Why Common Sense is Never Wrong (Duh!)

The Trump administration exudes common sense:

• In his second inaugural address, Donald Trump proclaimed “the revolution of common sense.”  
• He then signed an Executive Orders restoring common sense to Federal procurement and common sense to education reform.
• White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt then said, “Everything in President Trump’s agenda is grounded in one thing: common sense.”
• Mentions of “common sense” in Fox News quadrupled in January 2025 over January 2024.
• When asked how he knew that DEI caused a plane crash, Trump explained, “Because I have common sense,” Trump said, “and, unfortunately, a lot of people don’t.” 
• Regarding the plane crash, Leavitt said that it was “common sense” that Americans would care more about “landing safely” than their pilot’s race.
• For Leavitt, it’s all about comment sense: cutting Medicaid is “common sense,” restricting voting is “common sense,” the big, beautiful bill ends numerous tax breaks for elites, while advancing other “common-sense” priorities, but Democrats oppose “common sense” solutions.

Puzzled, I called Karoline Leavitt.

Clifford: I am aware that common sense has replaced the rule of law in America. Can you explain how the Trump administration identifies common sense?

Leavitt: It’s easy. We use common sense.

C: You use common sense to identify common sense. Do you then use more common sense to recognize the common sense used to recognize common sense?”

L: Yes. This administration has a huge surplus of common sense.

C: Does Trump use common sense when he raises tariffs and then lowers tariffs and then raises tariffs?

L: No. That is genius, the art of the deal. Trump is playing five-dimensional chess, while Macron and Xi are playing checkers.

C: Is attacking Harvard common sense?

L: No, that is building the economy. As I told Sean Hannity, “America needs educating the next generation based on skills that we need in our economy and our society…apprenticeships, electricians, plumbers — we need more of those in our country and less LGTBQ graduate majors from Harvard University, and that’s what is this administration’s position.”

C: Is it common sense when you said, The big, beautiful bill “saves $1.6 trillion according to the Council of Economic Advisers, and the analysis is what the president believes,” even though the deficit will grow to $2.4 trillion over the next decade, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

L: The President said it. Therefore, it’s common sense and above the law.

C: When buyers of $TRUMP meme spent $148 million to have dinner with President Trump, you saw no conflict of interest because, “the president is attending in his personal time.” When questioned, you answered, I think it’s frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit.”  Were you employing irony or common sense?

L: Common sense, of course.  What is irony?

C: You have said:

• “We want to restore the Department of Justice to an institution that focuses on fighting law and order.”

• “President Trump campaigned alongside Elon Musk, and President Trump promised voters on the campaign that he was going to make our government more efficient.”

Are fighting law and order and making government more efficient common sense?

L: It is  common sense for you to shut your mouth, unless you want to be deposited in the Terrorism Confinement Center, a maximum-security prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador. No more questions!