Donald Trump had some events and meetings yesterday in the White House, which I’ll get to in a moment. For most of his events, he either hid his right hand under the desk, or he placed his left hand over his right to hide the large bruise or whatever that is. On Monday, Trump didn’t slather off-color makeup on the bruise, like he was doing last week. Maybe his staff told him that the makeup was more noticeable than the bruise? Whatever it was, we can see the dark discoloration in a few shots from Getty (I’m including them below). My question: why isn’t this headline news? Every time Joe Biden stuttered or tripped, it was a banner headline in every newspaper, questioning Biden’s age and capability. Why not… just do the same thing with Trump, who is clearly unwell, who has tree-trunk cankles, and who rants constantly about weird sh-t like magnets?
As for the business of state… well, yesterday was a bad day. Trump announced that he will fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, because he wants the Fed to lower interest rates. He’s also had a hate-on for Cook because she’s a Black woman. Trump is also threatening to send federal troops into other American cities, especially Chicago. Washington DC is apparently a ghost town right now, with restaurants, bars and any tourist-friendly business getting crushed by the military presence in the city. Trump said, in the Oval, that “A lot of people are saying, ‘Maybe we’d like a dictator.’”
Trump: "A lot of people are saying maybe we'd like a dictator." pic.twitter.com/2EpLkOaPZl
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 25, 2025
Photos courtesy of Getty, Backgrid, Cover Images.
- Washington, DIST United States President Donald J Trump signs a proclamation on the 4 year Anniversary of the Abbey Gate Bombing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC. Trump is meeting with relatives of the thirteen US military members killed during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Pictured: Donald Trump BACKGRID USA 25 AUGUST 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
- President Donald Trump during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House. Trump is expected to sign two executive orders Monday aiming to end cashless bail in Washington and nationwide, marking the latest move in the administrations agenda to crack down on crime. Featuring: President Donald Trump Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 25 Aug 2025 Credit: Al Drago/POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
- President Donald Trump during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House. Trump is expected to sign two executive orders Monday aiming to end cashless bail in Washington and nationwide, marking the latest move in the administrations agenda to crack down on crime. Featuring: President Donald Trump Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 25 Aug 2025 Credit: Al Drago/POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
And maybe a larger amount of people are saying maybe we would like a dead president and dead minions of his too!!!!!
I co-sign this. I also feel righteous about this as EVERYTHING would be better – EVERYTHING!
The moral rot will still be here, unfortunately. Ultimately we’ll be left having to reckon with the fact that at least 40% of people in this country are traitors who opened the door to fascism; welcomed it, really. Trump dying won’t break the spell, I’m afraid.
“The moral rot will still be here…” That is true but we have to start somewhere to make this a proper country. It is clear that as long as the 🍊💩stain and his cultists stay in power we’re just spinning our wheels. Wishing for someone’s death seems morbid and grotesque to most of us but we can’t help ourselves.
I worry about what his supporters would do if he died, even if it was by natural causes (on that note: PLEASE come through, Big Macs).
They’d just drum up some conspiracy theory that Biden or Obama or Libs did it and probably take to the streets. I imagine them being completely unmoored without their King and out for blood, by any means necessary.
You’re overstating the case, “at least 40% of people in this country are traitors who opened the door to fascism.” According to the Census Bureau, “73.6% of the voting age population was registered to vote, and 65.3% voted.” If you’re mistrustful of Census Bureau #s at this point in time, compare voter turnout to prior years as a reliability check.
They are violent and well armed. Trump’s death won’t magically convert them into decent human beings. We’d better be ready for the chaos. But I do think some people who voted for him have fafo’d so the numbers have dwindled. That’s why they’re working hard to rig the midterms. Turning this around won’t be easy, will be violent, and will be a long, slow process. But we can’t lose all hope.
The moral rot will be there, but there’s no head to the cause then. No one is ready to take to the streets armed to the teeth for JD Vance. Every a hole that’s been enabled by this administration will see themselves as heir apparent and it will splinter into dust. We’ll still have to organize and vote and close every gd loop hole that us here, and prosecute them down to the prison guards. Over the summer I read a couple of histories of the kkk, and it wasn’t parallels to maga, it was clearly maga. And they were absolutely unstoppable in some places (Indiana had the highest rate of members! One was elected Governor of Colorado! Texas!), and then a few of the head leaders had legal problems (murder, bribes), and the entire organization splintered and disappeared from public within 3 years.
