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In the movie, Animal House, theres an iconic scene where a pledge is being initiated into his fraternity, and, after each vicious hit with a wooden paddle, cries out, Thank you, sir! May I have another? Although many of us laughed at that scene, it wasnt funny. Abuse of any kind, especially by someone in a position of power, is never funny given its lasting and traumatic impact on the victim.

That particular scene is even less funny now given that Donald Trump spent four years in the White House and the last two years at Mar-a-Lago abusively wielding political power and traumatizing our country in the process. He wasnt the commander-in-chief during his presidency, he was the abuser-in-chief.

Former US President Donald Trump speaks at the America First Policy Institute Agenda Summit in Washington, DC, on July 26, 2022. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Many Trump supporters say those of us who are anti-Trump suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), an accusation meant to demean us into thinking were the irrational ones given how negatively we view the former president. I would counter that by saying many of us who are anti-Trump dont suffer from TDS but from PTSD, Post-Trump Stress Disorder. People all over the country, even some who were once enthusiastic supporters of the former president, are tired of the sideshow and exhibit many of the symptoms of trauma associated with having been under such toxic leadership.

Trumps abusive style of leadership traumatized our country in four main ways.

First, Trump traumatized our country with his ignorance. He came into office profoundly ignorant with regard to the Constitution, the rule of law, national security, climate change, racial injustice, infectious diseases, economic recovery, international relations and numerous other matters of grave importance related to fulfilling his duties as president. And because he was more interested in reading putts than his daily briefings, Trump never learned anything in office.

Trump traumatized our country with his incompetence. Lauding himself as a successful businessman, something he never was or ever will be, Trump was grossly incompetent when it came to developing and implementing policies that left Americans better off. Trumps administration was the gang that couldnt shoot straight, and his utter incompetence as a leader left us much worse off as a country. As the Lincoln Project ad, Mourning in America put it, we are weaker and sicker and poorer because of Trumps grossly incompetent leadership.

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Trump traumatized our country with his insanity. Mental health experts have been trying to warn us for years that Trump is malignantly narcissistic, sociopathic, sadistic and delusional, four psychological maladies that clearly made him unfit to be president. Trumps unbridled psychopathology is what led him to repeatedly tell the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen and malevolently point his supporters at the U.S. Capitol to overthrow democracy. Our country is still traumatized by this particular act of insanity on Trumps part.

Last, Trump traumatized our country with his immorality. Because hes a sociopath, Trump has no moral code or conscience. Nothing other than narcissistic self-interest guides his every action. He is a pathological liar, serial cheater (wives, taxes, vendors, even golf), and shameless grifter (Trump University, his charitable foundation, the 2016 inauguration committee, fundraising). Trump is one of the most immoral presidents weve ever had, something that has embarrassed us around the world and traumatized us as a country.

Our country simply cannot afford a president who has even one of these characterological defects. Trump has all four. Only the most politically delusional person would want someone this ignorant, incompetent, insane and immoral to lead our nation, and they wouldnt be doing it out of a love for their country but an unquenchable thirst for staying in power.

The most concerning thing right now is that Trump is considering another run for the presidency and a large number of so-called conservatives are thinking about supporting him. As if he hasnt caused enough damage, Trump wants the political power of the presidency back in his hands so he can traumatize our country further with his abusive style of leadership and stay out of prison a little longer.

It would be foolish for us to look to any government agency or political party to keep Trump from being president again. Two impeachments didnt get it done. The Jan. 6 committee isnt likely to get it done. And the FBIs search of Mar-a-Lago isnt likely to either. Trump is much too slippery to ever let the cost of his malevolent actions come due at his own expense.

No, this ones on us. Regardless of our political affiliation, we must withhold our support from any person who would presume to abuse and traumatize our country the way Trump did. If we dont put a stop to someone as deeply disturbed and dangerous as the former president, we are the problem and fundamentally saying, Thank you, Trump, may we have another. And, this time, we might not recover.

Thurman is a psychologist and author of The Lies We Believe.

