Ever since Donald Trump descended the escalator at Trump Tower in June 2015, the trolls have been hard at work.  The Left trolled Trump incessantly throughout the 2016 campaign, his first term, the 2020 campaign, and the 2024 campaign.

A quick learner, Trump understood the value of trolling, and for so long beset by the leftist trolls, has learned to troll right back at them.  Unsurprisingly, Trump soon learned how to beat the trolls at their own game.

“Trolling” is a strange term to be sure.  The word “troll” has an interesting etymology, dating back to its original meaning.  From Middle English, as adopted from Old Norse, a “trol” was a demon, sorcerer, conjurer, or witch.  From Proto-Germanic, it denoted a supernatural being; demon, fiend, giant, or monster.

Trolling developed an innocuous connotation as an intransitive verb, meaning to fish for, by trailing a baited line from behind a slowly moving boat.  However, the term “trolling” lately has been used to describe a more sinister purpose.  When used as a noun, a “troll” describes a person who makes or posts inflammatory or insincere statements in an attempt to lure others into combative argument, or the spurious information so transmitted or posted.

Democrat trolling of Trump commenced in 2015.  Admittedly, Trump helped to fuel the trolling by making statements of his own that made it easy for Democrats to take and twist them into damaging half-truths, or outright lies, in hopes of preventing his election.

For example, Trump’s 2015 observation that Mexico was not sending us its best citizens (a/k/a illegal aliens), while indisputably true, was twisted into the meme that Trump was a racist who opposed all immigration, both legal and illegal.  This troll was used to fuel the now discredited identity politics belief that no one with a Spanish surname would dare vote for Trump, because all so-called Hispanics necessarily support illegal immigration.  The 2024 election put that belief to rest.

Hillary Clinton practiced the art of the troll in 2016.  Although she herself, and members of her campaign were accepting Russian money, her campaign paid $1 million for a patently false dossier which accused Trump of “colluding with the Russians,” and contained a totally fabricated story of known germophobe Donald  Trump being blackmailed by Russian intelligence with photos of Russian prostitutes urinating on him in a Moscow hotel room.

Trump never had so much as spent one night in any Russian hotel, but that little troll was passed to our CIA and FBI by both Hillary and Senator McCain, and became the genesis of the RussiaGate allegations that sparked the Mueller investigation and the disruption of Trump’s first term.

Once Trump was elected in 2016, Democrat trolling marched on.  “Trump called fallen soldiers suckers.”  Then there was the infamous, Charlottesville “fine people hoax” which claimed Trump was supporting neo-Nazis.  Both were totally false, but each was repeated often enough to fully test the maxim, “a lie told often enough becomes the truth.”

Some trolls took the form of false headlines, trumpeted at length, and later proven false, but never corrected.  For instance, one claimed Trump removed the bust of Martin Luther King from the White House.  He didn’t.  Another claimed Trump removed Colin Powell’s name from a list of notable Americans buried at Arlington Cemetery.  Another lie.  Each despicable troll took a toll.

Fast forward to 2025, and Democrats are still at it.  A headline claimed Trump plans to release $150 trillion in assets, hidden for 161 years by the Government.  No thinking person would believe this, because, had such assets ever existed, Democrats would have spent (stolen) them by now.

Another, courtesy of Illinois Governor Pritzker claimed ICE agents raided an elementary school.  There was no truth to it.  In attempts to drive wedges between Trump and his Cabinet, the AP falsely claimed Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said “President Trump is very good friends with Russian President Vladimir Putin,” and then there were the tried and untrue “Elon Musk is really the President” trolls.

These trolls failed, but Donald Trump learned from them and has succeeded in turning the Left’s rampant “Trump Derangement Syndrome” psychosis to his advantage.  Simply put, Trump has proven himself to be the King of the Trolls, and it’s driving Democrats even crazier than they already had become.

In order to continue to live rent free in the fevered minds of nutty Democrats, Trump has circulated a number of trolls, each of which have sent the Left into hysteria, and have permitted Trump to set the narrative for every news cycle.

First, “Let’s make Canada the 51st State.”  This was an obvious troll, and never was going to happen, but it led to the ouster of PM Trudeau, sent the Left reeling, and kept the Canadians off balance during the reciprocal tariff talks.  And although fanciful, this troll has Canadians in Alberta talking independence.

Then it was “let’s take over Greenland.”  Also not a likely prospect, but it got Greenlanders thinking, pissed off the Danish, and unsettled the European Union on the brink of the tariff fight.

And who could forget the troll over, “maybe US Criminals should be sent to an El Salvador prison.”  Trump had to know, or undoubtedly was told this is legally impossible.  However, it didn’t stop the Left from screaming about U.S. citizens being “disappeared and deported.”  Like any good magician, this was slight of hand.  While they were busy denouncing this one, Trump’s other hand was busily signing yet more Executive Orders to undo years of Biden malfeasance.

One of Trump’s best has been, “Maybe I’ll run for a third term.”  This one has Democrat heads exploding.  The media’s in an uproar.  Although Trump may pretend to know nothing about the legalities of this, he knows full well he can’t run, and doesn’t want to run again.  He’s about to be 79, and would be 82 at the end of his term.

This troll serves two purposes.  It makes the Left crazier (if that’s possible), and keeps him from becoming a premature lame duck.  The worst mistake Teddy Roosevelt ever made was announcing in 1905 that he wouldn’t run again.  It made him a lame duck from the start.  He chose Taft to replace him, then fell out with Taft, split the Party, and ushered in 8 years of Woodrow Wilson.

The latest troll is “How about reopening Alcatraz.”  Trump touted it as a place to hold the illegals the courts are preventing him from deporting.  This troll takes a shot at the judges.  “You don’t like ICE detention, huh?  How would you like Alcatraz?”  It sets media and leftist hair on fire, and  eats up media attention on an idea that isn’t real.

Alcatraz is a rusting dump.  It’s too small for the stated purpose, too remote, too expensive to rebuild and staff, and most importantly, it’s in the worst place possible to house illegal aliens.  California.  If he lodges them there, their cases get heard by California judges.  That’s counterproductive.  If he needs to house the soon-to-be-deported, a better idea is  unused military bases in Florida, Texas, South Carolina, Mississippi, or all of the above.

So no matter how many times the loony Left cries, “we’ve got him now!” Trump continues to have them eating out of his hand.  To use an old, and off-color saying, “Democrats don’t know whether to shit or wind their wristwatches.”  But here’s a more delicate sentiment, courtesy of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow –

Troll on, O Ship of State!
Troll on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!

My hat’s off to Donald Trump, the King of the Trolls.