At 1:35 this afternoon, the President of the United States carefully walked toward the podium, staring down at his feet with each deliberate step he took, inside the newly renamed Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, the building formerly known as the U.S. Institute of Peace. For the next 28 minutes of what was being called a celebration of the “Golden Age of Science,” he awarded medals to his friends, insulted the loyal followers who attend his rallies by declaring, of today’s guests, “We have an extremely high IQ audience for a change. For a change. It’s very nice,” and then went on to proclaim that America invented almost everything important.
“We tamed electricity, invented the light bulb, developed the airplane, harnessed the atom, unleashed the power of personal computers, created the internet, pioneered super intelligence, and invented almost everything else of genius and great importance anywhere in the world.”
The actual scientists in the room knew that most of those breakthroughs involved researchers from across the globe, but nobody corrected him. The people in the room were too busy applauding for themselves and each other. That is just what you do these days, in Donald Trump’s America, when the President of the United States holds yet another special event to bestow the nation’s highest scientific honors on his enablers and donors.
To Elon Musk, the man who spent more than 275 million dollars helping Donald Trump get elected, he awarded the National Medal of Science. He called him “our modern-day Thomas Edison.” Not wanting to feel left out, Donald Trump was also presented with an award, just not one that he actually earned. Instead, he was given his late uncle John Trump’s National Medal of Science in a wood frame.
During the 30-minute event, he announced more than 6 billion dollars in public and private money that will be going to science and technology, even though his own administration has gutted federal research funding and restructured the National Institutes of Health, all while he and his administration are actively driving scientists out of the country through their reckless immigration restrictions.
There was something else about this ceremony that was fundamentally wrong. Five of the six people who received medals today were immigrants. Elon Musk was born in South Africa. Sergey Brin was born in Russia. Jensen Huang and Lisa Su were both born in Taiwan. Satya Nadella was born in India. The only person born in the United States to receive an award was Michael Dell. The President of the United States stood in a room filled with people who had come to this country from somewhere else, accumulated massive wealth, and helped shape the modern tech industry, and he celebrated them as national treasures, praising their contributions to America, and then handed them the nation’s highest scientific and technological honors, all while his own Vice President had spent the morning restricting the immigration pathways that have allowed generations of scientists, engineers, and innovators to build their lives and careers in this country.
Even worse, JD Vance publicly accused Microsoft of abusing employment-based immigration programs, and suspended the company’s participation in a program they use to sponsor foreign workers for permanent residency. That was just this morning, but this afternoon, Donald Trump was presenting Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Nadella was born in India and came to the United States as a student, eventually working here on an H-1B visa. That is the Trump Administration con led by the Great American Conman himself, Donald Trump. Trump puts on these theatrical events to flatter his wealthy donors and powerful allies, while JD Vance announces corruption crackdowns that allow the administration to present itself as tough on manufactured crime coming from foreign workers.
These were not the only messages that were sent to our migrant communities today. Just a few hours after Trump’s remarks at the pseudo-science event, at 4:30 PM, the President of the United States posted this on his personal social media platform, Truth Social:
At 1:35 PM, immigrants are geniuses in Trump’s eyes, who deserve the nation’s highest honors. At 4:30 PM, immigrants are now violent criminals who are “taking over” a state, and the people of Minnesota need to “fight back” against them. I don’t know if we have ever seen a president of the United States direct an entire state of people to attack or, in his words, “fight back” against a relatively small community of people who came to the United States for the very same reason most of our ancestors did. For safety, the chance to raise children in the “land of opportunity,” and to build a better future for themselves and future generations that follow. Whatever Donald Trump intended by those words, he still said them. It is heartbreaking to even try to imagine what it means for Somali families in Minnesota to hear the President of the United States describe their community as a threat and tell their neighbors to fight back. Many have lived through hardships most of us could never begin to comprehend, hardships that forced them to pack up their entire lives, leaving behind everything they have ever known and people they love, just to find a place where they and their children could live in safety and have a chance at a better future.
Some immigrants are useful to Trump and his sycophants. He loves the wealthy ones who fund his campaigns, make him look legitimate and powerful on the stage and do what he tells them to do. Those immigrants get medals. The other immigrants are useful too, just in a different way. He uses them as scapegoats, and as weapons against political enemies and other people he doesn’t like. He also loves to use them to terrify his base into staying loyal. This is just the start of what Donald Trump is going to do to other blue states as well, because he considers them his enemies and the greatest threat to his power.
This was another day when I struggled to choose what to write about because there was so much thrown at us all at once. We also learned that the Secretary of “War,” Pete Hegseth, recommended, and Trump later approved, what would be the first U.S. military execution in 65 years, and the first by military firing squad since 1945. They chose the most visually violent method available to send a message that the president holds the power to decide who lives and who dies. Death Penalty Action released a statement saying, “There is nothing Donald Trump loves more than the power to kill.” It was later revealed that the execution would be livestreamed for the public to watch.
