Donald Trump has a serious character flaw

At 2:18 this afternoon, Donald Trump stood behind the bright blue curtains at Truist Arena in Highland Heights, Kentucky. He opened and closed his suit coat, threw his hands out in front of him, and walked onto the stage, stopping for a moment to look out at the audience and the scattered empty seats.

When he finally reached the podium, his freshly darkened hair and thick orange makeup accentuated the tired, swollen eyes he was using to read the teleprompter. Yet just seconds into his nearly hour-and-a-half-long speech, the President of the United States made it clear he would not be sticking to the script he had been given. Instead, he would be saying whatever he felt like, starting early in his remarks by telling the people in the room and those watching from home that his second presidential term is more powerful than his first and that he “can do stuff that’s unbelievable.”

He also admitted with a smug and shameless confidence that he likes even the most horrible people as long as they like him, even pointing out himself just how fundamentally flawed his moral compass really is. “I like people that like me. I just like it, and I can’t help it. It’s a character flaw. I mean, I’ve had a couple of people, really horrible human beings, horrible, horrible, terrible people, but I heard through the grapevine they really liked me a lot. So, I like them too.” The crowd laughed, and the strategically placed Trump loyalists behind him had huge smiles across their faces as he said it.

It got so bad that he even bragged for all to hear that “Google wouldn’t have taken my call in the first (presidency). Now they kiss my ass.” He said that knowing full well that just hours later he would be sitting right next to Google co-founder Sergey Brin at a “candlelight dinner” fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump just kept going today. At one point, he looked into the audience and told them that the immigrants who came into this country are murderers who will kill them in their homes. “Does anyone think those murderers would be very nice people, nice, gentle people, as your next-door neighbor? No, they’ll kill you.”

He described Jon Husted, the sitting US senator from Ohio and former lieutenant governor, as “a killer” who “takes people’s heads off,” again paying no attention to his words or how often he invokes violence. He did it again when he thought someone in the crowd might be protesting. Trump asked, “Are you friend or foe? Because being a foe in this arena can be a very dangerous thing.” That was the president once again threatening violence.

Still obsessed with Canada and seemingly unable to understand how its healthcare system works, he said that Canada should not be “allowed” to have universal healthcare and that Canadians “spend our money very unwisely.” This was a stretch even for Donald Trump and shows just how desperate his administration has become. We do not, and never have, paid for Canada’s healthcare system, yet he still said it. His goal with saying things like this is to discredit the way Canadians receive medical care, so that Americans who are suffering and struggling to afford their own should fear it instead of seeing it as something worth fighting for here at home.

When he realized the people in the room with him were not as alarmed as he needed them to be, he decided to tell them that they had been in danger of criminal investigation before he took office again. He tried to explain that anyone who had ever bought a Make America Great Again hat had been under investigation by former Special Counsel Jack Smith. “If you had a hat, if you bought a Make America Great Again, you were under investigation by deranged Jack Smith,” he said. There is no evidence that any investigation of this sort ever existed, but he doesn’t care about facts or the truth; he just wanted every person in that room to believe they had been personally targeted, and that they were and would be in danger without Donald Trump in office.

He then went off on a strange tangent, complete with different voices, to justify his weaponization of the Department of Justice against his perceived enemies, saying, “They indicted me and went after me like nobody’s ever gone after. They went after our people, probably people in this audience.” He wants his supporters to think that they are personally at risk if they do not help him hold onto power.

Late last night, hours before either of these events, Donald Trump did something even more horrific when he signed an executive order waiving nearly all of the new sanctions on Russia under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act. This was a law he had signed into effect barely a month ago to honor his deceased friend, the senator from South Carolina. On the cusp of the October 18th deadline to put those measures into effect, Trump paused the sanctions, citing “national interest.”

By the time the news of what Donald Trump had done was made public, Kirill Dmitriev, the CEO of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and special envoy to President Putin, had already posted “Checkmate” on social media, making a public statement that Russia already knew Trump would deliver exactly what they wanted. Russia played Donald Trump, and they are not even trying to hide it. Nearly every other country and leader sees what Donald Trump is doing, how he is aiding Russia and his close friend, President Putin, and enabling the destruction of Ukraine.

To my fellow Americans, aren’t we sick of the lies? Aren’t we sick of listening to him say things that are so absurd they would be almost impossible to believe if we weren’t hearing them with our own ears? Aren’t we sick of waking up every single day wondering whether he has once again sided with a dictator and a dangerous adversary, not just of the United States, but of the entire world?

Aren’t we sick of listening to him spew hatred and divisiveness, doing everything he can to turn us against one another? Aren’t we sick of worrying about whether our kids and grandchildren will ever be able to afford a house, whether there will be jobs waiting for them, and whether climate change will leave them a world that looks anything like the one we grew up in?

Aren’t we sick of living through months of not being able to eat fresh fruits and vegetables without worrying about parasites? Aren’t we sick and tired of waking up every morning wondering what Donald Trump has done now? Aren’t we sick and tired of living as a hostage to Donald Trump?

Today my husband and I went to a No Kings event here in San Diego, and that is what I kept thinking about when I saw how many people had turned out. We are all sick and tired of Donald Trump and the billionaires who are enabling him. I saw all of the clever signs and heard the powerful chants, but it was the look in so many of the attendees’ eyes that stayed with me. They are tired, but not giving up. I had tears in my eyes as I read all the signs and felt the power of so many people spending their day resisting the evil threatening our country. It took my breath away to see young and old come together.

It made me realize that the revolution so many of us have been waiting for might already be here. Maybe this time it’s not always loud, and certainly not violent. Maybe it is just people refusing to accept what is happening in their own ways and showing up when it counts on November third in numbers we have never seen before. Because Trump and his enablers can do whatever they want to try to break our spirit. They can make it harder to vote, gerrymander districts, and try to erase every memory of the country that existed before they took power. They can keep brainwashing their loyal devotees into thinking what they are doing is good for this country or try to convince us that they are going to hold onto unchecked power after the midterms, but we know the truth. They are going to lose, and they will never be able to break our spirit. We will never surrender our country to their demands. On November third, we will be voting them all out and taking back the future of this country and its true moral compass. That is why I still have hope for America. And you should, too.

I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather

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This commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First Amendment.

Picture of the day: We talk a lot about those who we have lost to the MAGA cult, but we don’t talk enough about the people who were never brainwashed or who found their way out. Today I looked around and felt hope for the future, seeing so many who are on the right side of history come together, stand shoulder to shoulder, and remind us all what real Americans look like.

Links to sources used in writing this article:

US MIDTERMS 2026 LIVE | Trump Rallies In Kentucky As Republicans Brace For Midterm Showdown: YouTube Video

https://bnonews.com/whpool

https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/calendar/

https://www.fox19.com/2026/10/13/president-trump-coming-northern-kentucky-this-weekend/

https://abcnews.com/Politics/trump-signs-order-waiving-graham-act-sanctions-russia/story?id=137341529

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/6155621-trump-waives-russian-sanctions-act-tariffs/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/10/implementing-the-lindsey-o-graham-sanctioning-russia-and-iran-act-of-2026/

https://www.cleveland19.com/2025/04/10/trump-favorite-jon-husted-launches-2026-us-senate-campaign-ohio

https://www.wcpo.com/news/northern-kentucky/president-trump-to-rally-kentucky-voters-in-highland-heights-as-midterms-loom