His detractors will tell you that our 47th president is, to select just a few aspects of his unique persona, greedy, ignorant, tasteless, foul-mouthed, incontinent, a felon, a stranger to the truth, and an enemy of the law. We will not attempt to refute any of these charges; whatever skills we may have, they do not include writing fiction.
Half the country disapproves of him, according to the polls.* It’s not hard to see why. One hundred and thirty days of unrelenting chaos can get on anyone’s nerves.
Yet the other half approves.† The question of why appears to be the mystery of the age.
Perhaps it’s this simple: he is ambitious.
It can’t be denied that ambition is central to the American character—or, perhaps, to be more precise, to Americans’ self-image. Over the long haul, Americans have accumulated a staggering record of accomplishment.
The first Americans developed ways to sustain themselves in a vast array of difficult environments for three times as long as recorded history. The next wave of Americans transformed the place entirely, and, in relative terms, did it overnight. What’s more, they did it while simultaneously subduing the first wave.
True, horrendous numbers of people from another continent entirely were grievously harmed, tortured, and killed in the course of this project. But this is America we’re talking about. America is results-oriented, and the results are all around us, for those with eyes to see.
If we take away the rose-colored glasses, Donald Trump personifies today’s American at least as well as James Montgomery Flagg’s iconic Uncle Sam did more than a century ago. So, pour yourself a shot of Dramamine, and let’s see what we/him have been up to.
As the fortnight began, #47 was wrapping up his Middle East tour. Amongst the wares he peddled were computer chips suitable for use in Artificial Intelligence. These will allow the rulers of the Gulf states to plumb new depths of oppression. For reasons known only to him, the president also sought to enlighten various potentates on the esoteric topic of groceries.
He seemed particularly smitten with Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Prime Minister, and de facto ruler. This should come as no surprise. Not only can bin Salman make the claim of royalty, he’s demonstrated his power to have journalists murdered and dismembered.
Speaking to reporters after re-darkening our shores, #47 said, “They gave us a nice contribution of about $5 trillion.” As observer Aaron Rupar noted, “The entire GDP of the U.S. is under $30 trillion… .” Perhaps short fingers make it hard to do math. No doubt that sort of magical thinking was behind Moody’s decision to downgrade the nation’s credit rating.
In another homicide-related item, the day after our last paper hit the streets, #47 posted online “The Video Hillary Clinton Does Not Want You To See,” suggesting that the former First Lady had a hand in a bunch of debunked murder conspiracies.
On the 20th, Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson gave the nation a brief respite from the otherwise unrelenting flood of distressing news stories emanating from the current Executive Branch, by diverting the attention of our squirrel-like national press corpse [sic] to the failings of the previous president. Their book, Original Sin, follows the tried, true, and presumably profitable route of its annoying genre: give the readers—well, sell the readers—new insights into the workings of our government, but not in time to avoid catastrophe.
The authors’ grand revelation is that Joe Biden was no longer on top of his cerebral game, and his inner circle went to great lengths to keep that fact from the public. Coinciding with the book’s release, the current president was saying things like, “We were a laughing stock, an absolute laughing stock, but we’re not a laughing stock any longer.” [Aside: Can we get a fact check on that? – The Ed.]
More recently, the Commander in Chief addressed the graduating class at West Point. Future leaders of the U.S. Army got the benefit of his expertise on the topic of “trophy wives.” Since every day is Festivus with him, they also got a grievance: “I went through more investigations than Alphonse Capone, and now I’m talking to you as president, can you believe this?” Rather than wasting his time after his speech, adhering to the custom of shaking all their hands, Trump did the same thing he has done nearly one day out of three during his second term—dragged his Secret Service detail to one of his golf courses, to soak the taxpayer while he cheats at golf.
Our president has a special place in his heart for those who serve in uniform. Or maybe it’s in his spleen. Wherever it is, he’s an equal-era offender. Future generals have been subjected to his dubious wisdom. Now, Wednesday’s Washington Post revealed that the president’s June 14th parade will prevent Vietnam veterans from holding a previously-schedule memorial service on the National Mall. Every year, survivors of that war gather at “The Wall” to remember their comrades who have died in the last year. This year, 774 veterans will be remembered—about eight miles away, in Alexandria, Virginia.
Bad as things are, they can always get worse. The House slipped an obscure item into the just-passed “Big Beautiful Bill” that would, in the words of The Hill’s Kimberly Wehle, “kneecap what may be the only meaningful remaining constitutional check on the presidency: lower federal court judges.”
If this provision becomes law, the government, i.e., Donald J. Trump, can do, as he often says, “whatever the hell he likes.” The courts won’t be able to stop him with contempt citations, because Congress won’t cover their cost. As Robert Reich puts it, “With this single provision… Trump will have crowned himself king. No Congress and no court could stop him.”
As we said, he is ambitious. How does a president get promoted? By becoming a monarch, of course.
* More precisely, 49.7 percent, as of Wednesday, according to Real Clear Politics [RCP].
† Again, the exact number, says RCP, is 47.8 percent. The difference is hardly significant.