Desperate, Unpopular Trump: "They will be doing this to me!"

Abortion pill access in danger, block heads to Supreme Court

Friday, a lower court in Louisianna temporarily restricted abortion providers from prescribing pills by telemedicine and sending them to patients by mail. This is one of the main ways women seeking abortions have obtained the pills—mifepristone— in recent years. Two makers of mifepristone asked the Supreme Court to immediately restore full access to the medication. It’s anyone’s guess what the court will do. One assault after another.

The Met Gala is tonight, and the one and only Jeff Besos and wife are lead sponsors and honorary chairs. Beyonce, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams are co-hosts with of course Anna Wintour. Income inequality is glaring these days, people are struggling because of Trump (a big Besos supporter) and this over-the-top fashion event is really bad for many reasons. I’ve never liked it. Many are boycotting it, and activists are papering protest posters across the city. Mayor Mamdani is not attending and said he is busy focussing on “affordability and making the most expensive city in the United States affordable.”

Things are (still) a complete mess with Trump’s Iran War. Today, he said he’s escorting boat traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Not personally, that would be fun. This move makes him seem generous, as if he’s coordinating traffic in the Strait, and he’s calling the move “Project Freedom” —he has to name everything in an attempt to fool people. When in fact, he’s testing Iran. And now Iran is threating boats; Ali Abdollahi, a top Iranian military commander, warned “all commercial ships and oil tankers to refrain from any attempt to transit without coordination with the armed forces.” As has been noted repeatedly in the media, Trump often says things on social media that might affect global markets.

If he can’t get re-elected, he’s going to make as much money as he possibly can for himself, his family and friends.

Last week, Iran had sent the Pakistan mediators a 14-point plan to resolve the war, and Trump and his people are reviewing it. But initially before reviewing it, he said that he was “not satisfied” with Iran’s offer and posted: “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but can’t imagine that it would be acceptable in that they have not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to Humanity, and the World, over the last 47 years.”

Trump is trying hard to fix what he started, and he’s not fooling anyone. The 1973 War Powers Act had a deadline of May 2nd on which Trump was supposed to either withdraw US troops from engagement, or get approval from Congress to authorize military action. So he sent a letter to Rep Johnson and others to say, “the hostilities that began on February 28…terminated” on April 7, when he ordered a two-week ceasefire. Ignoring the fact the U.S. fired on an Iranian tanker on April 19, the letter says “there has been no exchange of fire between United States Forces and Iran since April 7, 2026.” He always squirms out of everything and for his entire life he has been successful. Will this work?

Trump’s approval rating is at an historic low. I have to point out how desperate he is. Heather Cox Richardson reports that he has called for the impeachment of Minority Leader Rep Hakeem Jeffries, who cannot be impeached. Trump posted:

“I got impeached for A PERFECT PHONE CALL,” Trump wrote. “Where are you Republicans? Why not get it started? They’ll be doing this to me!”

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Photo by Steve Kagan

I want to mention the passing of a wonderful and important cartoonist, Nicole Hollander. While I never had the opportunity to meet her, she was a groundbreaking feminist cartoonist who was syndicated in papers around the country. Here is her obituary in the NY Times (gift link here); I am honored to be quoted.

1982 from Hollander’s book, The Whole Enchilada

I was thrilled when I discovered Nicole Hollander’s work in the late 1970’s, my first knowledge was from her early books. I loved the way her eccentric character Sylvia said things out loud that some of us thought, but couldn’t express or weren’t even fully aware of. Sylvia sarcastically went after systemic sexism, and it was groundbreaking. Hollander’s drawings challenged accepted traditions about women in society; and she also made fun of women, those who were complicit or just plain silly.

Hollander’s tone in her early Sylvia cartoons was encouraging to me. Her work said: We can say feminist things in cartoons! I felt the same about Claire Breteche from France, who was working around the same time in France, poking at cultural misogyny and men. There were no mainstream women cartoonists drawing openly feminist cartoons; there were underground women artists creating comix on the subject. Hollander was syndicated and she published mainstream books. Her drawings were a subconscious influence for me when, later in the 1980’s, I started drawing snarky women making fun of men in my New Yorker cartoons.

Hollander’s work is in the tradition of the work by Jules Feiffer and Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury): talking heads saying something about society or politics. All three of those artists were groundbreaking. With her wonderful style and voice, I am sure Hollander influenced many other women cartoonists, including myself. She will be missed, I wish she were still giving us her commentary.

An undated drawing from her “Feminist Funnies.”

Thank you for being here, everyone. I really appreciate it. Have a good start to your week if you can. Hang in there. See you later.