The fire hose of corruption and trickery continues from the White House. I’m trying to keep up, but it’s impossible.

The New Acting Director of National Intelligence

Saying that Bill Pulte, who Trump named as Acting Director of National Intelligence on Tuesday has no intelligence experience is not a joke. It’s true.

When the position of Director of National Intelligence was created by the U.S. Congress in 2004, the law stated that the holder of that title “shall have extensive national security expertise.” That seems like a no-brainer, right?

So much for the law.

We learned during Trump’s first term in office that he prefers to have “acting” directors because “acting” directors and “acting” secretaries of departments of the Executive branch do not have to go through a Congressional confirmation process.

Pulte is the grandson of the Pulte Group’s founder. The company is the nation’s largest residential developer. (In fact, it is developing an 1,100-home development near my home.)

His genealogy and Mr. Pulte’s loyalty to Trump (such as a social media campaign to oust Jerome Powell as Chairman of the Federal Reserve and pushing to get Trump’s non-supporters like Lisa D. Cook, a Federal Reserve Board of Governors member, prosecuted for fraud – which hasn’t panned out) landed him his current position as Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In other words, he oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

According to a June 2, 2026 New York Times report, Pulte will continue in that position while he also serves as Director of National Security.

Does that make sense to anyone?

Trump chose not to visit 14 veterans wounded in the Iran War

While Trump was at Walter Reed Medical Center last Tuesday for a physical examination, he chose not to visit 14 veterans who were wounded in the Iran War.

Trump has downplayed the sacrifices made by our military personnel and their families. He still prefers to call the war “an excursion.”

To admit that 13 American military personnel have been killed and somewhere between 140 and 400 American military personnel have been wounded would be a negative reflection on him and his perfect deal making and war-ending prowess. It is such a distasteful admission from Trump or the Pentagon to make that the public cannot find out how many have been wounded. Hence, the 140 to 400 figure. Just try finding a definitive number in an online search.

I remember back in the 1960s and 1970s when the Pentagon released such information weekly. Some said later that those reports were inaccurate, but at least they made an effort to keep the American people informed about war casualties.

Then there’s the 250^th Birthday of America Great American State Fair

For starters, Trump wouldn’t know a state fair if he fell into one. This 10-day or 16-day celebration of the 250^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence was organized by Donald Trump’s nonprofit Freedom 250.

(“Donald Trump’s nonprofit…,” sounds like an oxymoron to me, but that is how Freedom 250 is described.)

Many singers and artists were invited to perform. Some of them, like Martina McBride, signed on because they thought it was a nonpartisan event.

Most of them, including Trump’s buddy, Kid Rock, have announced they aren’t going to participate. It’s pretty bad if Kid Rock won’t even show up.

I guess it will just be Lee Greenwood singing “I’m Proud to Be an American” over and over and over and over….

Of course, now Trump is calling the performers who have cancelled “third rate.” He wrote on social media that they were “overpriced singers, who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring, and yet who do nothing but complain.” 

So why did his nonprofit organization invite them?

He now says he might just host the whole thing and turn it into a MAGA Rally… as if that wasn’t what he wanted all along. It’s all about him.

The 4^th of July was a nonpartisan celebration of freedom for 249 years. Of course, Trump had to do everything imaginable to try to ruin it this year. Of all the years for him to be in office!

This year’s celebration of a week or two won’t hold a candle to our bicentennial celebration in 1976, which lasted all year – no matter how Trump claims otherwise.

Don’t let him ruin our nation’s 250^th birthday for you!

I wonder who told Trump this was our nation’s 250^th birthday. I wish they hadn’t told him.

A spelling lesson

It was so classy for the U.S. President to spell “dumb” for us last week. He was excited to point out that “most people” don’t’ know that “dumb” ends in a “b,” then he went on and to claim he had coined the word “dumocrat.” In fact, he went into detail to explain to us exactly what he did to transform “democrat” to “dumocrat,” as if it rocket science.

Mr. President, I’ve heard the word “dumocrat” before you so proudly said it and explained to us in detail how you came up with it. I even had a cousin call me and my grandfather dumocrats in an email to me during Trump’s first term after she found out that I did not support his policies.

To say that I found that offensive is a gross understatement. My grandfather (her great-grandfather) died in 1956 when I was three years old. Frankly, I had no idea of Grandpa’s political leanings, and I don’t know if my cousin knows what she’s talking about. It does not matter to me how Grandpa voted. He’s the only one of my four grandparents who was still alive when I was born. I have only faint memories of him. It brings tears to my eyes as I type these words. For anyone to call him a “dumocrat” when he was a farmer born in the 1870s is abhorrent.

Trump thinking it was cute, clever, funny, mean – whatever his motivation – last week in bringing the word “dumocrat” back to my attention was like pouring gasoline into an old wound and then striking a match. The saddest part, though, is that this example of Trump’s name calling is probably the least offensive one he’s ever used. He is normalizing bad behavior. The derogatory names he calls and things he says about women, for starters.

Microsoft Word is even offended, for it keeps automatically changing “dumocrat” to “democrat” every time I type it. It will be a miracle if I get this published on WordPress the way I’ve written it.

Words are weighty. Words can be used like daggers. The “leader of the free world” should choose his words carefully. They perhaps carry more weight than those of anyone else in the world. And the world is watching and listening.

I cringe to imagine what horrors loom in the 10 days until Trump’s birthday and then the remaining three weeks until the 4^th of July.

By the way, we have troops who were sent to the Middle East with very little notice in March and more were sent on April 19 for the war in Iran. No one is talking about them, but they were deployed, and they have no idea when they’ll get to come home.

Trump says he is in no hurry to reach a peace agreement (which he incorrectly calls “a deal.) He keeps drawing a line in the sand. A few minutes later, he moves the line. A businessman conducting a war….

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.