Greetings and welcome to this 107th edition of the Carnival of Fools! If you’ve noticed that the tone around here grows gloomier with each passing week, understand that’s because the Carnival’s internal calendar is set to regard the upcoming November 3 midterms as the end of a season — and a bitter winter is coming.
The thing about running a long-haul act, as we have done over the past few years at the Carnival, is that eventually a grim determination sets in. You sort of zone out and put on blinders, focusing narrowly on the task ahead. You no longer feel the mental fatigue because you’re no longer thinking about anything except driving to the end point. Just get to November before the wheels fall off this rickety wagon, and avoid any further collisions.
Unfortunately, dear readers, we are but passengers; Donald Trump is at the wheel, and he’ll never let us forget it. The president is hell-bent on swerving the Carnival’s touring van over the berm and into yet another ditch.
Another Tired Tantrum Against the Mainstream Media
With nothing better to do and nowhere left to turn in the dregs of his unpopularity, Trump is throwing yet another public snit. On Friday, fresh off a rebuke from the court about any potential surprise demolition of the Kennedy Center — and with Susie Wiles out of town — our emotionally incontinent president took to his favorite forum to lash out against an easy and predictable target, the mainstream media. From atop his mighty perch on Truth Social, Trump thundered:
I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW (who recently changed their name from MSNBC due to lack of viewership and credibility!), and Politico (The recipients of an illegal and ridiculous $8 Million Dollar subscription, an All Time Record, directly from the United States Government, under Crooked Joe Biden, in order to keep them “alive.” Seems like corruption to me!), from the White House as a result of their constant “reporting” FAKE NEWS! Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America. Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP
The next day, the ban went into effect and journalists from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico were barred from White House grounds. What did they do to provoke Trump’s special wrath this time? Nobody knows! Exist is my guess. They are a target of convenience — left-coded enough that Trump thinks he can kick them like dogs to his satisfaction while basking in the cheers of his MAGA faithful: There you go, that ought to repair that -38 job approval rating! (Don’t doubt for a moment that Trump genuinely believes that he would be at +20 approval were it not for faithless media coverage.)
It’s also important to stress that Trump intends this as a humiliation ritual. Politico will not cease writing stories on the truly spectacular corruption within the Trump White House because of this, nor will CNN suddenly start ignoring Trump’s poll ratings. The ban is meant merely to send a public message of disgrace to these outlets and imply a warning to the rest: Behave well, or else.
The media, to their credit, have called Trump’s bluff: In what the New York Times labels an “extraordinary escalation,” every major television network — including Fox News — agreed to suspend pool coverage of the president.
The cynic in me wants to suggest that the best thing for the GOP in November would be for Trump to stubbornly keep fighting: Republicans could only hope to be so lucky as to have this man disappear completely from the news for the next month and a half. (I hear the Springfield Mystery Spot is lovely this time of year.) But for once, I suspect Trump may eventually bend. He might prefer to drag these three organizations through the courts before he relents, but more than anything else, the man craves attention. Denying him the attention of the mainstream media — beyond whatever effect it might have on public messaging — is like denying Narcissus his pool of water to gaze into.
I am a rather bitter skeptic of the mainstream media. But I recognize a tantrum when I see one. And the media have a tradition of solidarity: When Barack Obama once tried something far smaller — excluding Fox News from a single pool interview — all the other networks refused to proceed. (The affair lasted all of one day.) Trump’s move is vastly more sweeping, as befits his personality. I will reemphasize my foundational observation about the man: He is the most psychologically transparent president we have ever had, pathetically so, excruciating in his egotistical simplicity. Trump’s latest tantrum is merely the sort of provocation that this kind of person idly engages in when he’s out of other options, when the consciousness of impending loss is finally sinking in. The country is preparing to reject Trump. What comes next? What are the chances that Trump simply decides to return the favor?
The next two years are going to be wild.
Trump Prepares to Force His Triumphal Arch on D.C.
Washington, D.C., is a nice enough little hamlet, despite the weather and that 25 mph traffic camera that always nails you on the K Street underpass beneath Washington Circle. But as a Beltway kid born and raised — I acquired my refined Chicago manners only later in life — I find it impossible not to notice that, for all of its museums and monuments, my hometown lacks that certain something that all world-class cities have: an inappropriately gargantuan, chintz-plated triumphal-arch-cum-sniper-installation. Thankfully, that’s about to be fixed: The Arch is coming. From Truth Social:
At the strong request of the United States Military, and for National Security purposes, I have agreed to convert the magnificent Triumphal Arch, planned since the Civil War Era many years ago, at the Receptive Circle adjoining the Arlington Memorial Bridge, into a top grade Military Complex/Triumphal Arch, to house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large numbers of drones, plus Snipers, on both the roof and plaza areas, and additionally have and hold large quantities of sniper ammunition in storage. There will be no facility like this anywhere in the World. Out of the 59 top cities and Capitals, Washington, D.C., IS THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD THAT DOES NOT HAVE A TRIUMPHAL ARCH, but it will now and, by far, the greatest of them all! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP
My initial observation: If you’re ever low on ammo in the DMV, you no longer have to head all the way to Southeast D.C. to restock. Save money on gas!
But more to the point: Why would Trump’s garishly elephantine victory arch — at 250 feet, it would dwarf every other building in Washington — require a drone and sniper installation? For the same reason the White House’s new ballroom was designated a drone site: Experience has taught Trump that designating any building project an “integrated military complex” is enough to silence the Supreme Court (and plow through the rulings of lower courts). Since the Court didn’t stop the ballroom, how can it get in the way of this clear military exigency?
Will it work? Who knows. Trump’s most likely strategy will be to render the question moot by throwing the Arch up as fast and as cheaply as possible, in the teeth of public opposition. It would be beneath my dignity and a waste of your time to explain the many reasons why Trump’s claimed legal and historical justifications for spending $100 million on this project are insultingly spurious, and beside the point to boot. The only real question is who is going to pay for it. Trump has already declared that the taxpayers are on the hook, but he promises a “public/private mix.” (Those familiar with Trump’s charitable habits already understand that this means “fully public.”)
Trump believes that if he publicly pretends the debate is over, he can push onward — and he has to, because he’s running out of time. He likely intends to start breaking ground, digging as fast as he can, and daring either the courts to stop him, Congress to impeach him, or the next administration to tear it down. He is betting that they won’t. He may be right. And it’s worth the risk (for him, at least): Trump craves nothing so much as the prospect of irrevocably imposing himself on the skyline of a world city, and he will never get another chance.
I would be a fool to predict the exact form the mad spree of self-aggrandizement will take, following the elections – but it’s coming. Trump faces two years of being whipped like a rented mule by a Democratic Congress. (The over/under on impeachments starts at 1.) But do not underrate how determined he is to attach his name to something permanent and suitably grandiose in Washington, D.C. Do not be surprised if he is willing to sacrifice almost every other political priority. You’ve already seen the omens; take them seriously. Trump has been telegraphing his moves for well over a decade.
Until next week.