The Big Reveal

Many people are saying that Donald J. Trump is the worst president in history, not just a US President, but every president or prime minister that has ever held office in any country, ever and that’s not breaking news to most normal people, but I’ve been thinking more about his legacy lately, that in reality “Trump,” the creation separate from the son of Fred Trump and Mary Anne MacLeod, is quite possibly our greatest president. How is this possible, you might ask? Well, it’s a matter of fact that Donald Trump has employed many pseudonyms in his long life and obviously thinks of his public persona in the third-person, in his most recent ‘tell,’ the real Trump, the man who sat speechless and in tears after somehow beating Hillary Clinton in 2016 when he was elected the 45th President of the United States, the ‘real’ Trump was compelled recently to defend his alter ego’s latest post in poor taste about the beloved director Rob Reiner, “I wasn’t a fan of his at all. He was a deranged person as far as Trump is concerned. … I thought he was very bad for our country.” Trump’s mean-spirited and weird third-person quote is just the latest incarnation of the ‘real’ Trump’s ability to separate himself from the crass, uncouth “Trump” that he must carry around in his psyche, like the racist Ray Milland’s head attached to NFL football player-turned actor Rosie Greer (the oldest living NFL player, BTW) in 1972’s The Thing with Two Heads, and this much I know about the real Donald Trump: he liked Rob Reiner and thinks what happened to him and his wife is an abomination. But he is beholden to the insipid MAGA base, whom he despises, and must incessantly debase himself to keep their support flowing, these lemming-like sycophants who follow “Trump” to the lowest of common denominators, are the ultimate marks.

The Great Pretender

As with many Americans of all political stripes, I watched in astonishment as the Mayor-elect of New York City, Zohran Mamdani enjoyed a Donald Trump love-fest at the White House after their amazingly congenial meeting in November, and that’s also got me thinking about something I suggested way back in 2017 — the idea that Donald Trump is actually working deep undercover. What other rational explanation could there possibly be for his fucked up behavior in public? Speaker of the House Mike Johnson nearly let the cat out of the bag this past summer when he revealed that Trump was an FBI informant, working to take down Jeffrey Epstein from the inside while giving himself a get-out-of-jail free card, and not for nothing, that’s the real reason Trump doesn’t want to release the unredacted Epstein files. Nothing to see there! It’s undeniably true that Trump, now starting his sixth year as President of the United States has revealed hundreds, thousands, and millions of people that they are completely full of shit, and in doing so, he has ingeniously unearthed all the a-holes who support his ridiculous creation, along with the basket of deplorables in his administration’s profitable march to undo American democracy. They are all complicit in how easily a (so-called) fascist president can take over a great country with bombast, blatant lying and childish deceit. It was the Republicans, of course, who have embraced the legal concept of a US unitary executive as President, begun in earnest by the late Dick Cheney, who fittingly died on the same day that Republicans got swept in the November 2025 elections, but the idea’s legal underpinnings argued by Leonard Leo and the Heritage Foundation along with the famous, yet ‘secret’ Project 2025, one must now ask: how could Trump prove any better that petty hatred, vast inequality and staged infighting has eroded American democracy more than by instituting fascism right under our noses? It’s like we never even won WWII. I mean c’mon! That’s quite an achievement. The man’s a genius and he’s very possibly the greatest ‘undercover reporter’ in all of history. No one has revealed how broken our democracy has become better than Donald Trump, especially since January 6, 2021.

