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Jason Trump, president of the Untitled Statues Association, has left a notebook containing presumably important information lying around on his desk. Stella, his nosy assistant, takes a look only to see that the notes have been encrypted into image form.

enter image description here
enter image description here

Can you help Stella uncover what secret plans the president has?


Image credits: Row1 #6 Hakanand cc-by-sa 3.0; row 2 #2 Bff cc-by-sa 3.0; #3 Stilfehler cc-by-sa 3.0; row 3 #1 Jik jik cc-by-sa 3.0; #2 F. Lamiot, cc-by-sa 3.0; #5 Hasanbardal cc-by-sa 4.0; row 4 #2 M.Minderhoud, cc-by-sa 3.0; #4 John Lykkegaard, cc-by-sa 2.5; #6 David Steele cc-by-sa 2.0.

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2 Answers 2

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I'm pretty sure Trump's plans involve ...

... firing Stella.

Step 1

Solve the rebuses. (Omega Krypton and commenters have solved a greate deal of those already. Since I'm one of the commenters, I have no qualms about reproducing the answers here for the sake of completeness.):

1a. SIMMONS: yes in Portuguese + Olympus {Mons}
2a. RABBIT: Rabbi + T
3a. CASINO: from 007 film/novel "Casino Royale"
4a. 'S: Missing from McDonald{'s} and {'s}-Gravenhage
5a. TREE: here, a binary search tree
6a. SHEEP: Female sign + Extended Play record (EP)

1b. BAND: Bandy - Y
2b. DISH: Radish - sun god RA
3b. WHEEL: W (from keyboard layout) + heel
4b. ELEVEN: {EL} Salvador + even, i.e. not odd
5b. MATERIAL: (check) mate + (Saudi-Arabian) Rial
6b. MINDER: min (not max) + de(e)r

1c. SCOTTISH: Bon Scott (AC/DC singer) + (f)ish
2c. LARGEST: Last (but not least) around berge - BA
3c. THIRD: Third major minus major (army rank)
4c. VLADIMIR: Vlad (the Impaler) + I + Mir (space station)
5c. NETFLIX: net + FL (Florida) + IX
6c. ROMAN: Romaina - IA

1d. GIRL: G (giga) + IR (infra-red) + L (large size)
2d. CAT: cast minus its 3rd letter
3d. POWER: V·I = P
4d. ILYICH: (lily - L) + (rich - R)
5d. AND: South African Rand - 1st letter
6d. GARMENT: last 60% of cigar (note box!) + (regi|condi|detri)-ment

Step 2

Pair up a/b and c/d answers and answer these:

Simmons band – KISS
Rabbit dish – STEW
Casino wheel – ROULETTE
...'s eleven – OCEAN
Tree material – WOOD
Sheep minder – SHEPHERD

Scottish girl – LASS
Largest cat – TIGER
Third power – CUBE
Vladimir Ilyich – LENIN
Netflix and ... – CHILL
Roman garment – TOGA

Step 3

You can prepend a nationality to all a/b answers to get familiar expressions. You can turn all c/d answers to a country name by chaning one letter. Then take the first letters of the nationality and the changed letters from the answers:

French KISS
I rish STEW
Russian ROULETTE
I ndian OCEAN
Norwegian WOOD
German SHEPHERD

LASS / Laos
TIGER / Niger
CUBE / Cuba
LENIN / Benin
CHILL / Chile
TOGA / Togo

Credit where it's due:

Omega Krypton solved many of the rebusses and where they weren't solved completely, provided useful bits of Google legwork such as the rial in Arabic and the image of Ra. (I had particular difficulties interpreting the stroke through "max" and "odd" as opposite, not as removal of letters.) Omega's numerous commenters have contributed greatly to that answer and therefore also to mine. Finally, kl78 and Bananenkopp pointed out the last missing bits in comments to my anser. Thanks, y'all!

