The Mounting Failures Of Donald Trump Cannot Be Ignored
Obsession, incompetence, dishonesty, hypocrisy and revenge were all raging in trump’s latest week.
What a week it was.
Trump is flailing, cornered, floundering and squirming and the end may very well be near as his sycophants begin to peel away; just be careful what you wish for.
Obsession
Obsession is the only way to describe trump’s fixation on destroying Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., a progressive Democrat, native of Somalia, naturalized citizen and thorn in trump’s foot. Armed with a search warrant, federal agents last week descended on Omar’s DC home, seizing cartons of materials that trump hopes will show that Omar or her father lied on paperwork that they submitted to obtain legal status and eventual citizenship after arriving in the U.S. nearly three decades ago.
According to published reports, investigators are reexamining questions about Omar’s birthdate and her late father’s past military history in Somalia. Depending on the findings, Omar could be charged with a crime or her status in the country could be challenged.
Meanwhile, trump has sicced US Attorney Jeanine Pirro, to probe Omar’s personal finances, separate from the immigration probe.
The thing is that trump officials already went over Omar’s history in 2019 and found no citizenship issues. That probe began after a political appointee in trump’s first administration called on immigration authorities to scrub the immigration records of Omar, then a newly elected Democratic lawmaker for evidence of fraud.
Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), ultimately concluded there was not enough evidence of wrongdoing and a plan to pursue a full investigation was abandoned.
“I think she’s a terrible person,” trump said of Omar. “But that’s really up to the DOJ (Department of Justice). I have nothing to do with it.”
Given trump’s past history of vile hatred of Omar, it is next to impossible to fathom that trump has not weaponized the Justice Department and ordered the feds to find something on the Muslim member of congress.
Omar was ceremonially sworn in on Jan. 3, 2019, as the Representative for Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District. She was the first Somali‑American member of Congress, the first woman of color to represent Minnesota, and one of the first two Muslim‑American women elected to the U.S. House. At her swearing‑in, Omar used her grandfather’s Quran, a personal choice allowed under U.S. law for the ceremonial oath.
A proud Islamaphobe, a month later, trump posted an edited video on X, accusing Omar of “partying” during the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
During a 2019 rally in North Carolina, trumpers chanted “Send her back!” after trump mentioned Omar after months of assailing her because of her religion, ethnicity and immigration status.
Omar led a group of House Democrats in introducing articles of impeachment against trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection by his followers. That year, death threats against Omar rose to the highest levels among lawmakers as trump referred to her as “garbage” and complained that the Somali-American “does nothing but b***h.”
After trump returned to the White House in 2024, he resumed his attacks against Omar in a new and more vicious way.
“I look at somebody that comes from Somalia, who, where they don’t have anything — they don’t have police, they don’t have military, they don’t have anything,” trump said. “All they have is crime — and she (Omar) comes in and tells us how to run our country.”
Another aspect of the raid on Omar’s home that points to political revenge is that it was conducted just weeks before the Nov. 3 midterms, as polls show trump’s popularity in the gutter and Democrats likely to win the House and very possibly, the Senate.
The raid ran counter to a long-standing Justice Department policy discouraging the escalation of politically sensitive investigations within 60 days of elections.
The last time the policy was violated was on October 28, 2016, 11 days before trump’s election. Republicans cheered after then-FBI Director James Comey publicly commented on the Hillary Clinton email investigation so close to the 2016 election. The disclosure that the FBI was reviewing newly discovered e-mails gave a much needed boost to the trump campaign and spelled Clinton’s defeat.
Incompetence
Talk about a gigantic vetting failure, it took all of about five days for an obviously under-qualified and overwhelmed Katie Zacharia to resign as spokeswoman for the most powerful man on the planet.
The shortlived tenure of the presidential press secretary ended after it was revealed that contrary to her statements, Zacharia was not licensed to practice law, having failed the California bar examination.
Of course, trump blamed the media for harassing Zacharia.
“Honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider,” he told reporters, recounting his conversation with his press secretary. He said he added: “Katie, do you need this? I don’t think you need this.”
Trump said Zacharia might continue to work for him “in some form, but maybe a more pleasant form.”
Trump offered the neophyte the powerful post last week. A little-known Fox News commentator, she had the support of another trump groupie, Natalie Harp, a young aide who is always at trump’s beck and call.
It was obvious from the start that Zacharia would not last very long in the pressure-packed post. In her first and only press briefing, Zacharia read from a script and took three questions, all from far right media, before scampering away from the podium, looking very much like the deer in headlights.
The young woman must have felt like a sheep being led to slaughter. She told reporters she was a lawyer but wouldn’t say in what state she passed the bar but that she practiced when she and her husband moved to China. She later said she had misheard the question from the reporter who was a few feet away. Trump also called her an attorney.
In an interview by Fox host Lawrence Jones, Zacharia was asked “Do you wish you would have disclosed to the president about the bar and not passing the bar?”
Incredulously, Zacharia responded, “Well, Lawrence, those questions weren’t asked.”
The former Kat Sharon Black graduated from Pepperdine University in 2007 and from its law school in 2011. She took and failed the California bar exam in 2011.
Zacharia said the president of Pepperdine University told her it was acceptable for her to call herself a lawyer but not an attorney. In every day matters, the titles of lawyer and attorney are interchangeable. Technically, the university president was right. A lawyer is anyone who has completed legal training (usually a J.D. degree). A lawyer may or may not be licensed to practice law. A person who graduated from law school but hasn’t passed the bar exam is still a lawyer, but not an attorney.
An attorney is a lawyer who has passed a state bar exam, and been admitted to practice in at least one jurisdiction.
In an October 15, 2026 interview with Jack Posobiec, Zacharia admitted that she had never passed any bar examination. She said that she had called herself a lawyer, but never an “attorney at law,” and therefore, had not misrepresented her legal career.
After graduating from Pepperdine University law school, she and her husband, Tyler Zacharia, moved to Beijing, China, where she worked for the international practice team at the Zhong Lun Law Firm. After their return to the US, she worked as a commentator for Newsmax.
Zacharia was appointed as the deputy assistant secretary for public affairs for the Department of Homeland Security in February 2026 but resigned that March. In June, Zacharia was hired a communications advisor to the Trump Media and Technology Group.
Zacharia has supported QAnon conspiracy theories and shared far right views on social media, including the theory that Democratic Party and entertainment industry figures are part of a pedophilia ring. In 2022, Zacharia accused Democratic political consultant John Podesta of being a pedophile.
In response to an article about “Bones and All,” a film about two fictional cannibals, Zacharia wrote, “The radical left Hollywood elitists are sick pedo cannibals. Change my mind.”
Zacharia also shared a post suggesting a link between the death of Joan Rivers and a joke Rivers had made regarding the sexuality of Barack Obama and Michelle Obama.
Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Zacharia shared a post from “Richard Tomas” supporting Russian president Vladimir Putin. The post declared, “Putin is at war with the CABAL — and the Ukraine is in bed with them.”
In 2025, Zacharia said the United States should “suspend habeas corpus” in response to a post written by trump’s top advisor, Stephen Miller regarding illegal immigration. Zacharia has spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, sharing an inaccurate statistic that “8 in 10 women had a miscarriage after getting the COVID vaccine.”
Zacharia accused “leftist transgender assailants” of perpetrating “at least a dozen” school shootings. She criticized President Barack Obama for his support of trans-inclusive policies, saying that “his administration was quite hostile toward biological women.”
Zacharia is anti-abortion and falsely claimed that the abortion pill mifepristone “has the same chemicals that they used in the exterminate [sic] camps in Nazi Germany.”
Dishonesty
Last week, trump asked for the resignation of US Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle after revelations about her pressing a donor to pay off her personal bills.
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True to his lack of loyalty, trump immediately tried to distance himself from Guilfoyle, claiming that “She (Guilfoyle) wasn’t a member of my family. She, I guess, dated my son for a while. She was doing a good job, but we didn’t like what we were reading.”