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Thank you, Donald Trump, may we have another? - New York Daily News

These assaults on our nations public health institutions undermined the nations coronavirus response, he added.

Much of these pressure campaigns were reported in early 2020 by POLITICO and other outlets and President Donald Trump publicly called out the FDA and its commissioner on multiple occasions. But the committee report offers new color, through emails, texts and official testimony from Hahn about just how persistent some of these efforts inside the White House were throughout the summer and fall of 2020.

A substantial portion of the report focuses on Peter Navarro, a former trade adviser under Trump, who worked on the administrations coronavirus response. Navarro collaborated frequently with Steven Hatfill, an adjunct virology professor at George Washington University, who was one of Navarros advisers and worked on the federal coronavirus response.

Pushing for hydroxychloroquine: According to emails collected over the course of the subcommittees investigation, Navarro and Hatfill rallied other White House officials to pressure Hahn to reinstate the emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine after the agency revoked it in June 2020. At one point, Hatfill characterized the disagreement between White House officials and the FDA as a forthcoming knife fight to an unnamed, outside ally over email.

The report also found that Navarro tasked Hatfill with coming up with a presentation to get the FDA to reauthorize the drug. At one point, Hatfill wrote to William ONeill, a cardiologist at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, and suggested conducting a prophylactic study of the medication in a correctional facility experiencing a coronavirus outbreak. (The report doesnt say how ONeill responded to the request.)

Hatfill and Navarro sought to discredit other prominent health officials who spoke out against the use of hydroxychloroquine, including Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The two discussed plans to get the Department of Justice and the Health and Human Services Departments inspector general to conduct an investigation into Fauci and his email use. Hatfill, according to the report, pushed for Faucis removal throughout the fall, telling Navarro in September, You really need to consider what is likely to happen over the next 2 months if this little idiot and his Covid treatment panel is not fired. Two weeks later, Hatfill wrote that [t]here will be a house cleaning after elections. [A] really good cleaning.

In a statement to POLITICO, Navarro maintained that he believed hydroxychloroquine was a valuable treatment for Covid-19, and that he was justified in carrying out Trumps orders to apply pressure to the FDA to make sure the drug was widely accessible. The partisan House Select Subcommittee report wrongly perpetuates one of the most deadly lies of the pandemic, namely that the safe and powerful therapeutic to treat COVID, hydroxychloroquine, was somehow dangerous, he said. I would lose that battle with the FDA and hundreds of thousands of Americans would needlessly die because of Stephen Hahn, Janet Woodcock, Rick Bright, Tony Fauci, and the broader FDA bureaucracy. The result will forever be a stain on the FDA and shame on the House Subcommittee for perpetuating the lie.

Political pressure: In multiple instances, the subcommittee said it found evidence of senior Trump officials planning to take actions that could benefit the administration politically.

Officials tried to pressure the FDA into authorizing convalescent plasma around the time of the Republican National Convention, emails reveal. The proposed investigation into Fauci would take place around the time of the 2020 presidential election in an attempt to sway voters in favor of Trump, the report says.

The Trump administration also tried to pressure the FDA to authorize the first Covid-19 vaccines ahead of the presidential election. When Hahn testified to the subcommittee in January 2022, he said that White House officials said they would not sign off on emergency use authorization language that required a 60-day safety follow up for late-stage clinical trials. Ultimately, the FDA went ahead with the 60-day follow-up plan without an explicit blessing from the White House, though the White House later cleared it.

And their emails: The report also found evidence that Navarro and Hatfill had used a private email server for federal communications. The Department of Justice has sued Navarro get him to turn over other emails sent from his personal email account related to presidential matters, first revealed by a separate report from the the subcommittee.

All my White House records are digitally preserved pending the resolution of a civil suit filed by the National Archives, which increasingly appears to have been unlawfully weaponized by the Department of Justice against both me and President Trump, Navarro said.

Hatfill could not be reached for comment.

This is the second report in a series of investigations into the way Trump administration officials managed the coronavirus. The first found that the administration leaned heavily on the herd immunity theory around the virus spread to delay federal action. The committee is still investigating other aspects of the federal response to the pandemic.

