❤️Happy Veterans Day to the men and women who put their lives on the line so the rest of us can enjoy the freedom to argue about absolutely everything. Your courage, sacrifice, and service deserve more than free pancakes at IHOP. I see you, I thank you, and I’ll never, ever stop defending what you fought for.❤️
Four days a week, this Substack is basically the internet’s Little Free Lending Library.
The fifth post pays the bills.
An annual subscription works out to about $1.50 a week and comes with a free signed book. If you’re not sure we’ve reached the 30-cents-a-post phase of our relationship yet, free content will resume tomorrow. :)
On Sunday, President Trump sat down with 60 Minutes correspondent Ross Douthat, who apparently decided to channel his inner Barbara Walters during what was supposed to be a solemn post-midterm recap.
No, Douthat didn’t press POTUS about what kind of tree he might be, which was a missed opportunity in my book. (“A redwood. The tallest redwood in history. They say it’s impossible for a tree to be that tall, but I did it.”) The former New York Times columnist and author of the bestselling 2025 book Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious did, however, drag the president straight to the hypothetical pearly gates and challenge the limits of his Christian charity.
DOUTHAT: “Let’s say you pass away, you’re entering the next life, and all you have to do to enter paradise is feel love and forgiveness for James Comey, Nancy Pelosi, anyone who you have expressed hate for over the years. Do you think you can do it?”
TRUMP: “Well, then I wouldn’t be real, would I? I mean, if I said to you, sure, the easy answer to that is ‘Oh, yes, I could forgive.’ I found them to be extremely dishonest people, very bad people, very bad for our country. I love our country far more than I can love people like that.”
DOUTHAT: “Is the answer no then?”
TRUMP: “The answer is no. I want to be honest, no.”
Confronted with the terrifying spectacle of a politician refusing to lie through his teeth, the press promptly summoned an entire psychiatric task force.
