{"id":23013,"date":"2026-07-28T07:37:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T11:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=23013"},"modified":"2026-07-28T07:37:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T11:37:19","slug":"bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/28\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden’s Potemkin Presidency and Trump’s Potemkin War"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From Biden\u2019s Potemkin Presidency to Trump\u2019s Potemkin War<\/a><\/h1>\n

By James Bovard<\/p>\n

In this age of social media and A.I. illusions, an old Russian scam provides the best lens to understand America\u2019s two most recent presidents.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In eighteenth-century czarist Russia, a fake village was built by a Russian governor named Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin to deceive Catherine the Great about the condition of the peasants she ruled. \u201cPotemkin Village,\u201d according to Time magazine, \u201csignifies any deceptive or false construct, conjured often by cruel regimes, to deceive both those within the land and those peering in from outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Washington a few years ago, the media partnered with the Biden administration to concoct a Potemkin Village to deceive Americans about President Joe Biden\u2019s faltering fitness for office.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The White House built a fake Oval Office equipped with a teleprompter for Biden\u2019s announcements. But the president still struggled reading simple words aloud like an Arkansas television anchor grappling with five-syllable names of East European cities. Biden\u00a0 got lost on stage so many times that WAZE should have created a special app for Joe to navigate his next steps. Biden often seemed detached from reality, such as his false claim that he swayed Congress to enact his federal student loan forgiveness scheme. At a White House summit, Biden repeatedly called out for a dead congresswoman to come to the podium, forgetting that his political ally had died in a car crash.<\/p>\n

Most of the media colluded with the White House to hide Biden\u2019s growing debility.<\/strong> Biden stumbled several times going up the steps to Air Force One. White House staff \u201cfixed\u201d that problem by having the president take the short stairway into the plane\u2019s belly to \u201creduce the risk of a televised fall that goes viral,\u201d NBC News reported. As long as Biden was not loaded onto the plane via a hydraulic medical lift, the media could pretend there was nothing to see.<\/p>\n

Yet, in 2023, Biden reelection campaign co-chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg declared, \u201cJoe Biden\u2019s age is his superpower.\u201d In reality, Biden\u2019s \u201csuperpower\u201d was a craven media that shamelessly pretends he was mentally and physically fit for another term as president.<\/p>\n

The biggest Potemkin Village pretense was the notion that Biden was actually in charge of the federal government and national policy. If the Wizard of Oz was a Biden era political story, the media would overwhelmingly side with the guy behind the curtain.\u00a0 A<\/strong>s long as the string-pullers in the Biden White House perpetuated progressive policies to continue bloating Leviathan\u2019s power, Biden\u2019s reign was \u201cclose enough for government work\u201d to the \u201cwill of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donald Trump is not as physically feeble as Joe Biden though he is a shadow of his vitality in his first term.\u00a0 But Trump\u2019s delusions on the Iran War seem as bad or worse than any imaginary vision that sent Biden wandering off stage at the wrong time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps Trump was already utterly deluded before he gave the order to kidnap Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela.\u00a0 But Trump was certainly deranged when he assumed that he could topple the Iranian government as easily as he sent U.S. troops into Caracas. If the top aides around him encouraged Trump to believe than fantasy, they are even more deluded or corrupt than Trump.<\/p>\n

After the U.S. and Israel launched a surprise attack that killed the Iranian government leadership, Trump began boasting every few days that the U.S. had already won the war. At last count, Trump had made more than 40 such victory boasts.<\/p>\n

Trump began supplementing those assertions with dozens of proclamations that the Strait of Hormuz is open.\u00a0 The Iranian government quickly strangled oil transit through that key world waterway.\u00a0 But Trump\u2019s declarations did nothing to stifle the fears of shippers and insurance companies who watched oil tankers get hit by Iranian forces.<\/p>\n

The Iranian government has made a mockery of Trump\u2019s bluster. The president sought to reach higher ground via endless social media posts portraying himself as the conqueror of Iran.\u00a0 On Sunday afternoon, as Harry Sisson recounted on X\/Twitter, Trump posted the following A.I. images on social media:<\/p>\n