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Trump White House exerted pressure on FDA for Covid-19 emergency use authorizations, House report finds - POLITICO

Following the FBI's raid of former president Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home, he quickly tried to shift the narrative (via CNN). He had not only his loyal voters on his side, but some members of Congress, too. Kevin McCarthy took to Twitter to write, "Attorney General Garland: preserve your documents and clear your calendar. I've seen enough. The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization."

However, it's hard to argue the raid's validity following the shocking findings. According to The New York Times, over 300 classified documents were found in his home. Over half of the documents found were reported by the National Archives back in January, which ultimately prompted the FBI to go looking for the missing documents. Some of the documents recovered were related to nuclear weapons.

The outlet also noted that the FBI is seeking surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago prior to the raid to see how the documents were being handled.

See the article here:
The Startling Number Of Classified Documents Donald Trump Held At Mar-A-Lago Has Been Revealed - The List

Thanks to well-known people like the former US president, Donald Trump, appearing in WWE, pro wrestling fans have unquestionably seen many legendary storylines. WWE fans will remember Trump and McMahons notorious Battle of the Billionaires battle from WrestleMania 23 for a long time.

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The billionaires with A-listers professional wrestlers, where Bobby Lashley supported Trump and Umaga supported McMahon, had an epic story. Talking about the same, Lashley shared his experience of working with Trump.

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Given how big of a political talking point Trump was in 2015, Lashley was questioned about his time spent working with him. He stated, It was cool working with Trump. It was one of those things where he understood what needed to be done and he made it happen. He brought a lot of attention to our match.

I mean, it was the largest WrestleMania in history, 385 thousand people in Ford Field. And I mean, it was one of the largest pay-per-views ever. So he says that hes going to do, and he does it and thats what he did that time. I mean is a really cool, man.

As per Lashley, Trump didnt try to dominate the match since he knew he wouldnt be wrestling and that it wasnt all about him. All he did was play his part, which was what made everything perfect since no one stepped on anybody elses toes and everyone performed their parts, leading to a fantastic match.

After Lashley won the bout, Trump and Lashley shaved McMahons head in one of the most iconic match outcomes ever.

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Donald Trump and Vince McMahon share a great bond. Consequently, Trump has made a few appearances on the WWE. His iconic confrontation with the former CEO during the Battle of the Billionaires was one of the most noteworthy.

Both of them just sent a wrestler to compete on their behalf in a match. Whoevers wrestler lost would have to shave their head in front of everyone. Consequently, Umaga lost against Lashley in accordance with the arrangement, and Trump and Lashley shaved McMahons head. Indeed, this ranks among the most memorable events in WWE history.

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Watch This Story:WWE Superstars With The Highest Number of WrestleMania Matches

What are your thoughts on the iconic storyline? Let us know in the comments section.

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Donald Trump Made It Happen: Top WWE Star, Who is Undefeated Against Brock Lesnar, Showered Unlikely Praise on the former President of the USA -...

British broadcaster Emily Maitlis has warned that populism has overcome the power of the mainstream media to hold politicians to account in the wake of Donald Trumps popularity and Brexit, and unveiled a blueprint for wrestling back control in her MacTaggart lecture Wednesday.

Delivering this years annual Edinburgh TV Festival address as she takes a deep breath following her recent BBC exit, the former Newsnightpresenter, globally recognized as the journalist behind the notorious Prince Andrew interview, said one set of rules had been replaced with another when Trump won the U.S. presidency in 2016.

She used a string of examples from the past five years, including the infamous Robert De Niro rant against Trump, to explain the way in which the media has allowed populists to dominate. It was part of her thoughtful speech entitled Boiling Frog: Why We Have To Stop Normalising The Absurd.

The mainstream media has suffered from both side-ism, which talks to the way it reaches a superficial balance whilst obscuring a deeper truth, she said, in what could be seen as a coded criticism of BBC impartiality something she has fallen foul of in the past.

Maitlis left the BBC earlier this year and her new podcast The News Agents, which she presents with former BBC North America Editor Jon Sopel, will launch on Global next week.

