Remember when the Republican Party, as a whole, absolutely revered the memory of Ronald Reagan? It really wasn't that long ago. Their devotion was so pronounced that we even took to using the term "Saint Ronald of Reagan" whenever we wrote about Republicans lauding him to the skies, just to poke fun at their deification (or at the least, canonization or beatification) of a politician that, in our humble opinion, really didn't deserve such devotion.

Jumping forward to the present, each incoming president gets to choose how to decorate the White House, which includes the art on the walls of the Oval Office. We have to say it was somewhat of a surprise to learn that Donald Trump in his second presidency chose to hang a painting of Reagan on the wall overlooking the same desk Ronnie used to sit behind. We learned this fact from the following article, which (please note) was written before what just happened in the Oval Office today:

On the wall overlooking the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office is a portrait of the 40th president, Ronald Reagan. If it could move, it would likely turn its back in shame at the words and actions this week by the 47th president.

"Absolutely obscene," said Tom Nichols, a self-described Reaganite and former Naval War College professor, about Donald Trump's capitulation to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. "He ought to take that picture down."

Reagan labeled the Soviet Union "the evil empire" for its human rights abuses and expansionist foreign policy. Trump regularly praises Putin as a "strong" leader.

. . .

In just a single week, Trump has repeated Putin's talking points that Ukraine, not Russia, was somehow responsible for Russia's now three-year-long invasion of its neighbor. He called Ukraine's democratically elected president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a "dictator" while offering kind words for Putin, who has had political opponents and critics murdered. He pushed Ukraine to pay protection money, in the form of handing over mineral rights, if he wants American help going forward. And he has demanded that Ukraine offer several concessions to bring about the end of the war, including giving up territory Putin has seized, while asking nothing of Russia.

Donald Trump has singlehandedly turned the Republican Party away from their longstanding (dating back to roughly the end of World War II) and staunch opposition to both the Soviet Union and Russia, and has now forced the entire party to openly embrace the dictator Vladimir Putin. That is an astonishing reversal, to put it mildly. Hillary Clinton even warned of this, when campaigning against Trump, accusing him of being Putin's "puppet." She could not have been more right, as today proved beyond a shadow of a doubt. Ronald Reagan is probably turning over in his grave after the embarrassment the world just witnessed. You could almost see, in the background, Elon Musk passing Trump's puppet strings to Putin -- maybe with a few pointers on the best way to make Trump look more lifelike.

Trump had a hard week all around, because for the first time in his second term in office, he was faced with people who are strong enough to stand up to his lies. This began with meetings with the leaders of France and the U.K., both of whom corrected Trump's misunderstandings of the way the war in Ukraine started, has been fought, and has been funded. These, after all, are leaders of their own countries. They are not journalists who could get banished from covering the White House or members of Trump's party who can be threatened with a future primary opponent. They have their own domestic support and don't really care what American voters think of them. So they were free to smack down Trump's lies.

According to Trump, the United States has given $350 billion to Ukraine to fight against Russia -- a war that Ukraine provoked by flirting with joining NATO (which forced Russia to invade in self-defense). We gave Ukraine all this money while Europe barely gave them any money -- all of which were in the form of loans (not grants), so Europe will be paid back while America won't.

None of this is true, of course. America has given Ukraine $119 billion, while Europe has given Ukraine $138 billion (most of which was grants that will not have to be repaid). Russia started this war of aggression and conquest without provocation. Which the leaders of France and the U.K. pointed out to Trump -- not that it did any good. Trump believes the fantasy version of reality in his head, and no facts will ever change his mind.

This all boiled over today in a disastrous Oval Office meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian leader. As far as Trump (and JD Vance, just for good measure) are concerned, Zelenskyy should have immediately prostrated himself before Trump and started salaaming, perhaps while chanting: "I am not worthy." That's the sort of visual they really wanted to see.

This did not happen (to put it mildly). If you can stomach it, the New York Times took the trouble to transcribe what did happen instead.

The upshot of all of this? While Putin's laughter was so loud it could almost be heard across the Atlantic Ocean, the portrait of Ronald Reagan behind Trump spontaneously burst into flames.

Well, no... that didn't actually happen. But it really should have.

Zelenskyy was then summarily kicked out of the White House. The planned signing of a deal for Ukrainian mineral rights was cancelled, as was a planned press conference afterwards. As of this writing, it is unclear whether a Fox News interview with Zelenskyy will take place later today.

