To me, this before-and-after photo of the White House and grounds this week perfectly symbolizes the destruction of our country by Trump and his MAGA minions, a destruction aided and abetted by tens of millions of “christians”— 81% of evangelicals and more than 60% of white Catholics. The second photo was taken just a few days ago. You can see glimpses of the East Wing corridor in the left-side photo through the trees in the first photo. The construction of a CAGE for an MMA fight on the White House lawn on trump's birthday, is even more of a travesty than the "military" parade he put on last year, which few attended. This year he's degraded himself and our country and the White House itself by using taxpayer money to put on one of the most violent "sports" around-- to "celebrate" the nation's 250th anniversary. This year trump co-opted the planning from the official planning organization ( non- partisan) to impose his own partisan stamp on it - to honor himself, and not the country. The "prayer rally" on the Mall cost a million of taxpayers' dollars. It was an evangelical form of christianity, and non-evangelicals were barely visible. Of course, Barron was there along with evangelical ministers who refer to the Pope as "satan" and Catholicism as a "satantic cult". Hegseth's "pastor" (invited to speak to military staff at the Pentagon) was there. This article in The Atlantic "Holy Warrior" by Missy Ryan) reveals what a fine person he is. https://tinyurl.com/43e5sc7h
It was also a MAGA rally. The national "country fair" may be cancelled completely because so many of the expected performers pulled out when they realized it was a trump celebration and not the one planned by the official 250th anniversary commission. He wants a $250 bill with his glowering face and his signature in gold on it. He is having 250th anniversary passports issued with his face superimposed over the barely readable Declaration of Independence--fortunately a limited edition for people who apply in person in the DC passport agency. Everyone else is safe. No president has ever put his own face on currency while living, and never on passports, or national park passes.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/28/politics/us-trump-passport. Robert Reich notes
The 250th anniversary events were supposed to be planned by a nonpartisan, nonprofit group created by Congress in 2016 called “America 250.” Honorary National Co-Chairs are GW Bush, Barack Obama, Laura Bush & Michelle Obama. Its ex-officio members include present & former government officials from both parties. But “America 250” is not planning this year’s 250th anniversary events on the mall or in DC. Trump & his MAGA allies circumvented Congress & created their own planning committee,
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-truth-about-trumps-birthday-bash
He destroyed the Kennedy Center with his ego. But it will be back when trump's defacing is removed. The judge also blocked trump's order to shut it down, which he did because too many globally notable performers cancelled (ticket sales tanked when he added his name) and he had one of his temper tantrums. He wants to destroy the graceful contours of the city's beautiful monuments like the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, and the Washington Monument by constructing a gilded arch that is way too big for the space, will block the sight-line between the Lincoln Memorial and the Arlington National Cemetery, and dwarfing the Lincoln Memorial because it will be bigger than any other arch in the world (ego?). He's ruining the look of the Reflecting Pool with a bad color of blue paint that will probably not reflect very well. We will see. He's taking over a beautiful park that is on the Potomac near the Mall, ripping out the current not-luxury golf course that is affordable and replacing it with a "luxury" golf course. It's extremely close to the White House, but not to his luxury standards, so taxpayers pay millions almost every weekend (literally) to fly him and his whole entourage to his golf courses in Florida (winter) and New Jersey (summer), booking Secret Service, the escort plane pilots, and his whole entourage into his own properties and pocketing the money into his own bank account from that.
In the meantime, when not trying to build his (now) billion dollar ballroom and hideous arch, he has become bored with trying to figure out how to extricate us from the disastrous incursion into Iran, and dismisses the people’s concern about inflation, referring to rising gasoline prices as "mere peanuts."
Our Constitutional freedoms have been severely eroded, and the DOJ has become his personal law firm, seeking vengeance on the many people he hates. Meantime he has turned our national security over to a man who has no knowledge, experience, or expertise, but a big donor because of his inherited a fortune from his family's company - a company that built both our home here 53 years ago and our son's home in San Jose 25 years ago. Like trump, he knows real estate and has no ethics. Why has he been given the most important National Security post in the country (DNI)? In his current job in a federal mortgage agency, he agreed to go after trump's enemies by alleging mortgage fraud, including Letitia James (a black woman) who prosecuted trump in NY, and Lisa Cook, the black woman governor on the Federal Reserve Board. Meanwhile Hegseth chopped mostly black and female officers from the most recent promotion list. Racism on steroids in this administration.
Not a time to celebrate, but a time to mourn.
The contrast between those two photos is just awful. And the idea of a "fight" to celebrate our 250th is beyond disgusting. All I can say is, maybe getting Trump and MAGA good and hard will shake the ones who voted for it back to their senses.
ReplyDeleteMy sister and I were talking about our memories of the celebrations in 1976, and how the mood was joyful and celebratory. And there's nothing much to celebrate now.