#1,080: Just Say No . . . Again and Again and Again

Just Say NO . . . Again, and Again and Again

Kurt Franklin Stone

Based on news reports for the latter part of May 2026, POTUS has faced more challenges - and heard the words “NO WAY!” - more than at any time during his second term . . . or perhaps his entire life. Consider that within a span of less than two weeks, his poll numbers have hit a second-term low; a huge political NO. Gas prices are now so high that even his MAGA supporters (whose support for him remains ridiculously high, at 80%) are beginning to gnash their teeth and finding it nigh on impossible to blame the Democrats. Shortly before his 80th birthday, his grip over Republican lawmakers is showing increasing signs of slipping away (a group NO), with Senate Republicans blocking funding for his "White House ballroom" and his notorious $1.8 billion fund aimed at rewarding supporters who claim political persecution by Democrats. And, to end last week, Christopher R. Cooper, a Judge on the Federal District Court in Washington, ordered that the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts remove President Trump’s name from the building’s facade and all official branding, and temporarily blocked the institution from shuttering this summer for renovations. The White House has 2 weeks to remove the signage.

And things keep getting deeper and deeper into negative territory. #47, despite that 80% approval rating among hardcore MAGAites, is losing more and more ground among “Republicans” writ large and Republican-leaning independents, and is losing the gains he generated among Latinos and Black Americans in 2024. Things are going so badly among Congressional Republicans that Speaker Johnson sent the House home after it appeared that enough Republicans would join Democrats to pass a War Powers Resolution - thus putting his war in Iran on political tenterhooks. (BTW: the term tenterhooks comes from the textile industry: a tenter was a wooden frame used in cloth-making to stretch wet fabric tightly using sharp L-shaped hooks so it wouldn't shrink as it dried. Metaphorically, being "stretched" tight on these hooks became synonymous with feeling tense and anxious.)

As the old commercial tag-line went: “BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!” Over the weekend, POTUS’s stealth 80th birthday celebration, disguised as a 250th anniversary gala, celebrating the nation’s “Quarter Millennial”, collapsed, as entertainers canceled in droves. Originally, POTUS promised that he would replace the entertainers who withdrew, and (as of last night) is proposing to cancel the event entirely. The Atlantic’s David Frum noted:

Trump’s effort to rebrand the semi-quincentennial as the Day of Trump left no time, budget, or effort available for the true purpose of the anniversary. As his own self-celebration has fizzled, a void has opened between the scheduled roster of events and the true purpose and meaning of the solemnity of July 4, 2026. This powerful date will go unmarked by any act of memory worthy of the nation.

Among the groups and solo acts dropping out of the celebration were/are Young MC (whose last big hit was 1989’s rap anthem “Bust a Move”, C+C Music Factory, country singer Martina McBride, and Milli Vanilli (the only Grammy winners forced to return their trophy for fraudulently lip-syncing rather than singing their best-known songs).

As hard as it may be, we really should consider not engaging in schadenfreude (the opposite of empathy): I mean, the bumbling fool has brought it on himself.

The latest, but by no means the greatest, of our Fondling Father’s mind-blowing missteps actually had its genesis back in late February of 2025: legislation that directs the Bureau of Printing and Engraving to design and print a $250.00 bill of legal U.S. tender bearing the image of the nation’s 47th president. In announcing the legislation, South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson said that his bill would also create an exemption to previous 19th-century legislation banning living figures on currency “. . . to allow individuals who have served as President to appear on currency.’

The history of whose portrait is (and has been) engraved on various denominations of American currency (whether federal or state) is both long and fascinating. While most people know that George Washington, our first President, adorns the $1.00 bill, Abraham Lincoln (POTUS 16), the $5.00 biil, Alexander Hamilton (our first Treasury Secretary $10.00, Andrew Jackson (POTUS 7) $20.00, Ulysses S. Grant (POTUS 18) $50.00 and Benjamin Franklin (Statesman) the $100.00 bill, very few can name who adorns the $2.00 bill (Thomas Jefferson), the $5,000.00 (President James Madison), the $10,000.00 (Salmon P. Chase, the 25th Sec. of the Treasury and 6th Chief Justice of SCOTUS), or the $100,000.00 bill (President Woodrow Wilson). The last of these, known as a “gold certificate,” was used only by the Federal Reserve Banks and was never circulated among the general public.

When questioned, POTUS claimed not to be aware of Rep. Wilson’s proposed legislation. When asked last week at a press conference about his thoughts on the proposed $250.00 bill, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters, “I don’t think that there’s anything untoward about having the person who is president of the United States on the 250th anniversary bill.” The secretary also acknowledged that political appointees at the Treasury Department had asked the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to begin preparations for the new currency. As with many, many other things emanating from the Regime White House, the secretary pretends to be unaware that Congress must first approve such a move. It is interesting to note that the White House push to create this new note on the fly, created quite a controversy within the bureau itself last month, its former director, Patricia Solimene (who is against the new bill) was removed from her position and shuffled off to another part of Treasury. In an email Ms. Solimene sent her former colleagues, she declared that the move was not her choice, and that she was leaving “with a heavy heart."

Considering that there are an increasing number of NLTL (“Nothing Left to Lose”) members of the Republican caucus in both the House and Senate, chances are that this move will be resoundingly defeated. Yet another NO loudly landing in the ears of a man for whom it is the worst, most offensive, most ego-deflating two-letter word in the English language.

Let us keep our eyes and ears open in the coming weeks and months. I guarantee you more and more members of Congress, the federal courts, and SCOTUS itself will find reason to use the word NO again and again and again . . .

Build a golden Triumphal arch? NO
$ 1 billion ballroom? NO
$250.00 bill adorned with Its likeness? NO
A law making it necessary for everyone entering the U.S. to pay a $250.00 ‘visa integrity fee?’ NO
Declaring war without the benefit of a Congressional vote? NO
Assigning ICE agents to “protect” American polling places? NO
Giving legal license to POTUS to ignore the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause? NO
Ignore the Constitution’s 22nd Amendment? NO
Arrest and prosecute all those who don’t agree with him? NO

Just say NO . . . again and again and again.