Thoughts for the Day, February 3, 2026: Oops!!!!!!!!!!! Please disregard my previous statements

Oops!!!

From multiple sources. “I have determined that The Trump Kennedy Center, if temporarily closed for Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding, can be, without question, the finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “The temporary closure will produce a much faster and higher quality result!”

In December, when Trump added his name to the building he boasted, “We saved the building. The building was in such bad shape, both physically, financially and every other way. And now it’s very solid, very strong.” Just a month ago he said, “A year ago it was in a state of financial and physical collapse. Wait until you see it a year from now!!! Like our Country, itself, it will rise from the ashes.”

Now Trump is saying the center will be closed and dark for two years beginning in July. Oops!!!!!

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States rights when it works for me, but not when I oversee the federal government.

Republicans in recent decades have often argued in favor of states’ rights and against a powerful federal government. This has been a consistent part of the Republican playbook for the last 45 years. For Trump it is only part of his playbook when it is convenient. It is convenient when it comes to abortion rights. It is convenient when it comes to Medicaid funding. However, it is not convenient when it comes to policing Democrat controlled cities, and now it is inconvenient when

he wants to nationalize voting, especially in Democrat friendly states.

Per multiple media sources, President Donald Trump said Monday that Republican lawmakers should nationalize voting — claiming a power explicitly granted to states in the U.S. Constitution.

Speaking to right-wing podcaster Dan Bongino, he urged Republicans to “take over” elections and nationalize the process.

“We should take over the voting, the voting, in at least 15 places,” Trump told Bongino. “The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”

Under the Constitution, the “Times, Places and Manner” of holding elections are determined by each state, not the federal government. Congress has the power to set election rules, but the Constitution does not give the president any role on that subject.

I have learned to not discount Trump’s remarks. He is testing the water to see the reaction. If he doesn’t get resistance from his inner circle or the Republican congress, rest assured he will be pushing this hard between now and November.

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What will history say about the Trump administration’s personal financial growth during his presidency?

For years, I have had my own concerns and listened to many others’ concerns about how federal politicians significantly increase their personal wealth while in office, when it is supposedly illegal to have conflicts of interest or use information obtained in the job to enhance personal wealth. For years, Fox News spewed about Hunter Biden and how he used his dad’s name for personal enrichment.

I wonder what history will say about the Trump presidency and how it was used to enhance the Trump family business. My guess, the results will dwarf the combined total of the 45 presidents prior to Trump.

Today there was another announcement of a business deal that makes a mockery of “conflict of interest”.

Both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times have now confirmed that an Emirati-backed investment firm quietly purchased 49 percent of the Trump family’s crypto company, World Liberty Financial, in a $500 million deal signed just days before Trump’s 2025 inauguration. Eric Trump personally executed the agreement. Two senior lieutenants to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, the U.A.E.’s national security adviser and one of the most powerful sovereign investors on Earth, joined the company’s board.

This meant that as President Trump negotiated foreign policy and approved exports of highly sensitive AI chips to the Emirates, his family business was financially partnered with the same foreign power. Answering Trump’s call to expand U.S. tech diplomacy in the Middle East, the U.S. agreed to let the United Arab Emirates import up to 500,000 advanced AI chips per year and build one of the largest AI data centers outside the United States to house them. The move was sold as a win-win: tighter ties with a regional partner, new markets for American tech firms, and a show of U.S. leadership in global AI infrastructure.

The White House insists there was no explicit quid pro quo linking the UAE chip deal to the Trump family’s crypto windfall.

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I am getting more cynical by the day

I have gotten to the point that I don’t believe any announcements coming from the federal government. My first reaction is: what are they not telling us? How are they manipulating the response in their favor? No matter how big or how small an announcement, I am skeptical.

I have lost faith in congress, especially the Republicans who bow to Trump’s wishes. SCOTUS is broken. But I cannot give in. I cannot give up.

This leads to my Quote of the Day: From Mary Geddry, “Here’s the part worth holding onto this morning: pressure is working, especially when it’s applied sideways. Trump doesn’t bend when yelled at; he weakens when Republicans have to own what he’s doing. When institutions have to explain why survivors were exposed while a president was shielded. When governing becomes harder instead of easier the longer he’s in charge.”

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Contact your Congressperson

Contact your congressman by following these easy steps

This can be done in a few easy steps.

Step 1: find your congressman by clicking on this link, Find Your Representative | house.gov

Step 2: Put your zip code in the proper space.

Step 3: Click the button “find your representative”

Step 4: In the new page that comes up you will see a picture of your congressman. Click on your congressman’s name under the picture.

Step 5: In the new page that comes up, Click on Contact Me at the top of the page and then click on Email me.

Step 6: Fill out the information as required.

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Quote of the Day: See above from Mary Geddry.

Orchid of the Day: The weather in Gulf Shores today. Sixty-five and sunny. Finally.

Onion of the Day: Alexander Soofer, 42, the CEO of a Los Angeles homeless services charity faces federal and state fraud charges after prosecutors said he lived a luxury lifestyle that included lavish vacations and designer clothes paid for with $23 million in public money meant to keep people off the streets.

Prosecutors said Soofer bought a $125,000 Range Rover, a $2,450 Hermes jacket, a vacation home in Greece and a trip to Hawaii, where he stayed at the Four Seasons hotel that was famously the setting for the HBO TV show “The White Lotus.”

Question of the Day: What will historians say about the Trump administration’s personal financial growth during his presidency?

Lyrics of the Day: Some folks are born made to wave the flag
They’re red, white and blue
And when the band plays “Hail to the Chief”
They point the cannon at you, Lord

Some folks are born, silver spoon in hand
Lord, don’t they help themselves, yeah
But when the taxman comes to the door
The house look a like a rummage sale

Yeah, some folks inherit star-spangled eyes
They send you down to war
And when you ask ‘em, “How much should we give?”
They only answer, “More, more, more”

If you know the answer, please feel free to use the comment section of the blog to respond.

Lyrics of the Day for February 2, 2026. Blowin in the Wind by Bob Dylan

Video of the Day: Does this look like a radical left-wing terrorist?

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I write reflective, opinionated essays on leadership, politics, sports, and life—grounded in experience rather than ideology. If this perspective resonates with you, you can subscribe here for free.