Don't Miss These Incredible Comments From RFK Jr.

🚨 BREAKING: RFK Jr. just SHATTERED the room with the most INSANE compliment ever delivered to President Trump…
In a live Cabinet meeting, the Health Secretary looked Trump dead in the eyes and DROPPED this absolute bombshell:
“My uncle prided himself on being the most open,… pic.twitter.com/77QHWpkEGf

— CONSTITUTION X 🇺🇸 (@ConstitustionX) August 1, 2026

Rarely Seen: Inside The Legendary 'Kennedy Compound'

Video: Christmas At The Trump-Kennedy Center

Wednesday was a magical night at the Trump Kennedy Center!

🎄We started with our inaugural Christmas Tree Lighting in the Hall of States, complete with a joyful visit from Santa Claus. 🎅 The ceremony was led by our President, Ambassador Richard Grenell, and Secretary of… pic.twitter.com/vBBhBssmSf

— The Trump Kennedy Center (@kencen) December 19, 2025

The 2025 Kennedy Center Honorees: HOORAY!

Trump on hosting tomorrow's 48th Kennedy Center Honors: "We've never had a President hosting the awards before. This is a first. I'm sure they'll give me great reviews... If I can't beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don't think I should be President. 😂 pic.twitter.com/C7uXsi2QOZ

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 6, 2025

Thanksgiving's Strong , Abundant Spiritual Roots

Even though it seems a bit late this year, Thanksgiving is fast approaching and it's a holiday everyone enjoys.

Indeed, people have always pointed to Thanksgiving as a lovely day for family and friends that all Americans can celebrate together regardless of race, religion or ethnicity. And this is true. Who doesn't enjoy Thanksgiving?

But beyond it's universality, America's Thanksgiving has strong spiritual roots that go back a long way.

You see, Thanksgiving is much more than turkey, stuffing, and football (as good as those things are). Thanksgiving is a national holiday that is explicitly religious in nature. History teaches us that as a nation of faith, we have set aside such a day to thank our Lord for the many blessings He has bestowed.

Consider the following:

• In 1789, in his first year in office, President George Washington called for a day of Thanksgiving because “it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor.”
• In 1815, President James Madison issued a proclamation for “a day of thanksgiving and of devout acknowledgments to Almighty God for His great goodness.”

After Madison, however, Thanksgiving reverted to a regional celebration in New England for 48 years. 

• Then, in 1863, in the midst of America's bloody civil war, magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale petitioned the Lincoln administration that a day of Thanksgiving "now needs National recognition and authoritative fixation, only, to become permanently, an American custom and institution."

Lincoln, who carried the weight of America's historic rupture on his shoulders and often sought divine guidance, responded to Hale's urgings and called on Americans that year to “fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore if, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.”

Since then, in proclaiming Thanksgiving each year, presidents of both parties have turned to God in their Thanksgiving Day proclamations. 

In 1947, President Truman declared Thanksgiving a day for "expressions of gratitude to Almighty God for the many blessings which He has heaped upon us." Fifty years later, in his proclamation, President Clinton asked all Americans  to "assemble in their homes, places of worship, or community centers to share the spirit of goodwill and prayer; to express heartfelt thanks to God for the many blessings He has bestowed upon us." 

Significantly, during dark days of wrenching national grief, just one week after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, President Lyndon Johnson delivered a Thanksgiving message of national unity declaring: "I come before you to ask your help, to ask your strength, to ask your prayers that God may guard this republic and guide my every labor."

All of this is worth remembering as Thanksgiving approaches once again.

As difficult, divisive and polarizing as our present plight might seem, America has been through far worse times. And during such times, including two world wars, the civil war and the American revolution itself, our nation has humbly turned to the Almighty again and again, seeking His strength, guidance and abundant grace.

This Thanksgiving, as always - in God we trust!

About That New White House Addition . . .

The White House, gutted and expanded
during the Truman era.

OMG! Some people are getting apoplectic over the addition of a ballroom to the White House. 

These people obviously have no understanding of history and seem to be motivated solely by TDS -- Trump Derangement Sydrome.