3:31 PM – AI poster of the U.S. attacking Kharg Island in Iran<\/p>\n

3:31 PM – AI image of him taking over an Iranian oil tanker<\/p>\n

3:32 PM – AI image of him taking over an Iranian oil tanker x2<\/p>\n

3:33 PM – AI image of him taking over an Iranian oil tanker x3<\/p>\n

3:47 PM – Posts an AI image of an Iranian ship being blown up<\/p>\n

4:36 PM – AI image of him taking over an Iranian oil tanker x4<\/p>\n

4:36 PM – AI image of him taking over an Iranian oil tanker x5<\/p>\n

4:37 PM – AI image of him taking over an Iranian oil tanker x6<\/p>\n

4:39 PM – AI image of him cosplaying as a Navy Commander<\/p>\n

4:45 PM – AI image of himself saying \u201cGuardians of the world\u201d<\/p>\n

4:47 PM – AI image of American jets saying \u201cGuardian Angels of the world\u201d<\/p>\n

4:48 PM – Another AI photo of an Iranian ship being blown up<\/p>\n

4:54 PM – AI image of an eagle and a jet saying \u201cAmerica is back\u201d<\/p>\n

5:00 PM – Posts graph downplaying American casualties in Iran<\/p>\n

Social media has provided a real-time tool for tracking Trump\u2019s unraveling as the Iranian war wrecked his presidency and credibility.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But Trump\u2019s delusions are probably too deep to be expunged by any degree of failure \u2013 especially since he is personally making billions of dollars of corrupt profits as president regardless of the wreckage his policies inflict on America and the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In March, Trump granted an interview to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan for their book on his presidency. Trump handed the reporters a two page document that asserted: “Donald Trump is, without question, the most powerful man that the planet has ever known- by a long way.” The document asserted that Trump had far more power than Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, Hitler, and Stalin, among other scoundrels.\u00a0 The document proclaimed that the USA was “the first truly global superpower. President Trump is the first leader to be willing to use that power on a global scale. That makes him by far the most powerful person that has EVER walked this planet.”\u00a0<\/strong> During the interview, Haberman and Swan wrote, Trump proudly recited \u201cthe names of some of history\u2019s most powerful figures, explaining how each fell short of his own power as U.S. president.\u201d<\/p>\n

