Top Ten Sound Bites of 2025 … So Far
By Kevin HowleyIf you’re exhausted by the cruelty, incompetence, and wanton criminality of American politics these days, you are not alone. It’s a feature, not a bug of Trump 2.0. At the risk of further contributing to our collective trauma, here’s a top ten list of sound bites that capture the head-spinning, stomach-turning reality that is 2025 at the halfway mark.10. “Thank you again, I won’t forget it.”
Ahead of a joint session of Congress, Donald Trump expresses his gratitude to Chief Justice John Roberts for issuing the felon-in-chief a “get-out-of-jail-free card,” March 5.
9. “Chainsaw!”
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and, until recently, head of DOGE, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, wields a chainsaw gifted him at the Conservative Political Action Conference, February 20.
8. “Just a reminder that when either of these two Einsteins start talking about how a wall is going to solve everything don’t hold your breath. They should have combined efforts and made the border wall out of DOGE receipts.”
Late-night host Seth Meyers delivers a two-for-one burn of Trump and Musk pegged to DOGE’s promised “wall of receipts” for cutting trillions billions millions from the federal budget, June 4.
7. “I don't understand how that is remotely consistent with the rule of law.”
US Supreme Court Justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, calls it as she sees it on Trump’s illegal executive order banning birthright citizenship, May 15.
6. “I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me.”
Health & Human Services Secretary and notorious anti-vax proponent RFK Jr., speaking before a Congressional oversight committee, May 14.
5. “Oh, what I do for the Crown Prince.”
Donald Trump says the quiet part out loud during his Gulf states grifting tour, May 13.
4. “Everything’s computer.”
Man-child Donald Trump exclaims his glee at the shiny new Teslas Elon Musk parked on the White House lawn for an unpaid promotional event, March 11.
3. “This is truly unlawful, what is happening to me. I believe justice will prevail.”
Columbia University graduate student and Palestinian activist, Mahmoud Khalil, who was abducted by ICE agents in March, speaking at his asylum hearing, May 22.
2. “Well, we’re all going to die.”
Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) defending Trump’s “big, beautiful budget bill” that guts Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for billionaires, May 30.
1. “I am done with antisemitism.”
Trend spotter Kanye West moves on from his neo-Nazi ways hours after two Israeli Embassy staffers were murdered in Washington DC, May 23.
Honorable Mention: “These are not normal times.”
Senator Corey Booker (D-NJ) states the obvious during his record-breaking filibuster on the floor of the US Senate, April 1.