Letter to the editor: May 29 spells trouble for Trump

First published in the Brunswick Beacon, 06.25.26

On May 29, 2019, Special Counsel Robert Mueller condemned Russia’s “sweeping and systemic” attack on the 2016 election to help Trump win.

On May 29, 2024, jurors weighed charges that, just days before the 2016 election, Trump paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to hide his adultery. They convicted Trump on all 34 felony charges, making him the only U.S. president ever convicted of a crime.

May 29, 2026, brought still more, quadruple trouble:

• One judge ruled that Trump illegally added his name to the Kennedy Center, saying it was “crystal clear” that “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.” Workers removed Trump’s name in the dead of night, hidden by a screen hastily erected while onlookers shouted “shame!”

• A second judge blocked Trump’s $1.776 billion slush fund for rioters who beat police on Jan. 6 after Trump told them to “fight like hell!” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) called it a “payout pot for punks.”

• A third judge reopened Trump’s lawsuit against his own IRS after 35 former federal judges urged the judge to determine if Trump’s lawsuit was a fraud. Trump’s admission, “I’m supposed to work out a settlement with myself,” explains why.

But Trump’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day wasn’t over.

• After losing to a Trump-endorsed challenger, former Trump ally Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) posted what he called an “apt fable,” about a scorpion who stung and killed a frog as he carried him across a river, dooming them both. When the stunned frog asked why he would do such a self-destructive thing, the scorpion replied, “I couldn’t help myself. It’s my character.”

Cornyn is just the latest in a long line of Trump castoffs. There’s a reason Trump’s favorite fable involves a snake who bites the woman who rescued him. Trump’s punchline — “you knew I was a snake, before you took me in.”

Linda McConnell Baker

Leland