First, We Blockade, Then We Invade

It’s a loser’s game to try to ferret out what’s in Donald Trump’s brain. But the fuel that energizes it seems to include a mixture of personal gain, flattery, media domination, and whatever any of his long list of sycophants last whispered in his ear.

The title of this essay suggests a long-anticipated invasion of Cuba.

The whisperer in this latest flight of fancy is likely either Secretary of State Marco Rubio (who is of Cuban origin), or what’s left of the American mafia, which still smarts from its loss of a gambling empire on the island. Certainly, it would not be Vladimir Putin, with whom Trump claims weekly phone conversations.

On all other fronts, it’s Trump 101.

My sources tell me that on an average day, Trump probably appears on 300–500 newspaper front pages nationwide.

For a man Forbes rated at $4 billion before becoming president, his estimated current personal (and family business) intake of an additional $10 billion puts the Emoluments Clauses in the Constitution at risk of being meaningless. At 64.4 months in office thus far from his two terms, that ups his intake of questionable payoffs to a bit over $155 million a month.

Not included in that number is another that might very well pale all others by comparison. Simply advance knowledge of his various tariff determinations would allow and insider trading

Running down ‘whispers in his ear’ is more fun, but ultimately far more speculative.

Someone, or something, encouraged him to:

1) abandon military support to Ukraine;
2) enact sweeping up-and-down tariffs and trade wars;
3) order mass deportations and immigration crackdowns;
4) allow Elon Musk to create and use the Department of Government Efficiency to emasculate government bureaucracy;
5) ignore the orders of federal courts, including the Supreme Court;
6) remove the U.S. from international obligations such as the Paris Accords and USAID;
7) dismiss and replace large numbers of immigration judges;
8) kidnap the democratically elected president of Venezuela by military force;
9) attack without warning or reason the sovereign nation of Iran;
10) continue to threaten a military takeover of Greenland; and
(11) openly consider the invasion of another sovereign country, Cuba.

So, what we actually know, on a day-by-day basis, is that instead of a horse-whisperer, we need a Trump-whisperer deep within those closest to him.

Good Lord, that pretty much means Stephen Miller, Pete Hegseth, any of those dudes standing in at his inauguration, or the rare few who have not yet been thrown under the bus.

Stay tuned, we may be in for a far bumpier ride than anticipated.

Our only hope is that that bus still hasconsiderable room under it…