Mort Report is a labor of love by old-style correspondents with lifetimes on the road and young ones with fresh eyes. Our philosophy is simple: we report at first hand with analysis based on non-alternative fact, not opinion. If we get something wrong, we fix it.
TUCSON — With his signature grace, Donald Trump deigned to reign over the upcoming White House Correspondents Association dinner for the first time since Barack Obama and stand-up comedian hosts roasted him like a plucked turkey.
"...Because the Press was extraordinarily bad to me, FAKE NEWS ALL, right from the beginning of my First Term, I boycotted the event, and never went as Honoree," he wrote in March on his personal truth-free, anti-social feed.
And the first part of his long post reflected a monarch so thin-skinned that he yells "Off with their heads!" at court jesters, like that mad queen down Alice's rabbit hole:
"The fact that these "Correspondents" now admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of our Country, the G.O.A.T, according to many, it will be my Honor to accept their invitation, and work to make it the GREATEST, HOTTEST, and MOST SPECTACULAR DINNER OF ANY KIND, EVER!"
G.O.A.T, as you likely know, means Greatest of All Time. Hardly, considering Lincoln and Washington, or Franklin Roosevelt and other oath-keeping presidents at the annual event since 1926. But what a bullshit pulpit for a self-enamored fool who loves to gloat.
For Trump, it will be sweet revenge. In 2011, he sat stone-faced as Obama and a young Seth Meyers lobbed stinging one-liners at him to howls of laughter. That appears to be when he decided to toss a red cap into the ring.
On a big screen, Obama showed a mockup of what a Trump-themed White House would look like, uncannily evocative of what is planned today.
Rather than a traditional comedian to exchange jibes with a sitting president, the dinner's host is a mentalist, Oz Pearlman. Logical, Jimmy Kimmel quipped. Trump is a mental case.
The three-day extravaganza begins Friday with lavish sideshow events, the black-tie gala evening and afterparties, some hosted by faux-journalists, lobbyists, big business and foreign governments.
During Ronald Reagan's time, Mark Hertsgaard's classic book, "On Bended Knee," details how so many major news organizations were "subservient to state authority."
These days, the best reporters are better than ever, with new tools and technology. But the worst of them descend lower than their knees. The old Spanish term, chupamedias, describes them. Literally, sock-suckers.
TUCSON — We know about tacos here in Baja Arizona, and Donald Trump is no TACO. True, he always chickens out and has a high grease content. But I've never heard of a folded filled tortilla capable of destroying a planet by sheer hubris and insanity.
In America's name, he threatened to bomb Iran back to the Stone Age, imperiling 92 million people of different ethnicities along with diplomats, foreign technicians, visitors and Iranian Americans who return regularly to see families.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” he posted on "Truth Social," his own anti-social stream of lies through which he addresses the nation and the wider world. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” It didn't.
Trump declared a two-week cease fire, already tenuous. So far, his $2 billion a day war has achieved little beyond civilian misery and destroyed cultural treasures from an ancient world that belong to our progeny, if any survive his jihad against climate action.
But his threat alone is against Geneva Conventions drafted mostly in Washington after World War II. "Genocide" does not begin to cover what that would mean. Airstrikes have already killed thousands of civilians, including hundreds of school kids.
His indifferent approach to wanton slaughter, combined with everything else we have seen since 2017, defines the man who personifies a dis-United States.
This is brief(ish) Report with a plan for suggested action below. There is not a day to lose. This is no time for despair, confusion or apathy. Trump needs to go now. And, later, so does J.D. Vance, a chameleon manipulated by billionaires and ideologues.
