We interrupt the previously scheduled post in this space on a splendid new television series to present an astonishing torrent—even by the President Trumpian standards we have gotten “used to” at our peril—of 55 Truth Social posts the president shared from late night Monday into the early morning hours Tuesday.
The posts have since been verified and summarized by the fact-checking site Snopes, the first five of which all happened within a minute of each other.
Trump did indeed go on a posting spree from around 10:14 p.m. May 11 until 1:12 a.m. May 12, so we’ve rated the claim true. Below, we break down all the posts he made along with their timestamps:
• 10:14 p.m.: Posts an Associated Press video of former Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, who chaired the House Intelligence Committee, claiming Trump’s transition team was surveilled by U.S. intelligence.
• 10:15 p.m.: Reposts above video with a screenshot of a post claiming former President Barack Obama worked with the CIA in 2016 to engineer the “Russian Hoax” and overthrow Trump.
• 10:15 p.m.: Posts a Fox News video repeating National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard’s accusation that Obama worked to overthrow Trump.
• 10:15 p.m.: Reposts the above report with additional screenshot repeating the claim.
• 10:15 p.m.: Reposts above screenshot with another screenshot calling for the arrest of “Obama the traitor.”
Later that very afternoon, the president embarked on a major diplomatic mission to China while embroiled in a war he initiated on Iran 10 weeks ago with an ever-shifting rationale and no apparent exit strategy.
If any of our spouses, fathers, brothers, or friends carried on in this manner for hours in the dead of night we would be earnestly pursuing resources to address their condition.
Despite those and multiple, almost unimaginable other pressures that always weigh on the leader of the world’s most powerful nation, the five posts above and the remaining 50 at the end of this post are how he chose to spend his time for two hours and fifty-eight minutes, the final post of this sequence going out at 1:12 a.m. The tirade includes a 74-minute break from 11:28 until he returned for his final post, though he did return yet again in the morning for a few add-ons, one example being the image just below.
The list is both exhaustive and exhausting, and you can be excused for skipping lightly, if that is possible, over as much of it as you need to maintain your mental equilibrium. I will make a few additional points below before turning it back over to Snopes.
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First, the basic observation about this dark upwelling of invective, rage, falsehoods and relentless conspiracy-mongering. Whether one chooses any given post or views them in their entirety, they reveal nothing less than the ravings of an obviously demented, nearly 80-year-old man unhinged from every sense of propriety, restraint, decorum, rational thought or conduct that befits what people the world over deserve to expcct from their leaders.
If any of our spouses, fathers, brothers, or friends carried on in this manner for hours in the dead of night we would be earnestly pursuing resources to address their condition. For those who still, all evidence to the contrary, dismiss such behavior as “just Trump being Trump,” I feel compelled to state, “This is not ‘just’ Trump! This is not Jimmy Kimmel or the long-ago host of ‘The Apprentice!!'”
And even to shout:“THIS IS THE MOST POWERFUL PERSON ON EARTH WITH SOLE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE NUCLEAR CODES!!!”
How dare we sit dismissive, distracted or silent on that?
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The 25th Amendment of the United States Constitution was originally inspired by the John F. Kennedy assassination in November, 1963. Its history is a story unto itself, perhaps to be explored in this space at another time.
For our purposes here, let us simply cite Section 4:
“Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”
Section 4 goes on to say if the president disputes the judgment of that “inability,” the vice-president continues as acting president while both houses of Congress convene and decide within 48 hours whether the president remains unable to resume the position. A two-thirds majority is required to sustain the vice-president’s role as acting president.
All right, so let us return to the real world of possibility now.
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Chances that cabinet members hand-picked for dogged loyalty to Donald Trump rather than to the Constitution they swore to uphold in their oath of office would deem him unable to carry on his duties based on these or any other social media posts or similar aberrant behavior?
Nada. Zero. No way. (Short of the president suffering a massive stroke and hooked up to life support machines, though even then…)
And even if that were to happen: Chances that Trump would dispute his cabinet’s findings? One-hundred percent.
Chances that enough Republicans would join with Democrats to form the two-thirds majority required to keep him out of office?
About the same as the last time he refused to leave office, in January, 2021.
So what am I going on about here?
This: Our deranged, ever-distractible and vengeful president is involved in an aimless war that is alienating even some of his base and has every chance of driving the world economy into deep recession in the coming months. And that’s not the worst of it.
A congressional document titled “Authority to Launch Nuclear Forces” leads off with these two declarative sentences:
“The U.S. President has sole authority to authorize the use of U.S. nuclear weapons. This authority is inherent in his constitutional role as Commander in Chief.”
That translates to no brake on the president’s decision-making. No other voters, no disputing or end-runs around a decision that might fly in the face of all that is human, decent and wise, but that is his, and his alone, to make. If Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Kaine vehemently disagrees with any decision the president makes to launch a nuclear attack, he has one option: to resign.
So would Donald Trump consider dropping a “tactical” nuclear weapon designed to, say, wipe out a portion of Iran as a “warning” to their leaders to open, in his own indelicate words, “the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards!”?
Or might he skip the niceties altogether, decide during one of his raging “Truth”fests to make good on his previous threat, whether via nukes or conventional weapons, that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”?
The possibility of all that and worse is what lies at the root of a growing worldwide concern that a deranged person with well-chronicled messianic tendencies has virtually complete command of the world’s most powerful armed forces and its most lethal, world-shattering technology.
And that short of a near miraculous turn of events that will change the hearts of his enablers throughout the current administration, there will be no counterweight to whatever impulses drive him to the dark ends he frequently alludes to in his desperate search for the adulation and dominance that has never and will never sate his unquenchable need.
In sum: Chances that something along these dark ends will happen?
Much higher than I want to think.
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The remaining 50 from Snopes:
• 10:18 p.m.: Posts a One America News video claiming millions of Trump votes were deleted from election systems in 2020.
• 10:22 p.m.: Reposts the above report with an additional screenshot.
• 10:22 p.m.: Posts a video from a Georgia State Election Board meeting claiming it showed them admitting to voter fraud in Fulton County in 2020.
• 10:22 p.m.: Reposts the above video with additional screenshot saying Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani should get his money back.
• 10:23 p.m.: Posts claim that Obama made $120 million from the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.
• 10:23 p.m.: Posts video of lawyer Sidney Powell claiming election fraud from Dominion Voting Systems.
• 10:23 p.m.: Posts Newsmax video repeating accusations that Obama tried to overthrow Trump in 2016.
• 10:23 p.m.: Reposts above video of Powell with additional screenshot saying CIA brushed evidence under the rug.
• 10:24 p.m.: Reposts Newsmax video of Obama allegations with additional screenshot saying Obama wiretapped Trump Tower in 2016.
• 10:27 p.m.: Posts Fox News report discussing Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly’s claim that U.S. munitions are depleted.
• 10:27 p.m.: Reposts the above Fox News report with additional screenshot saying Kelly is a traitor and calling for his resignation.
• 10:28 p.m.: Posts video of Gabbard claiming neither former President Joe Biden or former Vice President Kamala Harris was in charge of the Biden administration and a “cabal” was behind the decision making.
• 10:29 p.m.: Reposts the above video of Gabbard with additional screenshot claiming the real power in the Biden administration was Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the “deep state.”
• 10:29 p.m.: Posts screenshot defending Powell for challenging 2020 election results.
• 10:29 p.m.: Posts Fox News interview with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, who responded to and denied Fox News’ claims that Obama’s “shadow government” sent cash to Iran.
• 10:30 p.m.: Reposts the above Fox News video with additional screenshot repeating the claim.
• 10:30 p.m.: Posts a screenshot calling for the arrest of Jack Smith, a former attorney with the Department of Justice under Biden.
• 10:30 p.m.: Posts video of conservative commentator Sean Hannity claiming former FBI Director James Comey illegally surveilled Trump campaign in 2016.
• 10:30 p.m.: Reposts above video with additional screenshot claiming illegal surveillance of Trump’s campaign.
• 10:38 p.m.: Posts Fox News report and screenshots claiming Clinton’s emails contained top-secret information.
• 10:39 p.m.: Reposts above report with additional screenshot claiming Clinton sold state secrets and Obama ordered cover up.
• 10:39 p.m.: Posts news report about protestors claiming money donated to the Clinton Foundation for Haiti was never used.
• 10:39 p.m.: Reposts the above report with additional screenshot saying Clinton should be sent to Haiti.
• 10:40 p.m.: Says DOJ is “working hard” to arrest people for treason.
• 10:40 p.m.: Reposts screenshot attacking his own acting Attorney General Todd Blanche for not indicting Obama, Clinton and former CIA Director John Brennan.
• 10:40 p.m.: Posts video claiming to show Black people stealing merchandise from a convenience store.
• 10:40 p.m.: Reposts the above video with additional screenshot claiming this is why the Wawa convenience store chain was closing stores.
• 10:41 p.m.: Posts a video purporting to show a Black person taking a DoorDash order without paying.
• 10:41 p.m.: Reposts the above video with additional screenshot stating “Always scheming.”
• 10:41 p.m.: Posts Fox News report accusing Obama and his intelligence agencies of engineering “Russia collusion hoax.”
• 10:41 p.m.: Reposts the above video with additional screenshot claiming Obama falsified intelligence, ordered foreign agencies to spy on Trump and made undercover FBI agents act as “honeypots” on Trump’s campaign.
• 10:42 p.m.: Posts video claiming to show a Black man purposely knock over a Miami waiter’s tray.
• 10:42 p.m.: Reposts above video with additional screenshot with someone calling the man a name.
• 10:47 p.m.: Posts video claiming Obama orchestrated “biggest scandal in American history” by using his intelligence agencies to help Clinton’s 2016 campaign.
