Donald Trump is totally joking when he says he wants to be the next Pope, just like he’s “totally joking” when he says he’s going to stay on as president long after his legal term is over – but JD Vance didn’t rule out at least one of those things happening
The Vatican is still within its nine days of mourning following the death of Pope Francis.
Preparations are being made in St Peter’s Basilica for the papal conclave. Ovens are being installed and tables set up for the cardinals to select Francis’s successor.
Obviously, Donald Trump chose this moment in history to post an AI image on his Truth Social account of what he’d look like as the Bishop of Rome.
Here’s that and all the other insane things that happened in Trump world while you were sleeping.
READ MORE: MIKEY SMITH: How Americans can remove Donald Trump from office if he keeps getting more unhinged
1. “It’s the most obscene thing he’s ever done on social media”
As we mentioned above, in the early hours of this morning Trump’s Truth Social account posted the below AI generated photo.
And then, the White House Twitter account reposted it – making it technically an official communication from the US government.
It comes after Trump “joked” last week that his first choice for the next Pope would be “me”.
It’s already been branded “the most obscene thing he’s ever done on social media”
Trump biographer Seth Abramson said on Twitter: “It’s offensive at a level I’m struggling to articulate, but start with the fact that he’s again framing himself as God’s chosen representative on Earth when he is, lest anyone forget, a serial sexual predator.”
The post comes a day after the President boasted he had put separation of church and state “on hold” and had faith advisors working in the White House.
At the same event a group of faith leaders crowded round the President in prayer, singing Amazing Grace.
2. Trump says a recession is “OK”
Trump has done an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press.
In it, host Kristen Welker asked him whether he’s “comfortable with the country potentially dipping into a recession for a period of time” if it meant achieving his long-term goals.
“Some people on Wall Street say that we’re going to have the greatest economy in history. Why don’t you talk about them?” He initially responded.
But pressed on the actual question, he said: “Yeah, everything’s OK. I said, this is a transition period. I think we’re going to do fantastically.”
Asked if he was worried about a recession, he said: “Anything can happen. But I think we’re going to have the greatest economy in the history of our country. I think we’re going to have the greatest economic boom in history.”
3. Vance didn’t rule out Trump trying to stay on after his legally allowed term
JD Vance was asked by (who else?) Fox News about the “Trump 2028” hats that have gone on sale on Trump’s website.
He said: “There were some Trump 2028 hats floating around. I put one on. I said Mr. President, if you took a photo of this, this would go super viral.”
He added, chillingly: “I think we’re going to be working together for many years to come.”
Asked if he really thinks he’ll run in 2028, he said: “I’ll let the president speak to his political future. One thing I’ll say about the president of the United States, he loves to have a good time with the American media.”
4. He took another swipe at judges
Another late-night post on Truth Social saw the President lash out at judges for blocking his unconstitutional push for arbitrary deportations.
“Can it be so that Judges aren’t allowing the USA to Deport Criminals, including Murderers, out of our Country and back to where they came from?” he posted.
No judge is doing that. What they are doing is requiring the government to at least hold a hearing for anyone they want to ship off to a foreign torture prison.
“If this is so, our Country, as we know it is finished! Americans will have to get used to a very different, crime filled, LIFE. That is not what our Founders had in mind!!!”
Now, I’m no originalist scholar, but I don’t think any of this is what the Founders had in mind.
READ MORE: MIKEY SMITH: 42 wild and unhinged moments from Donald Trump’s first 100 days back in the White House
5. He kept threatening to defund Big Bird
Trump this week signed an executive order aimed at slashing public subsidies for NPR and PBS.
For those unfamiliar with America’s media landscape, NPR is the public radio network, funded through a combination of government funding and donations. It’s been a breeding ground for broadcast talent and could be argued was the original source of the podcast revolution – among early podcast successes was This American Life, an NPR staple.
PBS, on the other hand, is the public TV broadcaster – and most famously home to Sesame Street.
Trump has decided both are “biased” in their news reporting, leaning as they do towards objective facts and reality.
But actual people are starting to worry – not so much about Big Bird and Cookie Monster, though that should be enough to make people take to the streets* – but because of local public radio’s important role in everyday life.
Public radio stations have been a lifeline for residents during natural disasters that take out power, the internet and cell towers. And in many remote and rural areas across the U.S., they can be a lone source of local news.
After Hurricane Helene devastated Asheville, North Carolina, the sound coming from open car windows as residents gathered on a street at the top of a ridge trying to get cell service last fall was Blue Ridge Public Radio. And as they stood in line for water or food, the latest news they’d heard on the station was a frequent topic of conversation.
“The public radio station was alerting people what was going on,” said Lisa Savage, who volunteered at an area church after the hurricane.
About a week after she’d volunteered in the Asheville area, Savage recalled driving through another hard-hit community and hearing updates on Blue Ridge Public Radio on where residents could pick up water.
“So that was crucial,” Savage said.
In the West Texas desert, Marfa Public Radio provides listeners with a mix of local and national news and music. It’s based in Marfa, a city of about 2,000 that draws tourists to its art scene.
“Marfa Public Radio is the only radio service in a lot of the geographic area that we cover,” said Tom Livingston, the station’s interim executive director. “So it’s really essential in terms of if there’s news events, if there’s safety things that happen in the community.”
* Sesame Street will probably be fine, they cut a deal with HBO to fund the Children’s Television Workshop a few years ago.
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6. He thinks the US could do with fewer spies
Trump reportedly plans to slash jobs at the CIA and other intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency (NSA).
The administration plans to reduce the CIA workforce by 1,200 over several years, and cut thousands of positions at the NSA and other intelligence agencies.
The Washington Post reported that the reductions at the CIA include several hundred people who have already opted for early retirement.
The rest of the cuts would be achieved partly through reduced hirings and would not likely necessitate layoffs.
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7. Meanwhile a judge blocked Trump’s ‘unconstitutional’ attack on law firm – properly this time
A federal Judge has permanently blocked Trump’s order targeting an elite law firm as part of a wider campaign of revenge against the legal profession.
U.S. District Beryl Howell said the executive order against the firm of Perkins Coie amounted to “unconstitutional retaliation” as she ordered that it be nullified and that the Trump administration halt any enforcement of it.
“No American President,” Howell wrote in her 102-page order, “has ever before issued executive orders like the one at issue in this lawsuit targeting a prominent law firm with adverse actions to be executed by all Executive branch agencies but, in purpose and effect, this action draws from a playbook as old as Shakespeare, who penned the phrase: ‘The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.’”
The ruling was most definitive rejection to date of Trump’s spate of similarly worded executive orders against some of the country’s most elite law firms, part of a broader effort by the president to reshape American civil society by targeting his political enemies in hopes of extracting concessions from them and bending them to his will.
Several of the firms singled out for sanction have either done legal work that Trump has opposed, or currently have or previously had associations with prosecutors who at one point investigated the president.
