Joe Biden was the least transparent, least accessible president since Woodrow Wilson, and for similar reasons: Both men suffered medical ailments that transformed their brains into mashed potatoes. In both cases, the presidents’ staff tightened the curtain, told lies, and blocked outside access.
The final days of the Wilson administration were actually run by his wife:
Protective of both her husband’s reputation and power, Edith shielded Woodrow from interlopers and embarked on a bedside government that essentially excluded Wilson’s staff, the Cabinet and the Congress. During a perfunctory meeting the president held with Sen. Gilbert Hitchcock (D-Neb.) and Albert Fall (R-N.M.) on Dec. 5, he and Edith even tried to hide the extent of his paralysis by keeping his left side covered with a blanket.
Deny. Deceive. Distract.
That was the solution devised by both men’s closest confidants, because acknowledging the president’s mashed-potato brains would threaten their grip on power. Can’t have that.
By contrast, President Trump is the most accessible, most transparent president in history. He’s posting, talking, Truthing, and pontificating 24/7. He’ll talk to anyone.
Even to the media outlets that hate his guts.
Time Magazine had a long-form interview with President Trump this week. You can read the transcript here. (Weirdly, Time also posted an audio link of the interview… but instead of hearing Trump’s voice, you hear an A.I. woman recite his lines. It’s extremely odd.) Time did their darndest to steer the interview into choppy waters; the S.S. Trump swatted ‘em away like they were minnows:
TIME: You asked President Bukele of El Salvador to build out the CECOT prison to house American citizens. You said you would love to send “homegrown criminals” there—
TRUMP: No, I didn’t say that. I said if it were permissible according to the law, I would like to do that, yes.
TIME: Well, do you intend to send American citizens to foreign persons?
TRUMP: I would love to do that if it were permissible by law. We're looking into that. When I have a person, these would be extreme cases. When I have a person that is a 28-time in and out person that goes out and tries to kill people every time he or she is out, I would have no problem with doing that whatsoever. We're talking about career criminals that are horrible people that we house and we have to take care of for 50 years while they suffer because they killed people. If you ask me whether or not I would do that, I would, but totally, and I think you have to leave this part of the sentence totally subject to it being allowed under law. And people are looking to see if it would be allowed under law. We have crime rates under Biden that went through the roof, and we have to bring those rates down. And unfortunately, those rates have been added to by the illegal immigrants that he allowed into the country.
TIME: Which Americans would you do that to?
TRUMP: I would do that to people that hit old ladies over the head with a baseball bat, for people that grab their bicycle? You saw that one where they dragged an old woman along the street on a motorcycle, a bicycle, a motorcycle, I think. People that push people into subway trains just before the train is ready to stop. You saw that? The man barely lived. Think of it. And a guy comes up to him, and from behind he pushes him. That's a serious, serious thing. People that shoot people in the back, people that are executioners. Yeah, I would have no trouble with that but subject to it being allowed by law.
TIME: Do you really want there to be gulags for American citizens in foreign countries?
TRUMP: Gulag? You define gulag.
TIME: Prisons like in the Soviet Union—
TRUMP: Look, I see where you’re coming from, from the moment this interview started, and it's fine, I don't mind. I've answered every question that can be answered by mankind or womankind, and I see where you're coming from. Rapid fire. You can't even wait for me to give you the answer. You should let me give you that final answer.
There were plenty of questions about tariffs and the economy. Trump claimed that he’s sitting on good news:
TIME: Not one [new trade deal] has been announced yet. When are you going to announce them?
TRUMP: I’ve made 200 deals.
TIME: You’ve made 200 deals?
TRUMP: 100%.
TIME: Can you share with whom?
TRUMP: Because the deal is a deal that I choose. View it differently: We are a department store, and we set the price. I meet with the companies, and then I set a fair price, what I consider to be a fair price, and they can pay it, or they don't have to pay it. They don't have to do business with the United States, but I set a tariff on countries. Some have been horrible to us. Some have been okay. Nobody's been great. Nobody's been great. Everybody took advantage of us. What I'm doing is I will, at a certain point in the not too distant future, I will set a fair price of tariffs for different countries. These are countries—some of them have made hundreds of billions of dollars, and some of them have made just a lot of money. Very few of them have made nothing because the United States was being ripped off by every, almost every country in the world, in the entire world. So I will set a price, and when I set the price, and I will set it fairly according to the statistics, and according to everything else. For instance, do they have the VAT system in play? Do they charge us tariffs? How much are they charging us? How much have they been charging us? Many, many different factors, right. How are we being treated by that country? And then I will set a tariff. Are we paying for their military? You know, as an example, we have Korea. We pay billions of dollars for the military. Japan, billions for those and others. But that, I'm going to keep us a separate item, the paying of the military. Germany, we have 50,000 soldiers. [emphasis added]
The department store analogy is interesting. The pro-Trump people will love it, of course: Go America! Others will find it paternalistic, hoping the trade war is a short-term means to an end and not a “new normal” in presidential price-fixing. (I’m concerned about the precedent, because eventually, the political pendulum will swing the other way: Could you imagine someone like AOC deciding what’s a “fair price” throughout America?)
