At 7:01 tonight, the president of the United States stepped out of the Oval Office wearing an ill-fitting, oversized suit at the exact same time as Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” started blasting from the speakers. As he walked toward the waiting crowd seated under yellow and white umbrellas, protecting them from the angry sky above, his foot stumbled; he stopped to catch his breath, slapped his upper right thigh, and slowly made his way to the podium. From there, he spent the next 17 minutes and 54 seconds proving just how mentally unfit he is for the office of the presidency.
He did not hold back at all tonight or even pretend to honor the presidency with decency. He shared how thrilled women, especially, were that he tore up the old Rose Garden and replaced it with concrete. He invited his guests to check out the Oval Office: “You’ll get to see the Oval Office, because there’s no place like it anywhere in the world,” and the new helipad: “It’s a helipad where the helicopters can land,” Trump said.
But that wasn’t even close to the worst of the nonsense coming from the President tonight, because he also said of the White House, “It’s in better shape now than when they built it in 1792. Can you believe it?” It was not believable, especially after he demolished the entire East Wing.
He also had a moment when his confusion caused him to share that he doesn’t fully grasp what is in the executive orders that he signs. While reading one of his own orders, one he had signed less than an hour before, a visibly unsure Trump stumbled over his words, looked up at Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and said, “Is ammunition, lead ammunition was a problem, huh?” And asked, “Is it better than other ammunition, I assume, huh?” He stopped then, looked out at the audience and said, “I don’t know what the hell that means,” continuing with, “You wanted it,” referring to Doug Burgum, “and I’m here for you.”
The President of the United States admitted that he does not understand what is in the executive orders he signs, and he just agrees and signs them if his friends ask him to. Then there was an awkward and concerning moment with Johnny Morris, the billionaire CEO of Bass Pro Shops, who was an invited guest at this dinner. Morris, whose fortune surpasses Donald Trump’s, donated $200,000 to Trump’s 2020 campaign and another $200,000 to a Trump-aligned super PAC in 2024. Trump rained praise on him, saying he would sell a lot of fishing rods because of the executive order, then veered completely off topic and turned on him.
“I could have made it so you couldn’t sell... you couldn’t sell anything,” Trump said, looking directly at Morris. “I could have banned fishing. I’ll tell you what, the power of this office is crazy. I could have banned fishing and driven Johnny right the hell out of business.” He laughed as he kept going. “I think I’m gonna do that, maybe just a quick one, just for a day or two, until he calls me and says, ‘Please, President, please, you’re putting me out of business, sir.’”
The president of the United States did not see any issue telling everyone watching that he has no problem using the power of his office to destroy people’s livelihoods, even a big donor like Morris. In that moment, it looked like Donald Trump wanted one of his billionaire enablers to grovel and beg not to be targeted like that.
Even though the president didn’t understand what he signed, the consequences still matter. Because what he signed were two executive orders, one titled “Reinvigorating America’s Hunting Heritage” and the other “Restoring American Saltwater Angling and Recreation.” With those orders, millions of acres of federal land will be opened to hunting, while rolling back Biden-era requirements for nonlead ammunition at certain national wildlife refuges. They also extend fishing seasons and quotas, and direct agencies to convert decommissioned offshore oil and gas platforms into artificial reefs. The lead ammunition rollback is particularly devastating and shows a clear disregard or lack of understanding for why that was banned in the first place.
Lead fragments left behind in the carcasses of hunted animals poison the birds that scavenge on them; they are the direct cause of lead poisoning in those birds. There are over 75 bird species in the United States that are affected by this, and the consequences will be devastating. We are returning to a time when lead directly affected the numbers of bald eagles, golden eagles, and endangered California condors. Research has shown that this could reduce the bald eagle population growth in the northeastern United States alone, by four to six percent annually.
The previous ban on lead bullets for waterfowl hunting alone saved an estimated 1.4 million ducks. But Trump does not care about any birds. What he reversed tonight was a rule designed to protect the national bird of the United States from being slowly poisoned to death. He did it to gain praise and standing from firearms and outdoor industry executives, representatives from the NRA, Beretta, Safari Club International, Bass Pro Shops, and dozens of others, who will profit from cheaper and deadlier ammunition at the expense of the federal lands Trump pretends to care about. The irony of the night grew even deeper with the meal they chose to serve: bison, an animal that was once hunted to the edge of extinction. It survived in great part because of the kind of federal conservation protections that Donald Trump destroyed today because a friendly donor asked him to.
The historical parallels of this moment in time just keep growing. The late Soviet Union was full of moments much like what we keep seeing with leaders demanding loyalty tests. There were other authoritarians like Ceaușescu, who spent his final years obsessively building the Palace of the Parliament, pouring government money into marble and chandeliers while everyday Romanians rationed heat and electricity in freezing apartments. The pattern keeps repeating. What Trump does is nothing new. Even his corruption isn’t particularly unique.
