The Buzz: ‘Smile, Darn Ya, Smile’ when addressing the president
Published 1:30 am Friday, February 6, 2026
By Jon Bauer / Herald Opinion Editor
President Trump on Tuesday brusquely criticized CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins, who had been asking questions related to the latest release of the Epstein files, calling her “the worst reporter” and adding “CNN has no ratings because of people like you.”
“I’ve known you for 10 years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a smile on your face,” he continued with a sarcastic tone. “You know why you’re not smiling? Because you know you’re not telling the truth.”
As Trump continued his harangue, White House staffers hurriedly escorted reporters out of the Oval Office. “She never smiles,” Trump said as reporters left.
The staffers — with wide smiles on their faces and with cheery voices — then turned off the lights, drew the curtains and encouraged the president to lay his head down on his desk for a few minutes.
In other news challenging our ability to turn those frowns upside-down:
This is going to make afternoon teen awkward: Amid fresh revelations about some of the elite acquaintances of Jeffrey Epstein, including Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who lost his royal title of prince last year, the former British royal was forced out of the Royal Lodge, his 30-room Georgian mansion in Windsor, earlier than had been initially announced. Mountbatten-Windsor will relocate to a more modest home on the royal estate in Norfolk, owned by King Charles.
We have a downsizing tip for The Sexual Predator Formerly Known as Prince: Only keep those mementos and emails that spark joy. You never know whey they’re going to be subpoenaed.
To save time, Democratic voters will get pre-marked ballots: President Trump, twice in two days called for Republicans to “nationalize elections,” seeking to take the constitutional authority given to states to run elections, giving that authority to the federal government. After the first comments, made on a podcast, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt attempted to clarify what the president said, insisting he meant to encourage passage of a voter ID bill. Nope. The next day he repeated his call to nationalize elections. “Look at some of the places — that horrible corruption on elections — and the federal government should not allow that,” he said. “The federal government should get involved.”
It’s not that he doesn’t trust the states to run accurate elections; it’s all those voters who vote for Democrats that Trump is trying to keep from spoiling the results.
Full case of black Sharpies ready to go: Also this week, as President Trump continued to claim that the 2020 election had been stolen from him, the FBI raided the Fulton County election center in Georgia, seizing ballots from that election, including voter rolls and other election records. Trump, famously, following the 2020 election called election officials in Georgia pleading with them to “find 11,780 votes” that would put him ahead of Joe Biden and award Georgia’s electoral votes to him.
Department of Justice officials have not said where the ballots are or what’s being done with them, but a Mar-a-Lago pool boy revealed they are in a bathroom there, waiting for Trump to make the trip down so he can begin the Official Trump Completely Honest Like No One Has Ever Seen Ballot Audit.
Journalism Dies In Starvation: On Wednesday, the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post announced it was laying off 30 percent of its staff, drastically cutting overseas reporters, its sports department and gutting its local newsroom. Bezos, the billionaire Amazon owner, who recently spent $75 million in producing and promoting “Melania,” the documentary about the first lady, reportedly has tired of propping up the money-losing Post.
Bezos isn’t heartless. In their final pay envelopes, along with pink slips, former Post staffers were presented with free passes to “Melania.”
How do you sleep at night? A federal prosecutor has been fired after she voiced frustration to a judge in St. Paul, Minn., regarding the case load from the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. After the judge warned he might hold the prosecutor in contempt for not following court orders regarding five cases, the prosecutor said she’d welcome a contempt finding because it would allow her to get a good night’s sleep. “What do you want me to do?” the attorney asked the judge at one point. “The system sucks. This job sucks.”
We’re beginning to think that sleep deprivation might explain a lot about the Trump administration.
David’s still got the president by a couple of inches: Two cryptocurrency investors have paid a sculptor $300,000 to create a 15-foot gold-leaf-covered bronze likeness of President Trump — his right fist jutting upward and dubbed “Don Colossus” — that they want to see erected at one of Trump’s golf course in Florida.
As with Michelangelo’s “David” in Florence, Italy, where tourists sometimes are heard wondering about the rather small size of a certain part of David’s anatomy, early glimpses of “Don Colossus” have prompted some to ask, “Why are his hands so small?”
“Hey, you even captured his bad face makeup”: The sculptor, still owed $90,000 before he releases the piece, said he was asked to make some changes. “I had him very lifelike,” the artist told The New York Times. “The crypto guys said I had to get rid of some of the turkey neck. I had to thin him down.”
You know, when Trump’s empire finally goes bankrupt, we’d love to see Don Colossus and other Trump monuments — including his planned Triumphal Arch, the East Wing Ballroom and the Trump lettering off the Kennedy Center — auctioned off and moved to a putt-putt golf course in Florida.
Hey, we got our smile back.
Email Jon Bauer at jon.bauer@heraldnet.com.