Truth is, the White House has been a work in progress almost since it first opened and each president has left his mark on the executive mansion. Consider the following:

• The White House was opened in 1800 and just three years later, Thomas Jefferson added the East and West Colonnades. After all, Jefferson was the one who designed his own classic Monticello.
• The White House was nearly burned to the ground in the War of 1812 and subsequently needed to be almost completely rebuilt.
• The south portico was constructed in 1824 during the James Monroe administration. The north portico was then added in 1830.
• By the late 1850s a move was afoot to ditch the White House altogether and move the family residence to a new building as the offices were becoming overcrowded. But the Civil War and subsequent reconstruction squashed any further move in that direction.
• In 1881 President Chester Arthur ordered renovations and paid for much of it by auctioning off hundreds of original furniture going back the Madison era. Some of it has since been recovered, but apparently a majority of it remains in private collections.
• In 1902, Teddy Roosevelt decided to tinker with the building further, overseeing extensive renovations including removal of Victorian era stained glass. He also removed a staircase in the West Hall and moved executive office staff from the second floor of the residence into the newly built, single-story West Wing which enclosed the Jefferson West Colonnade.
• A few years later, President Taft added space to the West Wing, including the Oval Office. And you thought the iconic Oval Office was there all along, huh?
• In the 1930s, Franklin Roosevelt added the second floor to the West Wing and then relocated the Oval Office. Also under FDR, The East Wing was added in 1942 and has been used primarily as office space for the First Lady and as the visitor's tour entrance.
• The construction of a fourth-story attic during the Coolidge administration apparently took toll on the brick and sandstone structure built around a timber frame. By 1948, the house was declared to be in imminent danger of collapse, forcing President Truman to commission a reconstruction and to live across the street at Blair House from 1949 to 1951. The White House was essentially gutted, the interior was strengthened and rebuilt and the Truman Balcony was added.
• Then in 1962, First Lady Jackie Kennedy did an extensive decorative renovation of the interior focusing mostly on the public rooms.
• A decade later, Pat Nixon renovated a few more rooms while Richard Nixon ditched FDR's indoor pool to make room for a modern press room.

So, calm down all you Trump-hating history-deniers. The White House isn't going anywhere and it will still look like the White House that we all know and love. It's simply getting the addition of a brand new ballroom -- something that the White House has needed for decades and something that other presidents have longed for. AND not one cent of the costs will be paid for by taxpayer dollars. All of the funds are being privately raised and the architectural integrity of the White House will be preserved.

The White House is like America itself -- always changing and adjusting but retaining its essential character. Decades from now this latest adjustment is destined to be viewed as another outstanding milestone in the development of a beloved work in progress!

From The Democrats To The 'GIMMECRATS!'

 How times have changed!

From FDR To Trump: Making Celebrity Tenable

The Emergence of the Age of Celebrity . . . 

It's 2025 and in the most recent battle for the presidency we had a certified celebrity (and former president) running against a wannabe celebrity who launched a pop up campaign built around imagery, sloganeering and cosmetic promises.

And we also witnessed the routing of a sitting president, triggered in part by an op-ed penned by the celebrity pal of the victim's former running mate. And the running mate was apparently part of the scheme.

How did we get to this point? How did the Presidency of the United States become celebritized?  Because, make no mistake, that's where we're at -- and perhaps now more than ever. Because, love or hate him, President Trump, has shown that he uses the mass media with all the star quality, shock value, and stagecraft of the most seasoned celebrities.

Back to the beginning.

In the modern era of mass communication this all started with Franklin D. Roosevelt and the emergence of radio. In Roosevelt's day, radio was the most powerful medium imaginable. For the first time, the president could enter your living room and speak directly to you. You could hear his voice, live on the radio. His cadence, his tone, his feelings and his emotion became reachable, touchable, real. And FDR mastered the power of radio with his legendary fireside chats.

Radio is what they call a "hot" medium. It's intimate and engaging because it requires the listener to imagine the appearance, the movements and the mannerisms of the person whose voice comes through the speaker. FDR understood this and he tailored his messages warmly and informally as if he were having a conversation with one person, sitting right beside him.

Roosevelt also surrounded himself with famous friends. He welcomed the support of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, the most popular young movie stars of the era and he made sure to be seen not just with them but with the then reigning "King of Hollywood" Clark Gable as well as other stars of the 1930s and 40s. Roosevelt often colluded with the big Hollywood studio bosses and was regularly featured on the silver screen in the filmed Movietone News that was the in-theater precursor to television. FDR's face, his distinctive profile, his voice and his moving image were everywhere. He was the first celebrity president of the electronic age.