Guilfoyle, who was named ambassador by trump in 2025, was more than a date for the scion. She and trump’s son, Donald Jr. were engaged in 2020, but they split by late 2024 and trump Jr., married Bettina Anderson at a May ceremony in the Bahamas that was largely paid for by a Russian oligarch.
As further evidence of trump’s relationship with Guilfoyle, she served as an advisor and led the fundraising division of trump’s 2020 presidential campaign.
According to various reports, Guilfoyle had asked former GOP congressional candidate Eric Deters for $100,000 to pay off her American Express card ahead of her confirmation hearing.
Deters disclosed his relationship with Guilfoyle by revealing text messages showing Guilfoyle’s pleas for money after he said she failed to come through on promises to get his business in front of administration officials.
“It won’t show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express that’s all that will show,” she wrote to him on July, 3, 2025. “I have been officially announced honey please I need you to get this done for me today.”
Deters later said that “[A]t that moment in time, I didn’t have $100,000 to spare to give to Kimberly Guilfoyle, or I actually would have been a dumbass enough to do it.”
And of course, Guilfoyle repeated her undying respect and gratitude to trump, even though he fired her even before any charges were lodged.
“My gratitude and respect for President Trump and Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio remain unwavering. I am proud of what we accomplished together, and I will always be a loyal supporter of President Trump and his mission to Make America Great Again,” Guilfoyle posted on X.
Hypocrisy
In support of his longstanding credo that no one is immune from being tossed under the bus, trump said a convicted terrorist would not be executed in public, contradicting and humiliating Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth who called for execution by firing squad to be shown on streaming platforms.
Trump evidently found humanity when he said Thursday that Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan’s firing squad execution will not be livestreamed because “many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device.”
A former Army psychiatrist at Fort Hood, Hasan shouted “Allahu akbar,” meaning “God is great,” as he fatally shot 13 people, including a pregnant woman, and wounded 32 others.Hasan was convicted in the 2009 attack at Fort Hood, Texas. Hasan was wounded in the incident and is paralyzed from the waist down.
Trump said the immediate families of the victims will be able to watch the execution in person.
At first, Hegseth recommended the livestreamed death by firing squad. The execution slated for December 3 will be the Army’s first such execution of a soldier since World War II and its first imposition of any death penalty on an armed service member in 65 years.
Sensing the political winds, trump countered Hegseth’s order, after learning that public opposition to the public execution was strong. Trump came around to understand that the idea that billions of people could have tuned in to Hasan’s execution was not healthy for the nation, knowing that children and teens would have been among those watching the grisly incident.
“I think streaming the execution for all to see might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan but, many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device,” trump said.
Hegseth had initially recommended death by firing squad for Hasan, and Trump approved it. The execution will be the US Army’s first such execution of a soldier since World War II and its first imposition of any death penalty on an armed service member in 65 years.
Hegseth announced his plan for the live execution, in an interview with “Human Events Daily,”
“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public. Because people need to understand that … there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” said Hegseth.
Hegseth said that live-streaming of the Dec. 3 execution at Fort Hood at 1 p.m. on a Thursday, the approximate time and day of the shooting, was a “no-brainer.” That would apply to Hegseth.
Duplicity
Trump had a few announcements that he completely made up.
The first involves Greenland, a country that trump covets and one that he said the US military could simply overtake. Trump claimed this week that as a result of an agreement between the US and Greenland, “massive oil, gas and mineral exploration is getting ready to begin” in the Arctic territory of Greenland.
Not quite, according to Jørgen Hammeken-Holm, Greenland’s deputy mining minister, who said that US companies are active but “we are very far away from ‘massive’ exploration.”
Trump is unaware of pesky details including that many of the island’s deposits are in remote areas above the Arctic Circle, buried under a mile-thick polar ice sheet with scant infrastructure.
