QUESTION TIME

I love watching Question Time in the British House of Commons.

With the Prime Minister, it occurs every Wednesday on which Parliament is sitting and runs for a half hour starting at noon.

During that time, the opposition gets to grill the Prime Minister on the issues of the day.

But the grilling must be in the form of questions.

You cannot just stand-up during Question Time and claim the government is corrupt or prices are too high.

You have to weave any assertion into a question and do so in a way that is compelling on the one hand and might force a relevant (or these days merely meme-worthy) response on the other.  

The British have been doing this for a long time. 

Because they are British . . . or because I am an American and thus taken in by their accent . . . they appear to pull it off quite politely.

And if anything in politics these days approaches the vicinity of being both significant and decorous at the same time . . .

I am all in. 

So . . .

I am thinking we could use a good dose of Question Time  here at home.

Some UK in the USA.

Here are the baker's dozen of questions I'd ask:

1.    Mr. President, with inflation running at close to 4%, wage growth staggering, and health insurance premiums rising, would it be possible for you to desist in claiming the issue of affordability is a hoax, or in lieu thereof, could you specifically describe what you are doing to lower costs without mentioning your predecessor?

2.    Mr. President, having by my count told us more than thirty times since February that the war with Iran is  "won" or was "completely over"  or "almost over", would you define the terms "won", "almost", "completely"  and "over" and list the dictionaries you have consulted for these definitions? 

3.   Mr. President, as a follow-up, if you do not have a dictionary handy, or are more comfortable avoiding books, or just more confident in your own abilities, would you cite the provision in Article II of the Constitution that authorizes presidents to follow Humpty Dumpty's practice --  as set forth in Through The Looking Glass -- that "When [a president] use[s] a word, it means just what [he] choose[s] it to mean--nothing more or less"?

4.   Mr. President, as a further follow-up, if you are invoking the Humpty Dumpty rule, could you name a prior president who followed it and did you speak to him -- the prior president, not Humpty -- to discover it?

5.   Mr. President, as a further follow up, if you are not following the Humpty Dumpty rule, could you give me an answer to the second part of Question No. 2.

6.    Mr. President, with you and your family earning billions in crypto markets in part on account of purchases through or investments in Trump-controlled World Liberty Financial by foreign nationals and foreign government-backed funds, could you disclose what, if anything, those foreign governments or nationals  have received in exchange for their purchases or investments?

7.    Mr. President, as a follow-up, what if anything are you doing to make those foreign nationals or foreign-backed funds whole once you are no longer president?

8.    Mr. President, as a further follow-up, if you gave those foreign nationals and foreign-backed funds nothing in return for their purchases or investments and have no plans to make them whole once you are no longer president, what convinced you all those purchasers were stupid enough in the first place to buy now almost worthless coins or an investment stake the value of which has declined by 80%?

9.    Mr. President, when you decided to violate the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 by agreeing to purchase diesel fuel from Russia, how happy were you that the Supreme Court in 2024 gave former presidents broad criminal immunity for actions taken while in office?

10.  Mr. President, in view of the fact that your Special Envoy Steve Witkoff last week called Vladimir Putin a "humanitarian" but the  UN estimates  that Russia has killed tens of thousands civilians in its Putin-initiated war on Ukraine, do you agree with Mr. Witkoff's statement? 

11.   Mr. President,  after former President Obama said you have "the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory", is there a reason you criticized his comment about the Cheesecake Factory but not his comment about Saddam Hussein?

12.  Mr. President, as a follow-up, in view of your praise of China's President Xi Jinping as a "Great Leader", did you think the same of Saddam Hussein?

13.  Mr. President, since you use the word “fake” a lot in your public comments, are you following the Humpty Dumpty rule here as well?