Trump’s letter to the prime minister of Norway is an astonishing glimpse into the mind of a man who rejects the core duty of his office, faithful representation of the American people. The only thing he cares about — the only thing that motivates him — is the immediate satisfaction of his every impulse.

— Janelle Bouie, NYT, 2025/01/25

Trump’s entire doctrine is naked rapacity, from Venezuela to hijacking the Kennedy Center to hideously remaking the White House in his own gaudy image.

— Maureen Dowd, NYT 2026/01/17

Some people around here call me cranky. You know what makes me cranky? Stupid. What makes me cranky is when people don’t do their homework. I’m sick of stupid. The amateurs who said it’s a good idea [to invade Greenland] should lose their jobs.

— Republican Senator Thom Tillis, speech on Senate floor, 2026/01/14

Trump is a vain and petty man, and it is easy to impute psychological motives to his actions. Trump covets the kind of unaccountable power Maduro enjoyed – to enrich his family and cronies, to intimidate political opponents, to muzzle the press, to flood the streets of his country with armed men who do his bidding. Trump has managed to do a measure of all of these things. No doubt he intends to do more.

— Lydia Polgreen, NYT, 2025/01/09

Trump set a precedent with his intervention in Venezuela — a precedent that nations such as Russia, China and Iran will be eager to follow in their own respective spheres of influence, and we will have no standing to object when our adversaries take the same approach to countries in their spheres of influence that we took in ours.

— David French, NYT, 2026/01/05

With a natural feel for the web, Mr. Trump has a knack for amplifying wacky memes and pop culture curios that can drive days of online discourse,. . . [which] can crowd out the more significant, norm-shattering changes he is making to American governance.

— Michael Grynbaum and Stuart Thompson, NYT, 2026/01/02

Merry Christmas to all, including the radical left scum that is doing everything possible to destroy our country, but are failing badly.

— Donald Trump, Truth Social, 2025/12/24

Mr. Trump’s hunger for wealth is brazen. Throughout the nation’s history, presidents of both parties have taken care to avoid even the appearance of profiting from public service. This president gleefully squeezes American corporations, flaunts gifts from foreign governments and celebrates the rapid growth of his own fortune.

— NYT Editorial, 22025/12/20

A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus. Prices are coming down substantially, energy has come down incredibly. Prices are all coming down. It’s been 10 months. It’s amazing what we’ve done.

— Donald Trump, 2025/12/08, posted on TruthSocial

A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS. He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!

— Donald Trump, 2025/12/08, posted on TruthSocial

I grew up in Canada, where the United States represented a powerful ideal of security and something to admire, something you could rely upon. I don’t think there are many Canadians who feel that now. I don’t think there are many Danes who feel that now. I don’t think there are many true friends of America who feel it now. But I think there are a lot of enemies of the United States that feel relieved and grateful that the United States no longer pretends to be more, but has agreed under Donald Trump to be less—hence the gold bar: useless, shiny, gonna be put in a vault somewhere, not do anything except endure as a kind of memento of shame and disgrace of this once so admired, gleaming democracy.

— David Frum, David Frum Show, 2025/11/19