A man who has a language consequently possesses the world expressed and implied by that language.

― Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks

Donald Trump often doesn’t know what he’s talking about and no one else does either. But when he talks, people still listen, trying to make sense out of streams of nonsense. Like Homer’s sirens, it’s impossible to tune him out. He lures you, sentence fragment by sentence fragment, into his maelstrom of mystification.

The words go round and round. But they often don’t connect to each other in any coherent sequence. Sometimes the verbs are missing and subject collides against object, creating a cascading wreck of run-on sentences.

To exacerbate the confusion, the words Trump uses don’t necessarily mean the same thing to him, they do to you. Thus, what he says is often not precisely what he means. Trump has a gift for imprecision.

He contradicts himself compulsively, week to week, day to day, hour to hour, sometimes in the same breath. Donald Trump operates inside his own negative dialectic.

Sometimes Trump abandons words altogether and emits only grunts, growls, hisses and snorts, his only real connection to the Animal Kingdom.

So how does one detect the truth of what he says?

He’s easily triggered. He speaks on impulse. But where are the triggers? What are the impulses? Do the warps and perversions of Trump’s crude patois erupt from his subconscious? Or has Trump’s subconscious completely floated to the surface now and we are hearing directly from the fractured idiom of his Id? A terrible thought to be sure.

But not everyone is confused, even when Trump’s ramblings are at their most bewildering. Somehow, the message gets through to those who are attuned, even if the real message lurks beneath the stream of words he is speaking. With Trump, the messenger is the message and regardless of the subject, the message, flashing like a metronome from the chthonic depths, always asserts the same subliminal themes of power, grievance, retribution, whiteness, and superiority.

Trump isn’t speaking in code so much as he is connecting at an instinctual level to a network of cultural affinities, prejudices and insecurities that exist beyond grammar and etymology and without which Trump and his followers would be lost.

As it stands, though, it is we who are lost, trapped in language and rationality, unable to interpret the dark currents that Trump’s otherwise abstruse asseverations send coursing into some of the more reactionary precincts of the Republic.

Here then is a sampler of some of Trump’s most perplexing pronouncements over the last year. Good luck mining the meaning from the madness. – JSC

January 2025

“A gas heater is much less expensive, the heat is much better, it’s a much better heat. As the expression goes, you don’t itch. Does anybody have a heater where you go and you’re scratching? That’s what they want you to have. They don’t want you to have gas.”

“Just a few months ago, in that beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin’s bullet ripped through my ear. But I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.”

“Many people thought it was impossible for me to stage such a historic political comeback. But as you see today, here I am.”

“A short time from now, we’ll be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. And we will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, to where it should be and where it belongs.”

“The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation, one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons. And we will pursue our Manifest Destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”

Trump told Sean Hannity this week that he can tell if immigrants are bad based on how they “look”: “You can look at them and say ‘could be trouble’.”

“Canada is subsidized to the tune of about $200 billion a year, plus other things. And they don’t essentially have a military. They have a very small military. They rely on our military. It’s all fine, but you know they gotta pay for that.”

“I’ll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA or maybe getting rid of FEMA. I think, frankly, FEMA is not good. I think when you have a problem like this, I think you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time calling FEMA … I think we’re gonna recommend that FEMA go away.”

“We have 30,000 beds in Guantánamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people. Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them, because we don’t want them coming back, so we’re going to send them out to Guantánamo.”

“We’ll be doing pharmaceuticals. Importantly, in drugs and medicines, etc. All forms of medicine and pharmaceuticals. And we’ll be doing steel very importantly, and we’ll also be doing chips. And things associated with chips.”

“We’re bringing back religion in a big way.”

February

Reporter: “Would Palestinians have the right to return to Gaza, if they left during the rebuilding?”

Trump: “It would be my hope that we could do something really nice, really good, where they wouldn’t want to return, the place has been hell.”

A reporter yells: “It’s their home, sir!”

Reporter: You are talking tonight about the US taking over a sovereign territory. What authority would allow you to do that? Are you talking about a permanent occupation?

Trump: “I do see a long-term ownership position of Gaza after Palestinians are moved elsewhere. This is not a decision made lightly. Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land.”

