Remember this incident in October 2017, when Donald Trump — then in his first term as occupant of the Oval Office — finally visited Puerto Rico after it had been hit by hurricanes Irma and Maria?

Because of the extent of the damage, there had been some delay in delivery of recovery aid. To show what a caring individual he is, he showed up at a relief center where food and supplies were at last becoming available, and began tossing paper towels to the local citizens gathered there . . . as though that would help them blot up the water in what was left of their flooded homes.

Speaking to Mike Huckabee during an interview afterward, he said:

“They had these beautiful, soft towels. Very good towels. And I came in and there was a crowd of a lot of people. And they were screaming and they were loving everything. I was having fun, they were having fun. They said, ‘Throw ‘em to me! Throw ‘em to me Mr. President!” [Daniella Silva, NBC News, October 8, 2017.]

They had no homes; no food or drinking water; no utilities; no businesses; and nearly 3,000 people dead. But they were “having fun” watching Marie Antoinette tossing the beautiful, soft paper towels at them.

What class! What heart! What a guy!

*. *. *

Now it’s 2025, and we’re in the tenth month of his second, non-consecutive term. Has he managed to grow a heart in the interim? Well, let’s see . . .

He is currently . . .

> overseeing the brutal arrest, imprisonment and deportation of masses of immigrants without due process;

> the firing by DOGE of hundreds of thousands of government employees without cause;

> the furloughing of nearly a million more, and requiring hundreds of thousands to work without pay, due to a Republican-created government shutdown because they’re determined to rob the American people of affordable health care;

> the cancelling of food assistance to low-income families because of a falsely-claimed lack of government funds, while he builds a gaudy ballroom at the White House and parties like Gatsby at Mar-a-Lago;

> the blowing up of suspected drug runners in small boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific without prior proof of guilt . . .

> and all while lecturing other countries on their poor human rights records.

Oh, yeah . . . he’s all heart, all right.

*. *. *

And then, on a more personal level, there was this on Thursday:

During a press conference attended by Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, and several others, one of the attendees suddenly went limp and began to fall to the floor. Dr. Oz was able to grab the man and ease him to the floor as he passed out.

As the above photo shows, several people rushed to the man’s aid, while Trump stood staring helplessly at what was happening. At the same time, videos of the incident show Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and another woman rushing the press out of the room — though they kept photographing as they left, producing this follow-up picture of Trump, now turned completely away from the patient and in the direction of the retreating press corps.

Look at his expression, and tell me what you see. What I see is a spoiled child, upset — not out of concern for the man lying ill on the floor of his office not six feet away — but pissed off at the interruption of his big, beautiful press conference.

I did hear a report that he remembered — or was reminded — to call the man’s wife later to check on his condition. (He is apparently all right.) But that was after the fact; it is the initial reaction that is most telling of the priorities of an individual who always, without fail, thinks first and exclusively of himself.

And that, in a nutshell, is what is wrong with this administration.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
11/8/25