I’ll make this short and sweet. Yes, our focus needs to be on the midterms because we are poised to take over the House but maybe the Senate too. There’s lots of work to be done between now and then because the ‘gerrymander wars’ just got a big dose of gasoline dumped on the fire by John Roberts’ SCOTUS. Still, the day after the midterms are over most focus will shift to the 2028 Presidential race and folks (including me) can’t help sometimes thinking ahead a bit. I’ve said before Arizona Senator Mark Kelly might, if he runs turn out to be a formidable candidate. With his epic mocking of Trump having blinged out the WH and especially the Oval Office he might give California Gov. Gavin Newsome a run for his money in the Trump Trolling department.
Trump has no taste. Never has. He’s had an obsession with gold that makes the James Bond villain Goldfinger look like a rank amateur. Except the movie villain was obsessed with having control of REAL gold – not the fake gold or 10k gold-plated crap Trump has decorated everywhere he’s ever lived and worked with. As with so many other things Trump assumes MORE is better. He’s a combination used car lot owner and third rate carnival barker who doesn’t get the concept of ‘less is more.’ No, when it comes to promoting himself and/or (what he considers) showing off no amount is ever enough.
So the Oval Office is blinged out and tacky looking as hell. However Trump hasn’t stopped there. He’s put up gold lettering outside the Oval and is adding it in other public spaces in the WH. Foreign leaders who’ve been to the WH in the past have to be thinking ‘what kind of crude, bumbling low class idiot would to this to the American President’s home. And what has America turned in to that it would let someone with so little class and taste anywhere near the Presidency?’ Most of us look at pictures and wonder how big the pile of crap that will have to be hauled away will be once a new President moves in and gets rid of all that tacky-assed Trump decoration.
Enter Senator Kelly, who as this article from TMZ tells us. Kelly sat down for a Thursday interview and was asked about his feelings regarding Trump decorating the Oval Office with “GOLD GOLD GOLD.’ Kelly, just as when responding to wannabe warrior SecDef Hegseth pulled no punches:
Mark, a potential presidential candidate in 2028, did not hedge — whoever wins the White House “will rip that gold crap off the wall and restore some dignity to the Oval Office.”
Mark said even a Republican prez would deviate from Trump on the gold front … he says gold paint and curtains are not American and are a better fit for a royal palace than The People’s House.
Mark is quite sure … Trump gold isn’t the real deal, speculating Hobby Lobby has a big presence in the Oval.
I like that last part in particular – the shot at Hobby Lobby and it’s “Christian” theme. He’s pretty much saying he’s not going to try to suck up to the Evangelical crowd. I for one think that’s refreshing. Kelly and his wife are people of faith and they won’t shy away from it but it would be a major theme of a Kelly campaign or Presidency. Look, I don’t for a second believe Kelly would be as progressive a President as I’d like. Then again, unlike so many others I didn’t expect Obama would be as much as so many expected he would be. I’m happy to settle for someone who’s solidly Democrat and will take what the most progressive folks in the Party push for seriously enough to incorporate at least part of what they advocate into policy.
However Kelly has a quality Obama did not, and still doesn’t even if he’s being blunter about Trump so many years after leaving the WH. Kelly doesn’t and will never have Obama’s soaring rhetorical gifts, but he does have an ability to be plainly straightforward in a way average people can relate to. Better yet, when someone from the GOP is being an asshat Kelly would I think say so. GOPers cry like babies when someone punches back – and Kelly would punch back.
As the interview continued Kelly made sure to emphasize what all Democrats should be doing. He said Trump is hyper-focused on ‘material crap’ (like a ballroom) that doesn’t mean squat to his constituents back home. They are he says concerned about day to day stuff like dealing with health care, gas prices and so on. Still, taking the kind of shot he just took at Trump tells me that even with the administration (via Hegseth) still going after him he’s not afraid to stand toe-to-toe and trade punches. Flat out saying a lot of those decorations aren’t real gold might provoke one helluva tweet storm this weekend. Right when Trump was looking forward to a PGA tour event again being held at his Doral course.
Making fun of Trump’s tacky taste is the kind of thing that will really get to the Orange Orangutan who probably curses every day they can’t come up with makeup to cake on that instead of orange looks like gold!
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
