By Louise Mathews
In the movie, “Casablanca,” Vichy French Captain Renault closes Rick’s Café on the orders of the Nazi Major Strasser. When Rick asks his friend why he is closing the cafe, the captain exclaims to Rick,
“I’m shocked, shocked to find there’s gambling going on in here!”
At that very moment, the croupier comes up to Captain Renault, hands him money, and says, “Your winnings, sir!” The captain replies, “Oh, thank you very much,” and exits with aplomb. The moment always brings a laugh at the captain’s fake outrage.
If I listen to the noise that passes for news, it seems that each day, Donald J. Trump has wreaked more havoc in the China shop of the world. At least that is the consensus of the perpetually outraged. The latest shocking news revolves around a video that was posted for a nanosecond on social media. It portrays Democrat leaders as various jungle animals, including the sacrosanct Obamas as gorillas.
Immediately, headlines shriek that Trump is a racist and this video proves it. Trump should apologize!
No one noticed when George W. Bush was compared with a chimpanzee several times.
Whether the video was a mistake caused by a mash-up that was not supposed to occur, or it was someone’s sophomoric, racist idea of a funny conclusion to a serious video about voting, the loudest narrative seems to be the one that smears Mr. Trump with the big R word. Possibly, the Lion King addendum was planted to make the President look bad. Whatever the reason, I think the staffer responsible for the video needs to be reassigned to work with a broom and not a computer. Should Mr. Trump apologize? What difference, at this point, would it make?
Hillary Clinton could ask that question and achieve her party’s nomination for the presidency a few years later. She was talking about the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, which the Obama administration lied about, saying peaceful demonstrations about a YouTube video got out of hand. Did anyone apologize?
When I read claims such as, “Everything the Trump Administration is doing is bad for America,” without any supporting evidence, I wonder how we can have news reporting so diametrically opposed that people could actually think that. The view of Trump as completely destructive, uncontrolled, evil, can be fed only by media that overwhelmingly support the Democrat party.
In theory, the press is supposed to report on events in an unbiased fashion. While that ideal has never been achieved, it was not until the current age with its 24-hour news cycle that there is a constant stream of hugely anti-Trump reporting coming from journalists, 95% of whom vote Democrat.
Are people so filled with hatred of Donald J. Trump that they cannot see any good things that have occurred under his administration? In its January 1, 2026 online issue, Newsweek, not exactly a conservative mouthpiece, wrote that Trump’s successes include ending the GAZA war and resolving the hostage crisis. Closing the border, and the rapid, peaceful, deportation of immigrants who entered the country illegally throughout 2025 are fulfilled campaign promises.
People who work and pay taxes consider the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a sweeping tax-and-spending-cut bill, a monumentally good thing. Other accomplishments include lowering crime in Washington, D.C., and placing tariffs on countries that had been squeezing the USA for years. The number of deaths from overdoses of illegal drugs has been declining.
Trump took a very hard line with Iran and dismantled their nuclear capability. The Western Hemisphere is more secure with the Chinese and Russian ally, Maduro, out of Venezuela. The United States may not be as well-liked as it was under Biden and his puppeteers, but the nation is more respected.
Foreign investment is returning to the U.S. The military is stronger. The economy is poised for growth.
Gas prices are lower. Prices have stabilized; under the Biden administration, they soared by 21 percent.
Trump is one year into his second term. He has accomplished more in one year than Biden and his puppeteers did in four. No matter what Trump achieves, the outrage about the bull in the China shop will get louder as 2026 progresses because one party has all of its congressional candidates running against Donald J. Trump.
On Feb. 6, the Wilmington (Ohio) News Journal published an opinion piece stating, “The Left is focused on gaining and maintaining total control over citizens from Washington, and they have indicated they will do anything to keep congressional control.” It is a sure thing that if the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives in 2026, we will face two years of impeachment hearings and muck-raking that will make what has happened to Donald Trump in the past seem like a sunny afternoon on the sandbar.
Louise Mathews retired from a career in community colleges and before that, theater. A 13-year come-here in Beaufort, she has been a dingbatter in North Carolina and an upstater from New York.