The greatest investigative reporter in American history was a woman by the name of Elizabeth Jane Cochran, who hailed from a Pittsburgh suburb then called Cochran Mills, now called Burrell, Pennsylvania, better known by her famous pen name, Nellie Bly. She’s probably best remembered for her series of dispatches from around the globe in her 72-day circumnavigation stunt that riveted the readers of the New York World, where she had the brilliant idea to have her boss Joseph Pulitzer (yes, THAT Pulitzer) pay for her fabulous all expenses paid excursion around the world, inspired by the book, Around the World in Eighty Days (1873) by Jules Verne, thereby turning fiction into truth, not to mention some damned fine copy for the newspaper. On November 14, 1889, Nellie Bly boarded the steamer Augusta Victoria of the Hamburg America Line, beginning her nearly 25,000 mile journey ‘round the world, just as the fictional character Phineas Fogg accomplished in Verne’s classic novel, Miss Bly’s reports became one of the first viral travelogues in history as she submitted several must-be-read articles about her famous voyage to her adventure-seeking readers of the World, which led to the publication of her bestselling book, Around the World in Seventy-Two Days, and in so doing, she beat Fogg’s (fictional) 80-day jaunt by a whole week.The New York World was published from 1883 until 1911 under the stewardship of the ‘great’ Joseph Pulitzer, who was a pioneer in so-called ‘yellow journalism,’ however most people are probably unaware of the fact that Pulitzer was probably a bigger liar than Donald Trump in packaging and delivering lies and scandal to get rich, but when you consider that the most prestigious academic award in the world, the Nobel Prize, was established by a man who made his fortune selling gunpowder, it makes perfect sense. The World captured readers’ attention with the four S’s of modern journalism: sensation, sports, sex and scandal, thus pushing its daily circulation to the one million subscriber mark, the first American newspaper to do so. Bly, as a young reporter for the World, makes writer Olivia Nuzzi, (in the news recently) look like a rank amateur, because although Bly was willing to do what it took to go undercover in search of a great story, unlike Nuzzi, Bly was scrupulously honest in her work.

Among the greatest investigative reporters who have ever lived, some of America’s greatest journalists, would follow in Bly’s inky footsteps, from Ida B Wells, Upton Sinclair and Ida Tarbell to Woodward & Bernstein, Seymour Hersh and Neil Sheehan, however we may have another name that could be added to the top of that illustrious list: Donald J. Trump. When the world comes to see that Trump is a brilliant genius who went deep undercover starting in the 80s, revealing how craven American society and politics (not to mention Russia, Russia and Russia) has become, this brilliant businessman, who made his name making the most of his opportunities to take advantage of market imbalance for personal gain, recognized that the biggest, most imbalanced market economy in the world is the American economy, which was ripe for the taking and so he decided to fuck the marketplace hard and put it away wet. But ONLY to reveal the corruption and decay of American democracy as only he, in his brilliance could do: by going deep, oh so deep, undercover. He became a billionaire along the way and will be quite possibly remembered as the worst president, yet possibly the best undercover investigative journalist/president of all time. The so-called ‘Q-Anon’ crowd has known about Trump’s great work under the radar, regardless of what MTG and Lauren Boebert might say (falling from Q grace by revealing too much of the real ‘conspiracy’ to the American public), but the folks at 4-Chan are getting slightly miffed lately because The Donald promised to flip and reveal his sources, with help from the Epstein Files, in his second (last?) term in office.

The Boss

Before Nellie Bly’s trip around the world, she had an equally sensational series of reports which heralded her dramatic debut to the American public, in 1887’s Ten Days in a Mad-House, she went deep undercover on a mission to reveal the abuses at New York City’s infamous insane asylum at Blackwell’s Island. In this series of articles, a bombshell in the dog-eat-dog newspaper wars when the business was fresh in its infancy, Miss Bly shocked readers with reports detailing the arbitrary and inhumane conditions that faced women accused of insanity in the big city, unceremoniously carted off to the brutal insane asylum for ‘treatment,’ but what Bly found was akin to torture, and her exposée led directly to a housecleaning in New York State, bringing widespread public attention to the horrid conditions on the inaccessible island, as well as the brutal mistreatment in most mental institutions in the US before 1900. Her article and book prompted a grand jury investigation into the Blackwell Island asylum, which then led to many important reforms in the care of the mentally ill, some of which are still in effect to this day. Ten Days in a Mad-House is a classic of investigative journalism that revealed the truth because Bly faked mental illness in order to reveal the secret scandal of abuse, which was administered in almost every asylum in the US at the time. To this day, her book retains it’s power to hold positions of authority accountable for the improper treatment of American citizens who face mental anguish, with Frederick Wiseman’s great documentary, Titicut Follies and Ken Kesey’s best selling novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest following suit almost 100 years later.

