Collins Gail is also my first "go-to", since I need to start the day with a laugh or two just to survive the bad news that trump is still destroying our country. When trump appears on the TV screen, I just change the channel since I can't stand to even look at him.
2
Trump is so self loathing that his only apparent recourse is to redirect on others, and in fact, on the entire globe.
5
Is it just me or do others feel like we’re in an endless loop of “Being There”? Without humor, mindless drivel that doesn’t stop and buries us deeper in a pile of putrid lies. Ms Collins is very astute at highlighting the utter absurdity of the drivel, but it remains drivel and the constant dribbling of it is creating a cultural immunity to truth, expertise, knowledge, ethics, facts, and the meaning of being human.
5
“You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.”
-- Richard Nixon on November 7, 1962
Unfortunately, Nixon lied that day, as he did about many things, and he returned to serve two terms (almost) as our President.
Gail Collins writes humorously of our current President, lacking the vocabulary or the wit to express himself effectively when he is foiled yet again by a smart woman, having to respond like a child.
Rather than hearing more of the animal-themed insults directed by Donald Trump at women, we can dream of the day Trump makes his own Nixonian statement to the press.
In the meantime, we can reflect upon progress. Note Nixon’s use of the term, “gentlemen.”
2
Hold on, I thought Eric was horseface!
Just when you thought that man couldn't go any lower.
America please send him a message on the 6th, because the rest of the world is getting just a bit nervous about what he could do next. (if we have nukes, why don't we use them?).
Horses are beautiful animals, and they have their own hair!
10
Gail,
Thanks, as always, for your insight, your wit, and your laser-like focus on the soft, often disgusting underbelly of US politics.
And to Trump, and all those like him: There is nothing on earth sexier or more beautiful than an intelligent woman.
9
Until "The Gray Lady" stops acting like 53% of the white women invoking race privilege for a far more coveted protection at the cost of widening the gender gap about which it seems not to care, it's rapidly forfeiting any solutions and becoming part of the problem at-large.
"The president 'grows anxious when he has unexpressed thoughts.'”
That's rich. First it presumes the man-boy has 'thoughts' (it's questionable that he's evolved highly enough to have real ones), then it posits that the man-boy is capable of leaving anything unexpressed, even the most fleeting and unlikely thing that happens to arrive in his brain pan in the moment.
The man-boy is all id; he is incapable of leaving anything unexpressed. That's how we know what a fool he is.
10
Stormy Daniels is clear about who she is.
That's much more than can be said about President Tiny. Where are his tax returns? Still caught in the endless audit?
Vote him out. Vote his supporters out of Congress.
6
We are all Stormy. (Expressed this thought on behalf of my anxiety level. Which is now lowered. Somewhat).
5
Trump demeans a woman again, not just any woman, but the woman he likely had an affair with after his son was born, and Melania, our Anti-Bullying Czar, remains silent. As much as being subjected to our President's vile words is, I imagine being married to him is even worse.
4
Clearly having an equine or swine visage is preferable to a tiny fungal growth. Stormy Daniels let the stable genius’s secrets out of the barn, and he wants revenge as he did with you, Gail, but both you and Stormy are survivors, and Trump is a cancerous blight on our republic. Gonna blue tsunami him and his cohorts on November 6th. No Alibi is going to work for Trump come Mueller time. And it will be more than his hoof that he will lose.
4
I do worry about the distraction factor inherent in dissecting the inanities that Trump emits. In the same way Trump’s cartoonish qualities make him attractive to those who prefer not to think too deeply, on the other side, his unconscionable vulgarity writ large all the time every day is also too easy to fixate upon. It is almost irresistible, I know, NOT to react to the latest can-you-believe-he-said-that utterance – but as has been pointed out here, dwelling on the insults he spews, wondering whether he has anything “unexpressed” to express, pulls us away from looking at the serious damage his regime is doing elsewhere. Which is maybe obvious, I guess. All I can say is that in my case, the degree of political fatigue I’m trying to fight would lead me to be content to guffaw on a daily basis “What a buffoon.” But we must be more vigilant.
And Gail, if no one has offered it before, permit me say so now: You do not have the face of a pig.
2
Did anyone do a follow-up to Senator Kennedy’s remark and ask him about his affair after his wife delivered their son?
3
Ms Collins - I always love your articles but can’t agree with the last sentence in this one. “Thousandaire” was a great response but it obviously did not hurt him enough — he went on to become the US president. Keep up the good work though. Sooner or later it will all stick on him and his wretched family and I hope to see that day.
I will also quote your “Thousandaire” reference and encourage people to push for their right to see his immoral tax returns.
4
At this point, any woman who supports Donald Trump either has very little self-respect or a very large bank account.
8
But there is a horse connection. Back in the ’80s, Trump acquired a 2-year-old racer named Alibi, which he cruelly renamed D.J. Trump.
According to a former Trump casino official, the future president demanded that the colt be worked out despite the trainer’s concerns that he might be sick. The trainer was right, the horse had to have part of his hooves amputated, and then Trump announced he was not going to pay for a defective horse. So Alibi/D.J. hobbled off into history
Is this true?
I thought Trump was a bad guy but if this is accurate no there is no excuse for anyone to support this guy! No one can not think this guy is an abomination to all that we consider good and humane. There is no excuse for beating your dog or running your horse when it is lame.
5
"Donald Trump will never measure up to Warren Harding." Precious! Thanks, Gail.
9
"Until now, 'dog' seemed to be one of the things Trump particularly liked calling women who ticked him off. I am pretty sure that’s because he hates dogs."
Well, it's also because 12-year-old boys often chuckle at referring to girls they think unattractive as "dogs."
And as we know, the president of the United States aspires to be a 12-year-old boy.
4
Again, Trump's supporters prefer MMA and WWE to Meet the Press.
They like the idea that their president goes for the rabbit punch and the eye gouge.
They looked for any reason to find fault with Obama and every reason to excuse Trump's behavior.
It's sad, really, that they are not independent thinkers.
Oh, yeah, and they really, really hate Hillary Clinton.
Plan accordingly.
3
You never see any tweets from Trump to Melania: How would they go? Perhaps something like this: " You were not my first choice. Or my second. Clearly not my third as I looked elsewhere after you gave birth". I wish Tom Hanks would revive Forrest Gump and run against Mr. Kennedy. So we don't have to rely on Kennedy's lame, misogynistic defense of Trump anymore.
2
I'd pay to see a copy of Trump's 'face-of-a-pig' message. Reading about it is one thing, but the frisson of seeing the presidential id writ large would be well worth it. Scan it and print it!
2
The president has the intelligence and emotional stability of an 8 year old boy.
What does that say about it's minions?
3
45 paid $130k+ for a single pony ride, how much could she have charged if she were good looking.
2
Ms. Collins,
Your continuing humor in the face of current events is heartening. You remind us of our common humanity and the need to laugh at ourselves and this cruel crazy beautiful world we make.
3
Donald Trump is a Master of Diversion, and calling women names is one of his diversionary tactics.
Maybe he doesn't want us to pay attention to money scandals involving himself and his family. Or maybe his coziness with
dictators. Or maybe he doesn't want the poor and middle
class to see that his tax cuts will hurt them and help those who don't need it.
My hope is that the press learns to pay less attention to the diversions and more attention to the things that matter to the voters.
3
What I want to know, which nobody seems to be reporting, is what the heck happened with this trial? This seems like and open-and-shut case. He publicly accused her of lying, knowing full well it wasn't true, in a clear attempt to slander her. And the judge threw it out, and awarded attorney fees besides, because it was just political "hyperbole"?
Stormy Daniels is not a politician, she's a private citizen. What the heck is wrong with this judge?
10
@M. - Kavanaugh isn't the only right wing bought-and-paid-for judge in the courts. The Rs have been packing the courts at all levels with get out of jail free cards.
Interesting that the judge in this case used the term 'hyperbole' which was used by Tony Schwartz to describe Trump's constant lying. Trump reportedly loved the phrase.
3
Is it possible that Alibi will become Trump's Seamus? Any port in the storm.
3
Probably not smart for Trump to be criticizing anyone’s looks. His face is truly piggish, perfectly mirroring the personality behind it and a lifetime of greed and ridiculous self-importance and puffery. He’s so hard to look at print media should do us all a favor and stop printing his picture with any article that mentions him. We know what he looks like and we don’t need to be constantly reminded. He’s like a grotesque apparition that has been inflicted on us by everyone who couldn’t be bothered to vote in 2016 and by whoever decided to shackle us with something as undemocratic and unAmerican as the Electoral College. At least when that face appears on TV we get to change the channel. Let’s pray his show gets cancelled long before 2020.
7
@Peter Stone
Way back in 2016 I downloaded an app called "Make America Kittens Again" which replaces almost every photo of the MAGAt with pix of kittens. It has probably saved my sanity.
4
It is also fun to be reminded that the $130K in hush money was paid by bumbling legal ace and bumbling fixer Michael Cohen, who for some reason thought it was a shrewd idea to use fake names on the confidentiality agreement, and is currently singing like a jailbird.
5
Apparently there are many Americans who will hold their noses and support this emotionally stunted man child through thick and thin only because of purely economic reasons. I cannot recall a more odious person as a public persona except for Don Rickles who famously said, "smart phones, who cares? I only have dummy phones." Likewise Trump uses his dummy phone to express his zingers like horse face, while every parent attempts to explain to their children not to mimic our President's immature behavior. This is truly the downfall of the great American century epitomized in one tweet. The light of American exceptionalism extinguished like the last candle on Trump's birthday cake after he blows his bad breath & germs wishing for more money to buy off people to tell him how great he is.
3
They saw first hand how Trump walked , talked and lived. They didn’t care and voted him in anyway. The so called Christians gave him mulligan after Mulligan now they just cheer lock her up. The party he represents as be in lock step with him as well they shrug and gleeful move their agenda forward. This is Trump and nobody counts but Trump. You voted for him you got him now you live with it. The midterms will tell how this nation will end. We either vote them out or we shame ourselves.
5
Why does Trump dislike dogs? On the one hand, dogs are sincere and look at their human with the same admiration, awe and loyalty that Trump wishes people would treat him. On the other hand, Trump would have to care about the dog, feed it and take care of it. Obviously, with all the toadies and sycophants Trump can find in the human space, the "caring" part was the deal-breaker.
3
Things change. No one should know that better than the man whose most consistent (and possibly most sage) observation is "we'll see what happens." The Presidency is a knot tied at the end of Trump's rope. A knot that is by design temporary. That knot will come undone. And things will change. And we will see what happens.
2
With all Mr. Trump's gloating about Sen. Warren, Ms. Daniels, etc., the overlooked issue is Mr. Trump's adolescent name calling. Add that to the thousands of lies and the many personality disorders (narcissism, misogyny, god complex, etc.) and he truly is a "sad, embarrassing wreck of a man." (George Will)
4
Tiny. Oh man, I gotta use that one.
