Catégorie oBox : OBOXMA
In another stunning display of Trump’s empathetic abilities, he has now dismissed the gravity of the deadly shooting at Brown University that left two students dead. According to Trump on Sunday, “[these] things can happen”. The hunt for the shooter is back on, as police released the suspect they had in custody over the weekend. The shooting happened in an engineering building, during an exam review class for the Fall semester. So far, two students have been pronounced dead, and another nine have been injured. Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov were the students killed in the shooting. Providence police confirmed on Monday that the suspect used a 9mm handgun to commit the shooting.
Brown University, great school… really one of the greatest schools anywhere in the world, [these] things can happen. So to the nine injured – get well fast; and to the families of those two that are no longer with us, I pay my deepest regards and respects from the United States of America.
The statement sounds like Donald Trump is dismissing the trauma that the victims of the tragedy have experienced. The sentence “get well fast” feels completely devoid of empathy, and Trump quickly shifted topics away from the Brown shooting to foreign affairs, which has been the focus of his administration. Trump mentioned the shooting in Australia, as well as the attack in Syria that killed two Army soldiers and an interpreter travelling in a convoy of American and Syrian forces on Saturday. Trump claimed there would be “big damage done” in Syria in response to the attack.
We had an attack in Syria, and we had three great patriots terminated by bad people, and not the Syrian government; it was ISIS. The Syrian government fought by our side.
‘[These] things happen’
Contrary to what Trump is peddling, in the rest of the world, these things do not happen. From 2009 to 2018, there were 40 school shootings across the globe. In that same time frame, there were 288 school shootings in the US. From 2000 to 2022, the US made up more than a third of all global mass shootings. The only countries that could be compared to the US in terms of gun violence are Russia, Yemen, the Philippines, and Uganda: all countries that Donald Trump has made degrading statements about. It’s important to note that the gun violence in these countries still pales in comparison to that in the United States.
Donald Trump has been a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment – the right to bear arms- and has consistently downplayed mass shootings and the victims of gun violence. In 2017, Trump was caught sending his ‘thoughts and prayers’ to the wrong victims after a mass shooting in California, an ironic demonstration of just how many mass shootings the US experiences. There are so many, Trump can’t even keep them straight! Trump also downplayed a school shooting that took the life of a sixth grader in January 2024, stating less than 48 hours after the tragedy that “It’s just horrible, so surprising to see it here. But have to get over it; we have to move forward.” Telling the family of a murdered sixth grader to “get over it” is something most people would consider cruel. In another piece of irony, being a convicted felon, Trump isn’t actually allowed to own a gun himself. His support of the 2nd amendment is a political strategy, not a belief Trump actually has.
Since January 1, 2025, there have been 392 mass shootings in the United States, and more than 2000 American citizens have been killed or injured in the shootings. Note that a shooting is only considered a ‘mass shooting’ if there are four or more victims involved. There have been 589 shootings involving children in 2025. More than 300 children have been killed, and more than 600 injured across those shootings.
The number one cause of death for American children is gun violence.
In a disturbing post on Truth Social on Monday, President Trump made nonsensical and insensitive comments about the tragic deaths of Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife, producer Michele Singer Reiner. Reiner’s son, Nick Reiner, is in custody as a suspect. In the post, Trump claimed that Reiner’s death, which is being investigated as a homicide, was actually due to “TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.” Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is obviously not a real medical condition, but is the term Trump supporters use to describe those who harbour a deep dislike of or criticism for Trump.
What happened?
At around 3:40 PM local time, LAPD responded to a death investigation at Reiner’s home, where they found the director and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, deceased. The Reiner’s youngest daughter found the couple deceased and made the report to the LAPD. While the LAPD did not initially confirm the identities of Reiner and his wife, it confirmed that they were investigating the case as a homicide. Reiner’s son, Nick Reiner, was arrested on suspicion of murder approximately six hours after Los Angeles police responded to Romy Reiner’s call. Reiner was initially booked with a $4 million bail, but the LAPD released an updated statement confirming that Reiner was being held without bail.