“We can build a really good quality town, like someplace where they could live and not die because Gaza is a guarantee that they’re gonna die, the same thing is gonna happen again. Who would wanna go back? They’ve experienced nothing but death and destruction.”

“Palestinians have no alternative but to leave Gaza.”

Reporter: Wouldn’t it take an act of Congress to do away with USAID?

Trump: “I don’t know, I don’t think so. Not when it comes to fraud. These people are lunatics, and if it comes to fraud, you wouldn’t have an act of Congress. I’m not sure you would anyway.”

“We had a good talk with Trudeau. But we are treated unfairly. We don’t need anything they’ve got. We don’t need Canadian cars, lumber, agriculture.”

“We will find you, and we will kill you!”

“As far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12 o’clock – I think it’s an appropriate time – I would say, cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out.

Trump, when asked if his drive to annex Canada was a real thing: “Yeah, it is. I think Canada would be much better off being a 51st state because we lose $250 billion a year with Canada, and I’m not gonna let that happen. It’s too much. Why are we paying $200 billion a year, essentially, in subsidies to Canada? Now if they’re a 51st state, I don’t mind doing it.”

“I spoke to Governor [sic] Trudeau on numerous occasions and we’ll see what happens [Canada becoming the 51st US state], but it just sets up so good for them. Look the people would pay much less tax than they’re paying right now. They’d have perfect military protection. They don’t have any military protection, because they, essentially, because, um, and you take a look at what’s going on out there, you have Russian ships, you have China ships, you have Chinese ships, you have, uh, you have a lot of ships out there. You know people are in danger. It’s a different world today. It’s a different world that they need our protection.”

“We want to raise defense spending. I think we have to have it.”

“They [Ukraine] may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday. They have tremendously valuable land in terms of rare earth, oil, gas, and other things. I want our money secured. I told them I want the equivalent of $500 billion worth of rare earth, and they’ve essentially agreed. At least we don’t feel stupid—otherwise, we’re stupid. I said we have to get something; we can’t just keep giving money.”

“I’m committed to buying and owning Gaza…We may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it.”

“Nobody’s going to work from home. They’re going to be going out. They’re going to play tennis, they’re going to play golf, they’re going to do a lot of things. They’re not working. It’s a rare person that’s going to work.”

“I heard O’Reilly last night say Donald Trump for the first four weeks is the greatest president ever in the history of our country. That was O’Reilly. Bill O’Reilly is alright. You know who he said second was? George Washington. That’s not bad. I beat George Washington. I love beating George Washington.”

“This Rachel Maddow, what does she have? She’s got nothing. Nothing. She took—she took a sabbatical where she worked one day a week. They paid her a lot of money. She gets no ratings. I should go against her in the ratings because I’ll tell you, she gets no rate. All she does is to talk about Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, all different subjects. Trump this, Trump that. But these people are really—I mean, they lie. You—they shouldn’t be allowed to lie every night. They are really a vehicle of the Democrat party. They should be paying me!”

“Elon is doing a great job. He’s doing a great job. We love Elon, don’t we? He’s like, I—he’s a character with his—with his son, X. We love X. He’s the only one kid get away. His son’s really named X. He’s the only one can get away with naming his son X. We haven’t—did it this day. You’re crazy. But he’s great. He’s doing a great job, and he doesn’t need this. He doesn’t need it, but he’s—he wants to see—you know, he’s a patriot. People said, well, what official position does he have? He said, patriot. Oh. They didn’t know. They said, that was good. He’s a patriot.”

“The fraudsters, liars, cheaters, globalists, and deep state bureaucrats are being sent packing. The illegal alien criminals are being sent home. We’re draining the swamp, and we’re restoring government by the people, for the people. We have escorted the radical-left bureaucrats out of the building and have locked the doors behind them. We’ve gotten rid of thousands. We’re liberating our country right now. We’re doing all these things that you’re reading about. We’re liberating our country.”

“If you don’t report to work, you know, that’s another scam. You know, who the hell—if I’m staying home, I’m going to—let’s see. My golf handicap would get down to a very low number. You—so you’d be shocked if I told you the real number, but I would be so good. I’d—I’d try and get on tour. I’d get—I would be so good. I’d call up. I’d say, listen. I’m really working here. Where are my gloves? Where are my gloves? Either that or, in many cases, they have second jobs while they’re getting paid by us. So one of the reasons they’re leaving is because they don’t want to have to show that, and, we’re demanding to see that information. How many jobs have you had? Who paid you while you were working for the government?”