5
I dread to think of what Stephanie Cliffords calls Donald Trump. Whatever it is, I imagine that it has to do with the other end of the horse.
3
Just a reminder that Republicans who aren’t bothered by this lost their minds when Obama wore a tan suit in the White House.
What a difference skin color makes.
5
Trump's insults against women cannot possibly surprise us at this time in the game. However, what is most perplexing to me and I imagine many others is silence, implying acquiescence, of Melania and Ivanka. It appears that both are nothing but sexual and transactional objects which he would -- toss at the drop of a hat pin--or at the glance of any pretty woman who catches his fancy.
3
@per - Indeed Melania & Ivanka are just products marketed as part of Trump's "brand". They do not have to speak only give easy bland answers to complex questions designed to showcase their "image" rather than their intelligence or insight into current events. This article sheds light on Donald Trump's historical sexism & misogyny as far back as his interview with Ivana when he told Oprah that “There’s not a lot of disagreement because, ultimately, Ivana does exactly as I tell her to do.” and everybody laughed, including Ivana. https://www.newsweek.com/melania-ivanka-donald-trump-brand-golden-handcu...
4
Any epithet thrown at our ugly American in- chief falls short, as his poison, emanating from a deep pit of snakes, is 'killing' any chance of redemption for the damage inflicted to our society and to the world. The most lasting trampling caused by this vulgar and cheap cheat is going to last much beyond his rein of terror, the loss of trust in democratic institutions, and the trust in each other. World order may need realignment without these United States, certainly as long as this fraudster mafia-like remains in power (to abuse it). Now, to his childish behavior, and his continuous need to brag, what an insult to sanity. But Gail, aren't we unjust, by asking Trump to give what he so sorely lacks, decency, maturity and feelings?
1
I've heard many Republicans go on and on about Stormy's looks and occupation and about her supposed shady lawyer. They have so many names for these two which echo and imitate their leader, Donald Trump aka David Dennison (according to Cohen's unsigned NDA)) The Republicans roll their eyes about Trump, yeah he shouldn't say that and all that, then steam up about gold digging Stormy breaking NDAs and how Avenatti gives lawyers a bad name. Meanwhile, Donald is the president -- not Stormy, not Avenatti. They drum up some false equivalence like "yeah Trump said that but look what Stormy did." It's pathetic. We expect more form a president. Stormy's actions. Aventatti's actions should largely be a non-issue. Shine the light on Trump's misogyny, rudeness, lack of class, terrible example for our children; shine a light on his lies, his greed, his cheapness. Bring the president to task for for his deplorable behavior -- leave Stormy alone. Otherwise, you look just as classless, misogynistic and lame as Trump.
5
Was the Romney family dog in the Holiday Rambler adventure really a dog? Or was it a code word for a friskier/ risqué side of Mitt?
The new DC adventure is touring the Capitol in the “Access Hollywood” Shuttle Bus that launched Trump and Billy Bush to new levels of stardom. Relive the now infamous recordings of trumps finer moments in endless loops. They also play Howard Stern interviews from over the decades. The surround sound allows the rider to be fully immersed in trump-o-mania. Listen to his views on the 3/5 ths compromise between woman and men in today’s vernacular. Hail to the Chief!
2
Way, way back in 2005 when we all chuckled about George W. and his wacky vocabulary - I read a book by Mark Singer, entitled "Character Studies: Encounters With the Curiously Obsessed." I don't remember the names of the obsessed people he interviewed other than The Donald. Singer's closing line to Trump was that he lacked a "soul." Thank you Mr. Singer for the forewarning. May we look forward to your epilogue.
4
My daughter got into an argument with her bus driver about Donald Trump--she argued that he had a serious lack of civility. I am very proud of her political awareness.
I'd say I'll be happy when President Trump is fully in my rearview mirror and we can focus on the future, but that presumes I'd actually want to look at the man at all.
Even Jumbo Johnson had more manners and tact, and given how Jumbo was that's saying a lot.
4
I would just like to say that I love you, Gail Collins. Thank you for being a consistent bright spot in the otherwise dark Times.
2
One of the few times an article about 45 gave me a good chuckle, thank you Gail!
2
You gave me a chance to smile, which is almost impossible in the Age of Trump. Thank you.
4
What has happened to us when parents across the country must use the 'president' as an example of what not to do or say? And those to choose to ignore this boorish and misogynistic behavior and speech enable him and their children to do likewise. Our children and society deserve better than this. Or do we? He was 'elected' after all.
2
@just Robert He was not elected. He was appointed by the electoral college. What our children and society deserve is for every single vote to count equally. It should not give added weight to votes of those of a few lessor populated states.
3
I don't know if this is true or not, but according to Trivial Pursuit, Trump's is the only ego large enough to be seen from space.
6
While there is virtually nothing about Trump that doesn't make me want to scream, what troubles me much more than his insulting treatment of women are the millions of people who evidently love this kind of boorish behavior. (And yes, it has to be millions, think about that!) It concerns me greatly that even after he's in our rear view mirror, unable to do any more damage, Trump's admirers will not have changed and will still be having a say in what direction our society goes.
I hope people with better minds than mine are working on a way to lessen their impact, and how to influence the children so they don't perpetuate their parents' attitudes of disrespect, and diminishing of women.That I have to include the mothers, (who are cheering and laughing, right along with the fathers), is something I don't know if I'll ever comprehend.
5
I don't like it when the leader of our country trashes other people. It is bad for society, and a vexation to the spirit.
Period.
6
Beautiful expression of what most of us feel.
2
If a male was raised as a child by a wonderful, caring, and loving mother, then he should have no problem in respecting all females. However, if a man judges females by the good high standards of his mother, he may have different opinions about different females.
The same goes for females who were raised by a good father and a good mother and their high standards of opinions.
Respecting others is important. However, it is important to know the difference between “I think” and “I know.”
1
All I can say is 'thank you Gail Collins' some of us would never survive this horrible episode with DT as our president without your insight and dry humor. Need I say more.
2
He even had the dogs playing poker replaced by himself and GOP presidents in a painting hanging in the hallowed halls of the White House. Come to think of it, not much of a leap.
6
Clearly one does not have to be a student of psychology to understand that when Donald Trump makes these demeaning comments about women it’s really more a statement about him and his lack of empathy , his sociopathic cruelty , and the absence of any moral compass on any given day of the week. At some point Mr. Trump who doesn’t like to read , might want to have one of his assistants look up the definition of “sociopath “.
The one thing Donald Trump seems to be excellent at is defending cold blooded regimes like Saudi Arabia and Russia .
To the Republicans in Congress who still carry a remnant of conscience: is it really worth getting behind a man like Donald Trump just for the sake of passing your policies? Aren’t you aware that this is the essence of hypocrisy? Are you really making our country better by supporting a man like this?
4
So, a man with a bizarrely orange kind of raccoon tan, hair arranged in the wind patterns of a yet to be discovered planet, and teeth given to slippage attacks a woman’s appearance. Monty Python, please.
7
The normalization which we all feared is complete. We are inured to Trump’s moronic pronouncements. It only took a couple of years, but public discourse in the US will never be the same.
1
It has been a while since I laughed out loud while reading the NYT! Thank you, Gail Collins, for a respite from my usual diet of somber news and commentary.
3
Trump is the GOP's unfiltered Id's 'aggression wish fulfillment'.
Trump is the GOP's 'picture in the attic' now come downstairs and having a walkabout in America's house.
Trump is up in the attic, constantly thumping and adjusting the gaslight.
Trump is America's punishment for taking at face value and in good faith everything every GOP politician has uttered since the election of Reagan in 1980.
It will take decades to identify, unwind, and then repair the damage being done to our republic, and the world at large.
Just putting the other guys back in will NOT be a quick fix. The whole quick fix dissolved on 11/8/2016. That was the firewall. The national crisis started that day.
5
Trump has degraded the office of the Presidency so much that all the Presidents following him are going to pay the price.
He doesn't care how much he damages the position of the U.S. when he sidles up to dictators, turns a blind eye to human rights abuses and tears up treaties, but the world is watching. And, when the next President tries to hold other countries accountable for abuses or tries to enforce treaties no one is going to fall in line automatically.
Whether real or imagined the US had credibility and soft power. It's all gone now and when the country is not led by an unpredictable bully the rest of the world is going to push back.
7
And clearly Stormy hurt DT more than he hurt her. The world is now able to view his peculiar private parts and laugh heartily. Can only imagine his anger about that.
7
This guy already has $100 million in a “war chest” for the 2020 campaign, which should scare away any potential pretenders to the throne, inclding the semi-normal John Kasich. That can only mean one thing: impeachment is the better part of valor.
2
@MJ2G Impeachment and removal. Two actions needed to rid us of the electoral college president.
2
Remember the alternate future reality in Back to the Future 3? When the big bad bully has turned the city into a decaying casino town, not unlike Atlantic City. Well, I couldn’t think of a better movie to describe how dems view DJT. If only we could go back in time and help Ivanka sink her ex before he sinks all of us.
2
"Trump lost the women’s vote in the last election, although he did win a narrow majority of white women."
And what to make of the fact that the majority of white women supported someone who constantly insults, demeans and degrades women?
4
Without question, the "thousandaire" snark is the one that hits deepest. His entire identity is wrapped in the myth of his wealth and deals and success. The con has worked on some, but Lincoln knew about fooling people.
3
Whenever I see photos of banners at Trump rallies that say “Women For Trump,” I wonder, who are these women, and why are they ‘for’ a person who has never been and never will be for them? What will it take to change those banners to “Women Against Trump”? Clearly, his comparisons to farm animals won’t do it, and neither will his bragging about sexual assault or his cruel dismissal of credible claims by those women who have been assaulted by him and his cronies.
Sadly, these women still waving banners will probably never recognize or speak out against the malignant misogyny of the person they‘re ‘for.’ We can’t allow their willful ignorance to shape our future.
4
@NYCtoMalibu - They are women who are dependent on men either financially or emotionally and they are parroting the men in their lives because it's the only way they get a seat at the table.
2
@NYCtoMalibu
Gaining a sense of affirmation by allying oneself to a bully is not an exclusively male domain. Or one that requires insightful reflection.
I wish I could take the Hippopotamus with the same lightness the columnist does. However, the tax cut already made and the oncoming public expenditure cut will have long-term consequences for many Americans. And the close friendship with Arab rogues (remember September) has long term consequences around the world. Anyway, the only motivation for this note is introducing the Hippo term which, surprisingly, I have not seen yet anywhere.
1
I'm not sure how anyone could convince themselves that Trump sees women as having any value beyond sex or perhaps producing offspring. If sex is a woman's only value, of course her physical appearance will always be the primary focus in responses. Women are nothing but objects to Trump, serially trading in his wives for younger models, his fascination with the Miss America contest. I'm stunned that the support he has among some women is as high as it is, low self esteem seems like the only explanation.
