In neural terms, it is well-established now, even among those who believe, that from this president a lie emanates every time his mind messages his lips.
In mathematical terms, when he says something, as determined by people who know of what they speak, the odds of truth range loosely between “none” and “nil.”
So when he says, “We have total control of the Strait of Hormuz,” even his believers know all those barges aren’t rusting in the strait because the fishing is so good.
Hear departing press aide Karoline Leavitt. We shall miss her gulping air between each falsehood. She told Fox News that because of this president’s “common-sense policies” not only are Americans safer, but lives are “more affordable.”
Dear, dear. Buying baby formula out among the common people is going to be a shock.
Steve Schmidt, once a Republican consultant and now a non-stop foe to this president, puts the reign of falsehoods this way: “Believe the unbelievable. Deny the observable. Hit the indefensible. Recast cruelty as strength, corruption as loyalty, and falsehood as truth.”
Hand in hand with all the lies are high-velocity actions that blow past the restraints built into governing the way the founders designed — delicate balances to make the republic a joint responsibility of separate branches of government.
Forget that stuff. He rushed us into war without consulting with or even explaining it to Congress. Tell the American people? Don’t bother.
Due deliberation? This president does not do deliberation.
That applies as well to the projects that have become the signature of His Distractedness.
When he leaves office, he will have rendered the White House and Capitol complex to an “I was here,” graffiti garden.
The Washington Post reports that he has almost a billion dollars, none approved by Congress, budgeted for that blight.
The East Wing rendered to scrap. An over-endowed helipad. The fenced-in Lafayette Square. The looming monstrosity of a “Triumphal Arch.”
This man needs impulse control. Unfortunately, the Republican majorities in Congress are populated by imps.
Voters can change that in three months.
The whim-driven leveling of a third of the White House is criminal. That building is not his to alter dramatically without consulting Congress, said a District of Columbia appeals court.
Why should it take a court to state this? Any fool should know this.
We haven’t even mentioned the Strait of Algae — once fitting of Lincoln’s greatness, now a reeking tribute to the Deflecting Fool.
The New York Times, with an in-depth investigation, showed how the mess reflected a presidency dedicated to defying the norms of a workable democracy.
It wasn’t just that the president plunged into it with slap-dash planning. It was that when things went to hell he blamed anyone other than those who deserved it – himself, his chummy donor/contractors and the yes-people who cling to him like moss.
The order for an “American flag blue” coating was spurious and needless. Mr. I Can Fix It said it “would last 100 years.” Not exactly. It started to disintegrate in a week.
Total cost: $15 million, the contractor getting more than $1 million over cost because it was a rush job to fit in with the president’s July 4 mess-stravaganza.
We haven’t even mentioned the Kristi Noem-quality fabrications that followed — “vandalism!” — resulting in arrests of the blameless.
It was a debacle with a capital “D.”
As you’ve heard, this president thinks he merits a spot on Mount Rushmore. Does anyone remember another president so stricken?
With the riches he’s reaping in office, I suggest he buy his own mountain for that.
Don’t worry about it being a regional blight for the ages. We’ve seen his work. It has “transitory” all over it.
He’ll hire one of his pool-construction chums to carve his countenance onto it. No bid, naturally. No geologic study. They’ll dedicate it on a Monday. It will erode away by Sunday.
Longtime newspaperman John Young lives in Colorado. Email: jyoungcolumn@gmail.com.