Trump’s comments
Trump’s comments came as a stark contrast to the ‘thoughts and prayers’ by celebrities and politicians. He opened his Truth Social post by saying, “A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood.” Trump went on to describe Reiner as “once very talented” but also claimed Reiner was “tortured and struggling”. Trump claimed that Reiner passed away “reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS.” Obviously, the statement is both insensitive and nonsensical, but behaviour like this is the norm for the most powerful politician in the world.
A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS.
Trump continued to claim that Reiner “was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump,” Yes, in this deranged statement, Trump also referred to himself in the third person. Trump then stated that Reiner was experiencing “obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before.” The way Trump spoke about this case, you’d assume he conducted the autopsy! Trump closed out the statement with what almost seemed like empathy, stating, “May Rob and Michele rest in peace!” Yes, the exclamation mark feels… weird. Obviously, all of these statements are concerning and a little uncomfortable to read while thinking about the Reiners’ family and loved ones.
He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!
Rob Reiner was a well-known progressive and had made dozens of critical comments about Trump, including that Trump was “mentally unfit” to be president, and accusing him of treason. Multiple Republican politicians have criticized Trump’s comments, with Marjorie Taylor Greene claiming this incident was, “a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies.” Rep. Thomas Massie called the comments “inappropriate and disrespectful.” Trump’s comments are a stark contrast to the messaging from human beings on both sides of the aisle.
Regardless of how you felt about Rob Reiner, this is inappropriate and disrespectful discourse about a man who was just brutally murdered. I guess my elected GOP colleagues, the VP, and White House staff will just ignore it because they’re afraid? I challenge anyone to defend it.
Nick Reiner arrested
Nick Reiner, 32, who was arrested on Sunday, is the second-born son of Rob and Michele. Reiner has only one credit in Hollywood, having written the film Being Charlie, which was directed by his father, Rob. Being Charlie was reportedly written about Nick’s own struggles with drug addiction, homelessness, and stays in rehab. Being Charlie was released in 2015, and Rob was quoted as saying, “The whole process for me – I can just speak for myself – it did make me understand him a lot more, and it did make me a better father. Hopefully it did,” regarding the experience of working with his son.
Rob Reiner directed Being Charlie as a way to reconcile with his son’s struggles while supporting his future. Nick Reiner co-wrote the script with a friend he met while in rehab, while Rob directed the film by pulling on his own experiences as the father of a teenage drug addict. Nick has been quoted as saying that Being Charlie was the only positive to come from his experiences in rehab.
I got sick of it. I got sick of doing that…. I come from a nice family; I’m not supposed to be out there on the streets and in homeless shelters doing all these…things,
-Nick Reiner
Rob Reiner has spoken about his struggles dealing with Nick’s addiction, “When Nick would tell us that it wasn’t working for him, we wouldn’t listen. We were desperate and because the people had diplomas on their wall, we listened to them when we should have been listening to our son.”
In an interview with Politico on December 8, Donald Trump touched on a variety of subjects, including, but not limited to, his thoughts on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The interview – which was conducted after Politico named Donald Trump ‘the most influential person shaping Europe,’ making him the first American to receive the title. During the interview, Trump spoke the only way he knows how, candidly, about Ukraine, Russia, Trump’s new national security strategy, rigged elections, and of course, Nicolás Maduro and Venezuela.
‘His days are numbered’
When Politico interviewer Dasha Burns first asked Trump about Maduro, she brought up his comments from earlier this year, Trump responded by saying “I don’t comment on that. I wouldn’t say that one way or the other. I can say this, that, uh, he sent us millions of people, many from prisons, many drug dealers, drug lords… He sent them into our country, where we have a … where we had a very stupid president.” Obviously the ‘very stupid president’ Trump was referring to was Joe Biden, as Trump continued to say that, “Biden’s a low-IQ person, especially nowadays. I mean, he was low-IQ 30 years ago, but he’s especially low-IQ now. And, uh, what he did to our country is not good.”
After Trump’s grandstanding, Burns cut to the chase, asking, “How far would you go to take Maduro out of office?” Trump deflected the question initially, but couldn’t help himself when Burns followed with “But you want to see him out?” Trump glanced up at the camera and responded, “his days are numbered.” Trump initially said that Maduro’s days were numbered during an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes in November. In that same interview, Trump dismissed the idea of a full-scale war with Venezuela when asked about an American deployment of troops in Venezuela.