5
Trump&Co are easy to ridicule but the situation is really terrifying. Money counts more than morals. The dollar sign says the winner takes all. Trump&Co have won. Politics have finally caught up with reality.
2
"It was definitely an improvement over Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana’s defensive: 'We’ve all done something like that before.'”
Senator Kennedy and most of his GOP colleagues actually did something very much like that in the recent past when they said that Dr. Blasey Ford was mixed up or making things up and could not be believed despite her 100% certainty that she had been sexually attacked by Kavanaugh.
4
Ms Collins, be grateful for small favors.
So far, he has not called anyone a reptile; i.e. snake, worm, dragon, lizard, creepy-crawly . . . or an insect such as a gnat, wasp -- the kind that fly and bite, not the white, Anglo Saxon Protestant variety.
But the best for last; a leech which would be self-reflective. We know he does not even know the meaning of the term introspection.
3
A "thousandaire" that's funny ...
Billionaires not on Forbes 400 list are referred as to being on Angie's List, if Trump is just a mere millionaire he will be referred as being on Section 8 - as in Section 8 waiting list.
Millionaires at the bottom of the totem pole as referred as 'food stamps millionaires'.
2
Gail Trump would quickly remind you that he is the President and that you are not. I assume he means that he is more accomplished than those he is sparring with when he uses that rejoinder. It kind of reminds me of the old SNL routine. Chevy Chase would say “ I am Chevy Chase and you are not”. I still do not get it. Maybe Trump does.
1
Every time Trump makes a comment like this his “Base” stands up and cheers. Yay, someone finally says what they are thinking. Wel each time he says something like this there is one more Demkcrat, Independent or even Republican who knows this is wrong, as we learned it in elementary school. These are the people who will be driven to vote this Nov and NOT for Trump or his minions.
Paul Ryan has been very quiet lately. Can’t wait to see what he has to say when he becomes a free man.
2
Donald Trump is where he is by being pugnacious and ill-mannered. Thus he is the national folk hero of the "last call" crowd. The remarkable thing is that so many otherwise civilized people are willing to swallow their sense of decency because the only thing that really matters to them is their 401k.
5
Considering that trump would have disparaging descriptions of 99% of the women (probably men also) at his rallies I wonder at how someone can possibly believe that he cares a tinker's cuss about them. How is this possible? How did so many people become unhinged from reality?
4
@mr
To be fair, maybe he would only disparage the men at his rallies wearing "cheap suits, like a beer salesman."
A picture is worth a million words.
https://www.ajc.com/blog/luckovich/mike-luckovich-the-butt-stops-here/bX...
8
Thank you, Ms. Collins for finding something humorous to tell us. I must admit to wondering how you found out the names used by Presidents Johnson and Harding for their external male reproductive parts. I suppose it is documented in some presidential papers.
I am glad too that you complimented Stormy Daniels for her victories in the tweet wars with Trump. It really is too bad she kept quiet prior to the election for such a small fee. Her comments would have been useful in evaluating Trump's judgement in hiring the "best people". Although voters may have been mislead by her ability to spell.
7
Thank you for writing this piece, I needed to hear something positive today. Vote him out!
35
It was such a relief to see Speaker Ryan's show of true leadership: "He should not have said that."
If it hadn't been for that strong show of moral authority, I
would have thought Ryan was dead and buried from his silence of the last 2 years. Ditto for Senator Ben Sasse.
50
@SCZ It's easy to show a sliver of moral authority when you are on your way out the door. ryan certainly didn't show it when he fired the Senate chaplin for asking the law makers to think of the children when they voted on a bill that would cut school lunch programs and other helpful assistance programs.
2
@Norma, SCZ was indulging in a wee bit of sarcasm. Two years of having our senses dulled can make it hard to detect wry nuance.
Donald Trump , like Warren Harding, shared the idea that America should return to it's former greatness. Harding called it a return to normalcy.Both had affairs which haunted their lives. Harding enforced newly enacted immigration laws and was fond of tariffs. So many similarities,but there are differences. Harding had a pet canary named Bob that he was very fond of,and a very smart wife named Florence who was thought to have poisoned him. Her husband, not the canary.
33
@Kirk - This is the best laugh I've had in days. Thank you.
1
One thing Stormy Daniels said about Trump really struck me: She said he had been playing this character so long that he couldn't stop doing it. It has now become part of his persona. A man from the Czech Republic told me most Europeans see Trump as an actor, a performer. I understand this better now in light of Stormy Daniels' remark,
45
@Larry Esser: Yes, Trump is exactly the persona he acted on "The Apprentice". Many actors lose themselves into the characters they play.
17
@Larry Esser
I'm sorry to say that the rot set in a lot earlier than that.
"Evil, be thou my good" became his rule for life as soon as he saw he could "win" by having no care for anyone but himself and his chosen avaricious buddies.
16
Gail, your witty and often hilarious work has helped (as has Rachel Maddow) to keep me sane these last, oh, two hundred years of utter, mind-bending insanity and disasters.
But after Khashoggi, I simply cannot find anything funny. I can no longer see the humor. I. Just. Can't.
On November 6, history will collide with destiny. That hasn't happened all that often in the last many millennia, but here it is now. For us, the world's people, and the planet. We either take our first baby step back to sanity and humanity - or, well, I'm old enough to be grateful that I'll be one of the Lucky Dead.
I may have (temporarily) lost my sense of humor, but not entirely all my hope. Please plan a column on November 7. I would really like to laugh again.
71
I'm with you, @Milady!
This column brought a smile to my face for the first time since news of the treachery against Jamal Kashoggi.
2
@Milady: We'll probably go down as the Grateful Dead Generation.
2
It was widely observed during the campaign that Trump was an insecure adolescent. Nothing he has done since refutes that. But his base loves him more all the time. I guess that tells us a lot about both.
70
Hawaii's state fish, Humuhumunukunukuapua'a, means "Fish with a nose like a pig." It's a beautiful fish. Consider it a Hawaiian compliment.
25
Thanks, Obama.
1
My 4 year old insults better than The Donald. ("Well, you're not coming to my birthday party)
30
Gail Collins, you are absolutely fabulous. Watch out when people are frustrated they always resort to "face-of-a-pig" messages. My former bosses wife once told me that my face is very or too "herb" looking, which is used in the German language for not looking very feminine and was meant as an insult spoken by a very shallow person. I was crushed, until my handsome prince and husband reacted with "WHAT?" My 92 year old mother only stated "but YOU don't have any wrinkles". What would one do without such a great family.
16
Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana’s defensive: “We’ve all done something like that before.”
I would like to know what things Senator Kennedy has done that are similar to calling a woman horse face? I have certainly never done anything like that.
89
Trump / Alibi. An augury? A rare escape of his inner thoughts from the marble-encrusted corridors of his, forgive me, hippocamous?
In any event a conjunction so delicious that it would be wonderful if fiction and marvelous if truth. thank you!
10
Trump should have kept Alibi. He's going to need all of those he can buy.
3
Truth is often difficult to deal with and the truth of Donald Trump and the Republican party is one of 'white supremacy' and accepted misogyny. The women of the Republican party condone theis behavior as 'boys will be boys.' The Democrats have their own problem by looking at white workmen as Archie Bunkers (see Hillary's comments).
What once solidified us as a country is now gone. Trump has made sure of this with his mantra, "Divided We Win."
245
@JDW:
Basically agreed. But with Trump, it's "Divided I Win."
1
@JDW Good comment, thanks. It is hard to associate (in any way) TRUTH and TRUMP!
1
@JDW
"The Democrats have their own problem by looking at white workmen as Archie Bunkers (see Hillary's comments)."
Agreed. But Sarah Palin started it all by admiringly referring to working class males as "Joe six-packs."
And I don't think she was talking about their abs.
2
Well at least he hasn't been able to tie his dog to the roof of his car. Maybe that's why he won and Romney lost.
9
Trump's juvenile mental state, name calling and how he responds to everything, especially his cruelty toward women, motivated me today to vote a straight Democratic ballot. I want to see justice.
"Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later, with astounding accuracy.” Grant M. Bright
39
@Margi BRAVO! I haven't been able to vote for a republican candidate since GW, and I regret that vote to this day.
VOTE BLUE.
3
@Margi
Thank you x Zillion times.
1
"… well-known 'thousandaire'." Now that hurts. Thanks for the memories.
34
Stormy Daniels has a great deal in common with you Gail, the only difference being in what you shake.
3
Funny! Birds of a feather...
You that old saying "if you live in a glass house, don't throw stones". If I looked like Trump, I certainly would not comment on other peoples' appearances..
30
@Sally
Why would you comment on anyone's appearance?
2
There is one major, over-riding issue here: almost half our weakly voting public somehow thought our child-in-chief would be a fine person to run our nation? How can such a vote not be seen as something akin to treason?
16
Stormy wrote an insulting book (“Full Disclosure”) that sought to humiliate and destroy Donald.
Then as we follow the sequence of events, the president made a fair remark after his victory in litigation against her.
The liberal media typically minimize how Trump’s mean-mouth “victims” always drew first blood in trading of insults. He punches back.
1
@Edwin - Trump humiliates himself daily and he will eventually destroy himself, he doesn't need any help.
4
@Edwin
Thank you for reminding us of the intellectual bankruptcy and cruelty of the tRump voter.
By the way? Your use of "Donald" is hilarious.
4
@Edwin
Donald Trump is humiliating and (hopefully) destroying himself with each puerile twitter post he makes. Unfortunately, his repulsive, childish conduct is humiliating the United States of America as well. Just because Trump supporters obviously don't care doesn't mean that the rest of us should follow along in their race to the bottom. The United States deserves better than this.
4
Many horses and people must think more of Stormy's looks and brains than they do of Donald's.
Remember though, Trump stated that if was elected America would get tired of all the whinnying, so isn't this just another promise kept?
Finally, aren't there equine, canine or porcine lobbies that could protest being dragged into Trump's similes and metaphors?
9
Thank you, Gail, this column made me laugh except for the poor horse who had the misfortune to cross paths with the inhumane and cruel DJT, a known animal hater. I suppose this is naive, but why wasn’t he charged with animal cruelty?
12
Agreed, but can we please stop repeating the words he uses and re-inflicting ourselves?
3
Pre adolescent and adolescent boys are watching and listening to Trump. The takeaway. If you are male it’s ok to mistreat, demean and bully women. The little boys of today will grow into young men soon. Is there anyone out there who thinks the boys of today won’t mirror the despicable behavior of Donald Trump as they enter early adulthood. Scary thought.
11
I don't now for sure, but I think most people would say that Ms. Daniels' face is very attractive. She has a great smile that seems to grow exponentially as she trades barbs with "tiny."
Plus Ms. Daniels' upbeat personality makes her face even more attractive. "tiny" should be as lucky.