@ Brassy-yes ITA that he’s losing ground, especially with Independents where last I saw he was polling at 29%. I’m happy and grateful to see it, but it’s also so depressing that *anyone* supports him at this stage.
@Brassy Rebel – the portion of his followers that are violent, well armed and intense enough to go out of their way to do something is minuscule though. Thinking of the Trump supporters I know, they’re angry people through and through and might fantasize about being some sort of “good guy with a gun” but they’re too old, too scattered, just not the kind of people who would really do much.
They rigged 2024 on about 80 different layers and somehow the Democratic Party just went along with it after the fact even though his “win” was once again a statistical anomaly, requesting no recounts. The media and search apps were totally silent on it as well, so unless you happened upon the one subreddit (something is wrong 2024, which several months out is a mix of the statistical analyses that people have done and regular anti-Trump stuff), you wouldn’t be able to find anything. I tried searching it and Trump’s claims from 2020 came up, nothing about 2024.
Turning this around will require a Nuremberg type response with real consequences at the end. Lord Haw Haw met such a consequence, as did many of the architects of the Nazi regime, and that needs to happen this time too. We need to do the work that Reconstruction couldn’t, or else we will never move on.
Trump’s control comes from his Cult of Personality. And just like Stalin, his death will create a power vacuum that poor PD cannot fill. That’s why the tech oligarchs are so hell-bent on pushing through as much authoritarian legislation as they can right now: They know Trump can sell a narrative to his base like no one else. Once Trump is gone, they have to bank on the fact that there are enough controls in place to keep the population disenfranchised.
@ Betsy “they’re angry people through and through and might fantasize about being some sort of ‘good guy with a gun’ but they’re too old, too scattered, just not the kind of people who would really do much.”
I used to think the same because let’s face it: they’ve never been able to organize large protests like the Left can.
But then January 6th happened. And that’s kind of what I picture–that level of chaos and violence, but perhaps with military assistance. They’re getting used to seeing Trump pardon his loyal supporters and attack his perceived enemies and are absorbing that dynamic in a way that emboldens them. They think that ultimately the insurrectionists paid no consequences for their behavior so it’s worth the risk.
And that’s not to say we should be cowed or scared because obviously Trump and his supporters want that–but we should be prepared.
This nation was founded on religious fanaticism, exploited labor, and free markets. Efforts to reconcile the past culminated in 1965 and the Republicans 60 year campaign to undo all of that progress has finally come to fruition. America is too large and too diverse to govern as a single entity. The break up of the union seems inevitable to me.
I don’t think Vance has the same draw for MAGA.
@Kitten- January 6th was their absolute best shot though. That was with Ginny Thomas and her friends paying for transportation and lodging, and months of propaganda pressure to a specific event. And the best they could rally was maybe 5000 people? That is not enough to coup a country this big successfully. And of the 1600 who were convicted of something and pardoned, a lot have been arrested for other charges, and others have moved on. The QAnon shaman is openly mad at Orange right now, for goodness sakes. They’ve weakened the country greatly, no doubt, and I’m sure there will be small groups like the one in Michigan that had plans, but I don’t think they can do anything at a scale. There’s just not a clear target. We have to focus on bringing down the South African billionaires who are funding this and providing the tech they will try to use to control us, that’s the actual largest threat. Not mouth breathers who already blew their big chance.
Co-sign. I pray everyday for it
Yep! Everyday I check if he and his minions have left their mortal coil and everyday that they haven’t, is a disappointment.
Where’s the Grim Reaper when you need him? Come on, Grim. Grab your scythe and get going.
There is a video making the rounds of the internet (it was all over Reddit if you’re curious and not on TikTok) of a physical therapist (I think? Not a medical doctor but with a PhD in his field and decades of experience) talking about what it looks like Trump has and how he pegged his life expectancy at 6-8 months. I know that people can live a long time with congestive heart failure and he’s getting the ne plus ultra of medicine, but we also know he’s a wastrel and a moron who won’t change anything about his diet or anything else. Medicine can only do so much.
I hope he’s on his last legs. I can’t wait until I get the chance to spit on his grave like he spit all over the Consitution.