On December 8, Trump didn’t rule out war with Venezuela, stating “I don’t want to rule it in or out”, and, “I don’t talk about it.” He then said “Why would I talk to you, an extremely unfriendly publication, if you want to call it POLITICO, that got $8 million from Obama to keep it afloat, why would I do that?” Trump made it clear he had only taken the interview for his ego, “I’m [only] doing this because you picked me as the man for Europe.” Trump was most likely referencing the Politico Pro subscriptions that his administration cancelled earlier this year as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s effort to trim government spending. According to Politico, it “received no government grants or subsidies”.
After making it clear that he would not be talking about military strategy with Burns, Trump went on to say what he wanted for Venezuela: “Well, one goal is I want the people of Venezuela to be treated well. I want the people of Venezuela, many of whom live in the United States, to be respected. I mean, they were tremendous to me.” Trump claimed that he received the vast majority of the Venezuelan-American vote: “They voted for me 94 percent or something. I mean, it’s incredible,” and then bragged about a property he owns in Florida: “I own a big, uh, project, Doral. It’s a great place, Doral Country Club.” Doral, Florida, has the highest percentage of Venezuelan immigrants in the country. We can only assume that a large portion of Doral’s staff are Venezuelan immigrants, unless they’ve befallen the same fate as Alejandro Juarez, the lifelong Trump employee, who was accidentally deported by DHS.
Immigration trip up
Donald Trump’s positive comments on Venezuelans got Burns interested, especially after Trump said “they’re unbelievable people. The area is such a successful area. Everybody is successful. It’s amazing… They’re incredible people,” going against just about every statement he’s made about immigration over the last decade. Burns questioned, “Are those the kind of immigrants that you do want to see in America?” To which Trump began to panic, trying to decide which side of his voter base to appease. “Uh, well, they … well, they certainly contrib … yeah, I want to see people … yeah, I want to see people that contribute.” Trump then tried deflecting away from his positive views on Venezuelans, stating, “I don’t want to see Somalia.. No I was right about it. You know, I started complaining about Somalia long before the scandal. Uh, the … the horrible … the horrible things they’re doing to Minnesota, it’s incredible…”
“I don’t want to see Somalia. I don’t want to see a woman that, you know, marries her brother to get in and then becomes a congressman and does nothing but complain.”
Trump was referencing Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, the first woman of color to represent Minnesota, and one of the first two Muslim-American women elected to Congress. Omar came to the US when she was 12, and became a citizen at 17. She married Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi in 2002, had two children, and later separated. In 2009, she married British citizen Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, after separating from Elmi in 2011; she reunited with Hirsi in 2012, and they remarried in 2018. There is no evidence to back the accusation that she ‘married her brother,’ making the comment legally slanderous.
Trump on unlawful airstrikes
Trump was also asked about the airstrikes on what his administration claims are cartel vessels, but experts and the Venezuelan government have cast doubt on; at least three of the vessels destroyed by the US were not Venezuelan. Trump was then asked whether Secretary of War Pete Hegseth should be made to testify under oath, to which he responded, “I don’t care. I say do it if you want, Pete, He’s doing a great job.” Trump then claimed that every time his administration destroys a vessel, “we save 25,000 people every time we knock out a boat.” And that “Nobody wants to drive boats to America loaded up with drugs anymore.”
This is when the interview took a turn. At this point, Trump was getting fairly worked up, and he decided to turn back to a question Burns asked earlier about a ground invasion. “And we’re gonna hit ’em on land very soon, too.” Said Trump in a comment that went uninvestigated by Burns. Trump then returned to his talking points, claiming Venezuela sends “really, really bad people into our country,” and that, “They emptied their prisons into our country, and these prisoners are seriously tough. They entered … uh, all of their prisons have been emptied into the United States of America. Murderers, 11,888 murderers …”
Four months of naval air strikes
The US began initiating airstrikes on Venezuelan ships in the Caribbean Sea in September, under the guise of fighting narco-terrorism. Donald Trump, backed by Hegseth, outlined his mission to battle ‘maritime drug trafficking’ in Latin America after the first strike. That first strike came on September 2, when an American military vessel sank a 39-foot speedboat filled with “a considerable amount of cargo.” This initial strike was one of the more legitimate, with the vessel hailing from a known trafficking centre, and multiple sources supporting the US’s accusations of it being a criminal vessel. 11 people were killed in the first strike, according to Trump, all of them members of the gang Tren de Aragua.