22
It isn't that Donald Trump again called a woman a name. It's that Donald Trump still called the woman a name. For the President this has been a continuous never ending embarrassment, both professionally and personally. It has continually been the case since his inauguration that these embarrassments have been in his mind and in the press. Just like his knowledge of his collusion with Russia.
28
@Richard Mclaughlin
In the meantime, the Sphinx, I mean the flotus, floates on a flimsy fantasy #be best!
3
Although it's not PC, I must admit I find all of Trumps comments of this sort pretty funny. It's because we're not allowed in our society to say such things or to laugh at them that I enjoy it when he says them. And PS, we heard plenty about President Clinton's escapades in office, if not his private parts specifically. On the other hand, Clinton was the dog in that situation. Still is. :)
As third-world countries struggle to come into the 21st century, Trump seems determined to take us back into a second dark ages. Assisted by his newly appointed conservative court, we are in for thirty years of backward evolution. However, there is a ray of hope. In the near future, we will program the human mind in a computer based on a "survival" algorithm, which will provide irrefutable proof as to how we have tricked the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about just what is supposed to survive - producing minds de facto programmed for destruction. When we come to understand this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity. See RevolutionOfReason.com
10
At least Trump is winning in the fight to replace Warren Harding as the worse President of all time. Attacking women as he does will protect his hold on that position and distinction for the foreseeable future.
7
I have horse owning friends that are red as red can be trump supporters but when they learn how he treated that one horse, game over. So over. Thanks for the info!
15
Those of us who didn’t know of the existence of Jumbo and Jerry have now had our eyes opened. Oh well, that’s life. On another front, I’m glad to hear that you hurt him more than he hurt you. It doesn’t matter how that’s measured, it’s now true.
3
I am always grateful for Gail Collins. She writes brilliantly and has a particular gift for being able to skewer Trump without sounding shrill. She'll be writing long after Trump is gone.
19
Ms. Collins takes care to demonstrate the utter lack of class by our Chief Executive. She pokes fun at him and gives us all a chuckle. It’s her job and she’s really good at it.
On the same day that Trump tweeted his equestrian insult, however, Mitch McConnell delivered a far more ominous insult. In the context of historic federal deficits brought on by the billionaire and corporate windfall tax cuts, he said to reporters that “Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid” funding constitutes “the real driver of the debt.”
If we are trading insults, Mitch’s insult to the truth will really hurt. He clearly intends to use the tax cut induced deficits as a lever to pry these programs out of the cold, dead hands of those who depend upon them. For they will be cold and dead, deprived of health care and driven into poverty. Those are the stakes.
Yes, it’s fun to poke back at our Insulter-in-Chief, but the real insults are coming. They will hurt more. A lot more.
24
@David Potenziani
Republicans said the cuts would "pay for themselves" but anyone paying the least bit of attention knew that they would start shrieking about cutting entitlements the moment it became obvious that the tax cuts weren't paying for themselves.
That was the game plan from the start. Mitch McConnell stepped right up with a pre-written speech which predictably blamed everything on the Democrats.
And, their plan is working like a charm. The stupidity of people in this country is alarming.
4
I gave up schoolyard taunts long ago and most recently have given up listening to Mr. Trump at all. There is no point to it. When he talks, he lies or says something outrageous enough to garner the next 24 hours in the news cycle.
Focus on what he does and not on what he says.
He says he has brought peace to the Korean peninsula. Au contraire, sir. Chairman Kim has not declared his arsenal nor made any pledge to reduce it.
He says he shepherded a wonderful tax cut and GDP growth will reach 4%. Not true again. Wonderful for corporations and the already rich. Vaporware for the rest of us. He has followed the Republican orthodoxy: Privatize the benefits and socialize the losses.
Stormy Daniels, Robert Mueller, the SDNY prosecutors, Maxine Waters and the Resistance are the picadors who goad and stab Mr. Trump to show the electorate what he truly is made of. In less than 3 weeks, it is our time to do our part. Giddy-up, Rocinante.
16
Women like Stormy who came from poverty or difficult circumstances and found a way out are the mighty girls whom I celebrate. She did it her way which my not be everyone's way but do what you can with what you have.
14
Gail, one thing no one has referred to is the Judge's order that Stormy pay Tiny's legal fees. You can only imagine the sigh of relief from the trump legal team. They knew that if Tiny was left to pay his own legal fees, they would never have been paid.
49
@JPM
Especially now that Cohen the Fixer is on indefinite leave from his check-writing duties. Sad!
...Kennedy unhelpfully added that he believes the president “grows anxious when he has unexpressed thoughts."
Perhaps an unexpressed thought, especially one he thinks clever, doesn't make the president anxious, rather as excited as a puppy (or an old dog) that can't quite hold it in.
8
@Leigh Also, because they are too few and far between.
3
Nobody can help what they look like, but everyone can influence their own behavior.
Who, between Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump, *behaves* more like a horse?
Now that's something a human being *ought* to be in control of.
4
Trump started years ago stealing NY Borscht Belt comic Jackie Mason's act by starting with a premise that has some very small amount of plausibility that can be stretched and then repeating it with larger and larger exaggerations. He doesn't have the skill that Jackie has where it is clearly is seen as a joke and it just comes across as mean from anyone outside of his supporters, who haven't seen Mason's act and think Trump is original and really entertaining. If you have knowledge of the original, you recognize the imitator is second rate.
3
Stormy Daniels is doing fine, has been promoting her book in Germany. Mr. Trump's tweets are certainly helping too.
He does not like successful and outspoken women like Gail Collins, he sees them as a threat to his dominance: A clear case of severe weakness and a lack of self-confidence.
11
"Clearly I hurt him more than he did me."
... and this is important in American culture isn't it? Competitive annihilation. Doubling down. Getting one over on . . .
And so the likes of Trump rise to the surface as the symptom that Obama referred to.
We know by now that, in order to prevent another Trump, we need to change the system. Be the change. Start by refusing to engage in this kind of juvenile one-up-'person'-ship.
6
@iain mackenzie
"Competitive annihilation"? Oh, I thought the column was about Trump, not Brexit.
Oh, Gail, I honestly do not know what I would do without you. I used to say that in normal times. Now, I really, really mean it.
I am so ashamed that this thing occupies our - yes, our - Oval Office. I am so ashamed that any number of young people will grow up thinking this is 'presidential' conduct.
Please, please, fellow Americans: VOTE.
9
I think if you distilled the thinking and ambitions of House Republicans, you would find just such a thing, unexpressed thinking that is worse than Trump's.
It is obvious the House Republicans are devoted to the idea of totally destroying the social programs that allow the poor to have housing, food, and medical care, and instead want to give those trillions to the already immorally rich.
There is no such thing as a good Republican in the time of Trump.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
30
Gail, I think it's really sad that you would even mention Warren Harding in this column about Trump. Harding, admittedly a terrible president, should not be tarred with the Trump brush. Sure, Teapot Dome and all, but really he seemed like a regular guy. Now, if you would have chosen someone like James Buchanan as a comparison, I guess I could have lived with it. Buchanan let us slip into the Civil War, Trump has pushed us into a not so civil one.
4
Nice articles, too much information though about the exchange between Trump and Ms Daniels. I say that because I never listen to Fox News and get my information from the NYT and MSNBC, it is all Trump, all the time. True that it is mostly criticism but it is becoming suffocating and difficult to follow.
If the liberal media were to totally ignore this guy for one week, I bet he will end up with a nervous breakdown and quite the job. The reality is that Trump has been great for liberal media and they have kept him in the news all the time, they seem to live off each other. When he finally leave office (hopefully sooner than later) he will be missed most not by his core supporter but by liberal media.
1
I watched the interview with Senator Kennedy when he said this yesterday. Honestly, I must agree, we all did say stuff like this about other people, but we were all of 7 years old when we did, and in all likelihood had our mouths washed out with soap and never did it again.
10
"The look on Ryan’s face was somber"
Which of these is a the best synonym for somber: vacant or detached [from reality] or pointless? Please advise. He will not be missed.
18
I never thought I would say this, but I honestly pity Donald Trump. I don't think he is capable of not making the insulting, mean-spirited, inappropriate and totally unpresidential comments he makes about his perceived enemies, especially women. He has no filter because he has no conscience, and he has no conscience because he has never had to face consequences for anything. He perceives his put-downs as a demonstration of strength, and the cheers and chants of his base at rallies reward his bullying behavior. Far from a demonstration of strength, his comments show us how truly shallow he is. He must always be the showman with his uniquely attacking Trump style because he completely lacks substance. Eventually the American public will catch on to who and what he really is. A lot of us already have.
5
No worries. “Tiny-D” is only making a preemptive distraction from his own insecurities. Stormy has revealed his fragility from her personal knowledge and experience.
23
From now until the end of all time, whenever one of these ancient GOP grandees levels a charge of incivility for some Democratic treason such as a President wearing a tan suit, we will be able to pull out any one of a billion tweets from the Boy King.
No matter how incendiary, puerile, false, or racist, Donald’s rants will have been met with either silence or some mild rebuke like “It’s not helpful” from every single elected official in the party. I certainly am not naive enough to think it won’t stop them from howling about crimes such as Obama not wearing a tie in the Oval Office. Nevertheless, being able to savor the digital evidence of the vast hypocrisy will be somewhat comforting.
Most comforting though will be the departure of the old geezer. Vote on November 6 to pave the way.
46
When I awoke this morning about the last thing I imagined for my day was being seized by a fit of weeping in hysterical laughter, but Gail has done it for sure. Tears rolling down my face, can barely type this. Thank you one billion times, Ms. Collins!
4
Trump has a very difficult time standing up to people with strong personalities, particularly as it applies to women.
When Stormy Daniels said, “Game on, Tiny” and on Friday night when she will be on Bill Mahar’s “Real Time” show, it won’t be long before she shuts him down into a deafening silence.
There are some bullies who can only give it but not take it and Trump picked the wrong fight with Stormy Daniels.
29
Love this, Ms. Collins! Thank you for cheering me up!
10
It's really gotten to the point that Trump saying something juvenile, disgusting or hateful is no longer news. It's time to just keep a running list of such utterances without having to comment on them or explain why they are disturbing. If and when Trump speaks or acts appropriately that will be the real news.
4
Has there ever been a president who felt compelled to defend himself with the statement, "I'm not a baby.", thereby proving that he is indeed a baby, an irascible, whiny, colicky baby?
Actually I think Kennedy hit on something. There are two groups of people who appear to feel anxious with unexpressed thoughts, the very old and the very young, i.e. babies.
9
@pixilated
Kindly do not demean the very old.
1
Great fun, Gail.
Also appalling.
The dog that Florida philanthropist Lois Pope found for The Donald was goldendoodle Patton, the name of the U.S. general Trump most admired. Patton, spurned by POTUS, deserved and ultimately got better, doting on Pope herself as she adored him.
