With the above in mind, do read Paul Krugman, Trump’s Gilded Ballroom and the Fall of the American Republic. The subtitle is “Tackiness and tyranny go hand in hand.”

This is what the final project is supposed to look like. This is ghastly. But as Krugman writes, this is about dominance, not esthetics.

I’m learning a lot about the White House this week. I did the standard tour of it years ago that I only dimly remember, but of course they only walk you through a few parts of the building. There are a lot of questions about what is happening to the famous bunker, which I understand is beneath the East Wing. That must be gone, too. there are questions about the actual architectural plans for the gilded imperial ballroom, assuming there are any, which no one has seen other than (I assume) Trump and the architect. Here’s a profile of the architect from an architectural journal. Other architects are not thrilled. I like this conclusion:

In the end, though, the design’s larger meaning may have less to do with the style wars than with the unapologetically transactional posture of the second Trump administration. If the president succeeds in getting the ballroom built before he leaves office, as he’s said he intends to, the galas held there won’t be about national unity or cultural excellence, and the tickets for them, in ways literal and otherwise, won’t be free. It will be a place to kiss the ring, to bend the knee, and to pay for the privilege. What the design suggests is not so much a bloated classicism or an effort to turn Washington into Mar-a-Lago north, although it is both of those things, as a blueprint for making concrete the notion that the White House has turned in some fundamental sense into a retail outlet, a place where access and influence are nakedly bought and sold.

In other news, see Trump orders US carrier strike group to Caribbean.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced the move on X, saying the deployment “will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere. ”

Trump really, really, really wants to start a war with Venezuela. Maybe he thinks this will give him an excuse to cancel elections. Maybe he thinks we can invade Venezuela and claim it like Putin is trying in Ukraine.

According to all available information illegal drugs are not coming into the United States via the Caribbean in fishing boats. Most are coming across the border from Mexico. What drugs do arrive by sea are smuggled on commercial ships, hidden within large shipments. I honestly think Trump is bombing boats in the Caribbean because he gets off on watching the videos. 

The alleged President has the intellectual and emotional capacity of a spoiled brat 8-year-old in a decrepit old man’s body. The worst of everything.

This morning’s headlines had Trump throwing a tantrum at Canada because of a video in which Ronald Reagan is explaining why tariffs cause problems. The Associated Press:

Trump posted, “The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs.”

The ad was paid for by the Ontario provincial government, not the Canadian federal government. The Ontario government said it planned to pay $54 million (about $75 million Canadian) for the ads to air across multiple American television stations using audio and video of then-President Reagan speaking about tariffs in 1987.

“They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts,” Trump wrote on his social media site. “TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.”

The New York Times:

But the advertisement, which Ontario’s provincial government purchased to air in the United States, uses sound bites from a radio address Mr. Reagan made in April 1987 that was critical of tariffs. It reproduces Mr. Reagan’s quotes accurately, but changes the order he said them.

I doubt very much that the ad misrepresented Ragan’s views. Here’s the uncut radio address:

Here’s the ad:

You can decide. One thing’s for sure, a lot more people will see the ad now that Trump threw a fit about it.