In the years that followed Roosevelt's death it was hard for any leader to match let alone eclipse his celebrity.  True, Harry Truman played the piano while Lauren Becall sat atop the spinet and swooned. And Ike brought an iconic smile and the first Madison Avenue produced TV spots to the presidency. But it wasn't until John F. Kennedy in 1960 that celebrity reached a new zenith in the oval office.

Few people recall that among his many other endeavors, Kennedy's millionaire dad, Joseph P. Kennedy was a Hollywood producer. The old man was determined that his strikingly handsome young son would become the leader of the free world. So John Fitzgerald  "Jack" Kennedy was given the moniker JFK and presented to the public via the best image-makers money could buy. He was dressed by the finest tailors, photographed by world renowned photographers, depicted in the most eye-appealing settings, seen with all the right people and armed with the words and witticisms of America's top speechwriters and wordsmiths. 

Just as FDR mastered radio, JFK was the first president to master  the world of television, a "cool" medium which perfectly suited Kennedy's magnetic presence. Of course, it helped that Jack Kennedy was also smart, charming and married to a beautiful, classy, worldly woman who gave birth to two adorable children. And it also helped that he hobnobbed with the likes of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack while she brought artists such as Pablo Casals into the White House to perform. They probably single handedly popularized the word glitterati. And all of this reached a dazzling crescendo on May 19. 1962 when Marilyn Monroe sang "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" before a captivated crowd at Madison Square Garden. That was the night that celebrity and the presidency were as tightly bound as Marilyn and her dress. America was sumptuously seduced -- and that included the mainstream media which went so gaga over Kennedy that, even those who knew otherwise, fed the mammoth myth of JFK.

After that, it took another 20 years for America to crown its first genuine celebrity president by bringing an actual, verified, rock-solid Hollywood star into the White House. And, as the late producer, director and actor John Houseman would say, Ronald Reagan "did it the old-fashioned way, he earned it." Reagan served eight tumultuous years as Governor of California and didn't win the White House until his second try when he was nearly 70 years-old.

By the time he became president Reagan had been a celebrity for nearly four decades. He was comfortable with fame and all its trappings. Indeed, for the better part of his life, that's all he knew. On top of that, he had already mastered radio (he was an announcer and a sportscaster) the movies (he appeared in more than 50 films and helmed the Screen Actors Guild) and television (he hosted and appeared in a top-rated TV series). This made Reagan a triple threat and established him as The Great Communicator. 

And let's not forget that First Lady Nancy Reagan had herself been an actress and had appeared on stage and in the movies. So, this pair needed little or no media training, that's for sure. And while Hollywood stars and other celebrities remained within their galaxy, the Reagans were mostly unfazed by Tinseltown's glitz and glamour. They'd been there, done that. And this is precisely what set them apart.

As they sat in front of the tube each evening and ate their dinner off of TV trays, Ronald and Nancy Reagan wore celebrity like a set of snuggly jammies. In the process, they gave celebrity the one thing it most sorely lacked -- credibility! Knowingly or not, they opened the door to the possibility of a President Donald J. Trump.

Like Reagan, Trump was a celebrity for many years before he sought the presidency. And like Reagan, he was (and is) comfortable with his own fame. Like Reagan he was successful in several other endeavors before he sought the White House. Like Reagan, Trump had also been a TV host and star of a top-rated show. And like Reagan, Trump had sought the presidency more than once. Beyond all that, both men have been the target of an assassin's bullet and both men survived.

The difference is this: Reagan's incandescent star quality and charisma made him always somewhat distant. Now, Donald Trump has taken the credibility that the Reagans gave celebrity and he's made it familiar and accessible.  He's the everyman "star" who speaks in terms that everyone can understand. He's not celluloid; he real. Trump's authenticity is on display 24/7 for everyone to see. And Trump has weaved all this into a powerful movement based on the sort of bedrock faith that creates an army of true believers. 

Not since FDR has America seen this sort of trust in a singular, vivid, distinctive personality. Not since JFK have we seen this sort of affection for an imperfect but nonetheless compelling public figure. And not since Reagan have we seen have this sort of adulation. 

Of course, between Reagan's departure from office in 1989 and the emergence of Trump in 2016 we did have the era of Barack Obama. But for all its flash and graphic messaging, Obama's presidency lacked the depth of Roosevelt, the panache of JFK, the comfort of Reagan or the daring of Trump. Indeed, while Obama wrote about audacity, President Trump continues to define it.