Even germaphobes can make peace with canines, but canines need affection, and Trump has none to spare for pets and small children. American journalist Jon Katz, whose recent work focuses on humans and animals, maintains that narcissists talk obsessively about their pets. Trump is not that breed of narcissist. Can you imagine how enraged he would become if people focused on a dog of his?
Decades ago, as I, an exurbanite, was walking my young Havanese down Fifth Avenue, a trio of incredibly chic Manhattan natives, passed me. One woman looked back, enthusiastically remarking, "Nice coat!" I foolishly thought she was complimenting my fashion choice, but once Cinta joined our family, all eyes focused on and all praise was directed toward her. Wake-up call! I was surprised but flattered. Trump would not have been.
8
Trump’s comment was uncalled for and disrespectful. Was it worse than TI’s video of the First Lady performing strip tease? Your article should have addressed both to be unbiased. You should be promoting working together instead of pushing separation. I’ve been a Dem for 20+ years but the combative un-civil nature of the political climate made me independent going forward.
You sadly missed the mark. You didn’t tell us anything we didn’t know or help us deal with the things we do know. Voting Beto, FYI.
When is karma going to catch up with this guy? He has clearly done far more harm than he has done good throughout his life. What do we tell our children when the president of the United States speaks so derisively about women? How can any world leader trust the word of a president, who lies so much? Why are Republican leaders so silent even as this president continuously violates standards of basic decency and acceptable behavior? When are they going to recognize that Trump is an international disgrace and a profound embarrassment? Where do we, as a nation, go to get our honesty, integrity and values – all of which have suffered a tremendous setback during the Trump presidency – back? Let’s hope the midterm elections provide some relief and a path to redemption.
20
@Jack Nargundkar, first we the people have to face our own karma in the form of Trump. For too long as a nation we have let greed dictate us, we have used and abused conditionally, our wealth to punish other nations with sanctions or reward them with foreign aid. We have participated in meaningless wars, sending our young kids to battle field again and again, so foolishly. We have used our talent our genius our smarts to create and invent the most horrible weapons of destruction. We have been the biggest hypocrites in the name of spreading democracy by dumping our surplus produce on gullible nations, exporting our obesity causing fast food and sugar saturated sodas all over the world. So now we have an exhibit of a president chubby on fast food and coke.
1
"One of the things we have learned about our president over the last few years is that he never recognizes a bad plan."
Just thank you, Gail Collins, I still lighten up a bit when I see your name on a column. I don't actually laugh anymore, current events have gone past that.
Just please don't write about a U.S. resident journalist visiting a foreign embassy who not-so-mysteriously disappeared and was rumored to have been dismembered while still alive. In an embassy. Does diplomatic immunity or diplomatic impunity cover terroristic murder? Apparently if we sell them a lot of weapons...
19
At the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner, President Obama recognized Trump's birth certificate obsession with the observation,
"No one is happier...to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald. And that's because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter, like did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?"
Now that's a well-crafted put-down. It's a sad commentary on the post-2016 state of our culture that President Trump can't come up with insults that rise above infantile attempts to ridicule someone's appearance. What may be even worse is that his feeble attempts to humiliate draw applause at campaign events.
I'm just glad I have not yet lost my sense of outrage that a President of the United States can so completely lack the ability to take on the mantle of leadership, preferring instead to wallow in his narcissistic revenge fantasies along with a few adoring hangers on.
23
May I just say that I am very sorry to know that a fine, talented writer, humorist and gentle criticism such as yourself was called a pig by the future president of the United States. What has happened to us.
2
You gotta admit: Stormy Daniels is a national treasure!
12
They are on every corner.
@Charlie
Stormy was not on a corner. She did not charge for her assignation with Donald. His campaign worried about a possible revelation (of truth) and offered her a $130K NDA, which she accepted but he failed to sign, in typical contract-voiding fashion.
Need a mulligan on casting that first stone?
Not a fan of the way Trump is governing or his frequent Twitter meltdowns. But I find nothing to admire about Stormy Daniels, even less in the people who view her as a hero. She was paid. Paid well. Paid a $130,000 for a one night consensual relationship that she allegedly wasn't even interested in and with a person she hadn't been attracted to. How many times does she want to be paid? She's milked this for all it's worth. There are limits. The judge made the right decision throwing out her defamation suit. At this point she's being used by cynical partisans who have their own agenda.
@Bill Brown
Ms. Collin's article isn't about Ms. Clifford ("Stormy Daniels" is a stage name; her name is Stephanie Clifford); it's about Trump's embarrassing tendency to hurl insults at his critics and detractors (particularly female) and inability to control his worse impulses. It helps if you read the article first.
7
@Bill Brown
I think you are just moralizing because you do not like how the woman made her living. She was NOT paid for a night of sex. She was paid to BE QUIET about a night of sex. With a Presidential candidate. When is wife had just given birth to his son.
I do not share your "limits".
9
The mention of thousandaire made me smile. I recall Gail’s thousandaire column and fondly remember when Trump was New York’s embarrassment, not mine. Those were the days.
13
The more Trump expresses himself, the more he costs Republicans the women's vote. That's the silver lining to his crudity.
33
really funny, thanks for helping me laugh at our national nightmare
15
Ms. Collins, your writing is truly a balm in these depressing times. When I see your name, my thumb can't move fast enough to get to the article. Thank you!!!
14
Gail, thank you for reminding your readers about Trump's abuse of the race horse Alibi. We don't need another example to prove Trump's inhumanity so let's just say that there's a special place in you-know-where for people who are cruel to animals.
I wonder how many Trump voters consider their beloved pets to be part of their family yet would find a way to excuse this little piece of Trump's barbarism. I'd love to hear from them.
11
The media, of course, cannot get enough of this sad excuse of a man. But he grows older. I comfort myself remembering the Chinese saying, "If you sit by the side of the river long enough you will see the body of your worse enemy float by."
34
Another day, another Trump-driven anxiety for most of us. Indeed, if he was only crass toward unfavored members the press and he could govern, I could overlook his verbal misogyny. Society as a whole has gotten less civil in its speech, post internet.
But he just appointed a man to the Court who will now take away my daughter's right to choose, and he personally insulted Angela Merkel and Justin Trudeau, and he is now acting as defense lawyer for a Saudi journalist killer. His apparent mental illness is the Nation's daily anxiety.
13
Well, at least never owning dog means he didn't need to tie one to the top of his car. How I long for old days.
6
@Son of Bricstan
Why tie a dog to the top of your car when you can maim a colt for life?
What I've never understood is why you would have to pay someone to keep them quiet about having an affair with Donald Trump. Who in their right mind would admit to that? He wasn't attractive even when he was younger.
53
@Julie My mom used to say, "Ugliness on the inside shows up on the outside."
2
Trump is teaching the US how to live without any morality, religious or human morality. We will soon see how many succeeded at that.
5
Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana’s defensive: “We’ve all done something like that before.” To which Kennedy unhelpfully added that he believes the president “grows anxious when he has unexpressed thoughts.”
This is called lack of impulse control. Kennedy, despite himself, got it right.
A man with so much power lacking impulse control is like a child holding a stick of dynamite and a match.
10
Another horse reference; Trump is the horse the Republicans road in on and they plan to cruelly ride him until he dies. Paul Ryan road him for his “middle class tax cut” and they all road him for the Supreme Court and many lower court judges. He rode sideways on the health care repeal but they still jump on his back to ride into office. The minute he pulls up lame, they will send off to the stud farm or someplace more ominous.
2
Thanks for another great satirical article!
4
The biggest take-away I get from this is his treatment of animals. Seems that he didn’t have much more regard for the unfortunate horse that he owned than he did his own nephew (teriminating his health insurance when he had a sick child). The man is incapable of empathy. God help us.
22
This revelation caught my interest,
"To which Kennedy unhelpfully added that he believes the president “grows anxious when he has unexpressed thoughts.”
With special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's work hanging like a dark cloud over this administration, one can only imagine the animal-name-calling that will be tweeted.
It should produce a real animal farm to populate this Orwellian state.
9
I hope Gail will find occasion to mention Trump's egomaniacal torture and killing of the horse Alibi - indirectly, of course - and his refusal to pay once he'd destroyed his potential purchase. Characteristic of his skills in cheating.
It is typical of the man to think he knows better, destroy things, and then blame others and refuse to pay for his sins (using sin in the secular sense here, though the religious one does as well: price, avarice, gluttony, etc.).
Animals and other living things should not have to suffer Trump. He's not quite human (though I insult the not quite human).
9
Here's Gail's earlier story on Alibi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsV96P_5w-M
I wish Elizabeth Warren had Stormy Daniels's fighting instincts. Being ladylike doesn't work with Trump.
2
Stormy Daniels is actually a rather impressive woman. Aside from being an actual equestrian, she is also a very successful businesswoman. In this context, though, her best quality is she is one of the few people who can out-Trump Trump; she always gets the better of him in a Twitter exchange, and it drives him mad; game on indeed! :-)
881
@Danny Agreed! Loved her pithy response.
@Danny
Totally agree! Stormy Daniels in 2020!
@Danny
She's a lesson for us all: She refuses to be intimidated, bullied or ridiculed. She takes it on the chin and gives it back in a humorous way.
Here's to you, Stormster. -- thegamesmenplay.com
1
Great column!
You have to wonder about jurisprudenceand the state of the country when the judge dismissed this case saying it’s just what politicians do, so it really doesn’t matter if he was efaming you because this is normal behavior now. It’s not normal behavior. Or at least it wasn’t before Trump normalized it, and since atrump is the one who normalized lying as a Presidential activity and he was the defendant, that alone is a reason not to throw out the case. You really shouldn’t be able to use the new “norms” that you created to get out of paying for defaming someone.
13
There is no consequence; that is why he makes these infantile comments, not even as a whispered aside, but on a public platform seen by millions.
While the Obama (gosh, I miss him and his family) election pushed forward the not-so-hidden racism and bigotry already sown in American soil, I feel that the Trump election shed light on a level of misogyny and entitlement that one would hope had moved Fraggle Rock-level underground.
There are a large number of men (maybe most?) who do not LIKE women--but, there are little to no repercussions for their actions and words because, frankly, with the 52% of white women voting for Trump, women will marry them anyway.
7
Tough week! Many issues to write about, but I'm glad you picked the president's affinity for our planet's fauna.
It demonstrates how his limited knowledge, of the variety of animal life, (only dogs and pigs) and the way he employs it, is emblematic of his presidency, and everything else he touches.
I remain perplexed by the same old question, "How in the world did we wind up with this man as our president?"
25
Gail, thanks for the laughs! I needed them tonight.
8
trump calls such insults "winning." And he was right that we are indeed tired of "winning."
He credits himself for getting Kavanaugh confirmed via his scathing and insulting rally speech. And given that Republicans, especially mini-me Graham, followed his example (as well as Kavanaugh himself), he may be right.
