SEPTEMBER 24, 2025 – I’d heard it was “bad”—really bad—but until I later watched the video of Trump’s speech before the UN General Assembly I had no idea just how bad his performance was. To my friends, family members, and acquaintances who to this day either actively support or acquiesce in this mad man’s continuation as president of the United States, I say, “Watch Trump’s UN speech.” No, let me restate that with proper emphasis: “Watch Trump’s UN speech!” Then let’s talk. But I’m warning you, if, after the seeing Trump embarrass himself and our whole nation in front of the gathering of nations, you hold to your position, your complicity in the wreckage Trump and his minions have wrought upon the world must by all measures be considered irredeemably locked in amber for all the future to see.
Trump’s first term was a live-action staging of Hans Christian Andersen’s timeless fable, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Trump’s second term is a full-fledged horror show entitled, “The New Clothes of the Emperor’s Supporters and Enablers.”
To clothe the new American reality ever so thinly, “Mon dieu! Mai maintenant nous vivons dans une colonie de nudists.” Banished from Krazy Town is anyone without true and tried unflagging sycophantic bona fides combined with proven incompetence and unwavering allegiance not to the Constitution, not to the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness of Americans who aren’t billionaires, and heaven knows, not to the teachings of Jesus and the common good, but to the whims and distortions of an emperor who is not only stark naked but stark raving mad. In other words, whoever is on the side of the Emperor today is also wearing “new clothes.”
Next time you lay eyes on a copy (or original) of the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington, just think how the eyes of the Father would roll, then pop out of his head and roll across the hardwood floor and straight out the door if they could see what the 47th president has done to our Manifest Destiny. Almost 250 years into the Great American Experiment, along comes a guy for whom the great American public voted a second time—eyes wide open—to blow up the experiment to kingdom come.
“What to do?” as my grandpa Holman asked rhetorically to preface a long tale about how one way or another he had solved some business problem . . . or as we who opposed Trump from before “Day One” have been asking ever since we were shell-shocked by his electoral victory in November 2016.
Lately we’ve been counseled by the kinder, gentler sorts that what all of us need to do is tone down the invective, the sarcasm, the personal attacks, the partisanship, the stridency, and even the comic relief, however free of on-air expletives, and ideally, avoid any discussion of politics outside our own camp. I disagree. This well-intentioned appeal to civility has been overwhelmed by a constant barrage of retribution, abuse of legal process, and most damaging of all, curtailment of free speech. I, for one, refuse to be bullied into silence or “talking nice.”
We are still learning how to exercise our First Amendment rights across the minefields of AI-laden tropes on social media often fronted by false accounts and by misinformation and disinformation spread across the internet as incendiary weapons by the largely unregulated power of Big Tech. Until we figure out how and where to build fire lanes around the worst of conflagratory speech, we must let the fires burn in favor of unfettered speech. The only thing worse than totally free speech is its opposite.
The Naked Emperor and his nudist enablers would if they could and will if they can, censor and curtail anything critical of the regime or its allies. What they cannot yet do directly they accomplish by threat of indirect but severe consequences—the withholding of governmental funding, for example, in the case of universities or denying approval of contemplated mergers or rescinding broadcast licensure in the instance of large media companies or threatening libel litigation against anyone else who should challenge the regime. These are the most dangerous tactics of authoritarian rule—next to unconstitutional arrests, detention and deportation.
And we are to “talk nice” in the face of these mob-like assaults on our most basic freedom? “Talking nice” under such circumstances renders a mockery of the First Amendment. The whole point of the leading “bill” of the Bill of Rights is not to talk nice, but to shout in whatever manner is necessary to divert people and institutions from disastrous paths. In what context is the duty “not to talk nice” more urgent than when government authorities seek to prevent us from “not talking nice”?
We are no longer living in 2015, when arguably (though hardly convincingly—many of us who were well acquainted with Trump’s business failures and lack of character long before he announced his candidacy for president were well aware of his disqualifications[1]) uninformed voters could give Trump a pass. It is now a whole decade later. The record is bursting with evidence that now at the head of our government is a dangerously flawed human being. Not having the slightest aptitude for poker, the Naked Emperor has no inclination toward subtlety. What you see and hear is what you get, and what we’ve gotten so far is bad; really bad.
It is time for someone in Trump’s cabinet or at least among Republican senators to play the role of the kid in Hans Christian Andersen’s fable: “Look, Mom! The emperor is wearing no clothes!” The longer it takes for that person to step forward, the greater the likelihood that when they do, they’ll be gagged before they can “talk not so nice.”
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© 2025 by Eric Nilsson
[1]For me Trump’s disqualification came down to three “exhibits”: Ex. A – His business bankruptcies and deceit in dealing with lenders—stories of his dishonest tactics were widely known in commercial real estate workout circles in the 1990s; Ex. B – His “Apprentice” TV show, which revealed what a complete phony Trump was when it came to the world of business; and Ex. C – The “birther” campaign that Trump launched against President Obama—again, the stuff of a complete phony.
1 Comment
I COMPLETELY agree with your post. I just cannot believe our country has come to this point under his incompetence.