Where does all this leave us? Well, we now know that celebrity, embodied by the right personality, is more than skin deep. It's more than surface celebrity. It's powered by ideas, aspirations and character. It reaches us on a visceral level. And all this is part of its allure.

Now combine this with power -- real power, as in the Presidency of the United States -- and you have something that's transformative.

Great Lineup Of 2025 Kennedy Center Honorees

Today, President Donald J. Trump proudly unveiled the honorees of the 48th Kennedy Center Honors, recognizing an extraordinary group of artists whose talents have shaped American culture and entertained generations. These heroes of arts and culture will be celebrated at the annual Kennedy Center Honors Gala in December.

The 2025 Kennedy Center Honorees

George Strait

Beloved by millions, Strait has become known the world over as the unambiguous “King of Country.” Over his extraordinary four-decade career, he has sold more than 120 million records worldwide, amassed 60 number-one hits, and produced 33 platinum-certified albums — more than any other living American. He is the only act in history to have a Top 10 hit every year for more than three decades. Offstage, Strait’s philanthropy has raised tens of millions of dollars for military and children’s causes, including through the Jenifer Strait Memorial Foundation to preserve the memory of his daughter and by presenting 127 mortgage-free homes to wounded veterans through the Military Warriors Support Foundation.

Michael Crawford

An actor, singer, philanthropist, and star of the Broadway stage, Crawford made his Broadway debut in 1967 and became an international sensation for his original portrayal of the Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Weber’s The Phantom of the Opera — earning him the esteemed Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Crawford’s generational talent defined one of the greatest Broadway roles of all time.

Sylvester Stallone

A three-time Oscar nominee, Golden Globe Award winner, and action movie icon, Stallone is a legend of the silver screen. From “Rocky” to “Rambo” and “Cobra” to “Creed,” his films have grossed more than $7.5 billion worldwide over the course of his six-decade career. He is a pillar of American pop culture and a Hollywood superstar like no other whose films have inspired audiences worldwide with their portrayals of perseverance and triumph against the odds.

Gloria Gaynor

Among the most revered singers of the American disco era, Gaynor’s chart-topping 1978 hit “I Will Survive” earned her the 1980 Grammy Award for Best Disco Recording — with her song inducted into the National Recording Registry in 2016. Four decades later, Gloria won a second Grammy in 2020 for her gospel album “Testimony” — a historic achievement.

KISS

Among the greatest rock bands of all time, KISS was formed in New York City in 1973 by founding members Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss. The band would go on to become a global phenomenon, selling more than 100 million records worldwide, producing 30 gold albums — the most ever by an American band — and earning an induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

 

Oh, My! How Times Have Changed!

 

Long Before There Was Elon, There Was THIS Man

This billionaire businessman was a pop culture icon and presidential chum who had an open invitation to the White House. Though he was never elected to any office, he headed commissions, set federal policy, directed various operations and played a critical -- even decisive -- role. Yet, while befriending and hosting the most influential people he also remained a distinct and somewhat quirky personality in his own right.

Sound familiar?

No, we're not talking about Elon Musk. We're talking about someone who came decades before Musk. We're talking about Barnard Baruch!

Bernard Mannes Baruch came to be referred to as an "elder statesman" because he was chummy with US presidents who frequently called upon him for his guidance. For decades, Bernard Baruch was also one of the country's richest and most powerful men. 

Baruch amassed a fortune on the New York Stock Exchange and was a devoted member of the Democrat Party who contributed generously to it. When Woodrow Wilson became president, Baruch became a White House insider and regular guest of the president. He was highly influential in the Wilson administration,  impressing the progersssive Wilson by managing the nation's economic mobilization in World War I as chairman of the War Industries Board. He also advised Wilson during the Paris Peace Conference. He made another fortune in the postwar bull market, but wisely foresaw the Wall Street crash and sold out well in advance.

In World War II, Baruch then became a close advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the role of industry in war supply and he was credited with greatly shortening the production time for tanks and aircraft. Later he helped to develop rehabilitation programs for injured servicemen. In 1946 he was the United States representative to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, though his Baruch Plan for international control of atomic energy was rejected by the Soviet Union.

