As regular as these shocks to the system have become, one or two still catch me by surprise.

I did not see the whole “King Charles is going to offer membership of the British Commonwealth” to Trump. Nor, given his infamous distaste for most useful global organisations, would I have expected Trump to want it. It turned out he probably does.

My best guess is he got confused and thinks that this will make him King of the UK, Canada et al. It’s hard to imagine this is something the American public or their founding fathers would have been great fans of given, you know, the vibes of the events of 1776 and the whole “Revolutionary War” thing.

More predictably, given his deep infatuation-for-now with Elon Musk, he recently an extremely weird press conference about how great Teslas are and how he loves paying full price for them - during which is was revealed that not only can’t he drive but as far as I can tell he has no concept of how to use a car in general. There goes Sleepy Donald, a less charitable person might say. Well, someone did the time he fell asleep during a National Prayer Service.

Anyway this particular stunt entailed turning “the White House lawn into a Tesla Showroom” as NBC correctly reports. Imagine the QVC shopping channel, but it’s the US president.

Senator Chris Murphy’s very appropriate response?

Just because the corruption plays out in public doesn’t mean it’s not corruption

Should that not be enough possibly illegal and definitely immoral boosterism for his pal, Trump’s Attorney General Pamela Bondi announced that from hereon in anyone who “attacks” Tesla property - and there are plenty of protests that might by some definitions be categorised in ways adjacent to that - is now to be classified as, wait for it, a domestic terrorist.

I of course have no idea if such events would technically fall under that classification or not - but even if so, note not “car lots in general” or “any defacement”, but rather attacks “on Tesla property”.

So far at least 3 people are being charged as such, which would result in prison sentences between 5 and 20 years. In these cases it sounds like they were going rather above and beyond the typical protestor - Molotov cocktails were involved - but if this works out for the Trumpistas it feels likely the reach might expand a little further.

In any case, the whole merely-domestic-terrorism thing isn’t nearly extreme enough for Trump’s protectionism towards his new favourite brand of the very products he himself hated approximately 5 minutes ago. Let’s never forget him lumping electric cars in with his shopping list of things he wished would “ROT IN HELL” at the end of 2023.

Included also are World Leaders, both good and bad, but none of which are as evil and “sick” as the THUGS we have inside our Country who, with their Open Borders, INFLATION, Afghanistan Surrender, Green New Scam, High Taxes, No Energy Independence, Woke Military, Russia/Ukraine, Israel/Iran, All Electric Car Lunacy, and so much more, are looking to destroy our once great USA. MAY THEY ROT IN HELL. AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Anyway, times change, and now he’s started issuing not-so vague threats to deport anyone who vandalises Teslas to El Salvador, presumably under a similar law he abused to unconstitutionally send suspected Venezuelan gang members to a foreign jail without any known evidence or due process.

In 2025 besotted-Trump speak:

I look forward to watching the sick terrorist thugs get 20 year jail sentences for what they are doing to Elon Musk and Tesla

Trump’s explicit view is that the current vandalisation of Teslas is in fact worse than what happened during the January 6th insurrection. The insurrection. Where people died.

What else? Well, there’s the French scientist who was turned away from entering the US to attend a scientific conference seemingly because when the immigration officers went through his phone and laptop they saw text messages that were critical of Trump. He was surprise-detained in the US for a day and then sent packing back to France, minus his work laptop and mobile phone

Said the French minister of Higher Education and Research, Philippe Baptiste:

“This measure was apparently taken by the American authorities because the researcher’s phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration’s research policy,” the minister said.

The US authorities reportedly said the messages “could be qualified as terrorism”. As far as I know we don’t know what the messages actually said, but unless there was a detailed plan of action regarding another assassination attempt, it’s kind of hard to believe that is likely to be true by any reasonable standards. The FBI declined to press charges after all.

The French foreign ministry obviously can’t do anything about the refusal of entry but said that it “deplored the situation”. France is now going out of its way to welcome with open arms US scientists who understandably feel the need to leave their home country in order to continue their important work.

A day after the French researcher was reportedly expelled from the United States, Baptiste posted a photograph on X, showing a virtual meeting with an American researcher who, along with “several dozens” of others, had decided to take the university up on its offer.

“We need to continue to propose new solutions to welcome the researchers who need or want to leave the United States in the near future,” the minister wrote.

…

“Research is being chain-sawed in the United States!” said Baptiste.

Finally for now, there was the attempt by Minnesota senators to classify “Trump Derangement Syndrome”, a phrase previously used simply as an insult against anyone who someone decides is over-reacting negatively to Trump’s terrible words and deeds, as a mental illness.

Let the text of Bill SF 2589 speak for itself.

A bill for an act relating to mental health; modifying the definition of mental illness; adding a definition for Trump Derangement Syndrome

Subd. 28. Trump Derangement Syndrome.

“Trump Derangement Syndrome” means the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal persons that is in reaction to the policies and presidencies of President Donald J. Trump. Symptoms may include Trump-induced general hysteria, which produces an inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences and signs of psychic pathology in President Donald J. Trump’s behavior. This may be expressed by:

(1) verbal expressions of intense hostility toward President Donald J. Trump; and

(2) overt acts of aggression and violence against anyone supporting President Donald J. Trump or anything that symbolizes President Donald J. Trump.

So there we go, it seems if you speak badly of Donald Trump you’re either mentally ill or a terrorist who needs locking up in whichever random country will take American money to do so. Take your pick.