Trump Prioritizes Golf and Horst Wessel Over 9/11

When Charlie Kirk was shot, according to Regime Change, participants in a Signal chat that included Kirk, Trump’s failson, and top Trump officials asked Kirk whether he was okay — which is either a testament to how continuous this Signal group was, or the participants’ own inability to imagine harm to anyone on it. Around 2:30 p.m. in Washington, on Wednesday, September 10, a group chat on Signal buzzed with some vague but unsettling news. Andy Surabian, a close friend and advisor to both the vice president and the President’s oldest son, shared a link about a shooting at a Turning Point USA event in Utah where Charlie Kirk was speaking. Charlie was their friend. The replies came in fast. Hey Charlie, is this true? Charlie, are you OK? The group included not only Kirk and Surabian, JD Vance and Donald Trump Jr., but several senior White House and administration officials and other influential operatives. Kirk was normally a chatty participant. Now he was silent, and his friends felt a knot in their stomachs. Trump, true to form, at first responded with the grief of a sociopath who had lost someone useful to him. Man. Charlie,” Trump said. “He’s such a good guy. He really helped me out in 2024. He got the youth vote.” Then Trump turned to paranoia. Nobody knew anything about the gunman at that stage, but Trump was already describing the assassination as a group effort, using the pronoun they. “We need to be looking at these people,” he told his aides. “They’re killing our people. They tried to kill me.” The rest of that chapter describes how Stephen Miller used the murder as a convenient excuse to criminalize leftists (while, in several places, the authors exhibited a stunning inability to distinguish propaganda from reality themselves). Slogging through this book made me realize something I had been puzzling: Trump’s schedule this week, starting with a stand-in event for 9/11 at which Trump told lies so shameless they might actually garner more than a day of criticism. Trump and his flunkies paid their tribute to 9/11 three days early. One reason he did a stand-in event is obvious. Trump will attend the Irish Open this weekend, which will be at Doonbeg, an hour from my house (I won’t be there, or here). His presence will create significant difficulties for the event, both for security reasons and protests, which sucks for the actual golfers. But Trump won’t be at Doonbeg on the 11th, the actual 9/11 anniversary. He’ll be in Dublin, among other things, meeting with Irish President Catherine Connolly, a leftist whose sister was snatched from a flotilla to support Gaza this spring. Taoiseach Michael Martin sounded … unconvincing when claiming this would all be very “grand” (which can have a connotation like, “bless your heart” does in the South). The trip to Dublin is likely cover; until fairly recently he was still considering appearing at the 9/11 commemoration, until he learned he could not give a speech. President Trump is not planning to attend a ceremony in Manhattan for the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, in part because he wanted to deliver a speech and the annual event has long barred remarks, according to four people with knowledge of the events. Mr. Trump’s team had conducted advance visits at the site and had initially signaled to officials in New York and in Washington that the president intended to visit the memorial space known as ground zero, two of the people with knowledge of the events said. [snip] There are other considerations that led to Mr. Trump honoring the day in Washington, including that he will depart the next day for his golf course in Doonbeg, Ireland, where the Irish Open tournament will take place. Leaving from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, or from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, would snarl air and motor traffic to a much greater extent than with Mr. Trump leaving from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland But then there’s the question of the Convention, which will be in Dallas today and tomorrow. It turns out an unpopular lame duck is not a great draw for a big grift, so now the GOP is giving seats away. The Republican National Committee is giving seats away. Two days before Donald Trump’s midterm convention opens in Dallas, Texas, the party that promised the largest such gathering in a decade has been running a public lottery for free tickets, dangling front-row seats and VIP treatment to whoever enters. The RNC has found itself in a tricky spot after building the event around Trump, whose approval rating is the lowest of his political career. A number of Republicans have also decided to skip the convention rather than be seen on camera celebrating an unpopular president who could drag down their prospects of re-election. [snip] A text message sent to party donors as recently as last week encouraged them to ask for “FREE TICKETS,” while some GOP operatives were told last week that there are still seats available for the event. Donors who click on the text message link were entered into a lottery that would also bestow a front-row seat upon one lucky winner. And for those willing to pay, $250,000 will get a donor a seat at a roundtable with Trump —and a commemorative photo if they want to shell out another $88,600. For $20,000, donors get to be “honorary delegates” and receive a Texas shirt and cowboy