THE DUEL: He's changing some names and telling some tales!

TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2025

Could something be "wrong" with this man? On the very day we led with "Grandiosity," the theme of the day in Washington seemed to be this:

Grandiosity Gone Wild, Quite Possibly All the Way Down!

We refer to a snowstorm of statements and actions by the sitting president. Along the way, he even announced a new name change—his apparent decision to change the name of the Department of Defense to this:

The Department of War

Yes, he said he plans to do that. You can see him say it here:

PRESIDENT TRUMP (8/26/25): Pete Hegseth has been incredible with the, as I call it, the Department of War. You know, we call it the Department of Defense, but I—between us, I think we’re going to change the name. 

You want to know the truth? I think we’re going to have some information on that, maybe soon, because I think— 

You know, "Department of Defense." We won the World War I, World War II—it was called the "Department of War." And to me, that’s really what it is. Defense is a part of that. But I have a feeling we’re going to be changing. I'm talking to the people. Everybody likes that.

We had an unbelievable history of victory when it was "Department of War." Then we changed it to "Department of Defense."...It's something that you're going to be hearing about, or seeing about, over the next couple of weeks. Probably that change is going to be made over the next week or so.

So true! We adopted that name in 1949, and then we began encountering stalemates and even losing wars.

That statement was made during the president's second presser of the day—his press event in the Oval Office with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who was condemned to sit and listen to a serious of lengthy harangues and expositions and all-around displays of something strongly resembling grandiosity in the colloquial sense. 

In an earlier session, the president had conducted a presser as he sat at the Resolute Desk, with an array of high officials forced to stand behind him, fighting to stay awake. As happenstance had it, we happened to watch part of each of these press events, and we had a simple reaction:

We didn't think we'd ever seen the president behaving in a way which made it seem so clear that something might possibly seem to be "wrong." 

We saw him talk about burning the flag and about the riots that action (allegedly) tends to set off. We saw him talk about cashless bail, a topic we'll turn to below.

We saw him make embarrassingly silly claims about the massive "landslide" win he said he achieved last November. We saw him make what seem to be ludicrous claims about certain aspects of life in Washington at this point in time—about the way the people of the area are flocking into restaurants again.

We saw him go on and on concerning all manner of topics. The gods must have been on our side because, during the afternoon session, they spared us from seeing the apparent oddness of this:

Trump Reminds South Korean President About Country’s Sex Slave History With The Japanese

During an Oval Office Meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung on Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump brought up a painful subject from the nation’s past to illustrate why South Korea doesn’t get along with its neighbor, Japan.

“Japan is a great ally of us. And I had a little bit of a hard time getting your two together because you’re still thinking about Comfort Women, right? Comfort Women! That’s all they wanted to talk about was Comfort Women. And I thought that was settled a few times over the decades.”

“Comfort Women” was the euphemism given to Korean women and girls forced into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers during World War II. A statue memorializing the victims was erected in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul in 2011—which caused major diplomatic tensions between the two nations. “The Statue of Peace” remains standing, despite Japan’s demands that it be removed.

Trump continued, “Perhaps I’m wrong in saying it. Perhaps this isn’t right, but the whole issue of the women, Comfort Women, very specifically. We had talked, and it was a very big problem for Korea. Not for Japan. Japan, they wanted to get — they want to get on, but Korea was very stuck on that, you understand?” he asked President Lee.

“I don’t know. Perhaps you would like to answer. It’s a good question. It was hard getting Japan and Korea together because of what took place a long time ago. But Japan wants to do it. Korea was a little bit more tenuous.”

Was that an oddly awkward topic to go on about? We aren't experts on this particular topic. We did see the president when he reminisced about all the rifles at the DMZ. We'll link you to Roll Call's transcript:

REPORTER (8/25/25): Would you go back to the DMZ to meet with the North Korean leader?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I loved it. Remember when I walked across the line and everyone went crazy, especially Secret Service? I would say they [Inaudible] and I looked into those windows, you know the windows, the glass that you could only see if you looked direct, because there was all sorts of stuff. But I looked in and I saw more rifles pointing at me than you could— There were a lot of rifles in that building.

The Secret Service was not happy. You know the buildings I'm talking about, the two blue buildings on each side. And I walked up the middle and I looked in the window and I saw more guns in that room than I've ever seen in my life. I looked at the other side and it was the same thing. And yet I felt safe.

I felt safe because I have a great relationship with Kim Jong Un. I hope it stays that way. I think it will. I have a very good relationship—I understand him. I spent a lot of free time with him talking about things that we probably aren't supposed to talk about and you know, I just—I get along with him really well.

Did that actually happen? We have no idea. The president quickly tranitioned to his standard inaccurate claim, in which this is said to occur:

"As you know, we're taking a lot of money in from China because of the tariffs."

That's what we actually saw him say; he says it all the time. As everyone knows except viewers of the Fox News Channel, what he said there is baldly untrue. As part of the cultural meltdown in which we're involved, none of the reporters in the Oval would ever so much as dream about challenging this ludicrous misstatement, which he makes all the time.

