Thoughts for the Day, November 24, 2025: Gaslighting will not work. A Michigan tree in the White House

Orchid of the Day For the first time since 1985 and the third time on record, the White House will have a Christmas tree from Michigan.

The Office of the First Lady announced this week that this year’s prestigious arboreal honor will go to Korson’s Tree Farms in central Michigan’s Sidney Township, about an hour northeast of Grand Rapids in Montcalm County.

The tree will be presented on Monday, and farm owners Rex and Jessica Korson will be on hand with first lady Melania Trump. “We look forward to the Christmas tree arrival as part of this special White House tradition,” her office said in a statement.

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Gaslighting on Inflation

Political gaslighting is a manipulative tactic used to sway public opinion and undermine truth in the political sphere. It involves deliberately distorting reality to make people question their own perceptions and beliefs. This form of manipulation erodes trust in institutions, weakens democratic processes, and can have far-reaching consequences for society.

Politicians who engage in gaslighting may spread misinformation, deny established facts, or contradict themselves to create confusion. The goal is often to garner support for particular ideologies or policies while discrediting opponents. As this practice becomes more prevalent, it threatens to distort public discourse and impair citizens’ ability to make informed decisions.

I share the above definition as a prelude to an opinion article by David Harsanyi, conservative columnist of the Detroit News, published last week. Here are excerpts from the article.

Fox News host Laura Ingraham asked President Donald Trump this week if the affordability issue was a factor in the elections in Virginia, New Jersey and New York City. “More than anything else, it’s a con job by the Democrats,” Trump said, before going on to harangue the media and instruct the GOP to tell voters prices are down

…. The president has been pulling back on his historic tariffs since Liberation Day, though plenty have already contributed to economic uncertainty and inflation. “You’re going to see some substantial announcements over the next couple days in terms of things we don’t grow here in the United States,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who also claimed prices were down, promised on “Fox & Friends” this week.

Because tariffs were allegedly instituted to help American workers and industry. Fruit prices have gone up. Ground beef prices have spiked 13%. Coffee has jumped 19% — 66% higher than in 2019. Americans like these things. Rather than admit it was a mistake, Trump has taken a page from Biden by blaming “gouging” and big greedy corporations for inflation. This strategy never works.

Remember that one of the other arguments for tariffs was that revenue would bring down the debt. The United States federal debt accelerated to its highest level ever last quarter, reaching $38 trillion. Trump has not cut any spending. That also threatens inflation. At the same time, Trump has launched a relentless campaign to convince the Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest rates for more easy money.

Additionally, the president aims to reinvest billions of tax revenues from tariffs into the economy through $2,000 checks to middle- and low-income Americans — despite Washington’s ongoing borrowing. Some people might fall for this kind of populist ruse. It’s short-sighted economically as we know from the last time Washington helped spike inflation by mailing out checks. There’s no magic bullet to bring down prices. The president can only do so much.

One thing he can do is no harm. But even if voters are wrong, no politician has ever convinced the electorate to change their minds about the economy. Wide majorities in virtually every poll now say their grocery, utility, health care, housing and fuel costs have all gone up during the past year. Most of them are feeling the aggregate cost of inflation.

Gaslighting them is political suicide. It is a lesson that I am confident Trump will not learn.

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Political rhetoric has gone too far

One of my lasting images of the January 6, 2021, insurrection is the gallows that were built by the insurrectionists who wanted to hang VP Pence. The image has stayed with me over four years later. I believed the insurrectionists would have murdered Pence if they had gotten their hands on him. See my Video of the Day

Fast forward to last week, when President Trump responded to a video posted by by six current members of Congress who were former members of the military or CIA. Trump’s response to the video was as follows.

“This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???,” “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!.

When a sitting president calls for the death of existing members of Congress, it is no longer political talk. It has gone far beyond that.

I hold Trump responsible for the attack on our Capitol on January 6, 2021. If something terrible happens to any of the six Democrats who participated in the video, I will hold Trump responsible.

The president needs to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. See my Question of the Day

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Know when to hold them-Deja’ Vu all over again

Last week the Lions lost to the Eagles because Lions’ head coach Dan Campbell chose to go for it on fourth down five times eschewing field goals which would have eventually won the games. After the game, Campbell admitted he wished he would have made different decisions.

Yesterday, the Lions won because Giants interim coach Mike Kafka turned down a field-goal attempt in the final minutes of the game and went for the touchdown. The attempt failed and the Lions were able to march down the field and tied the game with a record setting 59-yard field goal with 28 seconds left in regulation. This allowed the Lions to win in the game in overtime.

A field goal by the Giants would have forced the Lions to score a touchdown to win the game in regulation, which based on how the Giants defense had bottled up the Lions offense all day, a touchdown was unlikely.

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Quote of the Day: “Are sports supposed to be fun? Yes, obviously: Sports are games, most of them played in shorts. Playing sports should be fun. Watching sports is also fun. Pretty much any sport can be fun, except golf, which was created in a rogue lab to make human beings miserable, especially me.” From the WSJ on Saturday.

Orchid of the Day: See above about a Michigan Tree in the White House

Onion of the Day: The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press. Neither paper had a story on Saturday about Friday night’s women’s basketball game between Connecticut (#1) and Michigan (#6) in which Connecticut held on for a 72-69 victory. Michigan was down to the home team Connecticut by 17 points after the first quarter. Michigan closed the gap to 49-47 late in the third quarter and it was game on at that point.

Question of Day: Is Trump part of the problem or part of the solution?

Lyrics of the Day: Most times you can’t hear ‘em talk Other times you can
All the same old clichés Is that a woman or a man?
And you always seem outnumbered You don’t dare make a stand

If you think you know the answer, post your response in the comment section of the blog.

Lyrics of the Day for November 19, 2025. Better Man by Pearl Jam

Video of the Day:

Mike Pence reacts to video showing his family fleeing for safety on January 6

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