For President Trump, it’s all about appearances.
He’s busy with so many makeovers: The Versailles-ification of the Oval Workplace, which appears to sprout extra gold leaf and ornamentation each time Trump assembles the media there. The paving of the Rose Backyard, now Mar-a-Lago Patio North, crowded with white tables and yellow umbrellas simply as at his Florida retreat. The estimated billion-dollar conversion of a Qatari luxurious jet constructed for a king, extra in line with Trump’s tastes than the “much less spectacular” Air Drive One. Even a brand new golf cart, the six-figure armored Golf Drive One. And, assuming Trump will get his approach, as he principally does, he’ll break floor quickly on a $200-million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom, a veritable Corridor of Mirrors almost doubling the footprint of the White Home.
The president has $257 million from ever-compliant Republicans in Congress to rework the close by Kennedy Middle into the “Trump/Kennedy Middle,” as Trump immodestly steered on Tuesday. (In the meantime, the purported populist president has canceled grants to native arts teams throughout America and seeks to get rid of the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts, which underwrites cultural occasions in each state.) Even the medallions for the annual Kennedy Middle Honors winners are getting a makeover — from Tiffany & Co., natch. Trump, having made himself the Kennedy Middle chair after a primary time period during which he skipped the honors reveals by common demand, was there on Wednesday to announce the 2025 honorees.
Let’s pause right here to contemplate simply how Fox Information and MAGA World would react if the president overseeing all this extravagance had been named Biden, Obama or Clinton.
These preoccupations of the reality-show president are a metaphor for one thing a lot larger, nevertheless — Trump’s nearly unchecked makeover of your complete U.S. authorities in addition to its main establishments of training, tradition, regulation and extra, all in service of the looks of gilded grandeur and uncooked energy: His.
Contemplate current occasions. After federal information confirmed worrying job losses in current months — not search for the self-styled financial wizard — Trump fired the wonky bureaucrat who runs the Bureau of Labor Statistics in favor of a MAGA flunky disdained by economists of all stripes for his bias and ignorance. Solely the most effective.
Cultural gems — eight Smithsonian Establishment museums — are in for a Trumpian overhaul. “White Home to Vet Smithsonian Museums to Match Trump’s Historic Imaginative and prescient” was the Wall Avenue Journal headline this week. So Trump, the historic visionary who as soon as appeared to suppose abolitionist Frederick Douglass was nonetheless alive and whose Homeland Safety Division this week seemingly promoted a neo-Nazi e book on its social media account, will curate American life and historical past for posterity. What may go flawed?
Although Vladimir Putin refuses to compromise or stop firing on Ukraine, making a mockery of Trump’s speak of brokering peace on Day 1, Trump plans to reward the war-crime-ing world pariah on Friday with the final recognition: a summit on American soil. In any case, a summit will get a lot extra media consideration than a mere non-public telephone name. So what if nothing comes of it, as with Trump’s first-term “summitry” with Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un. It’s the televised energy struts that rely.
Wish to look robust on crime? Trump the efficiency artist has militarized the nation’s capital simply as he did Los Angeles, declaring a criminal offense emergency in a metropolis the place crime is at a 30-year low. (As with the roles numbers, the White Home disputed the crime information.) The president known as up 800 Nationwide Guard troops and myriad federal brokers to patrol Washington, an influence he declined to make use of for three lengthy hours on Jan. 6, 2021, when town really did face rioting. Trump is so into scene-setting that he’d somewhat put FBI brokers on the D.C. streets than go away them to their behind-the-scenes work on counterintelligence and anti-terrorism.
I don’t really feel safer.
This isn’t simply an anti-crime present for Trump, nevertheless. He says it’s additionally about beautification. “I’m going to make our Capital safer and extra lovely than it ever was earlier than,” he posted on social media. This from the president who was untroubled by his supporters defiling and defecating within the Capitol on Jan. 6. As a longtime resident, I don’t acknowledge the dystopian metropolis he describes; as a citizen, I’m offended.
And naturally Trump’s energy play can be about fundraising. What isn’t about cash for him? In an electronic mail solicitation on Tuesday, he boasted to would-be donors that he’d “LIBERATED” the capital from “Crime, Savagery, Filth, and Scum.” You already know what’s actually scummy? Fixed money-grubbing.
Washington and Los Angeles possible are simply dry runs for Trump’s future reveals of drive. He’s repeatedly threatened related crackdowns in different Democratic-run cities. And on Tuesday, the Washington Put up broke the information of a Pentagon plan for a “Home Civil Disturbance Fast Response Drive” with 600 Nationwide Guard troops on everlasting standby to deploy at Trump’s command. All of that is of doubtful legality, however when has that stopped him?
Whether or not the topic is crime, tariffs, immigration, no matter, Trump simply declares an emergency to supposedly justify his aggrandizement of energy. By no means thoughts that every emergency displays an issue that’s long-standing and never a disaster. Absent these declarations, Trump must govern with Congress and cross laws to attempt to really resolve issues, because the framers supposed. Meaning time, tedium, coverage particulars and compromise — hardly the stuff of a camera-ready wannabe motion hero/strongman.
Say Trump’s orchestrated gerrymandering in Texas and different purple states doesn’t work within the 2026 midterm elections and Democrats take management of the Home. It’s not arduous to think about him declaring an emergency and sending within the navy to grab voting machines. Trump was restrained from issuing simply such an order after the 2020 election.
Sure, he’s a busy man. However you understand what Trump hasn’t finished? Launch the Epstein information. Wouldn’t be good for appearances.
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