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    $\begingroup$ Explanation for Bon + a flash should be Bon Scott of AC/DC, because they have the flash in the band name and Bon Scott was singer till he died 1980 $\endgroup$
    – kl78
    Commented Jul 23, 2019 at 7:49
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    $\begingroup$ maybe the "missing word" from #4, which is obvious, could be the solution for your Step 2, and the nationality would be indian for step 3 $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 23, 2019 at 10:01
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks, you two. I think I have it wrapped up now. (I'll pardon myself for not getting the AC/DC reference, but not seeing how #4 works is inexcusable ...) $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Commented Jul 23, 2019 at 10:29
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Thanks must be given to @GarethMcCaughan, @MOehm, @tmpearce, @Belhenix for helping me with some of the rebuses and clues in the comments

Part I - Rebuses

1.

SIM CITY: Sim (yes in Portuguese, hinted by word colour) + City (olympus city) or SIMMONS: Sim + Mons (Olympus Mons)

2.

RABBIT: the man was Rabbi Moshe/Moses Feinstein + T

3.

CASINO: Casino Royale (007) (film)

4.

SS: McDonald('s) + (s-)Gravenhage

5.

TREE: a binary search tree

6.

FROM: F (female) + ROM

7.

BAND: Bandy - Y

8.

DISH: Radish - Ra
Can't resist this vulgar guess :P {BLOODY NORA?? (Red) beetroot and (No) a prohibit symbol with (Ra)}

9.

WHEEL: W (missing letter in keyboard layout) + Heel [not Plantar Fasciitis!]

10.

ELEVEN: El [Salvador] + Even (not odd) [Note: I like this one!]

11.

MATERIAL: MATE + RIAL (variant of Saudi riyal currency of Saudi Arabia)

12.

MINDER: min (not max) + Deer - e

14.

LARGEST: LAST (last but not least) outside RGE (barge-ba)

15.

THIRD: Third major - major (rank)

16.

VLADIMIR: Vlad + I + MIR

17.

NETFLIX: net + fl (florida) + ix (9 in Roman numerals)

18.

ROMAN: Romania - ia

19.

GIRL: G (giga) + IR (infrared) + L (large size)

20.

CAT??: cast - third letter (-3.)

21.

POWER: V $\times$ I = Power

22.

ILYICH: Lily - L + Rich (wealthy) - r

23.

AND: ZAR = South Africa Rand (ahem, @Rand Al'Thor), diagram underneath asks us to remove first letter

24.

GARMENT: end part of cigar + ment (regiment, condiment, detriment)

Part II - Interpretation

It looks like we should read the rebuses in pairs (up-down).
SIMMONS BAND --> KISS
RABBIT DISH --> STEW
CASINO WHEEL --> ROULETTE/ BIGS
SS ELEVEN --> WICKFORD (post code)
TREE MATERIAL --> WOOD/ PAPER
? MINDER -->
? GIRL -->
LARGEST CAT --> SIBERIAN/ TIGER/ LION
THIRD POWER --> CUBE
VLADIMIR ILYICH --> USSR(/ LENIN?)
NETFLIX AND --> CHILL
ROMAN GARMENT --> TUNIC (/TOGA?)

Something I'm not sure about:

It seems like the majority of the answers for the interpretation is 4, 5 or 8 letters long. Is this true for all cases? Or maybe a ?

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    $\begingroup$ Don't reinvent the Plantar fascitis. $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Commented Jul 22, 2019 at 11:06
  • $\begingroup$ perhaps a different part of the foot, as per MOehm's comment. I think you've left the R in Ilyich, and in view of that one you should take a look at the box above it. $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan
    Commented Jul 22, 2019 at 15:53
  • $\begingroup$ In 8 I'm pretty sure you've mis-identified the vegetable. $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan
    Commented Jul 22, 2019 at 15:57
  • $\begingroup$ (On the other hand I'm pretty sure you've correctly identified the god.) $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan
    Commented Jul 22, 2019 at 16:00
  • $\begingroup$ Nope :-). I think the "no" symbol just means the sort of letter-removal one sees all the time in rebuses. $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan
    Commented Jul 22, 2019 at 16:02

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