I don’t know that the term “hot mic” means much with this President. He seems happy to amplify the darkest of his thoughts and musings. But there have been a couple of hot mic moments in the press this past week that truly capture the heart of this man. His greed and cruelty. Accompanied by a soundtrack of sycophantic laughter, and the silence of inaction figure Mike Lawler.

Hot mic moment number one happened last Wednesday, the day Trump paused his tariffs and the stock market surged. This scene took place in the Oval Office as Trump introduced billionaire Charles Schwab to a group of NASCAR drivers. The kind of bizarro gathering that seems to take place daily in Trump’s clown palace.

“That’s Charles Schwab. It’s not just a company. It’s actually an individual. [Loud laughter. Wow, what a dinger.] He made – he made $2.5 billion today. And he made $900 million. That’s not bad.”

Unsaid, but certainly understood, “Thanks to me. They come here to pay homage and seek favor.”

Who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, with oversight responsibility for the markets, to help ensure their stability and integrity? Oh yeah, Mike Lawler. And what does their agenda look like? The next calendar entry is a subcommittee hearing entitled “Regulatory Overreach: The Price Tag on American Prosperity.” What we need, less regulation over the trillions spilling into billionaires’ bank accounts when nobody’s looking.

Hot mic story number two of the week was during the visit of El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele to the White House on Monday.

“The homegrowns are next, the homegrowns. You’ve gotta build about five more places.” “Yeah, all right.” Laughter.

That’s right. Trump wants El Salvador to build five more gulags to house not just undocumented immigrants, but U.S. citizens that Trump deems to be beneath his contempt.

He’s defying the Supreme Court’s order to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly and illegally sent to El Salvador’s brutal CECOT mega-prison. Trump hangs his hat on the Supreme Court’s ambiguous proviso that the District Court “should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the executive branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”

And who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, with oversight responsibility? Oh yeah, Mike Lawler. Their last hearing? “Deficient, Enfeebled, and Ineffective: The Consequences of the Biden Administration’s Far-Left Priorities on U.S. Foreign Policy.”

As we move well past the ways of the undemocratic regime in Hungary, where Trump’s idol Victor Orban rules, and reel towards the type of kleptocratic iron-fisted rule of Putin, what is Mike Lawler doing with his privileged position representing us in Washington? Well, he posted this on Monday, the very day that Trump laughed it up with Bukele over the illegal deportation and detention of Abrego Garcia in El Salvador:

No, you’re not, Mike.