It's hard to measure, but this may not have been the most disgraceful and disgusting thing the Trump administration has done this week, since earlier the U.S. voted against a Ukrainian measure at the United Nations that condemned Russia for its invasion of their country. We voted with Russia and North Korea, while all the countries who still care about democracy and freedom voted with Ukraine.

So Ronald Reagan's legacy is now officially in ashes. Standing strong against Russian aggression is now a thing of the past, as far as the Republican Party is concerned. Putin is a wonderful guy who has never done anything wrong, and when Trump eventually meets with him and showers him with praise (without a single word of rebuke), the Republicans will all join in the chorus praising him to the skies. This is not "Making America Great Again," this is "Making America Irrelevant." But as long as that's what their Dear Leader wants, that's what he will get from the GOP.

This is a dark day for America -- so dark, in fact, that it's hardly worth itemizing all the other embarrassments from the past week. Except one.

President Elon Musk held a cabinet meeting this week, which he graciously allowed Donald Trump to also attend. Musk did his usual schtick, in a humiliating reminder to the country of who is truly in charge at the White House. Perhaps he needed an ego boost because Tesla sales have now fallen by a whopping 45 percent in Europe?

This wasn't the most amusing Musk news of the week, however. We saved the funniest one for last, since we all could use a laugh right now. It seems somebody hacked the video screens on display at the Department of Housing and Urban Development this week, which all then started showing a little video loop generated by A.I.

The loop showed Donald Trump sucking on Elon Musk's toes.

Check it out, courtesy of the New York Times. Maybe the culprit will make another one showing Trump sucking up to Vladimir Putin soon? One can only hope....

There have been some signs of life in the Democratic Party of late, and that was even before the disgraceful display we all witnessed in the Oval Office today. This could be a direct result of the fact that Americans are paying close attention to what Trump has been doing, and want to see some stronger resistance to it from Democrats. They're showing up to town hall meetings with Republican congressmen and venting their outrage as well (which is encouraging to see). A recent poll showed that a whopping 73 percent of Democrats wanted to see more from Democratic leaders. Here is what one local Democrat had to say about what she was looking for:

"We need really strong voices of moral outrage, and I would like to see that. I am not seeing that," said Theresa Reid, who leads the Democratic Party in liberal Washtenaw County, Mich. "Any top elected, any top Democrat. They don't have to be elected, necessarily. You know, anybody. Any national leader would be really great."

Ms. Reid added: "It's risky. But my God. Don't obey in advance. Don't give up in advance."

Rachel Maddow took House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to task in a recent interview as well, speaking specifically of standing up to Elon Musk:

"It feels like we are in the middle of a ketamine-fueled, middle-of-the-night, autocratic power grab that is rendering Congress irrelevant, that's rendering policy irrelevant and that's rendering the rule of law an afterthought, if not a joke, to those who are planning on staying in power indefinitely, without benefit of further elections," she said.

. . .

The broadcaster added she believed Americans wanted to hear from a senior Democrat that "you understand the scale of the threat, and you have ideas about how to interrupt what feels like something that we have not experienced since the Civil War in terms of the threat to our republic."

Senator Chris Murphy, who won the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week a few weeks back, is still out there fighting, and Senator Bernie Sanders is doing a barnstorming tour of America to whip up opposition to the new oligarchy as well. So we've got to hand out Honorable Mention awards to all Democrats who are at least trying to fight back.

But this week's MIDOTW goes to the governor of Maine, Janet Mills. In an event where President Trump addressed a group of governors, she was singled out by Trump for some abuse (over her state's resistance to Trump stomping on local control of education by dictating policies for schools on transgender students). Trump had apparently heard about this and asked her if she was going to comply with his orders or not. Miller tried to tactfully respond: "I'm complying with state and federal law," but Trump pushed back with a threat:

"We are the federal law," [President Donald Trump] retorted. "Well, you better do it. You better do it because you're not gonna get any federal funding at all if you don't."

Trump then repeated MAGA talking points on "men playing in women's sports."

"See you in court," [Maine Governor Janet] Mills eventually answered.

"Good, I'll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one. And enjoy your life after governor 'cause I don't think you'll be in elected politics," he said.

Another news story written about the exchange reported that Mills shot back: "Should be for me," in response to Trump's: "That should be a real easy one."

This is how you stand up to a bully! Get in his face. Make him lose his cool. And brush off his bluster and his threats.

