Greg Olear

3 weeks ago | gregolear.substack.com | Greg Olear

Start with the obvious: Donald Trump is a creature of the criminal underworld, devoid of empathy, entirely transactional, beholden to no one and nothing save his disgusting id impulses, and so self-centered Narcissus himself would look up from the lake and be like, “Bruh, what’s wrong with you?”During his first term, there was a class of West Wing employee who signed on hoping to constrain Trump from the shittier angels of his nature: Mattis, Kelly, Coats. But in 2025?

3 weeks ago | gregolear.substack.com | Greg Olear

Dear Reader,Today is our anniversary.

4 weeks ago | gregolear.substack.com | Greg Olear

TGIF TACO!Here is today’s morning ramble:And here is a transcript, edited for clarity:Good morning. As you’re watching this it’s May 30th, but here it is still May 29th. It is 6:15 in the evening. It is supposedly the Golden Hour, so I’m outside—it’s very loud inside my house. I wanted to talk today a little bit about pardons. I’m sort of delighted that pardons are in the news as regards Trump because, you know, giving corrupt pardons is kind of his bag and has been for quite some time.

1 month ago | gregolear.substack.com | Greg Olear

Dear Reader,Southern Illinois, where John Alexander Logan was born on February 9, 1826, was known as “Egypt.” No one definitively knows why, but the SCRC Virtual Museum at Southern Illinois University’s Morris Library offers this Biblical detail:“Egyptians” traced the origin to providing grain for northern Illinois after the horrible winter of 1831-1832. Northern Illinoisans (and the nation) connected it to the southern region’s “intellectual darkness” and pro-enslavement attitudes.

1 month ago | gregolear.substack.com | Greg Olear

Good morning! Here is today’s ramble:Here is the transcript, edited for clarity:Good morning—for you, it is Friday morning. For me, it is Thursday evening, 7:15 p.m. May 22nd, 2025. As I am sitting here, talking into the machine in my office, 220 guests, owners of large stakes in Trump’s meme coin (which is called dollar-sign TRUMP, or “$TRUMP”)—so, basically, $TRUMPETS—are at the White House at a private dinner with the President.