Friday's alternate timeline

In the midst of writing, shooting and editing my Friday video about the week’s news, questioning “how low can you go?”, two very strange things happened.

First, President Trump met with New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. And second, longtime-Trump ally-turned-kind-of-defector-that-still-votes-with-Republicans Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) announced she was resigning from Congress.

Trump meeting with Mamdani was not a surprise. It had been planned for a hot New York minute. The surprise, which I’m sure started dripping into your own social feeds Friday night, was the resulting back and forth banter. Following months of racism spewing from all ends of MAGA land regarding Mamdani, Trump really seemed to like him. It wasn’t just a polite handshake or two, like the last meeting with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. Donald was all over Zohran.

So how does this happen? Did we really all die in 2012 and this is purgatory (a common misconception about the show LOST)? Is this an alternate timeline that began shortly after the election (an actual season of LOST)? In my view, and that’s what these Monday newsletters are - a chance to analyze our weird world - it’s much simpler than that. Let’s go back a few months …

Ahead of that more cordial meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy this year, I made a video about how world leaders were all working together, meticulously planning every moment around the meeting, down to who would bring a gift for Melania.

It largely worked. Trump suddenly reversed course and began showing more support for Ukraine than Russia. The last leader he talked to typically seems to be his current opinion. As of late, he seems to be allowing more leverage for Putin once again.

This video is from two reversals ago:

That well-planned August summit between Trump and several European countries hints at the truth. It’s not just that world leaders and mayor-elects like plan these meetings perfectly - every good leader does that. It’s not just charm and good old-fashioned rizz either.

It’s ego. It’s all ego.

All president’s have to have some kind of healthy ego, by the way. Otherwise, why would they run for president? But it would appear that President Trump’s is so present and so eager for attention, it’s the number one decision-driving force in the room.

And when you’ve eliminated most of Trump’s administration from the room, which was the case for the Trump-Mamdani meeting, there’s no other voice to contradict whatever sweet nothings Mamdani was whispering to Trump. It was just two kids from Queens trading jabs, smiling for the camera, one calling the other one a fascist while the fascist laughed. You know, like you do.

When MAGA world imploded after watching this (I’m told, I no longer am on Twitter and spent most of my weekend at the park), it did feel like a rift in the space time continuum, or, at the very least, that the 2025 writers have finally run out of material.

But when you layer Trump’s ego on top of all of this, it starts to make sense. MAGA has always been a populist movement, guided less by politics and more by the person or crowd that best feeds Trump’s ego. It just so happens that this week, the ego-monster was fed by something that looked like unity.

Next week, or in the coming weeks, we should expect a complete reversal on Mamdani, as Trump’s handlers and news sources provide more racist talking points. Just give Stephen Miller one chance to be the last guy Trump talked to.

But for now, we got a reminder - a glimpse- of just what it looks like when a country, filled with people from different backgrounds, can look like when you just get in a room and listen to each other. After a week of truly some of the lowest lows, the ride jerked back to pre-2015 levels.

The Coast Guard even reversed its decision about swastikas and nooses and made them hate symbols again (hooray?).

As for Marjorie Taylor Greene, I have no effing clue. But she is getting that pension a couple days after her retirement date.

We’ll have plenty of videos this week but no newsletter this Thursday. The LNI team will be stuffing our faces and giving thanks to you for subscribing - with an extra specials thanks to our paying members.

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