The Madness of Donald Trump

Yesterday's press conference from the president-elect was a helpful reminder that he's still nuts ... and 2017-2021 was a good preview of the next four years.

I’m Michael A. Cohen, and this is Truth and Consequences: A no-holds-barred look at the absurdities, hypocrisies, and surreality of American politics. If you were sent this email or are a free subscriber and would like to become a paid subscriber, you can sign up here.

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In case you missed yesterday’s Trump press conference at Mar-a-Lago, here are a few highlights.

• He wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”

• He refused to rule out using military force to retake the Panama Canal and seize Greenland.

  • According to Trump, America needs Greenland for “national security purposes,” and he threatened to impose tariffs on Denmark, which owns Greenland, if it doesn’t sell the territory to the United States. He also said the people of Greenland would welcome annexation.

• He once again talked about Canada becoming America’s 51st state. He said America’s border with its northern neighbor is an “artificially drawn line,” and said Canada would be better off if it joined the United States. He also threatened to use “economic force” against America’s largest trading partner.

• He described Turkey’s authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as “a friend of mine,” “a guy I like,” and “someone I respect.”

  • He added that he thinks Erdogan “respects me also.”

• He repeatedly accused President Biden of sabotaging the transition process and said once again, “he should never have been allowed even to run for president.”

• He criticized a Biden administration push to regulate gas water heaters and said gas provides “a much better heat. As the expression goes, you don't itch. Does anybody have a heater where you go and you scratch?”

• He again complained about low-flow faucets and shower heads. “No water comes out of the shower. It goes drip, drip, drip. So what happens? You’re in the shower 10 times as long,” according to the soon-to-be president.

• He said Democrats ”want in your washing machine to have very little water coming out … So, when you wash your clothing, you have to wash it four times instead of once. You end up using more water.”

• He also criticized windmills, saying that “Nobody wants them” and they are driving whales to commit suicide. “The windmills are driving the whales crazy,” Trump said.

• He said that votes from the presidential election are still being counted “in some areas.”