(Dobbs) “Donald and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week.”Hissy fits flowed from the White House.
The rest of us can have a good old-fashioned hissy fit and nothing much comes of it. But when the president of the United States has one, something does. With this president, something bad. One day he has a hissy fit at the United States Supreme Court after it knocks down his mail-in ballot plan to use the Postal Service to cheat in the midterm elections, calling all but a couple of justices “merely a shell of their original selves,” further undermining some Americans’ faith in the system of American justice. “These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court,” he complained, no doubt still resentful that majorities also recently ruled against him on birthright citizenship and tariffs. But the main thing to celebrate is, on mail-in ballots, he lost the decision. The next day he has a hissy fit at another court’s ruling that will keep his name off the front of the Kennedy Center and like a petulant grade school child who doesn’t get his way, he threatens on his website that “the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place.” He’d already lost the battle to call it “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts” when the court declared, “Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing.” And now for the same reason he can’t even put “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump” on the marble wall of its facade. His people had argued, “Without the name ‘Trump’ on the building, our fundraising will not only come to a halt, but any and all monies raised or committed would be obligated to be returned, refunded, or terminated.” But that empty threat was undermined by the facts: as The Washington Post first reported late last month, “Ticket sales and fundraising collapsed after President Donald Trump’s name was added to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.” Forecasts show that even after spending cuts, this year’s deficit will be about $23 million. Tuesday, in its own hissy fit, the Trump-appointed board voted to shut the whole place down. A CNN headline hit the nail on the head: It is irresistible to quote JFK’s niece Maria Shriver, who posted on X, “It seems that this man will not rest until his name is permanently connected to the name of a great president, whose memory this building was dedicated to. Imagine spending your days focused on this, while a war rages under your leadership.” In his ego-driven battle to post his name where it doesn’t belong, he lost this decision too. It has been a lousy week for the president. He has lost on many fronts. In the war he recklessly and rashly started with Iran, the enemy now effectively controls both major waterways that carry oil from Saudi Arabia to the western world. That is not a step forward for Donald Trump. In Congress, seven Republicans defected to the Democrats’ side and, maintaining that it is up to Congress to declare war and not the president, voted to rein the president in and withdraw U.S. forces from Iran, which even Fox News characterized as, “Democrats notched another victory against the war.” It is not a binding resolution and might never even reach his desk for a veto but it too is not a step forward for Trump. Then yesterday, interest rates. Remember how mad Trump was at the longtime chair of the Fed, Jerome Powell, because Powell thought it was important to tame inflation before lowering rates and would not buckle to Trump’s pressure to take them down? He called the Fed chair “a numbskull,” a “moron,” a “jerk.” When Powell’s term as chairman was up in May, the president appointed an ally, Kevin Warsh, to replace him. But now, Trump might be rethinking and regretting his choice. Citing still-stubborn inflation, and blaming at least some of it on the war with Iran, Warsh oversaw a decision to hike interest rates a quarter point, which will likely make it more costly for Americans to borrow money for homes and cars and credit card debt. Not good for Trump’s side in the midterms. But Warsh insisted, “There’s no hiding from hotspots around the world.” Share Later yesterday, in the tone of a mafioso, the president said that the independence of the Fed is “a two-way street.” But having agitated for lower rates since he came into office, Trump lost this decision too. And just for good measure, Canada— which Trump detests because it won’t surrender its sovereignty to the United States of America— has just been offered associate membership in the European Union, which affirms the wisdom of the ways in which Prime Minister Mark Carney has been sticking his finger in Donald Trump’s face. They didn’t offer anything to the United States. There is a wonderful children’s book called “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.” For the president, we could rewrite the title to read, “Donald and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week.” And in case you don’t know it, the word “hissy” in the phrase “hissy fit” is short for “hysterical.” © 2026 Greg Dobbs |