Between his failed promises on Iran and endless extolling about the East Wing ballroom, the president has become the guy at the cookout whose blather makes you want to hurt yourself on the grill.
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Oh look, it’s a Republican lawmaker spouting Islamophobic rhetoric over a Democratic candidate who’s Muslim.
And over there, it’s President Donald Trump mocking transgender athletes.
There’s another Republican on the television telling you the economy has never been better.
And there’s Trump again on your phone screen saying America has full control of the Strait of Hormuz while you’re pumping $4-per-gallon gas.
Blah. Blah. Blah.
Trump and Republicans have nothing but lies and stale fearmongering
With high food and gas prices, a weak labor market and an unpopular war started by a wildly unpopular president, the Grand Old Party has little to talk about, save bigotry and bald-faced lies.
And that routine, as evidenced by polling and low GOP primary turnout, has gotten old. Trump has become the thing he fears most: dull.
I’m so sick of hearing Trump say the Iran war is almost over
How many times have you heard Trump claim that a peace deal with Iran is imminent? There was March 9 when he told CBS News “the war is very complete, pretty much.”
On March 23 he said, “We have points, major points of agreement, I would say almost all points of agreement.”
May 23: “Getting a lot closer” to a peace deal.
June 8: “We’re negotiating now, and they want to make a very good deal. They’re willing to give us everything.”
And on Aug. 2, he said a deal is “imminent.”
It clearly wasn’t. Who among us is not exhausted from hearing this 80-year-old man say the same false thing over and over again about a war that by September will have cost taxpayers more than $37 billion, all thanks to a Republican Congress that refuses to rein in the president.
Republicans have no achievements to celebrate, so they blame Biden
On the economic front, all we hear from Republicans about the problems Americans are facing is that those problems are former President Joe Biden’s fault.
In an Aug. 14 interview, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was asked about the high cost of living and said: “ Look, people should be upset. The Biden administration torched them.”
Buddy, the Biden administration ended nearly 600 days ago. The finger you all keep pointing at him needs to turn around and point in the Republican Party’s direction, because Republicans are in charge of literally everything. And under the control of these alleged small-government conservatives, the federal deficit for fiscal year 2026, according to the Congressional Budget Office, will be $2.1 trillion.
Trump and his allies repeat the “Blame Biden!” line like it’s a mantra because they have utterly failed to make life better for regular, non-billionaire Americans. But when you hear the same thing on repeat it becomes white noise.
More blah-blah from the party of merciless repetition.
Aren’t you tired of hearing Trump talk about his stupid ballroom?
Rather than concrete examples of policies that will address affordability, we hear about the marble Trump will be using in his exquisite ballroom. Or about the $5 million regilding of gold-plated statues in Washington, DC. Or the godforsaken Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
PolitiFact analyzed the president’s public remarks and found this: “Trump’s remarks on the construction projects added up to nearly 45,000 words since January. He mentioned them at 84 events across 66 days, more than a quarter of all his public events during that period. In events where the construction projects came up, he’s talked more about the projects than topics such as the economy and immigration.”
The president has become that one divorced guy at the cookout whose blather about how he’s rehabbing his basement into an epic man cave makes you want to hurl yourself onto the grill.
The Washington Post reported Aug. 12 that the administration “plans to spend at least $900 million for construction projects on the White House grounds, a significantly larger price tag than has been previously reported and one that would be covered primarily by taxpayers.”
Scare tactics seem to be all the GOP has heading into the midterms
In Trump’s public appearances, you never hear solutions. You hear complaints. You hear insults hurled at political opponents. You see cruel theatrics mocking transgender athletes. You hear conspiracies about the 2020 presidential election.
It’s a tired patter that might still work on the conservative base if we weren’t dealing with gas prices that are higher than they’ve ever been at this time of year. Or if the promised “Golden Age” didn’t seem like such a fabulous con.
How many years did we hear Trump lean maliciously into the “Hussein” part of Barack Hussein Obama’s name, teaching Republicans that Islamophobia and fearmongering are the path to victory? And how boring is it now to see Trump and those same Republicans trot out the hackneyed “THIS GUY’S NAME SOUNDS SCARY!” routine for Democrats like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed, the newly minted Democratic U.S. Senate nominee from Michigan?
Islamophobia is not going to help Americans afford food
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina recently wrote on X: “Every single Muslim holding public office in America is a trojan horse, and a threat to both national security and our republic. We refuse to be silent.”
Well, that last part is certainly correct. If Republicans like Mace stopped talking, their sense of decency might reawaken.
On Aug. 10, Trump sat in the Oval Office and said, “We have jihadists being elected all over the place. We have this – whether it’s communism, jihadism.”
WELL WHICH IS IT?!? Trump emits slurs with such frequency he can’t even keep them straight. And not for nothing … communism? Really? The GOP is so old and stale that all it’s got for the American people is a red scare redux?
It’s time for the GOP to face the music: The Trump Show is over
Trump has always fancied himself a showman, and the Republican Party became the tent under which he performs. But the hyper cruelty, the reality-defying lying, the boasting, the grifting and the black-hole-like self centeredness of him and his GOP circus performers has all been seen and done. It has left the audience realizing they overpaid on admission and got nothing in return.
Sorry, Trump. You’ve become the worst thing a narcissist can be – boring.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk.