One Foot on the Platform and One Foot on the Train
Official 2025 Inaugural Portrait of Donald Trump by Daniel Torok (Public Domain)
You’ll recall that line from the Animals’ song “House of the Rising Sun,” in which the protagonist is heading to New Orleans to wear a ball and chain. But I’m referring to the Trump Train, where I have been firmly planted, but now have removed one foot.
The foot that’s still on the train is there because I firmly agree with most of what Trump wants to do. We need to deport illegal aliens, especially the worst of the worst, and I’d love to have Greenland.
The foot that has exited the train and is now on the platform is there because Trump’s behavior has become so erratic that it can’t be passed off anymore as “three-dimensional chess.”
Like them or not, his treatment of reporters is appalling. His use of tariffs is unconstitutional. And his ego is enormous.
AUDIO: Random Samplings of a Logical Mind (to come)
Excuse me, but I don’t care what party he’s in.
Like many other conservatives, I was thrilled with the election of George W. Bush. We all were. Songs were written about what kind of man GWB was – stronger than Poppy, and conservative to the bone. Well, no. After a while, I realized that the entire Bush family is wobbly on abortion, and outright wrong on immigration. After Bush (or was it the late Dick Cheney) took us to war with the wrong country, namely Iraq, after 9/11, I lost it with the Bush dynasty.
Video: One foot on the platform and foot on the train: The Animals.
I say that to make this point: I don’t give a fat rat’s rear end what party someone is in. I have no blind allegiance to any politician; in fact, I firmly believe that many of them become suspiciously rich after making it to Washington. So, if you think I will routinely support any politician just because of party loyalty, then you have me mixed up with someone else.
In fact, while I disagree with most of what Sen. John Fetterman stands for, I often applaud his comportment and common sense. Fetterman is a Democrat, and he subscribes to left-wing ideology, but he gives Trump’s ideas a fair chance, and applauds when they work. I often said that I would give Joe Biden credit for the good things he did. He never did any that I can recall. I was happy about the “cancer moonshot” announcement and said so on the radio, but nothing ever came of it.
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Biden was a disaster. Totally and completely. He left the country in a shambles from his open-border policy that got a lot of people killed, and his ungodly spending that caused rampant inflation and what I always felt was a recession. Biden said there was no recession, so his blind followers in the media also said it. But Biden, who I thought was a jerk and a liar, was easy to critique. After all, he was a Democrat and they’re usually wrong on most everything.
Biden was so awful that Trump had little trouble getting back into office.
Inflation and open borders got Trump back in. He fixed the open border quickly and efficiently. So far, so good. But his economic policy went to threatening every country on the globe from enemies to allies with tariffs – on one minute, and off the next. Tariffs are taxes, and that means they’re inflationary. When Trump uses them as a weapon against Russia or China, that makes sense. But as I woke up today, an Associated Press headline was blaring:
Trump threatens Canada with 100% tariffs over its new trade deal with China
That’s classic Trump. I hope I complete the writing of this column before he changes his mind. But here’s the rub: when Trump threatened to make Canada the 51st state and started using tariffs against them – sometimes with good reason – he created turmoil. He’s right that Canada could do better; they’ve always relied on their juxtaposition to the United States for national defense, but why not hold a summit and talk these things out and get them fixed? Then, have a joint news conference with shaking of hands and declarations of how the two countries work together?
That’s not Trump. Trump prefers the bully method, which now has driven Canada over to China, which is a disaster. Trump appears to realize that and is going back to the tariffs threat. I think Trump had an “Oh Sh*t Moment” in which he saw what he’d done. He could call Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and try to work it out. I’m no fan of Carney’s, but it could have been worked out. Canada knows better than to get in bed with Red China.
Trump’s enormous ego.
Herein lies much of the problem. Trump cannot handle criticism at any level so far as I can tell.
When reporters ask serious questions that he doesn’t like – questions I’d ask if I had the chance – he calls them “a terrible person.” Reporters are not supposed to kiss his ass. They’re supposed to ask real questions about policy and try to get real answers. They are our eyes and ears in Washington, even though some are weasels and some are down-the-line. Their job is not to make Trump look good, but to get answers on vital issues. Trump should have the fortitude to answer all questions, even the ones he doesn’t like. If you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen, as the saying goes.
Video: ‘You’re a terrible person’: Trump slams ABC News reporter after Epstein question
I’ll also note that Trump has sued CBS News and other networks over deceptive editing. With regard to the Kamala Harris edit, he had a point. But long interviews on videotape have to be edited. Trump should recognize this and call them out only when they are deceptive. Lawsuits are a bridge too far and could damage actual news reporting. We don’t want state-run news here. On the other hand, CBS News should use better judgement. So should the other networks.
When the Cabinet meetings are televised, or at any public event or interview conducted with a Trump administration official, we hear constantly about “Trump’s great leadership.” This line is used so much by all those under Trump, that I have concluded that it is an unspoken requirement.
Video: Cabinet members praise President Trump for his leadership.
When the Nobel Prize committee spurns Trump, as you might expect, Trump complains and open campaigns for the award. He even takes one that was awarded to someone else. As I’ve said on the air to my partner Jim Cardle, I’d love to be in the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. But I’m not, and I’m not going to nominate myself. In the universe of awards, they’re best won by deeds and actions and not by whining. The Nobel Peace Prize went to Barack Obama for no particular reason, and Trump knew that. He should have kept his mouth shut about it, and he would have been a bigger man.
The re-naming of the Kennedy Center as the Trump-Kennedy Center was a bridge too far, and if done, should have been done through an act of Congress. If we had a functional Congress, it would have stood up for that. We do not have a functional Congress.
RELATED: We could have a functioning immigration system if we had a functioning Congress
On the Trump Train itself, there’s a lot to be thankful for.
Biden and the Dems told us they could not control the borer without an act of Congress. That was stupid, and Trump proved them wrong. Simple enforcement was the answer. In spite of Trump’s tariffs, inflation is hovering at an acceptable rate, so we’ll see what happens. Trump has forced NATO members to pay more of their fair share of their own defense, and that’s good. Trump has a shaky peace in the Middle East, and no one thought he could do that. He took out Iran’s nuclear capabilities and that helped nullify Hezbollah and Hamas. He ought to have gotten the Nobel Prize.
On deportation, he’s gotten a lot of the bad hombres out of the country – the Tren de Aragua gang members and such. But the fervor to remove the millions that Biden let in looks harsh on TV, and in politics, the “optics” are important. Trump recognizes the danger of having Ilhan Omar in Congress and says so. The rapid rise of Islam in America is concerning and Trump knows that, and that’s a good thing.
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Trump has taken on the hard issues that Joe Biden and other presidents preferred to avoid. Obama was there to preside over America’s decline. Trump’s America First polices have reversed that decline, and that’s why I have one foot still on the train.
I’m not sure Democrats will try to impeach him again. They’ll go further than that.
With all the good things that Trump has done, it’s his comportment that may be his downfall. If Trump turns into Captain Queeg, the Democrats will use the 25th Amendment to declare him unfit for office. The question then becomes: Is Trump capable of taking on his own personal issues of self-grandeur?
Video: The Caine Mutiny (1954) – Paranoid Breakdown Scene
The problem with Trump is not usually about what he hopes to accomplish, but in the methods he chooses to achieve his goals, typically through insults, bullying, and his “Dear Leader” complex. The choice is his, but he has only a short time before the mid-term elections could render him irrelevant on the world stage.
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A calmer, more deliberate, more presidential Donald Trump might go down is history as one of the greats. His accomplishments are many. But the alienation of friends, allies, and next-door neighbors is not a winning formula. Note that Trump attacks Republicans in Congress, such as Chip Roy, for the slightest disagreement. If Trump’s issues with his ego continue to escalate, and the House and/or the Senate fall into Democratic Party control, some Republicans may cross over and vote to remove him.
I don’t know what I would do if I were in Congress and Trump continues to make threats to allies as he has done in the case of Greenland. I want Greenland; I do not wish to invade it and risk a breakup of NATO, which is the force that has prevented World War III so far. I have one foot on the platform. But I still have one foot on the train.
There are zero Democrats on the train. In the final two years of Trump’s second term, how many Republicans will step off the train and onto the platform? That is entirely up to President Donald Trump and whether he can put some controls on his biggest enemy: his own ego.
Lynn Woolley is a Texas-based author, broadcaster, and songwriter. Follow his podcast at https://www.PlanetLogic.us. Check out his author’s page at https://www.Amazon.com/author/lynnwoolley.
Order books direct from Lynn at https://PlanetLogicPress.Square.Site. Email Lynn at lwoolley9189@gmail.com.
There are no train in this books. But there are solar buses and starships and time machines.
