The Trump Administration: Stupid is as Stupid Does

Written by, Pat Mulvaney, retired editor of the Monroe County Herald.

Hi Folks,

This is Kirk Bangstad, owner of the Minocqua Brewing Company.

I enlisted Pat Mulvaney, retired editor of the Monroe County Herald, to write our "Friday Funnies" for today. Monroe County, WI, is very rural and very red. Pat's brilliant writing, shaped by this environment, is exactly the type of voice that I want to share with my audience during these dark and uncertain times.

Friday funnies is the day I've designated to focus on selling our merchandise (as opposed to beer, etc.), and Pat is being paid for this column through the sales of the items you buy from this email today. So, if you enjoy content like this, consider purchasing an item below—it’s the perfect way to show your support for what we do!


Kirk Bangstad
Owner, Minocqua Brewing Company
Founder, Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC

P.S. We've now made it possible for you to get fewer emails from us but stay on our mailing list. You can unsubscribe from "Wine Wednesdays" or "Public School Saturdays," for example, but still get my Sunday newsletter by clicking the "update my preferences" link at the bottom of this email.

Today’s Friday Funnies is brought to you by the letters WTF and the number 47.


And with credit to the newspaper “Le Journal de Montréal,” the word for today is stupid. The Canadian publication plastered the word on its front page along with a photo of Donald Trump's smug face with lips puckered into an almost perfect replica of an asshole.

Of course, the Le Journal de Montreal front page was referring to the tariffs his orangeness threatened to impose on our allies to the north and south. But I must disagree with the newspaper’s assessment.

It was looking at the situation through the lens of a checkers match, while Trump is obviously playing 3-D chess with the poise of monkeys throwing their own feces against the wall. There is genius present there. I just haven’t figured out what it is yet. Alas, I am but a mere mortal.

Our clever president’s strategic tossing of excrement over the past weeks has been likened to the antics of his intellectual peers, who include Wile E. Coyote, the Hawk Tuah girl and the combined occupancy of a Daytona Beach emergency room on any given day during spring break.

As they say, the proof is in the pudding. (I’d test it first to make sure it’s pudding), Trump was able to exact deep concessions from both Canada and Mexico with his tariff threats. Both countries caved and agreed to take actions they had already been doing. Any Girl Scout can go door to door selling cookies to willing customers but it takes real cajones to threaten to key their cars after they’ve already bought your Thin Mints.

Look at Trump's masterful execution of turning a tragic plane crash into the repudiation of DEI. He even offered to join rescue teams in the icy waters of the Potomac River, but his Secret Service detail turned him back when it couldn’t ensure his safety from whaling harpoons. In the end, the only thing dripping from him was an abundance of common sense and a little special sauce, lettuce and cheese.

Then there was his recent announcement that U.S. government vessels could now transit the Panama Canal free of charge. The brilliance of this one is Panama didn’t know anything about it. There’s that 3-D chess again. Check and mate.

How about Trump unleashing his sleep-over pal Elon Musk and his gang of delinquents on the country's vital institutions. There is nothing more clever than giving the richest man in the world access to Americans’ personal information and letting him take control of the nation’s checkbook. What’s wrong with giving a misunderstood evil billionaire a helping hand up and making his dream of world domination come true? It’s the new American dream.

Citizens have risen up, saying the country didn’t vote for a Nazi-loving, narcissistic, power-hungry, wanna-be dictator. Well, we did, just not that one.

But Trump’s coup de grâce was his announcement on plans for Gaza. While most people look at the war-torn country and see a catastrophic failure of humanity, our visionary president sees prime real estate ripe for development. He has a “New Deal” for the ocean-front property – give it a good ethnic cleansing and bull dozing before lining the coast with Trump Towers and condos. A Tesla in every garage and a gold toilet in every bathroom.

You may think this is a ludicrous plan that will never see the light of day, but, once again, I disagree. Why else would the legacy media have glommed onto it at the expense of every other important news story it ignores on a daily basis. I think I’ve made my point.

Lastly, I’m tired of hearing critics say Trump doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground. Of course he does. The Grand Canyon is a hole in the ground. His ass is that thing completely enveloped by House Speaker Mike Johnson’s lips.

Stupid? I don’t think so. Brilliant? I think that speaks for itself as long as you're willing to deny objective reality.



Pat Mulvaney is a retired journalist from Wisconsin who served as editor of the Monroe County Herald for over two decades. He began his career with Monroe County Publishers in 1999 and became editor in 2005. Now retired, he contributes as a guest writer for our daily newsletter while pursuing personal interests like travel and home improvement.