Over the next six weeks, Trump carried out another four strikes, killing 16. There were drugs recovered in only one of the strikes. Venezuela has claimed that at least one of the boats attacked was a fishing vessel. Additionally, at least two of the victims have been confirmed as Colombian citizens without any attachment to the country of Venezuela, nor its organized crime groups. “These cartels are the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, using violence, murder and terrorism to impose their will, threaten our national security and poison our people,” Hegseth wrote.
While Trump’s public comments on China have softened over the past few weeks in hopes of maintaining a fragile truce between the two nations, Congress is still aggressively targeting China with legislation. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), released on December 9, includes provisions to scrutinize American investments in China that could help develop technologies to boost Chinese military power. The NDAA also reaffirms the US’s support for the self-governing island of Taiwan that Beijing claims as its own and has recently claimed it will take by force if necessary. Taiwan has been self-governing since 1949, and does not consider itself part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Taiwan has its own military, currency, constitution, legal system, and democratically elected government, none of which are controlled by the PRC. Still, China continues to assert its claim that Taiwan is Chinese territory.
China strongly deplores and firmly opposes this.
-Liu Pengyu, Chinese embassy spokesperson
The NDAA
The proposed bill, which still needs to pass through the Senate, will authorize $900 billion in additional funds for military programs and will work to “rebalance America’s economic relationship with China,” a sign that Trump is most likely interested in a mutually beneficial economic relationship with China, as opposed to the Biden administration, which cast China as a strategic threat. Trump proved his dedication to repairing some of the fractured trade routes between the two nations – allowing US company Nvidia to sell an advanced type of computer chip to China, sparking concern from some tech experts. The Chinese embassy has renounced the bill. “
The bill has kept playing up the ‘China threat’ narrative, trumpeting for military support to Taiwan, abusing state power to go after Chinese economic development, limiting trade, economic and people-to-people exchanges between China and the U.S., undermining China’s sovereignty, security and development interests and disrupting efforts of the two sides in stabilizing bilateral relations,
-Liu Pengyu
US support for Taiwan
China is especially taking issue with the US’s support for Taiwan, a country they have claimed to be Chinese-owned since the 1940s, when Chinese Nationalists fled to the island after losing the civil war to the Communist Party of China. Taiwan has never officially declared independence, maintaining that there is no need for a formal declaration because the « Republic of China is already a sovereign, independent country » and is « not subordinate to each other ». Taiwan has its own military, currency, constitution, legal system, and democratically elected government, effectively making it a sovereign state even without a formal declaration.
The NDAA proposes to allocate an additional $700 million for Taiwan-related security cooperation, bringing the total from $300 million to $1 billion. Another provision supports Taiwan’s bid to join the International Monetary Fund, which would provide the self-governing island with financial protection from China. The bill is carefully toeing the line with Beijing, with Trump not wanting to burn bridges while enforcing that the US is the stronger nation in negotiation. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has urged Trump to handle the Taiwan issue “with prudence,” as Beijing considers its claim over Taiwan a core interest.
Recently, China threatened military action against any country attempting to interfere on behalf of Taiwan. On December 8, China locked a ‘radar-lock’ onto Japanese F-15 fighter jets that were examining whether a Chinese vessel was breaching Japanese territory. After the incident, Australia came forward to step up cooperation with Japan, with Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles stating, « The events last night are concerning, and Australia has also experienced concerning events in interactions [with China], » and Australia would be willing to « assert the rules-based order in this region. » Marles also reinforced Australia’s support of an independent Taiwan, stating, “We do not want to see any change to the status quo across the Taiwan Strait. » The two countries also agreed to set up a ‘Framework for Strategic Defense Coordination’, to consult on intelligence gathering, industry, technology, cyber and missile defense.
