Trump Joins Hitler, Stalin as "Person of the Year"

"...the individual who, for better or for worse, did the most to shape the world and the headlines over the past 12 months"

DJT was named TIME’s Person of the Year this week, and…

Now we watch as members of Congress, international institutions, and global leaders once again align themselves with his whims. The carousel of Trumpworld characters spins anew. This time, we think we know what to expect. Supporters cheer even his promises to take revenge on his enemies and dismantle the government. In a matter of weeks, Trump will be returning to the Oval Office with his intentions clear: tariff imports, deport millions, and threaten the press. Put RFK Jr. in charge of vaccines. Chance war with Iran. “Anything can happen,” he told us. — TIME, December 30, 2024 issue

As TIME defines their Person of the Year (“Man of the Year” until 1999) “the individual who, for better or for worse, did the most to shape the world and the headlines over the past 12 months.”

Adolf Hitler was Man of the Year in 1938. As TIME described, at the Munich Conference, …

Fuhrer of the German people, Commander-in-Chief of the German Army, Navy & Air Force, Chancellor of the Third Reich, Herr Hitler reaped on that day at Munich the harvest of an audacious, defiant, ruthless foreign policy he had pursued for five and a half years. He had torn the Treaty of Versailles to shreds. He had rearmed Germany to the teeth, or as close to the teeth as he was able. He had stolen Austria before the eyes of a horrified and apparently impotent world. All these events were shocking to nations which had defeated Germany on the battlefield only 20 years before, but nothing so terrified the world as the ruthless, methodical, Nazi-directed events which during late summer and early autumn threatened a world war over Czechoslovakia. When without loss of blood he reduced Czechoslovakia to a German puppet state, forced a drastic revision of Europe’s defensive alliances, and won a free hand for himself in Eastern Europe by getting a “hands-off” promise from powerful Britain (and later France), Adolf Hitler without doubt became 1938’s Man of the Year.

And the butcher Josef Stalin was Man of the Year not once, but twice (1939 and 1942). TIME also points out that Nikita Khrushchev (1957) and Ayatollah Khomeini (1979) have also been granted the title for their impact on events.

Chris Wray Steps Down

One of the Watergate reforms — I’m old enough to remember them — was to decouple the terms of the Director of the FBI and the President to ensure the Director’s independence. Part of the rationale for this action was a finding that the FBI Director under Nixon had destroyed/withheld evidence and participated in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal. The term was set at ten years so as to extend beyond presidential terms, and limited to one term to avoid the amassing of power and potential abuse of power that occurred in the forty-plus year tenure of J. Edgar Hoover.

Trump appointed Chris Wray in 2017 after he fired James Comey for his refusal to end the Russia investigation and to pledge personal loyalty to Trump. He still had several years to serve, but Trump had made clear his intent to fire Wray…because he did his job, including the FBI involvement in investigating the events of January 6 and Trump’s unauthorized removal of hundreds of classified documents to his personal residence.

Wray announced he would leave his post with the change of administrations, relieving Trump of having to fire him. He said it was to avoid more turmoil for the agency, and I’ll believe that, even if I wish he had pushed back by forcing his firing, making Trump’s corruption more clear for the present and posterity.

Unfortunately, although many Republican senators have spoken highly (some on and some off the record) of the work of the lifelong Republican, none of them seem to object to this norm-breaking.

Zuckerberg and Bezos Fork Over Protection $$$

So not only did Jeff Bezos pull the plug on the WAPO’s endorsement of Kamala Harris — certainly motivated by a desire not to irritate Trump — but now we learn that he has donated $1 million to the Trump inauguration committee. As the Bulwark’s Jonathan V. last writes:

A president’s “inauguration committee” or “inauguration fund” is a slush fund, pure and simple. In theory, it is used to cover expenses relating to the inaugural celebrations. In practice, it’s dark money. The inaugural fund is required to disclose who gives money to it, but is not required to disclose what the money is spent on. And in cases where there is a surplus—where it raises more money than it spends on the inauguration festivities—it is not required to refund or dispose of the money in any particular way.

In other words: It’s pure tribute. The inauguration fund is a way for rich people to funnel money to the incoming president that he can then use however he sees fit, completely unfettered and under cover of darkness. The inauguration fund is no different than feudal lords approaching the new king with gifts of rubies, or mobsters showering a new mayor with envelopes of cash.

Bezos was not alone in that $1 million donor tier: Mark Zuckerberg is there as well.

What is most disturbing here is that these guys, with the stature and resources to push back against the bully simply choose to appease him to avoid their businesses having to take any risk — risks they can easily afford.

Cowards.

Nepotism and Graft is the Order of the Day

In the first term we saw Jared and Ivanka in key WH aid roles…this time Ivanka seems settled into a homey role and Jared is too busy raking in the graft from the Saudis that poured into his newly-formed investment firm to be bothered with a role in Trump II, but his dad Charles Kushner — a convicted felon (pardoned by Trump at the end of his first term) — will be ambassador to France. Meanwhile, daughter Tiffany’s father-in-law will be White House senior adviser on Arab and Middle East affairs…Lara Trump, who recently stepped down from her nepotism-enabled job at the RNC, is angling to be appointed as senator from FL after Marco Rubio steps down to become Secretary of State…Eric Trump just signed a deal for a Trump Tower in, where else, Saudi Arabia, and Stephanie Guilfoyle apparently ends an enagagement with Don Jr. to become ambassador to Greece.

Hard to keep track of where the nepotism ends and the graft starts.

Trump: “Gonna be hard to get those grocery prices lower” after all

Trump on the campaign trail: “Prices will come down; you just watch. They’ll come down, and they’ll come down fast.”

Then, answering the question: “If the prices of groceries don’t come down, will your presidency be a failure?” in his TIME in his Person of the Year interview: “I don’t think so. Look, they got them up. I’d like to bring them down. It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard. But I think that they will.”

It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard.