Latest news with #TeddyRoosevelt
The Guardian
04-08-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
To compare Donald Trump to Teddy Roosevelt on nature protection is absurd
Simon Jenkins' article (He may talk rubbish but Trump has an eye for beauty, and that is a breath of fresh air, 1 August) was for the most part milquetoast Trump apologia, studded with the usual non-criticisms to give an impression of impartiality (yes, Trump does sometimes 'talk rubbish') and lauding one particular droplet in his firehose stream of insanity as some sort of visionary pronouncement (I would argue one of his more significant early actions was to economically attack my country, deride its sovereignty and muse on annexing us, but yes, restoring federal buildings is nice, too.) Where the article veered into insulting territory, however, was in comparing Trump to Teddy Roosevelt, claiming that both men 'seemed to care about America's natural environment, its forests and deserts, and a role for Washington in their custodianship'. To call this comparison absurd would be an understatement. Teddy Roosevelt was a committed conservationist who created the United States Forest Service; Trump called climate change a Chinese hoax. Roosevelt greatly expanded the national parks system; Trump opened up national parks in Alaska for oil drilling. Roosevelt created 51 wild bird reserves; Trump neutered the Migratory Bird Treaty Act at the behest of the fossil fuel industry. Roosevelt used executive orders to protect 600,000sq km of forest from logging and other exploitation; Trump used executive orders to try to bring back coal. Should I go on?Justin JoschkoOttawa, Ontario, Canada Imposing classical revival styles in federal architecture is the tool of dictators. To insinuate that Trump has any taste at all fails. His own ostentatious display of wealth by dipping everything that he surrounds himself with in cheesy gold paint is proof. The American Institute of Architects is on record against this mandate as being retrograde, and calls out this failure to promote forward-reaching design and creative Simmons Santa Fe, New Mexico, US Beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder. As I have driven across Kansas, Oklahoma and crossing into California from Arizona on Interstate 10, I smile when I see those turbines turning and think, ah, green energy, less pollution and saving the planet. They, to me, are beautiful, much better than coal belching pollutants into the AckersLeawood, Kansas, US How disingenuous to suggest that President Trump has any care for the aesthetic beauty of our environment, without noting his zeal for plundering the earth's resources to their limit for personal and private profit. Don't we all remember 'Drill, baby, drill'? His antipathy to wind turbines, regardless of where they are sited, owes more to his loathing for renewable energy solutions than it does to his concerns about aesthetic HutchesonCastle Carrock, Cumbria If Donald Trump has an eye for beauty, why did he destroy the sand dunes near Aberdeen in order to install his golf course? Cliff SaxtonLauzun, France
Irish Independent
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Independent
Senan Molony: Catherine Connolly speaks softly, but is it more schtick than a stick she's carrying at launch of her presidential run?
Teddy Roosevelt is credited with the maxim 'speak softly and carry a big stick'. Would-be president of Ireland Catherine Connolly emulates that American leader only in one respect. She speaks very softly indeed.
USA Today
10-07-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
One year after Trump's attempted assassination, how politics has changed
What becomes a legend? On that list would surely be an assassination attempt that grazed the ear of a former-and-future president, prompting a flash of fist-pumping defiance that became instantly iconic. One year ago, the shooting of Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was an extraordinary news story in the moment − and an event that would reverberate for him and in the American landscape. Violence isn't new to the nation's politics, of course. Four presidents have been assassinated in office − Abraham Lincoln and James Garfield in the 19th century and William McKinley and John F. Kennedy in the 20th − and every modern president has been the target of serious assassination plots. Ronald Reagan was seriously wounded by one. In the space of 17 days, Gerald Ford faced two separate attempts by women with guns, in one case an attack that left a bystander shot. But none of the failed or forestalled attempts has had more continuing impact and attention than the shooting on July 13, 2024. Trump's defiant response helped clinch a campaign that had begun heading his way. It increased his stature with such prominent figures as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, not to mention a rising number of male voters. Surviving such a close call emboldened the new president himself once he moved back into the Oval Office. And it bolstered the view of Trump and some of his supporters that even God was on his side. Like Teddy Roosevelt, Trump's miraculous luck Not since Teddy Roosevelt has a current or former president embraced surviving an assassination attempt with such fervor, as a sign of something meaningful and important. In 1912, Roosevelt was a former Republican president campaigning for another term as the nominee of the Progressive Party he had formed, nicknamed the Bull Moose Party. He avoided serious injury when a bullet fired by a would-be assassin was slowed by passing through the candidate's metal glasses case and a thick copy of his speech ("Progressive Cause Greater Than Any Individual") before penetrating his chest. "I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot," he told the crowd outside the Gilpatrick Hotel in Milwaukee, "but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose!" He delivered his full speech before getting medical attention, then carried the bullet in his body for the rest of his life after doctors determined it would be too risky to remove it. More than a century later, Trump, another former Republican president seeking a second term, was spared serious injury by his own seemingly miraculous twist of fate. He happened to turn his head to point to a chart showing illegal border crossings at the instant a bullet fired by a sniper on a nearby rooftop whizzed by, grazing his ear. Had it come an inch closer, the injury could have been catastrophic; instead, it required only stitches and a bandage, though he says his ear still throbs from time to time. A man in the audience was struck and killed in a series of gunshots before a Secret Service sniper killed the shooter. Days later, in his acceptance speech to the Republican National Convention − in Milwaukee, site of Roosevelt's near-miss and just three blocks from the former site of the Gilpatrick Hotel − Trump recounted the assassination attempt in dramatic detail. His right ear was covered with a folded white bandage. "I stand before you only by the grace of almighty God," he told the spellbound audience. He vowed never to speak of the shooting again, a promise he would break within weeks. Now, every visitor taking the White House tour walks by a painting that depicts the moment he rose after being tackled by Secret Service agents, pumping his fist in the air. With blood streaking down his face, he shouted "Fight! Fight! Fight!" "Some new artwork at the White House," the official White House account posted on the social media platform X, with emoji eyes. President Barack Obama's official portrait was moved to clear the prime space in the foyer of the State Floor for the new painting. High-top sneakers and expensive perfume recall the day "It was the hand of God," Trump told journalist Salena Zito the day after the shooting. "He was there." In her new book, "Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America's Heartland," being published July 8 by conservative imprint Center Street, Zito writes that the shooting fueled the then-78-year-old's determination to get big things done in office − even more than during his turbulent first term. At the time of the shooting, President Joe Biden was in free fall after a faltering performance in the June 27 presidential debate raised questions about his mental acuity. He would eventually withdraw as the Democratic standard-bearer. Two weeks after the debate, Trump's extraordinary response to the shooting prompted some skeptics to take a second look at him. Later that day, Musk announced he was endorsing Trump. His machismo may have been especially appealing to some male voters. On Election Day, the Pew Research Center calculates he carried men by 12 percentage points after only breaking even in 2020. And there's this: A company Trump owns sold out of its $299 limited-edition high-top sneakers that showed an image of his bloodied face on each side − "eye-catching and unapologetic," the description said. Last week, the site began to offer $249-a-bottle cologne with a name peculiar for perfume but distinctly Trumpian: "Fight Fight Fight."
UPI
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- UPI
On This Day, July 1: Canada becomes self-governing
1 of 7 | On July 1, 1867, Canada became a self-governing state within the British Empire File Photo by Paul Hanna/UPI | License Photo July 1 (UPI) -- On this date in history: In 1847, the first U.S. postage stamps were issued. In 1859, the first intercollegiate baseball game was played in Pittsfield, Mass., and it was a high-scoring contest. Amherst beat Williams, 66-32. In 1867, Canada became a self-governing state within the British Empire, setting the stage to become fully independent in 1931. Today, Canadians celebrate July 1 as Canada Day. In 1874, the Philadelphia Zoological Society, the first U.S. zoo, opened to the public. In 1898, Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders led a charge up Cuba's heavily fortified San Juan Hill in a key Spanish-American War battle. In 1908, more than a thousand suffragettes in London attempted to rescue 28 of their fellow protesters who were arrested by police following a demonstration in Parliament Square. In 1916, in the worst single day of casualties in British military history, 20,000 soldiers were killed and 40,000 injured in a massive offense against German forces in France's Somme River region during World War I. In 1932, Democrats nominated Franklin Delano Roosevelt for president. FDR was elected to four consecutive terms. In 1941, NBC broadcast the first FCC-sanctioned TV commercial, a spot for Bulova watches shown during a Dodgers-Phillies game. It cost Bulova $9. In 1941, Mammoth Cave National Park was established in Kentucky, protecting 52,830 acres of caverns and a diverse group of animal and plant species. The park is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. In 1946, the United States conducted its first post-war test of the atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. In 1961, Haleakalā National Park was split off from Hawai'i National Park to become its own park. In 1979, Sony introduced the Walkman, known as the Soundabout, in U.S. stores. It sold for about $200. In 1984, the Motion Picture Association of America introduced the PG-13 rating to warn parents that a film may be too violent for children under the age of 13. A top U.S. Catholic Conference official said the move was just another way to exploit young people. In 1990, the West and East German economies were united, with the Deutsche Mark replacing the mark as currency in East Germany. In 1997, Hong Kong was returned to China after 156 years as a British territory. Britain's Prince Charles, Prime Minister Tony Blair, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and U.S. Secretary Madeleine Albright attended the ceremony. Britain first occupied Hong Kong in the 1840s amid the First Opium War. In 2002, in a rare high-altitude accident, a passenger airliner collided with a cargo plane over Germany, killing all 71 people on the two planes -- 69 on the airliner and two on the cargo aircraft. In 2013, Croatia became the 28th member state of the European Union. In 2013, a year after Mohamed Morsi became president of Egypt, hundreds of thousands of protesters marched in cities across the country, calling for him to step down. Morsi was ousted by the military two days later and died in June 2019. File Photo by Ahmed Jomaa/UPI In 2019, Japan resumed commercial whaling for the first time in 31 years. In 2023, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands acknowledged and apologized for the Dutch role in the historical slave trade in a speech marking the 150th anniversary of the end of slavery in Dutch Suriname. In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Donald Trump has partial immunity for official acts while he was president in a case tied to his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. File Photo by Jemal Countess/UPI
New York Post
29-06-2025
- New York Post
How the sons of Teddy Roosevelt discovered the mythical Giant Panda
Among the great hunters and adventurers of the Roaring 1920s were the two eldest sons of Teddy Roosevelt, America's 26th president, former New York governor and one of the country's most energetic and famous figures. The Roosevelt family had funded museums to fill their halls with exhibits of virtually every large animal known to man, but for one — the elusive and legendary creature, the giant black and white panda. 7 Ted and Kermit Roosevelt in 1926 during their ambitions and unprecedented journey across the Himalayas to find the mythical Giant Panda. Courtesy of the Library of Congress Emboldened by their legendary lineage, Ted Jr. and Kermit Roosevelt decided to follow in the footsteps of their big-game-hunting father who had brought back kills of lions, tigers, elephants and bears — often exhibited in New York City's American Museum of Natural History, which the boys' grandfather had co-founded in 1869. Pursuing fame and glory — as well as hoping to escape the shadow of their father — the brothers set out for remote, and inhospitable Himalayan mountains in Asia, which had yet to be explored by Westerners. Their goal was to find the panda thought to be some kind of polar bear — but a beast that many believed did not exist. And the brothers faced a punishing route up a 16,000-foot peak with howling winter storms. As Nathalia Holt writes in her deeply researched nonfiction account, 'The Beast in the Clouds: The Roosevelt Brothers' Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda' )One Signal Publishers): 'The animal the brothers coveted looked like no other species in the world . . . a black and white bear so rare that many people did not believe it was real. 7 The brother's legendary, swashbuckling father, Pres. Teddy Roosevelt, the pioneering naturalists who inspired his sons' search for the Giant Panda Getty Images 'Not even naturalists who had worked in China all their lives would say precisely where the creature lived, what it ate, or how it behaved . . . The Roosevelts desired this one animal so acutely that they could barely speak about it with each other, much less anyone else,' the author observes. Few people in the Republic of China had ever seen the panda, but there was a probable reference to it in Chinese literature in the early Third Century, according to the author. And proof of its existence arose when Joseph Milner, a missionary, donated the skin he had purchased of a giant panda to the American Museum of Natural History in New York in 1919. A French missionary, Armand David, had hired hunters in the Chinese province of Sichuan in 1869 to collect interesting specimens. They returned with a lifeless body of an unidentified animal, possibly the panda. David skinned it and shipped the pelt to Paris to be identified by experts. But scientists would not confirm it was authentic. 