Trump and, Oh Yeah, John F. Kennedy
He tried it on the Rolling Stones and caused Keith Richards to pitch a fit. The band was playing Atlantic City and Trump wanted his name up above theirs on the marquee: Donald Trump Presents the Rolling Stones. No luck then, but this time Trump arranged for the marquee of his dreams. See right there, it says The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. The letters are physically in place, for what that’s worth. On the other hand, the Kennedy Center board voted the change through, and Orin Kerr tells us that the federal legislation listing the board’s powers says nothing of renaming the place. The legislation won’t get changed, so what we have here is an eyesore and an embarrassment, possibly a laughing stock.
Over the years I’ve imagined various downfalls for Trump. I like doing that. Here’s the latest: Trump’s been acting so cartoony and loopy that “people” are giving up on him, these people being all the independents and some of the Republicans. They’re taking a look at the experiment and saying, “Okay, this didn’t work out.” How many Republicans? Hard to say, since these people baffle me and signs of dissent get played up by click-seekers. But dissent from Trump used to be unthinkable and now it isn’t: Marjorie Taylor Greene, the fallout from the Reiner post, etc.
Trump’s dummies didn’t mind when he verbally schmeckety-schmecked a POW, or when he mimicked a handicapped reporter, speculated about a popular Fox personality’s menstrual situation, or explained (on tape) his approach to sexually assaulting women—we know the list. But a decade later and they’re glancing askance because he mouthed off about an Entertainment Tonight tragedy. Vichy Republicans used to boil down all Trump’s awfulness to his tweets and then say, “Hey, what’s a few tweets.” Now there are Magas, members of the hard core, who apparently think this tweet is plenty.
Well, you know, it’s the economy. Thirteen months ago, when Trump got voted in, his people were still fine with him. Eleven months ago, when he was sworn in, same thing. But year one’s finished and they’re still getting killed at the supermarket. For his first term Trump had Obama’s economy going for him up until the fourth year, when Covid hit. Now he’s got the post-Covid economy, same as Biden, and it hurts.
My overall theory of the Age of Trump (TV screens kept getting bigger, so Donald Trump became president) covers the new development this way. First, the story MAGA tells itself sprang a big crack; I mean the summer’s Epstein developments. Now there’s a chance the story will split outright, since economic desperation can do that to rosy narratives.
The story was that Donald Trump, a good man, would place the adherents of MAGA where they belong: up top, with society working for them. The elites and the dark people would be at bay, and the country would flourish because of all the changes. Trump’s delivered some. Brown people are getting rounded up, Ivy League boards are getting pushed around. But you won’t feel like you’re up top if the cash register doesn’t cooperate. Meanwhile, the old man really is acting strange. Bringing him on for the sequel allowed bad news to catch up with him and his own craziness to grow deeper and more flagrant. Now there’s the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts and either he pulls off a coup or the Republican Party is going to look daffy and gutless for pretending he wasn’t nuts. For Democrats it was a very smart thing in September 2002 to be against the Iraq war; it’s just that at the time it didn’t look smart, it looked scary. For Republicans, time to take a stand now so you aren’t history’s joke around 2029.
Black rectangles! Huh, listen to this guy: “If Donald Trump’s in there, can’t they just take him out? Kill every page with Donald Trump, make it a black rectangle; black out five or six pages before and after. Then issue the files and tell everyone the redactions are to protect the girls. Couldn’t Trump’s people do that?” It turns out they can. But you didn’t hear about this angle when the clamor for the papers arose. It wasn’t a two-section clamor: release the files, keep the redacting honest. Just the first part generated noise. Now release day turns out to be redaction day and no one’s surprised, but from their prior behavior it seems like they ought to be. Life has a “Batteries not included” side and big public noises don’t bother with that.