Like many bright and successful people, Baruch had his eccentricities and for all his high-level connections, in many ways he remained a maverick. His refusal to join any major Wall Street brokerage firm (though he could have been a partner at any of them) gave him the reputation as the “lone wolf of Wall Street.” And Baruch always claimed he received his greatest insight sitting on park benches in Washington and New York chatting with ordinary people. A famous Bernard Baruch quote goes like this: “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” 

More fascinating background on Baruch: 

• Baruch played on an international stage. Winston Churchill sought out Baruch for investment advice and the financier happily obliged, even hosting Churchill at luxury hotels and providing an office for him when Churchill visited New York. They were lifelong chums.

• Baruch amassed a personal fortune of about a $230 million which would make him a multi billionaire in today’s dollars. At the age of 33 Baruch (a true wunderkind) was already worth $3 million, or about $81 million in today's dollars.

• Baruch was an ardent proponent of independent thinking and frequently spoke out against the conventional wisdom of the day. He counseled avoiding a herd mentality and thinking long range, beyond the moment.

• Baruch founded the Intercontinental Rubber Company of New York, which dominated the guayule rubber market in the U.S. with holdings in Mexico and elsewhere. His partners in the enterprise were big time operators including Senator  Nelson Aldrich, Daniel Guggenheim, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and George Foster peabody. 

• Baruch purchased approximately 16,000 acres of the former 18th century Hobcaw Barony, consolidating 14 plantations in South Carolina between the Winyah Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. He developed sections of the property as a winter hunting resort.

• Baruch was celebrated in the popular culture. He was portrayed in the movies Wilson and Funny Lady as well as in the drama Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years. He was also mentioned in episodes of the Donna Reed Show, the Dick Van Dyke Show, Leave It To Beaver, the Patty Duke Show and Make Room For Daddy. Humorist Art Buchwald referenced Baruch in his book A Gift From The Boys.

• Baruch was a frequent visitor to the White House during the administrations of Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman and even later during the administrations of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.  Baruch died in 1965. 

Note: Baruch was heralded in his day and amply praised by the media and the titans of that era. No one dared question the motives or the reputation of presidential best bud Bernard Baruch. My, how times have changed!

This Isn't Too Much To Ask For; Not Here, Not Now

Looking back on Inauguration Day, I once again find the need to send a message to my friends who may not be in much of a celebratory mood as President Trump begins his presidency.

While I deeply respect and honor all viewpoints, right now some prospective seems to be in order.  

When I was a kid in eighth grade, we had a teacher at our well-worn urban schoolhouse who was a prim and proper suburbanite and a staunch Republican. We knew her affiliation because during the hotly contested 1960 campaign she sported a Nixon button on her overcoat. Now, she never, ever expressed her political views in the classroom. That would have crossed a line and she always followed the rules. 

But after one of the closest elections in history was over and the results were in, a student asked her if she was disappointed at how things had turned out. "The election's over," she answered. "The people have spoken. Kennedy won. He's my president now," she added "and I respect him as the President of the United States and wish him well." 

I never forgot that. It impressed me. And not just because she was a good sport and recognized that the other team had won and her team lost. No, it impressed me because this was more than a game. This was democracy at work. This outcome had real consequences for all of us -- for our city, our state, for the nation and the world. It mattered in people's everyday lives. 

And she recognized this and she was acting as a good citizen. She was showing, as Benjamin Franklin said that there are times when "we must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." I know that times have changed. But, during a week like this, I really don't think that's too much to ask.

God Bless America!

Remembering November 22, 1963 - The Day The Music Died

 

Celebritizing The Presidency: Origins And Outcomes

It's 2024 and in the battle for presidency we now have a certified celebrity (and former president) running against a wannabe celebrity who's launched a pop up campaign built around imagery, sloganeering and cosmetic promises.

And we just witnessed the routing of a sitting president, triggered in part by an op-ed penned by the celebrity pal of the victim's former running mate.

How did we get to this point? How did the Presidency of the United States become celebritized?  Because, make no mistake, that's where we're at.

In the modern era of mass communication it all started with Franklin D. Roosevelt and the emergence of radio. In Roosevelt's day, radio was the most powerful medium imaginable. For the first time, the president could enter your living room and speak directly to you. You could hear his voice, live on the radio. His cadence, his tone, his feelings and his emotion became reachable, touchable, real. And FDR mastered the power of radio with his legendary fireside chats.