Here in Southern California, there is still a lot of talk about Donald Trump’s disturbing words about Iran potentially taking out San Diego and Los Angeles. But now there is growing concern about the increasing ICE raids that have once again been unleashed here. I heard a conversation this morning from a woman and what appeared to be a group of her friends where they were talking about all of the things they had lived through and how devastating it was to now have to spend their retirement years fighting for their country’s survival.
They appeared to be in their 70s and they rightfully all looked so pained and concerned. It made me think again about how much older Americans have given up of the peace and quiet they were promised in the later years of their lives so that they could fight for what’s right, and for a just country for the generations that come after them. These are supposed to be their golden years. Time with grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Time to enjoy the world they spent their whole lives building. Instead, they’re having to spend their days protesting, and organizing the resistance to this authoritarian takeover.
Some of them were old enough to remember parts of World War II or at least the aftermath. Some of them had parents and grandparents who stormed Normandy, liberated camps, and came home, never speaking about the horrors that they saw. Many of them marched during the civil rights movement and were in grade school at the same time that Ruby Bridges walked into William Frantz Elementary in New Orleans.
They fought for women’s rights and equality. They fought against racism and they lived through Vietnam. They lost friends and loved ones to that war, and they had children who fought in the Gulf Wars. If this is you, please know that your sacrifices then and now are not forgotten, and I recognize how much it’s taking for you to stand up once again.
We are twenty-five days away from the midterm elections. All of the corruption and cruelty that we’ve been talking about, every night, for over a year and a half, comes down to what happens in November. If we take back Congress, we take back the ability to hold this administration accountable. If we don’t, they will have unchecked power for a very long time. We’ve already seen what they’re willing to do, and it will only get worse. Once we get through this election, our attention needs to switch to rebuilding our country and making sure this never happens again.
Jamie Raskin is already thinking about just that with the bill he introduced, called the “Preserving and Remembering the History of Trump and other Tyrants Act.” The bill would direct the Smithsonian to collect and preserve artifacts documenting the rise of government propaganda, corruption, and authoritarianism during Trump’s two presidencies, including the thirty-foot banners of Trump’s face that hang from federal buildings in Washington, D.C., and the propaganda signs the Trump administration has prepared to place outside the Smithsonian. It would also preserve photographs, videos, and personal accounts from Americans who resisted what Raskin describes as the rise of authoritarianism, all as part of a permanent exhibition at the National Museum of American History. Raskin explained why this matters: “Unlike President Trump’s project of censoring, whitewashing and fictionalizing American history, my legislation will forever preserve his manifestations of authoritarian narcissism and his propagandistic assault on American history and American democracy.”
Rep. Raskin is not the only one pushing back in creative ways. This week, inside the European Parliament building in Strasbourg, a sculpture was unveiled called “Orange Plague.” Standing over 8 feet tall, this sculpture of Donald Trump is made of copper and covered in twenty-three-carat gold leaf. It shows the President completely naked and sitting on the back of a man who struggles to carry him while Trump holds a golf club in one hand and a balance of justice in the other, with his eyes closed. It was created by Danish artist Jens Galschiot and was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” A Danish member of the European Parliament facilitated it being displayed and said, “If someone is so easily offended that they cannot accept this sculpture being displayed in the European Parliament, then they have no business on the world stage.”
The words posted with it say the following:
THE ORANGE PLAGUE
I am sitting on the Back of a man.
He is sinking under my burden.
I will do anything to help him.
Except step down from his back.
-The King of Injustice
The rest of the world sees him for exactly who he is. A con man. The great American con man. They aren’t afraid to put the truth, gilded and naked, for everyone to walk past and see. We shouldn’t be afraid, either. That statue is a reminder that even the most powerful people in the world can be exposed for who they really are, and that no amount of gold can hide the truth forever. When our votes are counted next month, we will finally stop carrying the weight of a naked Trump and start exposing him for who he really is. 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: Finally made it back down to the beach. No real walk today because there was just too much in the news to make sense of, but maybe Trump will bless us all with a quiet weekend. Highly doubtful, but we can always hope. As I was listening to him ramble on today, I just kept daydreaming about the time when we wake up in the morning and have a competent government and president. When there aren’t masked men kidnapping our neighbors off the streets and refusing to follow due process/ I dream of the days when this is all a distant memory, and we are building back our country into one that is truly free and fair for all. That day will come, and it will feel amazing.
Links to sources used in writing this article:
President Trump Participates in A New Golden Age Summit: YouTube Video
https://www.axios.com/2026/10/07/raskin-trump-dc-banners-signs-smithsonian
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/6138039-trump-somali-immigrants-minnesota/
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/bill-trump-other-tyrants-smithsonian-2821301
Thank you especially for your appreciation of older Americans who are spending our last years watching our beloved country crumble into ruins. Some of us, like myself, are also the children of Holocaust survivors. We see all too clearly, the parallels with the Fascism of the 1930s.
Kathryn’s right, Heather. It is a generous and empathic act to voice what our cohort is struggling with. There’s not much room for well-earned self-indulgence in these golden years. Not only must we find the power to do battle with the orange menace and his machine, but also must we proactively do what we can to improve the lives of our children. They are inheriting enormous burdens—environmentally, economically, and existentially. Anyway, thanks for remembering us.