Just when we think maybe this guy in the White House couldn’t get any more crooked, any more craven, any more corrupt, he does. Because of that, the good news from one day doesn’t always last to the next. The latest example is the welcome announcement on Monday that the so-called “anti-weaponization” fund, plotted by the president to “compensate” Americans “who have been so badly treated by the crooked Joe Biden (and Obuma! sic) administration,” was dead. Really dead. So dead that Todd Blanche, Trump’s one-time criminal lawyer who somehow suddenly became qualified to serve as our nation’s top law officer, signed a memo and made it official, saying, the fund “shall have no force or effect” and “beyond any doubt…. there is no Fund.” But…. there’s always a “but” when it comes to Donald Trump…. Blanche signed it. Trump didn’t. He said Monday, “I didn’t look at it.” He said all he knew was, “There’s been a sign-off, but I don’t know what they agreed.” Really? We’re supposed to believe that a man who micromanages everything from the Reflecting Pool renovation to the chandeliers in his new White House ballroom didn’t ask for a look-see at a document that might save him upwards of $100 million? That’s what it’s worth if the addendum to the original slush fund memo, granting immunity from IRS audits and retroactive taxes and penalties for him and his two older sons and his business including 418 distinct entities that have not been identified, remains in place. According to Blanche, it does. The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Representative Jamie Raskin, called it what it is: “A super-pardon for the ages.” Others simply call it a “get-out-of-jail-free” card. Just when we think maybe this guy in the White House couldn’t get any more crooked, any more craven, any more corrupt, he does. However, that’s not even the most corrupt part. That is that Trump could issue a presidential order tomorrow reviving the slush fund. After all, Blanche signed it, he didn’t. According to what a criminal law professor at the University of North Carolina, Carissa Byrne Hessick, told Forbes, “I see nothing in Blanche’s letter that would prevent him from reviving the fund the moment that he is confirmed.” Absent a show of spine by some Republican senators, that will be any day now. What’s more, Barb McQuade, a former U.S. Attorney, wrote on X, “Blanche’s appeasement is hollow. Trump still gets immunity from tax audits worth $100 million. And last week’s payout to abortion clinic blocker (a man who was convicted two years ago of conspiring to block access to an abortion clinic in Tennessee just got more than a million dollars for “an abuse of government power”) shows the path to payouts to rewrite history will be individual settlements instead of one designated fund.” In other words, we don’t need no stinkin’ anti-weaponization fund, we can just pay each “victim” one-by-one. Trump still thinks the fund should be reinstated. To erase any doubt that he would fill the wallets of the worst of the worst, he told reporters that money from the federal government, our money by the way, could give the January 6th insurrectionists, although of course he doesn’t use that word, “some solace.” Isn’t that comforting! Crooked is as crooked does. Which brings us to the ubiquitous case of the Reflecting Pool, one of Donald Trump’s personal pet projects. You know what happened. A month ago, the U.S. Attorney for Washington DC, Jeanine Pirro, said that she was indicting former Team USA Olympic canoeist David Hearn because he “maliciously did injure, break and destroy certain property, that is, the lining material of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.” After his arrest, she made the confident claim, “We will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hearn willfully destroyed property.” Then came welcome news last Saturday: he didn’t do it. Faced with bringing a case that would be thrown out of court, Pirro admitted he didn’t do it. Her statement said, “The damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism as initially represented by DOI (Department of the Interior).” This was an insult to her fellow Cabinet officer Doug Burgum, the secretary of the Interior Department which was overseeing the botched renovation, but even worse, it contradicted the president who had made the improbable claim that peeling paint at the Reflecting Pool— being renovated for $14 million by an unqualified swimming pool contractor who belongs to Trump’s Florida club Mar-a-Lago— was caused by vandals, and already had tried and convicted “the scum” who did it. So again, the good news from one day doesn’t always last to the next, because you don’t get away with making this president look bad. The day after Pirro’s welcome news, Trump trashed her. He accused her of “choking,” and “folding like an umbrella.” His position hadn’t changed. As he had posted on his website, “To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM. There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!” Once he latches onto a theory, no matter how baseless, he never lets go. David Hearn faced as much as ten years behind bars in a federal prison. And with no evidence at all to back up their charges, Donald Trump— plus Burgum, plus Pirro before her u-turn— were pushing for it. Just when we think maybe this guy in the White House couldn’t get any more crooked, any more craven, any more corrupt, he does. Columnist Rex Huppke had a great headline on his piece in USA Today: “Trump administration can’t govern. He can’t even fix a pool.” Finally, there’s a “by the way” to add to today’s story about one day’s events cancelling out the day before’s. New helicopters serving as Marine One cannot land on the White House lawn. Their exhaust vents point downward. They burn it up. So in his crusade to transform almost every square inch of the White House to reflect his personal preferences, Trump commissioned a concrete landing pad on the South Lawn, which until now has been a main site for public events. But not just any old pad. A pad with the presidential seal. Although par for the course, he didn’t ask anyone’s permission or even, by all accounts, anyone’s opinion, workers started building it in June. It’s a hundred feet across, and came with a price tag of $5-6 million. So here’s how it looked midway through the process. Then they began to complete the presidential seal, in granite. Until the other day when it all changed. Trump didn’t like the way the lawn sloped. They started tearing it all up. The granite is gone. $5-6 million? So why not rip it up and start over again? Ka-Ching. It’s only money. Of course it’s our money, but Trump treats it like it’s his. Just like the ballroom he’s already building. Just like the triumphal arch he wants to build. Just like the Reflecting Pool he messed up, adding untold costs to what already sucked up about $14 million. Share Just when we think maybe this guy in the White House couldn’t get any more crooked, any more craven, any more corrupt, he does. Then add incompetent. The first chance to slow him down is on midterm election day. Just 90 days away. Then, if all goes well, maybe good news will last more than a day. |