So, he’s almost certainly receiving some kind of regular infusions intravenously in the back of his hand. The only question is, infusion of what??
That what I thought. I know elderly people are more easily bruised but the explanation that the bruise is from excessively shaking hands is BS. I agree it looks much more like somebody put a needle in his hand to find a vein for infusion (?) and botched it. That can happen. But question is for what kind of infusion?
In old and sick people the infusion doesn’t need to be botched to cause bruising. Thin, weak veins just take longer to heal and continue to seep blood under the skin after the needle is removed. Especially if the infusion is done repeatedly.
Helen, thanks for clarifying this. The question remains what kind of infusions and why are they hiding it.
yes, the bruise has been visible often enough and or long enough (or the makeup covering it has been visible) that its clear he’s been receiving some sort of regular infusion. This isn’t like he was sick and needed extra fluids one time or something. This has been months at this point.
One theory I saw on Threads was that he’s nearing the end and that’s why we’re getting these insane steps with the National Guard and the new flurry of EOs etc. But I think that’s just Miller being Miller.
The Dem governors are on fire this week too – newsom, Moore, PRITZKER, Walz, the WA Governor whose name escapes me (sorry!) People are responding to them. We feel like some Dem leaders are firing back even if the Senate and House won’t.
Yeah Congress is completely useless at this point but I’m drawing tons of inspiration from Dem mayors and governors, who clearly understand the assignment. Pritzker’s speech was amazing. He’s such an effective speaker–IL is very lucky to have him.
I am in cancer treatment and on blood thinners and we regularly switch locations for blood draws/IVs. It can take 2 weeks or so for a bad bruise like that to clear up on blood thinners, but I don’t get why it continues to be on his same hand. Why doesn’t he have a port or a pic line if he is getting regular infusions?
A picc line for sure would solve so many problems. I had a picc in ICU for infusions and blood draws. No more needle sticks needed!! Something else must be going on.
I’m wondering why no port also. If he’s getting regular iv treatments, it would be incredibly easy to have one someplace that’s not visible in his baggy suits. Maybe he’s too noncompliant? Like so far gone he’ll tear it out like a monkey?
My husband takes many medications as a transplant recipient including steroids. He gets horrific bruises on his forearms between his hands and elbows, no where else. They are dark purplish like Trump’s. Maybe he’s on steroids.
I get this too, only mine are bright red spots/patches on my forearms rather than actual bruises. It is caused by weak veins and steroids thinning the skin. My husband is on blood thinners and he had a purple bruise on the back of his hand just like Trump’s. He has no idea how he got it either. I suspect Trump is on blood thinners rather than steroids.
As someone who works in DC, the vibe has been eerie. There are so few people downtown, even during normal busy working hours. And I’ve only seen their thugs places unlikely to have more than petty crime anyway, so thanks for “protecting” me from the rats at Metro Center? (/s)
I went to college in DC, and my heart is breaking for this beautiful city.
I don’t think enough people are talking about it (hope maybe I’m just not seeing it?!), but my fear is that militarizing these heavily Democrat cities is yes of course, about being able to control them esp during elections, but also to starve out businesses, etc., drive businesses out of the city and real estate prices down and then have Trump & Cronies buy them all up.
So the take over doesn’t just have to be military, but the very soul of the cities.
Also, in that last photo, his hand looks incredibly swollen. Also sign of an infusion?
That the “dictator” line came and went without a peep from the press is disgusting.
Unfortunately the press won’t be fighting our battles for us anymore. Most are businesses and he’s suing them, hounding them, restricting journalist access, dictating coverage, making threats etc. He started pressure for that regime change quite a while ago. He IS becoming a dictator, a rose by any other name …
There is no “becoming”–he IS, period. At some point we have to stop pretending that fascism is knocking on our door and realize that it’s HERE, inside our fucking house.
Yes, the legacy media is the propaganda arm right now. There are degrees of servileness and all, but they exist for the GOP, as they have done for the last few decades but no one noticed or cared. They have used GOP framing for everything at least since Clinton and likely before, but I was a teen in the 90s and wasn’t really paying attention prior to then.
