I've got to admit it. Playing Trump Bingo is almost too easy.

The playbook is so predictable. It's a pattern of flooding the zone, confronting as many norms as possible, and generating chaos almost impossible to follow.

If you didn't receive my first blog on Trump Bingo, this may look strange. But it's simple.

You take the MAGA/Trump/Musk initiatives and put a Trump marker over every technique and pattern he uses to distract, annoy, and poke (while energizing and organizing his followers).

What's great for Trump are all the two-fers and three-fers. That is, an individual speech, tweet, executive order, or agency invasion can serve multiple communication and political strategies.

Take this week's – and the week is young – series of outrageous pokes. And I boldfaced the aspects of them that resulted in my first Trump Bingo:

  • This truly has been the week of Elon Musk, who has proven to be a highly leveraged way for Trump to Flood the Zone, picking a new agency or bundle of federal grants to cancel each week. And Musk has leveraged his own efforts, naturally, with his group of "Musk-eteers," the young guys (and they're invariably male) poking illegally into Treasury, NIH, US AID and FBI/Justice financial data and personnel records.
  • Now backed by a series of Trump Orders, the Musk-eteers have become enforcers of the whims of Trump and Musk about those pesky government agencies.
  • The Bright Shiny Object of the week (that is, an attention-getting news media item that doesn't deserve the time of day) was Trump's proclamation that the Gulf of Mexico will henceforth be known as the Gulf of America. This should be utterly ridiculous. But two things: 1. Google Maps changed to accommodate it. 2. The Associated Press kept calling it the Gulf of Mexico, so Trump kicked AP out of news conferences.
  • House Speaker Mike Johnson became the chief Enabler in Congress, asking the Judicial Branch of government to roll over for Trump, saying, “The courts should take a step back and allow these processes to play out.” Roll over, Mike, show what you do in the presence of the alpha dog.
  • Ok, another easy one: RFK Jr. indulged in borderline Healthcare Quackery, saying vaccines aren't tested enough. They are, Bobby, they are. Stop it.
  • We'll Take Over talk continues about Gaza, the future "Riviera of the Middle East," despite cautions from Jordan's king and crown prince.

With apologies for how incomplete this list is, I will pause to live life and play Trump Bingo some more another day.

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