In a couple of weeks we'll find out how many in America cheer this kind of "winning," and how many have had enough of it.
Of course, if the former prevail, he will take the credit. If the latter speak loud and clear, he will absolve himself of any blame. And he probably has an animal epithet ready in his pocket.
He's just that kinda guy -- the opposite end of what he called Daniels.
22
For the last 2 years I've found little to laugh about, though I've tried, watching Alec Baldwin play Trump on SNL, Jon Oliver, Bill Mahrer, and Stephen Colbert. So Gail Collins gave me a good chuckle! ("thousandaire" was also how 1992 Libertarian Party Presidential nominee Andre Marrou used to describe himself.)
Poor Alibi! Trump is the kind of person who would buy a shirt with a credit card, wear it a dozen times, paint a house with it (though we all know Trump has never done a physical minute's manual labor in his life), then return it to the store claiming it's stained, and demand his money back--IN CASH--and follow up by notifying his credit card that the charge was invalid! Thus robbing the store of both the shirt, and the cash--and bragging about how "That means I'm smart!"
No, it means he's a cheat.
63
With each day it seems that America is having a nightmare from which it cannot awake. The fact that the Commander in Chief is having a Twitter war with a former mistress is beyond surreal. Putting aside the childishness of it, I hope this is yet one more incident that helps to convince women of the importance of their vote and why we need more women in positions of power. And while this is a distraction from a much larger picture, it is a reminder of the long process that will be required to bring back some sense of normalcy to government. But to every woman in this country, VOTE.
39
Right! Maybe Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana but not everyone. They’re a scurrilous lot, those Republican senators.
15
He should not have said that.
Add this to the list of euphemisms used by Republicans to comment about Trump. Pusillanimous Paul!
7
No words. Might we become less dignified, or is this it, the nadir?
7
60 Minutes interview: 22 million vs. 11.7 million viewers. And it's Stormy for the HUGE win!
15
"Game on, Tiny" might be the next "crying baby balloon". The kind of insult that horrifies and humiliates him while humoring the rest of us. Scorn and ridicule are his Achilles heel. He can throw down with the best of them but he has no sense of humor, so he has no defense for it. His lame attempts at humor are really only Borscht Belt insult comic material that is catnip to the rubes but land flat when it comes to any wit. Whether he's making fun of war veterans, five star families, the infirm, foreigners, women, minorities, the press or the poor, his humor is based on bullying pure and simple. At his rallies the crowd eats it up but I can't imagine anyone laughing at a transcript. There is no humor, just attitude. There is nothing funny about calling a women Horse-face. But someone saying that women should vote neigh to Tiny, now that's funny.
43
I love Stormy Daniels! Her tweet quoted here is the best thing I've read in...I dunno...years! HA!
21
"Fight fire with fire," I always say. The brazen, attention-seeking shamelessness of Ms. Daniels and her attorney Mr. Avenatti are the perfect weapon against our equally brazen, attention-seeking, shameless President. The Big Doofus routinely wins against those who come at him with high-minded retorts grounded in facts and basic human decency, because...well, that's just what his base is craving. Picture the typical audience of "The Jerry Springer Show" and you'll see that it pretty much resembles the ones that gather at the President's rallies. The only thing missing from the President's rallies are the obligatory DNA tests to prove paternity. Ah, but then Senator Warren (of all people!) gladly stepped in to fill the void. It's a reality show world, people. Enjoy!
10
Trump treats women like chattel. I can't imagine why any woman would ever vote for him. He calls Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas in a derogatory manner and thereby insults all the native Americans. Given enough time he will eventually get around to all of us.
7
What percentage of Trump lovers know he was forced to sell his, or his company's, yacht when the casinos went belly-up? How many know that he was also put on an allowance for "living expenses" of $400,000 a month? How many know he was FIRED! from his role as CEO of the casino company, the only public traded company, with all of the attendant complications that implies, that he had ever headed? How many even know what it means to be CEO of a publicly traded company as opposed to the egomaniacal dictator of a private family business built on firm foundation of tax avoidance?
2%? 1.3%? If you locked them in the room and gave them each $500. to listen to these facts, it wouldn't matter. They, and Trump, assigned him the role of hero and it isn't going to change until the moon comes down to rest on his lap, or something.
Way back when Reagan was president they talked about a Teflon president to whom very little would ever stick. Reagan would wander out into the Rose Garden or some other sunny locale near the White House and say, "Well, there you go again..." (What'd heck did that mean, anyway?) The public would hear that, smile and forgive him for breaking laws by selling arms to Iran to fund a dirty little war in Nicaragua. He was friendly, California/actor laid back and people loved him for it.
Now we have a pretender to the presidency who makes his meanness and ability to invent new insults part of his appeal. My, times have changed. For the worse...
31
What Trump fails to realize is that women have very good memories, especially for insults such as the one's where he mocked women for being less than the super model types he prefers. Women will have the last word on this man.
16
Another example of Trump's projection. With the tact of a 13 year old boy with issues and bad manners, he projects his shortcomings onto everybody else. He was badly brought up.
16
Colbert pointed out that, in dismissing Daniels's suit, the judge said he did so because Trump's calling her a liar was a normal part of American political discourse. That the president having a public verbal war over his sexual proclivities was normal American political discourse. I guess from now on, it is.
30
MR. yTUMP Ha often been called a horses cousin named Jack_ss.
8
According to Plan MAGA, we are totally on track to be GREAT AGAIN!
Some would like to believe the MAGA tax cuts are causing epic deficits. But the MAGA faithful know that massive stock buy backs and the 80% of foreign earnings not repatriated in spite of huge tax incentives are actually a sign of something... not sure what, but it must be MAGA. It couldn't be a lack of corporate interest in investing in the tariff bound US.
When I wear my MAGA hat, I see amber waves of corn and soybeans flowing across the seas to China, midwest manufacturing plants crying out for more US steel and aluminum, price is no object, and WALMART shoppers rushing to buy before prices go up 25%, who doesn't love a deal?
When I wear my MAGA hat, I can see that climate change is a Chinese hoax, which is quite a relief since the last few years have been ugly. Next year we will be wearing parkas to the beach and throwing snowballs.
592
@Look Ahead This is fabulous.
3
@Look Ahead: Wow, those MAGA hats ARE really magical! First Kanye believes he's Superman when he puts it on his head and now you, Look Ahead! Thanks for sharing.
11
@Look Ahead---and, with any karma, Mar a Lago will be underwater.
6
Why is it that Donald Trump is so consistantly overcome by a need to be not only hated, but more importantly scorned. Does he know something true about himself, about his inner being that he must compulsively both reveal publicly and deny at the same time; namely that he is a contempable and vacuous human being.
492
@mormond
Trump has a need to make certain people mad and then be worshipped by those people who think he's so "brave" with his insults and lies, and so "brave" for attacking the free press daily and then shrugging at Khashoggi's brutal murder.
If his base did not worship Trump - and laugh at his
crudeness and indifference to human life - Trump would have to find another reality show.
2
@mormond It seems so. He acts like he's in the closet and he wants a man who will at least try to dominate him.
2
@mormond he is rife with a dire mental illness(narcissistic personality disorder) which causes his self aggrandizement and putting down of all others. His brain is on infinite loop telling him he is a waste of oxygen.
3
I love Stormy and her lawyer and hope they are able to win big over trump. They serve the American people in a very big way because they can draw out the real DT for all the world to see while the DEM politicians can focus on adult policy issues and show that DT and his GOP pals have a policy of enriching themselves at the expense of everyone else whilst lying about it big time.
749
@Thomas Renner
And how great is, "Game on". Stormy is my hero.......
1
@Thomas Renner I agree with everything you say. Unfortunately, none of your excellent points make any difference to tens of millions of our fellow Americans. Trump's evil/corruption/immaturity solidifies their support of him.
8
@Thomas Renner
We already know what the real Donald Trump is and what's he's all about.
His supporter don't care because they see themselves in him.
6
It is so sad that the public refuses to see Trump for what he is, a crass misogynist boor who has been a crass mysongyinist boor for much longer than just his political life.
846
@tom
Sadly, a portion of his fans sees him for that and approves. That's the tragedy.
2
@tom
Indeed, the zombie apocalypse began in 2016 and has been slowly devouring us ever since.
@tom
So right! A crass misogynist boor AND a bad businessman who has gone bankrupt more than once and had to be bailed out by his father. What exactly is it that his supporters see in him? He doesn't care about anyone but himself and ran for president merely because he wanted more and more celebrity.
2
I was first horrified how Trump would, could and does say anything without regret or conscience.
Then I was additionally horrified to see his words and deeds defended with no consequence.
Now I barely listen because his words are the face of our nation and I am horrified by my own numbness.
I came to realize we, as a people, have “accepted” this narrative and become numb to the discourse. Do you think I’m wrong? I suggest looking back and seeing how Trump has not changed but so many have found a way to rationalize his behavior and defend their reaction.
The next horrifying moment will be when the midterms prove me right, the majority remains and Trump is re-elected in 2020.
413
@ArtM as a woman, a therapist and an other...I can tell you I am not numb yet.
I am outraged, disgusted and fighting for my country. Going to sleep will serve no one, chaos is the playbook. Let's remember WW2.
4
@Sheri
I can only hope your opinion are in the majority and I agree with the assessment.
I too fight. I just don't listen to him anymore.
I have been thinking and talking about what I expressed for a long time, especially after speaking with people who just astound me how they have "learned to accept".
The best analogies I can give is this is akin to the Stockholm Syndrome for many and reaction to a bully.
@ArtM Exactly, Art, and if anything he has steadily gotten worse. The worst is yet to come.
1
Unfortunately I think we've all grown numb to Trump's insults. It just feels like another day. What really struck me, though, is Senator Kennedy's remarks that he thinks the president becomes anxious with unexpressed thoughts. That appears to be a clear warning by a GOP senator that the person with the nuclear codes is unstable. And yet the GOP will do nothing about it.
1021
@Margie Black That struck me too. Trump prides himself on being a negotiator, but how can you negotiate a good deal if you can't keep your private thoughts to yourself?
@Margie Black
Kennedy thinking the president becomes anxious... implies that maybe one person in that sentence is actually thinking. And I have my doubts about Kennedy doing that.
It’s funny that Trump likes calling some women ‘dogs.’ And that’s because he, himself, is a dog. Like dogs, Trump operates on instinct. Unlike Trump, however, dogs can be trained. The dog can be trained not to do his business all over the furniture. Not so with Trump.
3
@Margie Black They got their guns, their god, their tax cuts. Nothing else matters. Why are you surprised?
5
When Stormy Daniels said, she in a televised interview, that she hadn't been attracted to Donald Trump or really wanted to sleep with him, it was pretty predictable that he would seek revenge.
And Trump's fixation with various women's attractiveness, like all his projections, says more about his insecurities than about any pickiness on his part.
