Trail Notes
Donald the delusional / Lunatic cringe / Ballroom boondoggle / Retribution raid? / Hegseth's double lie / Kash crash / More war on wind / RFK Jr. buries research
Donald the delusional
In his grandest moments of delusion, Donald Trump has compared himself to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and has suggested that if they ran together on the same ticket, he would beat them. But it appears that his image of himself and his role in history is now in the realm of hallucination. A recent article in The Atlantic, quoting a senior administration official and a longtime Trump confidant, reports that the president sees himself as someone who will be as consequential as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Napoleon.
“He’s been talking recently about how he is the most powerful person to ever live,” the official told The Atlantic. “He wants to be remembered as the one who did things that other people couldn’t do because of his sheer power and force of will.”
Lunatic cringe
One of Donald Trump’s favorite taunts is to call those who disagree with him a “lunatic.” But based on the definition that a lunatic is a person who engages in illogical and reckless behavior, well, there’s some serious projection going on.
In a long, muddled speech earlier this week at an event marking Small Business Week, the president did talk briefly about business, but mainly to celebrate his success in reinvigorating the U.S. economy. “Our economy is roaring,” he said. “Consumer confidence is way up. Nobody can believe it.”
But during his hour-plus ramble, his very large brain also fired off the following: “I could with one swipe of the pen say, ‘Let’s have no employment and I’ll hire a million people or 2 million people and we’ll have absolutely no employment.’”
Then he went on a tangent about “beautiful” pretzels and an even longer tangent—more than 8 minutes long—on the bright blue paint job he’s giving the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial. He said people call it the “reflecting pond” or the “reflecting lake.” (In 40-plus years in Washington, I’ve never heard anyone call it either one.)
Finally, he advised the business owners in the room that they should take the cognitive test that he bragged he has “aced” three times. “They are hard,” said the president. “Many people in this room couldn’t ace them. The first question is you have a lion, a bear, an alligator, and what’s another good, a squirrel, OK? Which is the squirrel?”
Ballroom boondoggle
There’s always a catch. For months now, Donald Trump has been portraying his golden ballroom as a gift to the American people, a future national treasure whose $400 million cost would be paid for by “patriotic” corporate donors. But he offered a different spin after the shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner. The project became all about national security and Republican members of Congress, led by Sen. Lindsey Graham, began insisting that the public pick up the $400 million tab after all. “Private donations can be used,” Graham said, “but I think they should be used for buying china and stuff like that.”
Now there’s a new, even more costly twist. This week Senate Republicans inserted a $1 billion allocation for the “East Wing Modernization Project” into a Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding bill they hope to rush through Congress by the end of the month. The proposal, which doesn’t specifically mention the ballroom, focuses primarily on “security adjustments and upgrades.” But the White House is applauding the measure, contending that it would remove the legal obstacle that the project requires congressional approval.
Retribution raid?
Wednesday began with an FBI raid of the office of one of the most powerful Democratic politicians in Virginia, State Senate leader Louise Lucas. The agents also removed materials from a nearby cannabis dispensary in Portsmouth, Virginia, that she owns. Indications are that it’s part of a bribery investigation, and there may be something there because the probe began during the Biden administration. But sources said it hadn’t developed into a more serious case until now.
It’s worth noting that Lucas was a central figure in redistricting Virginia that could result in Democrats getting four more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. It’s also worth noting that former Trump attorney Lindsey Halligan, when she was running the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, had pushed hard to go after Lucas before the 2026 midterms. And finally, it’s worth noting that the Washington, D.C., Fox News station had been tipped off so a reporter and camera crew could cover the raid live.
Hegseth’s double lie
Well, at least he was consistent. When Defense Secretary Pete “Swagger Boy” Hegseth appeared before Senate and House committees recently, he told the same lie to both. In response to questions about whether he would comply with an order from the president to deploy troops to polling places, Hegseth claimed that Joe Biden did that very thing during the 2024 election. Not true. National Guard units were activated in several states at the request of governors, not the White House, and they were used to help with cybersecurity and behind-the-scenes support. In no case were they actually physically deployed at polling places.