To those of you wondering why this still feels like the Brexit and Trump days, Ill say this: they are, she stressed as she delivered the annual Edinburgh address.

Those two seismic shifts have not been and gone. Theyve come and stayed. Eighteen months after an attempted coup on the Capitol and on the democratic functioning of America the architect behind the lie that brought the rioters is considering another run for president With the backing of millions of Americans.

Maitlis recalled times during her BBC tenure that the media had tied itself in knots trying to understand populists and seek balance.

When she was interviewing De Niro for Newsnight, the Academy Award winner took the opportunity to rage about President Trumps mishandling of the pandemic, but Maitlis said her producer was in my ear, urging me, as is his editorial job, to put the other side, she said.But I am resisting because, quite frankly, what is the other side?

The producer said the rant was too anti-Trump and, though it was eventually broadcast and the sky didnt fall down, Maitlis questioned why she was terrified.

It speaks again to how forcefully even imagined populist accusations of bias work on the journalists brain: to the point where we censor our own interviews to avoid the backlash, she said.

On another occasion, Maitlis famously fell foul of BBC impartiality rules during a one-minuteNewsnightintro about former Boris Johnson advisor Dominic Cummings breaking Covid rules, which began with the now-infamous line Dominic Cummings broke the rules.

The BBC apologized almost immediately, and Maitlis used todays MacTaggart platform to criticize how the BBC sought to pacify the complainant even though her intro had been written, modified, rewritten, edited and signed off by a team.

Maitlis also revealed that Cummings texted her at the end of that day to offer his wry support.

We show our impartiality when we report without fear or favor, she added.When we are not scared to hold power to account, even when it feels uncomfortable to do so. When we understand that if weve covered rule-breaking by a Scottish chief medical officer or an English government scientist then journalistic rigor should be applied to those who make policy within Number 10 [Downing Street].

Maitlis quoted Gates Cambridge Scholar Ayala Panievsky throughout the speech, who has said the way populist rhetoric is used to discredit journalists turns into a sophisticated form of soft censorship.

Populism make no mistake is not a traditional ism of ideology. Its not Marxism or Reaganism; it has no adherence to a set belief or policy, said Maitlis.

Her ire wasnt only reserved for right-wing politicians such as Trump and Infowars Alex Jones (He is not a conspiracy theorist in the sense he believes the rot he peddles, she said), but also left-wing politicians including former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

His distaste for a large proportion of the broadcast media, amplified by a small but dangerous group of hardened fans, would see the BBCs Political Editor have to attend the annual Labour party conference accompanied by a bodyguard for her own safety, she said of Corbyn.

Her criticisms came three years after former Channel 4 News boss Dorothy Byrne used the same MacTaggart speech to call out Corbyn and Prime Minister Boris Johnson for being liars and cowards.

Now with two candidates, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, battling it out to replace Johnson in the UK, Maitlis said many broadcasters fear discussing the obvious economic cause of major change in this country in case they get labelled pessimistic, anti-populist, or worse still, unpatriotic.

Maitlis MacTaggart lecture wasnt all doom and gloom as she provided a five-point blueprint for the mainstream media to wrestle back control, starting with giving names to the populist playbook tricks we encounter.

When we hear Donald Trump talking about a witch-hunt or Boris Johnson going the way of deep state chat, our senses should be primed, she added.

Other suggestions included changing the style of reporting, such as with The News Agents, which will lift the curtain onwhythings happen, and a rethink of the way journalists use Twitter.

Her final point was to think how we live up to the responsibility of being the mediators between the actions of those in power in a way that is both fair and robust.

Our job is to make sense of what we are seeing and anticipate the next move, she added.

Its the moment, in other words, the frog should be leaping out of the boiling water and phoning all its friends to warn them. But by then we are so far along the path of passivity, were cooked.

Read more:
Edinburghs MacTaggart Lecture: Prince Andrew Interviewer Emily Maitlis Warns Of Populisms Power Over Mainstream Media Since Donald Trump & Brexit,...