“Is somebody taking all of this money? So they have over one hundred to a hundred and nine, 4.7 million Social Security numbers, think of that, from people whose age is over one hundred….And we have one person listed at three hundred and sixty years of age, an all-time record, and our country’s two hundred and fifty years old. So that person’s substantially older than our country. No. It’s all a scam. The whole thing is a scam.”

“Wouldn’t that be terrible if we open up this Fort Knox? It’s got—it’s just solid granite that’s five feet thick. The front door, you need six muscle men to open it up. I don’t even think they have windows. Wouldn’t that be terrible if we opened it up and there was no gold there? Like, so we’re going to open those doors. We’re going to take a look. And if there’s twenty-seven tons of gold, we’ll be very happy. I don’t know how the hell we’re going to measure it, but that’s okay. We want to see lots of nice, beautiful, shiny gold in Fort Knox. Don’t be totally surprised. We open the door. We’ll say, there’s nothing here. They sold this, too. Now we have a very corrupt group of people in this country, and we’re finding them out.”

“If I weren’t elected president, there’d be nobody in Haiti anymore. They were pouring in at levels from other countries too, all over Africa, the Congo, all over South America. And they were coming in from prisons and mental institutions and insane asylums, jails, and gang members. And, you just have to see gang members, drug lords, people that are drug addicted.”

“Just this week, I officially designated bloodthirsty cartels and murderers gangs as foreign terrorist organizations, something which Biden didn’t want to do and nobody wanted to do. It’s true. The full might and power of the federal government will now be dedicated to eradicating MS-13, Tren de Aragua. That’s the Venezuelan prison gangs. These are very nice fellows. The only thing good about them is they make our criminals look like nice people. It’s true. Remember when they used to say, people that come in from foreign countries are nice people. These are wonderful people. These are good people. They’re not murderers. They’re not terrible. They’re—these people make us look like babies. Okay? You know the Hells Angels? They’re among the nicest people on earth when you compare them to these thugs. And the Hells Angels actually love our country, if you can believe that. They actually do.”

March

Screengrab from CSPAN coverage of Trump press gaggle.

Reporter: “Do you think you have the authority, the power, to round up people and deport them, and then you’re under no obligation to a court to show the evidence against them?”

Trump: “That is what the law says [sic], and that’s what our country needs.”

“I’ve written them [Iran] a letter saying, I hope you’re going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing for them.”

“There’s a big ocean between the US and Russia.”

“I don’t know anything about it [“it” being Hegseth’s leaking of the Iran bombing attack].”

“I may give a lot of countries breaks on tariffs.”

“The Democrats want that [a government shutdown]. They want to destroy the country. So, I can’t tell you, but it could happen. It shouldn’t have happened, and it probably won’t,”

“What a difference a rigged and crooked election had on our country. And the people who did this to us should go to jail. They should go to jail.”

Trump on why he sent Operation Usha to Greenland: “To let them know that we need Greenland for international safety and security. We have to convince them, and we have to have that land.”

“I’ll take Greenland. One way or another.”

“A lot of people want me to do it [Run for a third term]. But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration. There are methods which you could do it.”

“Well, you’ve [Ukraine] been there for three years. You {Zelenksy] should have ended it. … You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”You’ve allowed yourself to be in a very bad position. You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards.”

“Tariffs are the greatest thing we’ve done as a country.”

April

“I’ve always gotten along with him [him being Andrew Cuomo].”

“Oh, that’s what I need. I need some guy telling me how to negotiate.”

Reporter: Did the bond market persuade you to reverse [his tariffs on China]?

Trump: I was watching the bond market. It’s very tricky. If you look at it now, it’s beautiful. The bond market right now is beautiful. But I saw last night where people were getting a little queasy.

“I had no idea who this guy [Miles Taylor] was. I saw him on CNN a lot. He’d be on all the time, saying, ‘The president this. The president that.’ I had no idea. In this office, you have a lot of young people. And they’re here. I’ll see them for two........

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