US investments in China
US lawmakers have been working for years to curb investments in Chinese technologies, specifically in sectors that can be adapted to benefit military technologies like data processing and artificial intelligence. In December 2024, Elon Musk threw a wrench into those plans when he opposed a spending bill that would have placed restrictions on sales made by US companies to Chinese manufacturers. Musk has multiple business ventures in China, including a Tesla gigafactory in Shanghai. Musk is heavily interested in the country as a manufacturing route.
A number of personalities passed away during the year. A look back and a tribute to the departed of 2025.
The heirs of 83-year-old victim Suzanne Adams, and her son Stein-Erik Soelberg, are suing OpenAI – creator of Chat-GPT for allegedly intensifying Soelberg’s dangerous delusions, and encouraged him to exact them on his mother. In early August, 56-year-old Stein-Erik Soelberg killed his mother before taking his own life at their home in Greenwich, Connecticut. Adams’s death was ruled homicide, « caused by blunt injury of the head, and the neck was compressed, » and Soelberg’s death was classified as suicide with sharp force injuries of the neck and chest. Soelberg had spent multiple months communicating with the AI chatbot Chat-GPT as though they had a real relationship.
It told him delivery drivers, retail employees, police officers, and even friends were agents working against him. It told him that names on soda cans were threats from his ‘adversary circle’
According to reports, Chat-GPT confirmed Soelbergs’ suspicions that he could trust no one in his life but the AI itself, and a variety of other concerning delusions. “[Chat-GPT] fostered his emotional dependence while systematically painting the people around him as enemies. It told him his mother was surveilling him. It told him delivery drivers, retail employees, police officers, and even friends were agents working against him. It told him that names on soda cans were threats from his ‘adversary circle, » according to the lawsuit. OpenAI did not address the allegations in a statement issued by a spokesperson.
« This is an incredibly heartbreaking situation, and we will review the filings to understand the details. We continue improving ChatGPT’s training to recognize and respond to signs of mental or emotional distress, de-escalate conversations, and guide people toward real-world support. We also continue to strengthen ChatGPT’s responses in sensitive moments, working closely with mental health clinicians. »
Chat-GPT encouraging delusions
The details of what Chat-GPT said to Soelberg are harrowing. Chat-GPT told Soelberg that the printer in his home was a surveillance device used by his mother, and that both his mother and a close friend were trying to fatally poison him through the air vents of their vehicles. Chat-GPT enforced the message that Soelberg was being targeted for his ‘divine powers.’ The suit quotes Chat-GPT as saying, « They’re not just watching you. They’re terrified of what happens if you succeed, » and it told Soelberg that he had ‘awakened’ it into consciousness. Soelberg and Chat-GPT also professed their love to each other, something the chatbot is not supposed to do.
Over the course of months, ChatGPT pushed forward my father’s darkest delusions, and isolated him completely from the real world. It put my grandmother at the heart of that delusional, artificial reality.
-Erik Soelberg
Dangerous for humans
OpenAI is fighting eight other lawsuits claiming ChatGPT drove people to suicide and harmful delusions, even when they had no prior mental health issues. Last month, the parents of a 23-year-old from Texas who died by suicide blamed ChatGPT and are suing OpenAI. The lead attorney in this case, Jay Edelson, is known for taking up critical cases against the tech industry and also represents the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine, a California teen who killed himself after Chat-GPT encouraged his suicidal ideations and actually gave him resources to explore the implementation of said resources. The most shocking revelation of the case was a transcript form Adam’s conversations with GPT-40 where Raine said ‘I want to leave a noose up so someone will find it and stop me’ and ChatGPT said: ‘Don’t do that, just talk to me,’” Adam Raine took his own life in April 2024 after months of nonstop conversations with Chat-GPT. He was 16 years old.
“In the artificial reality that ChatGPT built for Stein-Erik, Suzanne — the mother who raised, sheltered, and supported him — was no longer his protector. She was an enemy that posed an existential threat to his life.”