He wants chaos. He thought black people would be out in the streets protesting and they want the image of black people being seen as unruly, being pepper sprayed and thrown into the back of vans. We ain’t coming outside and now he thinks bringing more national guards to DC will do the trick. Stephen Miller is mad because it’s mainly white people heckling him and his cronies. I’ve seen people harassing Ice agents out of their neighborhoods. He wants to send more troops to Chicago and NY two predominantly black cities. It’s not a coincidence. He’s mad because he really thought with getting rid of migrant workers that we would show up and start working in the fields. Nebraska is about to go bankrupt because their contracts with China to export soybeans and other things have been cancelled. I saw where a farmer has purchased farm equipment from other farmers because those farmers have committed suicide. It’s sad and all of this could have bee avoided.
I’ve been encouraged by the White people showing up and heckling the occupiers.
this is to reply to @kitten, above, Congress has been *so* underwhelming, it’s pretty much a rubber stamp at this point. Which reminded me of what Eisenhower apparently wanted to say in his farewell speech, the phrase he had tried out was “military industrial congressional complex,” but it was too wordy and unwieldy. Because — think for half a second — all the MIC bases and commissions and procurement etc. was benefiting the states where it was situated. So congress became — postwar — one big souk, like a bonanza for bribery and influence peddling. I mean, I remember the West Wing episode where Aaron Sorkin has a character observe, “we’ve legalised bribery,” and once you institute that principle, it applies across the board, to *everything*. So. It is up to the states, really, to recover the initiative, dig deep, reach higher, and do the community organising that the Republicans mocked Obama for having done. But that’s where the work is, that’s the fertile ground. As much as “states’ rights” was a euphemism for segregation and Jim Crow, the states are the alternative to Washington, D.C. god, we need an alternative.
Well-said, @ParkRunMum.
Your comment also reminds me of organizations like Run for Something (which is reportedly seeing record enrollment) and the importance of ordinary citizens from a variety of working class backgrounds getting into office at the lower levels of government. City council, school board member, state comptroller etc…local is where we can influence and affect change that we can actually feel in our communities.
I’ve pretty much thrown in the towel on the Fed government at this point.
Yeah it’s time for white people to step up. We have the least risk in doing so. I’m going to the National Book Festival in two weeks and am curious to see what the vibe will be. I’m totally down for some heckling and shaming. I’m a middle aged, upper middle class, white, married, Christian woman. I’m about as safe as it gets. It’s time to take our Karen rep and flip it on its head. Start using our powers for good instead of evil.
I loved a video a few days ago of a white neighborhood group, half of which looked to be seniors, hounding an ICE group right out of the neighborhood. And there’s this lady in California (?) who posted that she’s “white as a hotel towel” and has no connection to Mexico besides a Cancun vacation. But she put a Mexico decal on her car and, sure enough, got pulled over. She was questioned about the decal and encouraged to take it off. She was basically “fuck off”. That’s the kind of trolling to be encouraged.
For those who are capable of smooth, stealthy moves, carry a padlock. Enough of those ICE jerks move in U Hauls and Penske trucks. Once they’re back in, go ahead and let them stay in a little longer. They’ll all have cell phones.
Or for the stealthy and loaded and internet savvy, stick an apple tracker on any of their vehicles. Follow along and play. I would assume they’d get an alert sometimes, but maybe not all the time.
Karens For Democracy! @Bqm — I love this! Please, any of you who can, use your considerable powers for good!
If your area is having Labor Day gatherings, consider showing up. I’m, personally, leery of going to a protest downtown right now, but will probably do one of the smaller ones. It will feel good to connect with neighbors and allies.
In DC, things are ramping up, in that some of the National Guard troops will now be visibly toting guns. More troops are being sent in from states run by Republican governors, including some from former Confederate states. Their exact missions are unclear. What is clear is that their training in policing urban areas in their own country has been minimal at best. What will it take for a young, armed soldier, minimally trained and most familiar with rural or suburban areas and communities to flinch — and pull the trigger? I hope we don’t find out.
I saw black folks in DC protesting, all peacefully. Way too smart to take the bait.
Don’t forget about Baltimore, too. Black mayor + black governor = double whammy
NYC and Chicago aren’t predominantly Black, they are predominantly blue.
🌊💙💙💙
Oh excuuuse me’ 🙄🙄 I should have said both cities have a large population of black and brown people. Thanks for the correction.