For all the escalated taunting between these two, the initial, matter of fact lack of interest from Stormy got under Donald's skin more than any comical insult about him even could.
897
I wish she would say, “And I’ve seen you naked...”.
159
@Julie Zuckman’s Well, she did address him as "Tiny."
@NM
Stormy said she had sex with Trump because she was hoping to land a slot on The Apprentice. She was unhappy that she was unable to sleep her way to success. Years later, she was able to extort $130,000 for her silence. Shortly thereafter, she figured out she could make substantially more money if she abrogated her NDA and went public.
Stormy is a practitioner of the oldest profession and has determined that she can make more money from the "Resistance" by criticizing Trump about matters that have zero to do with his ability to govern than by practicing her profession. Members of the Resistance are willing to pay to watch her perform and imagine that they would perform better than Trump. It's all titillation, and she is being paid handsomely, even though she has a huge judgement outstanding for violating the NDA and now had to pay Trump's legal costs.
She is a pro who is maximizing her profits. The media encourages her because she's click bait and increases their advertising revenue. Trump encourages the dispute because in his mind any publicity is good publicity.
His supporters knew he was a womanizer before they elected him. They also knew that JFK, RFK, LBJ, Bill Clinton et al were womanizers as well as being sexual predators. Hillary was the worst possible Democrat candidate. As an enabler of a predator who had excoriated Bill's victims, there were limits to how much mileage she could get out of Trump womanizing.
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Trump's has never had to pay a meaningful opportunity cost for his serial denigration of women. The mid term elections give women across this country the chance to change that misogynistic reality. The Senate may be out of reach, but women voters, by being the dispositive factor in electing a Democratic House, that armed with subpoena power and the venue of public hearings, can make Trump pay a precipitous price every day for his verbal assaults on women.
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@Don Shipp. Look up "opportunity cost" - what you mean is just plain "pay the price."
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"One of the things we have learned about our president over the last few years is that he never recognizes a bad plan."
Nor does the GOP or his inner circle (or they value their jobs more than they do the country they live in). Trump has said derogatory things about people that go way beyond the boundaries of political character assassination. He openly derided a Muslim couple whose son had served and died in our armed forces. He told Putin that getting rid of Comey was a wonderful thing but in words far less complimentary than that. He has called Elizabeth Warren, who never made a big deal out of her distant ties to Native Americans, Pocahontas. And those are the milder things he's done.
The man is the schoolyard bully, the liar, and the braggart you don't need living near you or working for you. The biggest mistake the GOP made was nominating him for the presidency. That support enabled a failed businessman, a confirmed liar, and conman to turn this country into a large circus. All we need now are the lions to complete the carnage. I don't think he'd have enough sense to be polite to the lions.
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"We've all done something like that before."
Maybe because we're approaching the two year mark and I find myself more and more in agreement with Andrew Cuomo's conclusion that "America was never that great" that I actually laughed out loud when I read that.
The days of dignity are dead. Nothing to be proud of here, move along now.
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I never knew about the Alibi story. I don't understand why he changed the name, he seems like the kind of guy that can always use an alibi, even if it's not true. I'm also worried about the hoof amputations. There could be a corollary here. Overworked Trump staffers stumping around with various amounts of their extremities removed.
Does the welcome letter to the White House include and statement like: "Welcome to the West Wing. You can store your spare toes and fingers in the freezer."
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@richard wiesner
Not so funny after disclosures that WaPo journalist Jamal Kashoggi's fingers were severed by the hit squad sent by Trump's Saudi crush, MSB aka Mister Saw Bones.
By now, Trump has a pretty good idea that Democrats are going to retake the House in November. That means Democrat-led Judiciary Committee hearings and his subsequent dying behind bars. (Why would the uber ambitious VP Pence ruin his own political ambitions by granting Trump a pardon?) So Benedict Donald no longer cares about alienating women voters. What he does care about is fanning the flames of hatred among his supporters so that he can rely on them to overthrow the government when he orders them to lock and load their AR-15's and march on Washington. Get ready for war. As soon as Trump dismisses Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, it'll be no holds barred.
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You always make me laugh, Gail!! Thank you for that -- it's a huge gift. However, I have to admit that remembering Lyndon Johnson's "Jumbo" pretty much ruined my day. Sigh!!!!
15
Bravo Gail Collins. You have a new regular reader. (The 'tiny' bit was great. One of our better political cartoonists here in Wellington features the Donald quite often with appropriately tiny little hands.)
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You're playing Trump's game, Gail, not the one you should. All he is doing is what a magician does: distracting with one hand will working the trick with the other.
Watch Trump's other hand. And both of McConnell's. That's where reality is.
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Thank you again Gail Collins for brightening my day. Trump has little knowledge of animals so he wouldn't know that pigs are very intelligent, dogs are wonderful friends, and horses are beautiful. I would always choose to spend time with any of these animals than the current president.
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Gail says Trump has suffered embarrassment over the Stormy Daniels affair. I doubt it. A man who can win election after multiple credible charges of sexual abuse will not flinch because of allegations he spent the night with a porn star. What undoubtedly annoyed him were her aspersions on his 'manhood.'
I still find it astonishing, however, that so many women seem indifferent to his contempt for their gender. A Times pundit wrote a column last week criticizing observers for thinking that all women would react the same way to Trump. Her thesis was valid, but, at the same time, how many people react positively when a politician habitually addresses demeaning remarks to to their part of the population?
We truly live in strange times.
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@James Lee
I doubt it too. I also don't see any downside for Trump to continue to slam women. He's never suffered any consequence for any of it, that I can see.
I'm astonished by both men and women who give him a pass for his behavior. Men I know don't talk about women that way and don't allow it in their presence.
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James, they accept it because that has been the contract for security. For years, decades, centuries, eons. It soon becomes comfortable for those with a well honed external locus of control.
So, if Trump and Daniels are at opposite ends of this argument, and she's the face of the horse, what does that make Trump?
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'Thousandaire'? You don't face off bullies with counter-insults, because then you lower yourself to their level and play their game. (Elizabeth Warren just learned how foolish she was to let herself be provoked into a DNA test). The only way to handle bullies is through the legal system, and just as bullying in schools is finally being tackled through through public awareness and draconian fines, similarly a presidential bully has to be confronted through the rule of law.
Bullies, by their very nature, are overly aggressive and tend to ignore long term consequences. They always make mistakes. Therefore their instinctive, aggressive behaviour can only be countered by calm, deliberate measures that expose and attack their weaknesses.
Stop reacting to his insults. Focus exclusively on his and his family's loans, money-laundering, financial web involving Russia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Deutsche Bank and various offshore entities. And yes, real and genuine Collusion.
The U.S. didn't finally lock up Al Capone on multiple homicide charges but on tax avoidance.
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@Hamid Varzi
The NYT didn't print my sharper response, so I'll rephrase. We have a Justice System and an I. R. S. to deal with these issues, and we're lucky to have them compared to certain areas of the world where matters are addressed with a lot less due process.
When the Justice System is done, the results will appear in the "news" portions of the NYT, and the "opinion" columnists will then have at it. That's how it works.
Recently, a major NYT investigation revealed the shady aspects of Trump's inheritance. If this country is not outraged by his constant lying about not only his wealth but everything else as well, there's not much else a reporter or columnist can do.
Ms. Collins is well known for her wit and satire. I laughed. I don't do that much anymore. I'm grateful to her for calling him out on his disgusting character.
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Thousandaire came long before trump's presidency. And Gail relishes her "pig" photo. This is a column of humor, meant to inject levity. Lighten up, sir. Humor is all that keeps many of us from tearing our hair out.
Trump is a great example of the old cliche. All the money in the world can’t buy you class !
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@Mick
And money can't buy morals, common human decency, empathy and intelligence either.
4
Sorry I think I meant to describe the second movie, back to the future 2.
1
"You can tell the size of a man by the size of the thing that makes him mad."
- Adlai Stevenson
Never a cross word for authoritarians murdering dissidents on foreign soil but rage for any criticism or insult directed at him no matter how minor, well-deserved or trivial.
"Game on, Tiny". Indeed.
Donald Trump: The tiniest man to ever be called Mr. President.
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“He should not have said that,”
is probably the most appropriate quote you could ever find about the current President. No wonder the Russians wanted him to win and not Ms Clinton, who would not have been such a walkover. After all, what more can a diplomat desire than an adversary who shoots himself in both feet before discussions even get going?
The most worrying thing, however, is that so many people fail to even read what their hero has been saying, instead relying on heavily edited videos from Fox News or whatever in order to watch their hero doing his impression of Lenny Bruce on painkillers. At least Putin makes the effort to try and look dignified...
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@Bill George Actually, I thought it was more telling about the speaker: Paul Ryan's condemnations are so luke warm, you could feed them to a newborn. He will NOT be missed.
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@Bill George
The Russians wanted Hillary to win, despite the fact that Putin dislikes her personally.
If she had won, she would have continued the Obama policy of appeasement with respect to Russia, which included: refusing to support Georgia or the Ukraine when Russia invaded. Refusing to support Syrian or Iranian rebels in Russian client states. Sending two planeloads of cash to Iran to fund terrorism against the West.
Continuing the anti fossil fuel war of Obama to encourage the increase of oil prices upon which Russia is dependent. [Russia's only source of hard currency is oil plus computer hacking.]
Her chief of staff, Podesta, was taking money to lobby for the repeal of the Magnitsky Act. Hillary paid Russians to fabricate the Steele dossier. [Her financial reports to the FEC fraudulently reported the opposition research fees as legal expenses.]
While she was a "diplomat" she and her husband and daughter received millions in fees from foreign governments and she subsequently ruled in favor of those foreign interests. Uranium One was under FBI investigation for money laundering when she approved its sale to Russian oligarchs.
No one thought Trump was going to win. Russian propaganda was designed to hobble Hillary's presidency by pitting Americans against each other and by undermining the legitimacy of democracy.
Had Hillary won, Republicans would not have organized a resistance as the Russian inspired leftists have.
@Bill George
The fear that he would be defeated by a woman .... Hillary ..... to me proves that he conspired with the Russians...the Arabs?? The Israelis? ANYONE to help so that a woman could not defeat him. He could not live with that. He plunders women in every turn....pays them off for his "tiny" attempts, calls them 3rd grade insults if they in any way stand up to him.... Just look back at his very blemished history.
3
I think that Stephanie Gregory Clifford should be in politics and run for office. She has everything to recommend her! Although in the sanctimonious U.S. it could be difficult.
18
I am not a woman declarative and I enjoy going to the barbershop. The back neck blade shave is the best.
There is not much on top for me.
Many barbers in 2018 are female.
How much things remain the same in a good way.
Almost 60 years of haircuts is part of American and Australian culture as a man place.
Women who work in barbershops have had a great influence on equality.
It is a safe place to work for women. Ten waiting customers, men, have no time or interest in vulgarity.