Radio is what they call a "hot" medium. It's intimate and engaging because it requires the listener to imagine the appearance, the movements and the mannerisms of the person whose voice comes through the speaker. FDR understood this and he tailored his messaged warmly and informally as if he were having a conversation with one person, sitting right beside him.

Roosevelt also surrounded himself with famous friends. He welcomed the support of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, the most popular young movie stars of the era and he made sure to be seen not just with them but with the then reigning "King of Hollywood" Clark Gable as well as other stars of the 1930s and 40s. Roosevelt often colluded with the big Hollywood studio bosses and was regularly featured on the silver screen in the filmed Movietone News that was the in-theater precursor to television. FDR's face, his distinctive profile, his voice and his moving image were everywhere. He was the first celebrity president of the electronic age.

In the years that followed Roosevelt's death it was hard for any leader to match let alone eclipse his celebrity.  True, Harry Truman played the piano while Lauren Becall sat atop the spinet and swooned. And Ike brought an iconic smile and the first Madison Avenue produced TV spots to the presidency. But it wasn't until John F. Kennedy in 1960 that celebrity reached a new zenith in the oval office.

Few people recall that among his many other endeavors, Kennedy's millionaire dad, Joseph P. Kennedy was a Hollywood producer. The old man was determined that his strikingly handsome young son would become the leader of the free world. So John Fitzgerald  "Jack" Kennedy was given the moniker JFK and presented to the public via the best image-makers money could buy. He was dressed by the finest tailors, photographed by world renowned photographers, depicted in the most eye-appealing settings, seen with all the right people and armed with the words and witticisms of America's top speechwriters and wordsmiths. America was sumptulously seduced.

Just as FDR mastered radio, JFK was the first president to master  the world of television, a "cool" medium which perfectly suited Kennedy's magnetic presence. Of course, it helped that Jack Kennedy was also smart, charming and married to a beautiful, classy, worldly woman who gave birth to two adorable children. And it also helped that he hobnobbed with the likes of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack while she brought artists such as Pablo Casals into the White House to perform. They probably single handedly popularized the word glitterati. And all of this reached a dazzling crescendo on May 19. 1962 when Marilyn Monroe sang "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" before a captivated crowd at Madison Square Garden. That was the night that celebrity and the presidency were as tightly bound as Marilyn and her dress.

Still, it took another 20 years for America to crown its first genuine celebrity president by bringing an actual, verified, rock-solid Hollywood star into the White House. And, as the late producer, director and actor John Houseman would say, Ronald Reagan "did it the old-fashioned way, he earned it." Reagan served eight tumultuous years as Governor of California and didn't win the White House until his second try when he was nearly 70 years-old.

By the time he became president Reagan had been a celebrity for nearly four decades. He was comfortable with fame and all its trappings. Indeed, for the better part of his life, that's all he knew. On top of that, he had already mastered radio (he was an announcer and a sportscaster) the movies (he appeared in more than 50 films and helmed the Screen Actors Guild) and television (he hosted and appeared in a top-rated TV series). This made Reagan a triple threat and established him as The Great Communicator. 

And let's not forget that First Lady Nancy Reagan had herself been an actress and had appeared on stage and in the movies. So, this pair needed little or no media training, that's for sure. And while Hollywood stars and other celebrities remained within their galaxy, the Reagans were mostly unfazed by Tinseltown's glitz and glamour. They'd been there, done that. And this is precisely what set them apart.

As they sat in front of the tube each evening and ate their dinner off of TV trays, Ronald and Nancy Reagan wore celebrity like a set of snuggly jammies. In the process, they gave celebrity the one thing it most sorely lacked -- credibility! Knowingly or not, they opened the door to the possibility of a President Donald J. Trump.

Like Reagan, Trump was a celebrity for many years before he sought the presidency. And like Reagan, he was (and is) comfortable with his own fame. Like Reagan he was successful in several other endeavors before he sought the White House. Like Reagan, Trump had also been a TV host and star of a top-rated show. And like Reagan, Trump has sought the presidency more than once. Beyond all that, both men have been the target of an assassin's bullet and both men survived.

The difference is this: Donald Trump has taken the credibility that the Reagan's gave celebrity and he's made it familiar and accessible. Trump's authenticity is on display 24/7 for everyone to see. And Trump has weaved all this into a powerful movement based on the sort of bedrock faith that creates an army of true believers. 