hat. But many of the higher-profile potential attendees have already made public plans to skip the entire thing, with some balking at the $25,000 cost of attending and others annoyed at the prospect of spending days away from the campaign trail for what will amount to a multi-day rally for someone who will never appear on a ballot again. Then there’s the problem that the unpopular lame duck has scheduled himself to compete with the first NFL football games. Driving the news: The GOP’s Sept. 9-10 convention in Dallas will go head-to-head with the two opening games of the NFL season, which are expected to draw huge audiences each night. - Some GOP operatives are privately incredulous that a convention designed to draw attention to the party’s fall candidates was scheduled opposite the NFL. - They fear the GOP will struggle to persuade voters — particularly men, who powered President Trump’s 2024 comeback — to choose politics over football. The convention’s opening night will overlap with the New England Patriots playing the Seattle Seahawks in a Super Bowl rematch. It will be on NBC and its streaming platform, Peacock. In Dallas that night, Vice President Vance will deliver the convention’s keynote speech. - The convention’s second night will coincide with a rivalry matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams, which will be streamed on Netflix. Trump is the keynoter in Dallas that night. Maggie Haberman attributed the timing conflict to inattention. These people are busy. But they’re not too busy to consider this detail (from Axios, above). Organizers also are planning dramatic moments, with planned commemorations to mark the one-year anniversary of pro-Trump activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination and the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The one way this schedule makes sense is that Trump prioritized golf and Charlie Kirk over 9/11. That’s not remotely surprising, mind you. But don’t be surprised if Trump goes full Horst Wessel again. The price for photos with Trump seems odd. A bit over $88k. It doesn’t match Trump’s normal appropriation of American symbolism, like his $1.776 billion terrorist slush fund, or his many 250th birthday events. But, keeping in line with the Horst Weasel nazi tribute, the number 88 is strong Nazi symbolism, meaning Heil Hitler. So, it makes sense from that perspective. https://www.adl.org/resources/hate-symbol/88 The upcoming Trump/GOP convention won’t be the first time Trump tries going up against the NFL. He will lose once again, in embarrassing fashion. The Biggest Loser will keep his title. [Thanks for updating your username to meet the site’s standard. Please be sure to use the same username and email address each time you comment so that community members get to know you. /~Rayne] Leave it to MAGAts to convert a wonderful word, Lollapalooza, into the narcissistic Trump-a-palooza. I guess it didn’t occur to them that the proximity of the name Trump to the sound “looza” could be a problem. heh—Trump’s-a-poor-loser. I think it’s perfect with just a slight adjustment to their naming. Trumpsaloosa indeed. Wallop a Loser (rhetorically, of course) Sorry for the prior typo leading to moderation! Our Ill Will Ambassador will surely charm the Irish. I’d say that there is a 50-50 chance that he’ll post about renaming Ireland. New America is taken. Maybe Trumplandia? I can’t wait to see the AI slop portraying him as a leprechaun with his hands in a pot of gold. He has already exacted revenge for NYC’s turning him down for a 9/11 speech. His lies about being extracted from the rubble and sending crews to help are making the 25th anniversary about him. Reporter: “My condolences on the loss of your friend Charlie Kirk. How are you holding up?” Trump: “I think very good. And by the way, right there you see all the trucks; they just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House. Which is something they’ve been trying to get as you know for about 150 years, and it’s gonna be a beauty, it’ll be an absolutely magnificent structure.” ======= THAT is how much Charlie Kirk meant to Trump – not much. Even after Kirk singlehandedly got the conservative youth vote out to vote for Trump. Really, how much did Charlie Kirk (” Charley, you shoulda looked out for me a little bit. You shoulda taken care of me just a little bit so I wouldn’t have to take them dives for the short-end money.”) mean to anybody? Not much. In my opinion, Charlie Kirk was a very smart man who used his intelligence for evil. I believe Charlie Kirk to be a dangerous person for democracy and he was becoming a leader that moved and motivated people. Thankfully, his wife Erika has completely destroyed the movement Charlie built by her incompetence, grift, and greed. It’s hard for even a former beauty queen to run a political movement, dedicated to Kinder, Kueche, and Kirche. @earlofhuntingdon on September 9, 2026 at 5:23 pm Her husband and his organization not only promoted the three K’s, but even the moniker “trad wife.” Her husband abhorred women leaving the dear kinders at Küche to have a career. Yet, that is exactly what the “grieving widow” beauty queen is doing! Huh… Prior to his death, Charlie Kirk urged Donald Trump not to engage in an all-out war with Iran. During a June 2025 media appearance, Kirk warned war hawks like Senator Lindsey Graham against pushing for regime change, pointing out Iran’s size, history, and population: “Not even the Romans could defeat Persia… is that really the battle that we want in front of us?” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/charlie-kirk-iran-war-lindsey-graham-b2773944.html#:~:text=Claiming%20that%20Iran%20is%20full%20of%20%E2%80%9Cwarriors%2C%E2%80%9D,power%20for%20a%20thousand%20years%2C%E2%80%9D%20he%20exclaimed. Deplorables are treating Mandami like he was in the cockpit on 9/11. He was 9 years old on that day. These people are so full of hate. It’s a small country. I don’t know how you’ll ever get the stink out. /s Given how much effort the NYT and AIPAC lobby have been giving to trashing Mamdani, they don’t seem to have much interest in why Convict-1 won’t even be in the country for the 25th anniversary of that awful day. After getting pushback against his giving a speech at Ground Zero (NO President has been allowed this) Convict-1 decided he was going to go to the Pentagon instead where he’d be able to strongarm another rally speech. I’m not sure if he was denied there as well or just that he’d get his hair mussed (6-7% chance of rain until 4PM) but if any D President blew off the remembrance entirely the courtier press would be screaming about it for weeks. This is also after the multiple attempts to lie about his actions and support immediately following 9/11/01 (Convict-1 did nothing nor did he send any crews to help, but he did find time to claim falsely that he had the highest skyscraper in NYC). But, we seem to have mostly from the courtier press. Perhaps the Irish press will fill in the blanks and ask Convict-1 whether he considers the first responders to be ‘losers and suckers’ or why he still sucks up to the Saudis who still have a lot of explaining to do. From the story Marcy cited above: OK, so who would you love to see win one of those lottery seats? James Talarico, or perhaps Beto O’Rourke since JT might be busy collecting canned goods for TX food pantries, to feed the folks whom Trump & Co. make into paupers? Maybe Jasmine Crockett? Dubya? Or maybe someone like Jacob Soboroff or Steve Liesman? What’s Kevin Kruse up to these days? Perhaps Mark Cuban, Steve Kerr, or Doc Rivers would like an entertaining seat? Megan Rapinoe? How about Rosie O’Donnell? Or Jimmy Kimmel and Steven Colbert? Or Marc Elias? A few folks like these getting free tickets could really boost the ratings, right? How about Mike Johnson and Maria Bartiromo? I hear they’re not busy. It was recently reported by Haaretz that Netanyahu was warned by MBS 10 days before the Hamas attack, and didn’t make necessary adjustments. “To bin Zayed’s [MBZ’s] surprise, Netanyahu reacted calmly to the news, the report said.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/08/netanyahu-warned-7-october-hamas-book-haaretz This is among other reasons, including other reporting out of Israel, suggesting that Netanyahu was less interested in preventing an attack than he was in using an attack for political gain. This reporting has caused videos of Charlie Kirk to go around, where he describes how extraordinarily out of character it was for the Gaza border to not be adequately fortified. Reflecting skepticism over October 7. This highlights how diametric the issue of Israel is on the right, and how Kirk was at the center of it. Here is Young Turks covering the new reporting and showing the Kirk video. https://youtu.be/m-BFXWmBgfQ Some of the Israeli women soldiers who were look-outs on the border with Gaza saw suspicious activities and warned their superiors of a possible attack before October 7. That news came out a month or two after the event itself: https://www.politico.eu/article/israel-border-troops-women-hamas-warnings-war-october-7-benjamin-netanyahu/ Good to see this idea coming back around from a different direction. Oh it gets better than that. In July 2025, seven weeks before the UVU event, there was a large donor get-together in Maine. Bibi called into the event, offering to take TPUSA “to the next level.” Charlie turned down the $2m. Weeks later, after being harassed by donors for not taking Bibi’s money, Charlie told close friends that he was “leaving the Israel cause” and that the donors were very much the ugly stereotype. Recall that after the event of 09/10/25, Bibi TWICE, at two different times, declared on TV that Israel had nothing to do with Kirk’s death. (Nobody said they did.) Interesting that Bibi felt the need to make the statement two different times. p.s. To be fair, Israel is a diametric issue for Evangelical Christians. A lot of the right is pissed that Israel is using American tax dollars, and American military equipment to commit a genocide in Gaza, killing mostly women and children. A survey of 64 American healthcare workers who worked in Gaza found that 44 reported seeing multiple children aged 12 or younger who had been shot in the head or chest. https://revealnews.org/podcast/gaza-children-killed-israel-war-us-doctors/ OT, CNN: Democratic Sen. Fetterman appears in surprise video at GOP midterm convention Looks like he’s a goner. Need to pick one more seat! Worse than Joe Lieberman? Never thought that day would come. When I heard this while driving this evening, I immediately thought of you and Short Ride Joe. I never thought I’d hear you put anyone worse than him. Not there just yet, but…. Charles P Pierce weighs in: I’m sure that by Thursday morning, ICE will be breaking car windows and leaving tickets on the front seats.