Kash crash
You have to hand it to FBI Director Kash Patel. He has a knack for staying in the news. Unfortunately for him, it’s often for the wrong reasons.
His latest taint stems from a previous humiliation, an article in The Atlantic revealing concerns about what was described as his “excessive drinking,” including details about the difficulty his security agents have sometimes had in waking him. Now, the FBI has launched a criminal leak investigation focusing on the journalist who wrote the story, Sarah Fitzpatrick.
Ordinarily, cases like this involve leaks of classified information or state secrets, and the target is the leaker. Fitzpatrick’s reporting involved neither of the above but was based on interviews with at least two dozen unnamed sources. Now investigators, if they choose, could go after her phone records and look through her social media contacts. That again would be highly unusual. Patel has sued The Atlantic for $250 million but can’t be thrilled about another revelation from Fitzpatrick on Wednesday that he’s in the habit of gifting people bottles of bourbon with his name on the label.
More war on wind
It’s widely known that Donald Trump has a thing about wind power. Namely, he hates it. It was reported recently that his administration has arranged to pay several companies a total of nearly $2 billion in taxpayer dollars to abandon their plans to build offshore wind farms. It turns out Trump is just as rabid about breaking wind on land. The New York Times reports that the administration is blocking more than 150 wind farms around the country by delaying military reviews, which usually happen routinely.
Before turbines are erected, the military checks to ensure that they don’t interfere with radar or flight paths. But that’s not happening. “The Department of War is currently making it almost impossible to build a new wind project in the United States,” Jason Grumet, head of the American Clean Power Association, told the Times.
RFK Jr. buries research
There are more examples of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) burying research supporting the effectiveness of vaccines, The New York Times is reporting that officials at the Food and Drug Administration have blocked publication of several studies that showed widely used vaccines against Covid-19 and shingles to be both safe and effective. The studies, which cost millions of taxpayer dollars and involved an analysis of millions of patient records, had been accepted for publication by medical journals. But the scientists, according to the Times report, were told to withdraw their submissions. An HHS spokesperson said the studies’ conclusions “were not supported by the underlying data.”
Bigger hero garden plans
In his effort to bring more of the Mar-a-Lago vibe to the nation’s Capital, Donald Trump’s latest plans for his National Garden of American Heroes will now include not only 250 life-size statues of people the president considers heroic, but also reflecting pools, dining facilities and a large amphitheater. Congress has already allocated $40 million for this Trump pet project, but there’s concern that more money will be needed. No surprise, the only “journalists” who will be honored with a statue in Trump’s garden at this point are CBS’ legendary reporter Edward R. Murrow and the late Alex Trebek, host of “Jeopardy.”
More mass deportations
Things have seemed pretty quiet on the deportation front, which is to be expected as the midterms approach. Aggressive raids, let alone fatal shootings, by federal agents don’t play well with the voting public. But not to worry, says White House border czar Tom Homan, the administration is not backing away from its promise to deport more people than ever before. He told a Homeland Security conference in Arizona this week that ICE plans to “flood the zone” in cities where there’s limited cooperation with federal immigration agents. “You ain’t seen shit yet,” he declared. “This year will be a good year. Mass deportations are coming.”
Grifters gonna grift
On Tuesday, Palm Beach County commissioners approved a trademark agreement with the President Donald J. Trump International Airport, formerly known as the Palm Beach International Airport. The deal would enable the Trump Organization to choose the “approved retailers” from which airport stores must buy their airport-branded merchandise. It also allows Trump’s family business to sell that branded merchandise outside the airport and license the trademark to third parties.
Jet fuel inflation
Speaking of airports, major U.S. airlines spent more than $5 billion on jet fuel in March. That’s nearly $1.8 billion, or 56 percent, more than they spent in February before Trump started the war against Iran.
Randy Rieland, Money Trail’s “Trail Notes” columnist, is a former columnist at Smithsonian magazine, website director at the Discovery Channel, and senior writer at Washingtonian magazine.
Money Trail is a fiscally sponsored project of the Alternative Newsweekly Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity, EIN 30-0100369. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.