• 10:47 p.m.: Reposts above video with additional screenshot calling Obama “demonic force.”
• 10:47 p.m.: Posts video of a former Google engineer claiming Google manipulated U.S. elections.
• 10:47 p.m.: Reposts above video with a screenshot from retired Army Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, a former national security adviser under Trump, saying 2020 election was stolen.
• 10:48 p.m.: Posts a video of attorney Matt DePerno alleging 2020 election fraud in Michigan.
• 10:49 p.m.: Reposts above video with a screenshot claiming Dominion Voting Systems stole the 2020 election.
• 10:49 p.m.: Posts Fox News report claiming Obama Justice Department told FBI not to prosecute Clinton.
• 10:51 p.m.: Reposts above Fox News report with screenshot from a fake Charlie Kirk X account claiming Obama administration showed Clinton “favoritism.”
• 10:51 p.m.: Posts Fox News report claiming Obama was part of Clinton’s email controversy.
• 10:53 p.m.: Reposts above Fox News report with screenshot claiming Obama used Clinton’s private server under a pseudonym.
• 11:00 p.m.: Posts a video of a woman named Barbara Boyd repeating claims about Obama’s alleged 2016 coup against Trump.
• 11:01 p.m.: Reposts the above video with a screenshot praising the video.
• 11:03 p.m.: Posts a video of himself talking about children allegedly trafficked into the U.S. during the Biden administration.
• 11:03 p.m.: Reposts the above video with a screenshot claiming this is part of a “globalist migration agenda.”
• 11:28 p.m.: Posts a Fox News report claiming a senior Democrat testified under oath that Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff approved leaks of classified information to target Trump.
• 11:28 p.m.: Reposts the Fox News report with a screenshot repeating the claim.
• 1:12 a.m.: Posts and then deletes an attack on The New York Times for its report on “uneven” repairs to the reflecting pool in Washington, D.C. (Obtained via Trump’s Truth, an archive of the president’s posts, including deleted ones.) He reposts this at 6:46 a.m. with a corrected spelling error.
Trump made several more posts around 8 a.m. May 12 before announcing he was “off to China.” He posted of U.S. drones and aircraft carriers attacking Iranian boats and planes with captions such as “Lasers: Bing, Bing, GONE!!!” He also posted an image of a $100 bill with his face on it.
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And finally…
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Truth Social posts from the site https://truthsocial.com/
Crazy. Republicans cheering him on. Gerrymandering, One Supreme Court decision after another. Back to Jim Crow. No 25th Amendment. Where do we go?
Well, to the voting booth for sure, Robert, which can’t happen soon enough. But even there, with the Supreme Court essentially bum-rushing an emergency gerrymander approval AFTER voting had actually started in some jurisdictions and was imminent in others, we are right to wonder loudly and often about what the future holds. For all his bluster and mania, though, Trump is in trouble, much of it self-inflicted. The fact he can still command somewhere between 35-40% of the popular vote and still have Republican politicians in lockstep with him is unnerving on one level but also hopeful. Bearing witness to the insanity of his Monday nite tirade reminded me how close to the edge he is, the chaos of his mind leading to one dismal decision and outburst after another. Glad I’m not his mind!
I will never understand how this country chose Trump to come back as president after what he did on January 6 and all the chaos he brought into our world in his first term. I guess we get what we deserve, but I sure don’t feel like I or my friends and family do! I remember hearing my parents talking about hiding under their desks at school in case the Russians sent over a nuke. It’s unbelievable to me we have a president who has led us there again, and who is talking about destroying entire civilizations.
You’ve got a lot of company in your disbelief, Deanna, but beyond that and all the dark portents of these days, I also find myself buoyed by various matters when I let some light in, perhaps chief among among them Trump’s sinking popularity, with his poll numbers out today the worst ever, across every metric. Also his continual judicial losses (the Supes voting rights reversal excepted), and as I take pains to point out above, how much more difficult he makes it day after day to convince the public he isn’t flat out nuts, more fit for an asylum than any position of power.
Which also means he’s increasingly dangerous, too, so I don’t want to minimize our plight either. What it adds up to is to keep doing whatever we can to live the lives we want while also taking care to make the “good trouble” that John Lewis devoted his life to, and which stands as a beacon for us today.
Hideous, dystopian other great descriptive words one should never have to write about a President. The travesty is that entire generations have lost faith in basic institutions and decency. Won’t return in our lifetime, if ever. He has turned optimists into fatalists and soiled the USA in the eyes of the world. He should be tried for an ever-expanding list of crimes.
Nice pithy summary, Moon. I often feel like I run out of adjectives to adequately portray the enormity of the violence he and his henchmen have done to this country and the world at large. They have made us both their plaything and their piggybank, taking what they want, doing violence wherever they please, harassing and selectively prosecuting those who speak out against them, rewriting history to serve their duplicitous ends. Impossible to overstate it, and I share your fear we will be a long time, if ever, restoring what has been lost.