Researchers call out the complexities and enormous cost of extracting resources in Greenland and that even smaller explorations now underway “could take years to become operational.”
Poking a finger in trump’s eye, the Foreign Ministry of Denmark, of which Greenland is an autonomous part, said that if the US wants to explore Greenland’s resources, it would have to do so within the Arctic Island’s legislation. Denmark also said the US-Denmark-Greenland agreement signed last month did not change this. Twisting the blade even tighter, the Denmark-Greenland agreement “does not grant investors from the US any preferential treatment compared with investors from other NATO countries, EU countries and NATO partners when it comes to access to natural resources in Greenland.”
A separate agreement reached last month between the US, Denmark and Greenland is intended to lessen tensions caused by trump.
Trump hailed the agreement for giving the US “permanent control” over Greenland’s security. The agreement, however, makes only small changes to a 1951 treaty that gives the US permission to station troops in Greenland as part of NATO’s defense, makes no explicit mention of oil or gas. It acknowledges unspecific “minerals cooperation” and “cooperation on economic development and business promotion.”
Another of trump’s imaginary feats involves a “massive deal” to buy potash from Belarus at a steep discount amid the trade war with Canada.
“The United States is working on a massive Deal with respect to the purchase of Potash from Belarus. The pricing would be for substantially less than we are currently paying to Canada,” trump posted on TruthSocial.
Potash is a key component in fertilizers, and Canada is the world’s largest supplier, with 53 percent of exports going to the U.S. Canadian potash is exempt from U.S. tariffs on Canada.
Not so fast, said Lukashenko.
“Even if we wanted to supply [potash] to other, Western markets, we simply do not have those volumes — everything is contracted,” Lukashenko said in remarks published by his office on Monday.
Lukashenko, known as Europe’s “last dictator,” is the first and only president of Belarus since the office’s establishment in 1994 after the fall of the Soviet Union. Belarus, a strong ally of Russia, has been criticized for its corrupt elections. Lukashenko’s contested victory in the 2020 presidential election came amid allegations of vote-rigging, leading the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States to end recognition of Lukashenko as the legitimate president of Belarus.
Along the same lines as his bloviations about Greenland and Belarus, trump trumpeted that he negotiated a crucial deal to buy diesel fuel from Russia and lower diesel costs in the US for truckers and farmers.
Last Sunday, trump posted on Truth Social that “Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!”
As with Greenland, trump was not quite telling the truth, at all.
Contrary to trump’s hallucinations, neither Russia nor Ukraine had agreed to stop attacking fuel facilities. Instead, trump created a unilateral agreement. By Monday night, trump weaseled back on his cease fire statement.
“Well, they agreed. You know why? Because I said, ‘You agreed.’ That’s why,” he told reporters.
The deal with Russia would supply the global market with 4.8 million metric tons, or nearly 36 million barrels total. That equals about 10 days of U.S. domestic demand or a little more than a single day of global demand. The effect on US costs is minimized because the U.S. is a net diesel exporter and does not need Russian oil. Goldman Sachs estimated the initial Russian release would only reduce wholesale diesel prices by $1 to $2 per barrel.
Diesel futures did not move much Monday, a major sign that the market sees the agreement as a political show by trump aimed at convincing consumers that he is doing something about high diesel and gasoline prices.
The agreement will pay millions to Russia, which will enormously help it efforts in the war against Ukraine. Russia will supply 300,000 metric tons immediately to the global market while the Kremlin will initially export about 2.24 million barrels, or 74,500 barrels per day if spread out over an entire month.
The monthly amount equals about 2 percent of total U.S. demand and far less than 1 percent of the more than 28 million barrels per day that the world consumes.
Even trump’s best Republican buds turned on him over the Russia deal.
“The deal you struck with President [Vladimir] Putin on October 9th will not achieve just ends, nor will it benefit Americans,” according to a letter to trump signed by a bipartisan group of senators including Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Alan Armstrong, R-Okla. and John Cornyn, R-Texas.
“This deal is a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our Allies; it should be rescinded,” the letter noted.