It’s also clear that the Democrats are about to open a new line of impeachment attacks against President Trump. (Yawn.) Should the Democrats get a majority in the House in the 2026 midterms, they will launch impeachment proceedings ASAP.
Their new legal theory: Trump violated his oath of office by not following the court’s order to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back into the country.
Trump’s legal team should prep accordingly, because it’s absolutely, 100% coming. Too many loaded questions from Time Magazine — and, as we all know, the Democrats and the mainstream media work together. I guarantee you, the questions Time asked Trump were molded and shaped via their (many) conversations with key Democrats.
Here’s a sample:
You committed to complying with all Supreme Court orders—
Yeah.
TIME: When you and I spoke last April. Are you still committed to complying with all Supreme Court orders?
TRUMP: Sure, I believe in the court system.
TIME: The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that you have to bring back Kilmar Abrego Garcia. You haven't done so. Aren’t you disobeying the Supreme Court?
TRUMP: Well, that’s not what my people told me—they didn’t say it was, they said it was—the nine to nothing was something entirely different.
TIME: Let me quote from the ruling. “The order properly requires the government to facilitate Aboriginal Garcia's release from custody in El Salvador.” Are you facilitating a release?
TRUMP: I leave that to my lawyers. I give them no instructions. They feel that the order said something very much different from what you're saying. But I leave that to my lawyers. If they want—and that would be the Attorney General of the United States and the people that represent the country. I don't make that decision.
I have a funny feeling this interview will soon be cited by a Democratic-led House committee during an impeachment hearing. The questions were just too specific:
TIME: Have you asked President Bukele to return him?
TRUMP: I haven’t, uh, he said he wouldn’t.
TIME: Did you ask him?
TRUMP: But I haven’t asked him positively, but he said he wouldn’t.
TIME: But if you haven't asked him, then how are you facilitating his release?
TRUMP: Well, because I haven't been asked to ask him by my attorneys. Nobody asked me to ask him that question, except you.
TIME: Do you believe he deserves his day in court?
TRUMP: I believe that they made him look like a saint, and then we found out about him. He wasn't a saint. He was MS-13. He was a wife beater and he had a lot of things that were very bad, you know, very, very bad. When I first heard of the situation, I was not happy, and then I found out that he was a person who was an MS-13 member. And in fact, he had a tattooed right on his—I'm sure you saw that—he had it tattooed right on his knuckles: MS-13. No, I believe he's a man who has got quite a past. This is no longer just a nice, wonderful man from Maryland, which people, which the fake news had me and other people for a period of time believing. Now, nobody believes that. And I think this is a very bad—I think this is another men in women’s sports thing for the Democrats. [emphasis added]
Politically, Trump is exactly right. Being tough on immigration is his greatest strength — and the Democrats’ greatest weakness. But within the Democratic Party, the siren’s call of impeachment will prove irresistible. It’s what their base wants.
Related: How the Democrats Lost the Immigration Debate by Acting Like Brain-Dead Donkeys
So the drumbeat is about to begin. And Time Magazine wasn’t done carrying the media’s water:
TIME: …but Mr. President, whatever he might have done, whoever he might be affiliated with, doesn’t he deserve his day in court? Nazi saboteurs who came on our shores at Montauk during World War II had their day in court. Al Qaeda terrorists had their day in court.
TRUMP: I really give that to my lawyers to determine, that’s why I have them. That’s not my determination. It's something that, frankly, bringing him back and retrying him wouldn't bother me, but I leave that up to my lawyer. You could bring him back and retry him—
TIME: That’s exactly right. You could fix this simply by bringing him back and going through the legal process—
TRUMP: But I leave that decision to the lawyers. At this moment, they just don’t want to do that. They say we’re in total compliance with the Supreme Court.
TIME: What about the lower courts? Are you committed to complying with lower courts?
TRUMP: Sure. All courts.
TIME: One more question on this, sir. You took an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. The Constitution says the Supreme Court is the ultimate authority once they issue a ruling. If you defy them, aren't you violating your oath?
TRUMP: I'm not defying the Supreme Court. I never defy the Supreme Court. I wouldn't do that. I'm a big believer in the Supreme Court, and have a lot of respect for the Justices.
The only federal official in history to be impeached twice, Donald Trump, is about to pull the trifecta. Time’s questions were too targeted, too calculating, and too consistent to be accidental. The Democrats — and the media — have already shown their hand.
Buckle up for Impeachment, Part III. It’s coming.
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