Not since FDR has America seen this sort of trust in one personality. Not since JFK have we seen this sort of affection for an imperfect but nonetheless compelling public figure. And not since Reagan have we seen have we seen this sort of adulation. 

Of course, between Reagan's departure from office in 1989 and the emergence of Trump in 2016 we did have the era of Barack Obama. But for all its flash and graphic messaging, Obama's presidency lacked the depth of Roosevelt, the panache of JFK, the comfort of Reagan or the daring of Trump. Indeed, while Obama wrote about audacity President Trump continues to define it.

Where does all this leave us? Well, we now know that celebrity, embodied by the right personality, is more than skin deep. It's more than surface celebrity. It's powered by ideas, aspirations and character. It reaches us on a visceral level. And all this is part of its allure.

Now combine this with power -- real power, as in the Presidency of the United States -- and you have something that's transformative.

Nearly Sixty Years Ago This Month . . .

Unveiled At Last: The Secret Jackie!

Love. Money. Style. Fame. Intrigue. Murder. Scandal. Mystery. Privilege. Tragedy. 

They're all there, and more, in the story of one of history's most famous figures -- so famous that her name alone said it all: Jackie.

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis dominated the public's imagination through five decades to the point where her every move seemed to be exhaustively catalogued down to the minutest details. And yet the woman herself appeared to be shrouded in mystery. She grew up in a cosseted world of wealth characterized by penthouses, society soirees, country mansions, private schools, equestrian endeavors, sun, sailboats and European escapes. 

What's not to love, right? But there was also a troubled, reckless alcoholic father; a domineering, social-climbing mother; an envious, cunning sister; a step brother who never got over his infatuation with her and a patrician step father who had his own dark secrets. And we haven't even gotten to her marriages and her time with the Kennedy clan and later, the Onassis family.

Jackie once confessed that her amazingly eventful life actually had three components: public, private and secret. Public was what you saw. Private was what she shared only with close family members and devoted friends. But secret? Secret . . . ? Shelves of books have failed to unlock the secret Jackie. Until now.

Now comes J. Randy Taraborrelli's Jackie: Public, Private, Secret, a richly detailed chronicle of Jackie's life. Taraborrelli, a veteran biographer has written about Jackie, her family, the Kennedys and other celebrities before.

But this book has been decades in the making, is exhaustively researched and eminently fair. At the same time it's intimate, highly readable and unpretentious. Taraborrelli is a wonderful story teller and as this book unfolds in quick, snapshot chapters it's as if you're right there beside Jackie -- right in the moment through all the high points and horrors of her life. 

The author manages to strike that illusive balance: he's sensitive to Jackie's struggles and traumas but clear-minded and objective as well. You get the feeling that if he actually knew Jackie and had been taken into her circle he would have been a wonderful friend and confidante -- the kind who would tell you the truth even when it hurts.

Here are some of the things you'll learn in this book:

• JFK and Jackie made love in their hotel suite on Dallas the night before the president was assassinated. She feel asleep in his arms.
• Jackie and her sister, Lee Radziwill competed for the favor of the same men throughout their lives, but they were very competitive and never shared very well. Their mother, Janet told them to seek out money and power. The sisters became hopelessly estranged.
• Yes, Jackie loved patriarch Joe Kennedy but she became very close to the indomitable Rose Kennedy, greatly admiring her faith and welcoming the blessing that Rose gave to her later union with Ari Onassis.
• It was Onassis' sister, Artemis who befriended Jackie and matched her with her brother feeling that the two would make a good couple. Jackie became devoted to Artemis and trusted her judgement.
• Jackie had numerous suitors after the deaths of JFK and later, Onassis. She was playful and flirtatious. Among her dalliances: David Ormsby Gore (Lord Harlech), Warren Beatty, architect Jack Warnecke, diplomat Roswell Gilpatric, journalist Pete Hamill, photographer Peter Beard and Frank Sinatra.
• From that dreadful day in Dallas onward, Jackie kept up a treasured friendship and written correspondence with her successor, Lady Bird Johnson. The two women were very close and Lady Bird visited Jackie at her estate on Martha's Vineyard. 
• Jackie blamed the non-Hodgkins lymphoma which took her life on a lifelong addiction to tobacco. She was a heavy smoker.

