Robert Kuttner, editor of The American Prospect, reported this shocking story:
President Trump stunned Nebraskans today with his demand that the state change the name of its capital, Lincoln, or lose federal funding.
“Lincoln was the original DEI president,” Trump said on his site Truth Social. “Not only did he give racial preferences to former slaves in his land grab program of forty acres and a mule. He sent the Union Army to occupy the South to prohibit most white people from voting and sponsored birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment, which has been abused ever since.”
“I never really liked the guy,” Trump added. “Race relations were fine in the South until Lincoln started a totally unnecessary Civil War. If he understood real estate, he could have made a deal.”
Trump proposed that the name of the state capital be changed from Lincoln to Hayes, in honor of Rutherford B. Hayes, the president who ended Reconstruction in the corrupt Compromise of 1877. “Hayes was a truly great man,” Trump said. “He worked with leaders of both parties to prevent discrimination against white people.”
The reaction of Nebraska leaders was guarded. “We love President Trump,” said Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican. “But folks around here kind of like the name of our state capital.” In the 2024 election, Trump beat Kamala Harris in Nebraska by a margin of 59.6 to 39.1 percent.
Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird, a Democrat and a graduate of Yale and Oxford, pointed to the odd timing. “This is April Fools’ Day,” she said. “This has to be a spoof.”
I just made a donation to The American Prospect to keep it thriving as a powerful voice against fascism.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Regardless of the potential joke of April 1 timing, and from an armchair psychological point of view, Trump continues to beg for some sort of (Orwell alert) forced discontinuation of his antics . . . as an ultimate act of attention getting. CBK
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Trump needs an j stevenson to help him overcome his childhood anger.
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Diane: I have often thought that, though it’s not the whole “picture,” it’s a big part of it. He pushes over into social and political carelessness and self-destruction way too often for it not to be a red flag of sorts. CBK
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He’s so crazy that anything is possible.
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DIANE: I didn’t know where to put this, so I put it here: About the tariffs:
Following Trump’s grifter playbook, it dawned on me about the tariffs–they are easily part of another scam and probably the biggest power grab the world has ever known. If so, it goes like this:
With the imposed tariffs, Trump now has the power to GIVE BACK what, in effect, he is stealing from countries whose economies suffer from them, big and small.
But the “giving back” has a price that he can now exact (fill in the blank), in effect, kiss my ring, and do what I want, and I will lower your country’s tariffs and give you the edge in the world market. Let’s watch him to see how he lowers some tariffs and gets what he wants while punishing those who resist by leveraging the tariffs in every which way. If so, he is using the GREAT POWER OF THE UNITED STATES as nothing but a pawn in his grift.
So, he set up this cover story–“Buy American!” (like he cares). But also, other countries have been taking advantage of the United States for decades; but no more . . . Trump will save us, the victims, from being badly used by those countries. (So let’s all get bent out of shape over that one.)
So, he sets up this false victimization and then saves the victim–the Great Man–all the while getting what he wants from our long-term friends and allies and robbing Americans of all the good will and solid relationships with like-minded people that we have built up since WWII.
BTW, he wants what Obama got–the peace prize.
I am speculating here–but it sure stinks like his life-long grifter playbook. He’s making fools of everyone around him, and us too. CBK
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Never forget that Trump played a successful businessman on TV. In reality, he was never a successful businessman. Six bankruptcies. No American bank would lend him money. Only Deutsche Bank would take the risk of lending him money; and he relied on selling condos to Russian oligarchs at highly inflated prices.
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April Fools Day. 2025 Fools Year. Nah, it’s real.
Who’s on that penny? Whose name is on the DC Arts Center. Whose name is attached to national health care that is working.
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If we have a Depression, it can be called the Trump Depression.
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DEI is so 2024. Code DEI is alive and well in 2025. And, Adjective DEI (The DEI president) is still blurted out just like Hunter’s lap top and “Hillary” to whoop up crowds.
It took over State houses and became the mantra of the right. They either won the culture war(s) or keep losing – and moved on. They say it just enough times to garner votes.
Far too many institutions folded (easy for me to say from the cheap seats and facing blank stares in testimony in our Capitol). That’s worrisome. How the largest corporations and most influential and wealthy universities could not unite is inexplicable. Baffling.
They are not standing up to defend what’s right and real: Employees will still face the public, HR offices still can’t discriminate and need training, and students will face the future. History and truth will still be targeted. Education and addressing practical, real-world objectives of trainings are still necessary.
By throwing in the towel, Columbia; AB, PG, and other corporations are keeping Code DEI alive by cancelling (literal and figurative) legitimate awareness raising, trainings, and dialogue. They contribute to erasing anyone who is “different” than those acceptable to the president and his ilk. And, I suppose Lincoln statues (and the penny) are replace by Lee.
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DEI lives!
Pete Hegseth is DEI for dumb white males.
RFK Jr. is DEI for highly educated dumb white males.
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Unlike the Sidd Finch story, which I accepted hook, line, and when “All Things Considered” ran a feature on it on 1 April 1985, I see what’s going on here.
Nicely done, Diane!
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April Fools Day, yes. But this is completely believable. I mean, I wouldnt put it past him. And that, my friends, is what’s sad.
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I think this is another reason why any state that the lifelong cheater, liar and convicted rapist, fraud and felon doesn’t control yet should leave the United States before it’s too late, like it is for them, and form an independent country or join Canada.
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Somebody is feeding Trump a bias agenda list. There’s no way Trump knows enough history to render an actual opinion. In his last term Trump couldn’t even find Alabama on map and claimed the patriots stormed the airports in the revolution. Few people raised in the Northeast would ever blame Lincoln for The Civil War or call Hayes a “great man.” Real or not? every day feels like April Fools’ Day in the US now.
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April fools day is supposed to be fun. What’s happening in the US is a tragedy.
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