Nellie came to the attention of the World’s editors after a popular, anonymous article she submitted to the op-ed department in support of women’s rights went ‘viral’ in today speak, and she was then hired by the newspaper to do… ‘Women’s stories,’ but she preferred actual, meaningful journalism instead and took a leave of absence from the newspaper in 1886 after only nine months as a paid journalist, the twenty-one-year-old grew impatient with her women’s page assignments on housekeeping, gardening and the current fashions, so she persuaded her local newspaper, The Pittsburg Dispatch to allow her to serve as the paper’s stringer in Mexico, from where she submitted more than thirty features that appeared under the headline Nellie in Mexico. They included descriptions of working folks, socialites, tourist attractions and ordinary life in Mexico, also writing detailed accounts about the government’s strict censorship laws. The book she wrote about her time in Mexico is as readable as an Instagram or Bluesky thread today, indicating that Nellie was a powerhouse journalist, probably doing more than anyone in her time to create what we would today call modern journalism.

After her search for the truth about New York’s insane asylums, she was well on her way to fame and fortune as a sought-after, superstar reporter who singlehandedly changed the news business with her ‘stunt journalism,’ which spawned some of the great American journalists that we have come to read since, it was her first ‘stunt’ going undercover at Blackwell’s Island that was her calling card for life, opening doors in the all-male world of hard journalism to women for the first time. Today, the ‘Museum of Political Corruption’ names their annual award after Nellie Bly and I can think of no better journalist than to be so honored. The (currently web-only) museum is based in upstate New York, in the State’s capital of Albany, where quite a few of Bly’s other ‘undercover’ reports on corruption of New York politicians took place at the end of the 19th Century. Most of Bly’s articles were about corrupt politicians, and in particular one who gave her an actual price list of all the politicians who could be bought after she offered him $1,200 in an undercover ‘sting.’ Assembly Bill 191, a measure that would have outlawed the profitable patent medicine business as it currently existed, required New York State approval of all medicinal products. The Tammany Hall corruption racket was an easy target for Nellie and she made short work of politicians who played the pay-to-play scheme in New York, she went to town on the story in The King of the Lobby about the eminently bribeable lobbyist Edward R. Phelps, her byline for the report lays out the grift:

I was a lobbyist last week. I went up to Albany to catch a professional briber in the act. I did so. The briber, lobbyist and boodler whom I caught was Mr. Ed Phelps He calls himself “King of the Lobby.” I pretended that I wanted to have him help me kill a certain bill. Mr. Phelps was cautious at first and looked carefully into my record. He satisfied himself that I was honest and talked very freely for a king.

-Nellie Bly

I don’t know about you, but I’d certainly dive in to read about that little news item, even 100 years later, so you can imagine how readers of the World hungry for news about how the State House up in Albany really worked, would snap up a copy of the paper at the newsstand, furthering her status with readers that she was an American legend in her own time.

The Boss of Bosses

Nellie Bly would go on to marry one of the richest men in New York, Robert Livingston Seaman, a millionaire who owned the Iron Clad Manufacturing Company and the American Steel Barrel Company but when Robert died in 1904, Nellie tried her hand at running a mining company but got swindled by the employees, so she then returned to journalism and immediately had an impact by reporting from Europe on the impending world war, while breaking a few more big stories before retiring in 1926, then living a quiet life until her passing in 1935. As with Bly, Trump has a shrewd understanding of the underlying power relationships and institutional weaknesses which lead to corruption and mismanagement. It has been said that Trump can spot a weakness in people the way certain animals are said to smell blood, and that weakness is then exploited for maximum personal gain. To reveal corruption, one may be corrupt, but must also have the good sense to give it up. To turn states evidence. The question is, which side do you want to end up on when you die and your legacy is added to the exhibits in the Museum of Corruption? Do you want to be remembered as corrupt, or do you want to be remembered as a reporter who revealed the corruption? The man behind the museum is Bruce Roter, a music professor for nearly 25-years at The College of Saint Rose before his job was eliminated when the college went out of business in 2024, after over 100 years of educating young Catholics, and although Trump’s assault on higher education wasn’t the only reason the college went kaput (after years of mismanagement and yes, corruption) Dr. Roter hatched a plan to open the first Museum of Political Corruption during Trump’s first term in office, and where better than in Albany, New York to build the joint?