There's much more in the book but by now you're probably wondering about the secret Jackie. It's not a pretty picture, folks. Jackie never got over that day in Dallas when her husband's skull was ripped apart and parts of his brain were splattered on her. She was stalked by the bloody horror of that historic day (magnified by international fame) for the rest of her life. She could never escape it. She had PTSD long before we knew what it was. 

Taraborrelli has done a masterful job. This book is a must read!

The Day The Music Died, 60 Years Later

Not many are around who remember an historic event 6o years after it happened. But I'm one of them. And I'm the only one from my immediate family still here to remember it.

Sixty years ago tomorrow I got my driver's license. 

I would have gotten it a lot sooner had I passed the driving test the first time. But I was jittery and the guy who tested me did little to set me at ease, so I failed. I wasn't really terribly upset. I knew I'd give it another go, and I did. 

The second time was the charm. Plus, I was excused from school that morning to take the test so the day was doubly rewarding. I returned to school a very proud and newly mobile senior. I couldn't wait to show off my license to all my friends.

I imagined driving around in my dad's car listening to songs on the radio like "One Fine Day" or "Heatwave" or going to see a movie like "The Great Escape." It was a frivolous, happy time.

When I got home from school my dad was waiting for me. "Well, Dan" he said "I guess you'll always remember the day you got your driver's license." And indeed I did. But not for the reason you might suppose. Because not long after I got back to the classroom that day we learned that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated.

I was sitting in journalism class on the third floor of Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden, New Jersey when the speaker mounted above the classroom door started broadcasting what sounded like a radio news report. I thought I heard something about the president. But then the broadcast abruptly ended. Understand, I was a Kennedy fanatic. I loved the guy! I campaigned for him; stayed up nearly all night election night during one of the closest contests in history; had an autographed photo of him and even got to personally meet him during the campaign. 

Why would a news report come over the classroom loudspeaker in the first place?  And why was it cut short? was already a news junkie so I was suspicious. I had a bad feeling. 

I was president of the school's student council so I quietly asked the teacher if I could go down to the main office and find out what was going on. He said yes and I raced down three flights of stairs to the office which sat near the school's front entrance. There, I saw the principal, a couple of teachers and a secretary huddled around a radio. But before I could get close enough to hear what was going on they told me to go back to my classroom.

As I walked back to the third floor, this only deepened my feeling of dread. Sure enough, when I got back to my desk the principal came over the loudspeaker to announce that President Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas. This was how we found out. There were no computers; no internet, no social media, no cell phones.

And just like that, a miasma of gloom descended and enveloped everything. It felt like a silent, invisible swarm of locusts -- dark, pervasive and menacing. This lasted, uninterrupted, for four days. To the extent people went about their business at all (and there was very little of that) they did so in a daze. People were glued to their television screens and beyond that all that could be heard were sighs, whispers and sobbing.

Friday. Saturday. Sunday. Monday. It was interminable. 

On Sunday, my sister, brother-in-law and I hopped into a big Pontiac Bonneville with neighbors, drove to Washington and waited in an endless line into the wee hours to pass by President Kennedy's closed coffin under the Capitol dome. Again, the hushed atmosphere with muffled sobs and sniffles. 

My classmates knew how I felt about JFK. So during this period they stopped by the house or called me to tell me how sorry they were. The truth is that we were all witnesses to a nightmare! Our high school yearbook that year was dedicated to the memory of President Kennedy. Here's part of what the dedication said:

We have been called the ugly Americans, crass materialists bent on making money; a people overstuffed and overstimulated. But on the day Kennedy died our people displayed their innate nobility, their love, their profound goodness by the way they mourned his tragic passing. 

The tribute of the people fit the man. Kennedy was a great President whose greatness grew with every year. Not that we always agreed with him . . . yet who can doubt the brilliant range of his ideas, the magnificence of the blueprint he presented to America to explore a New Frontier? . . . He was a politician as well as a statesman, knowing the practical demands of political patronage could never be completely divorced from the noblest statesmanship. He was a dreamer but certainly not starry-eyed and impractical. . . .

Truly, our tribute to President Kennedy lies now not in words but in how we wear the mantle of courage which was his legacy to us.

When those words were written it had been 62 years since a President had been assassinated. Yet, the years that followed 1963 seemed awash in bloodshed as we later witnessed America's descent into the protracted Vietnam war, the loss of more than 50,000 American lives in that war and the assassinations of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. 

November 22, 1963. The day the music died!