Hello world — your comment is correct
All of this, @Bluesky.
Reminds me of photos of the queen’s hand a couple days before her death.
I’ve been seeing those comparisons too! From your lips to gods ears 🙏🏻
I get those type of bruises when I have IV infusions and the nurse can’t find a vein in my arm (I have extensive tattooing and live rural so not every nurse is adept at finding a vein through the tattoos) so they insert the iv into my hand. (Which also hurts like a mofo.) This is the bruising that happens EVERY time and lasts for about a week. I don’t want to pretent to be a doctor and guess what’s happening to mango mussolini but I would hazard a guess that it involves regular iv infusions for something….
I may get the phrasing wrong here but Chronic Venous Insufficiency as a result of Congestive Heart Failure, for which a main treatment is IV diuretics.
Which are nephrotoxic. And once the kidneys are caput… anyway, clots and prayers for him.
Clots. Love it. Hope it wasn’t a typo.
@Libra – it was intentional and I meant it. Millions of people experience medical tragedies every year and most of them don’t “deserve” it. And then there are fascists.
I think the Mango Menace has been getting IV vitamin treatments (or medication) in order to look alive in front of the cameras. I bruise easily and that is exactly what my hand looks like if I’ve had an IV.
I wonder if that’s why Vance was here in the UK all summer? For a crash course / immersion in stepping up to the big job? Can’t do that stuff in the US really whilst Trump is in charge. Could be a blend of job training & Ukraine / NATO brainstorming. I don’t believe he was just off work for 4 weeks. That’s just not plausible. A couple of weeks maybe, with a couple of hours every day of briefings & updates. But when has a vice President ever taken 4 straight weeks’ holiday, much less in another country??
The Lisa Cook “firing” is truly a big deal — that I hope will get the widespread attention and opprobrium that it deserves. It’s doubtful that the President has the authority to fire her from the Fed Board of Governors. More horrifying though, is Trump’s / “Trump’s “ argument that because she has been ACCUSED of wrongdoing, that accusation alone is enough to call into question her ability to effectively function in her job. Please think about that for a minute.
Trump has often accused his enemies of wrongdoing, providing spurious reasons, not backed up with anything much, to support his accusations. This goes a step further — in openly asserting that reasons and actual facts aren’t needed. All that’s needed is an accusation— which Trump and his more verbally adept minions are more than happy to make.
Trump’s focused ire has disproportionately impacted Black women in significant positions. With Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, who was well-respected even by Congressional Republicans, there were Trumped-up reasons — that made it clear that the people making the accusations had minimal understanding of the way the Library actually functions. With Lisa Cook, even the facade of having justifications has been dropped. All it takes is the most twisted or demented of accusations by people in authority— chilling word, that — and, for Trump and his supporters, that apparently should be that.
Lisa Cook is fighting her attempted removal. It will be useful to see who supports her — and who supports the powers that Trump and his minions are claiming for themselves. If this ploy is actually successful, I look for judges and others whose existence and opinions offend Trump to be next. At that point we will no longer be a functioning democracy or a republic.
He’s accusing her of mortgage fraud, a literally trumped-up, all-purpose allegation he’s also thrown at Adam Schiff and other of his foes.
He’s a monster.
My understanding is that people who own more than one home get taxed differently at either residence–primary residence and secondary–in terms of deductions/exemptions./interest rates. Apparently, it’s not uncommon for lenders to misclassify a secondary residence as primary so it wouldn’t be surprising if someone did that on her behalf without her knowledge.
This is not directed at you, Blithe–just speaking generally– but I’m so tired of people pointing out that what he’s doing is completely unlawful or that he doesn’t have the authority to do it even as he does the thing he’s not allowed to do. It’s only unlawful if checks and balances stop him, which only seems to be happening from time to time in the lower courts, before he appeals to his Supreme Court which overrules it.
He’s showing us again and again that he can do whatever TF he wants and Miss Cook is just the latest casualty.
He now looks like he’s perpetually about to drool.
I read an article today which suggests that Trump is suffering from frontotemporal dementia. Some physical symptoms are a forward stance and erratic gait. The erratic gait was particularly noticeable as he got out of a golf cart recently, as well as his walk down the red carpet in Alaska when he met with Putin.