For standing up to Trump in such notable fashion, Governor Janet Mills is our Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week this week.

[Congratulate Maine Governor Janet Mills on her official contact page, to let her know you appreciate her efforts.]

We don't really have any Democrat who was a major disappointment this week, so instead we are going to point out one thing that was not just disappointing but downright disgraceful this week in the world of journalism.

The previously-respected Washington Post continued its descent into ignominy this week, as owner Jeff Bezos further interfered with the content of the news organization. This follows a series of equally-disgraceful actions Bezos has been making over the past few months.

Bezos called the editor of the editorial pages in and gave him new marching orders. The editorial pages would henceforth be focused on supporting "personal liberties and free markets," to the exclusion of any other viewpoints. The paper will no longer publish opposing viewpoints on those topics, Bezos demanded.

To his credit, David Shipley, the editorial page editor, immediately resigned.

This move has been condemned far and wide, since it flies in the face of independent journalism and further diminishes the Post in the world of journalism. Marty Baron, who used to be the Post's executive editor, slammed Bezos for this move this week in no uncertain terms:

"[Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos is] saying that only his point of view is going to be represented on those pages and that really is a betrayal of the heritage of The Washington Post and, I think, a betrayal of the very idea of free expression," said [former Post executive editor Marty] Baron, who has slammed Bezos for "basically" being "fearful" of President Donald Trump.

"And it actually, in contrast to how newspapers, news organizations, honor free expression with a variety of points of view, it actually dishonors free expression, which is the most fundamental personal liberty of American citizens," Baron added.

. . .

"It says that, 'No, the only opinion that is permitted here is my opinion and you have to share that and there's no room for you on my pages, on our site, if you have an opposing point of view.' That is anti-democratic in nature."

One brave Post columnist (Dana Milbank) wrote at length how there is one clear enemy right now of the two ideals Bezos is dictating, that the newspaper really should be fighting:

[T]his much is clear: If we as a newspaper, and we as a country, are to defend his twin pillars, then we must redouble our fight against the single greatest threat to "personal liberties and free markets" in the United States today: President Donald Trump.

It is more than just a little sad to see what used to be an icon of the free press descend into toadyism in such a fashion. So while we don't actually have an award for "Most Disappointing Journalistic Organization" we have to add our voice to the condemnation of Bezos turning a previously-respected news organization into a paper tiger.

For shame, Jeff. For shame.

[Waves of people have been cancelling their subscriptions to the Washington Post in protest, after each one of these moves by Bezos, so that might be one way to let them know what you think of what Bezos is doing to the paper. Just a suggestion....]

Volume 785 (2/28/25)

We can't exactly endorse it as a talking point, but we did want to at least point out one Democratic senator who had some harsh language this week for Elon Musk, after he sent out a message to all federal employees to justify what they did last week. This was such a power grab that even some Trump administration people pushed back on it, mind you. But Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota put it in possibly the most memorable way, tweeting:

This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk -- except he isn't even the boss, he's just a dick.

As we said, some rather strong language, but then again we resorted to some strong language of our own in one talking point this week, so we certainly can understand the urge.

   Those were the days...

This first one is from a New York Times article. It's included here more for the construction than what the author is specifically talking about (the fact that Elon Musk fired a bunch of people responsible for nuclear weapons maintenance and also wants to see everyone's tax info). Because it can work as a talking point for all sorts of things really: "Remember when..."

Remember last month, when you didn't have to think twice about the safety of America's nuclear arsenal? Or how about last year, when you could file your taxes without wondering if the I.R.S. might share your Social Security number and banking details with an unvetted contractor? Those were the days.

   $880 billion

Democrats have been handed a gift by House Republicans. So hammer them with it!

"House Republicans are just flat-out lying to the American public about what they plan to do with next year's budget. They swear up and down that the bill they passed 'doesn't even mention Medicaid,' but that's really just an artful lie. Sure, they didn't use the actual word 'Medicaid,' but they did include a mandate to cut a whopping eight hundred and eighty billion dollars from either Medicare, Medicaid, or the children's health insurance program. That's close to a trillion dollars to slash, and it has to come from somewhere. Donald Trump keeps swearing up and down he's not going to cut Medicaid, but he's lying too. Because those cuts are in the bill. So every time a Republican lies about it to a journalist, the very next question should be: 'Well, if you're not going to cut it from Medicaid, where are you going to cut it from?' Because they simply have no answer for that one. Don't believe their lies -- they are about to slash funding for the 70-plus-million people on Medicaid, plain and simple."