The very first winner of the Museum of Corruption’s Nelly Bly Award was Suzanne Craig, the New York Times reporter who revealed Donald Trump’s tax returns, (isn’t all this nostalgia comforting?) The Canadian Craig has written a new book entitled, Lucky Loser that was published this fall with colleague Russ Beuttner in a definitive, true accounting of Trump and his ill-gotten money, both what he had and what he lost, to the less than $1 billion that he had left before he was elected, (of course Suzanne Craig was sued by Trump in August, and of course the case was tossed.) Cashing in massively while burnishing the wacko myth of Trump, the self-made billionaire fully exposed as a liar on an almost minute-to-minute basis, is a cheat and a corrupt degenerate, but its still fun to see it laid bare over and over again, I gotta admit, and so I guess his net worth is now $7 billion or something like that after one year of grifting off the good name and reputation of the United States of America, and my bold prediction is there will be more books about Donald Trump’s corruption, I mean seriously folks, the dude is six billion dollars richer than when he took office in January, 2025 and if Trump is the face of political corruption in modern times, along with his buddies Vlad Putin, the President of Russia, MBS (Mohammed bin Salman) the Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia and the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Nellie Bly is an inspiration on how to get the story out. Some of the reporters who have been honored with the Museum of Corruption award are the Washington Post’s Glen Kessler, the great Fact Checker who delivered his famous 4 Pinocchio verdicts before Jeff Bezos went to the dark side, also the museum has honored the lawyer Preet Bharara; the Pentagon papers leaker Daniel Elsberg; reporters Peter Eigen; Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as well as entertainers such as Jon Stewart, Rachel Maddow and Ron Howard. And the great Rob Reiner. Anyway, here’s Donald Trump’s Christmas message to the nation:

Merry Christmas to all, including the many Sleazebags who loved Jeffrey Epstein, gave him bundles of money, went to his Island, attended his parties, and thought he was the greatest guy on earth, only to “drop him like a dog” when things got too HOT, falsely claimed they had nothing to do with him, didn’t know him, said he was a disgusting person, and then blame, of course, President Donald J. Trump, who was actually the only one who did drop Epstein, and long before it became fashionable to do so. When their names get brought out in the ongoing Radical Left Witch Hunt (plus one lowlife “Republican,” Massie!), and it is revealed that they are Democrats all, there will be a lot of explaining to do, much like there was when it was made public that the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax was a fictitious story – a total Scam – and had nothing to do with “TRUMP.” The Failing New York Times, among many others, was forced to apologize for their bad and faulty Election “Reporting,” even to the point of losing many subscribers due to their highly inaccurate (FAKE!) coverage. Now the same losers are at it again, only this time so many of their friends, mostly innocent, will be badly hurt and reputationally tarnished. But sadly, that’s the way it is in the World of Corrupt Democrat Politics!!! Enjoy what may be your last Merry Christmas

-President Donald J. “Trump” Dec 25, 2025 at 3:51pm

A word of warning, the problem with going so deep undercover is that psychologically, the person who does it successfully can quite possibly ’lose themselves’ in the creation, like Nellie Bly worrying about her sanity if she could possibly be left in the insane asylum by those she worked for, completely trusting her employer Joseph Pulitzer to alert the authorities and to set her free, so consider this call to Trump as a public service: Sir, it’s time for you to come out of the cold. I will support you when you announce the big reveal: that you’ve been faking it to make yourself the greatest president in history. Happy New Year 2026!

Carl Holt

December 31, 2025