I spent another day at the hospital with too much time alone with my own thoughts. When I did speak to other people, more than 80% of the time they brought up the affordability crisis. The person in line ahead of me getting coffee told the barista how unbelievable the prices were. The person making the coffee agreed and explained that it is not the owners getting rich either; it is that their costs just keep going up, and they have had no choice but to pass it down to the customer to stay in business. A healthcare worker told me they had been saving up to buy a house, but now that their rent has doubled, they have resigned themselves to being renters forever. They have exchanged their dreams for survival while acknowledging that what they earn would be considered a very healthy salary. Another person talked about the cost of groceries and said they had just filled up their gas tank and, for the first time ever, it was over $100. They said just a year ago, that would have been unthinkable, and they never would have believed it was possible for it to be so expensive.
At one point, I said to someone, “It’s Trump’s America, huh?” They looked at me and said, “Yeah. It’s bad. Nothing is cheaper like he promised.” That was the extent of our exchange, and it is something I’ve been doing more of. I’m absolutely not looking for a confrontation or to start a fight; instead, I’m hoping it gives the next person permission to say it too. We are at the point where we have to take every opportunity we can find to remind people why we are living through these terrible times and that we don’t have to keep living this way. “This is his economy.” “These are his broken promises.” “Think about how much worse it gets if we do not take back Congress.” I live in an extremely blue area, so no doubt this is easier and less risky for me to do. But if you feel safe doing so, it is another tool we can use to get people thinking ahead of the midterms. Especially people who are not following politics as closely as we are.
We are not the only ones thinking about how people will vote. Donald Trump’s own Vice President knows how badly his party is failing and what this could mean for the midterms. He knows people are hurting and that they are not happy with the president. He knows it is bad enough that he went on a podcast that aired Tuesday and groveled to their listeners, saying, “Give us another chance, or give us another couple of years, to continue to work on the amazing things that we’ve been doing for the past two years.” He had no choice but to beg, because so many promises have been broken that he knew making more wouldn’t help.
Democratic Senator Brian Schatz called it “the most mind-boggling midterm pitch I’ve ever heard in my life.” When the podcast host pressed Vance on breaking the promise not to start a foreign war in the Middle East, he evaded the question entirely and instead said, “We invite people into the coalition who disagree with us.”
Thinking back to what Trump said in the Rose Garden, I’m actually thankful when the president names his friends. I want him to tell us exactly who is behind him, as he destroys so much of what made our country truly great. Because each time he does, it tells us who not to support. I have been paying close attention to the companies and people he praises, and I try to make sure none of my money goes to them. During that speech, he gave us another name, Johnny Morris, from Bass Pro Shops.
Tonight, Donald Trump stood in the paved-over Rose Garden, while his enablers ate bison, after he signed something he did not understand that will have devastating consequences. Meanwhile, a nurse cannot afford to ever buy a home. That is the distance between President Trump and the people he is supposed to serve. The reality of his incompetence and decline is catching up to him. He is losing, and his vice president is begging for two more years after our country already gave him nearly 6 years. We still have 47 days to reach more people ahead of the midterms. We are bigger than the Epstein class. We are the real United States, not what Donald Trump wants us and the world to see. We are big enough to turn his corruption around; we just have to get people fired up enough to do it. Thankfully, Donald Trump is doing an exceptional job for us, reminding voters across the country how terrible a leader he has been with every speech he gives. That is why I still have hope for America. And you should, too.
I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather
PS. You can make a significant difference right now by subscribing to my Substack. Your support helps me cover more ground and keep telling the truth about the lies and destruction unfolding in this country.
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: Hospital stays are made so much better when you get puppy picture updates throughout the day. I remember when we were absolutely not going to get any more pets, and here we are, so happy to get a picture of them. The hospital stay is about what you would expect: not fun, but we are so thankful for the absolutely amazing care by the medical professionals here. I’m constantly in awe that there are people who have dedicated their lives to caring for others. They really are heroes.
Sources used in the writing of this post:
President Trump Participates in a Rose Garden Dinner, Sep. 17, 2026: YouTube Video
https://www.outdoorlife.com/conservation/executive-order-hunting-hertiage/
https://www.audubon.org/magazine/lead-bullets-are-stunting-bald-eagles-recovery
https://www.npr.org/2025/10/23/nx-s1-5583959/white-house-east-wing-demolition-ballroom-trump
He is so out of control . Just stop, stop him now !!
“Give us another chance.” Yeah, right. Like Kevin Bacon playing the character Chip in Animal House says as a pledge: “Thank you sir! May I have another?” As he gets another paddle to his ass.
It proves just how brain dead Vance is, how thoroughly stupid and mendacious his persona presents itself.
We must have our own Nuremberg trials in 2029, or our benighted country will be lost forever.