The wrinkled emperor has no clothes — and even his own supporters are finally waking up

U.S. President Donald Trump attends a maternal health event in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 11, 2026. REUTERS Evelyn Hockstein
U.S. President Donald Trump attends a maternal health event in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 11, 2026. REUTERS Evelyn Hockstein
D. Earl Stephens
June 19, 2026 | 08:26AM ET

“… 'facts are stubborn things,' as John Adams said. And the central fact of our time is that we are led — I am using that verb in the loosest sense — by a man whose idea of courage is bullying, whose idea of honor is knavery, whose idea of loyalty is convenience, whose idea of patriotism is self-idolization, and whose idea of principle is anything that suits his need and his pleasure. Now excuse me while I throw up.”

These are tightly knitted words I strongly endorse, and have even written on countless occasions (er, in so many words) but didn’t this time ...

I really like the ordering of this phrasing, to include the last line, because this writer like so many of us, has been laid low by what we have been fed in a steady stream by the human dumpster, Donald Trump, as he empties his raw sewage atop the American people, and then watches as the Republican treatment plant sanitizes it and processes it into the manure that has helped grow this dangerous Christian white supremacist cult across this roiling country.

This writer is part of a corporate media that has also done more than its share to help turn the rancid stink of this regime into something resembling a flowering killer weed that can still somehow pass their smell test.

But maybe the stink has started to become too unbearable for even them, because here is what else this writer had to say this morning from his perch atop one of the most venerable newspapers in world history:

“I’m struck by the way in which authoritarian pretensions and atrocious taste always seem to go hand in hand. Maybe it’s that moral ugliness tends so often to produce aesthetic ugliness. Whatever the case, the job of the next president will be to erase every vestige of Trump from the White House and any other federal property. Getting rid of Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center was only a start; I look forward to seeing the East Wing restored to exactly how it used to be.”

Hear, hear!

Write away, dear poet! You are on a roll! Don’t stop now!

Reading these words through an editor’s lens I wouldn’t change a thing. Why, this is exactly what you’d expect from a scribe with a keen sense of observation, who believes what is right in front of his discerning eyes, and knows full well what has been happening to this country since this orange, racist conman evolved into the most dangerous man in the world.

So who is this deft writer? Who is this brave fellow, who can so clearly see the burning light of righteousness through all this never-ending right-wing darkness?

None other than Bret Stephens, one of The New York Times’ loudest conservative voices, and a guy who has never met a single, pro-American liberal idea he liked …

I almost fainted when I read this piece this morning. And while there isn’t a thing I can do about the paywall, I will say with a shout that it’s high time this guy has finally written something worthy of a Stephens …

Because had this Stephens written the other Stephens’ words, they would have landed softly in the laps of the good people who have known for the past 12 years that the rise of Trump has meant the fall of America, and not the people who really need to see them.

I know that my writing too often only serves to confirm what my enlightened readers already think. While I’d like a wider audience, I believe I perform a necessary function, because sometimes just knowing you aren’t alone with your worry can provide the strength to carry on with saving yourself first, and America second.

Today, I smell hope, and am sharing this with you because we are starting to see some hard evidence that at least some of Trump’s most ardent supporters have finally discovered what so many of you have known with certainty the past decade or so: The wrinkled tangerine emperor has no clothes, or any ideas that are worthy of our Democracy.

His polling is abysmal. An NPR poll out this morning shows just 33 percent of Americans approve of his handling of the economy, while only 36 percent approve of the (hit) job he is doing overall.

Yes, yes, those numbers will always be too high, but here’s where I remind you that in 1950s Germany, a decade after the monstrous Hitler, 40 percent of the population believed the country was still better off with him in charge.

In other words: The rot is deep, and simply changing direction and leaders is not enough, as we so painfully discovered in 2021, when an entire party welcomed the American-attacking monster back in, and the other party didn’t do enough to keep him out.

There is still real tough work to do, and in fact, we now find ourselves in the most precarious place in our nation’s history since the run-up to the Civil War.

We have ample evidence that Trump is most dangerous when he is cornered, and losing his inner fight with the terrible voices that scream at him inside his fat head.

He still has scores of useful billionaires stuffed in his pockets, and a perverted U.S. military with a drunken, racist leader at the top of its rusty chain of command that has not sufficiently proven it is capable of disobeying an unlawful order.

The only way Trump survives his man-made catastrophe is to increase the tempo of his attacks on us, and our vote. He is incapable of reconsidering his positions, or admitting that he is failing as he gasps for air.

We have dug a hole so deep in this country that eventually, like it or not, we are going to need a few Republicans who at least still have a faint understanding of what love of country really means to help pull us out of this horrific mess.

That’s what happens after an election in which you lose the House, the Senate, and the Executive — all three of which are stood up by the most crooked Supreme Court in American history.

Now that we’ve surrendered to Iran in Versailles of all places, our White House looks like a bombing site, and Trump is being exposed by the people who used to dress him up, it is becoming clearer with each passing hour that this failed regime is choking on its noxious racism and ineptitude.

Yet even people like the other Stephens can’t be fully trusted, because while he’ll write that Trump’s name must be wiped from everything, I guarantee you he still somehow sees a magic Republican holding the scrub brush.

The other Stephens is an arsonist who helped start the fire, but still cleverly refuses to admit his dangerous part in stoking it. Maybe that’s coming, but for now he continues to completely miss the point:

“… you’re also looking at a Republican Party that, ever so gingerly, knows that the country is souring on Trump and also knows that, one way or the other, it’ll soon have to move past him, too. The great question is, how?”

Answer: By looking in the mirror, and the rot that is staring back, Bret.

Your party is an anti-American, and anti-humane cesspool.

Dump ‘em.

You can do it, sport, and thank this Stephens later.

D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here, and follow him on Bluesky here.