Donald Trump has been working hard lately – on all the wrong things. Whether it be Canada, Iran, or right here at home, he’s been making America look ridiculous at every turn.
Let’s start from the top.
For months, the United States and Canada have been trying to negotiate their way out of a trade war Trump started last year … for no apparent reason. At the beginning of last week, it looked like a deal was imminent.
Until it wasn’t.
All we know for certain is that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney ordered his negotiators to return to Canada and end negotiations with the United States. In announcing his decision, he said that Trump involved himself at the eleventh hour, making non-negotiable demands that went far beyond what Canada was willing to accept – including American dominion over Canadian rare earth minerals and Canada’s ability to negotiate future trade deals on its own terms.
According to Trump, Canada refused to submit, and would now pay the consequences.
He responded by immediately imposing 50% tariffs on more than $20 billion worth of Canadian goods. Canada responded in kind.
Refusing to be upstaged, Trump went even further and signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America.”
Across the way in Ontario, the Premier (akin to a governor in the U.S.), Doug Ford, responded by putting up a huge sign reading: “Lake Ontario. Now and Always.” He also echoed the thoughts of millions of Americans and Canadians alike in telling Trump to “Kiss my ass.”
Then Trump posted an AI-generated video depicting Trump-haired geese shooting machine guns on the newly named “Lake America”
Two countries that have been longstanding allies should be working together. Instead, the citizens of both nations watch as the president posts AI geese and bickers with a provincial leader.
And on top of Trump’s ravings, tariffs cost money.
They aren’t paid by Canada just because Trump says they are. They’re paid by you. At the same time that Americans are in universal agreement that things cost too much, Trump is deliberately making your goods more expensive.
That, unfortunately, is only the beginning of the embarrassment. Which brings us to Iran.
Trump’s Iran war is roaring on in the background. His war of choice crossed the 6-month mark (of a supposed “5-week war”) with no end in sight.
On August 24th, Trump trotted out his Treasury Secretary to announce what he called an “economic D-Day.”
Secretary Bessent billed it as no different than the Allied D-Day in 1944 (rather disrespectful to those who died and the veterans alike, if you ask us). The plan would isolate Iran economically, sever its financial lifelines, and force Tehran to capitulate – all without needing to fire a single shot more.
It was, supposedly, the administration’s answer to a very simple question: how the hell do we get out of the stupid war we began?
Just five days later, Trump bombed Iran again. Iran retaliated. Around and around we go. After announcing the plan that would end the war “within weeks” without any more fighting, we were right back to fighting a war we still couldn’t explain how to end.
Not liking the reality he’s in, Trump decided to once again turn to his favorite new tool and post an AI video of Kharg Island being “blown to smithereens” (newsflash: we didn’t drop a single bomb).
So, just to be clear: We have a president who cannot end the war he started, cannot explain how the war ends, and is using AI to create a make-believe world to sustain his fragile ego.
That isn’t strength. It’s sad, destructive flailing from an addled man well past his prime and well beyond his britches (literally and figuratively).
Unfortunately for all of us, there are real consequences to that flailing.
A Pentagon assessment warned that extending major military operations in Iran was imperiling our ability to respond to threats elsewhere, including threats to the homeland.
Meanwhile, the beleaguered USS Lincoln – which had been in active service for 271 consecutive days – was relieved only after its sailors literally began jumping overboard. For context, a typical tour of duty lasts 180 days (with multiple port calls during the tour, which the USS Lincoln went without).
While Trump has spent his term jumping from one self-inflicted crisis to another while ignoring your needs, your wallets, and your well-being – whether it be by deploying American soldiers to another forever war, endangering our health by gutting the FDA, shooting protestors in American streets, or the countless other examples – here’s what’s really been going on:
⛽ Gas prices remained above $4 per gallon for the entirety of August for the first time ever.
💰 The national debt crossed $40 trillion (with $3.9 trillion of that since January of 2025 alone.)
📈 Inflation has surged to 3.4% (and likely to go higher).
🤑 American billionaires have become so rich that we have our first trillionaire.
📹 Flock cameras have invaded American cities, expanding the reach of the surveillance state to levels never before seen.
🏭 Data centers have cropped up across America, poisoning your water, skyrocketing your energy bills, crashing your home prices, and further rigging the economic playing field. (Which, by the way, if you’re opposed to data centers you’re backwards and poor, according to Trump).
🦠 Two Americans have died of Measles for the first time since the dawn of the 21st century.
All of this leads us to ask: what the hell happened to America First?
Under Donald Trump, America has come last. Every. Single. Time.
You come last.
This isn’t about left versus right anymore (though it never really was).
It’s about Trump versus everyone. Whether you’re MAGA, DSA, or anywhere in between. None of us are better off under Trump, and things are only going to get so, so much worse.
If you’re feeling helpless, we have a solution: vote. Vote for Democrats, for Independents, for anyone willing to stand up to Trump in every race, in every state, at every level.
Let’s make November the first step to taking our country back, not for the few, but for the many.
We’ll see you out there.
There were some crazy Emperors.