PIECES OF WORK: Is President Trump a piece of work?

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2025

A look at The Big Weekend Show: According to organizers, seven million people took part in Saturday’s “No Kings” rallies.

Stating the obvious, that isn’t a precision census. There can be no precise headcount at such an array of events.

That said, we now riddle you this:

Saturday afternoon, at 5 p.m. Eastern, the Fox News Channel program, The Big Weekend Show, started its three-hour broadcast. And yes, you actually read that right:

The program now airs for three straight hours straight on Saturday and Sunday evenings. from 5 to 8 p.m. Eastern. For the record, The Big Weekend Show is a pure example of heavily varnished corporate messaging. It comes from the channel’s so-called “opinion” (propaganda) shop, not from its “news” division.

The Big Weekend Show is sometimes called The Five without The Punching Bag; the name is entirely apt. At 5 o’clock sharp last Saturday, this is the way this long day’s journey into cultural darkness began its imitation of life:

JONES (10/18/25): Good evening, everybody. I’m Joey Jones, along with Kayleigh McGhee White, Lydia Hu and Dr. Marc Siegel. And welcome to this Big Weekend Show.

We’ve got a big story tonight. It’s a Fox News Alert. Millions of far-left protestors are at anti-American rallies tonight across the country, and President Trump closes out his most successful week ever.

“Things got pretty crazy out there,” Jones said moments later. In support of that claim, producers played three short bits of videotape from those "anti-American rallies."

Now anti-American were those rallies? In the second of the three clips, the people at one of the anti-American events were singing This Land Is Your Land! The chyron beneath the clips told Red American viewers this:

CHAOS ACROSS THE COUNTRY
'NO KINGS' PROTESTS BROUGHT MAYHEM TO MANY U.S. CITIES

There was no footage of chaos or mayhem, but that’s the way the messaging went as this program began its three-hour run. The Fox News Channel was bringing us Jones, who was willing to say what he said.

Jones is Johnny Joey Jones, 39 years of age. He has led an unusual, largely admirable life—but now he’s signed on for this.

Could it be that Jones has agreed to become a “piece of work” in the way Shakespeare once had it? In Saturday’s report, we recalled the famous monologue from Hamlet in which the term appeared:

What a piece of work is a man, How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, In form and moving how express and admirable, In action how like an Angel, In apprehension how like a god, The beauty of the world, The paragon of animals. And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me; no, nor Woman neither; though by your smiling you seem to say so.

Speaking ironically and from a form of despair, Hamlet sees this "paragon of animals" as this quintessence of dust. What a piece of work is a man, the prince despairingly says.

Jones was willing to read the text in which he said that millions of his fellow citizens were at "anti-American rallies." As we saw him accept this scripting, it seemed to us that this frequently genial man had in fact agreed to become a Shakespearean “piece of work.”

As the week proceeds, we’ll have more about what was said on this TV show, and more about Jones himself. For now, we turn to an even more significant player—the sitting commander in chief.

We return to our own report:

On Saturday, we discussed the famous Shakespeare speech—but we also discussed “mental illness.” It’s a somewhat complex concept. Do we even believe that "mental illness" is an actual part of our world?

Is “mental illness” an actual part of the human condition, in much the way physical illness is? As we noted in Saturday's report, Tommy Christopher—a good, decent person—had somewhat strangely erected a wall against that possibility:

CHRISTOPHER (10/15/25): …I want to take care to avoid the pitfall of diagnosing Trump. Mental illness is too serious and important to be trivialized into a hot take—or any other temperature of take. Because whatever makes Trump this way, it can’t be chalked up to mental illness.

According to the leading authority, the term “mental disorder” is now preferred in many venues to the older term, “mental illness.” That said, Christopher seemed to be saying that no such affliction could possibly be afflicting President Trump.

That struck us as a puzzling notion. And then, as if to settle the case, the president produced his bit of bizarre behavior, Joe DiPaolo reporting:

Trump Posts Bizarre AI Video in Which He Airdrops Feces On ‘No Kings’ Protesters

President Donald Trump posted a bizarre AI video to Truth Social, late Saturday, in which he’s seen dropping feces on “No Kings” protesters from a fighter jet.

In the stunning 19-second clip, the president—donned in a king’s crown—is seen flying a fighter jet to the tune of Danger Zone, the iconic song from the soundtrack of Top Gun. The video then pans out to show the plane—which has the words “King Trump” written on its side—dropping massive amounts of excrement on a target which quickly reveals itself to be New York City.

The clip then cuts to a close-up of left-wing influencer Harry Sisson (incorporating real footage Sisson posted from the “No Kings” protest in New York). The airdropped feces is then seen dousing Sisson, and scores of other protesters marching in the streets of the Big Apple.

Yes, that’s what the president (or someone else) posted. As you can see by clicking this link, the 19-second videotape remains on his Truth Social site.

Could something be wrong with the sitting president? In a bit of a break from the norm, the New York Times has published a short report about this latest bit of extremely strange public behavior. 

In its dual headline, the Times only accepts the idea that the president was dumping some sort of "brown liquid" on the landscape below. 

Based on past practice, we can assume that this latest, extremely strange piece of behavior will never be mentioned again. As we’ve noted again and again, the major press organs within Silo Blue have agree to observe two restrictions: 

For better or worse, they refuse to discuss the rather obvious possibility that something is wrong with the sitting president in a way which might imply cognitive decline or some form of what was once widely called “mental illness.”

For better or worse, they refuse to do that. They also refuse to report or discuss the remarkable conduct which takes place, from morning through night, on the various programs of the Fox News Channel. 

Again and again, it simply seems that none of the finer people are willing to tangle with Fox.

Is President Trump a piece of work? Even now, given the rules of the game, there’s no real point in asking.

That said, how about Johnny Joey Jones? Should Jones be seen as a piece of work, in the sense voiced by Hamlet in his famous speech?

Jones opened Saturday’s Big Weekend Show with a poisonous comment about millions of fellow citizens. He likes to say he's from Dalton, Georgia. Is that what he was taught there?

Is Joey Jones a piece of work in the sense meant by Hamlet? How about McGhee White, Hu and Siegel? How about the various people who provide the messaging points which seem to script them?

You won't see such questions discussed at Blue America's finer news sites. This week, we'll be working a bit of pure anthropology as we report the things they say and do, but also as we wonder about what they may be secretly like.

In certain fairly obvious ways, Jones has lived an admirable life. As he adopts a new expanded role at Fox, is he agreeing to become a far lesser piece of work?

Tomorrow: New hosts for The Big Weekend Show