1. Two weeks
Warning: We’re going extra dark today.
It’s been just two weeks since the president of the United States ordered a military occupation of the nation’s capital. I understand that it feels longer. But I want to highlight for you two things: (1) The pace at which we are moving, and (2) how Trump employs a mix of the ridiculous and the dangerous.
August 11: Trump announces he is deploying National Guard troops to take over Washington, D.C.
August 13: Trump declares that he has personally chosen the recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors for 2025.
August 15: Trump greets Vladimir Putin in Alaska with a red carpet rolled out by kneeling American soldiers and literal applause.
August 22: Trump announces that the U.S. government has taken a 10 percent ownership stake in Intel.
August 24: Trump demands that the Baseball Hall of Fame admit Roger Clemens.
August 25: Trump announces that he has removed Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
August 26: Trump instructs Cracker Barrel to abandon its new company logo.
This is why you’re exhausted.
A few observations:
(1) Ridiculous but serious. Trump is in many ways a buffoon. So are many dictators.
Vladimir Putin “discovering” ancient Greek urns while diving.
Gaddafi maintaining an “Amazonian guard.”
Jean-Bédel Bokassa declaring himself “emperor” of central Africa.
People who dismiss the danger of Trump and Trumpism because of his buffoonishness are either fools or accomplices.
(2) Omnipresence. Nothing happens in public life without Trump putting his stamp on it. Cooperstown? Cracker Barrel? The Kennedy Center Honors? Trump has a will to dominate them.
He is the living embodiment of the leviathan, the totalized state.