   Bannon's got it right, for once

It's not only Democrats who have noticed this.

"I hate to admit it, but I agree with Steve Bannon, for once. He's out there pointing out that there are, quote, 'a lot of MAGAs on Medicaid,' and he's right. This is going to hurt a whole lot of people in red states, and it's going to mean a whole lot of rural hospitals are going to close their doors. All of these people -- including millions of Trump voters -- are going to pay a very steep price, even though none of them voted for ending their own medical insurance. You think these voters are just going to somehow not notice this, even though Trump promised he wouldn't touch Medicare and Medicaid? I think it is much more likely that one Democrat's response to the vote in the House might prove to be prophetic, when she said: 'We just won back the House.' There's a reason these programs are called 'the third rail of politics,' and Republicans in the House are about to find out why, that's my guess."

   Nothing to see here...

Make America Healthy Again? Hardly...

"This week in Texas, a child died from the measles. When asked about it during a cabinet meeting, R.F.K. Jr., who is in charge of the nation's health services, shrugged it off -- while getting his facts wrong. Kennedy said there were two deaths when there had only been one, and he mumbled something about quarantines, even though that's not actually happening in hospitals. And he callously called the whole thing no big deal, trying the old 'happens all the time... nothing to see here... move along' excuse. In reality, this is the first American measles death in ten years and only the first measles death of a child in 22 years. And it is happening because fewer and fewer parents are getting their children vaccinated -- the child who died was unvaccinated. In unrelated news, a meeting of scientists to plan next year's flu vaccine was cancelled this week. Who could have possibly foreseen this sort of thing happening, with an anti-vaxxer in charge of the nation's health services? Kennedy's callousness is disgraceful, but it's precisely what you'd expect from him."

   Banana republic shit

Sorry for the strong language, but sometimes you have to call it what it is.

"Donald Trump, while campaigning, kept trying to accuse Joe Biden of turning America into, quote, 'a banana republic.' But in reality, it is Trump who is now doing precisely that. Just this week alone, Trump fired a whole bunch of top military brass, because he didn't think they were personally loyal to him. He also fired some others -- top-ranking military lawyers -- because they might at some point tell him his orders to the military were illegal and unconstitutional. Trump decided that he would get to pick which reporters from the White House press would get to cover him and which would be denied access -- so only people who sing his praises get to ask him questions from now on. And the White House explained a visible bruise on the back of one of Trump's hands as being caused (you just can't make this stuff up, folks) by his 'shaking hands all day, every day,' because 'Trump is a man of the people.' Trump also put out a revolting video showing his fantasy of turning the Gaza Strip into his own real estate kingdom -- complete with a 'Trump Gaza' resort. I don't know what else you'd call all of this other than banana republic shit, personally. And that's not even a complete list of all the pettiness Trump's ego has been demanding, it's just the worst from this week, folks."

   Down the memory hole!

There's another term worth using as well, here.

"Or maybe you could call it 'Orwellian' -- like the news story that the inspector general's office of U.S.A.I.D. has compiled two reports on the fallout from their agency being dismantled, but that the I.G. hasn't released them -- even to Congress -- because they are too scared of how the White House will respond. The reports show that this global audit found 'security dangers, risks of widespread looting and disease' and 'heightened hunger and desperation' worldwide. The ceasefire in Gaza may even be threatened by America withdrawing from the world in such a fashion. People will die of starvation, people will die of AIDS, and this is all a wonderful gift to China in terms of spreading their influence and undermining America's throughout the world. That's what these reports found, but nobody's seen them yet because the inspector general is too afraid of being the bearer of bad news to Donald Trump. It's so much easier to just shove such bad news down the memory hole, isn't it?"

   Tell it to Ronnie -- I dare you.

And finally, we end where we began.

"You know what I say to all of those Republicans who are cheering on Donald Trump's embrace of Vladimir Putin right now? I dare you to stand in front of a picture of Ronald Reagan and say the same things. Look into Ronnie's eyes while you heap praise on a Trump for sucking up to the dictator of Russia. Just imagine what he would say to you as you become an instrument of Russian propaganda. You think Reagan would approve? You think he might have some harsh words for you? So yeah -- every Republican praising Trump right now should be forced to do it to Ronnie's face, just in the hopes that some small remnant of a shred of shame still exists within them."

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant