A Decade of Donald Edition
June 16, 2025
1. Over the weekend in Minnesota, State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were allegedly shot and killed by Vance Boelter, who was wearing a latex mask and impersonating a police officer. State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette are believed to have been shot by the same gunman, their bodies taking seventeen bullets between them. The Hoffmans are recovering in a hospital. The motive for these shootings is still unclear. However, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) had some theories that he quickly shared on social media. First he wrote, "This is what happens when Marxists don't get their way" and then followed it up with "Nightmare on Waltz Street" along with a photo of Boelter standing at the front door of the Hortman's home about to kill them. You see, Senator Lee believes this violence is the fault of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. He makes his point (even though he misspelled the governor's name) while also crafting a play on words from a 1980s horror movie. Because why not have a little fun?
2. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) took to the halls of the Capitol building this afternoon to find Lee. She pulled him out of a Republican committee meeting to give him a piece of her mind. Smith shared later that she told Lee, "I thought it was brutal and cruel. He should think about the implications of what he's saying and doing. It just further fuels this hatred and misinformation." Earlier today, Smith's deputy chief of staff penned a note to Lee's team stating, "It is important for your office to know how much additional pain you've caused on an unspeakably horrific weekend . . . You exploited the murder of a lifetime public servant and her husband to post some sick burns about Democrats? Did you see this as an excellent opportunity to get likes and retweet? Have you absolutely no conscience? No decency?" I'm going to assume those questions are rhetorical, as their answers are quite obvious.
3. Trump was asked today if he plans on calling Governor Walz about the murders that took place in Minnesota over the weekend. His response? “Well, it's a terrible thing. I think he's a terrible governor. I think he's a grossly incompetent person. But I may, I may call him, I may call other people too.” He leads with empathy and compassion, doesn't he?
4. While a middle-aged white man who is married to a woman and has five children is the accused person in custody for shooting elected officials over the weekend, Donald Trump, Jr. appeared on a podcast today to make sure you don't forget the real threat. He said, "The radical transgender movement per capita is the most violent domestic terror threat if not in America, probably the entire world per capita! You have all of these shooters and murderers or attempted murderers in such a tiny population in the country. They're beyond reproach." Daddy must be proud.
5. Sophie Hortman and Colin Hortman issued a statement this afternoon about their parents, closing with this: "Hope and resilience are the enemy of fear. Our parents lived their lives with immense dedication to their fellow humans. This tragedy must become a moment for us to come together. Hold your loved ones a little closer. Love your neighbors. Treat each other with kindness and respect. The best way to honor our parents' memory is to do something, whether big or small, to make our community just a little better for someone else."
6. Happy 70th birthday to Laurie Metcalf! Even though Roseanne has gone full MAGA and is pretty gross at this point, her show remains one of my favorites from my high school years. Laurie Metcalf and John Goodman are both fantastic. And the scenes in which Metcalf had to call Aunt Barbara to share that her dad had died and when she finally confessed the abuse at the hands of her boyfriend Fisher are, for very different reasons, top TV moments.
7. This evening, Trump tweeted, "Iran should have signed the 'deal' I told them to sign. What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!" And indeed, millions of people are now frantically trying to get out of the city in the middle of the night, thanks to this tweet by Trump. Trump left the G7 summit early (which has its benefits, as he was embarrassing us on the world stage while there) to meet with his National Security Council in the Situation Room. The president who ran on America First and "no new wars" and the promise that he would end wars that never would have started had he been in charge is failing on all of those fronts.
8. In 2011, Trump said of President Obama, “Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He’s weak and he’s ineffective.” Tonight, we sit perched on the eve of war with Iran because Trump walked away from a deal brokered by Obama that prevented Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
9. Back to Trump embarrassing us at the G7 summit today. It's what he does best! As expected, Trump got very defensive on behalf of his buddy Putin. He said, "The G7 used to be the G8. Barack Obama and a person named Trudeau didn't want to have Russia in and I would say that's a mistake because I don't think you would have a war right now if Russian was in and you wouldn't have a war right now if Trump were president four years ago. But it didn't work out that way. It used to be the G8 but what's that eight years ago, nine years ago, it switched over. They threw Russia out, which I claimed was a very big mistake . . . You spend so much time talking about Russia and he's no longer at the table . . . Putin speaks to me. He doesn't speak to anybody else. Because he was very insulted when he got thrown out of the G8. As I would be, as you would be, as anyone would be. It's very insulting. He was thrown out by Trudeau, who convinced one or two people, and Obama. And he's not a happy person about it, I can tell you." Couple of things here. First, Russia got suspended from the G8 due to its annexation of Crimea. Being in the club didn't stop Putin from taking land by force. Second, this happened in 2014. Trudeau became the prime minister of Canada in November 2015.
10. Trump stood next to Keir Starmer, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom today and said, "We all know the great prime minister of the UK and we just signed some documents. (Trump then proceeds to drop the documents and lets Starmer pick them up for him.) We just signed it and it's done. So we have our trade agreement with the European Union. It's a fair deal for both. We have many, many other ones coming. The relationship that we have is fantastic." That's awesome. Just one thing, though - the United Kingdom left the European Union in 2020.
11. Last night, Trump tweeted that ICE "must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America's largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside." He went on to claim these cities are the Democrat Power Center and "these Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country, and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities - And they are doing a good job of it! There is something wrong with them. That is why they believe in Open Borders, Transgender for Everybody, and Men Playing in Women's Sports." (really hitting on his all-time favorites there) Trump reported that immigrants have turned "once Idyllic Towns into scenes of Third World Dystopia." Trump confirmed when asked today that he is indeed focusing deportation efforts on places where Democrats are in charge. Please note that after California, the states with the most undocumented immigrants are Texas and Florida. But those states voted for him, so let's leave them alone.
12. It was ten years ago today that Trump rode down that "golden escalator" and announced that he was running for president. A decade. We have been subjected to his dominance of our political landscape for a decade. And we are so much worse for it. We are smaller. We are weaker. We are less safe. I want our republic to survive him - to realize the horrific, collective mistake we made and resolve never to do it again. I hope we get the chance.