We aren't medical specialists here. That said, our reaction yesterday was simple:

It seemed to us that we'd never seen him when it seemed quite so obvious that something might seem to be "wrong." We wondered when some journalist will finally speak to some medical specialist and bring that fairly obvious, tragic question out into the light.

Was "grandiosity" (in the clinical sense) involved in those statements? How about "delusions of grandeur?" We aren't medical specialists here, but the president also said these things in the course of the day's doubleheader:

Trump Said Maryland Gov. Wes Moore Called Him “The Greatest President of My Lifetime”

Trump Claimed Europeans [Jokingly] Call Him the “President” of the Continent

We're fairly sure that Governor Moore never said that. Do Euros now ("jokingly") call hm the president of Europe? We're willing to guess that they pretty much don't, especially when he's not around.

Has there ever been a day when so many different presentations seemed to be "wrong." so strange and odd, while delivered with so much bluster? Concerning the move to declare an end to cashless bail, we were struck by this part of this news report in today's New York Times:

Trump Signs Orders Aiming to End Cashless Bail

[...]

Starting in the late 2010s, many states started to reconsider bail laws. New Jersey and Alaska were among the first states to eliminate bail for many criminal cases.

In 2019, New York passed a similar law. The measure meant that judges would not be able to set bail for misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, like assault without serious injury and burglary.

The impetus for change in New York was the case of Kalief Browder, a Bronx teenager who spent three years on Rikers Island while he awaited trial, accused of stealing a backpack. The case was eventually dismissed, and Mr. Browder later killed himself at his parents’ home.

He died when he was 22. We heard the voice of the fictional Gretta Conroy, first heard by the younger Joyce:

"He died when he was only seventeen. Isn't it a terrible thing to die so young as that?"

Also terrible here. We know that Browder was 22 because we clicked the link to the original report, in June 2015, about his death. Discussions of matters like "cashless bail" may turn out to be quite complex:

Kalief Browder, Held at Rikers Island for 3 Years Without Trial, Commits Suicide

Kalief Browder was sent to Rikers Island when he was 16 years old, accused of stealing a backpack. Though he never stood trial or was found guilty of any crime, he spent three years at the New York City jail complex, nearly two of them in solitary confinement.

In October 2014, after he was written about in The New Yorker, his case became a symbol of what many saw as a broken criminal justice system. Mayor Bill de Blasio cited the article this spring when he announced an effort to clear the backlogs in state courts and reduce the inmate population at Rikers.

For a while, it appeared Mr. Browder was putting his life back together: He earned a high school equivalency diploma and started community college. But he continued to struggle with life after Rikers.

On Saturday, he committed suicide at his parents’ home in the Bronx.

Jennifer Gonnerman, the author of the article in The New Yorker, said in an interview on Monday that it appeared he was never able to recover from the years he spent locked alone in a cell for 23 hours a day.

[...]

Ms. Gonnerman said she was drawn to Mr. Browder because he was able to speak about what he had been through with unusual insight. She said before he agreed to go public with his story, he insisted on finishing his high school equivalency diploma. “He wanted to show that he had accomplished something before he entered the spotlight,” she said.

In jail he had tried to commit suicide several times. He told Ms. Gonnerman that he was repeatedly beaten by correction officers and fellow inmates, but she said she did not realize the extent of the abuse until she watched security videos showing him being knocked to the ground by an officer and attacked by inmates.

Throughout, he insisted on his innocence, refusing several offers from prosecutors to take a plea deal, including one that would have allowed him to be released immediately.

Ultimately, prosecutors dropped the charges. In the course of the three years Mr. Browder was being held, they lost contact with their only witness.

At the end of the article, Mr. Browder...described being unable to rid himself of the fears that had consumed him in jail. He said he was afraid of being attacked on the subway. And before going to sleep at night, he checked to make sure every window in the house was locked.

As it continues, the report becomes even more tragic and worse. Rosie O'Donnell steps up at one point, as does Senator Rand Paul. That said:

"He died when he was only twenty-two. Isn't it a terrible thing to die so young as that?" 

Meanwhile, is prohibition of cashless bail a good idea? For the Brennan Center's report on the topic, you can just click here. Like many other topics, this topic may be complex—and that introduces a problem:

At present, our society has zero room for discussions which may be complex. In fact, our dying civilization has little room, at this point in time, for anything resembling a real discussion at all.

Instead, a battle is waged between two groups. In yesterday's report, we named the dueling cadres. We're engaged in The Revolt of the D-Minus Students versus The Haplessness of the Elites.

Meanwhile, at the top of it all, there sits President Trump, heralding the Department of War and recalling what Wes Moore said. Tomorrow, we may briefly sample the medical science again, before we start to consider the efforts of the dueling groups.

Tomorrow: Might it have been the other Wes Moore? Onward toward the two groups!