On June 18, Trump posted the document<\/a> on Truth Social \u2013 \u201cPresidential Historian Dave King \u2013 Sounds good to me!\u201d\u00a0 Actually, Dave King was simply a golf caddy for a friend of Trump. But s<\/strong>ince he exalted the 47th<\/sup> president, that made him one of the greatest historians in the land.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s actions on Iran vivify how he believes there is no constraint on his absolute power either at home or abroad.\u00a0 He felt no obligation to notify Congress to the American people before he took the nation to war.\u00a0 He felt no obligation to justify the carnage he inflicted in the name of the United States.\u00a0 He felt no obligation to admit wrongful killings or atrocities that forces under his command committed, such as the 171 people killed at the girls\u2019 school at Minab, Iran. He felt no obligation not to erase four dead American soldiers from the war\u2019s death count simply to burnish his own bragging rights about the low cost of the great victories he delivered.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In 2024, Donald Trump sought re-election by promising to \u2018end the endless wars.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 If he had been honest with voters and instead proclaimed, \u201cI want more power than Hitler!,\u201d even Kamala Harris could have whipped his ass. How many more people will perish before Trump\u2019s Potemkin War on Iran ends?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  From Biden\u2019s Potemkin Presidency to Trump\u2019s Potemkin War By James Bovard In this age of social media and A.I. illusions, an old Russian scam provides the best lens to understand America\u2019s two most recent presidents. In eighteenth-century czarist Russia, a fake village was built by a Russian governor named Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin to deceive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4205,2124,4902,1041,43,4901,4900,708],"class_list":["post-23013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-a-i","tag-biden","tag-genghis-khan","tag-hitler","tag-iran","tag-minab","tag-potemkin-village","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"\nBiden's Potemkin Presidency and Trump's Potemkin War - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The old Russian Potemkin Village charade explains both Biden's presidency and Trump's war on Iran\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/28\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Biden's Potemkin Presidency and Trump's Potemkin War - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The old Russian Potemkin Village charade explains both Biden's presidency and Trump's war on Iran\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/28\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-28T11:37:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-28-at-07-14-24-From-Bidens-Potemkin-Presidency-to-Trumps-Potemkin-War-The-Libertarian-Institute-1024x747.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"747\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/28\\\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/28\\\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"Biden’s Potemkin Presidency and Trump’s Potemkin War\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-28T11:37:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/28\\\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1312,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/28\\\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/Screenshot-2026-07-28-at-07-14-24-From-Bidens-Potemkin-Presidency-to-Trumps-Potemkin-War-The-Libertarian-Institute.png\",\"keywords\":[\"a.i.\",\"Biden\",\"Genghis Khan\",\"Hitler\",\"Iran\",\"Minab\",\"Potemkin village\",\"Trump\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/28\\\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/28\\\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/28\\\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\\\/\",\"name\":\"Biden's Potemkin Presidency and Trump's Potemkin War - James Bovard\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/28\\\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/28\\\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/Screenshot-2026-07-28-at-07-14-24-From-Bidens-Potemkin-Presidency-to-Trumps-Potemkin-War-The-Libertarian-Institute.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-28T11:37:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"description\":\"The old Russian Potemkin Village charade explains both Biden's presidency and Trump's war on Iran\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/28\\\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/28\\\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/28\\\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/Screenshot-2026-07-28-at-07-14-24-From-Bidens-Potemkin-Presidency-to-Trumps-Potemkin-War-The-Libertarian-Institute.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/Screenshot-2026-07-28-at-07-14-24-From-Bidens-Potemkin-Presidency-to-Trumps-Potemkin-War-The-Libertarian-Institute.png\",\"width\":1817,\"height\":1326},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/28\\\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Biden’s Potemkin Presidency and Trump’s Potemkin War\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"James Bovard\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\",\"name\":\"Jim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Jim\"},\"description\":\"Bovard's homepage is at http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/jim.bovard\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/jimbovard\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Biden's Potemkin Presidency and Trump's Potemkin War - James Bovard","description":"The old Russian Potemkin Village charade explains both Biden's presidency and Trump's war on Iran","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/28\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Biden's Potemkin Presidency and Trump's Potemkin War - James Bovard","og_description":"The old Russian Potemkin Village charade explains both Biden's presidency and Trump's war on Iran","og_url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/28\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\/","og_site_name":"James Bovard","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","article_published_time":"2026-07-28T11:37:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":747,"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-28-at-07-14-24-From-Bidens-Potemkin-Presidency-to-Trumps-Potemkin-War-The-Libertarian-Institute-1024x747.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Jim","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jimbovard","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/28\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/28\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\/"},"author":{"name":"Jim","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"headline":"Biden’s Potemkin Presidency and Trump’s Potemkin War","datePublished":"2026-07-28T11:37:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/28\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\/"},"wordCount":1312,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/28\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-28-at-07-14-24-From-Bidens-Potemkin-Presidency-to-Trumps-Potemkin-War-The-Libertarian-Institute.png","keywords":["a.i.","Biden","Genghis Khan","Hitler","Iran","Minab","Potemkin village","Trump"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/28\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/28\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\/","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/28\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\/","name":"Biden's Potemkin Presidency and Trump's Potemkin War - James Bovard","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/28\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/28\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-28-at-07-14-24-From-Bidens-Potemkin-Presidency-to-Trumps-Potemkin-War-The-Libertarian-Institute.png","datePublished":"2026-07-28T11:37:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"description":"The old Russian Potemkin Village charade explains both Biden's presidency and Trump's war on Iran","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/28\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/28\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/28\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-28-at-07-14-24-From-Bidens-Potemkin-Presidency-to-Trumps-Potemkin-War-The-Libertarian-Institute.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-28-at-07-14-24-From-Bidens-Potemkin-Presidency-to-Trumps-Potemkin-War-The-Libertarian-Institute.png","width":1817,"height":1326},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/28\/bidens-potemkin-presidency-and-trumps-potemkin-war\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Biden’s Potemkin Presidency and Trump’s Potemkin War"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/","name":"James Bovard","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f","name":"Jim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Jim"},"description":"Bovard's homepage is at http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23013"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23018,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23013\/revisions\/23018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}