By Bob Gaydos

Michael Cohen
… back in the fold

     Natalie Harp. Karoline Leavitt. Michael Cohen.

      Do you catch my drift?

      If you have only a cursory familiarity with current events, those names in the news the past few days will probably cause you to stop and pause to connect the dots. Yeah. You got it. Just one dot.

      Trump.

     Make it two: A total lack of self-respect. It’s absolutely necessary to get ahead in MAGA World. 

      Until Sunday, the hands-down winner of the yucky, smarmiest display of “Anything else I can do for you, boss”? was Harp. Nicknamed the human printer. The attractive, blonde “human printer” who is always at his side. The attractive, blonde human printer, who refused to submit to a security clearance, oversees all Trump’s social media posts and carries a really big bag full of something or other wherever she and Trump go. Yes, the attractive blonde who resembles his daughter, Ivanka. That one. The blonde who jumped into the trunk of his car when she was told there was no room in the motorcade for her.

      Harp had usurped the title from Leavitt, the attractive blonde White House press secretary who has never found a lie too outrageous or too absurd to repeat for Trump, no insult too nasty to hurl at the press. Leavitt is leaving her high profile job at the White House, which she had quickly resumed despite just having given birth to a baby girl. The 

announcement of her departure came after Trump decided to use her as one of the decoys in the two-plane farce in Turkey, but took Harp with him by his side in the catering cart for the presumably “safe” plane. Leavitt stays on this list because she didn’t dump Trump, she joined some super Pac, MAGA Inc., where she previously served as spokesperson. What’s more, while she wants to “spend more time with family,” she says she plans to serve as a close, outside adviser and to join Trump at the Republican convention next month. Which could mean Trump will have attractive blonde bookends, er aides, on either side of him as he rambles through his speech.

      Nonetheless, after last Sunday, neither attractive blonde etc. can lay claim to being the smarmiest of them all. That title once again goes to Michael Cohen, the fixer. Not female or blonde, but a lawyer willing to lie, cheat and steal for Trump, go to prison for him, write a book bad-mouthing him and, after eight years, turn around and invite his “boss” on to his radio show for a full-length interview in which they mend fences and Cohen signs off by singing “Reunited.” Yucky.

      This to me confirms that, while Trump clearly appreciates the presence of attractive blonde sycophants, nothing comes closer to his heart, especially when the future looks threatening, than a lawyer without an ounce of self-respect and a whole-hearted willingness to ignore the law. (Think Roy Cohn, Rudy Giuliani and our current attorney general.) Cohen, who served three years in Otisville Correctional Facility, just down the road from where I’m typing this (much of it in solitary confinement at Trump’s order), says he puckered up because he’s concerned for his family’s safety.

       Oh yeah, he also resubmitted his bid for a federal pardon and he might be trying to get his law license back. And he surely knows what’s in the Epstein files

     If you catch my drift. 

By Bob Gaydos

Somewhere in the catering crate is Donald Trump.

   He really doesn’t care. Not at all. Not about anyone but himself.

    Two examples from last week should make that clear even to the most gullible Trump loyalists: The decoy plane and the aircraft carrier.

     — Decoy: Ok, so we all know by now that Trump left Turkey following the NATO conference in fear for his life from Iranians, thanks to a report from Israeli Intelligence. This caused him to get on Air Force One with the press and traveling administration personnel, then sneak out in a catering container and get in a somewhat smaller jet standing by. All this without anyone in the press or the rest of the world, except for those government officials, knowing. The press and some government folks would remain on the decoy plane, window shades down.

    Trump, Pete Hegseth and Trump’s “close, personal” White House staff (Natalie Harp for sure, but not Karoline Leavitt), all snuck on to the other plane.

   Marco Rubio, U.S. Secretary of State, remained on the decoy plane, apparently not important enough to protect from a perceived threat, but prominent enough to have his presence avoid press suspicion of shady doings. That also applied to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. They stayed. For appearances apparently.

   Did Marco have a choice? Scott? Could either man have said, “No, I don’t want to die either?” Did other expendable staff, including Stephen Miller, know that Trump’s key Oval Office protectors weren’t aboard? And why did Trump go through this charade even though his own CIA doubted the Israeli report was credible?

   Guess when he thinks his butt is on the line there’s no limit to what must be done to protect it or to whom is expendable. It’s actually pretty much how he acts as president every day.

   — U.S.S. Lincoln Aircraft Carrier: This is unforgivable. When reports surfaced that the crew of the carrier, deployed in the Middle East because of Trump’s disastrous war with Iran, had been at sea for nearly nine months (a record) without seeing shore, were living on barely edible rations, were using filthy bathrooms and that some members were so depressed they had tried to jump overboard, Trump said the crew and members of their families reporting such conditions were lying. Think about that. Asked by a reporter if the crew and the ship had been deployed at sea too long, he said, “Not nearly long enough.”

    The bone spurs draft dodger, never-served-a-day commander-in-chief, embarrassed that Iran had managed to destroy the supply base in Bahrain that served the Lincoln, requiring that supplies be sent from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, chose to talk tough and deny and lie.  Visiting the ship to check on conditions firsthand was apparently not an option. Of course, he and Hegseth had never told us about the damage to the Bahrain base. Trump had to protect his fragile ego and that made the crew of the Lincoln expendable.

      While all this was going on, Congress was in recess and Republican members were predictably silent even though social media commentary on both topics was plentiful and largely not favorable. Actually, it being primary time across much of the nation, most Republican candidates for any office were also silent or avoidant on the issue of whom Trump regarded as expendable.

   But that’s Trump — a new bottom every day. I do not blame him for being who he is; I simply detest him. In truth, I’m sick of him. I do, however, blame the Republican Party for infecting American society (not just politics) with this utterly despicable human being.

   I mean every elected Republican official, from the House Speaker, Senate Majority Leader, the entire cabinet, to every governor, senator, congressperson, state legislator, attorney general, county executive, county legislator, mayor, supervisor, councilman, or candidate who has stood silently by and let Trump make a mockery of our laws, our democratic system of government and lay waste to any sense of decency or decorum befitting the office of president of the most powerful nation on the planet. Ladies and gentlemen, you are him.

    And the mystifying, sad reality of it all to me is that, despite the long trail of supplicants left behind, none of these Republicans apparently realizes that, on any given day for any ego-protecting reason, Donald Trump would consider any one of them expendable.