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The normalization of cruelty and bigotry in Trump 2.0

Last Dec. 14, police were still investigating the grisly murder of Rob Reiner and his wife — they were stabbed to death in their own home. President Trump, never one to let a tragedy go to waste, took to Truth Social and made it all about himself.

Reiner, Trump posted, was killed “reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS.”

Yes, really. While the Reiners’ son was in custody as the prime suspect, Trump was busy spinning a political revenge theory starring — who else? — Donald Trump. “Insensitive” doesn’t quite cut it. “Cruel” is closer.

You know who really suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome? Trump, that’s who.

And yet, the public reaction lasted about ten minutes. Democrats were furious; so were some Republicans. But the cycle played out like it always does: Trump says something grotesque, people get mad, and then … we move on. It’s just another day in the American reality show starring Trump.

Fast forward to last week. A blatantly racist video of Barack and Michelle Obama popped up on Truth Social — portraying the Obamas as apes. The post stayed up long enough to generate disgust before Trump blamed a “staffer,” of course refusing to apologize. You’re obviously free to believe his story about the staffer. I don’t.

Again, the backlash came, mostly from Democrats. Some Republicans joined in, but not enough to matter. And again, within days, the story vanished like smoke.

We have become numb to the indecency. It’s just Trump being Trump, right? That’s the excuse. It’s no big deal, his loyal fans tell us. That’s the rationalization. But that normalization — that shrugging acceptance — is the real story. When cruelty and bigotry no longer shock us, something in the culture is broken.

And Trump knows it. In fact, he thrives on it. Outrage isn’t a byproduct of his behavior — it’s the fuel. And now, his newest fixation: putting his name on anything and everything that doesn’t already bear it.

He has already stamped his name on the Kennedy Center, now called — and try not to laugh — “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” Note whose name comes first. Sure, the board made the change. But Trump picked the board.

Next up? He reportedly wants his name on Penn Station and Dulles Airport.

Michelle Cottle of The New York Times put it this way: “Now in his golden years, the president seems determined to put his stamp on public landmarks and institutions built neither by him nor in his honor.” She points out his push to rebrand the U.S. Institute of Peace — even while gutting it — and his obsession with football, including reports he wants his name slapped on the new Washington Commanders stadium.

“A Trump-Dulles rebrand would help him one-up his presidential predecessors, seeing as the international airport is much bigger than nearby Ronald Reagan National Airport,” writes Cottle. “And a Trump Penn Station, in the heart of Manhattan, would rub his name in the faces of all those snooty New Yorkers who continue to deny him the respect he has craved for his entire adult life.”

And just when you think it can’t get any tackier, there’s the golden Trump ballroom going up where the East Wing of the White House used to be, and a 15-foot-tall statue of himself being installed at his Doral golf complex in Florida. The name? “Don Colossus.”

No parody writer could top this.

“People have a God-given right to flush their money down whatever gold-plated toilets they choose,” Cottle says. “Just leave public tax dollars and venerable institutions out of it.”

Maybe that’s why Trump hasn’t tried to slap his name on the Lincoln Memorial or Washington Monument — or put his face up on Mount Rushmore.

Bernard Goldberg is an Emmy and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award-winning writer and journalist. He is the author of five books and publishes exclusive weekly columns, audio commentaries and Q&As on his Substack page. Follow him @BernardGoldberg.

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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