He called Putin's war "fine." Then he went to Kansas.

Scorn for the Weak, Deference to the Strong

In one day, the president used an antisemitic slur in Kansas, mocked a Somali-born congresswoman for claiming her constitutional rights, and said Russia has "been fine" on Ukraine. These aren't three separate stories.

Donald Trump flew to Kansas on Monday to rescue a Senate seat Republicans thought was safe. Before he left, he said Vladimir Putin's war has been fine. That day tells you what this presidency holds in contempt and what it bows to.

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The Senator and the Slur

Roger Marshall is in trouble. The Cook Political Report rates his race a toss-up against Adam Hamilton, a Methodist pastor and former Republican. Kansas hasn't sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1932. Much of that trouble traces to a New York Times investigation: as an OB-GYN, Marshall's practice sued more than 700 of his own patients over unpaid bills. Some balances were as small as $101, they carried 18 percent interest, and 81 of the cases led to arrests after patients missed court dates (NewsBreak | KCUR).

Trump's defense from the stage in Park City rested on a claim that isn't true. He said Marshall was required by law to go after those patients, then complained that critics made him look like "some kind of a Shylock-type guy" (CNN via Yahoo).

No law required any of it. KCUR found no federal or state requirement that Marshall sue patients or that his attorneys seek arrest warrants. A Georgetown health-law expert told CNN that Marshall was allowed to sue but never required to.

So the president invented a legal mandate to excuse a doctor who had patients arrested over medical debt. Then he reached for the oldest antisemitic caricature of the greedy moneylender to describe the criticism. This wasn't an accident. Trump used the same word at an Iowa rally in July 2025 and then said he'd "never heard it that way" (CNN via Yahoo). He has heard it now. The ADL said the term is rooted in a longstanding antisemitic stereotype. Amy Spitalnick of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs put it plainly: not an accident.

The Congresswoman and the Constitution

Trump didn't stop there. He went after Barack Obama, Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The pattern is hard to miss: the Democrats he singles out for ridicule are disproportionately Muslim, Black, or foreign-born. Bernie Sanders, the most famous progressive in the country, barely registers.

The Omar riff has become a set piece. He repeated it the next day in the Oval Office: he called Somalia a "real sh*thouse," mocked Omar for saying she has constitutional rights, and said she "could go to jail" (Mediaite via Yahoo).

That last line isn't just rhetoric anymore. Federal agents searched Omar's Washington home as part of an investigation into her decades-old citizenship paperwork. Reuters reported that stripping her citizenship and deporting her was a potential aim. Obama called it the full weight of the federal government coming down on an elected official for criticizing the president.

Think about what the crowd is laughing at. A naturalized citizen who represents nearly 700,000 Americans says she has constitutional rights, and the president of the United States treats that as the punchline. She isn't the one showing contempt for the Constitution. He is.

The Dictator and the "Fine" War

Hours before the rally, a reporter asked Trump about a summit with Putin and Xi Jinping, which Putin reportedly floated during an October 9 phone call. Trump said he'd do it, but "not so much for Ukraine because Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine. They haven't been doing much" (The Hill | CNBC).

That same day, a Russian strike on a park in Ukraine's Kharkiv region killed six people, including three children. One of them was a baby in a stroller.

Even some Republicans couldn't stomach it. Rep. Don Bacon called Trump morally blind and noted that Russia bombs Ukrainian cities every night.