However my daughter tells me that going to the gym she has been propositioned by a stranger and does not want to attend the venue which she has worked out in for around four years.
May I say as a man being followed around a major railway station by a man when I was a lad was disconcerting.
A 5 cent call home was a good move.
Happily enjoying the Australian sunshine it might be time to address the character of Mr Trump.
I will not disturb the reader of my perspective of the President.
1933 in Germany another gent got elected.
That gent never made a mistake.
50% of Americans have been laughed at, scorned and brutalised and that stat is not confined to females.
I am an Australian man and enjoy the barbershop.
My daughter is l looking for better gym.
Bravo Ms Daniels for standing up for your rights!
While I am not an Oxford Don there are obvious bases of rationality:
True/False and cogent argument from premises to a conclusion.
Ms Collins
38
Nothing scary about Trump's unexpressed thoughts - just a vacuum. He has no filter - thought pops up, he says it.
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@Anne-Marie Hislop--But, there is a filter: decency. He filters that out every time he opens his mouth!
4
@Anne-Marie Hislop, you make his thoughts sound like the gases released from a rotting swamp...
4
Great, great article!! your ability to pinpoint his flaws is impressive. Thanks for sharing, for standing up for women, and for a good laugh!! I hope this article is read by many, many women and men who regard women as equals in all respects...
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Such a relief it is to be able to laugh with Gail Collins.
In about six weeks I have to decide which horrible people to cast a vote for, for various government positions. The kind of people who run for office are the sort that made my life uncomfortable in high school forty years ago. Yes, all people who run for office are like that. Most of them are self-promoters of one sort of another, and a few or maybe not a few are hardened criminals. None of them is going to do anything to improve the things in my life that I think are most important.
So, stay home and don't vote? But I was badly socialized and feel that voting is an obligation — many people who came before me suffered and made great sacrifices so that I can vote. I don't seem to be able to make myself stay home with that burden on me. They made great sacrifices so that I can choose from among self-promoters and hardened criminals who are going to benefit themselves rather than me. Not voting doesn't reduce the number of self-promoters and hardened criminals in office — it just prevents me from having the right to complain about it.
So election day gives me an awful feeling these days. Thank you, Gail Collins, for giving me something to laugh about in the mean time.
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@DPB Hard to know what to make of this post, other than a tome on the untrue moral equivalence of all politicians and the allure of voter apathy, as if politicians alarmed about climate change are in the same category of as climate change deniers.
And who are you going to vote for "in about 6 weeks?" The election is less than 3 weeks from today, on November 6. Someone who sincerely believes that "voting is an obligation" would know that.
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@DPB
Look at it this way. Vote for the negative. Vote for the person(s) who don't spout about taxes being too high.
Who don't advocate more burdens on the poor. Who don't want anyone's health care canceled. Who don't interfere in women's reproduction.
36
@DPB Do you really have such horrible choices for the midterms? I have not lived in NYC for ~ 30 years, so I'm not informed, but surely almost any Dem would - at this point in history - be far better than just about any Rep.
At any rate, I hope others do not misread your plaint abut your local choices as general both-siderism. That, after all, is what got us a president who calls women pigs and a cabinet appointed for their incompetence and desire to destroy the agencies they head.
I'm beyond disappointed that a judge would throw out Stormy Daniels' case and affix legal charges. What kind of legal precedent let alone decency is served when Trump as President is allowed to go after a private citizen? This stinks to high heaven.
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@Ann
A judge who was appointed in 2003 by George W. Bush when Republicans had re-taken the Senate in the 2002 mid-terms--that's what "Conservative Judges" means.
Some of them take their judging seriously, and some have a political agenda. Unfortunately, this is nothing new.
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Correct legal ruling. Time to pay up Stormy!
@Ann I am in complete agreement, athough I am certain that if Ms Daniels starts a 'Go Fund Me' for the amount, it will be met in minutes.
3
As long as we’re talking about horses, Stormy isn’t a horseface, she’s a nationally ranked equestrian. As “Stormy Crain,” she competes in Three-Day Events (dressage, cross-county, and show jumping). A person like that doesn’t give up easily, and if Trump calls her names, it’s just free publicity, as far as she’s concerned. I wouldn’t exactly nominate Stormy for sainthood, but she’s useful in the present political situation, and Trump really, really deserves her.
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@Constance Warner That is an interesting sidelight to someone who has way more on the ball than the sitting prez. Thanks.
4
@Constance Warner
I do not think that Stormy would accept a nomination for sainthood. Yet, were she and Trump both forced to take an IQ test administered by the same person, she would most certainly beat the self declared genius by tens of points.
11
@Constance Warner I think I would vote Stormy for sainthood before most of the GOP Senators. I suspect many of them have their own personal "Stormys"
5
"He should not have said that" - says yet another Republican politician - but Trump did and does, and NOTHING ever happens. Any parent dealing with a child knows that making threats without any follow through is a BIG no no - and yet Republicans repeatedly let Trump get away with saying and doing horrible things.
Perhaps we need to take a moment to focus on the gutless wonders propping Trump up. Don't they deserve some mention for their own roles in emboldening this moron?
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@DebbieR
The thing is that Republicans are scared of losing their party's endorsement if they turn on their Great Leader before the time comes. At the moment they are all keeping their heads down in case they get them hacked off.
Should the upcoming elections produce the hoped-for wind of change, both those who lose and those who keep their comfortable seats will be emboldened to speak out (let's hope so anyway).
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@DebbieR
It's only been about 500 million years (circa the Cambrian period) that life forms evolved spines. A blink of the eye in the scheme of the universe. Be patient. Republicans will catch up eventually.
12
@DebbieR: "Perhaps we need to take a moment to focus on the gutless wonders propping Trump up. Don't they deserve some mention for their own roles in emboldening this moron?"
We need to keep in mind that Trump is Frankenstein's monster and the GOP is Frankenstein.
9
OMG!
thousandaire, priceless!
Things have been so horrifying and, I dare to say, downright evil, that this lighthearted romp into small body parts and bullybrag was a relief.
Stormy won that one, big time.
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@Susan Anderson I have a hard time referring to not-my President, but now I have a new handle that does a good job of cutting him down to size: Thousandaire-in-Chief.
7
@Susan Anderson Get with it Susan, it is "bigly".
3
@Paul
Indeed, a woman who writes about bullybrag should be au courant with "bigly". Thanks!
Ah, the good old days, when the name Donald Trump just meant a rich clown with a blonde in the gossip columns. Thanks for the information about Alibi the horse, though--my sister voted for Trump and we haven't really talked about him since, but I think she may have repented. If I can get that story into the conversation at some point, it could turn her against him for good. (If Don Jr. and Eric haven't already, with their proud photos of themselves with dead animals.)
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@carrobin
Here's Gail's earlier story, which might have some detail not included here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/24/opinion/and-now-presidential-dog-days...
5
LBJ gave us a little more than Medicare. Like the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicaid and HeadStart, to name a few.
1136
Before anyone gets sentimental about LBJ, he also gave us the escalation of Vietnam. Excluding that is like omitting the iceberg from the story of Titanic.
55
@Mike But mentioning the escalation of Vietnam without mentioning the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicaid and HeadStart would be just as misleading.
55
@Mike And not mentioning he took the advice of "the Best and the Brightest" would also be sentimental.
It’s a shame the prez got rid of that horse, because these days he could really use an Alibi. When he calls someone “horseface” he should probably see the irony, given that he’s often referred to as the opposite end.
Speaking of horses, when the president speaks it makes me realize the Mr. Ed had a far superior vocabulary.
It’s even more ironic when Mousse-o-lini criticizes other people’s looks, apparently unaware that his pouty face and his widdle folded arms make him look like a spiteful, sneering child.
It seems we’ve got a crass, porn star-diddling, crotch-groping third-rate mob-boss wanna-be for president of the United States. He defrauded students of his fake university, stiffed contractors, sold mail-order meat and cheap Chinese ties. He lies about his wealth and hides the facts. He insults women, trashes our values and isn’t above caging children for political gain.
If anyone deserves to be called a “pig,” it would be him. The only thing that stops me from doing so is that pigs are honorable creatures with more pleasant dispositions and better vocabularies than our president.
Still, I don't want to see him voted out of office. I want to see him thrown out.
1911
@gemli Just to add to your excellent comment: Mr. Ed was wise enough to know that he should sometimes keep his words to himself.
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@gemli
"Gemli," where have you been hiding. You have provided the best laugh lines I've read in the NYTimes in about the last ten days. And I really needed a few laughs. Thanks, and keep 'em coming!
3
@gemli
While I agree that seeing DJT leave office prematurely due to impeachment or resignation, both of which are highly unlikely give GOP tribalist nose-pinching against his stench, I'd be happy to settle for seeing him voted out of office.
He'll scream the election is rigged, that the vote count is phony, and try to garner enough support to overturn the election by any means possible. Then, MAYBE the trumpists will realize this man is NOT a patriot after all.
5
Sorry, Gail....it's a little hard to laugh knowing that the President of the United States and the United States Secretary of State just spent the last few days aiding and abetting the Saudi Arabian cover-up of the cold-blooded torture and murder of a journalist who worked in America.
The sick, warped sight of Mike Pompeo smiling and glad-handing Saudi Arabian assassins was a clear sign that America under Trump is officially morally and intellectually bankrupt.....with economic bankruptcy to kick in later.
The rule of law is necessary for a decent civilization, and our President couldn't care less for the rule of law, human rights or the world's dictators gone wild.
Donald Trump was sort-kinda-tacky-funny when he was a needy tabloid-newspaper-publicity-hound in the 1980's and the 1990's, but now, as America's accidental President and esteemed Whites R Us Birther-Liar Sociopath-In-Chief, he's an international disgrace and discredit to his country and the world.
The country needs leadership, not a moron with great lying skills.
The world needs moral leadership, not a psychological black hole that swallows his country and abandons all pretense of morality.
The world needs human rights, not another craven oligarch to support the old corrupt oligarchy.
We all better figure out a way to drag a record number of voters to the polls on November 6 if we expect to have a chance at climbing out of this hellacious Trumpian Toilet and Republican coup d'etat.
It's not funny.
VOTE !
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@Socrates
I have been trying to imagine how 45 will act if there is a real emergency and all I come up with is disaster. There is no chance that he can make rational, thoughtful and subtle decisions under enormous pressure; Neither can his team.
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@catlover
There are a few emergencies presently, not the least of which is the aftermath of hurricane Michael. It’s going to take more than a photo op with paper towels to fix this one. And let’s not forget Puerto Rico.
@Socrates we have to laugh...and vote. It’s mainly all gruesome in Trumpville and the horrific illiberal state of the world that he clearly aims to underpin for his own profit, but we won’t endanger our humanity by enjoying some neatly penned perspective that manages to bring a smile. Gail Collins is a national treasure!
3