7 The Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in the distance, one of the many jew-dropping backdrops to the brothers' East Asian Panda quest in 1929. Photograph by Herbert Stevens In 1929, the determined Roosevelt siblings began an expedition to finally find this elusive bear, more legend than fact, in the inhospitable bamboo forests of the Tibetan Plateau in the high Himalayas. The brothers were accompanied by naturalists, trackers, guides, interpreters and scientists, and funded by Chicago's Field Museum and a wealthy donor. The Roosevelts were unprepared for what they faced: treacherous glacier crossings of the Himalayas, raiders ready to attack travelers, and air so thin that it was easy to die of oxygen deprivation. But they were driven by their ambitions to find a beast in the clouds that was considered the most challenging trophy on earth. The trail that crossed China and Tibet was desolate and forbidding with its intense wind, snow and ice, writes Holt. Indeed, there was 'no tent strong enough' to withstand the mountain squalls, and no fire hot enough to warm the explorers. 'These were the Roosevelts. They bore an air of invulnerability that had carried the entire group forward into this treacherous environment,' writes Holt — even when passing through a region called the Valley of Death, located in what is today the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, that was said to be full of evil spirits that haunted people while they slept — never to awaken. During the trek, forest walls closed in on all sides, and the extremely high mountain elevation made it difficult to breathe. There were bandits — including a 'band of eight hundred Tibetan marauders' — who roamed the rugged terrain. 7 Ted and Kermit Roosevelt in 1926 along with local associates who helped them with their quest to find the mythical Giant Panda. Courtesy of the Library of Congress One night, their team of mules mysteriously disappeared and starvation became a stark possibility with few provisions left beyond dried green peas and rice. A Tibetan lamasery provided nourishment before the crew moved on in blizzard-like storms. While the elusive panda remained little more than a fantasy, the scientists captured birds, broke their necks and skinned them. Capturing as many specimens as they could for natural history museums, an entire family of nine golden snub-nosed monkeys — the last of their kind — was killed in the name of science. After rugged days and nights, the expedition was finally on the panda's trail when reports of a white bear sighting came from a nearby village. The natives considered this beast a 'supernatural being, a sort of demi-god,' writes Holt. The villagers never tried to capture it and only agreed to take the white hunters in search of it — for money. At the base of a tree trunk, panda scat was discovered with bamboo in it, known to be the daily diet of the panda, along with its coarse white hair. 7 Today Giant Pandas still remain among the Earth's rarest creatures — often presented by the Chinese government to foreign nations as gifts of international diplomacy. Getty Images A trail of paw prints in the snow and half-munched bamboo quickly led them to their ultimate target. He was shot and killed on sight — a panda! 'For the explorers, it felt like the end,' writes Holt. 'In the five months of their expedition, the party had collected five thousand bird skins, two thousand small mammals, and forty big mammals,' but not the great bear. 'It was only here, at the end, that the brothers realized they had been wrong and the panda wasn't the wild, bellicose predator they had expected,' writes Holt. The gentleness of 'the panda had permanently altered their sense of purpose — and immediately following the panda hunt they were struck by illness.' A cut on Ted's leg became infected with bacteria spreading up his torso. News coming in revealed that Kermit's shipping business was headed to bankruptcy, and he had to return to New York. As soon as Kermit left, Ted felt himself emotionally and physically unraveling, according to Holt. 'His body ached from months of sleeping on the ground, repeated illness, and hard climbing,' Holt writes. 'Together we had shivered in the bitter winter cold of the high mountains and sweltered in the damp heat of the semi-tropics. Together we had passed through troubles ranging from lost mules to bandits. Now in all probability we would never meet again,' Ted later wrote. He came down with malaria and was admitted to a Saigon hospital where doctors found he had dysentery, caused by bacteria or parasites. The two brothers had always depended on each and now they were separated and barely speaking. 7 Author Nathalia Holt. Credit Larkin Holt Kermit's company was bleeding money and, worse, he had become an alcoholic. With his marriage unravelling, he started having affairs. In June 1943, he placed a revolver under his chin and pulled the trigger. Ted lived a year longer. They had awakened a pandamonium with pandas now being hunted for excessive sums becoming one of the rarest mammals on earth. 'A dark shadow had fallen across their lives the moment the brothers had simultaneously pulled their triggers,' writes the author. 'The panda hunt had forever altered his life,' writes Holt, and they had awakened a 'panda-monium' with pandas now being hunted for excessive sums becoming one of the rarest mammals on earth.
